Spearsy

Back bloging again

2009-03-22T15:11:00.002Z

I know, I know its been a while. Works been so busy lately that the spare time I do have I want to do anything but typing so ive been off the blog for a while. However ive finally got a free ish weekend so it about time I gave an update. So what been happening over the last few months,

Well ive been in South Africa again, this time for a two week conference in Joburg. It was a nice mini break and the chance to go somewhere different for a little while. Most of the time was spent cooped up in large town like hotels, but I was able to get out a little and try and have some adventure. Most of it seemed to centre around airports. One of my team travelling with me only had a temporary travel document which didn’t pass muster with the South African airport authorities who detained him for 5 hours. After some negotiation over the phone and another tip to the airport they eventually released him.

My biggest treat in South Africa was the shopping. Both places where we stayed were near huge shopping malls so it was a great opportunity to stock up on books, DVDs and other stuff you cant get in Senegal. Being South Africa they also had some English foods…..English mustard, tea, and peanut butter along with chilli bovril .....yes chilli Bovril..... were also snapped up.

I did get at least one half day in Joburg to do a little tourism. A group of us spent the morning in Soweto. Ive been once before, but it’s a very impressionable place so I was pleased to get back and soak up some of the atmosphere. We took a tour passed Nelson Mandela’s former home, Desmond Tutu’s current house and some of the other key landmarks of Sewoto. Last stop was the Hector Museum on the spot where actions against apartheid reached their peak.

meanwhile back in Senegal…….

So what been happening here. Well over the last couple of month with had a cold snap…..ish. It got down to at least 12oc and for the first time in 2 years I actually had to put on a jumper ! Unfortunately the heats now back and rarely below 25/30.

Other exiting events have included finding my local football hang out place in Kaolack. Its actually someones home, but in the courtyard they have set up 4 TVs. On a Sunday you can pay 100CFA and go an whatch a game. They usually have and English, Spanish, French and Italian match and always a good atmosphere with 4 games going at the same time.

Anyway im off there now, will blog again soon….promise.

Interesting Journey

2008-11-22T19:14:00.002Z

This week I did what called around here the bone shaker, Kedougou to Dakar. Its about 700km of mostly bumpy roads lasting about 12 hours. It sounds like a great adventure but ive done it several times over the last few months and it was in danger of becoming a ‘commute’. On Wednesday I set out to do the journey again, it turned out to be a memorial journey, for two reasons.

Firstly lions. Kedougou is the other side of the national park. It requires a two hour journey thought the middle where there are no village and not may cars. The park is really amazing, its not particularly remote or difficult to get to and a tarmac road runs through the middle so its surprising that wild animals exist. I had heard people say that the park is home to wild lions, but never really believed them…until now. We left the small town of Kedougou at 6am and at around 7am were in the park. I was just about to nod off when someone shouted lion !!!. We stopped the car about 10meters from a lion just sitting their in the middle of the road. A few minutes later another came out from the bush and sat behind the car. We then sat there for about 1Omins in a weird Lion v 4x4 stand off. They often moved, circulating round the car checking us out. It was amazing to see them and it was obvious they rarely meet cars as didn’t seem at all afraid of us or the car. After a few more minutes a lorry came and they trotted off into the bush. Further down the road we also saw a heard of warthogs and lots of monkeys……who needs to go on safari?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFgMSa2are8

The second event happened some 8hours later, now far outside Dakar. We came down a hill to see a car accident. There were several cars involved an a few hundred people milling around. We had just passed the accident and saw a lorry come down the hill after us and smash into more cars. Often lorries here don’t have good breaks and this one obviously couldn’t stop. We saw it push a car about 100meter along the road stuck under the front wheels. The drivers jumped out before it stopped and ran off. Rough justice exists here and people are often beaten or killed by locals after accidents. The whole event reminded me of being in an episode of road wars !

It was anything but a routine commute !

My TV

2008-10-01T09:03:00.001Z

I finally had a weekend at home in Kaolack and decided I need to populate my house with some stuff. At the moment some of my rooms are a bit sparse. my lounge has only a computer table, couch, fan and an exercise bike. So I did a bit of decorating and put my country flags on the walls to add a bit of colour.

I also bought a TV !!!! My wonderful driver (Habib) took me to Adama FALLs shop, (the kind of place where you can by any thing electric from the last 20 years) Where I choose a new LG TV for the sum of 125 000CFA…….sound a lot but about £130 for a 22inch TVs not a bad deal.

So im now typing this blog while in my slightly more homely lounge watching TV. I have a wonderful array of things to watch on it all brought to me through the mind boggling offer of…. one channel (RDV) that I can pick up here. That’s why I find myself typing this blog while watching the Koranic word for the day…….Hopefully Mr FALL will return next week and fit the satellite dish offering he says, 250 channels……249 on the Koran but hopefully one more worth watching.

Ok better go, the call for prayer is about to start, don’t want to miss this, it not like it’s the same thing every day !

Tennis Coach

2008-09-21T12:59:00.001Z

Ive been feeling very expat this weekend as ive had two session with my tennis coach ! Ive decided to get back on the tread mill and do a bit more sport, so tennis seems like a good way to go. Despite not playing properly for about 10 years I surprised myself and realised that im not that bad. My friend in the office Paul is a keen tennis fan so ive had a few games with him over the past few weeks. However our schedules don’t seem to match up too well so Paul gave me the number of a tennis coach, so I can keep practicing if he’s not there. Mr Sow…or Dr Tennis as he likes to be known changes £4 a hour to whack a few balls around ad give tips on my racket position and stance.

Im actually quite enjoying it and it seems to be really good excise especially as its very hot here at the moments, even roasting at 8am when we play. Now if only I can find someone to practice with in Kaolack???

Back in Mombasa

2008-09-14T18:16:00.002Z

Well im back in Mombasa again, I didn’t think I would get to go to Kenya once let alone twice in six months. Im here again for another talking shop…..actually that’s a little harsh its actually been a really interesting session looking at ways to do our work better. There were about 100 of us from all around the world and the best parts always spending some time hearing about development challenges from others in places like, Cambodia, Indonesia, Ethiopia etc. There was even a team from LA here, hearing about the same development work but in completely different contexts is always a great privilege of this job.

As for non work stuff, well there wasn’t really any. We were in the big hotel with restaurants, beach etc, which was lovely but meant that you spend all of your time in ‘hotel world’. Also as with WV life most of the non workshop time seems to be taken up with additional meetings.

Still I did get chance to have the odd beer (tusker) at the end of the evening and chill out a little. As it was a big hotel they put on ‘entertainment’ in the evening. This seemed to vary significantly in quality….the acrobats were great but the Kenyan actors didn’t seem to go down too well with the tourist crowd.

I though I would end by writing about flying…..as im seeming to do a lot of it at the moment. I particularly like observing people who obviously don’t fly too often. There is lots of opportunity to observe these first time flyers (lets call them FTF) in Africa and its always makes me chuckle. My flight from Senegal to Mali on the way to Kenya was especially funny. We took off at evening time and the crew served food about 7pm. However this is Ramadan so most people don’t eat till about 8pm. Everyone refused food while flying but then after we landed in Mali (after 8pm) proceeded to try and get a feed while the plane was stationary and waiting to take on the new passengers from Mali. This lead to chaotic seens as people were fighting there way back up the plane for their meal while other were trying to board.

My other funny flying moments from the trip was a English couple in Kenya airport….looking at her visa stamp she said to the Kenyan immigration official ‘its only a visa for Kenya, I though you would give me a visa for all of Africa’ ……like somehow all countries in Africa are the same !?!

Drinking Um Bongo in Lisbon

2008-09-01T17:22:00.002Z

Normally travelling to Senegal seems to pass off without much fuss, this time has been a bit different, nothing to do with Senegal or TAP airlines, but dam Heathrow and the British weather. It meant loads of flights were delayed and mine eventually took off 4 hours late. That meant I missed my connection from Lisbon to Dakar and would have 24hours in Lisbon until the next flight.

Still could be worse…..24 hours in a city like Lisbon not a bad deal. The airline have put me and some UNICEF passengers on the same flight up in the Roma hotel in downtown Lisbon. Its comfortable and nice……and the best bit free!

So a day to kill in Lisbon what’s there to do? Well I picked up a bunch of leaflets from the hotel reception and perused the things to do while tucking into my free breakfast. I decided on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the town, given that I didn’t have an awful lot of time and don’t know the city too well.

The tour took me through the downtown and seafront areas, past lovely 16th century churches, castles and monuments (see facebook for photos) My personal favs were the Torre Belem, and the Castelo Sao Jorge. I hopped off a few times and strolled around the twisty steep streets that run down to the waterfront.

One very odd thing that did strike me while walking around was the huge number of Um Bongo ads, they seem to be everywhere, bus stops, streets, shops….i thought Um bongo had disappeared. Coincidently im also reading a book on the Congo at the moment, perhaps all the Congolese are here drinking their um bongo?

Anyway back to more serious sightseeing my last stop was at the church Se de Lisboa, very nice 16th Century church (might not be 16th century, but if in doubt say 16th Century everyone believes you) up one of the steep side streets. I had a ramble around in and out of the church before finally heading back to the hotel.

Ok see ya, off for my free diner and hopefully home to Dakar tonight.

