Tobaski Fever Hotting Up

Everyone is getting ready for the celebration of Tobaski, the Festival of Sacrifice (otherwise known as Eid al-Adha). It promises to be a big celebration, with all Gambians (both Muslim and non-Muslim) going back to their family homes to celebrate. Tobaski is due to fall on the 6^th of November , so everyone is in preparation mode, buying new clothes and amassing lots of tasty food (most families will try to buy a live ram to slaughter and eat on the day). It’s an expensive affair, and so can be a real struggle for people. This is particularly true for the head of the family, who may lose face if he doesn’t have enough money to provide the necessary goods. Thus, promotional offers like the one in the photo above are very popular. I’ve never seen live animals offered as prizes by mobile phone companies before!

Diwali in The Gambia  – Last Wednesday was Diwali. As one of my fellow volunteers, Soumita, is from India it was the perfect excuse to do a party!  Soumita decorated her house with lots of candles, doing her best to do justice to the Festival of Light. We had some nice food and I was treated to a bit more of an explanation as to what Diwali is all about (in particular, the fascinating story of Rama and Sita). I guess this evening illustrates an interesting side to life out here. Many of the foreigners here do their best to support each other, knowing that most are in the same boat of being a stranger in a foreign land, someone who is far away from home. It also shows the randomness of how things can be – a British person celebrating a Hindu festival in Africa! Anyway, it was a lovely evening and I was honoured to be part of it.

Off to the countryside – yes, finally I’m escaping the city and will be going off to rural Gambia for a few days. Horaay! I’ve been asked to do some work on creating a promotional film for a rural disability organisation, based in Basse (to the very east of the country). I’ll be covering the support the organisation offers and the lives of some of the disabled people there, should be fascinating.  Anyway, I depart on Sunday and a six hour car drive awaits. I’m really looking forward to seeing more of the countryside and experiencing a bit of rural life. Expect some photos next week... 

Lots of love and a big hug from an excited volunteer! I hope all is well with you, take care,

Robert

Dinner by Candlelight anyone?

The last week has been punctuated by many power cuts. Every single one of the last seven evenings I’ve been treated to a clear view of the stars, as all the artificial, electric lights in the neighbourhood have been off. It’s quite surreal to have complete darkness in the middle of a city. I took a walk around my local streets and could see little candle lights through people’s windows, it's really quite beautiful. My own home is awash with candles at the moment, I’m trying my best to create a nice atmosphere in the evenings. It all feels quite romantic - that is until I spot the lizard that’s sat next to me...

Power cuts are a common feature out here in the Gambia, and a good way of seeing the poverty divide. Anyone who can afford it buys a back-up electricity generator that runs on petrol, so for them the impact of power cuts is minimal – one just takes a short walk to the generator, flicks a switch and normal service resumes. For the rest of us plebs (myself and 95% of the population) we are faced with regular power cuts at work and at home. I quite enjoy evenings by candlelight, but I’m sure the locals would prefer something a little bit more reliable...

My work - So, what exactly am I supposed to be doing here? Well, my job is to help the Ministry of Education with a project that uses national (Gambian) volunteers to fill gaps in secondary schools. The Ministry recruits newly trained graduates and places them in rural schools for an academic year. Rural schools are in particular need of help as they are understaffed. Going to a rural location often entails a drop in living standards (some locations still don’t have electricity or running water) and the distance from friends and family can be tough, thus it is not a popular choice for teachers. Having said that, the Ministry allocates all teachers to schools every three years, so teachers often have no choice where they go! In theory this may sound like a good solution to addressing the teaching gap in the countryside. In reality, however, as soon as teachers find out they are going to a rural school many of them quit their job!

So if going to the countryside is such a tough option why are these young volunteers interested? Well, many of them seem keen to give something back to the nation. Some feel that they are the privileged few, those who managed to get to university. Thus they are keen to give one year of their lives back to The Gambia in order to help other young people get access the same levels of education. Two of the volunteers have separately quoted John F. Kennedy's words “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” back to me. Other volunteers are keen to see what life is like in the countryside, having spent their whole lives growing up in the more developed Kombos.

The idea of the project is very good, and the work we’re doing should prove useful as other organisations and government departments gradually start to use national volunteerism in their work. However, it is clear that this work will be difficult for me! Things move frustratingly slowly here... Fingers crossed I’ll be able to overcome this, and the other challenges that may present themselves, so as to make a difference. Wish me luck!

Local music – whilst not necessarily my “cup of tea”, Gambians seem to be very much into reggae, hip hop and Senegalese music. This is the soundtrack to my minibus journeys around the city; every taxi driver seems to let the day pass him by with large doses of reggae beats. One day at work I decided to check exactly how popular Western music was, and asked how many people knew The Beatles. Nobody. Elvis Presley? Nope. It never ceases to astound me how in some part of the world The Beatles are so ingrained into musical culture (e.g. in Mongolia they were massive – Ulaanbaatar has a monument dedicated to them), whereas in other they are completely unknown. Bizarrely enough, my office all seemed to know the obscure 90s pop sensation Whigfield though...

A big hug and lots of love from The Gambia, take care of yourself,

Robert