This time last year, my son and I flew out to Gambia to work as volunteers in one of the schools supported by HELPING. At the time, he was 17 and I was 50.
On our return, many people wanted to know what it was like to live in a village, albeit only for a few days. Many sponsors are interested in visiting the child or children they sponsor and some are tempted to help in a school but are unsure of how or where they might live while doing so, or how exactly they might help in the classroom.
What follows here, and to come over the next few days, are extracts from the diary I kept of our week in the Gambia last February half-term. I hope it may entice some of you to make a similar trip one day!
Monday 13 February 2012
Up at 2.45 am for the six-and-a-half hour flight from Gatwick to Banjul. We had booked the cheapest package holiday we could find - cheaper than booking flights alone - so our holiday company delivered us by coach transfer to the Golden Beach Hotel in Bijilo on the southern stretch of the tourist areas on the Gambian coast.
After unpacking, we texted Chris and Margaret who were already in the country, based at a budget hotel on the Senegambia strip - the main tourist street. They came to our hotel to meet us, and after a quick drink and a catch-up chat, we took a taxi to Senegambia to visit the HELPING office which was based in the same premises as a money exchange and food shop. Having changed up some cash, we spent our first evening with Chris and Margaret, eating together at a restaurant called African Queen. We could have opted for more familiar choices like pizza or Chinese food but we were eager for our first taste of Gambian cooking - chicken domada (served in a peanut sauce) with benachin rice. We were careful with hygiene as we didn't want to risk getting ill with only a week in the country - we didn't want to lose time confined to a room, tied to a toilet! So we were equipped with baby wipes and hand sanitiser gel and took the usual precautions of avoiding ice in drinks and buying bottled water.
Over dinner, we made plans for the week to come. Being restricted by flights only going to and from Gambia on certain days, and limited to the half-term holiday period, we would be able to spend Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning experiencing the real Gambia before returning to our hotel for a weekend of 'holiday'. Chris and Margaret had arranged with the headmaster of Pakau Njogu school that we could borrow his home during our stay and he would move in with a friend. HELPING had built a staff accommodation block at Pakau to attract teachers to the remote village location, so we knew there would be a secure, solidly built room for us with a bathroom just outside, complete with western-style toilet.
Holiday reps and guide books advise you steer clear of the local yellow and green 'tanka-tanka' taxis which are often shared with other passengers, and to stick with green 'tourist' taxis. I have to say that we used both types and there was nothing wrong with the tanka-tankas which were cheaper and often in better condition than tourist taxis. But the tanka-tankas drive along the main routes only - a bit like bus routes - which is fine once you've got your bearings! There are no bus services as such, but 'bush taxis' operate on fixed routes - these are mini-buses which will get crammed full to bursting - very cheap but probably best avoided unless you really know your way around or have a local guide with you.
So, we took a taxi back to our hotel and prepared for an early start the next morning when we would cross the river and head into the North Bank.
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