Hangin out in Kaolack

2008-07-19T18:05:00.003Z

Ive finally got a chance to spend a few day in my home town of Kaolack. Work means that every couple of days I travel which is an amazing experience but does really tire you out and occasionally is nice to just chill at home

So what there to do in Kaolack….well not an awful lot. This is what some bloggers wrote about Kaolack

"Kaolack was a nightmare. trash everywhere, people screaming for your attention, trying to get you to jump into their cars"

"Coming into town, we passed a dump with goats wandering all over it and the worst smell! Kaolack is desolate and poor. It is the most impoverished place we've been so far, and we haven't seen much of the town yet. It is in the desert on the Saloum river. I don't know what, if anything, you can grow here. It is not the oasis town you might imagine."

"Crossed the bridge over the Saloum River to spend the night here in a hotel on the fringe of this chaotic noisy dirty apology for a major town. A must-pass-through place that most travellers must surely regret!"

That’s my town they are talking about !! still they might be right Kaolack does have some not so nice aspects….still when you get to know it it does has a few redeeming features. Here is what you can do for fun in Kaolack,

- go to the beach, well its not really a beach, Kaolack is situated on a river estuary about 150km from the sea. Its got a really high salt content a bit like the dead sea so you can go and just float in it …if you avoid the rubbish
- we also have the second largest covered market in Africa….i dispute this a little as it doesn’t look that big to me but its nice to claim it all the same. Its also not a tourist market and sells just about anything you need for a Senegalese lifestyle…..no angle delight though unfortunately.
- There are also two hotels here that I frequent, the hotel de Paris and the Hotel de Relais. Im writing from the latter now. Its got a pool wireless access and is not a bad place just to go and chill out in.
- The Bluebird Restaurant, unlike Kaffrine Kaolack has a few restaurants. The bluebird is home to the famous Tyson burger. A burger with just about everything you can think of stuffed in, nice if you want a change for Senegalese food for a while.
- Salt. Because of the saltiness of the river here the production of salt is a big business. Around the town there are severl salt mountains that look like small snow covered peaks…….alas no snow….still maybe I could start promoting salt skiing ?????

So there you go, how to entertain yourself in Kaolack. Not Manhattan I know but does have a certain charm to it.

Day trip to Guinee Bissau

2008-06-28T18:56:00.002Z

As im in the southern half of Senegal for a couple of weeks I got the chance to hop over the boarder to Guinee Bissau. GB is a small country to the south of Senegal with similar people groups to Senegal, except rather bizarrely they speak Portuguese. This is a strange part of the world, within the space of 100kms you go from English speaking Gambia to French Speaking Senegal to Portuguese speaking GB. Still between Senegal and GB the Pheul people speak the same local language so good relations exist.

Im here on a work visit at the launching ceremony for a cross border project raising awareness on HIV/AIDS and Female Genital Mutilation among communities in Senegal and GB. We have some projects that run along the Senegalese side of the boarder where people have daily interaction with communities on both sides. Its actually a really amazing project that this has come about through some of our work in this area. Boarder zones in African can always be places of tension and small conflict so over the past few years our project teams down here have been working with local authorities on both sides of the boarders to set up peace committees to discuss issues around the frontier zone and resolve and small conflicts that occur. Its been working really well and now this new project tackling social issues is really great to see.

So to the ceremony we arrived in a convoy of about 10 cars of local authorities and other partners into the small boarder town on the GB side. We were ushered through the town to the square (well a clear patch of dirt) and under an makeshift shelter. Here is when some of the problems started, there were about 20 chairs for about 50 dignitaries. Me being the only white person in a crowd of about 2000 was naturally made to take a chair despite may protests, there then insued a mass row with various local leaders arguing why they were more important and needed a chair. Fortunately eventually a truck arrived and everyone could be seated. The ceremony turned out to be about 3hours of speeches, drama and dancing. The drama was defiantly the best with a group of 15or so local school girls acting out HIV awareness messages with condoms stuck to their heads !

Eventually everyone important said their part and we were ushered some where else for lunch, meat rice and potatoes. After lunch the day turned even more bizarre ……I gave an interview to Guinee Bissau TV ! ………..well I didn’t say anything but me and 4 colleagues sat by a hut while the TV crew asked questions and filmed us for the local news. Thankfully my colleague said enough for the TV men and they seemed content just filming the while man so I dint get to try out my French in an interview setting. So with my BBC interview and now GB TV ive gone global !

Mombasa

2008-06-18T08:20:00.000Z

Hello from Kenya. Here I am back in the Southern Hemisphere for the fifth time in my life. Its my first time in Kenya and my first time in East Africa. Im here as a last minute thing for a workshop on emergency situations. I arrived on Sunday the 8th from boiling dry Senegal into windy and wet Mombasa.

Im staying at the Niary Beach Hotel a great seafront place along a while sandy beach with palm trees spread along the coast line. The beach really is very nice, not quite as nice as Sierra Leone but nicer than Senegal. There is a reef about a mile of the shore so you can see the waves breaking in the distance and here the gentle roar even from the beach. The sand is as soft as snow and great for running along our just lying about. The hotel rooms are also close to the trees so you often get monkeys on your balcony. Check out what I videoed from my room!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ztc8WdayiM

Its also empty, we are not in the tourist season and with the recent troubles in Kenya people have stayed away so you can pretty much have the place to yourself.

The climate here is also very different; here the rainy season is well underway. Its been raining just about every day, but normally in stops and starts so you get a chance to pop out now and again.

Ive been spending most of my time (apart from in the conference of course!) on the volleyball court. Every evening we play a game for an hour or two getting rid of workshop stress. Later in the evening is football time with the Euro’s on we head to Harry’s bar and watch the match.

Its also been and extended stay. I was due to leave on Sunday. I arrived at the airport in Mombasa but was told my flight was cancelled due to engineering works. It meant I couldn’t get to Nairobi in time for my connecting flight to Dakar…..and the next one isn’t until Tuesday!.......so nothing for it but to spend two more days on the beach sipping cocktails, watching football and playing volleyball……it a hard life.

Home sweet home

2008-06-06T08:03:00.001Z

Im so confused im not really sure where I live these days, over the last few weeks ive been travelling so much I struggle to remember where I am when I wake up. So its been great to spend a few day in Kaolack in my actual home.

Its starting to feel a bit more like a home now as well espically with the addition of 3 new exciting new purchases. Firstly a wi-fi box, ive had it a day now but it only seems to let me connect about 50% of the time mmmmm hope it picks up. The second purchase is a 3 seater couch I picked this up from a street seller in Dakar for £80 seems fine…. Im sitting on it now !. The third and by most exciting so far is my washing machine. It has all sorts of flashing lights and even a countdown function telling you how long left. Only problem is its seems so violent when it spins….ive just been wrestling with in the bathroom to stop it smashing the place up…….better go its beeping at me now.

Kedougou

2008-05-22T17:47:00.002Z

My plans changed over the weekend so I decided to join a few colleagues and head down to the Kedougou region of Senegal. Kedougou is in the far south east corner of Senegal close the boarder with Guinea and Mali…geography speaking its kind of the Kent of England, tucked away in the south corner of the country. This is my second visit here I came about this time last year to look at the possibility of starting some project here. Since then we have opened a small office and started some assessments in the area. I love Kedougou because its like going to a different country. Gone are the baobab tress and dusty flat lands of the Kaolack region, Kedougou has mountains, trees, water and it feels completely different.

Ive been staying in the small house we have for the staff during the assessment period. Its got a great homely feel to it and a nice place to relax in the evenings, but it does has its challenges, no running water means a trip to the well or tap downstairs to fill up the buckets. It means there is a great rhythm to life when the water works downstairs everything stops and the focus is on filling as many buckets as we can before it runs out.

Apart from the work and filling buckets, we managed to get a day to relax and see a bit more of the surrounding countryside. On Sunday we travelled north to Mako to visit the Bassari tribe. This Sunday happened to be their initiation day when the young men become real men and are allowed to marry. In the initiation ceremony the men dress up, painting their bodies with mud and local herbs. They also where face masks and walk around blowing whistles and dancing. We arrived and there were 500 or so people milling around for the festival. In the evening they hold fighting contests where the men compete to impress their potential wives.

In the afternoon we set out for a local waterfall. I say local it turned out to be a two and a half hour drive over dusty bumpy roads, but well worth the wait. At the end of the road/dust track is a small campment with a few huts. Its then a 20min hike through the trees to the waterfall. It was amazing, as waterfalls go ive seen better but this is Senegal and the part or Senegal I know well has little water so to find an oasis with a pool and a water shute is amazing. It height and the shade also meant that it was cool and great for just sitting around and relaxing. The sheer wall on one side had water running down where you could get a drink of fresh cold water or just stand around in the cool shade and water when it was over 40 back down the valley it was heaven. As it was Sunday afternoon many families seemed to have the same idea as us and 100 or so people were having BBQs or just lazing around. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, one of the solders that were relaxing by the pool brought over a beer la gazelle, now im really in heaven. Thanks Kedougou for a great stay, see you again soon.

New home 2

2008-05-10T19:38:00.002Z

Ive now spent a few nights in my new place so I thought it was time to blogg a bit more about the gaff. Its still a little sparse, (two rooms have nothing in !) but its starting to look a bit more like home. Ive now cooked by first meal there, wonderful fried rice mixed with olives and tinned sausages….well there wasn’t much choice in the local shop! I used my brand new gas cooker, which is very exciting if a little scary. It appears to have only one heat setting, flippin hot so you need to keep an eye on your food, my second meal bangers and mash didn’t turn out so well..a bit blacker than expected.

