Harvesting our Maize

I’ve already talked about how we have had to chase the monkeys and the weaver birds away from our maize harvest, and although we did lose quite a lot of our crop to them, fortunately there was still plenty left over. Of course, everything has to be done by hand here, as we don’t have

The Journey of a Lifetime?

Although I am now back in the UK for a while, I still have a few posts to add to the blog, as I didn’t have time to write them up before coming back. So I will be adding them over the next few weeks. Every year, the Bakassouck Youths Association runs a congress, where

Easter celebrations

Easter in the Gambia is a much bigger celebration than in the UK, although it is a Muslim country. On Good Friday it’s traditional to make ‘nanimburo’, a special drink made from milk, sugar, condensed milk, baobab powder, dried fruit and chopped apples and bananas. Apples are a real delicacy here, as they have to

Bakassouck Youths Bee Project Update

You may remember that last time I was here I wrote about the bee project being organised by the Bakassouck Youths Association. I was really interested to find out how the project is going, so Numo agreed to take me to Darsilami for the day to show me the hives and the area where they

Flying solo.

As I’ve been in the Gambia for several months this time, I really felt it was time I learnt to do a few things independently, rather than relying on others to help. So I took my courage in my hands, and made a start. Firstly, I thought I would tackle the public transport, and take

An Alternative to the Throwaway Culture

About 25 years ago I read a book called ‘Future Shock’. The author argued that the pace of change was accelerating so much throughout the 20thCentury, compared with all the previous centuries, that we could not cope with it very well, and that this was made worse by what he called a ‘disposable society’. In

A Day in the Life

A day in the life…. I thought it may be helpful to try and give you an idea of a ‘typical’ day at Balaba, although in reality every day is different. However, there is a broad overall pattern, although timings can vary a bit, and unexpected people dropping in (which happens almost every day) can

A Visit to Bakassouck

A visit to Bakassouck 22 – 27 March 2012 For some time I have wanted to visit Bakassouck, the remote island in Casamance (southern Senegal), where Lamin, my husband, grew up. Lots of his family still live there, but the journey is long and difficult, so it hasn’t been possible to go until now. To

Back to The Gambia

1 March 2012 My flight to the Gambia took off at the relatively civilised hour of 10:00 am, meaning that I didn’t have to be at Gatwick until about 7:30 am. As I am usually used to bumbling about at 4:00 am and leaving for the airport in darkness, it was quite nice to leave