This past weekend our group left Bwiam (the hospital area) and went on a trip to Sanyang. (It’s a city along the coast of The Gambia...)
June 27, 2009
So we finally arrived at Sanyang! To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed. Allison (our group leader) told us that Sanyang is known as “Paradise Beach” in The Gambia. I was expecting crystal clear blue water with smooth silky sand, beautiful palm trees, and hotels constructed along the coast. To my disappointment, the beach was nothing like this. There were hotels, but not as grandiose as I had imagined. I honestly can’t say they were even hotels. It was merely a one-story building with 4 dirty bed rooms. Dead bugs underneath and above the mattress and filthy pillows were the first thing that came into my sight as I stepped into the rooms. The ocean wasn’t as clean as I expected it to be and the sand wasn’t as smooth. Dead and rotten fish were here and there, trash was everywhere, and yet this beach was called the “paradise beach”? I couldn’t help but feel disappointed…
As the sun set, however, I saw the beauty in things. Granted that there was trash lying on the ground, the nice cool breeze, the beautiful sunset, and the distant drum melody playing in the background made me appreciate the beauty of Sanyang. We spent our night talking and chatting, gazing at the stars, listening to the ocean water, messing around with the crabs, and walking along the beach. It was truly Paradise Beach.
June 28, 2009 – June 30, 2009
We came back home the next day exhausted from our journey and went straight to bed. On Monday, I finally got to witness the miracle of birth. After waiting and assisting the nurses for 4 hours, the mother had finally given birth to a new born baby. Seeing a baby born was amazing and gross at the same time. Lol. It was really different from the clips I’ve seen on television. I’m pretty sure the procedures of cutting the umbilical cord is very different here in Africa (mainly due to the limited technologies), but the miracle of birth was breath taking. On Tuesday, nothing really exciting happened. We spent the mornings doing hour medical shifts, and the afternoon going to the village. Oh, yeah… we killed a chicken and ate it right on the spot! It was the best chicken I’ve ever had! :D
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This coming weekend we will be going to Brikau. Apparently it’s a tourist attraction place and really nice. I’m not going to raise my hopes too high though hehe… Until next time…
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John, don't expect too much before you are going to some places, just enjoy the natural beauty of Africa, not cultivated and not polluted. That's the beauty of Africa that people want to see in Africa. I am glad that you are getting well and having the special expriences at the hospital and with village people over there. What a wild experience of killing a chicken and cooking it right away and eating it! People living in cities can't get it nowadays, but I had it when I was a child in Korea. Some stories you told about Africa reminds me of the old days in Korea when I was a child. Stay well and safe.
ReplyDeleteWhat tv shows did you watch that had scenes of live birth in them?
ReplyDeleteDon't say "we" when really I imagine you running around with your eyes shut tight and your hands over your ears while they ended the chicken's misery. Did you eat the legs or anything different like that?
Is there a lot of fishing in Sanyang? I don't remember reading fishing being a big industry over there.
When you add smilie faces like :D on your blog, does that mean you put down a colon and capitalized D in your notebook?
I bet you can see the stars shine brightly over there. You are my star Minsoo. <3
paul's weird.
ReplyDeleteanyways guess what john! i got an A on that test i emailed you about haha.. so my A streak is still on! yay! hehe :)
neways... wow your post really reminded me of my time in Nicragua... ill update my blog soon and explain what im talking about ><.. i need to finish 2 papers by tomorrow though so not yet though haha >.<
BABYYYYY .. i wanna seeee!!!
dude watching birth is so INTENSE. i love it. it's freaking M-azing :D
ReplyDeleteeverything's really beautiful when it comes down to it :]
john! i updatedd!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYO URGENT!!!! I need your gmail address and password and ur UT mail address and password
ReplyDeleteI cant get ur football tickets without those information
YO URGENT!!!!
ReplyDeleteI replied back to your email so check your inbox.
Chris, his email address is: cutelittlesheckiminsoo@gmail.com and his password is: ilovethehongs
To John's friends:
ReplyDeleteJohn called Mom today. He said. " Now we don't have the internet access because somebody forgot to pay the internet access fee. We don't know when we will have it again, but I will update my blog when the access is provided."
hey sorry about your call today, i think my carrier dropped the call (which happens a little too often for my liking.. stupid tmobile). but yea anyways, things are going pretty good here, just bumming around and playing a lot of settlers. like chris said above, we need your email info ASAP cause we're having trouble buying your tickets. oh, and PT/carol smn had their baby this past tuesday. his name's Jeremiah, fyi. eat a lot of interesting food and do a lot of crazy stuff so you have a lot of stories to tell when you come back :) ~Jefferson Yi
ReplyDelete