(my flat, bottom left appartment)

I have also acquired a little more furniture. Work said they were sorting me out with stuff. So yesterday a huge great table and 6 chairs arrived. It very nice but im not quite sure what im going to do with it….need to start organising some diner parties I think. Next week I shall be shopping for sofa’s and putting up a few decorations. Now back to cooking, pasta and source tonight I don’t think the cooker can destroy that too much.

The table !

Janae 2

2008-05-01T16:14:00.002Z

Ive spend the first night in my new home…..then had to leave again for more meetings in Dakar, but still have a home. It’s a 2 bed flat in a pink (but not in a gay way) block for flats of about 8 in the Kasnack area of Kaolack

It was formally an office for a Belgium NGO so has internet connection already installed ….yeah just need to get it working now !?! I have one bedroom, one other bedroom that im going to use as a study; a lounge, small kitchen and 3 bathrooms. Not quite sure what im going to do with 3 bathrooms but nice all the same. One of the bathrooms is for the bedroom the other ‘African style’ squat toilet then a shared one in the hall way.

As for stuff its a bit bleak at the moment with a bed, wardrobe and a few things in the kitchen. However im most excited by my brand new fridge. Its not quite as impressive a Janae the fridge in Wolverton but its as tall and plenty of space for a large collection of beer la gazelle.

More on the house to come soon.

Dakar

2008-04-26T16:48:00.000Z

Hello again for Senegal ive now been back ‘home’ for two weeks. My official home will be Kaolack in true WV stile its not quite ready yet so im staying in Dakar for a bit. Its worked out fairly well as there are a lot of meetings at the moment in the capital. So here’s whats been happening lately.

A new place to stay
When in Dakar a normally stay in a hotel near the office, however staying for a couple of weeks gets a bit expensive (especially on my small trainee budget) so ive moved to another place. Im staying in a small 3 bedroom guest house run by an English granny……what it it with me and expat granny hotels !?! . For my £5 a night I get a room with a bathroom and use of a shared lounge and kitchen, its very quite and the other rooms are taken by mission expats or people from other areas of west Africa so it has a nice cosmopolitan feel to the place. There are also little touches of England; my room as a calendar of villages in surrey. There are however a lot of rules to the home, covering use of the shower, lights and water bottles. Ive only been there two days and already broke two, forgetting to turn my in/out card round and not putting a placemat under my cereal bowl this morning ….doh.

Restaurants
Being in Dakar also means great food. Im always amazed at the number of different restaurants that Dakar has to offer. Since being back in the country ive eaten in a Congolese, Italian, Ethiopian, Indian and Brazilian restaurant. The last the Brazilian was probably my favourite and I was there last night for my friends birthday. The restaurant has a buffet salad and extras bar where you help your self, the waiters then bring you meant until you’re full. I think we got through sausage, pork BBQ Chicken, and various types of beef before admitting we were well and truly stuffed.

Change
Dakar also seems to have changed a lot in 9 months. The president here has been embarking on an ambitious road building project rebuilding all of the cities ring road system. The seafront road is now complete with tunnels and overpasses. It certainly makes travel in the capital much easier and im sure when its finished it will look, great, but when I look at the road system in the rest of the county im sure the money could have been better spent else where !

Back on the road.....back blogging

2008-04-19T15:16:00.002Z

Well im moving again. 8 months seems to have flown by since I left Senegal……. Still ive managed to pack in buying a house, visiting Bangladesh twice, doing a tour of Europe and turning 30, not bad.

Im currently writing this Blogg from the wonderful Lungi airport, Freetown Sierra Leone. Ive been here 3 hours already waiting to check in (currently 2.55pm)……I love Sierra Leone but it’s a pain to get in and out again. The airport is on a different part of the coast than the town so it requires a 1 drive and 1 hour ferry ride. Im also travelling on the wonderful SLOK airlines. An example of SLOK style comes when you board at freetown. The BA flight next to us a a bus waiting to take passengers from the terminal to to plane, SLOK simply open the doors and point to the plane letting you wander across the runway to the plane. As SLOK also operate a 'free seating policy' there was a hilarious seen of passengers racing each other across the tarmac to get the best seats.…..got to go I think we are moving……

Its now 5.55 and we have been here for 6 hours…..mmmm starting to think I might have been SLOKed again….still it gives me a bit more time to tell you about Sierra Leone. I can believe this is now my 3rd visit to this country. Sierra Leone officially the poorest country in the world certainly isn’t easy to get to or move around, but it is a beautiful country with funny charming people. Im here this time for a workshop so I didnt get a lots of chance to see more of the real Sierra Leone but I was able to escape workshop world and go for diner a few times in the town…..thanks Roz for helping me escape !

Heres an example of Freetown sprit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM_iHbtZek4

I did able to pick up some goods, DVDs. Here for £2 you can buy copied DVDs with tonnes of films on. I bought the entire Bond collection on one DVD……got to go looks like we are able to check in.

……back again. Ive check in its but now waiting for the plane to turn up, its now 7.45pm !door to door I got from London to Bangladesh quicker than it takes to get from Freewtown to Dakar, still my Nigerien colleagues with me still have another 2 flights before they get home.

Its now 9pm and we are finally about to board. I eventually reach home a 1250am. Its taken 17hours door to door !!!! but some how im still happy. Im back in West Africa and enjoying coping with African life.

More bloggs to come……on my Senegalese return.

Reflections on visiting a disaster zone

2008-02-21T11:32:00.001Z

I’m normally not very serious on my blog but this time I felt I had to write something a bit more substantial. I’m back in Bangladesh and this is what I experienced.

As I make my way back by vehicle from the cyclone affected area I start to reflect on what ive seen, heard and experienced over the past few days. My visit coincides with the 3-month anniversary of cyclone Sidr destructive sweep up the bay of Bengal and across numerous villages in southern Bangladesh. My mind wanders on the long journey back as I start to unpack 4 days of visiting communities, discussing issues with people and looking at relief/recovery projects.

Four days ago seems like a long time ago. I remember my first encounter with the results of the cyclone. Several hours into the drive from the capital and the first signs of the cyclone started to appear, trees at an odd angle. At first I think it’s just the type of tree but the further we drive the more I see the same pattern in all the trees. Then the fallen trees appear. At first its one here and there, but the further we head south the more we see flattened. In the following days we were to visit areas that even 3 months on look inaccessible due to fallen trees. And access is not the only danger that the tress posed, as we discovered they clog ponds required for drinking water and flatten homes. We drive past a group of children sitting on a pile of logs and I start to remember the 1987 hurricane that hit southern England. As a 9 year old I remembered having fun climbing over fallen trees on the road outside our house, here I experience how much of a danger they have been homes and lives.

It’s the houses that are the next thing that strikes me. In the worst affected areas we see glimpses of piles of rubble through the trees that were once peoples homes. We also see rebuilding. Families that were given plastic or corrugated iron sheets and have made a temporary shelter from what remains of their home. As we walk along we see numerous homes with their distinctive shine of new corrugated iron decorated with an NGO logo. One village will always stick in my memory. Sandwiched in between the river and the trees the homes stood little chance as the waves rose over the defences and the trees crashed around. Yet the fishermen we speak to seem thankful, some of their friends or family did not return from that fateful nights fishing.

As the visit progresses it’s the silent but just as destructive economic consequences that stick in my mind. I learn about how the disaster has affected a whole economic system. Most people here are day labours, fishermen or farmers. The disaster has robbed fishermen of their boats, farmers of their crops and animals meaning that there is no work for the day labourers. We visit a market that shows how these problems interlink. Whereas before the cyclone shopkeepers would earn 10,000T a week now they struggle to make even a third of that because no one has spare money to buy goods.

I also get a glimpse of the physiological damage a disaster can cause. Fishermen robbed of their productive assets show their frustration and boredom at not being able to work. ‘it is our profession without this we are nothing’ explains a fisherman. Children also speak of their fear of sleeping inside because they feel a cyclone could return and send another tree crashing through their home.

Suddenly a child laughing and playing in the roadside as we speed past snaps me out of my reflection on the destruction cased and causes me to think about the other some of the other things I have experienced. Despite the destruction, loss and grief I also heard stories of hope.

In one community I see the value of preparing for disasters. We meet a women who gave birth in a Cyclone shelter. The effective warning system worked getting her the message of impending danger. She survived the storm in a safe two-story shelter giving the birth to a baby called ‘Sidr’ after the storm with the assistance of two trained community volunteers.

I also see numerous projects started by NGOs to respond to the immediate needs of those affected by the cyclone. Materials given allow people to start rebuilding, food given to allow people to survive the next week weeks, and most importantly opportunity for people to start working and regain their livelihoods.

Back in the car on the journey home, the buildings start to grow and the number of cars increases signalling the arrival of Dhaka and the end of my time back in Bangladesh. I feel drained from the travel and experiences but also renewed from talking with survivors and hearing their solutions to enable their recovery. I also feel proud to be part of an organisation that long after the cameras have disappeared will still be with the communities in their struggle to recover.

Road Trip

2007-12-10T18:10:00.000Z

Its been a least 2 weeks since I left the UK so its about time I went on holiday again. This time im travelling around northern Europe with friends Peter and Alex. We left MK on Sunday night and headed to Harwich from where we would pick up a ferry to Esberg, Denmark a journey of around 20hours. We happened to pick the night when storm force gales covered the north sea, making the trip a little choppy but after a few Carlsberg’s the swaying seemed to ease a little.

