Timbooktoo

It was good that I had the first day free to settle in. The sounds turned out to be house-noises, and there were actually only two other people living in the building- and they came in later. One is a science elective student from The Netherlands and the other a doctor from Nigeria. Both are simple and easy to get along with. When I learned all this it put me at ease because there's be less social constraints than I'd expected. This realisation solidified when I walked with my neighbour to the nearest town, 20 minutes away. In The Gambia, you cannot go anywhere without being greeted, but I think I was missing having conversations. I don't like socialising in groups for extended periods of time (don't mind if I'm just going to be with them for say, three days) but one-to-one is different and I evidently can't live without that. We bought some food (oh by the way I burnt the first thing I cooked!) but when we returned we just dumped the shopping on a bench and played volleyball in the sand with the some MRC staff (there are no other medical students here right now). Beginners luck didn't even come to help me, and I looked a fool, making dud serves- I was even expelled from my team! When we were all leaving I heard 'see you in clinic tommorrow' - hell! it was my supervisor- he had been playing on the same team as me- great way to meet.