Lost in space!

I know it has been while since the last post, so I'll try to make this a big one.

So what has been going on the last 6 weeks? Quite a lot is the short answer.

We had a presidential visit which was minor bit of excitement, then we had Tobaski (Eid_al-Adha), then we had presidential elections.

I also went down to the Kombos (urban coastal area) three times, and Farafenni twice...


The Presidents visit was advertised and everyone in the town had to go to the main road to watch him go past, all the children wore their school uniforms, and everyone else wore their best clothes.

I stayed at home and missed out on it though.

So the story goes is that unfortunate things happen to villages who failed to turn out for the drive past, but that is just hearsay.


I'll leave Tobaski for its own post.


The elections passed without any issues, and everyone had two days off work (well except me who had loads to do). A number of people on the compound and in the office helped out as counters, observers or presiding officers for the vote too.


My kombo visits were for shopping and a few bits of admin. The first visit was to pickup my Alien card  ( photo id) and go out for food with some other VSOs I stayed two night and did a bit of shopping too. The second visit I ordered some more Doxycyclines, got my bank book, my residency permit and did a very fast shop (on this occasion I was down and back on the same day). The 3rd visit just this last weekend was for a one night stay and to pickup my Doxycyclines (thanks Lucy for getting them from the office for me), check my mail and do some shopping.

My two visits to Farafenni were both for a half day or so and included a visit to Eddies bar/ restaurant and some shopping.

You will note that every trip out of Kerewan includes shopping, this is because there are limited opportunities to buy packaged goods here.

50 days of Doxycycline

I'm slightly overdue for a blog update I realise, but it's just part of my attempt to fit in here, honest.
There isn't much point in rushing in the Gambia, take your time and be patient things will happen eventually.

So what have the last few weeks been like? Much of a muchness, lots of computer related boring things people don't want to hear about, lots of power cuts and generally times of limited activity, lots of heat, and bugs, and lots of friendly happy Gambians.

Highlights include finishing my first packet of Doxycycline tablets, going to a 'programme' at the local school, and my birthday.

So I've finished my first 50 Doxycyclines - anti-malarial antibiotics, with no side effects (I think).

I went to a singing / dancing effort at the local school a few nights ago, it was a enthusiasm filled evening of local singers and dancers, with much audience participation, though for any Health and Safety types out there it may have been a bit traumatic... lets just say the crowd control was chaotic at best. No one was hurt to my knowledge though.

My birthday was also quite an occasion, it started with a pre booked appointment with one of the few TVs here to watch the rugby, but alas it was not to be, the generator needed filling and when that was fixed the satellite box insisted the subscription had run out (even though it was working the previous day).

Then I went to the office for a short session of a workshop, this I expected to be a couple of hours, but turned into a 6pm finish time. I then went to Nathan's house (Peace corps volunteer here in Kerewan, and together with Suky and Vicky had a few drinks, played silly games and made merry till the wee hours.

A brief note on power cuts, we have had at least a dozen power cuts today, the electric came on late (about 9.20am, instead of 9am) and stopped completely at 2pm (instead of 4pm). I have no idea what is wrong, but maybe someone there knows an electric company engineer and can persuade them to come out and volunteer working for the Gambian Water and Electric board?

Some pictures, may or may not come later, depending on my laptop charge and the speed of the internet (generally below dial up speeds lately).

Join the cockroaches(dots) and other pit latrine games!

Today's update will be very short (hurrah I hear you cry!), and other than a picture of the VSO group  will concentrate on pit latrines, a subject close to everyone's heart I'm sure.

For those who are unaware, I don't have running water, and I use a semi permanent hole in the ground for my ablutions. Now this is an all mod cons hole in that it is shaped like a bicycle seat and the surround is concrete.

During the day you are blissfully unaware of what happens below you, but at night the more sensible tend to use a torch top use the facilities, this is not an entirely positive thing.
Plus is you can see your feet (no accidental slips and putting your foot in the hole), the toilet roll and handy bucket for washing your hands afterwards. The negative is you can see these things, and the many and varied residents of the latrine area who are particularly active at night.

Ants share this area but I see more of them during the day, and they are generally small and leave me alone, mosquitoes also share the area but so far have left me alone.

