Yesterday was the least enjoyable day of our upcountry trip, though the reasons were entirely mine. I woke up feeling ill. I'm not sure what the cause was. It could have been something I ate, the tap water I drank, or just the stress of the trip. Perhaps it was all three. Whatever the reason, I was miserable for most of the morning. I didn't feel the heat, which was a relief, but not feeling the heat in Africa when the sun is gearing up for noon is universally regarded as a bad sign. I was still sweating buckets, but it was a cold sweat that just made me feel gross and weak. We went to James Island, a British fort that was important in river trade, but I didn't get much out of it because of my condition. I never thought I would be so glad to climb into the bus. I napped on the bumpy ride and drank lots of water, and felt better by the time we reached the ferry at Barra.

Returning to Kanifing and Happy Camp felt like coming home. The first thing I did was change my skirt and do my laundry. In an experiment in ultra light packing, I brought only one skirt on the trip, and it was badly in need of a wash by yesterday. And then a shower. A real, honest to goodness, running water shower. I felt so awesome afterwards.

Updating this yesterday took longer than I had expected. I didn't realize how much I had written. Going through pictures took forever. I am wary of exceeding my monthly upload limit-- I'm only halfway through the month and I've already used 78% of my upload. Bummer. I'll have to reign myself in for the next couple weeks.

I stayed up later than I should have last night, babysitting my friends who decided to celebrate our return with cheap whiskey and boxed wine. I woke up early because I always do, and that brings us up to the present.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, Jainabah is pronounced JEN-uh-ba. "Jen" as in Jenifer, "uh" as in upset, "ba" as in balloon. Drammeh is pretty easy to figure out, I think. The "eh" at the end is a little like making fun of Canadians.