Shelby's trip log, 2011

Click on any of the photos in this log to enlarge them. Click on the photo again to close it.

March 18, 2011

It is past 11am and I am taking the day off from the office to write at home. It is a half day due to Friday prayers and so the office will be closed early. I like uninterrupted time to write so I stayed home. When I go to the office, I have a lot to carry – video camera, digital camera, wireless box, backpack with cords, batteries and water, notepads and files. Someone at the office guessed I am carrying 50 kilos in the backpack. At home I can spread my papers out and relax.

Today I drafted a loan agreement between GambiaHELP and Essa Touray. This is a young man trained in welding but without a steady job, but he goes to a shop every day and receives small tips for what he is able to do. He did have a barber shop that had pretty brisk traffic; however, his electric clippers broke and so he was out of business. Therefore, we gave him a loan for a new pair of clippers. It is a no interest loan; he will make monthly payments and it will be repaid in one year. I am going to rely on Essa Camera, our Coordinator to monitor the payments.

I have also been revamping the Educational Fund Application Packet documents. It has taken a lot of time and several drafts. I have had to edit the documents numerous times to make sure I am covering everything. I am going to obtain a sample document from another organization to review so I can make sure I haven’t forgotten anything critical.

For several days, I worked on an internship application to the Innovations for Poverty Action group. I hope to be accepted for the internship position, so I can learn from some of the best thinkers in poverty reduction methodology. My main interest is the possibility of working with Dean Karlan, Professor of Economics at Yale University. His “research agenda focuses on using field experiments to learn what social policies work, what do not, and why. Most of his work is in developing countries and typically examines microfinance programs for the poor. Other research covers fundraising, voting, education and behavioral economics.” The application required an updated CV, a background and interest statement and a cover letter. Each took time to complete.

March 15, 2011

It was a full day at Banjulinding Primary school and a few days ago I spent a full day at Bonto Primary School. The real name of the Bonto School is Almadarasatu Abubacarr Sidic School and it is located in Kombo East in the West Coast Region. The Chairman of the School’s Management Committee is Seedy Kanji and the Secretary is Muhtarr Jammeh. It is a very old village yet is quite underdeveloped which causes me to ponder. I learned the official school name by reading the school stamp. Sometimes school personnel are reluctant to tell me that the primary school I am visiting is a Muslim School. This school is a Muslim-English School. We came to this school because the elders, Imam, and the school committee came to Essa after hearing about GambiaHELP’s efforts in other schools. (Essa had mentioned to me that many people saw the newspaper article last year.) The Akalo, Imam and elders went directly to Essa’s home in Banjulinding. Although they didn’t know Essa’s first name they were able to find him using the surname. Essa paid a visit to the school before I arrived in Gambia so he was able to focus on what was being requested and to answer the questions they had about GambiaHELP which was a great strategy that helped my visit be more productive.

We arrived at mid-day so the sun was getting hot. The room for the headmaster is a detached square office space with a metal door and the roof is covered with recycled corrugated material. Every time the breeze came through, the room shifts and bends. This office building will not last the rainy season. The school itself is newly built with 3 classrooms which hold several grade levels in each room. They are able to conduct classes of 2 to 3 grade levels in one room by having one group of children facing the back while the other set is sitting forward. Each end of the classroom has a blackboard so each grade has access to one. However, there are no desks - only small plastic chairs and a freshly painted blackboard. The only table in the room is very small (about the size of a TV tray table) and it is for the teacher.) I see no books, only two educational displays made from crayon and poster paper. We are told that since the bars over the windows do not have glass or netting, children can climb through by shimming through the bars when class is not in session and take the visual aids. One small boy was eager to show us how it happens and he was quick! There were only two small posters about the development of a plant seed remaining there at the time.

Click on any of the photos to enlarge them. Click on the photo again to close it.