Denmark - we arrived in Copenhagen early Monday evening and headed out the same night to check out the place. As it was already dark we went to the famous Tivoli (pronounced tiv…oo….lie) Garden. This is a small inner city park with rides Christmas Markets and other fairground attractions. At night it’s lit up and has a great Christmassy feel. We bought mulled wine and strolled around the markets trying out some or two Danish words tak (thank you) and hi (hello), or in Peter’s case speaking in a weird English/Danish accent. After a few hours Peter and Alex eventually managed to drag me away from the markets and we strolled home.

The next day we set out to walk Copenhagen. In the morning we went to Christiana an inner city squat home to about 500-1000 people. The squat was set up a few decades ago and is now a colourful community of random houses and markets with a hippy feel and open drug taking. It means there have been numerous attempts by the police and city authorities to shut it down. One slogan I saw in Christiana summed up the feel of the area, on the café in the centre of the community it said ‘The safest café in the world…3000 armed police raids since 2005’. In a world of modern inner city apartments it was great to see a place like Christiana existing. The afternoon was spent seeing some of the more traditional parts of Copenhagen walking through the river, palace and shopping centre zones.

In the evening we went to have a few drinks out one the town. Unfortunately Copenhagen appears to be the most expensive place in the world with a beer costing about £5 !. Still we found a few warm places to soak up the atmosphere, including a not so warm ice bar, made of ice with ice seats, walls and glasses.

Other fun in Copenhagen included a trip to the Carlsberg Museum. This involved a trip through brewing history and best of all 2 free beers for a selection of Carlsberg’s finest.

Germany…..so to the next country. What looked a first as an easy trip from one country to another was a little more challenging than first thought. Copenhage – Cologne was an 8 hour drive. So we left early and put the foot down to reach Leverkusen a few hours before kick off. Despite awful weather it all worked out well and made the game and (eventually!!!) found our hotel in Cologne...... think my map reading needs a bit of work.

The next day we had a morning to explore Cologne so we headed for the massive Cathedral. We climbed for what seemed like an eternity before reaching the top of the which gave amazing (if very windy) views of the city. Much to my joy there was also another Christmas market and I pottered around while Peter tried out his Germany and Speaking in a weird English/German accent. After a while Peter and Alex finally managed to drag me out of the market.

Holland….country 3. The same day we left Cologne and set out to cover the short distance to Eindhoven and the PSV game. We didn’t get much time to do anything else in Holland, I tried my best to find another Christmas Market and Peter spoke to plenty of people in a wired Dutch/English accent but our schedule meant we must press on.

Belgium – rubbish……..well mostly. We said goodbye to Peter who was flying back from Eindhoven (presumably to try out his new weird accent in England) and Alex and I started on our journey across Belgium to Calais and home. I say Belgium is rubbish for three main reasons, the roads were awful (it took us 2 hours and 3 closed roads before we eventually managed to find a way out !!!) secondly we drove the whole length and it looked featureless and very boring, and thirdly it rained constantly. Still we did make a stop in Ypres the historic WWI town and visited some war memorials, and yes…..another Christmas market !!!

Great holiday……now im off to find another Christmas market and see if Peter is still speaking in a weird accent.

Road trip - the games

2007-12-10T18:09:00.000Z

FC Copenhagen 0 – Althletico Madrid 2

The first game took us to see the champions of Denmark. Copenhagen’s ground was about a 45mins walk from where we were staying so we headed up early to soak up some of the atmosphere. Most of the 38000 or so tickets were sold and the home fans gave their team a great welcome and sung throughout the match. On the pitch however Copenhagen were not so impressive end Madrid won fairly easily, still Copenhagen can probably still qualify with a draw in their last match and the fans seemed to go home fairly happy.

Bayen Laverkusen 1 – Sparta Prague 0

Next day, next game. This one was a lot more even with either side looking like they could win. Again the ground was fairly packed and the roof raised near the end as bayen scored and went on to win, even with 10 men.

PSV 2 – Roda 4

Last day, last game….and a cracker. PSV the Dutch champions would have been looking for a win against 6th placed Roda but this certainly wasn’t a ‘typical’ game. This was a league game so the atmosphere was different, with Roda bringing about 700. They were obviously expecting a little trouble as the fans are horded through a tunnel and caged in the top corner behind where we were sitting. It wasn’t long before they were signing with Roda taking the lead. They then went on to play PSV off the park. By one hour in they were 4 goals up, queue a mass exodus of PSV fans and fighting between those who were loyal and those who wanted to sneak away. Eventually PSV pulled two back but Roda still ran out deserved winners.

look out.......elephants about

2007-11-03T05:58:00.000Z

Unfortunately due to storm warnings and doggy internal Bangladesh airlines my trip to the southern part of Bangladesh was cancelled. Happily it meant I could go to the north of the country. We are supporting another project close to the northern boarder with India. So again I got to visit the boarder zone with India. This was a different experience to the eastern boarder. This was a small country lane with few vehicles and no houses leading up to the boarder. It was also closed with barbed wire across the road and heavily armed guards on the Indian side. We stayed a while then retreated out of the neutral zone and back into Bangladesh, now foray into Indian this time.

After the boarder visits we also went to a small community that live close to the frontier. This is a very beautiful area with rice fields and wooded hills that mark the boarder with Indian. Its also a dangerous area. Wild elephants live in the hills and a night come into the human habituated areas and damage crops, houses and sometimes attack humans. We spoke to a family who described what had happened just the night before when the elephants came, they then took me to there fields where we could easily see elephant tracks and footprints in the rice fields. We have helped support the families with a bridge across a stream for a quick getaway and torches to frighten them away. Certainly never seen an elephant mitigation project before !

.......and now number 11

2007-10-26T13:04:00.001Z

In my last blog I said Bangladesh was country number 10 For me this year. Well ive now visited another, India. My first week in Bangladesh has been in the north west corner visiting some projects near to the boarder with India. One project is only 8kms away so we took a trip to the boarder town of Killi. The boarder is marked by a the railway line which separates India and Bangladesh, after a quick word with the Bangladeshi guards they let us cross the tracks and into India. So India vast country of cultures and landscapes, what did I discover?……well precisely 5 meters of it. Soon after crossing the tracks an India guard approached waving his gun and looking cross, we beat a hasty retreat. Boarders in this part of the world can be dangerous so we decided not to push our luck and went back into Bangladesh.

So Bangladesh, after having spent a week here now I though I would blog my impressions.

Water. There is water just about everywhere. Some whole areas are still underwater from flooding a few months ago. In most areas your never more that a few minutes from a fish pond or paddy field.

Green. This is probably the greenest place ive been, very different from Senegal !. everywhere is covered in rice fields, sugar cane, and palm trees.

People. Bangladesh at 165 million is packed. Even in the rural areas its very difficult to go even a few seconds without seeing another person. It also means that ‘empty’ land is unheard of, with every inch used to produce some sort of food.

Curry. Im really liking the food here, curry three times a day!. Meals usually include rice, fish or meat curry, curry vegetables and dal sauce. Its spicy and very tasty.

Work. I don’t normally talk about work stuff, but its been really interesting here and quite different to Senegal. So far ive been working with 2 programmes, on just starting and one a year in. I spent 3 days with one of our teams going through the planning documents and visiting some villages. I’ve particularly been struck by the business attitude many of the communities have and their desire to see change.

Next its off to the south of the country, to Cox Bazar, more soon.

Bangladesh

2007-10-21T12:28:00.000Z

Another month, another country. I feel really lucky to have a job that allows me to travel and see the world so much. I worked out this is my 10th country this year. Bangladesh is my first Asian country this year and my first visit to south Asia.
I arrived Sunday morning after two emirates flights from the UK. Although packed it was only of the best flights ive had with excellent entertainment on offer. I was able to catch up on movies watching Die Hard 4 (good) Harry Potter (rubbish) and Ocean’s 13 (not bad). The only problem was that the flight was an all-nighter and arrived Sunday morning, which means I needed to try and stay awake for a day. I arrived at my hotel about 10am, and quickly admitted that im fighting a loosing battle and got a few hours kip. In the afternoon I strolled around Dhaka….well just the block really but at least it was out of the hotel. Just around the corner I found a small park with loads of families enjoying the weather (about 30oc by the way). The park was very nice but also a little odd, it seemed to have a health theme. All around the park were slogans like ‘loose weight reduce thy meals’ and facts on exercise. There were also warning posters all around on diabetes, cancer and strangely garlic! Mmmmmm good random start to the trip what next???

The lakes

2007-10-03T17:34:00.001Z

As im having a second holiday its time for another holiday blog. This time from the Lake District of England. For overseas readers it’s the chunk of England that’s in the North West corner just below Scotland.
Im currently blogging from a house we rented in the lovely village of Pooley Bridge. Our cottage is very nice with 3 bedrooms a great loafing lounge and a wooden kitchen. But the location has to be the best bit. Pooley bridge has about 30 houses and is situated right on ullswater lake. Our cottage is one of the nicest in the village and on the main street, which means we are a 90 second walk from 3 pubs ! After being out during the day we return to our house acting like lords over the village.

4 Hour shopping walk
So its Saturday the first day in the lakes and we set out to do the practicalities first…..food shopping….well surviving on corn flakes can only take you so far. We headed to Keswick about 15 miles away. We arrived…..and that’s when things changed. Dave and James found a hiking shop selling cheap gear and proceeded to shop like girls spending 1hour trying on different coats. Eventually we made it out of the shop and as it was so nice decided to go for a bit of a walk before the shopping………..four hours later we finished the walk and made it to the shops. The reason, we decided to walk the entire circumference of Derwent Lake, around 8-10 miles. It was worth it, very beautiful and lots of small bays and cool forests to check out.
We eventually completed the shopping, the usual man shop, lots of beer and few green things.

