Also, was ist bisher passiert?

Wir haben inzwischen einige Vorbereitungen hinter uns. Rückflugtickets sind gekauft ( Online Tickets per Internet... Bin gespannt, ob das auch in Gambia funktionert... Wenn nicht, müssen wir uns auf dem Fußweg nach Hause machen ;-) ).

Geimpft sind wir beide auch. Carmen hat ja schon einiges an Impfungen aus früheren Reisen hinter sich. Ich bin ein typischer Impf- und Arztmuffel ( in diesem Punkt mal typisch Mann ;-) ) und musste daher einiges an Impfungen über mich ergehen lassen. Am Freitag war ich im Tropeninstitut in Tübingen und habe mir ein paar Spritzen in den Oberarm jagen lassen. Das war wahrscheinlich meine erste Impfung seit ca. 20 Jahren oder so. Aber soo schlimm war's ja gar nicht... Das schlimmste an der Impfung war die 1 Woche Sport ( und vor allem ;-) ) Alkoholpause danach, aber die ist ja zum Glück auch bald vorbei.

...und wir haben sogar schon ein Auto!! Nach relativ kurzer Suche haben wir uns für einen Chrysler Voyager mit Vierradantrieb entschieden. Das Auto ist ganz gut im Schuß, fast schon zu gut, jedenfalls für den Namen "Rasende Klapperscheese". Hier ist schon mal ein kleines Foto...

Heute habe ich schon mal Kurzzeitkennzeichen für unsere Klapperscheese besorgt, damit wir den Wagen morgen abholen können. Nächste Woche werde ich das Auto mal einer genaueren technischen Untersuchung unterziehen, mal schauen, ob ich irgendwelche unliebsamen Überraschungen finde.

The Dominion Post | Wednesday, 27 August 2008

A Kiwi tourist has been arrested in the West African country of Gambia after allegedly taking pictures of underage girls for his pornography business.

The man, 61, was arrested at his residence in Yundum, 25 km south of the capital Banjul, after a police search found a digital camera and laptop containing the pictures.

Internal Affairs said he could be charged on his return to New Zealand. [Copyright the reporter or news agency.]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4670647a11.html

An estimated 7 percent of New Zealand's 'adult' male population visited Thailand in 2007.

Related Links:

• New Zealand: A Nation of Human Traffickers, Pimps and Drug Pushers
• A New Depth in Depravity for New Zealand
• Under the Skirt: The True Face of New Zealand
• New Zealand: The Ideal Sanctuary for pedophiles
• Where Now New Zealand?

About Gambia

The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, commonly known as Gambia, is a country in Western Africa. It is the smallest country on the African continental mainland and is bordered to the north, east, and south by Senegal, and has a small coast on the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Flowing through the centre of the country and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean is the Gambia River. On 18 February 1965, The Gambia became independent from the former British Empire and joined The Commonwealth. Banjul is its capital but the largest conurbation is Serekunda.

Main article: History of The Gambia

In 10th century, communities of Muslim merchants and scholars became established in several of West Africa’s commercial centres and the trans-Saharan trade route for gold, ivory and trade came about. By the 11th or 12th century, the rulers of kingdoms such as Takrur(a kingdom centered on the Sénégal River just to the north), Ancient Ghana and Gao had converted to Islam and had appointed Muslims who were literate in Arabic as advisers.^[2] The first written accounts of the region come from records of Arab traders in the ninth and tenth centuries AD. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, most of what is today called The Gambia was a tributary to the Mali Empire. The Portuguese reached the area by sea in the mid-fifteenth century and began to dominate the lucrative trade.

In 1588, the claimant to the Portuguese throne, António, Prior of Crato, sold exclusive trade rights on the Gambia River to English merchants; this grant was confirmed by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I. In 1618, James I granted a charter to a British company for trade with Gambia and the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Between 1651-1661 some parts of Gambia were under Courland's rule, bought by prince Jacob Kettler, who was a Polish vassal.

A map of James Island and Fort Gambia.

During the late seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth, Britain and France struggled continually for political and commercial supremacy in the regions of the Senegal and Gambia rivers. The 1783 Treaty of Versailles gave Great Britain possession of the Gambia river, but the French retained a tiny enclave at Albreda on its north bank, which was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1857.

As many as 3 million slaves may have been taken from the region during the three centuries that the transatlantic slave trade operated. It is not known how many slaves were taken by inter-tribal wars or Arab traders prior to the transatlantic slave trade. Most of those taken were sold to Europeans by other Africans; some were prisoners of intertribal wars; some were sold because of unpaid debts, while others were kidnapped. Slaves were initially sent to Europe to work as servants until the market for labor expanded in the West Indies and North America in the 18th century. In 1807, slave trading was abolished throughout the British Empire, and the British tried unsuccessfully to end the slave trade in The Gambia. They established the military post of Bathurst (now Banjul) in 1816. In the ensuing years, Banjul was at times under the jurisdiction of the British Governor General in Sierra Leone. In 1888, The Gambia became a separate colonial entity.

