A visit from Plymouth

August saw Adrian Miles from Plymouth, along with his daughters Madz
and Jordan and her friend Sinead visit The Gambia during their summer
break. They divided their time mucking in with work in the school
compound and visiting places of interest around the Kombo area of The
Gambia. They constructed a new support for the well, helped repair
parts of the rain-damaged house, organised resources and spent time
teaching and playing with the children. The girls cried when they saw
a beautiful sea-turtle which had been caught and stuck in a plastic
bucket. They negotiated with the owner to release it and half an hour
later it was swimming to freedom in the warm seas off Tanji beach. We
hung around for some time to ensure the turtle didn't get caught again
by some local boys intent on re-capturing it.
Our visitors toured the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital in Banjul,
Tanji Health Centre and donated some of our medical supplies to
Africmed Medical Centre in Bijilo. We visited the SOS Children's
Village and donated a huge bag of soft toys and teddies for the
children there, most of whom are orphans. Unfortunately we arrived
outside visiting hours and the children were taking a post-lunch nap.
I
wish my children would do that, they have so much energy they exhaust
me! We also sorted lots of books and toys and presented them to
various family compounds near Ghana Town, a very poor area inhabited
mainly by Ghanian fishermen and their families. The smiles and whoops
of delight when presents like this are received make all the hard work
involved worthwhile and I wish I could bottle the smiles and give them
to the wonderful people here who have donated all these things to
enable this to happen. Their smiles are priceless!
It wasn't all work for our guests. They went to Bijilo Forest Park and
saw monkeys and birds in their picturesque natural environment right
next to the beautiful sandy beaches. I took them to Katchikally Sacred
Pool to visit Charlie the Crocodile and his pals; yes you really can
touch the crocs here with guidance from the locals. At Kartong, we
crossed the stunning Alahein River in a rickety, leaky pirogue and set
foot on Senegalese soil just as the sun was setting over the river,
truly beautiful. At Lamin Lodge, a stilted bar/restaurant set among
mangroves, our intentions to take a boat trip were thwarted by a sudden
dramatic thunderstorm which is a common occurence during the rainy
season. Many thanks to Diane Billington of Mandinka Lodges who
provided the group with comfortable accommodation and friendly service
during their stay in her lovely African lodges.

For further info on visiting Debbie's school or helping with the projects please contact her at
dwdebs@aol.com or call 07596 249987.

Focussing on training support in Gambia

A few years ago I did an excellent NVQ course in Management with Focus Training based at Plympton.  My tutor at the time, Jayne Maddocks was very supportive and got in touch with me via The Herald article a couple of years back offering to help me with some school resources for the nursery school.

Focus Training donated a hundred pounds worth of nursery resources and their staff donated bags of children's clothes, toys and other useful items, all of which were shipped out here and went to needy causes. 

When I was back in Plymouth in April, I popped in to see Jamie Rail, Director of Focus Training and Jayne, now promoted to manager,  and told them about a new project I'm involved in here setting up a tertiary educational establishment called Chosaan Academy, owned and run by Gambians and a really forward-thinking charity organisation.

Jamie and Jayne soon collected up loads of useful training resources, books, videos and dvds,  and I shipped them out using a shipping company called Wynot in Exeter who are always 100% reliable and really helpful.

When the items arrived here in The Gambia the trainers were so excited. 

They are really looking forward to using the new materials with the brand new intake of students in September.

Jayne is hoping to organise a trip over here to give us some more training support and for Focus' personnel to gain experience of working in a developing country.

Thank you to everyone involved in enabling this to happen, especially to The Herald for reporting the story which enabled Jayne to get in touch with me.

Pictured here are Jayne Maddocks and Jamie Rail with just a few of the resources they donated.

Kanilai International Cultural Festival

Hi to everyone in sunny Devon and Cornwall from sunny Gambia!

It's great to hear you've had some sunshine.  Thought I would tell you all about an amazing weekend I spent down in Kanilai, the home village of The President of The Gambia.

