Farewell, Gambia...

Much has happened since I last blogged. The biggest news is that we've relocated to Hong Kong. "Whaaat?" you may ask. The short answer to your exclamation/question is that D.light (the company whose solar lamps we'd been selling) hired Doug as their engineering director, so we closed up our business in The Gambia and moved to their company headquarters in Hong Kong. We've been here almost two weeks, and though we don't know a word of Cantonese yet, we have found an apartment, bought some furniture, and started to learn our way around. (Oh yeah, and Doug started work three days after we arrived!) But before I tell you about life in Hong Kong, I want to share a few photos and stories from our final two months in The Gambia:

As you can probably imagine, wrapping up our business and life in such a short amount of time was stressful and chaotic. But what made that time bearable, and even fun, was the fact that we got to share the final six weeks of Gambian life with my sister. 

Anyone who stayed in our house in The Gambia knows that I love to bake cookies, especially when guests arrive. Having Nuzz visit was no exception! Here, we're making Katie and Zack's favorite treat, snickerdoodles.

During the first three days Nuzz was in town, it rained nearly nonstop! Our dreams of sun-drenched afternoons by the Coco Ocean pool were (temporarily) dashed, but we salvaged her first weekend in town by playing game after game of Scrabble.

Of course, Eve and Squeak were happy to meet their aunt, and responded by being their usual adorable selves. As you can see, though, they are no help when it comes to doing housework! They're too interested in what we're doing, and insist on getting into the middle of things. The same is true when we vacuum: they're the only cats I've met who will follow you around the house at a safe but close distance, their eyes focused intently on the sweep of the vacuum.

Nuzz and I didn't just bake cookies; we also had a lot of fun cooking dinners together. We came up with some delicious creations, including pita pizzas, the meal that's in process in this photo. This time, though, Nuzz's attempt to lightly salt the tomatoes, went slightly awry... 

Not only were Doug and I happy to see Nuzz and share The Gambia with her, but we were also happy to have her help with the Herculean task of closing our business. Our biggest challenge was charging our remaining inventory in preparation for liquidation. We set up a massive "charging factory" in our office, and succeeded in charging more than 3000 lights in less than ten days! We also found a distributor who will continue selling lights in The Gambia, which makes us happy.

 

The effort involved many extremely late nights at the office, during which we watched movies and ate pizza while we waited for a charging cycle to finish.

One day during our chargefest, I went outside our office to find the Red Cross loading a truck with mattresses to distribute to the country's flood victims. Check out that load! (You can see our shop's sign on the left side of the photo.)

The day before we left The Gambia, though, the remaining mattresses that were being stored in our building caught on fire. Luckily, everyone was able to evacuate the building (some on long, rickety ladders!), but the fire was quite large and caused a lot of damage. Since our flight left the next day, I don't know how the clean-up efforts are going, but I really hope that everyone who works in the building is OK.

 

My special thoughts and prayers are with Isatou, the young woman who worked with us for five months, and who plans to continue selling D.lights. This is a picture of her, me, and her younger sister Jeynaba.

When we arrived in The Gambia last year, I never thought I'd be sad to leave. I was homesick for much of our first six months, and I felt like I couldn't find the places where I fit in. Then, slowly, I made new friends, and those friends became dear friends. I discovered the joys of swimming at Coco Ocean, playing ultimate frisbee in tall grass, going to game night on Saturday, fabric shopping in Serrekunda Market, and, of course, drinking tonic water with lime (Katie, I'm looking at you). And when it came time to leave, I realized that this dusty, unfamiliar place had, in some ways, become my home. For me, home is made of the people I know and the experiences I share with them. And I have certainly shared some unforgettable times with my Gambian friends, you know who you are. Thank you for making Gambia feel like home to me. I will always be grateful to each of you for that.

As for what I think of our new home, please stay tuned! I have many other stories and photos to share...

 
P.S. Since several of you have asked about what happened to Eve and Squeak, never fear! They are at home with my family in CA, gaining their US citizenship so we can bring them to HK next year.