Training of Trainers - a week in Njawara

Last Sunday I went on trek. We were running a 5 day training of trainers’ workshop on business and group management skills.

I was picked up from my house at 9am by Abdoulie and Ba Sarjo, and joined Martin, Munya in the back of the VSO pick-up. We were really lucky with the ferry and drove straight on – departing from Banjul at about 9.45am. On the ferry we met up with Aloysius, and once we reached Barra we all piled into the pick-up and drove for a couple of hours to Abdoulie’s village. Here we were promptly joined by many very excited children, who Martin did a great job entertaining! 

Reserved at first...

...but Martin soon won them round with the tried and tested
method of showing
the children pictures of themselves

Martin soon had the children hanging off his every word or movement, and before I knew it we were teaching them games like ‘what’s the time Mr Wolf?’ and blind man’s bluff. It was great fun! 

After games and some domoda for lunch we set off for Njawara Agricultural Training Centre – our home for the next 5 nights.

We greeted the other volunteers - Shimoni, Edwin, Godfrey and Jane, who were joining Martin, Munya and Aloysius as trainers for the week - and were allocated to rooms...

My cell! 

Prisoner cell block H

and shown the facilities…. 

Beautiful shared shower

And the delightful shared toilet!

... pretty basic to say the least. Last time I stayed at NATC I was in a VIP room, but this time I wasn’t so lucky! Thankfully fellow volunteer Jane had a nice room so I was able to use her shower instead of the shared shower which had a big open window at chest height! That said, for the last three mornings there was no water anyway, but at least I had a slightly nicer place in which to have a bucket bath!

After finding our rooms we all went for a walk around Njawara, and then Martin and I went to look at the students' garden where they do the practical work for their agricultural courses. I tried my first cashew apple and liked it! I ate quite a few during the week, they taste a bit like a cross between a plum and a peach – you can’t really chew the flesh but they are very juicy and refreshing to suck the juice out of.

The week of training went well. I was asked to chair the opening ceremony and invite Abdoulie and the Governor of the North Bank Region to speak. 

From then on I chaired the whole 5 day workshop, explaining the timetable each morning, introducing the trainers (VSO volunteers), time keeping, making housekeeping announcements, and then coordinating meetings each evening with the trainers so that we could all plan the timings and structure of the next day.

The trainees were great. We had about 20 farmer extension workers who were the core training group. These are the ones who will now go out and train others on what they learned through the week, as part of the step down training for the GCP project. We were also joined by about 8 or so students from NATC for many of the sessions, so on average we had about 28 in the room, which made for some good discussions and group work.

Me and Jane - VSO volunteer and trainer 

One of the participants brought her 8 month old baby with her, who was very cute and became my ‘husband’ (quite often here if a baby boy smiles at you or likes you they say he is your husband, which does feel a little bit creepy if I'm honest!).

We were well looked after by the ladies! 

It wasn’t as hot in Njawara as I had expected it to be, but the mosquitoes were killer! We were even getting bitten all the way through the day, and at night I was happy to retreat under my mosquito net to escape the biting for a few hours!

The black dots on the wall are mosquitoes!

My respite from the biting!

It was a really packed week and I think we were all shattered by Friday. We left at about midday and got back to the Kombos at about 7pm. I dived straight in the shower to wash 6 days’ worth of DEET off my skin, and was very happy to be back in my own bed that night!

(Thanks to Martin for some of these photos!)

Bakau beats

Any one who lives in Bakau quickly gets used to the sound of drumming. If I were in a film drumming, alternated with singing from the mosque, would be the soundtrack. On Saturday evening it seemed like the volume had been turned up. I decided to stand on my balcony and take a video, to try and capture the sounds and images of the children dancing in the street below. 

An hour or so later I realised that the rhythm and the squeals of delight from the street had intensified, and when I looked out of the window I could see loads more children dancing to the beat. 

I could also see that some masquerades had arrived. 

I realised that the children were dancing in the street to taunt the masquerades, who would then suddenly charge at the children and try to capture them! The children would run and scatter, leaping over walls and running across roads to get away. After capture the masquerades would drag the children behind a curtain that had been put up. Who knows if they were ever seen again! 

