The Gambia - off the grid
Off the Grid in the Gambia
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I have been working and living on-and-off in The Gambia since the beginning of my career, but have always had one foot back in New York or London, maybe a little afraid of going 'fully bush'. Over the years, I have made friends with many 'toubabs' (the local name for Europeans) who made the commitment to extract themselves from the Western World and carve homes in the bush, off-the-grid. Some have 'lifelines' back to Europe and, with a 'twitch-upon-the-thread', can return, but many have cut all ties. An old American I met in Banjul, the capital, described the latter as 'shipwrecks', but to me, they are all individuals consciously forging alternative trajectories, motivated by a desire for a slower, less technologically mediated, and more ecologically embedded way of life. This is a work in progress...