Journey back from Dakar to my town, Soma

We did the usual bartering for cabs then another dodgy sep – place. It was hilarious watching my friends in the cab in front being chased in the garage and surrounded by Senegalise vying for our business. I hopped out of the set-place after about 3 hours travelling to go the rest of the journey alone, as i was heading straight to Soma for work the next day. I quickly farewelled my friends as they dropped me off at a dusty, busy garage full of the usual dodgy cars, people walking around selling products on their head ranging from bananas, soap, clothes, torches, underwear, sunglasses etc. I went to search for a geli going to a town in Southern senegal, this geli crosses through Soma on the way. In amongst the mayhem, a Senegalise man befriended me and showed my where to go. He was very helpful and I paid for my fare and hopped onto the geli which was a sauna filled with flies and Senegalese men, teenage boys, 2 women with their young babies. The men on this geli wore long robes, hair in long dreadlocks covered in a long material head wrap and cool sunglasses. They had on thick leather belts around their waist, army boots and necklaces showing photos of their spiritual leader. We all sat and waited for the geli to leave, we sat for 2 ¼ hours, I could feel the sweat dripping down my back and my bottom was already beginning to get sore. Finally we departed and the geli broke down after 15 minutes. After some time we set off again, there was 28 people on board and noone complained as the geli broke down 4 more times. At one point all the men got out in the sweltering heat, around 45 degrees outside and push started it. We arrived at the border, not that I was quite sure of where the border was or what it looked liked. I was asked to get out the geli by the border official and walked to the Customs building and showed my passport, praying that I wouldn't be detained due to being unsure about my visa expiry. All went well and the Senegalise official was very friendly. I filled in my details and noticed the previous entry of a Visa entry at the this small border crossing was last November! The geli waited for me and then we drove to the Gambian customs. I again was asked to get off and I showed my Gambian residence card and id card but that was not enough. My passport came out again and I walked to the Customs area. My friends had some problems at the major Gambian border recently with luggage and body searches so I was a little nervous. The Gambian official turned out to be friendly, in fact I thought he was going to ask for phone number... ahhh back in The Gambia!
Once again the geli waited for me, I was happy to be back on Gambian soil as I have a pretty good idea as to how things operate and can get around The Gambia confidently. Signs were all now in English and money was back to dalasi. We crossed The Gambian river and I finally arrived in Soma. I started walking down the main st to toubab shouts from kids i didnt know and my work colleague rode past, we stopped and had a chat. I then heard "AJA! AJA!" another lady I knew , Isatou, called me over another chat followed. She hailed the Governor of the region driving past who gave me lift to my house. Further shouts of "Aja! Aja!"down my street ensued. 11 hours of travelling came to an end and listening to the shouts of Aja, I was finally home.

I`sle de Gore`e

We caught a ferry to Goree' island. This is a quiet, peaceful, small island with no cars or motorbikes. It is beautiful, like being on a Greek island in the Mediterannean, blue water, sandy coloured buildings with flowers hanging over terraces and amongst the narrow cobbled alley ways. About 1500 people live on the island. The island was once used for slave and goods trading in the 17th and 18th century and school groups and tourists visit the island due the rich history and museums. The island also has a strong arts focus with local made craft and creative artists producing colourful oil paintings.

Dakar

My impressions of Dakar were.. wow! A city is before my eyes, as The Gambia just doesn't have high rise buildings and only a few bitumised roads. Dakar is a city with high rise buildings, decent roads, traffic lights, round abouts and even a small garden square. The females mainly dress in beautiful, colourful West African clothing which I see everyday in The Gambia. Ladies wear a long skirt with matching fitted short sleave top and head tie. Although the females here also dress in office like clothes, but always skirts below the knee. The streets had pavers, with many markets set up sellling all sort of things, shoes, mens clothes, sunglasses etc. One thing that I found both annoying and sad about was the number of hasslers on the street trying to sell things. They wouldnt take a polite 'no merci' for an answer and we were persistently hassled, if we stopped we were swarmed. Dakar also has kids with tins walking around begging for money.The kids don't go school and collect money for their spiritual leader.
Due the French occupation and influence, pastry shops are everywhere. I'm not really into pastries, but I couldn't find anything else to eat for breakfast, so i'm still hanging out for natural yogurt, fruit and muesli. Although, a chocolate croissant wasn't so terrible in the morning! I also ventured out to the coast for two afternoons to have a swim at a place called N'gor. On the beach I was surrounded by Senegalise kids catching the waves with me, whilst others played soccer or wrestled on the sand.
We discovered some beautiful restaurants, we were all so excited. The nightlife in Senegal is mixed, a band playing Senegalise rhythms to a bar playing Western music from the 90's.
One relief was not being called a Toubab, there are quite a few Western people who live in Senegal and having white skin does not seem to attract as much attention.

