Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Landing

The huge van was wobbly and bumpy. After passing through the less vibrant suburbs, it went all the way up. It drove for more than two hours, swayed over seven dangerous suspension bridges, and finally came to Jamieson's research base . As soon as I opened the door and got out of the car, I took my time to vomit while observing my surroundings. It was a small plain surrounded by mountains, and there were about three tribes scattered on it, with a total of more than 4,000 people.A place that has not been over-exploited by humans is beautiful no matter what, with all the scenery you can imagine, blue sky, white clouds, scorching sun, and a cool breeze that does not contain Dioxin.

Gambia is not without clean restaurants. Near the airport and in the urban area, it is said that each has a decent three-star international hotel for foreign guests.But in order to experience a complete local life, my teacher and I followed Jamieson to live in the thatched cottage of the farmhouse. We live alone, two big thatched huts are about 20 meters apart. The huts are empty and have no partition walls. Simple cabinets, wooden beds, and straw mats are only about seven square meters in size. The house I rented in Taichung It's about the same size, but doesn't have any sockets, just a kerosene lamp.However, there is a dedicated toilet outside the thatched cottage, which is much more advanced than the real residence of the locals.

Outside the thatched cottage is a large nursery, planted with lettuce and potatoes imported from the West, and there is also a hearth dedicated to roasting sheep. You can go to the toilet behind the thatched cottage to defecate, and you can also enjoy the beautiful scenery under the cliff.It turned out that we were surrounded by mountains, but we didn't realize that there was also a hill under our feet. The manpower of the local people is really cheap. After asking the teacher for permission, I hired a 17-year-old boy who can speak simple English as my guide, which can be regarded as increasing their job opportunities.

The reason why I hired my own guide is very simple. I don’t want to look at Gambia from the perspective of my teacher and Jamieson. Of course, there are also meanings of “I don’t want to hinder your research”, seeing myself as a burden, or subconsciously concealing Thinking of "Teacher and Jamieson, go and do your own work, don't disturb my willful play!" Through the introduction of the two servants around Jamieson, I quickly found a suitable guide. The real name of this guide is very strange and long. Fortunately, he himself simply called himself Jim, which made it easier for me to call him a lot. The cost of employment is about 30 NT dollars a day, which is considered to be a mid-to-high price.

Jim was happy because I was employed for up to nine days and I'm a very undemanding, simply easy boss. This kind of boss bloodline that is easy to deal with also happened to my uncle. He opened a wood factory in Shenzhen, mainland China, and raised a big wolf dog to guard the factory building. Unexpectedly, when he returned to Taiwan after the Chinese New Year, he returned to the factory, only to find that the wolf dog disappeared. Yes, after a question, I got an unbelievable answer. "That dog hanged himself," said the workers regretfully. Hanged?You'd have to see a ghost to believe this kind of answer.

My uncle didn’t see a ghost, so of course he didn’t believe it, but he asked many people to no avail. It wasn’t until half a year later that someone secretly reported to him that his wolfdog was given winter supplements by workers who stayed on the construction site during the Chinese New Year, saying It's a pity that such a large piece of wolfdog meat is just for guarding the door, but it's worth eating. After knowing the truth, my uncle was very angry, but there was nothing he could do about it. Those workers made his good temper come to an end.It’s just that my uncle never returned to Taiwan for the New Year.And the whole temper is broken.

With my own guide, my journey has a clear starting point. Every day when the teacher and Jamieson go out to do some ritual research that I find boring, I will ask Jim to show me around, and he will take me to the more advanced cities at first (I think he wants to go more) , including fully charging my ibook notebook computer in a rare tourist coffee shop, so that I can occasionally write and record life in Gambia, or store photos from the memory card of a digital camera into the computer, and wait until the next day. There is room to continue taking pictures. Jim is not an idiot. The guides who can serve as part-timers are shrewd and well-connected people. Only those with good interpersonal relationships have the opportunity to serve Westerners through introductions. If you get more in touch with Westerners, your English will gradually become better, and your English will gradually improve your job opportunities. There will be more. Under the two-phase cycle, even if you are not a guide, you can go to the consulate for a long-term stable job.

Smart as Jim realized after two days that I wasn't that interested in walking around town and asked me if I wanted to drive around. I’m pretty useless. I didn’t drive in the cheapest Taichung school in Taiwan until the summer vacation when I was promoted to the third year of master’s degree. But I never got a chance to really drive on the road after passing the driver’s license test. Firstly, I had no money to buy a car, and secondly, I was too embarrassed to borrow it from my friends. Car, Taiwan's road conditions make me feel like I will crash my friend's car. "Rental car? How much is it for a day?" I asked.

"Twenty guilders. It will be cheaper for more than a month." Jim's eyes brightened. "Okay, whatever, let's rent it for eight days." I said, the price is really low. So Jim was very excited to rent a broken car that would accompany us up and down the mountain for the next week. How much cannon?It is even more powerful than the ancient Yulong Suli. How broken?The kind that I can dent the sheet metal of a car with one punch. To make matters worse, it was a manual car. I was dumbfounded, because I was lazy when I was learning to drive, and I learned the simplest self-displacement, but now it is so good, it is completely useless, and I can only stare blankly.

"Can you drive?" I asked. "Yes!" Jim's voice was trembling. "That?" I looked at him. "No problem!" Jim shook the keys in his hand quickly. Later I found out that he wanted to drive himself, and wanted to drive like hell, so I sat quietly and didn't grab the steering wheel from him.Although I myself would like to drive wildly in Africa...but I am completely helpless in the face of manual transmission. In the next few days, only when Jamieson said that there is a considerable festival, I will go there with the teacher to have a look, join in the fun, or occasionally when we have dinner together at night, I will ask the teacher what the hell she did today, other times We don't bother each other.

The teacher said, my biggest advantage is that I don't cause trouble to others. I will firmly remember. A person who already has very few advantages wants to recognize his identity, and he must keep in mind what others have praised, lest when I meet the angel guarding the gate of heaven after death and ask me the reason for entering heaven severely, I will not be able to hatch a single answer.