Newsletter editor – Nigel sends news from his volunteer placement in The Gambia

I couldn`t work at the GIG farm today because the materials have yet to arrive which is I believe because of a cash flow problem, so I went souvenir shopping at Brikama and then on to Serrekunda for a bank machine.

Being driven through the awful traffic in Serrakunda in the middle of the day in horrendous heat and humidity has to be experienced to truly know the meaning of hell.
Then it was back to Sandele for lunch and then off to Geri`s new place to help sort out the contents of a container stored there with some of Geri`s and Maurice’s possessions when they moved in.

Although not strictly part of my volunteer work I hate to be idle and Geri and Maurice are such wonderful hosts and are so passionate about the local people I just wanted to help them in any way I could.

We had emptied a lot of stuff out of the container and were sorting through it when Geri said beware of their pet giant tortoise that was near my feet as he needed a mate and would probably try to hump me! Well that`s a sentence I never thought I would write!

It has finally started to rain but it’s quite gentle at the moment so definitely not African rain, there was an almighty thunderstorm the other evening which helped clear the air so we need another, but not tomorrow when I am working!