Helvellyn
Its Monday and we decided it was time to attempt our first peak. Helvellyn at 956meters is the second highest peak in England and in the eastern half of the national park. Ive climbed the peak before some 10 years ago while on a youth camp, so its Alex 1 – Nature 0. its an exciting walk of around 2hours up to the Red Tarn, then another couple of hours over striding edge (a ridge with a 300m drop each side) to the peak. We set out about 10 despite the doggy weather forecast. We walked for about 30min in the dry before the heavens opened and it proceeded to rain for the entire rest of the walk. Still we persisted and made it to the lake in 1 and a half hours. That’s when the wind started, coupled with the rain and low cloud it wasn’t looking good. The final part of the peak was now covered in cloud, but we decided to continue up as high as we could. We made it to the lower ridge and stuck our heads over the side to test the winds. They were so strong it was difficult to stand, we struggled on for a few more paces but finally admitted to our sodden wind swept selves that it would be dangerous to continue and its time to head back. We were about 150m short of the top. The equalizer Alex 1 – Nature 1.

Marriages, Sauces and Romans.
After our long wet walking day we decided that a day of visiting stuff at a low level was needed. First was Carlisle Castle. As castles go it was ok with some nice rooms and passages ways to ramble in but not as good as some ive visited. The best part was a war museum inside the castle with lots WWI and WWII stuff on show. Next it was time to visit another country – the boarder with Scotland is only a few miles from Carlisle so we headed up to the famous Gretna Green about 500meters inside the Scottish boarder. Gretna is famous for marriages and the small town seemed to be packed with hotels and wedding parties. On a whim we decided to visit the Old Blacksmith centre with shops and a marriage reception rooms. Turned out to be a good choice for me as there was a foodhall selling tonnes of sauces, jams and exotic foods. This time it was me to shop like a girl spending ages buying all sorts of stuff including chilli peanut butter, Jack Daniels sauce, fruit tea, and dragons mustard. We spent a little while longer looking around the ‘Scottish’ shops…..shops selling just about every bit of tat with tartan but decided it was just toooooo Scottish and a hastily retreat back to England.
As we still had some daylight left we took a detour on the way back to visit Hadrian’s Wall, the famous wall that marked the old boundary between Scotland and England. We had fun scrambling up the wall imagining the lives of Romans living in this bleak outpost of the old empire.
Up up and up.
As we had a day off walking we decided to get back on the slopes. We headed again for Keswick and the ‘cat bells’ range that run along the backs of the river. At 653m they are a little lower that some of the others we attempted but they are a series of smaller peaks so still lots of fun. We ambled for 7 hours or so over the peaks before returning to the car and heading of to Keswick for tea and cake…how English.

The long and winding road and the children’s mines,
Last day in the lakes, and as our legs were I bit dead we decided to not risk them falling off and set out to do something a little different. First we visited the Slate Mine near Keswick. As they liked to point out many many times this is the last working slate mine in the UK. We were kitted out in hats and lamps and then bizarrely caught a bus up the mountain to the mine entrance. I spent the next hour whacking my head on the low walls, listing to our guide talking about how kids were working and living in the mine, and laughing a Chinese girl trying to walk around the mine wearing high heals !

In the afternoon we set out to drive around the western lakes. This involved navigating through some of the steep passes. Hardknott pass was probably the steepest at 30% incline which tested my rallying skills and clutch work! After the passes we heading to the coast and then back through another pass and a quick stop in Windermere Lake. We arrived back late but in time for a last slap up mean in the pub next door, ten several beers before a late night fire by the lake.

Blue Doors, Chawarmas, and Citronade,

2007-09-07T17:09:00.000Z

Now we finally made it to Tunisia I thought it was about time to write a little about the place. We have been doing some general getting to know the place stuff (visit the supermarket, walk around, move furniture, etc) to hep my sister move in but also had the chance to visit a few of the tourists spots. Here is a run down of what we have been up to.

Souk Markets
We are staying in an area about 30mins from the centre, the Medina area of town. The Medina is home to a warren of small cobbled streets full with market stalls selling various craft products. In the centre is a large mosque and a house previously owned by the king. The house is now a large carpet shop selling a huge array of camel and horsehair carpets. We went in and were taken into a side room where the sales man proceeded to unveil endless carpets on the floor followed each time by the question you like?........you like?.....you like?. I did like, but unfortunately not at the 100-200 pounds asking price. For that kind of money I would expect my carpet to fly.

Sidi bou Said
Mid week we visited the very beautiful seaside village of Sidi bou Said. The village is build into the cliff face and has amazing views of the bay and surrounding hills. Also all of the houses of the town are painted while with blue doors and black studs. We ambled around for a while and sipped mint tea overlooking the bay.

Carthage
We also visited the historic roman town of Carthage. There are a number of roman ruins here such as baths, a theatre, villas, and a port. I’m not a huge fan of ruins by with views of the sea and mountains from most of the ruins it was well worth half a days amble around.

Food
One of my best things to do in a new country is to try different foods. Here is been different drinks. On just about every street corner you can by a lemon drink called citronade. It’s a little milky, but thick and very refreshing. I’ve also been drinking mint tea. Here they serve it in small glasses sometimes with almonds in. I think I prefer the Senegalese version, but still very nice. On the flood side its been Chawarms. Theses are basically kebabs in a wrap, but the sauce and herbs make them one of the best sandwiches you can buy. Other foods have included something called a brick…..not as it sounds but a pastry fish and cheese thing, and plenty of couscous.

Back to fish and chips, marmite, and beer next week.

Tunisia Special - Part 1

2007-09-06T06:45:00.000Z

Seems like ages since my last blog and Ive been missing it so I decided to write a few blog specials from Tunisia. Im currently here with my sister and family helping them to settle into a new home.

The first challenge was to make it to Tunisia. As we had loads of stuff, my brother in law and I set out to drive from Essex to Tunisia. What follows is advice, rules, red tape, and humour on how to get a car full of toys, clothes, books…….. and a washing line to North Africa.

Step 1 – Into France,
Not really much to report here. We left Essex at 8am and took the Euro Tunnel car train into Calais. We arrived about 1h 30 ahead of our train time so we were able jump on an earlier one, which was great as we could make up time in France.

Step 2 – Drive to Marseille
Potentially more problematic!. We gave ourselves 2 days to complete the drive of 750kms. I was designated Sat Nav responsibilities, with the certainty for French roads to be a little unforgiving if you make a wrong turn I came fully stocked with a few maps to aid the journey. As the train got us into France early we bombed it down as far as we could on the first day. The roads were remarkably clear and by 7pm ish we reached Macon just north of Lyon and found a cheap motel for the night. We ate in the local restaurant and followed up the meal with a few tequila/beers and got some sleep ahead of driving day 2.

After our 5euro breakfast of……well bread really we left Macon at 8am on the second drive. We had till 4pm to complete the remaining 350kms so things were looking good for a nice gentle drive to the coast. Unfortunately it rained, and I mean the thunder and lightning type stuff for most of the way, but we still managed to make the port (including a stop for lunch) by 2pm. Essex – Marseille in a day and a half, not bad eh?

Step 3 – The ferry to Tunis
Now is when the real fun started. We were booked on the Velinzalos due to take us to Tunis in a 25hour voyage across the med. First came the check in. A range of bits of paper, photos and forms were needed, unfortunately we were one missing which meant calling Oxford to call London to call Brussels to fax something to Marseille to allow us to go to Tunis. Eventually the paper arrived, (which seemed to be the same as we had already except a different title) and we could advance through check in.

However we didn’t advance very far. 500 meters ahead we joined the other cars that had passed already in a holding car park. 2 hours later engines started and we advanced again. This time to another car park about 1000meters away, where we sat and sat and sat and sat and sat. We eventually pulled out of harbour at 3 am. We were 7 hours late leaving and had been waiting 13 hours in various car parks to leave.

As it was so late we went to bed pretty quickly and awoke the next morning to see the sea. As we now had most of a day to kill on a boat we set out exploring the vessel. The Velinzalos is a state of the art cruise ship…….state of the art for 1982. Now it looks a little dated. The best way I can describe it is it’s a bit like being in a huge Indian restaurant. The carpet, wallpaper and chintz all bring familiar thoughts back. Still despite its jaded edges its still a mighty vessel. It has 3 restaurants (one closed) a casino (now children’s play room) swimming pool (now empty) a couple of bars and a disco. The best thing was that there was probably only something like 100 passengers, when its capacity must be in the thousands it meant we had the boat to ourselves. The most exciting thing was the boat had wireless; the ability to call via Skype from the middle of the med amazes me.

We ended up spending most of the evening with an Irish and South African guy. They were on there first leg of a four-month journey by car from Ireland to Cape Town. We had some beers together watching the champion’s league draw in Arabic and talking about travel.

You can check out there progress here… http://www.getjealous.com/footloose4x4.ie

The last piece of excitement on the boat was the passport and customs formalities. As we were taking a car into Tunisia it meant paperwork on registration, contents, drive etc needed to be completed…in French. Thankfully this time we had all the right forms and received all the right stamps.

Our fun on the Velinzalos was soon over and we waved goodbye to fellow passengers. We eventually pulled into Tunis at 530am total travel time 27 ½ hours meaning we arrived 9 ½ hours late.

