Well I managed to get back to Basse from the bush with only
getting slightly lost. It was good to finally be able to visit schools on my
own. The only problem was that as the Easter Holidays were looming there was
not many lessons going on and the schools I visited were on end of term tests,
but the less said about them the better!!
The holidays came early due to the parliamentary elections
and the President declaring the Thursday of the election and the Friday after
public holidays....not sure I can imagine Cameron doing that! Anyway, Basse had
been going election rally crazy in the lead up. A lot of political rallies were
being held, including a very significant one in the education offices. Basse
was one of the few constituencies to be contested, the rest only having the
ruling APRC candidate as the only candidate. In Basse, the local party’s choice
and peoples’ favourite to be candidate for Basse was overruled by the President
and the incumbent chosen instead. The decided to run as an independent and there was
a huge meeting at the education office to try and persuade him not to run.
However, he decided to ignore this and run anyway. So Basse went election crazy
with rallies and marches all over the place. Ultimately, he won so Basse is not
in the hands of the ruling party anymore. Around my village, cheers came up
from around the neighbouring compound when the results were announced. The
elections results show was also very strange. No visual graphics or
Swing-o-meter. Just various people sitting around a studio giving the results
first in English, then Mandinka, then Wolof, then Fula and then in a further 3 languages!
The following Saturday, the winning candidate had a
procession through Basse to say thank you to the people for electing him. It
was quite surreal...first there were horses and donkeys, then motorcycles, then
trucks and jeeps riding past with people cheering and waving. It was quite a
sight, sadly I’d left my camera at home! A Gambian I’d been speaking to was
asking how our candidates thanked us for electing them, he was quite surprised
when I said we didn’t really celebrate like this. “Oh I suppose you write
letters of congratulations to the candidate then!” he replied......I’m sure
some people must. I don’t know any but there must be!!
Now it’s the holidays and I am down in kombos, relaxing by
the beach and spending an absolute fortune. In the few days I’ve been here I’ve
spent about as much as I do in a whole month in Basse!! First I must tell you
about my journey down. Ok so Basse is only 2 or 3 hundred miles from the coast.
Beth, a fellow volunteer in Janjanbureh, and I decided to travel together for
the first time. I was to go to hers on Tuesday. I went to get the gelli at a
reasonable time in the morning. Some might say stupidly, I got into an empty
gelli to JJB. Others would probably say the same...I waited for 3 hours for the
gelli to leave! They have no timetables and only leave when they are full, so
the rule of thumb is never get into an empty gelli. I’ve learned my lesson the
hard way! So I left my house about 8.30am and got to JJB (60 miles away) at
about 2pm! The next day we were going to get the bus to the kombos. However, as
we were walking towards the stop it drove past us, full to burst! Instead we
got a sept-plas, the only way to travel in this country. They are estate cars
with 3 extra seats squeezed into the boot. They ply the North Bank road, up and
down from Barra to Basse. Barra is usually where the problems begin. This is
the ferry terminal to Banjul. It can apparently be hit or miss. Beth and I were
very lucky and arrived in Barra just as one had arrived so our crossing was
very easy and problem free. Not sure that will happen again from the horror
stories I’ve heard from others!
Some of my fellow
volunteers have been putting me up and it has been very nice coming from
up-country into proper houses with running water. Although I am a bit better off
that most up-country volunteers in that I do have a flush loo and shower,
instead of a pit latrine and bucket shower. Still, very nice! Over the Easter
weekend, we had a road trip down to Kartong in the south. Most of the
volunteers in the Gambia went too. We stayed at the beautiful Boboi Lodge on
the beach. With white, sandy, secluded beaches, it was stunning and very nice
and relaxing. After a day on the beach, we had a wonderful buffet and finished
off the night with a bonfire on the beach. Then off to sleep listening to the
ocean.....Ah this is the life!! On the
way back the next day some of us stopped at Tangi, the local fishing village to
buy some ladyfish! The beach was mobbed and the smell overwhelming. Not just of
fish, but mixed with sewage. Not as nice a combination as you might think!
Still, it was a place I’d wanted to go to for a while and was great to see a
local industry in action. That night some of us had another camp fire on a
beach and cooked the fish on a charcoal stove while we wrapped ourselves in
blankets being buffeted by the wind!
Unfortunately, I have a few days left in Kombos before I go
back to Basse, so more money to spend. Wednesday we are getting our residence
permits to allow us to stay and work here. Take care, till next time! x