First rains and everything since

Last Friday evening it rained. Big fat juicy drops accompanied by forked lightning. We weren’t expecting it. I had actually looked at the weather forecast earlier in the week, and despite the fact that it had predicted thunder and lightning for Friday, I didn’t really believe it. The cloud and thunder bolt looked so out of place amongst all the pictures of full sunshine that I thought it must be an error! I had also hoped we might have a few more weeks before the rain came. But rain it did, and it was quite exciting – although I am sure the novelty will soon wear off!

The best part was the immediate smell of fresh rain on scorched ground. The worst part was the smell a few hours later, once the damp reached and mingled with months of dirty sand, mud, rubbish and rot. I woke at 4am thinking ‘urgh what is that smell?’. It was so strong it actually woke me up as it wafted through my open windows. 

On Sunday we went fishing in Gunjur, a village between Sanyang and Kartong. As a hangover from Friday’s rain it was a slightly cloudy day, even a bit drizzly in the morning, but it didn’t stop us enjoying the beach. 

Nicola, Helen L and I spent hours bobbing around in the sea while the men fished. Around lunch time Abdou disappeared to the fish market and came back with a bag of freshly smoked bunga bunga fish, some onion, jumbo (stock cube) and chilli powder. The men took a break from fishing and we all hungrily peeled back the dried skin of the smoked fish, which were still warm from the smoke house, and ate them with chopped onion and seasoning.

Freshly smoked fish

Later on, Abdou and Lamin made a fire into which they buried the four cat fish that had been caught that afternoon. Once they were out of the fire, we sat down in the sand, peeled off the blackened skin and ate the perfectly cooked fish with more onion and jumbo, washed down with a Julbrew. It all felt very Robinson Crusoe.

Lamin tending the fish fire

Joe did two car trips, and once again the girls opted to go last so that we could go and have a few beers at the only beach bar we could find. It was technically closed for the end of season, but we managed to get a few bottles. They even lit a fire for us, and it was a nice place to wait for Joe to come back. Both Gunjur and Sanyang feel very deserted at the moment. We originally put it down to the fact that it was the end of tourist season, but have recently discovered that there has been an order to clear away all the beach bars as the land is wanted for hotel development. Only time will tell whether the resorts will be re-developed, but in the meantime it has given quite a ghostly feel to our last couple of fishing trips. Walking back down the pitch black beach guided only by our phone torches to meet Joe was a bit of an adventure! We were surrounded by hundreds of crabs scuttling around our feet, and had to avoid standing on dead fish left over from the village fishermen’s catch!

Work last week was really busy. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I led a team of volunteers through a group edit to finalise two training manuals that have been written as part of our project. With lots of different nationalities and fields of experience in the room it was a painstaking process at times as we picked through almost word by word, agreeing how things should be phrased and explained in a way that everyone could understand and make sense of. But we got there and I am pleased with the work that we managed to get done. The next stage will be training of trainers, which should take place at the end of the month.

On Wednesday evening I went to a Jaliba Kuyateh concert at Old Jeshwang School. It was an interesting evening, mostly just because of the opportunity to people watch and admire all the ladies outfits!

And then this Saturday I went with Helen to a Community Outreach Programme at the Jammeh Foundation Health Centre in Bundung. The day had been arranged by Gambian doctors as part of a programme to take health services out to the periphery centres. The team of medics, all from the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (I think), spent the day at the centre seeing patients of all ages free of charge. As with many of the services here in The Gambia, there can be barriers preventing people from accessing the main hospitals in the Kombos, including money, time, gender and concern about being in Banjul away from family and support networks. As a result, the centre was packed full of people all wanting to get checked out.

A busy waiting room! 

Helen and I were both really impressed with the facilities and the organisation of the day. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to help medically but was keen to go along and observe, just to see how things are done – and it was a great opportunity to see Helen at work. She did really well, and working through a nurse interpreter managed to see well over 40 patients in four hours. I tried to assist by handing her water, gloves, forms, and taking pics every now and again, but other than that I just sat and watched! We had a range of ailments including ‘fresh cold’, headaches, rashes, fungal skin infections and abscesses, and even a little girl who had been bitten on the face by her friend while fighting!

Dr Helen at work

The queue for the pharmacy!

Last patients of the day

Our consultation room - after all the
patients had been seen

After all the patients had gone we ate benachin with the other doctors, listened to some speeches (naturally!) about how well the day had gone, and made our way back home feeling sweaty, hot and tired, but happy to have been part of the programme. 

Waiting for benachin