Child shimming through the bars	Children in school	Shelby with children
Children in school	Children in school	Bonto school
Bonto school	Headmaster's office	Headmaster's desk

As we continued our tour, I noticed that there were two latrines, one for girls and one for boys. Only one was in working order – why not the other? And in viewing the septic tank, I could see a gaping hole that allowed me to see into the concrete square! They did say they have trouble with the latrines during the rainy season…

Before we arrived we had asked them to prepare a list of the orphaned and needy children in the school. GambiaHELP is focusing on these children in terms of providing educational funds. The list of the orphans and needy students we received consisted of nearly the entire student body of 84. Only 28 children were not on the list. We then spent time with the committee as they determined which students would be best served by the educational funds. They settled on eight (8) orphans – ¾ girls and ¼ boys. They also agreed to accept a lesser payment per student and enroll more students at the lower rate.

March 12, 2011

Today, I am at the close of week 4. I feel like everything is going into warp speed now. I have several good meetings scheduled this week:

• Sunday, I will meet with the Banjulinding Women’s Group who received donated yarn from Skacel’s last year. They are going to show me what they have made throughout the year with the yarn. I was pleased to hear that many people in the village were taking and making pre-orders for products and they now have some best-sellers. I plan to take the video camera with me.
• Monday, I will visit TANGO (The Association of Non-governmental Organizations) with Essa. Then, I go to Banjulinding Primary to obtain the lists of orphans and needy students.
• Tuesday, I will go to Bonto and review their development requests for assistance.
• Wednesday, En Shallah and I will have the pleasure of meeting Yami Secka-Jack who used to be a Peace Corps Associate Director of Health & Education. She is extremely bright and it always feels like no time has passed as we instantly reconnect even though we may have been apart for years.

When I was in Dakar riding home, we stopped alongside the road and purchased a bag of Baobab – a white chalky looking substance with vein-like filaments and seeds. The fruit is high in vitamin C and great to use in juice when combined with little packets of juice-like mixes. Isatou and I made the juice after I returned from my trip. We made it outside on the veranda. First step was to wash the chalky white fruit away from the seeds and separate out the filaments. She did this by washing all in a bucket with small amounts of water and then putting the mixture through a sieve. This took awhile taking several rinsings. The rest of the ingredients (we purchased small bags of shredded coconut, sugar, packets of lemon, mango and pineapple fruit drink packets, golden raisins and soft bananas) were added and mixed. Water was added as needed. The mixture is thick. INSERT BAOBAB PHOTOS. It is best when chilled. At a sitting, you may drink 1-2 glasses and then that’s enough. If you drink too much you may end up with a running stomach.

Well, all for now. I will have more to write after the women’s groups’ visits. So far we are engaged in projects with Njau Women’s Group, Banjulinding Women’s Group, Brikama’s Women’s Group, Bureng’s Women’s Group, Dankunku Women’s Groups. I have my most fun when visiting with the women and children!

March 8, 2011

It was a full day of work yesterday (INSERT GAMWORKS OFFICE) since determining we needed two duty waiver requests as well as two separate Memos of Understanding: 1) for Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and 2) for the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. We have never really needed an MOU before so I did not have experience writing one. Thankfully, the Deputy Permanent Secretary and Program Manager for Health provided examples for us to use.

Although we had samples, it still took me 8 hours to draft them and write a letter to the Permanent Secretary of Education (PS) requesting assistance for a driver, truck and petrol to get the items up-county. Then, before the documents could go into the bound Memo packet, I needed to revise my biography to include only health for the Ministry of Health and only education for the Education Ministry. While I understand their need for the separation, the dichotomy seems artificial to me, since the two areas of health and education are interrelated in so many ways. My training was interdisciplinary so this seems like such a divide when I use a holistic approach to everything. After many hours of work, the MOU, bio, mission statement were completed and ready for submission. All the documents were bound late last night with a beautifully colored GH logo and plastic cover.

The lights just went out again and I am working by the glow of the computer screen. I have been working for several days without electricity and it has been very hard. My eyes are not well adjusted and reading is difficult. I fatigue early. I can see why students have a very difficult time getting school work completed in front of candle light. I wish I had funds for some solar projects.

All for now – more tomorrow – my battery is now at 30% and decreasing.