Step 4 – Tunis port to the house.
In theory this should be simple, off the boat, out of the port and to the house. However things never really work like that. We came off the boat quickly but sat in another car park for an hour or so before eventually moving again…..another 500meter trip to another car park. This was the most stressful time as they could ask us to unpack everything and impound stuff pretty much as they like. After waiting our turn our assigned customs guy arrived and looked in the car he muttered asked us to open up then waved us on…. excellent in a last…although not quite. The official didn’t sign our bit of paper so we had to go back through the whole process. Our second assigned official asked us to do the same thing and wanted us to take a few things out but eventually signed and we were out. A short trip through Tunis and then we were home.

Total travel time Essex to Tunis 61 hours, Number of forms signed and stamped endless.

a bientot

2007-08-07T13:41:00.000Z

Its finally time to say goodbye to Senegal…….at least for a few months anyway. I’ve left Senegal and and i am now enjoying the summer (!?!) back in the UK. Its nice to get back to some familiar home things but these are some aspects of Senegalese life i will miss over the next 6 months,

The seasons, currently the rains have started, so most days there are amazing thunder and lightning storms. I will miss sitting on the balcony with a biere la gazelle while watching the storms.
The travel. My life over the last two years or so has been on the road, I will miss 10 hour car journeys through the desert.
Toubab. Anybody white in Senegal is called a toubab. Whenever I walk through the streets to the office little kids run out from there house and want to shake your hand. Well there is only 8 of us in my town.
The food. Although it can be quite repetitive food in Senegal is great. I will miss eating thiou diegne, mafe, and thiou yap from large bowls followed by a coke from old style glass bottle.
Friends. Ive made may friends in Senegal, and although I will probably see most again I will miss them and miss working with them over the next 6 months.
Fruit. like the seasons the fruit also changes. im going to miss the watermelon amd guava seasons.
Basic life style. I was just getting use to a simple life. Basic foods, little in the way of hi tech entertainment, and few luxury possessions.

But still, being back in England for a while does have its advantages. This weekend i will watch sky sports while eating a Cornish pasties drinking a John Smiths beer and reading the Sunday times.........how English.

Probably be a bit less from spearsy for a while, but look out for special blogs from Tunisia, the Lake District and Bangladesh

See ya

Sortie

2007-08-01T13:15:00.000Z

Last weekend was the staff annual trip. July is the end of the year here and all staff take the month of august off for holiday. So for the last few days of the month most of the staff went to Gambia for 2 days of fun and relaxation.

I was excited to be actually visiting Gambia rather than just passing through. Ive crossed Gambia many times but it was the first time that ive spent a night there. Saturday morning we pilled into buses for the journey. This is where the fun started, the distance wasn’t exactly far but it took 11 hours to reach the hotel. The problem was all the procedures, crossing the boarder means stamping passports and declaring anything electronic, for 150 of us this takes time. Secondly we were staying in the Bakur area of Gambia. Bakur is in the southern half, which means crossing the river Gambia. At Banjul there are 3 ferries but which only take around 15 vehicles each time so it was a slow hot wait to cross.

Once in Bakur and rested, things brighten up. Bakur is a very beautiful part of the Gambia, jutting out into the Sea, the hotel is on a small peninsular surrounded on 3 sides by the Sea. The drive to the hotel takes you through the mangroves with small fishing villages and beautiful white sand beaches. (photos to come)

Sunday, the first full day and in the morning we went to the local Catholic church. It was home to about 400 and a formal Catholic mass with all the trimmings. It was nice for once to have a service in English although the formality of the service somehow seemed at odds with the West African culture. Sunday afternoon was for lazing, by the pool, beach or in the AC rooms. Im learning that when you live in Africa, holidays tend to be more about rest than sightseeing or packing in many activities. Early evening when it’s a bit cooler we joined the many thousands on the beach for football, volleyball and swimming.

Sunday evening was dancing time. You cant have a Senegalese party without some sort of dancing ! . Two famous visiting musicians Pape et Chiekh were in town and played an acoustic set in the hotel event area. The dancing finally finished about 1am, some friends were then heading off to another club but we decided to hang around the pool rather than facing more dancing. Good job too as the group retuned about 2pm complaining the club played only American rap, thus no Senegalese dancing.

Monday morning was again rest and lounging time. The afternoon was designated for shopping in Banjul. Generally things are a bit cheaper than Senegal so most of the staff headed of to the electrics stores while Alex D and I went to the souvenir places to pick up some presents. I came back with a few Gambian football shirts and a sand painting. Odly most of the staff seem to come back with the same thing, a brown suit case and a DVD player. We all dumped our stuff back at the hotel and prepared for the evenings entertainment…….dancing of course.

The dancing included one of the weirdest events of my life; a WV Play Boy and Miss WV Senegal competition. In this contest a number of the staff dressed up in various outfits and danced (naturally!) to win the title. I was asked to be one of the five judges….maybe they were thinking im experienced in this area !?!. Half way through the competition we had a break and the staff presented me with some gifts and said some really kind words to wish me well as I move back to the UK for a while. At then end of the presentation in Senegalese’s tradition I was then made to dance in front of about 200 people… arrrrrhgggg.

Still, it was a nice moment, although now im really starting to get my head around leaving Senegal and adjusting to life back in the UK, going to be sad for a few weeks I think.

The competition finished and the winners given more brown suitcases. We then danced into the small hours before finally collapsing into our rooms.

Tuesday we woke to rain, meaning the already complicated journey took aggggeeeesssss still everyone was in happy mood, and the dancing continued even in the bus.

Rain

2007-07-24T09:43:00.000Z

I understand you guys are having a spot of bad weather at the moment. Last night we finally had a good rainfall here in Kaffrine. Its more than welcome as the crops and animals need it.

Around 6ish last night we decided to go for ice cream. We have been working seriously hard lately so I decided to take the team for a treat. The only problem was that the nearest place that sells ice cream is 1 hour drive away. Still those kind of distances don’t seem to matter anymore and things like that become normal. We returned about 9ish driving towards a massive storm in the distance. It got noticeably cooler and was amazing to see brilliant flashes of lightning in the distance.

Around 3am the storm finally hit Kaffrine with enormous lighting and thunder. I decided it was impossible to sleep so got up and sat on my balcony to watch the storm. Water pored off the roof of my building onto the street below and filled streets in the space of a few hours.

As we live in a sand pit, water doesn’t drain very well so by the morning small lakes have appeared all over Kaffrine. With the water also come the frogs. They live underground and come out when the small lakes form. The fogs are the loudest ive ever heard, and if you live by a pond with lots its almost impossible to sleep.

On my walk to work I noticed how much Kaffrine changes with one night of water. I walked past the market today to find fruit and veg floating through the stalls. It took me twice as long as normal to reach the office after having to circumnavigate several lakes. The best thing is that within a few days the whole place will be green and the water also brings a carpet of grass.

To add to my mood of water, flooding and disaster my team mate is playing her Celene Dion album in the office again sound of the titanic song are filling the office…..

So unlike you guys praying for the rain to stop, we are praying for more.

Rusfique mile

2007-07-07T17:21:00.000Z

Travelling a lot recently means ive also had to do the thing I hate the most. The entry into Dakar. Because of the Dakar geography there is only one road in and out of Dakar, which passes through the Dakar suburb of Rusfique. This 10 mile stretch often takes 3 hours as thousands of cars try to barge there way through one lane of traffic. I say one lane but often 4 lanes emerge, using the road surface, pavement, and dirt tracks. The journey is often made worse by my car having no AC. It means your left with an awful choice, open the window and be choked to death by car fumes, close all the window and be boiled alive by the heat.

There is one happy side to this journey, the shopping. As there is a guaranteed traffic jam, people walk between the cars trying to sell anything they can. This is a list of what people have tried to sell me while ive been waiting in a traffic jam.

- A complete bosch drill set
- An A1 sized laminated picture of fruit
- A cat
- Underwear
- Exercise machine
- Lamps
- Steering wheels (this one is particularly interesting, I don’t think traffic jams are the best market, if you were in a car surly you wouldn’t be in need of a wheel?)

There is a saying in Dakar don’t go shopping, wait for the shops to come to you.

Gambia / Gambie

2007-06-30T09:28:00.000Z

Gambia / Gambie

Over the last few months ive made several trips to the southern part of Senegal. To visit a number of projects we have in the Velingara region of the country. Because of the weird shape of Senegal (a bit like pacman with Gambia as the mouth if your not sure) when travelling south we often have to leave Senegal drive through another country then re-enter Senegal. The other option is to drive all of the way round the Gambia via Tambacounda, but the roads full of potholes and its not a pleasant trip.

I also like the Gambia route because its far more interesting.

- For a start Gambia is an English speaking country. Its very weird being surrounded by French speaking countries but other than Wolof, English is taught in the schools. Driving through Gambia you can also see all the road signs and shop names in English which always makes me smile.

- The route means we also have to cross the river Gambia. We normally do this in Georgetown were there are two small car ferries that shuffle you across the river. The are also two further places to cross further into Gambia, ive now taken all the routes and crossed the Gambia in 4 different places.

- My Passport is rapidly filling up ! if the boarder guards can be bothered I get a stamp every time I leave and re-enter the country. My pasports only 18 months old and ive already filled 20 pages.

- Lastly the forest trip. To re-enter Senegal near Kaffers we have to cross into Senegal via a dust road. It takes you through a forest with some proper rallying terrain. The route pops you out somewhere near Nganda 40kms from Kaffrine. I also like this route as its kind of illegal, there is no boarder and its like a smugglers route into the country. Much fun.

Late july I should be back there again and make the trip in the rains !

