We had a great introduction to Africa after we cleared customs and passport control. Even though I had my own baggage trolley I made the mistake of stopping for a fraction of a second. The local bumsters (tourist pests) immediately descended upon me and before I knew it my bags were whisked off to the awaiting VSO vehicles.
Several euros lighter our convoy of pickups and landcruisers started the journey to the VSO offices in Fajara. We were at the back of the group to check that no bags fell off the vehicles ahead (and with the pot-holes that was quite possible). We soon came across a road-block manned by soldiers carrying machine guns and AK47s. Looking across the road we saw a pickup truck with rocket launchers attached to the roof! Our VSO hosts told us that the President was visiting his local abattoir to set the national meat prices for Ramadan (which started today). After half an hour his entourage of hum-vees (US military 4x4 vehicles) shot out of the main gates followed by a shower of biscuit packets as a reward to the local people. Welcome to The Gambia!
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