When I thought of Africa before coming to Gambia, I didn’t think of lots and lots of fruit trees. I thought of big open grassland and big spreading trees that are resistant to drought and long dry periods. Here in the Gambia, there are many fruit trees. In my backyard there are a variety of trees. We have a couple orange trees, a grapefruit tree, a mango tree, a cashew tree (yes, cashew nuts grow on trees) and a palm at the back. Right now, the orange and grapefruit trees are ripe and drawing large crowds of kids to my door.
At first, I didn’t mind so much. Only a few came at a time. They came at a reasonable time, greeted me, asked my name, gave me theirs and politely asked for oranges. I was happy to share as I knew there were too many for just our compound. Well, word spread that there were oranges on the toubob (what they call white people) land and I started getting more visitors. They would come in the afternoon when I was trying to rest after my day at work. They would stand at the door and call me. “Saffie Sambou! Saffie Sambou! We want you to give us oranges!” The more often they came, the more annoyed I got. Sometimes, I would try to be very quiet and act like I was not at home. Sometimes, I would just send them away, but I always felt guilty telling them no. So I devised a system, if they were going to cut oranges for themselves, they could cut some for me also. That worked for the most part, then I had a visitor with a different tactic.
One day, a girl about 12 years old showed up on my door. I was sure she wanted some oranges and grapefruit but I was going to let her ask. I greeted her and asked if I could help her. She said yes, she wanted to be my friend. This caught me off guard and I wasn’t sure what to say or do at that point. I asked her name and she asked mine. Then she asked if she could come inside and sit. I welcomed her in and gave her water and learned a bit about her. Then she asked about the grapefruit tree in my yard. We went out together and knocked some down from the tree. We collected so many that she could not carry them all so asked me for a plastic bag. This one was very clever. She knew how to get what she wanted without me feeling cheated. But I think our friendship will work both ways, I expect her back very soon and maybe I can ask her for a favor sometime. That’s how friendship works around here. You build deeper friendships by sharing objects and information that is useful to both parties. I’m still learning this system as it is different from the “quality” relationships I had at home but I can see that this system works too.
Please pray for me as I continue to build relationships with my neighbors here. My language is coming bit by bit and I’m able to hold short conversations in broken Mandinka which is a huge step forward for me. Pray for our youth group as we are trying to disciple one another into deeper relationships with the Lord.
Until next time,
Bekah