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 the smallest country in Africa if I’m not mistaken and the most popular attraction amongst tourists is the Roots” excursion. Based off the historic epic of slave trade and freedom by Alex Haley visitors take a 15 minute walk to the village of Juffureh, explore the slave museum and later take a boat trip over to the former slave fortress of James Island.

Today’s word is a Mandinka word used in The Gambia:

jelum – how much

The Mandinka language is a Mandé lang spoken by approximately 1.2 million Mandinka people in Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau, however it is the main language the Gambia. Learning this one online is going to be a toughie. Wiki has a couple of words listed otherwise you’ll want to swing this Mandinka.org site which could be helpful, but didn’t seem like the friendliest language learning tool. Good luck!