There are a couple of small spiders who help keep flies and mosquitoes away but don't cause any incidents themselves. There are some toads and lizards who do the same, but they are nervous of company and tend to hide when I visit.

Lastly is the main resident of the pit itself, the cockroach, I've never met them before the Gambia (from memory at least), yet here they seem to thrive. In my house I only have one regular roach, he (or she) likes to wander over my rubbish bag at night, which is a little noisy, and fruitless for the roach as the only thing in this bag is plastic wrappers (all food waste goes into the latrine).

In the latrine they tend to wander around doing whatever cockroaches do, some 6 -18" below my nether parts, this has a slightly disconcerting effect while using the facilities, but I expect I will get used to them.


In other news I received from Sarah one of the other VSO's this nice picture of our group so for your viewing pleasure here is the entire VSO The Gambia new volunteer group with a few of the staff too!

The joy of the Banjul ferry and other adventures.

So what trouble has befallen our intrepid hero in this episode?

Last week ended the ICT (in country training) and the Mandinka lessons, we had a test where I came joint fourth (94%) - poor show! :)

Other than that I've loafed around and shopped, and waited for a decision to be made on when I could go to my placement.

After some delays Thursday was set as D day, and I was packed and ready to at 9.30am. Unfortunately due to a combination of factors we were not on the road to Banjul until around 10.45. Lamin who was being transported to Soma asked to stop at the Ministry of Education for 5 minutes to pick up a projector. This needed approval from the Minister, who didn't want to lose Lamin to the provinces, and it was agreed by VSO he would offload his stuff there and go back to his Kombos home for now.

This and the other delays meant we didn't get to the ferry port until 12.30pm ish, and the queue would best be described as chaotic.

A ferry left at about 1pm, but it had a 3 hour turnaround and the other two ferries weren't working, so the driver and myself hoped we could get onto the ~4pm ferry, this was not to be and we managed to get  the last place on the 7pm ferry.

We got off in Barra at around 8.30pm, and got on the road to Kerewan about 8.45, arrving about 9.40pm.

I greeted the entire compound, some of them twice it seems, and much fun was had by all.
I received my Gambia name, from henceforth I shall be known as Omar Ceesay!
I was so tired I only unpacked and set-up my mosquito net, and put a sheet and pillow on the bed, then after a quick bit of tapalapa (bread) thanks to Vicky next door I called it a day.

Today I unpacked, played with the compound children, went for a walk and met  a good 10% of the town, found the police station and talked to them a bit, then found my office and spent about an hour and 30 minutes talking to them, and then finally introduced myself at the hospital/ health centre.

I went back to my house, continued unpacking and eventually finished and as I was about ready to expire the lady next door kindly asked me if I'd like lunch, and it was delivered shorty afterwards!

In the afternoon I went with one of the compound teenagers - Lamin (no relation to the previous one) to a local football game, featuring the athletic Kerewan central under 15s team facing the ferocious Kerewan that side of town under 15s team! There was a pointing motion at the time, but I had no idea which direction it was.)

After a brief chin wag with Vicky henceforth (and indeed for the last year) known as Kaddy Ceesay, I retired to my room, only to greet another 20 family members before getting down to this blogging business and bed!

I have shared a few pictures of Kerewan for your visual entertainment.

The outside of the education office (where I will work)

The street, from the office facing back to my house.

You may be able to make out the sign that says Kerewan health centre here.

One of the fellow residents of my house.

My kitchen from my blogging and general relaxing chair.

My kitchen/ lounge from the door to my bedroom, the door here is the one to outside.

My bedroom dressers from the doorway, you can see the door to my pit latrine / washing area here.

My bed taken from the door to the washing area.

More pictures to come sometime soon!.

Just so you get a complete picture, it is 9.33pm, and 31.3 degrees C, with 83% humidity here! Just what you get in Swansea... /cough. :)

Eau de deet

This blogging business is hard work, I'm so tired and worn out  from the climate, training, lack of sleep and bugs that it is just too much effort to post.

So what is eau de deet I hear you ask? It is the delightful new cologne being launched soon by your favourite NGO, as currently sported by all the coolest VSO's and by me also! :)

Deet is the  lovely chemical that send bugs of several kinds screaming in fear from you, apparently.
It has a memorable smell that is not too unpleasant, to some of us it is even getting kinda comforting...