March 7, 2011--Trip to Dakar
It is 3am on Monday and I’ve been awakened by barking dogs. The crickets remain chirping while the dogs are intense. There is also a mouse in the house (I swear it is the same one from last year) it makes the same sounds and seems to be eating the nightstand next to me!

Sunday, I arrived home after a trip to Dakar that began on Friday. I spent the weekend at a small hotel named Al Afifa and spent the days purchasing auction items for GH as well as writing and touring the grand monument (INSERT MONUENT PHOTO). Dakar can be a very expensive city and so I made choices wisely.

The drive to Dakar, Friday morning was longer than I remembered. It took us a total of 7 hours on the road to reach the city center.

The first challenge of the day was getting to the ferry at 6am to catch the first ferry crossing to Barra. Even though I left at 5:30am, we were the last car onto the ferry. The ferry is in disrepair, running on one engine; it took twice as long as usual to get across about 45 minutes. This is a ferry that carries anything, wrapped or unwrapped… chickens, cows, goats, bags of vegetables, oil, donkeys with carts, vehicles and men, boys, women, girls and babies. Although the cars enter onto the ferry in a line (jostling is quite common), the people enter running since they are all trying to get a spot to sit or stand for the trip. It is a mad house and I have to be careful. The cars do not have the wheels blocked so every swing off to the side caused the cars to sway this way and that. I didn’t stand between the cars but many people did.

Then, the car got a flat that night and so the driver stayed up late trying to fix it. The lug nuts were so tight they had to call in a mechanic at the last minute. It wasn’t easy finding a mechanic at midnight.

After arriving to Barra, we traveled to Dakar across salt flats, past Baobab farms (INSERT BAOBAB 3 TREE PHOTO)along a nicely paved roadway then to no roadway only a bush path (INSERT BUSH ROAD) and always trying to pass over-loaded trucks and cars.

I had my passport stamped at the border and we paid fees for the vehicle.

Once we were past the border I felt like I could relax. You really never know whether someone will want a tip to process your document. This time everything went smoothly and having Essa and Biran, the driver, along made a huge difference.

We finally got to Dakar and headed for the hotel. We found our rooms, took showers and ate. The rooms were small, clean and adequate. The television was broken and there wasn’t any shampoo, but this was not the end of the world. For dinner, we had grilled fish with the head still attached.

Saturday in Dakar, we woke up early to travel with Biran’s uncle – whom we called Uncle. He was born in Dakar and knows it like the back of his hand. Our day was full. We first stopped at Le Meridian, so I could see what the hotel looked like now. (SEE PHOTOS) This hotel is out of my price range (note: I pay for accommodations with personal funds); however, a long time ago on one of my first trips to Africa, I stayed there.

My goal today was to locate items that would sell at the GH auction in the US to raise money for projects in Gambia. I looked in the Le Meridian gift shop and selected items that I hoped to purchase at the outside markets because it would be much, much better pricing at the outside markets. We headed to 3 markets – each specializing in certain things. At the Big market, we purchased 12 small glass paintings with African themes, necklaces and African dolls. I also picked up some African key rings, which were leather maps of Africa with a cowry shell, for the children in grade 4 at the Bush School.

Later, I found an African dress I liked at the market. It was ready made and will be worn at the up-coming GH auction in Seattle, WA (October 2011—details TBA).

March 1, 2011
It was a very productive day today. I met with Adelle Sock who is the newly appointed Head of School at SBEC International High School. I knew her when she was the Vice Principal at St. Joseph’s Girl’s School. For many years, GambiaHELP would bring books to their small library, provide backpacks to needy students, and meet with the children as well as visit the school grounds and view their art.

This new school is quite remarkable. It has a pool, a volleyball court, a lab, and large- bright classrooms. Although still under construction, the first two of the three floors are ready for students. There is an exceptional faculty selected from all over the world. Adelle has intimated that this school is for the wealthy. The school fees are very high and the facilities are the top of the line.

