MAKING MOVES AROUND THE MOTHERLAND

The past days have been very challenging. Everything that I have eaten has made me sick except for French fries. One thing about this country is that it does not have sanitation grades, so they can cook what they want to cook, how they want to cook it. This morning I found copper in my breakfast. I often eat once a day, and drink a lot of water to get me through. I had the opportunity to go to one of the biggest markets here, in a town called Sukuto. I also had the chance to visit the maternity unit, public health center, and the dental unit. I spoke with a dentist there who has agreed to allow me to work with him. The dental unit’s here are very old and outdated. They do not have the proper medications to perform such procedures. For example, they do not have needles and anesthetics for proper sudations; instead they give the patients a form of codeine before they do their extractions. They also do not have Novocain which is what is used in the U.S. This is very harmful because the patients are never numb; instead it lightens the pain just a little. I really feel sorry for these patients. The dentist informed me that there are not many people who go to the dentist, so he may see only ten patients a day at the most; because it is so expensive. The dental unit is only open from 8am to 12pm because there is no air and the hotter the temperature, the more the patient will bleed during procedures. This was a great experience and I am very excited to begin working with the dentist here. I also was presented with the opportunity to go to an African club Friday night in Senegambia, called Club DUPLEX. It was actually well built; it was very big. The music reminded me of the late R&B and Hip Hop era of the 1990’s. One thing that I did not expect from Africans was for them not to dance; they all stood around and looked at each other the entire time. I left the club early because I got tired. After the club I went to a restaurant for a burger and French fries. My tour guide Keemba came along; while eating I met a man name Abdul from Mali who was visiting Gambia to become fluent in English because Mail is a French country.