Training of Trainers take two

On Sunday Abdoulie, Johnson, Aloysius and I - driven by Ba Sarjo - left the cool Kombos for sultry Soma. There we met Godfrey, Eliazer, Jane and Mwelu and, as a team, settled in to train 22 extension workers on groundnut production, farmer field school techniques, and monitoring and evaluation. 

The centre was really quite nice - a lot more comfortable than our last Training of Trainers venue. I shared a little house with Jane, with a private bathroom and efficient shower - a luxury compared to last year's shared toilet and bucket bath system. 

My room

Our little house

We were much better prepared this time round; we had met before hand and agreed who would train on what, and prepared the timetable as a group, which reduced some of the stress and anxiety that had been displayed by some of the volunteers at the previous training session. Each presenter developed a powerpoint presentation ahead of the training and delivered their modules with confidence. 

The conference room

On the first morning (Monday) I was asked to chair the opening ceremony, and I held a session in the afternoon to collect some information for baselines and indicators. I was then free until Wednesday but spent the time helping to coordinate trainers and participants, slipping outside occasionally for a delicious mango! They were so plentiful and delicious it was hard to stick to the one a day rule! 

Chairing the opening ceremony

It was so hot in Soma compared to the still cool Kombos, so we started early and scheduled the afternoon sessions to finish shortly after lunch. This meant the evenings were our own to wander around or lie down and escape the heat in whatever way we could. On Wednesday it was 44 degrees, and night time temperatures remained high - usually 36 degrees until at least 10pm and not dropping that much lower through the night. Electricity was only available (apart from in the training room) between 8pm and 1am so sleeping at night after 1am without a fan was challenging! Thankfully the place was mosquito free so I was able to sleep without a bed net and feel the slight breeze coming through the window.

An evening walk to the river

The place was surrounded by goats (including two very new ones that were born while we were there) sheep, cows, and lots and lots of children. I was mobbed on several occasions for pictures, and everywhere I went heard shouts of 'Toubab Toubab'. Being the only white woman in the whole training camp and village I was fairly easy to spot and rarely able to hide from the children's attention! 

New kids...

Crazy kids!

So, now that the Training of Trainers has been completed, our team of extension workers and lead farmers will head out to hold farmer field schools on improved groundnut techniques. Hopefully this will improve the quality and quantity of groundnuts grown in The Gambia, and raise income levels for some of the poorest farmers. 

Tree house fun

Nicola's brother James is here for a three week holiday, so we used the opportunity to have a little break in Kartong. Even though we only went overnight it was so nice to get out of Kombos that it felt like a week away! 

We were thinking of getting public transport, but with quite a few changes it would be a long journey and the costs would add up to as much as hiring a friend to drive us there. So Nicola, James, Lamin, Abdou and I piled into Bobby's car and set off on Friday lunchtime. 

Of course, an African journey just isn't authentic without a blow out so we didn't get there quite as soon as we expected. 

The result of someone leaving some twisted
metal at the side of the road.

Thankfully, if a tyre is going to burst anywhere, pulling out of a garage is a pretty good place for it to happen! 

A lucky location for a car problem!

Mechanics rushed over to help, and the car was soon wedged with bricks and rocks while the faulty tyre came off. 

Abdou and a handy mechanic

Bobby had a spare but it was looking a bit flat, so he and Abdou flagged down a taxi to have it pumped somewhere else, while Nic, James and I chatted to some children as they climbed trees to collect mangoes. The whole thing started taking a while, so after some negotiations we bundled into a van to go the last leg of the journey - reaching Kartong in about ten minutes. We were so close, yet so far! 

Once at Boboi Beach Lodge we found our tree houses, which was very exciting, and then bundled down to the beach for some swimming and sunbathing. 

My room for the night

Nic and Abdou

James and Lamin, long lost brothers

Once it cooled down a bit, Nicola and I went for a run (Couch to 5k week 4, run 3/3) and ran almost to Gunjur, roughly around where we had the flat tyre.

A great spot for a run!

In the evening we relaxed in the bar area, chatting while James learned Wolof at an impressive rate, and had a fairly early night. The tree houses were great, like camping out in the open, lulled by the sound of the sea. At 4am it started to get a bit windy and I discovered that my house swayed in the wind which was a bit disconcerting but all part of the adventure! I was a bit worried as I have been sleep walking lately, but thankfully I stayed put!

After a breakfast of tea, coffee, bread, jam, and grapefruit and papaya Nicola and I felt inspired to do another run in the opposite direction - towards Casamance (Senegal). So this was C25k week 4 run 3/3+1! Unlike the previous day, the sand was a lot softer, the sun a lot hotter, and the run was hard work... but it felt like a good achievement. We had a nice reward of jumping in the sea when it was over. 

A picturesque breakfast

Jane and Esme came down so we spent the afternoon relaxing with them, chatting with Jane and playing in the sea with Esme which was a lot of fun, and headed home with a lot less fuss than the journey there! 

Overdue catch up

It feels like a lot of time has passed since my last blog, so I thought I'd do a general catch up post.

Work

Work has been busy and quiet, stop start, fast and slow, but about to build into a busy period. Next week we are running another group training session on Farmer Field School techniques, groundnut growing techniques, and monitoring and evaluation at field level. That'll be my bit, so I'm preparing this week and trying to work out what to focus my session on.

Leavers workshop
At the beginning of May we had our leavers workshop, signifying the beginning of the end of my VSO volunteer experience at this time. The workshop was to prepare us for our return home or onward journey. We watched a video which made me laugh - filmed somewhere around 2002 it seemed amazingly dated. One of the tips was to save your work to a computer disk so that you could print examples to show employers when you got home. It reminded me of saving my dissertation onto a floppy disk! The past volunteers also talked of how difficult it was to reintegrate back into their old lives, after not seeing or speaking to friends and family for so long. Powered by Skype and email and Facebook I think I speak more to my friends and family now than I did when I lived a busy life in London! But, despite the dated references triggering memories of life before file sharing, cloud storage and social media, the video was a timely reminder that the next four months will flash past, and I really need to sort out my next move.

Food
I can't blog without mentioning food! The season has been good and I'm enjoying some of the vegetables that I missed so much at the end of the rainy season. Red peppers have been a particular treat over the last few weeks. I managed to get my hands on some more beetroot and made a nice beetroot soup with flat breads the other week. And mango season is coming, slowly but surely. I've had two so far but I'm hoping to buy some in bulk when I go up country next week. I also finally opened a box of chocolates this week that Alex sent to me at Christmas. Keeping them for this long took a lot of willpower, and you can see the look of happiness on my face to open them! I have also had some special celebratory meals in the last month too, the champagne that I had saved since August was divine! Thanks Lucy and Rob!

Exercise
Nicola and I have been trying to get back into regular exercise for months. Time after work, darkness and heat have been the typical deterrents but lately we've really gotten our act together! Starting from a pretty low position we decided to do the couch to 5k challenge to get us back into it with a bit of structure. We're now half way through week 4 and really enjoying it. Regular exercise (more than just walking and cycling to work and back) really improves my mood. We even tackled the challenge of running on sand to have a beach training session last week.

Easter

Easter was a nice weekend. Nicola, Abdou and I met her boss for a lovely benachin and drinks, and the rest of the weekend was very relaxing. A nice long break after working so hard on the Annual Country Report.

Tailoring

And finally, as mentioned a few posts back, my wardrobe was looking rather washed out, faded and bleached so I picked up some material from Serrakunda market. The result was three new dresses, and I was really pleased with the results!