Journey to Dakar

On Thursday 22nd May, six VSO volunteers and I travelled to Dakar, Senegal. Dakar is the capital and has a population of around 3 million, the total population of The Gambia is about 1.6million. As you know, Senegal surrounds 3 sides of The Gambia but I am unable to travel there without a Visa. After many visits to the Senegalese Embassy I was granted a one month visa. All my VSO friends are either UK, Netherlands, Irish, Scottish, American or Canadian and can enter Senegal anytime they wish without a Visa, so I needed to plan weeks ahead.
The journey there went without incident which was suprising, but the people who I was with had been there once before. We caught a shared taxi (a taxi shared with strangers) to Banjul, (capital of The Gambia) and waited in a huge queue to purchase our ferry ticket amongst pushing and squashing. We then had to run onto the ferry after the gates were open as we would have pushed to the ground by the crowds behind us. The ferry across the river Gambia took about 45 minutes. We then bartered for another cab, the usual scenario, cab driver asks for double the price, we disagree, we say the usual price, he disagrees,we walk away amongst shouts to get in. It happens so often, but I still hate going through the whole process each time to get a cab. The cab takes us to the border. Here we go through Gambian customs, which was fine, then Senegalise. I felt a bit nervous about this as the Senegalise speak French and I wasn't sure my Visa was going to be accepted because the date only lasted from 24th May, but all went smoothly. Amongst the ladies and kids trying to sell mangoes and cashew nuts, we jumped on a horse and cart for 2 km to reach transport to Dakar. I was told we would be hopping on a sep-place, a 7 seater vehicle.I had visions of this newish 4wd for our journey,I was dreaming. We arrived at the garage (like a taxi/geli rank) to literally 100 old beaten up small station wagons and gelis (vans). We were swarmed by people trying to communicate with us in French dragging us around to their beaten up car. We agreed on a price and off we went. Part of the back area of the station wagon was built with a raised seat for 3, all very cosy. The Senegalise have bitumen roads, I haven't been on a bitumen road for quite sometime, so the journey was quite smooth. The land was flat, dusty, minimal vegetation and the small villages with thatched roofs, just like The Gambia. As we approached the city, houses were made from cement , high rise flat blocks were scattered around and traffic became thick. I was brimming with excitement by the fact I was in another country – SENEGAL, it spoke French and local African dialect, currency is cfa's , 1000 cfa's equals to about $2.20 AUS and it was a city. Just purchasing drinks at the petrol station using cfa's and trying to communicate in French was a buzz. It took us about 5 hours in the car to reach Dakar. The driver dropped us off at another taxi area on the outskirts and we yet again bartered for our cab to our hotel. All up, the journey took about 9 hours.

On my motorbike

Just to show you that I'm in The Gambia!! This is by the Sengalise border.

An abandoned church

I run past this church in the morning. Thought it was a cool photo.

Missera - a village by the Sengalise border

I'm now out and about on my motorbike again, this has been great. I travelled to the Sengalise border about 30 minutes away, the photos shows the a village called Missera. I also rode to the ferry and went across The Gambian river. There is a larger town 30 minutes away, I was excited to discover the market sold carrots and lettuce. In Soma we can only buy small tomatoes, onions, potatoes and egg plant/cabbage (sometimes).

The Scholarship Pageant

The Scholarship Pageant

Each of the 6 regions in The Gambia were instructed by the Government to select 10 girls from years 7-12 to represent their Region in The Gambia Scholarship pageant. The president got the idea from Miss Black USA, held in The Gambia in 2007. Regional finalists will compete in the capital, Banjul. The 10 winners will receive a scholarship for high school or University. My role as part of the Education team was to assist with the organisation of the event. Planning began 2 months prior and each school was to select 5 students. Criteria included Talent, Knowledge of The Gambia, Beauty/Appearance and composure, Knowledge of the July 22^nd Revolution and advocating for a community issue.

I was a part of the planning committee and led this group to decide on the Programme , management and logistics of the pageant. For those who know me, I love to organise, so I was thorough, working out the pageant running time schedule, catering, accomodation, format etc. and with the planning team, made a list of recommendations and tasks for the Regional team to follow through on.

Leading up to the day I consulted with the Deputy director to ensure all was organised and offered my assistance, but was told all was arranged. I felt that maybe it wasn't quite all planned and suggested and devised a judges score sheet divided into criteria, total tally form for each girl, certificates for the participants, list of contestants names with corresponding number, made contestant numbers and asked the deputy to devise a script of questions based on the criteria to ask each of the girls. I suggested perhaps a few less questions, but the deputy was keen to range of questions about The Gambia. This was fine, I didn't want to run the show, just support as much as i could. I really couldn't do much more, the rest was left was up to the Regional Team.

On the day, I was led to believe the plans agreed upon were still in place, how wrong I was!! The initial plan was all girls arrive by 11am for a 11.30am start. As the day progressed, I began to grow more and more impatient and frustrated. Half the girls had arrived by 10am.The venue had moved from our office, where the girls were staying in lodges to a venue half an hour walk away. Lunch was due at 1.30pm, it came at 4.30pm. I travelled with the deputy to a judges house at 4pm to remind the judge about the pageant. We moved chairs etc to the new location.I really cant explain my growing frustration, knowing that the event would take at least 9 hours.