Kaffrine Sports Club

2007-06-23T12:01:00.000Z

We have just had out health checks in the office and as a result we have realised its defiantly necessary for us to do more sport !!!

So we have formed a Kaffrine sports club. Every Tuesday and Thursday night about 10 of us from the office meet in the local stadium to do some exercises. Last Thursday I was in Kaffers so joined the group. We did about 30mins of light jogging and 30 mins of aerobics. This mostly consisted of Rocky style running up and down stadium stairs. In 30oc its certainly not easy but does make you fill a million times better. Our accountant/aerobics instructor was certainly a hard task master especially trying to follow the Wollof orders.

Dakar half marathon next maybe?

My grey door

2007-06-18T18:52:00.000Z

I few weeks ago I wrote about the strange incident in which a man turned up and painted my door blue. I returned to Kaffers today after 10 days on the road to find my door pained again. This time a rather dull grey…shame I liked the blue. Still as apposed to the last time when it was just the door painted this time the whole house has been painted, in……..yes you have guessed it a rather dull grey. What’s worse I retuned to find 2 inches of dust everywhere and everything (literally, pots and pans, wash stuff, furniture…) piled into the bedroom. As it was about 7pm and I was v tired I admitted defeat and went to chez Jannines for the night……where there is no grey to be seen.

In other exciting news…the post seems to have had a bit of a spurt of late. Ive received 10 letters this week including my birthday present posted in February, thanks annie and dan for the “don’t hassle the hoff” T-Shirt. Also in the post was two invitations from the British embassy. One for the boat, already mentioned in another email, the second for a party to celebrate the queens birthday. Alas once again ive missed it. The party’s on the 15th and ive received the invitation on the 18th. Thank you Senegalese postman.

Weekend in Dakar

2007-06-10T18:32:00.000Z

After some months ‘in the field’ (always a weird term, especially as there’s no grass here !?!) ive finally managed to make it back into Dakar for a bit of R n R. Its been a mad month of life on the road so its great to finally stop for a couple of days.

I arrived back in Dakar late Friday evening after a long journey and felt immediately a little lost. Seeing many cars, instead of many carts, shops instead of huts, and white people again always takes getting used to. Still by the next morning every thing seemed to be back to normal. Im in Dakar with fellow WV Expat, Canadian Alex whose retuned back to Senegal to continue working in Fatick. (for a Canadian perspective on the weekend click here http://www.alexdykstra.blogspot.com/ ) We met up Friday night and headed for the local Senegalese night spot ‘on the run’ petrol station. In the UK a petrol satiation is where you….well get petrol…in Senegal it’s a hang out place. We sat on the terrace eating a pizza and sipping tequila flavoured imported beer into the small hours of the morning.

Saturday was time to leave the computers behind and get a bit of sun. After an early morning run we headed for Gorée and Island in the bay of Dakar. We arrived just in time to see the boat disappearing out of the harbour but after a strole for a while managed to catch the 1230 to the island. Goree is a beautiful island famous for its use as an outpost during the slave trading days. The island is covered in small colourful cottages with narrow alleyways sloping up to the fort on the far end. Now where once stood gun emplacements, artists have taken up home in the disused buildings and sell art mostly made from stuff that drifts up on the shore. We spent most of the day ambling around the streets then chilling on the beach. The evening was finished off my a trip to my fav restaurant, a Cameroonian restaurant that sells the best thiouf grille its possible to find.

Sunday we made it to church in the international school, which gave me a chance to catch up with a few people ive not seen in a while. The church which ive written about before is home mostly to army and embassy personal and a nice friendly gathering, ideal for people like me who dip in every couple of months.

So there ends a nice chilled weekend…..now where’s the computer I bet there is a hundred emails waiting !!!!!

Ship ahoy

2007-06-02T14:56:00.000Z

Faithful blog readers will remember last year that I was invited to a reception on board a British ship visiting Dakar. Excitingly I received an email (this time before the event !!) saying,

"I'd like to inform you that you will be receiving an invitation for a reception on board HMS Endurance, a British naval ship, in the Dakar Port (Grand Wharf) on Tuesday 22 May at 18h30. Please let me know by the end of this week if your invitation has not arrived."

Alas I was in the south of the country some 600kms from Dakar on that day so couldn’t make the event. So no chance of sipping cocktails on board, dining with high society, strutting round a battleship feeling colonial, meeting glamorous ladies………. However I met a fellow brit last week who did go, and said it was a bit more like a BBQ on tug boat.

Maybe next time?

My blue door

2007-05-28T09:30:00.000Z

Ive been waiting a while for someone to come and paint a few rooms of my flat. There are some alarming cracks and weird looking stains in some of the rooms so I though a lick of paint might help resolve the situation. I wanted to do this myself, but the people who are in charge of the place looked horrified that I would attempt such a dangerous task !?! and insisted on sending someone. 2 months later (Sunday morning) someone finally turned up. Unfortunately I speak little Wolof and he spoke no French or English, but I went round pointing at rooms that need painting. He looked a little puzzled and promptly produced a pot of bright blue paint and begun painting my front door. After ten minutes he explained (I think?) that’s he’s finished and left. That was the last ive seen of him.

Now I have a bright blue front door and the same cracked stained rooms. O well at least the door looks nice.

Sunday in Kaffrine

2007-05-26T13:26:00.000Z

For once I was actually in Kaffrine at the weekend and after working very hard lately I decided Sunday should be free of work stuff. So here is how I passed my day in Kaffrine.

7.00 Got up, well it gets hot early here, so it not easy to have a late start.

Run. I have about a 2 mile circuit in Kaffrine out of the town and through the bush, in the early morning its just about cool enough to manage a run.

9ish Breakfast, I had a half a watermelon left in the fridge so polished that of sitting on the balcony.

For the rest of the morning I decided to watch a DVD, so I dipped into my collection and found Blood Diamond that I bought while in Sierra Leone. The films a very moving account of the diamond trade in Sleone. Seeing some of the places I visited , and a country not very far from here in conflict is hard, especially when I know people who would have lived through that experience.

1pm - After the film I made the short trip into Kaffrine market to get a hair cut and pick up some bread for lunch. I went to the usual hairdresser who despite me repeatedly saying “just a little” proceeded to as usual chop off pretty much everything !

After lunch I intended to watch another DVD but an odd thing happened, it rained. I know rain doesn’t seem that odd but I haven’t seen rain since December and it normally doesn’t rain till June. I made the most of it and went for a long walk in the rain…..rain also means cool….at last a cold spell in Kaffrine….it was funny seeing people put on coats and hats for a cold spell (about 25!)

4pm – Sunday afternoons is church time. In Kaffrine there are 5 missionary families and in the afternoon we all meet with about 20 Senegalese and have a service in Wolof/English. The service takes place on the roof while sipping Senegalese tea. Its very informal, has no denomination….so my kind of church.

In the evening I went for diner at one of the families house and enjoyed pasta/cheese and fantastic mango/banana smoothies, we spent the rest of the evening chatting about Kaffrine life.

A great way to pass a day !

Some pictures of my house (im the top right flat)

African Health Care

2007-05-19T17:44:00.000Z

Unfortunately I had to make my second visit to an African health instillation this week. The first was a few months ago when I was sick. I was diagnosed with Malaria given some pills and kicked out in 2 minutes flat. Still a quickly recovered and was left with a fairly positive experience of African health care.

My second experience was a trip to the dentist. At the weekend I broke a tooth while eating in a dibby. Dibby food although great is dangerous ! A typical dibby is a small hut with a log fire. You walk in say how much you want to pay and an equlivant amount of meat is hacked off something hanging from a hook. Its then grilled mixed with onions and spices and presented to you in a piece of old brown paper cement bag. The dangerous bit is that there are often hidden pieces of bone in the meat. One of these claimed my tooth resulting in a visit to the dentist. Im not fond of dentists at the best of times, but African dentist scare the life out of me.

I turned up when told at 9am at the Kolda Hospital. Waited a while, and a while longer and a while longer, before deciding to call. The dentists car was broken so we had to go and pick him up in our car, not a great start !. The surgery wasn’t bad, fairly clean and the equipment only looked about 20 years old. Probably the scarcest element was the ‘medicine’ cabinet which contained a bottle of mineral water and a bottle of scotch. From what I could make out the French/wolof the dentist was attempting to fix a part of a false tooth to replace the bit that was missing. This took about an hour and a half as he progressively skimmed bits of tooth off with the drill to make the right fit. Of course all of this was done with no aesthetic which is not available in these parts……..ouch…….wasn’t the happiest day !

Still at least it was cheap £35, in the UK it would be at least 4 times that amount.

Work Work Work

2007-05-12T10:55:00.000Z

Sorry ive been a bit quite on the blog front lately, its been crazy with work over the last few weeks but probably the best few ‘development experience’ weeks ive had. Ive been in the south of the country (the bit below Gambia) helping to facilitate a redesign process. Its intense hard work but loads of fun also. Last week I was in a village running children’s groups conducting problem trees, and ranking exercises using stones and pictures…..loads of fun. I now move onto Kolda for a few days before eventually returning home at the end of the week. Hopefully my cleaning lady has been busy, otherwise im in for a big sweeping job cleaning out three weeks of sand !

Other work news concerns the ‘national labour day’ which ironically is a national holiday. Typical French tradition, celebrate working by……not working !!! However in Senegal its an excuse for a party. A feast was organised in the office with Serere music and dancing….unfortunately I was also made to take part.

