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Ranking the world's best and worst flags

Ranking the world's best and worst flags Gambia's great, Senegal plagiarized, and Libya didn't even try. So says a fun new evaluation of the flags of every nation in the world. In an admittedly unscientific ranking of the world's flags, high marks are given for good color schemes and originality, while grades are ...

Tobaski Feast Day (Eid Al Adha): A cultural sharing

Tobaski Feast Day (Eid Al Adha): A cultural sharing One of my Peace Corps friends emailed me a couple days ago. He reminded me that today is Tobaski. That's what this Muslim holiday is called in The Gambia. Perhaps you've heard it called Eid Al Adha--or just Eid. This is the day when Muslims celebrate when God told Abraham ...

Travel experiences via medical care

Travel experiences via medical care I've had a filling replaced in The Gambia, a root canal and a crown put on in Taiwan, a root canal in New Delhi, and stitches taken out in Great Britain. When I was living in Denmark with a family as a college student, I hurt my little toe at a swimming pool and went to the ...

Cultural Sensitivity: It's Not That Easy

Cultural Sensitivity: It's Not That Easy When I went through my Peace Corps volunteer training, hours were spent on cultural sensitivity. What to wear and what not to wear. What to say and what not to say. Which hand to eat with--always the right, and what do do when a cultural faux paux is made. Because The Gambia ...

How Many Languages are Spoken in the U.S. Exactly?

How Many Languages are Spoken in the U.S. Exactly? Every year I find someone to talk with in Wolof, the language I learned when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia. Mostly, what I manage to conjure up are the greetings and part of a health talk I used to give. "Today I want to talk with you about the road to good ...

It's Official, Ramadan Starts Today and Tomorrow

It's Official, Ramadan Starts Today and Tomorrow Ramadan, the Muslim holy period of fasting starts with the sighting of the new moon. That's today--or tomorrow, depending on which country you're in. Turns out, the new moon isn't the only marker. Astrologicial calculations might be a factor. Here's an article that explains ...

Pickpockets Foiled: Prevention or Luck?

Pickpockets Foiled: Prevention or Luck? A few years back, when my son was a year-and-a-half, we traveled to the United Kingdom on a week-long vacation. The day we went to London for a sightseeing whirlwind was the day we almost lost the diaper bag to a pickpocket. We were heading down the steps of an Underground ...

30 years after Alex Haley's Roots, Juffureh is still a travel destination

30 years after Alex Haley's Roots, Juffureh is still a travel destination It's been 30 years since Alex Haley's Roots became a cultural touchstone in the United States. For those of you too young to remember, this book chronicles the life of Haley's ancestor Kunta Kenteh who was captured in The Gambia and sold into slavery. The book was a ...

The World's Flags Given Letter Grades

The World's Flags Given Letter Grades After browsing a friends Atlas one day, Josh Parsons decided that many flags of the world were of varying design quality. He set out to score every national flag, assigning each a letter grade. You can browse the results of his study alphabetically by country name, or by ...

Word for the Travel Wise (08/26/06)

Word for the Travel Wise (08/26/06) After analyzing our Gambia country category up to this point and realizing there isn't much here aside from Neil's entry on sex tourism for women I thought now would be a nice time to maybe share some activities all tourists might be interested in checking out. The Gambia is ...

Sex Tourism: Not just for Men Anymore

Sex Tourism: Not just for Men Anymore Overly aggressive touts can often ruin your time in a city.  They wait outside your hotel and follow you everywhere, offering their services as a guide and ironically protection against other touts from bothering you as well.  The only place I've run into this was ...

Word for the Travel Wise (03/17/06)

Word for the Travel Wise (03/17/06) I get pretty darn excited when I'm able to find information online on some of the world's lesser known langs or those specific to one of the many tribes or groups of people in Africa. First reason being, I've been known to drill a person for ten new vocabulary words in their ...

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