Dean... you can't swim!

Today, I biked the 40km to Basse so that I could visit friends and pick up more stuff for the Nursery School/talk with people at specific offices here about maybe getting a new well put in the women’s garden at Kuraw.

Dean Pritchard decided to follow me.

All was going well until we got to Lizzy’s village and he started favoring his back leg. Liz and I were really pushing ourselves and made it to Basse in a little over 2 hours… last time we made the trek it was over 3 hours. So Dean is hopping along behind us on 3 legs and I’m thinking, okay, I have this manorexic dog with 3 legs who won’t stop following me… oh well, at least he’ll turn around once we hit the river.

Wrong. Dead wrong.

Dean climbs up on one of the metal canoe boats as we drift off to cross the river. “Bye Dean!” I yell, “See you in 2 days!” What does he do? LEAPS off the boat and into the water. He starts pawing ferociously at the water, making this terrible thumping noise every time his front 2 paws hit the water.

Liz starts laughing and I start to panic.

“What kind of dog doesn’t know how to swim?!” I say, yelling. Our boat man is just laughing and says, “Why, look. This dog really likes you. He is trying to follow.” Well no kidding, buddy. At this point the dog is trying to climb up onto the boat and I could hear his nails scratching the side of it.

At this point, I am laughing and tears are streaming down my face.

“Someone help this dog!” I shout, Liz laughing in front of me as 3 boats pass us full of Gambians pointing at the dog that can’t swim. We are in the middle of the river and I notice the look on Dean’s face: pure terror. His yellow eyes were wide with complete panic and he started making this horrible whining noise… so I very nearly jump in after the son of a gun to save him… Liz holds me back.

We make it to shore, and Dean is alive. In fact, he’s currently asleep on the floor beside me, where he has been for the past 6 hours.