The Gambia Blog

The latest trick from our Gambia magic maestro, Jason – this time featuring mini versions of four of our brochures…

See his other tricks here.

West Africa visits the Sussex Coast

Brighton Fringe Festival this May promises to be as exciting as ever and includes a number of events with an Africa theme including comedy, ballet, live music and workshops.

After last year’s stunning fringe debut, Africa Unite returns again on 11th May with a musical journey across the continent. With live sets by Bakk Lamp Fall (Senegal) and Sakama Live Showband (Tanzania) you can expect an evening of sun-soaked African beats and an unbeatable vibe.

Bakk Lamp Fall

Further highlights of the festival for me will be the West African percussion and dance workshops on 8th May (led by Ali Bangoura from Guinea Conakry) and the group harmony singing on 15th May.

For more information on these and other events at the festival please visit www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk

A brilliant Flickr slideshow of a 700 mile walk ’round The Gambia, courtesy of Florio and Jones – the Short Walk in the Gambian Bush team. You can see more about the excellent causes the project was created to support, and about the walk, here, and on the guys’ Adventure Travel Blogs site.

Chris spies a small bird in the middle distance

Well, I’ve recently returned from four fantastic days on the Chris Packham birding tour in The Gambia. We dragged ourselves through thorny acacias in forty degree heat – heat even the local owls avoided, skipped around marauding cattle in the lessening light of evening, and ran the gauntlet in the noisome charm of the fishing village at Tanji, and all this to get a look at some birds! But such birds: painted snipe, long-tailed nightjars, blue-bellied rollers, white-faced scops owls, splendid sunbirds… 148 species in total. 148. One might search for a lifetime in the UK and not get to that total; we managed it in four days.

I’ll publish some more detailed accounts of the trip over the next couple of weeks, for now here are just a couple of images to whet the appetite.

The boat trip on the River Gambia. The masters consult.

A huge bull interrupts the peace...

The dusty rabble, near Kotu stream.

An interesting short film this (hat tip to Dennis for finding it), featuring the glorious Mandina Lodges and the Makasutu culture forest. It draws in some of the main elements of the project, focusing particularly on James and Lawrence’s ideas of creating an ecologically sound environment that didn’t impact on the local area too much. Enough from me though, over to Lawrence…

We’re lucky enough to feature today a guest post from Natalia Finfando, a London-based teacher, who is currently in The Gambia volunteering at a local village school. Natalia got in touch with the blog after reading a post on here by a member of our staff (Jo Wedeman), a post which has inspired a number people to enquire about the possibility of school visits, donations etc. The schooling situation in The Gambia is an emotive one, and one that is easy to support with basic resources and help – as Natalia’s post ably illustrates. And it’s precisely the kind of thing we set the blog up for in the first place, as a place for people who are passionate about The Gambia to swap ideas and anecdotes, and even set up future projects. Natalia’s story is a fascinating and inspiring one and if anyone wishes to know more then please get in touch – either via the comments or the usual address. Here’s hoping her time as a volunteer teacher goes well! Stay in touch as we hope to feature more from Natalia on her return.

Natalia Finfando with a Gambian pupil

I consider myself a relatively well-travelled person. I have been to many countries; I even lived in three, always hoping I would find the one I would love to come back to. They were all great, fantastic countries to visit. Once. Always once. February 2010 and I am finding myself going to the Gambia. For the third time! How on earth did that happen?

When I think about it, it all started like a typical package holidays, maybe the destination was slightly more adventurous for a less daring European. I went to the Gambia with a friend of mine two years ago and the first thing I noticed was that everyone was smiling. I know that everyone calls the Gambia the smiling coast of Africa but there is actually a reason for that, trust me! When we finally decided to leave the hotel and face the country, it was far more exciting than I could ever have imagined!

The first Gambian school I visited was the one included in the program offered by the Gambia Experience. Going across the country, you can visit one of the local schools. The company tries to take you to different schools so that more schools could get support from the tourist if they choose to do so. I thought that was a brilliant idea. Children performed a little song for us and a few brave ones decided to dance. They were all genuinely excited to talk to us and meet us. Support was not expected but highly appreciated – pencils, text books, pens can be donated. Whatever a normal school might need.

