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Published: September 4th 2011
So where to start. It feels like an age since I set off. Thursday started after no sleep whatsoever. The nerves had definitely kicked in. I spent most of the day telling myself 'I'm fine, I'm fine, this is definitely the right thing to do and I will have an amazing time', when really I was think 'holy crap, what the hell am I doing, this is surely not the right thing to be doing!'. I flew from Newcastle to Brussels and at Brussels I met my fellow VSO volunteers for the first time. Boy was I glad to see them. Traveling felt a whole lot more comfortable with a group of people that knew as little as I did.
On the flight I got my first taste of Gambian friendliness. About an hour from landing a little boy of about 3 or 4 years came and stood next to me apparently fascinated by my earplugs. Within 20 minutes he was sat on my knee quietly stroking my earlobes as I carried on reading my book. His mum didn't bat and eyelid, just smiled and said he liked ears. Jo Hiscock I thought of you. I'm sure you would have loved it!
After all the nerves of the journey landing felt amazing. Looking out of the window, it sounds ridiculous, but it all looked exactly like Africa does on the TV. All flat and dusty with all the palm trees and the dilapidated buildings. I was practically giddy getting of the plane as the heat smacked you in the face. I felt like I was on the biggest dare ever.
We were picked up at the airport by lovely VSO staff and taken off to our surprisingly and relatively luxurious hotel; The Safari Gardens. It even has a pool! I meant to take some photos today to put up but forgot. I think I'm settling into the Gambian slow pace too well!
So we're a group of 11 volunteers all going to be working in various parts of the country in education and disability. Over the next 2 weeks we're going to be given training in the language and roles that we'll be doing. We're all expecting it to be hard work but, I'm sorry to say to you all, it's been like a holiday so far.
Friday was a morning of meeting all the VSO staff and filling in lots of forms followed by lazing around the pool, Saturday we were shown around the Kombos (the coastal area of The Gambia, an area not much bigger than Durham with far less in it) by some of the current volunteers who've been here a while. This was followed by a beach front welcome party at one of the posh hotels on the beach - very nice indeed. Today has been a rest day, like we need it!
I actually went to church this morning, being the good catholic girl that I am! It was an experience, worth it just to see the choir. They could give Sister Act a run for their money. It was all the hymns from home with an upbeat organ accompaniment and an African drum beat twist. It was well good!
I think it might all start getting more like hard work from tomorrow when our language course starts but so far I'm having a great time!
It's hard to fit in all the things I've seen so far and explain how different things are here. I'm just starting to work it out myself. I'm definitely loving it so far. The other volunteers are all great and all the locals are so so friendly, it feels amazingly safe here. People live with very little but you can find familiar things from home. At the minute I'm sitting in what I've been told is a volunteers favorite cafe - it has internet, air conditioning and ice cream! Having said that the fridge as just set on fire - but still it's lovely!
Anyway, I'm going to sign off because I was going to try to keep these entries short. I'll let you know how the training goes and whether I've actually done any hard work by the next time.
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Peter
non-member comment
Go Lenny!
Glad to hear it's all going well so far Indiana Lenny! Any sightings of corned beef yet?