Much was accomplished today. Here is a sample of the activities:

1. Prepared index for Dept of Education and Ministry of Health;
2. Assigned schools and determined beneficiary level (college, adult, primary, etc.);
3. Wrote a job description and made business cards for a GambiaHELP in-country Coordinator;
4. Developed speaking points for Morris at CEDAG;
5. Met with Adelle Sock at SECB High School and discussed past year and provided program updates;
6. Finished more Trip Logs and sent accompanying pictures; and
7. Prepared for Ousmon Camara meeting schedule for March 2, 2011.

February 28, 2011
Today it is Monday, so back to concentrated work and it is time to pack up and move to the office in Sukuta San Cheba.

This morning, I tried something new for breakfast. For the past few days, I have been seeing school children purchase a piece of bread and ask to have butter put on it then have chocolate added on top. I asked for just a little bit of chocolate sauce and was hoping the bread and chocolate would taste something like Nutella. Unfortunately, it tasted like chocolate and bread! Experiment, done; Assessment, bad; Evaluation, never again.

We worked on the duty waiver documents today. We are now ready to submit the application. Essa will deliver the documents to the Ministry of Education in Banjul tomorrow. Hopefully, the charges will not be prohibitively high. Tomorrow I will know.

The trip itinerary is nearly complete – I call it a flex schedule because oftentimes dates/events are rearranged so that meetings with people can occur. Travel is difficult and costly in The Gambia so I try arrange meetings carefully.

Late this afternoon and I was dragging. The electricity had been out and the heat was stifling. I went to GamPrinting and the electricity was out there too. As, I sat there sitting and the sweat was pouring off me. Thank goodness I had 2 liters of bottled water with me.

Below is summary of activities over the weekend:

• On Sunday, I went to Essa Camara’s family compound and met his father, mother, sister and brothers. His sister, Fatou who is 23-years old, prepared a special meal for us. It was a chew with chicken and beef! We had fruit nectar to drink. This was a very expensive meal and very delicious lunch. We ate outside on a table around a family bowl with spoons. I ate with Essa, Fatou, and Binta (his Mother). The males ate together at the other end of the verandah. However, Essa made an exception and joined us.
• I worked while at Essa’s family compound. I drafted new business cards for Essa and myself. I have a new phone number this year (220) 381-4733. An old phone that I had two years ago has been put back into service and works great.
• Also, Neneh, a woman from the women’s group of Banjulinding came by the house and brought samples of the products they made with the Skacel yarn (INSERT PHOTO). The articles are beautiful and should be easy to sell. She reported that prior to Tobaski, which is a big holiday, many women came to them and pre-ordered chair-back covers for the big day. I plan to purchase items from them for GambiaHELP to show during presentations and sell at fundraising events.
• On Saturday, two days ago, I went with Essa and Fatou to a Malian trading event. We found batik fabrics, jewelry and traditional herbs. I purchased four 4 meter packets of cloth and 4 necklaces with metals.

Well, all for now – back to draft the itinerary.

February 21, 2011
It is 7:10am - I actually woke up to morning prayers at 6am and roosters crowing in the background. I can now hear people waking up in the compound and the water tap being turned on and buckets being filled with water for bathing which is the first task of the day then on to breakfast and getting children ready for school. I like the routines here – they take on a slower pace and are fundamental. No one is busily chatting on their smart phones; instead they are getting ready to go to market to purchase food for the day’s meals. I will be giving Isatou Jeng, my “daughter” here funds to purchase meat/chicken, tomato, potato, cabbage and spices (like Jimbo) to make a white benechine. The dish isn’t red like the other benechine – it is literally white in color. There is no tomato paste put in the dish. It is delicious.

There is much to accomplish today. I will be determining which schools will receive school supplies and books, preparing a packet for the Duty Waiver process, and contacting others in The Gambia to let them know I am here. I have already contacted Morris Aniyam, with the CEDAG Organization. GH supports the orphanage run by CEDAG, by providing blankets, sheets, baby clothes, bicycles, and strollers, as well as books for their nursery/pre-school. We will be looking at a potential partnership to either fund support staff like an orphanage workers or fund professional development for teachers.