I looked at the school I visited and quickly noticed that it was actually a sponsored school, so in theory better equipped. However, it had no toilet, only two classrooms packed with children of all ages taught in one year group with bare walls and old chairs. Children who were able to afford books and pencils, cherished them immensely. Not to mention that there were no maps, no fresh paint, decent furniture or a library. I tried to imagine what a school that is not sponsored might look like.

Since I already knew a few locals, I was taken by them to a tiny bush school. Yes, it was virtually empty (i.e. with no resources) and yes the walls were old, bare and unpainted but I immediately realised that for a teacher from London who struggles everyday with many behavioural issues in their classroom, Gambian students are dream students! So happy to be taught, lapping up every word, so grateful for the experience, so eager to learn. Suddenly I remembered why I became a teacher in the first place.

What one needs to realise is that in the Gambia children have to pay for education. If you include a weekly fee (teacher’s salary), cost of pencils, text books, uniforms etc. It is around £30 per year. In the Gambia people earn £30 pounds a month if they have a job. If you have many children, which one would you choose to send to school? Many parents face this dilemma and since they cannot afford these school fees, this means their children often do not go to school. Hence the education is very limited for children aged 4 to 7 years.

When I got back to England, I immediately talked to my colleagues at school. Quick brainstorm, discussion, and the decision: we are raising money for a primary school in the Gambia! We had some sponsored silence, school disco and even a pyjamas day. Thanks to this and the tremendous support of my brilliant colleagues, generous parents and understanding of my head teacher (many thanks!), we raised enough money to help one of the schools. I decided not to send money to an existing charity but pay for my own flight and take the raised money myself straight to the chosen primary school as well as volunteer there too.

My children in London are also so excited to hear about another country, to get to know it, contribute and perhaps find new pen pals! They also learn how to share what they have and some of them contributed in the sweetest ways possible. One of them for brought all the pennies he has been collecting for a year and another donated her own pencils. They both insisted on me accepting their contribution. Thank you Loyan and Khadijah, you made it all worthwhile!

Tomorrow we are writing postcards to our future friends in the Gambia. I am going to take them with me and hope to bring back a pile of responses. I already prepared some worksheets. I am setting off on Thursday. They are expecting me in the local school on Friday morning, keen to experience my ‘English way of teaching’, whatever they may mean! Cannot wait. The Gambia, here I come. For the third time.

If you have ever watched frantic dancers, leaping wildly to the polyrhythmic patterns of a Gambian drum and dance troupe and fancied trying your hand at playing the djembe yourself, here’s the perfect opportunity.

Ali Baba Bangoura will be running a West African Drumming workshop on Saturday 6th March, 2010 at Alex Wood Hall, Norfolk Terrace, Cambridge.

Visiting Cambridge for one day only! Ali Baba, formerly of Les Ballets Africaines, is now musical director for Brighton based, Batafon Arts. He has many years experience working with adults and children, in workshops, schools and at festivals.

www.batafonarts.co.uk

Cost £12/13

For details and booking – contact Lucas on 07790-996845

The clapping game

There’s an interesting and inspiring post over on the Lush website. Lush (the purveyors of fine lotions and unguents) recently sent 14 volunteers over to Kwinella in The Gambia, to assist with a school building project (amongst other things) – one of many projects started by the fantastic Fresh Start Foundation. Follow the link above to read all about it on the Lush site, and also see some of their fab images, two of which we’re lucky enough to reproduce here.

Gambian ladies at the pumping station

On arrival we were given a list of tasks, which grew longer as the days passed! The first and most pressing job was the painting of the school buildings, which needed painting inside and out. The two buildings had recently been rebuilt following a storm in July that had knocked them to the ground. Steve, Roisin and Laura were assigned to this task and they not only painted the two rebuilt classrooms, but also painted all the other buildings which hadn’t seen a paint brush since they were built in 1965. The school was completely transformed. The headmaster was thrilled, “I have a new school!” He was especially pleased since we also painted his house, which is in the school grounds.