ALICE IN THE GAMBIA

Eighteen year old Alice Chaloner, left the UK on October 21st 2008 – destination
The Gambia, for 3 months!
Alice has become a member of Lamins family, living and working with them in their family compound in Sanyang along with helping to teach at The Gambia Reality Nursery School and being a representative for The Gambia Reality.
To help Alice to settle in to her new surroundings I accompanied her on the 21st, staying at Lamins compound for a week. This was also a new experience for me!
We arrived in The Gambia to be welcomed by RAIN falling from the heavens like stair rods – unbelievably warm rain! That was the first of my new experiences. I had never seen The Gambia during the rainy season. Total contrast to the hot and very dry climate that I was used to although just as appealing. Many areas were flooded and impossible to get to. Alice was in awe of her surroundings during the 40 min journey from the airport to Sanyang.
Upon our arrival at the compound Alice received a wonderful welcome from Lamins family who immediately made her feel at home. We were taken to Alice’s room which happened to be one of the temporary school classrooms. It had been freshly painted and furniture installed – very cosy! Poor Alice had to share the bed with me for a week as Lamin was not aware that I would be arriving with her. Thankfully he was pleasantly surprised rather than shocked!
Within a couple of hours it was as though Alice had been there for years.
Our first night was eventful as while lying in bed reading under the mosquito net, I saw a creature moving across the floor – a frog!!! It was a mad scramble to disengage ourselves from the mosey net and try to remove the frog from our room. Not knowing whether it was poisonous we were loath to handle it. It was not a good idea opening the door to try to get it to hop out of its own accord as we could have had another 100 hop in – due to the rain there were loads just outside the door. Our only option was for Alice to try to guide the poor thing my way where I was waiting in the vain hope that he would hop into the plastic bag that I had in hand. This took nearly 30 mins to achieve as the 3 classrooms have no interior doors and the frog had decided that he wanted to explore all 3 rooms which coupled with our laughter and screeches, delayed proceedings. He was eventually captured and safely returned to his comrades who were all queuing outside the door for their turn to explore the rooms!
We were awakened at 5.30 am by the call to prayer from the Mosque which is next door to Lamins compound. Each morning after we managed to sleep through it!
The next day was the start of the real Gambian life. We awoke to lots of children standing outside the main door waiting to enter the other 2 classrooms to start their school day unaware of the fact that 2 pairs of white legs were in residence – we were a cause of much excitement!
Alice very bravely attempted to teach the children in the 2nd class. Needless to say there was not much cooperation from the children. It was going to take a while for them to settle down.
As expected the toilet and washing facilities are very basic, literally back to grass roots! Although Alice has her own private open shower and no1 toilet area the no2 toilet is shared by everyone residing in the compound. To shower it’s a case of getting a drum of cold water from the standpipe and using a bucket as the actual shower. This all took some getting used to.
Alice and I decided that we would cook dinner one night – European style, omelette and chips. We thought that this would be much easier/quicker than cooking African style food. How wrong we were! It turned out that we ended up cooking for more than 20 people – Alice cooked the chips in a cauldron of oil over an open fire while I cooked the omelette in a tiny single frying pan (which I had to go to shop to buy) on charcoal in the dark. From start to finish it took more than 3 hours. Worth it though as it was enjoyed by all especially Lamins 92yr old Nan who told us that we had to repeat it all again the next day! That didn’t happen!!!!
That same evening I returned to our room upon reaching around the doorway in the dark to switch on the light I was confronted by screeching. Sitting on my pillow was a chicken who was extremely upset at the fact that I had disturbed her. I tried to remove her but she disappeared underneath the bed. Thinking back to the frog I decided to leave her to Lamin. Frogs one day, chickens the next day – what next I asked myself?
Alice soon fell into the routine of teaching until 2pm and helping with the daily chores as though she had been born to this lifestyle. After just a couple of days she was greeting people in Mandingo and had formed some close bonds with the local people. I have no doubt in my mind that Alice will have great difficulty wrenching herself away from them in 3 months time.
One afternoon while Alice was at a football match with Lamin I stayed at home with Mum and Binta (Lamins sister). I was approached by a little girl who had made a dolly out of 2 twigs and bits of cloth from the local tailor. I was asked to make one which I did, using an orange picked from the tree as a head with matches for eyes. Lots of twigs and more cloth taken from the tailor were thrown into my lap. This started a whole afternoon of making dollies for the local children. I couldn’t believe that something so simple could give so much pleasure to boys and girls whose ages ranged from 2-12yrs – no playstation here!!!
Although I have visited The Gambia many times being on site 24/7 was a whole new experience for me. Less than 6 hours flight away from the UK is a whole new world that seems, in my opinion, to be a much happier and healthier (spiritually) way of life.
This takes me to the day that will stick in my mind for the rest of my life:

THE DAY THAT BROUGHT IT ALL HOME TO ME

Thursday 23rd October 2008 is imprinted in my mind as the day when I fully understood why I started The Gambia Reality.
Lamin, Alice and myself were stood outside The Robert Kemp Memorial Nursery School in Brikama arranging a meeting date with Terema (head teacher). Stood by my side was 4 yr old Ousman Bah. Terema told me that Ousman was newly registered at the nursery and he lived with his disabled mother, blind father and 2 siblings in the little house opposite the school. Ousmans mother was outside the house and came to meet us. She had great difficulty in walking as her left hip seemed to be deformed in some way. Lamin translated while we spoke to her. It transpired that she had given birth to 9 children – 6 of whom had passed away, the eldest being 5yrs 4 months plus her first husband had also died.
She invited us all into her very humble home to meet her 2nd husband who had been blind from birth. He apparently spoke very good English.
Their home consisted of a fair size parlour (lounge) which was sparsely furnished with 2 double beds and 2 small rooms leading off of the parlour. Alice and I were invited to sit on one of the beds while we waited for the lady to bring her husband from one of the bedrooms. A man who appeared to be approx. 70yrs old was lead to the bed and sat next to Alice.
I tried with great difficulty to make conversation with him – I received no feedback!
Feeling very uncomfortable I asked Lamin to ask him his age. It transpired that he was only 52! He then went on to apologise for not being sociable – He was feeling very ill, unable to eat as each time he did, he was violently sick. He had been to the hospital, received medication but the medication had run out a long while ago. Due to the roads collapsing in the rain transport couldn’t get through to his house. Even if it could, he had no money to pay a taxi to take him back to hospital. His wife was unable to walk him the approx. 2 miles to the hospital because of her disabilities plus they would also have had to take the 3 young children. Without a doubt this poor man was dying!
It was too much for me to take, becoming very emotional I had to leave the house.
Lamin came out to find me in floods of tears. I told him that life was so unfair – this lady had suffered enough – not only was she disabled herself, she had lost 6 children, a husband and was on the verge of losing her 2nd husband all because they couldn’t afford to pay the 20p taxi fare! Lamins response was that this is their culture and that they accepted their lot in life, be it good or bad!
We had the car a couple of streets away. I asked Lamin to ask the man if he would be willing for us to guide him to the car so that we can take him to the hospital and that I would personally pay whatever it was going to cost for his treatment and medication. He agreed to come with us.
The hospital was an experience in itself – Queues of people who were sitting waiting to see a doctor (some for more than 2 hours). Our blind man suddenly felt very sick. Abraham, a friend whom we had picked up on the way, knew the blind man really well. He ushered him into the examination room to lie on the trolley. As luck would have it one of the 4 doctors also knew the blind man (sorry I never did get his name). He pushed him to the front of the queue. He was in advanced stages of malaria. Without the medication he would die very soon. Abraham was given a prescription to collect from the hospital pharmacy – another much longer queue. The doctor slipped in through the back door to collect the drugs for us. Total cost of treatment and medication was less than 13p. Less than 35p had saved this mans life.
Lamin and Alice visited the family last week. The man is alive and well. He said that he will never as long as he lives, forget the day that we dropped by his home.

I firmly believe in fate. I had deliberated for many weeks about accompanying Alice, putting many obstacles in my way which were all easily overcome. There was a reason for me going with her and I am convinced that the blind man is the reason. If we had not been there at that time he wouldn’t be alive now.
Although this was not directly connected to the charity, on a personal level it has made me realise that we can make a difference that will benefit others and ourselves with very little effort.
It was a rollercoaster week which really put my life into perspective - I personally feel very humbled by my week’s experiences.