We are now ensconced in the ‘village-like’ Cape Point area of The Gambia. And, aside from being subjected to banging Bangra music – blasted at mac 11, until 3am this morning – all is well. The house we are staying in is surrounded by a rich, luscious tropical garden, accompanied by natures own acoustics – courtesy of the nearby Atlantic Ocean. Oh…and about seven Gambian bush dogs, which our gracious and very charitable host, and dear friend, has rescued!
Images @ Jason Florio
Speaking of our host – she is also the instigator behind ‘The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust‘ charity, who very generously ‘loaned’ us the two donkeys – for our first expedition in 2009: ‘A Short Walk in the Gambian Bush – 930km African odyssey‘ – with the very un-Gambian-like names of ‘Neil’ and ‘Paddy’ (who was replaced early on in the walk by the more robust Hadley). We used the diminutive, but extremely strong, donkeys to alternately pull the cart loaded down with all our camera and camping gear.
Since we arrived, we’ve been busy meeting with our man at the U.S. Embassy, Banjul – our partners in this inaugural ‘Photos Tell Stories. Teaching photography – a visual language‘ workshop – to finalize the workshop schedule; collecting boxes of cameras and photography books (thanks for the generous donations from FujiFilm USA and powerHouse Books, NYC, respectively); catching up with great friends, reacquainting ourselves with a country which we both love; and lastly, finding somewhere to situate ourselves, so that we have space to set up our pre-production photography workshop office, without too many distractions (again, our host was like an angel sent from on high).
Having said that, the ocean continues to beckon. Hey, all work and no play…plus, the dogs wouldn’t forgive us if we didn’t let them run us ragged down on the beach, every now and then!
More updates coming very soon
The Florios (H & Flo)
Thanks again to everyone – partners and contributing photographers – for their support