There’s a book shop called Timbooktu. I went there shortly after my arrival and purchased books on Mandinka and Wollof proverbs. It is important to note that Mandinka and Wollof languages are mostly oral languages. Much has yet to be written down. I have enjoyed reading these proverbs and hope to incorporate them into my daily conversation when appropriate and in my writing. Proverbs provide insight into the culture and bring to the surface important values of the societies. For example, the literal interpretation: Shrubs or plants may be of the same height but the firmness of the roots belongs to the matured plant. Interpretation: look to elders for foundation because they have more experience than youth. Mandinka Written: “Fitoo lu ka nyo sii kungo la le, bari juu fasa bambango wo mu keebaa le taa ti.”

From Mandinka Proverbs From The Gambia by the Research and Documentation Division National Council for the Arts and Culture , National Museum Premises, Banjul, The Gambia, Dec 2004. Funded by the West African Museum Programme (WAMP) Dakar, Senegal.

February 20, 2011
I arrived home at 4:30pm after spending the day with Essa Camara, GH Logistics Coordinator. We have our meetings on the weekend since he has another job during the week at the Publishing and Printing office. I had Chew for dinner which is a mixture of onions, tomato, potato, beef and cabbage over rice.

Around 6pm, I will meet with Wandifah to discuss the activities going on in Dankunku (DKK). He is from that village and as such has members who will send information our way. I plan to go to DKK after Fatou’s 40-days of mourning. Fatou even preferred that, so we could talk business upon my arrival. We have much to discuss about the milling machine project since I was told that she bought a milling machine and then “loaned” it to the Wollofs for use. It will be important to reaffirm that this isn’t a GambiaHELP project in which the process requires that project proposals go through me and then on to the Board for approval and, if accepted, for funding. We need to make sure that the lines of communication are open and that the processes are understood otherwise villagers may take project property and develop an income generating business for themselves rather than include specific benefits to the women’s group or local community. I intend to make every effort to prevent this from happening here because I know this has happened with other NGOs.

During my visit to DKK we plan to have a formal handing-over of the Skills Center with the Akalo, Imam and community. The Skills Center belongs to the women’s group and community. The motto at the top of the building will be “Honesty is Integrity.” This is a message that I wanted the villagers to see every time they go into the building. Wandifah asked me how the villagers will know what this means and I suggested we have an open discussion about these issues. I plan to talk with the Government Office of Community Development about this. I hope to have my video working by the time I get to Dankunkua so I can make a movie about the opening of the Skills Center for Noreen Stollberg, who is the donor that enabled us to build the building.

February 18, 2011
INDEPENDENCE DAY
It is The Gambia’s 4th of July today. Schools and government offices are closed. There will be a big celebration at the stadium with children marching in class formation, bands playing and speeches from government key spokespeople. I will not be attending because the crowds can be unpredictable at these events hence unsafe. So, I intend to spend the day writing and reading and maybe watch some local television. Electricity is more available in the urban areas than rural. Also, many people who can afford televisions have one but by no means does everyone have a television. Most people just barely make enough to put food on the table.

It is 10:40am and I have just arrived at a small hotel called Safari Gardens. I plan to spend the weekend here and come back next weekend as well. The hotel is inexpensive and I pay for the room with personal funds so all GH money is used for projects. This is where I usually go for a couple of weekends so I can focus on my writing and complete project assessments since my office in San Cheba can be brimming with life with so many families and young children living at the compound, it can be difficult to concentrate and get things done. While the setting at the hotel is subdued and garden-like with large bamboo trees and lots of tropical plants. Unfortunately, the evenings can be very crowded with mosquitoes but I am usually prepared with DEET. I learned that the hotel has not had many guests and it may close for good next month. Once it closes, I will have to find a comparable place.

Lastly, I will finish the itinerary today and talk to Ousmon Camara about the project at the Koranic School in which the students would like some English books. The good news is that GH will be able to provide them once the container arrives.

February 17, 2011
I woke up startled last night…Isatou came into the office, after I had gone to sleep and the noise she made woke me up very suddenly. I was so tired and confused that I thought maybe it was the next day; however, it was only 10:30pm.

