Our guide purchased the fish for us and sugested his wife would cook it "Gambian style" for us. We willingly excepted his generosity , to be honest we had been struggling to find out what Gambian cuisine was like. He drove us to his compound in Serracunda. This town has one of the largest Street markets in Africa we might be ready for it now. It is a hot dusty exhaust filled town a hive of straggled (there's that word again) industry and dusty recycled commerce .
We arrived at his compound gate and obviously news of our arrival had travelled ahead, we were instantly surrounded by dozens of dusty bitter chocolate children, hesitant curiosity in their smiles, hands stretched out to our hands they scrabbled around us. We entered the compound, they all followed. We asked if we could treat them to some "Minties" . Our friend prefered to buy them crisps so he went and bought an carrier bag full of little mini packs of shinny copper coloured packets of crisps. The older children made the little ones form a que, it was so sweet, one little girl who was about 6 years old had her baby brother clinging on to he back it was as if he was stuck on with velcro,he just stuck there. The children multiplied , we asked our friends wife how old one of the children was, to which she replied she had never seen him before! Full on giggles and laughter and then of course , football. It was such a happy time, these children have less than nothing and their poverty IS apparent but they had such fun. The football was so old and deflated but it was more than enough. They are disaplined by their extreme circumstances . Not one of them cried or winged , if they did not get their share they just accepted the injustice , that is the way it is.
Our hosts house was two rooms. The kitchen must have been in another hut because his wife left us to prepare the food. We sat in the living room, there was only one other room off that which we did not see , probably that was the sleeping quarters. The living room was I guess 10x8 ft with a lowish ceiling,the door opened out to the yard. In the only free corner was a brass shelf unit filled with cuddly toys and artificial flowers. The toys were for show not for playing with, they were not new.
On each side of the room and taking up most of the remaining space were two very well worn leather type sofas. The walls were either once dark red with strong Prussian blue painted ontop or the other way round , over time each coat of paint had worn down so the other showed through, it was all the cleanest it could be but as the evening wore on it was very warm and close.
Our driver has a girl and a baby boy of his own and also looks after his sister in law , aged 10,he pays towards her education, it is no small responsibility, however he would not even query it. She cuddled up to Elaine so genuine so innocent.she also acted as Nanny to the families little children.her niece and nephew.
Dinner was served . A very small oblong 8 inch high ,hand made wooden stool with stubby little legs was placed in the small free space between the two sofas, the stainless steel dish which was about 14 inches in diameter was placed on it and we were given spoons, this was specially for us. I hope I am right, it was "fish benachine." Delicious. A bed of rice which was deep brownish red and spicy,on top there was a 4 inch dense fillet of barracuda. A bitter tomato size of a beef steak tomato, one aubergine and a cassava rout.Oh yes! I forget, 1 red bonnet chillie cooked whole and left intact . Sali flaked the fish and broke up the other vegetables using only her right hand , not all together but each was done singly , deliberately giving each one of us a piece at a time, laying it on the rice directly in front of us, they ate with us using their right hand only. There is a deft skill to this we appreciated the thoughtfulness of giving us the spoons.
It was not their turn for electricity so we left them at about 8 pm. A special afternoon and evening. I think it is possible that the quantity of fish we bought actually was for the entire compound . It was unspoken but understood. We were glad for that as well.
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