Candles and Dongles

I’ve never gone through so many candles! These constant power cuts have turned me into a proper Florence Nightingale or maybe more of a ‘Wee Willy Winkie’ wandering around the house like someone from a bygone age. As for dongles, I can hear you asking, no they are not something that you might find on the shelves of an Ann Summers shop, they are devices that you can plug into your laptop that allows you to access the internet from the comfort of your own home. It’s truly magic, modern technology, what will they think of next? They’ll be telling me that they’ve laid off all the carrier pigeons. Anyway, for somebody who according to my dear hubby is in charge of the purse that never opens has splashed out and bought one so I have been surfing the web from my own kitchen table.


Also braved my first haircut and true to form I didn’t go to the mega expensive western salons in the tourist area but nipped around the corner to the local ‘beauty salon’. I don’t think they really knew what to make of me but the decision was to tackle my wig with barbers clippers. I feared the worst! In the end after nearly each single hair was individually cut I walked out with a quite acceptable Junie Rob cut. At least I don’t make the kids cry anymore, well not the older ones!

New wig and friendly croc

This certainly is a young country. There are millions of kiddie winks everywhere. Quite the opposite to the UK’s aging population. Most of them at some stage of the day seem to pop their faces up to my mosquito screen on the door to check out the new ‘toubab’ and what strange things she might be up to in that house all on her own. I have tried a story reading session with some of the local clan, which they loved. Just looking at all the colourful pictures was mesmerising. Trying to get them to turn the pages carefully was a little more difficult. After visiting the local school with Mr Touray I can see why they appreciated the book. The classrooms were worse than I had anticipated. Very little furniture, holes in the floor, walls and roof and such a lack of colour. Where do you start? Well let’s look on the bright side, they’ll soon be speaking English with a Cumbrian accent.

The better off kids take in their own furniture

Turned into a tourist again on Sunday and visited the capital, Banjul, for the first time. Took lots of pics went up Arch 22 and viewed the River Gambia from afar. After lots of confrontations with bumsters we finished our day watching the fishermen bringing in their catches and then got totally confused as the fish were despatched to the shore and quickly sold to waiting punters. How they keep track of who gets paid for what I will never know but I’m sure that they have their fingers on the pulse. We also visited the local croc pool which is a bit of a tourist attraction but the crocs are fed well enough not to want to whizz around and take your arm off. No I didn’t really feel like a female version of Steve Erwin.

June’s tip for the week – If there is no toilet paper and you have no tissues to hand DO NOT use mosquito wipes!

One of the fishing fleet

The catch coming in

Arch 22 in Banjul

Also attended my first staff meeting and met the new crew, everybody was very nice but there’s no chance that I’ll remember all the names. I’ll blame the heat rather than age for addling my brain. I will never complain again about long staff meetings, this one lasted five hours. Mind you we did have lots to talk about the last point was whether or not the guys should be allowed to take more than one wife to the staff picnic. I think the answer was no or if they did they had to pay extra. Well I knew it was going to be different!  

No More Fasting!

The title is a little misleading, I wasn’t anyway but I take my hat off to all those who did. No eating or drinking during daylight hours for the whole month of Ramadam. At least I don’t have to feel guilty anymore when stuffing my lunchtime sarnies and gallon of water needed to replace all the moisture pouring out of my leaky skin. Going to a watch Gambia play Namibia in the national stadium last week was very different not a soggy meat pie or a steaming cup of Bovril to be seen anywhere. The little lady selling cashew nuts managed to get rid of a few to the smattering of Christians and toubabs (white people) in the crowd.


I ventured into the college this week to meet my colleagues and find out where I would be working. A little different from UK colleges. There’s not many institutions that have donkeys and a herd of goats grazing in the grounds. Before starting to organise the classroom I had to chase out the stray dog that thought it would be a good place to shelter from the torrential downpours and midday heat. How we will fit 60 students (normal class size) onto 45 chairs, I’m not sure but I have been assured that it can be done. Looking forward to starting a new challenge – it will certainly be different and that’s what I signed up for.

I have been exploring the local area with a couple of my fellow volunteers Jane and Rachel. We set off on our push bikes down a potholed muddy track to a nearby village which lived up to expectations. Like the guidebook said it was very tranquil away from the hustle and bustle of town and a bird watchers paradise. On the way back we deviated to buy some local honey and got a little more than was bargained for. Just as we cycled into the compound the guys were slaughtering a cow under a tree ready for the feast the following day. I’m going to have to toughen up a bit because at the moment carrots are looking like the better option. Eventually we got our freshly squeezed honey and we were back on the road again a little bit more worldly wise.

We were invited for Koriteh lunch (Eid) by a colleague at the college and his wife and four girls plus numerous aunts and uncles. We shared a food bowl of noodles, potatoes and mutton all very tasty. I lied about turning vegetarian. To finish off the day we were dropped off at Kartong the most southerly village on the Gambian coastline, the next stop would be Senegal. Myself and Jane walked along the beach with not a ‘bumster’ in sight, followed only by two stray dogs and a donkey. We ended up at Boboi lodge, somewhere to stay in the dry season the tree houses looked a little leaky under threatening black skies. That will be a future adventure!

                                                            Our local baker and his oven

                                                                  One of the neighbours

My classroom is behind the goats somewhere

         The heavens are just about to open

Home Sweet Home

My new pad

Well what a nice surprise, a flushing loo and a cold shower, what more could a girl ask for! My new pad is a des res. I have my very own outside tap to do all my washing up and clothes washing, never again will I moan about my washing machine back home for taking too long and remind me again what is a dish washer?


Brikama is a busy little place it seems to be the transport hub for Gambia. You can catch a Geli Geli (minibus type thingy) to anywhere. Whenever you venture towards the market if you don’t have your wits about you, you could end up being stuffed on board with goats, chickens and the odd three piece suite and transported off to the back of beyond. Once you have negotiated the hustle and bustle of the Geli park the market traders hit you head on. Not being a natural shopper and used to Mr Sainsbury very kindly dropping off my groceries every week, having to bargain for everything from an umbrella to an egg is exhausting. I’d rather run a marathon any day! I’m sure it will get easier.

Our compound is a little oasis. Mr Touray is our guardian angel, caretaker, security guard, local teacher and keen gardener, he manages to keep the garden looking like a tropical paradise. We have lots of colourful birds visit and I will eventually learn their names but at the moment they fit into three categories; cute little ones, colourful medium sized ones and big loud ones that wake me in the morning when it’s the cockerels day off. We also have a few night visitors. I did think someone was breaking in the other night and just as my pounding heart was about to explode through my chest cavity I thought I’d better get up and confront the villain head on. When I looked out the window there were giant bats the size of pterodactyls flapping around in the mango tree and banging on the window. For one minute I thought I’d ended up in a scene from Jurassic Park 4.

State of the art cooking facilities

All smiles before we are shipped off to all corners.