The Gambia
VSO in The Gambia: Disability programme
Volunteer story: Alvean Jones
Hello there from West Africa! I think the only way to understand the Gambia is to be here and experience the country for yourself. If media reports were to be believed, you'd think the entire African continent was war-torn and full of starving people who had nothing. Africa is such a big continent that it couldn't be true for everywhere. Something like 1970s media reports about Northern Ireland. Entirely skewed. So here is my account, which will, hopefully, give you a more accurate picture.
Where I'm currently living it's a mini-Africa! My landlady is Gambian, the watchman is Malian, my maid is Senegalese, and the owner of one of the corner shops is Mauritanian. The other Europeans in the neighbourhood are the couple who live in the house next door, who are Scottish.
The house I'm living in is in a compound, with lots of fruit trees: mango, grapefruit, tangerine, and a kind of berry I have yet to identify. So I don't have to buy these when I can pick them fresh right outside my front door. The compound is in a place called Fajara. I suppose it could be the Gambian equivalent of places like Ballsbridge or Foxrock. One of my neighbours is the Indian Ambassador to the Gambia.
The streets are not "decorated", shall we say, with pavements or street lighting. (There are pavements in Banjul, the capital, but the blind would be stumbling.) There is sand everywhere. I was told that in the rainy season, with torrential downpours every single evening/night, especially in August… well, you can imagine for yourself.
On Saturday 16th April 2005, the bed shook me awake early because I wanted to help with the food for the Deaf club. The Deaf Club here in the Gambia is an event held at the female wing of GADHOH (Gambian Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) once every two months. Food is provided to those who pay 50 dalasis. (€1 = D36) It takes a long time to prepare an African dish.
While all the girls and women were busily preparing the food, the only man there stood around watching us. I asked him if he was bored doing nothing, and if he wanted to help. He said he helped "plenty", by getting himself to the market, braving the melee to bring over chicken. A really tough job he said. In West Africa, men just do not help with food, and it's women who get the live chickens from the market, pluck, kill then cook them. Not sure of the order, but you know what I mean.
People started coming. Out came the box of games. The last time the Deaf club took place, African drums were also brought out, but not this time so no African drums n'dance! The games included Connect 4, the Gambian version of draughts, and Twister. I can't see grown men in Europe playing Ludo, but people enjoyed themselves here.
The majority of Deaf people in the Gambia never received formal education, so GADHOH provides sign language and literacy/numeracy classes. The teachers are given to labelling the students "illiterates" and "literates". Some of those labelled "illiterates" are not really illiterate as they are able to read and write Arabic, but never received formal education and need this to learn how to read and write English.