An 1889 agreement with France established the present boundaries, and The Gambia became a British Crown Colony, British Gambia, divided for administrative purposes into the colony (city of Banjul and the surrounding area) and the protectorate (remainder of the territory). The Gambia received its own executive and legislative councils in 1901 and gradually progressed toward self-government. A 1906 ordinance abolished slavery.

During World War II, Gambian troops fought with the Allies in Burma. Banjul served as an air stop for the U.S. Army Air Corps and a port of call for Allied naval convoys. U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt stopped overnight in Banjul en route to and from the Casablanca Conference in 1943, marking the first visit to the African Continent by an American president while in office.

After World War II, the pace of constitutional reform increased. Following general elections in 1962, full internal self-governance was granted in the following year. The Gambia achieved independence on February 18, 1965 as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations. Shortly thereafter, the government held a referendum proposing that an elected president replace the Gambian Monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) as head of state. The referendum failed to receive the two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution, but the results won widespread attention abroad as testimony to The Gambia's observance of secret balloting, honest elections, civil rights and liberties. On April 24, 1970, The Gambia became a republic within the Commonwealth, following a second referendum, with Prime Minister Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, as head of state.

The Gambia was led by President Jawara, who was re-elected five times. The relative stability of the Jawara era was shattered first by a coup attempt in 1981. The coup was led by Kukoi Samba Sanyang, who, on two occasions, had unsuccessfully sought election to Parliament. After a week of violence which left several hundred people dead, Jawara, in London when the attack began, appealed to Senegal for help. Senegalese troops defeated the rebel force.

In the aftermath of the attempted coup, Senegal and The Gambia signed the 1982 Treaty of Confederation. The Senegambia Confederation came into existence; it aimed eventually to combine the armed forces of the two states and to unify their economies and currencies. The Gambia withdrew from the confederation in 1989.

In 1994, the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFRC) deposed the Jawara government and banned opposition political activity. Lieutenant Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh, chairman of the AFPRC, became head of state. The AFPRC announced a transition plan for return to democratic civilian government. The Provisional Independent Electoral Commission (PIEC) was established in 1996 to conduct national elections. The PIEC was transformed to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in 1997 and became responsible for registration of voters and conduct of elections and referendums. In late 2001 and early 2002, The Gambia completed a full cycle of presidential, legislative, and local elections, which foreign observers deemed free, fair, and transparent, albeit with some shortcomings. President Yahya Jammeh, who was elected to continue in the position he had assumed during the coup, took the oath of office again on December 21, 2001. Jammeh's Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) maintained its strong majority in the National Assembly, particularly after the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) boycotted the legislative elections.

Erwin, Luc, Ake, Karina, Lisa & René verwikkeld in één van de vele interessante gesprekken van de dag

Zo'n bordje werkt natuurlijk als een rode lap op een stier bij Artur

Luc heeft een interessante foto gespot

Ake in een moment van mijmering

Erwin, Karina, Caro, Ake, Martine, Lisa, René en Luc verzameld rond één van de topfoto's. Artur staat alweer klaar om zijn slag te slaan en foto 3 uit deze reeks te schieten

De komende dagen volgen uiteraard nog meer beelden van de "blogmeeting" en enkele snaps uit Oostende.

Zaterdag zijn enkele bloggers naar de tentoonstelling Ma Natal La in de venetiaanse gaanderijen van Oostende geweest. Met heel veel spijt in het hart moest ik voor deze bijeenkomst verstek laten gaan. Ik ging echter reeds donderdag eens kijken naar de tentoonstelling en ik kan de vele positieve reacties alleen maar beamen: het is een prachtexpositie. Mijn welgemeende felicitaties aan de drie talentvolle dames die dit voor elkaar kregen. Het laat me weer beseffen dat ik nog maar in het prille begin sta van de fotografie.

Ook mijn dochter was mee al hield zij andere bezienswaardigheden in het oog. Ah ja, een meisje van drie kun je dit niet kwalijk nemen hé.

Trouwens ik stond eigenlijk versteld van het dynamisch bereik van de Pentax K10D bij deze foto. Vanuit een relatief donkere ruimte genomen naar een helder raam toe en toch beide delen redelijk goed uitgelicht. Weliswaar in RAW en wat bijgetrokken maar toch had ik dit resultaat niet verwacht.

barra
© lisa van damme

banjul
© lisa van damme

We take it out from the garage begin or half september  2008.

Our departure date to Dakar is 25 October 2008.

ma natal la (groot)

inkom: gratis

As we approached the pool, we saw a crocodile or a model of a crocodile lying out in the open, stock still.  I started to ask one of the attendants in the crocodile was real, and he said, The plastic one?  So I walk over to the plastic crocodile and begin to reach out to touch his long nose when another attendants firmly instructs me not to touch the snout, as it's very dangerous: just the tail.  Oh.  Not plastic.

Travel agent: "That airline isn't flying."

Me: "What?"

"They haven't flown since November."

"But I just bought this ticket ten days ago."

Shrug.  "You would have to fly Gambia International Airways on Wednesday.  Can I book you the ticket?"

Lesson: Always confirm your ticket.  In case the airline is still selling tickets but not actually flying anywhere.