I spray oodles of the stuff over me every morning, and hope that it means I will not be bitten that day, but unfortunately I am still averaging 3 or 4 bites a day at a guess. Most of my first week bites have been reduced to small scabs or scars, but I have more than enough new bites to make up for it. (Note: I also spray myself in the afternoon  and / or evening, and sleep under a mosquito net, in a house with screens on every window and door.)

So what have I been up to in the last week and a bit?

I've been doing lots of Mandinka training, so I can just about ask for a loaf of bread in the market, with some patience required on the part of the trader mind.

I also went to the village of Ndemban in the South bank on the edge of the central river region, so about an hour and a bit drive from us.

We were met by a welcoming committee of local village ladies who had dressed in their finest and sang and danced while leading us to the local lower basic school (~ primary school), I was spotted as a natural talent and asked (dragged screaming0 to joinn them in the dance. We then had more dancing and a meeting of the village elders and the VDC (village development council).

We had a long round of introductions and then a Q & A session. It was great to hear what some of the village had been working on to try and improve their lot. We then had an opportunity to view two of the projects the VDC had been working on, a hostel had been built  for tourists to stay at in order to visit the local wetlands, some boats had been procured for this too. And some land had been converted to gardens to grow more cash crops to help the village finances.

We then had lunch, which we were supposed to eat with our hands but most of us ended up using a spoon,  we had a choice of 3 dishes, Domada (a rice based dish of meat in a peanut sauce), a fish flavoured millet dish, and a rice dish with irish potatoes, sour tomatoes and some kind of meat as topping.
This was washed down with the ever plentiful Coca Cola... (I'm drinking more of the stuff out here in a week than a couple of months back home.)

Once this was done we had another meeting with the VDC, then another dance where we all had to join in, needless to say I was called upon twice...

We then made our way home after a great but slightly long day. The villages made a special effort to welcome us and most of us were quite emotional leaving them.

Thee children as evidenced by my pictures (mainly on facebook), loved having their photo taken, and all of us were adopted by at least two children, these adoptees held our hands and generally tried to keep as close to us as possible. They asked questions if old enough, and held on tight to any empty plastic bottles we gave them as if prized possessions.

Some pictures

Just some pictures to keep you going an update on my visit to the village of Ndemban in a day or two.

Me and a crocodile, it was a little lazy and pretty much ignored me.

The outside of the hotel we stayed in for the first week.

A view of the road near the junction to our road

The welcoming committee on our village visit

One of the many children to keep me company in the visit to Ndemban village

Another of the very friendly children

The food the villages laid on for us

One week has gone by!

I have been here over a week, mad, seems like years already we have settled in so much.

The group who started with me are great, one is from Ireland, one from India and the others are from England, though one was brought up in Swansea! :)

So who are they? Well in no particular order we have:
Catherine from Dublin who is going to teach maths in Brikama college;
Daniel  - Catherine's husband who is here as an accompanying partner (or kept man!);
Liam from Brighton (but of Swansea upbringing) who is going to live in Brikama and will be a primary teacher trainer;
Shomita from India (Calcutta) who is going to be a Disability advisor somewhere in the Kombos;
Zakia from London, who is going to be in the Kombos as a primary teacher trainer.
Mary (of linked blog Mary in the Gambia fame) who will be a management advisor in the Royal Victoria teaching hospital in the Kombos;
Rob whose English origins are unknown to me, but is going to be a national volunteering advisor at the Ministry of Education again in the Kombos;
Suki who will join me in Kerewan and is from Birmingham, she is going to be a primary teacher trainer;
Chris (tine) from the Watford area who is a retired headteacher and going to be a education advisor in Soma / Manse Konto;
Lamin who is originally from the Gambia but more recently of Germany / Netherlands who will be my counterpart (IT trainer) in Soma / Manse Konto;
Sarah from Durham who will be a primary teacher trainer based in Basse.

I feel lucky to have such a great group, we all get on well (so far) and I think most of us will stay close during our placements and afterwards.

The week has been mostly paperwork, briefings and language training, though yesterday we had a workshop with our employers, who were all nice and welcoming.

Today some of us visited Serrakunda market the largest market in The Gambia, it was a bit hectic, and we had a bit of hard sell from some traders, but was overall a great experience.

As we say around her "Fo nyaato!" (Till later)