It is now 9am and I am packed and ready to go to the Government Printing and Publishing office to work. My laptop, writing materials, notepads and applications are all ready to go. The CFC Application will be finished and donor letters will be sent. I plan to review the feasibility of raising funds for GH through an auction again this year. Last year, we raised fewer funds than usual making this trip especially difficult. I know there are some hard choices ahead.

The Jallow family is having a wedding ceremony next Thursday in the village of Brikama. I will stay the night Wednesday to help them prepare for the feast and the hundreds of guests. My main job will be to assist with making “snack” packages of juice, a sweet cake and napkins for the adults and children. Jaliba Kuyate, the Gambian Goodwill Ambassador, is scheduled to play kora and sing. He tells stories through music and praises you by name through song. I know Jaliba from several of GH handing over ceremonies and I recently heard him play in Seattle for the Seattle-Gambia Association. It will be fun to greet him on Friday. Just the fact that he will be there will bring many, many uninvited guests. The demand for food will be high. This is a huge expense for the family especially since the food prices are sky rocketing. Interestingly, the clothing and fabric are less expensive now and it used to be just the opposite with food less expensive.

Essa Camara, GH Logistics Coordinator, and I will plan our rural trip to Dankunku. We will be paying respects to the loss of Fatou Fatty’s husband Sidibeh as well as discussing with Fatou the new milling machine project that was recently started. We plan to travel alone with the driver Lamin, to make the trip quicker and less expensive. It takes 6 hours to get there by the south bank road (South bank of the Gambia River).

Last night a baby kitten came into the office – I took it as a sign that she was there to comfort me during my loss of my 15-year old cat, Rohmer. She died just a day before I traveled to The Gambia (insert photo). Most Gambians believe cats are in the vermin category and should be kept out of habitable space. So, they are stunned to see me friendly with the kitten.

Essa Camara, GambiaHELP logistics coordinator

February 16, 2011
It is 3am and I have been up for 2 hours. I woke up to chanting over the loudspeaker. The chanting has continued for at least 2 hours. Since I am up at this very early hour, I decided to call my parents, my husband—Gerry, and daughter--Cristina.

I just totaled the amount paid out thus far and it is close to $ 8,000.00. Payments have gone toward bags of rice and onions, electricity, calling cards, and food preparation. However, I must conserve so I am able to stay here as long as planned.

Today Essa and I plan to go to Bijulo Forest Park. Many call it the Monkey Park because there are so many monkeys walking around freely. It is a good place for walking exercise and fun. I’ll bring the camera so if I get lucky and see a Red Colobus monkey, I can take a picture. When my daughter was in the third grade, she wrote a report on this monkey. We have been fascinated with them ever since.

I also intend to find a place with Internet access. I need to catch up on my e-mails as well as complete the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) application so GambiaHELP (GH) has an opportunity to receive charity funds for 2011 from Federal, State and County employees through payroll deductions. Being an approved organization, also allows GH to make presentations about us to the various state and federal offices. GH has been apart of the CFC for a few years.

Bijulo Forest Park	Bijulo Forest Park

February 12, 2011
It has been a long two days. I woke up at 5:00am and left Seattle at 7:00am 2/11/11. I am still in the air on 2/12/11. I just left Brussels heading toward Banjul – a 6 hour flight. Interestingly, the plane is not full. The seat beside me is unoccupied so I am free to put my computer, wool vest and shoulder bag there. Ah, there is luxury in economy class.

During the flight, I began drafting an itinerary and budget for the trip.

• Getting container off port to storage container on ground in Kanifing (petrol, driver and truck rental)
• Customs processing fees
• Pay workers to off-load the shipping container contents and load them into container storage
• Rent for office
• Education Fees for 8 Sitahuma Primary students
• Education Fees for 5 primary students at Dankunku Primary School
• Funding orphan referred by Wandifah

I know there is much to accomplish during my stay. I am excited to get there and get started.

Lamin and Njie packing the container	Njie and Darobe packing books from storage at office to warehouse	Global Transportation Crew - The Best! From left to right: John Miklosh, David Phipps, Andre Butler, Mace Royer, David Nasatka and John Ingram
GambiaHELP Seattle office