Finally we arrived there at 6pm, the crowd started to grow and all the girls began to arrive..finally!!! The massive sound system was hooked up and lights were placed around the outside venue. The venue was a Youth Centre, the chairs were arranged on the edge of a basketball court. Girls were able to get changed and wait inside the Youth centre. At this stage I was still unsure of the role I would play, I 'want to take over, as it was their pageant but I did want to support the education office. And to be honest, I was still frustrated that I'd been hanging around for 6 hours waiting for it to all start.

Anyway, I noticed that nooone was really getting any of the girls or teachers organised , the deputy was off picking up all the judges in the ute, the education team were sitting on chairs waiting for it to begin and a person was on the door charging around 25 cents AUS entry, a great fundraising idea. Amongst all this, the music from the sound system was blaring, I really couldn't hear myself think. So I ventured into the hall and started handing out numbers to the girls, although many girls had been swapped and their names didn't match my list, so much effort was placed on getting spellinh their names correctly. Teachers were asking me what the girls were wearing first, their school uniform or african dress, I wish I could answer, but due to many changes in the past 2 days, I really had no idea, I was thinking - just wear african dress, we haven't got time for girls to get changed and come out again, but it wasn't my decision to make and the deputy was still picking up the judges. On his return I politely suggested that we had no time for the girls to get changed, but he insisted. After the bedlam of getting all the changed names and numbers handed out to 60 girls, amongst doing all this the deputy asked me to inform the judges of the criteria and how to go about awarding points ahh!! Noone was around to do this. The crowd outside was starting to grow, the music was blaring, the girls could hardly hear me as I gathered them together to explain the outline of the eveing, it really was quite a funny nightmare. At last the first contestant came out on the stage, it was 8,15pm. I really couldn't believe it, 60 girls, 10 minutes /girl.. the event would end at 4am. I informed my colleague of finish time, laughing as I spoke to him, he laughed but didn't believe me. I explained my reasoning, he still laughed.. was going to be a long night. The deputy asked the girls mostly the same questions, after 4 hours of this it became excruciating, worse that watching paint dry. There was at least 700 people in the crowd, all very patient and supportive.

By 11.30pm, the director and colleagues began to finally believe how long it would take, I suggested cutting out 3 questions less on their second round, this they did. The director also had to go and collect the food for the girl's dinner. They ate at midnight. The crowd started to leave from 1am, by 2.00am there was only 3 people in the crowd, with all chairs packed up. The judges hadn't moved, a few education staff , the deputy still on the microphone asking the same questions and music blaring between each of the girl's walk onto the stage. I was sitting on chair, half asleep calling out the girls numbers. "Number 55, get ready, your next. " The evening finally finished at 3.30am, just crazy. The girls then piled in the back of two utes back to their accomodation.

So, my day didn't quite go as planned, i thought the 11.30am start, held inside the education building hall, low key event. But what I learned about was the brilliant community spirit, patience shown by everyone and the attitude of..'it will happen when it happens.' I saw the funny side of the event and am glad I was able to be of assistance. I am learning Gambian programs start late and its ok if noone is left in the audience at the end. Although I still personally prefer organisation and structure, I just have to go with it and not become too frustrated. What an evening!!

The President visits Soma

The Presidents tour through The Gambia

It was a busy weekend for many people in Soma. The president arrived on Sunday at 6pm and left on Monday morning. Soma was crowded with people during the evening with the President giving a speech after arriving 3 hours later than anticipated. I went for a night motorbike ride to check out the sights and sounds. There were dim bulb lights littered around the fronts of shops built from scraps of tin, this produced an eerie illumination of dust. Groups of students milled about and people scattered around the edges of the road heading home or towards the crowd trying to hear the President's speech. Many had packets of biscuits clutched under their arms, these had been handed out by the President's soldiers. The crowd radiated a sense of excitement and community spirit. The people here show the utmost respect and compassion for President Jammeh and actively support all he says and does.

The following morning I embarked on my regular morning run up the hill along the quietest track I have found near my home and to my surprise there was around 50 soldiers congretated on 'my' quiet track, so I thought it was best not to run through but deviate down hill. The soldiers were staying at the resthouse which I believed to be abandoned, along with the president staying next door at the Governor's house. The soldiers here are friendly and I feel safe in their presence but the attention and greetings of I would have received running past would have been intense.

At work the same morning, our team waited outside to wave to the President as he went past, as is the norm here. We had branches in our hands and had a laugh shouting at the motto EDUCATION FOR ALL. A convoy of soldiers, officials, hummers (long, wide black ute like limousines), motorbikes and utes with biscuits being thrown out to the crowd and soldiers running alongside the President. He was in an open style hummer. He waved at the crowd dressed in long white robes, sunglasses, shawl and a round muslim head piece. He is in the photos attached. Accompanying the convoy is a deafening, persisitent siren to indicate the President is on his way.

The President travelled back to Banjul, following his Gambian tour. In our Region, the Education Director needed to make sure schools were on the side of the road waving. He visited schools the day before and zoomed half an hour ahead of the President to make sure schools children were on the road. The Gambia schools who made the journey to the edge of the road were given between $500 - $1000 dollars AUS, not all schools were given money. The money had to be spent on a school community party under the direct orders from the President. Principals were not able to use this huge amount of money on books or pencils.