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!)