Happy New Year! I'm back in the office at Mansa Konko with quite a bit of work on my hands. I'm slowly getting through the British High Commission PCs (N be a kan doman doman!) - adding the spare parts when I can get my hands on them (thanks Pakalinding). So far two machines are fully up and running - one with our PEO and the second has just been shipped to Kerewan for use within VSOs disability programme. Lamin was so keen to get his hands on the computer that he made his own way to our office with a rucksack!
I spent Christmas Day at a favourite destination of mine - Coco Ocean. The weather was amazing as we went off for a good beach walk - low 30s with a pleasant sea breeze. As I walked along the beach I was reminded of my trip to Barbados last January. The Gambia is at the same latitude - just 3,000 miles of Atlantic ocean separating the two. Very different countries but with surprisingly quite a bit in common. I'll be reading "Roots" soon which follows the story of Kunta Kinte from Juffure (not far from Kerewan) who was taken into slavery in the 1760s.
Coco Ocean pool-side restaurant.
The plan for the rest of the day was to play board games by the pool and then splash out on a fancy meal. The food was very good - I decided not to go for the 1,800 Dalasi Turkey special though. I couldn't really get my head around it being Christmas Day although I did have a Mr Kipling mince pie!
Christmas Day evening meal - thanks to Berni for the photo (I'm on the left).
After all this excess it was good to get back to Soma in the comfort of our own pickup truck - this didn't stop us getting a puncture in Bwiam though. The jack was located under the back seat, so to the surprise of quite a few kids I had to unload all the computers, monitors etc. outside their house. I think they thought it was Christmas again. Life on my compound is very quite at the moment - I'm the only VSO at the moment. The other trainee nurses are all out on in-county training for the next few weeks. Lucy will be back tomorrow so things are looking up. We also get a new VSO in February - hello Eleanor!
We had a momentous occasion yesterday - as mentioned in previous posts I've also been looking after the computers at Pakalinding Upper Basic school. During my first series of visits we managed to clock-up over 20,000 virus infections! All 20+ machines passed this month's scan without a single virus being found! (OK it's a big deal for me). Not sure if it's a coincidence but the BBC had an interesting story today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12126880
I've also booked my flight home for a mid-placement break. I'll be back in Blighty (or should that be Brummy) in February - fully braced for the Arctic conditions!
Christmas Day sunset.
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