24 hours in the life of a Gambian.

I was pretty lucky at getting this photo. After staying over night in Manduar, I woke up late, well 8:30 - which is late for a Gambian. By this time the woman photographed had already fetched water, washed, made breakfast, got the kids ready and tidied up. Being polite, I asked if I could take a photo of the house which, to my surprise, she responded to with a pose. So I snapped. I was really pleased with the outcome, she was nicely silhouetted in the corridor, or the equivalent of a corridor in the shack. The bike in the corner also adds something to the composition and I love the way you see the little bare feet of the child on her back, who pokes his head around her side.

The rest of the day we followed her round as she traipsed around the market buying the ingredients for lunch and dinner, all with her baby on her back. In such a hot climate and in a town with no electricity, food perishes quickly, so it needs to be brought every day. The market was no less worse than the one from the first day, and the fish market was truly something else in terms of hygiene and of course, the stench. We brought fish from a man who consistently chopped the heads off of a fish, gutted its insides into a huge pile of intestines on the floor by his feet and scaled it with nothing more than a few nails hammered into a small piece of wood. The day was long and hard, especially in the heat. I really am not envious of her having to do that every day, but neither do I pity her, for she was truly a strong and admirable lady. On top of all her house work and looking after her family in the day, she was a police officer by night.