The Kanilai International Cultural Festival started last weekend and runs until 7th June. It is a showcase of the best of African culture along with other invited performers from overseas.

His Excellency generously throws open the gates of his grounds and offers this free festival to everyone.
I saw troupes of Gambian singers, dancers and performers representive of all the tribes along with the National Troupes from Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Mali and Mauritania.

It was simply amazing, a fantastic experience to be recommended to anyone visiting The Gambia.

This week Jermaine Jackson is performing a tribute to Michael Jackson at the Independence Stadium, another popular venue in the Gambia for National and International stars.

Tending the compound

Spent Saturday weeding, watering, sweeping and planting my very neglected compound. Sunday saw me with a dozen children sorting out boxes of books and resources, spring-cleaning the classroom and finding items to donate to other schools. This morning at the crack of dawn 20 bright faces appeared to carry 500 books to their school, Madiana Primary. I have donated lots of books to them and the teachers have organised a library system which is working really well. I also dropped off two huge boxes of Maths resources to Brufut Secondary School this afternoon. This is all possible due the continued support of Trevor Anderson and the ladies at Oxfam on Mutley Plain who send us out boxes of books to help in our quest to improve literacy in The Gambia. Thank you Trevor and Co, it really is working!
Till next time
Debbie

The treats of home

I had a fabulous treat on Friday, courtesy of the lovely Adelia Chamberlain at Amber Health and Beauty, Mannamead. In my previous life, I used to visit Adelia frequently for relaxing massages, highly-effective but not quite so relaxing waxing and the most amazing pedicures. Since I moved out to The Gambia I have totally abandoned such wonderfully indulgent experiences and so I was ecstatic when Adelia invited me over to sample some of her latest treatments. Here is a picture of me being pampered with a delightful facial, which I have to say has visibly rejuvenated my sun-baked skin. With deft hands she cleverly reshaped my slug-like eyebrows using the threading method which was highly effective and made a dramatic difference to my droopy eyes. After a totally relaxing aromatherapy massage, I felt like a new person. Thank you Adelia, you knew how much I needed a treat after all the hard work in The Gambia and I enjoyed every moment. The treatments available at Amber are too numerous to list here but check out their website at www.amber.gb.net.
I can't write about Adelia without also mentioning her husband Frank and son Kieran. When we were organising the first container of charity goods going out to The Gambia in 2008, Kieran turned out loads of his unwanted clothes, books and other possessions and donated them to Gambian Projects. Frank made sure the whole family had helped us by selflessly giving up several hours of his time and energy to help pack the 40ft container. Frank, being Frank, took over the organisation of the packing and did a sterling job in half the time it would have taken had he not been present.
My heartfelt thanks to all three of you. If there were more people like you in the world, it would be a better place!

Friends get together after 29 years!

When I was at Uni in London many moons ago I spent my first year in a hall of residence and then later shared a flat with Helena Meineck who is now Manager of All Saints Pre-School in Exmouth.

After finishing her Dance studies, Helena moved to Italy where she lived for about 25 years.

She returned to England a few years ago along with her husband and gorgeous son Tommy. We got in touch via Facebook after a 29 year gap in communication.

Today, Helena drove Tommy down to Plymouth where he donated loads of his clothes, books and toys for the children in The Gambia.

Helena and I are going to link the two schools giving the children lots of opportunities to find out more about their counterparts living in vastly different countries.

We're both excited by the link and looking forward to providing lots of interesting joint projects for the children to experience.



Pictured here are Helena and Tommy with just a few of the items Tommy generously gave to the children of Madiana village.

Sunshine and smiles?

Well, I definitely brought the sunshine back with me from Africa but unfortunately as I flit around Plymouth I am struck by the lack of sunny smiles I am used to in The Gambia.

So, as a treat for those of you who enjoy a sunny face, I hope you will enjoy these photos shot by Lucy Blake, Herald Photographer, during her trip to our projects in February. Keep smiling!!

Best wishes

Debbie