السَلامُ عَلَيكُم

Accounting for a considerable proportion of The Gambia's GDP, groundnuts have been a vital crop ever since the country's independence from the British in 1965.

Here, a Gambian woman wades through a mountain of groundnuts, or peanuts, with a large bucket for collection.

Hoopoe! Not the joyous cry of someone finding the perfect peanut, but a bird native to the area. Apparently, the nest of the hoopoe is "easy to identify by its foul-smelling accumulation of fecal matter." It also has inspired bands, like Flock of Seagulls.

Another creature I found equally disturbing is the African Tree Pangolin. It is said that, when threatened, "it will roll into a tight ball, exposing only a shield of scales. The pangolin lives high in the trees of the rain forest. Toothless, it uses its long snout and 7.1-inch tongue to probe for ants and termites." Again, disturbing.

What The Gambia lacks in size, it makes up for in its diverse mix of languages. The country's official language is English, but other tongues include Mandinka, Soninke, Wolof.