Alex

P.S I also have a facebook sight, click here http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=561101705 to visit my face and become a friend.

A long way round

2007-04-28T13:09:00.000Z

Last week we have been conducting a macro assessment. Basically this meant spending a week on the road visiting different places in Senegal that are possible for future detailed research before starting some projects. 10 of us set out to visit Missirah, Kedougou, Toubacouta and south Kaolack. It was an excellent week spending lots of time in villages and with different stakeholders discussing development issues. Here are some highlights of the trip.

Kedougou
Kedougou is in the far south east corner of Senegal. Its around a 6h drive from Kaffrine and the other side of our national Park Niokolo Koba. We spent the night on the edge of the park in a small campment on the backs of the river Gambia. It was an amazing place with Hippos in the river, monkeys crashing through the trees and fruit bats chirping overhead. The next day we headed down to Kedougou. It’s a very different context to what we are used to in Senegal. Here the terrain is different, mountains instead of flat sands, the people are different, Bedi, and Bambara instead of Wolof and Serere, and the religion is different, villages with Christian, Muslim and traditional beliefs living side by side. We visited several rural councils but one in particular left and impression with all of us. Fongolimbi is on the very edge of Senegal/Guinee boarder a 1 hour journey from Kedougou through the mountains. The road is literally like driving through a dry river bed, over rocks and trees with 100m drops of both sides. When we reach the village we meat with several to discuss the area and the problems facing the inhabitants. It was the same in all sectors, access is a serious issue, people cant access the health post, people cant sell goods outside of the market, people cant access water supplies. It certainly left an impression on all of us.

On the journey out of Kedougou/ Missirah we visited two other sites, a gold mine and a banana plantation. The gold mine brought back memories of Niger and my trip to Komabangou. In the gold mines of Senegal people dig holes straight down into the ground to a dept of about 20 meters. Someone (normally a small child) then goes down the hole and digs horizontally and the earth is brought up by a winch. Here it was small scale not like Niger but still sad to see kids working in impossibly dangerous conditions in the vain hope that they might find gold. If gold is found its not usually the miners that benefit but the owners that receive most of the profits, leaving the kids in similar situation.

Thankfully the banana plantation was a happier story. The 15h site was the first ever project initiated by WV in Senegal some 21 years ago. It was amazing to see that after some 18 years since WV left the plantation it is still going giving a livelihood to 81 families. The group has now diversified to also grow mangoes and papaya and even last year had enough to buy a new water pump. Nice to know we get some things right.

Toubacouta
The second part of the week was spent in a totally different context in the west of the country near the sea and the boarder with Gambia. We stayed in Toubacouta in a place in the delta zone of Senegal. The hotel had a view of the river and the sun setting over mangrove covered islands. For dinner we had a fish a least a meter long caught just in front of the hotel.

Unlike Kedougou this zone has had lots of NGOs and government projects supporting the zone. However it was a sad experience visiting countless project that have collapsed or on the way to collapsing. One example was a large Maize project once producing 185h of Maize for most of Senegal. Now they have produced nothing for 2 years and the guard there has not seen the owner for more than a year. We visited clinics, agricultural projects, and fishing enterprises with a similar story. Once an outside intervenient leaves and withdraws its support the project often collapses. It was a real lesson in sustainability and in making sure that the project is designed, owned, and managed buy the community right from the beginning.

It was probably the week ive learnt the most about development, speaking with rural council leaders, farmers, miners, doctors, teachers and discussing various issues. With nearly everyone we meant the message that development is in the head – the attitudes, mentality and practices of people is more important that physical assets.

Essentials for life on the road

2007-04-21T16:41:00.000Z

If your spending your life on the road, its wise to get kitted out with some cool gadgets and accessories that help mike life a little easier or possibly save it. Here in no particular order is my top ten list of tings to get:

- A Crumpler bag. Both cool and practical. A little expensive but helps to transport a laptop and other e-vices without making you look like a prime mugging target. Check it out here http://www.crumpler.co.uk/2.0/site.html P.S not a man bag !!!
- A solar charger. Charges phones, IPODS and cameras. Very handy in power cuts. -
- A good first aid kit. Any other option than visiting African health care is a good idea.
- Wind up torches. Again handy in a power cut and good for saving trees.
- Mosquito spray. When you cant be bothered to put a net up again, splashing a bit of lotion on, it works and is a lot less hassle.
- IPOD. If you have the money a great way to save on handling lots of CDs and if you get the tape converter great for long distance car journeys.
- Decent suit case or bag – should have the following features, Strong, lightweight, handle and wheels, ability to carry it on your back, and not expensive looking.
- Airbed, when its 40 at night sleeping outside is a must.
- A blow up globe. Always great when entertaining lots of random kids.
- A small football, ditto.

Enjoy

The flat

2007-04-14T16:06:00.000Z

Now ive been living in my flat for a couple of weeks I thought it was time to write a bit more about living chez alex.

My house…well flat technically is the top left on the of a block of 4 and just across the road from the guest house where ive spent most of the last year. Im starting to love my little place as it becomes a bit more like a ‘home’. Here are the things I love about my home,

My Fridge. Now I know in the UK a fridge doesn’t some like a prize feature of a house but when its 40ish most days a good fridge is essential. Mine gives me iced bottles of water and its always great to stick you head the ice box when its really really hot.

My 'femme de menage' Now i know translated this is 'housewife' but its not what you think. i have a housekeeper. She sweeps (not an easy place Kaffrine is one big sandpit and sand gets everywhere) cleans and makes sure the place is tidy. Unfortunatly she also has a habbit of arriving about seven thirty on a saturday morning, still by the time i got back home again the place was spotless.

My balcony. I have a comfy chair on the balcony where I eat my cereal in the morning and drink my beer in the evenings. In the evenings there is also a nice breese to help me chill out.

My décor. Most of my stuff is from other people or from the market so it’s a little miss matched. In the lounge i have a purple lamp shaped as a flower that lights when you touch it. Classy.

However its not actually what you call a palace, here are the things I have to work on

The water, it smells really bad, both in the shower and kitchen. Thankfully I don’t have to drink it but washing in its not very nice.

The pipes, one comes from next door and ends in my porch !?! nothings come out of it yet but im a little worried.

The painting, there a cracks everywhere and im sure there increasing.

The power, i need a regulator to stop surges. I keep shocking my self on various appliances.

Still at least its home

Jurassic Zoo

2007-04-09T12:16:00.000Z

Ive noticed on the map of Dakar ‘Parc Zoologic’ but never got around to visiting. I think this is because my only other experience of a Zoo in Africa was the Zoo in Niamy Niger. This was not a pleasant experience with mangy animals in very small cadges. However as I had the Saturday free I decided to give it ago.

The Zoo is set in the ‘parc foret’ on the western side of Dakar. I took a taxi and headed out in the early morning. Thankfully the Dakar zoo was not at all like the Niamy zoo and relatively clean and interesting. I was also surprised by the range of animals, lions, tigers, pythons, monkeys, crocodiles, etc. Although there did seem to be a high number of pens with sheep in, as you can see sheep on just about any street corner it was a little odd. Maybe they were food for the other animals ?

However despite It being clean it was probably the most scariest zoo ive ever visited. There seemed to be an alarming amount of cages empty or with broken fences. I could have walked through the whole in the buffalo pen. There also seemed to be no Zoo personal anywhere, hence children were free to throw rocks at the lions to provoke them into doing something. I think it didn’t help that I watched King Kong in the morning on canal + so had images of strange animals attacking poor people in amusing ways. All this meant the zoo had a real Jurassic Park feel to it. Thankfully I escaped with all limbs.

It turned out to be an eventful trip and well worth the 35p entrance fee !

Hello from Mali

2007-04-03T21:36:00.000Z

Just two years ago I had never been to Africa, now im staying hello from my 8th African country. This time im in the capital of Mali, Bamako. When I was young I always wanted to visit Mali and its famous town Timbuktu. Unfortunately im here for I workshop so its likely im only going to get to see the inside of a hotel and the route to the airport. Still the conference is fairly interesting and there is still fun to be had.

A friend and fellow trainee Roz is also here and last night needing to escape the confines of the conference we went in search of a restaurant. A Malian participant at the conference recommended the piano restaurant that had live music. We took a taxi and arrived to find it was a Chinese restaurant that kind of resembled a school dining room inside. So in the middle of West Africa we ate Chinese restaurant in a school dining room.

Arriving in Mali also got me thinking (well in boring parts of the conference you had to keep your mind busy !) about the amount of places stayed in in a year. Here is my list.

Senegal
Dakar 5
Thies 3
Mbour 5
Bamby 1
Fatick 3
Kaolack 3
Kaffrine 2
Koungheaul 2
Tambacomba 1
Velingara 2
Kolda 2

International
Sierra Leone 3
Mauritanie 1
Mali 1
South Africa 2
France 2
UK 3

Total 41

And most of these places ive visited more than once, ives stayed in some half a doesn’t plus times. By a rough calculation Ive worked out ive probably packed or unpacked around 400 times in the last 15 months !

My new home

2007-03-27T17:12:00.000Z

Well finally after 15 months I have a home !!!!!!! After 15 months of living in hotels, guest houses and shacks, after 15 months of packing and unpacking, after 15 months not cooking, after 15 months of having to check in and out I finally have my own place.

The furniture and electrical problems seem to have sorted themselves out and last Saturday I could move in. It seems to be a bit of a Whitney thing at the moment with my brother buying a flat in Chelsea and sister looking for loggers in Leicester. I think I probably have the cheapest deal though £60 a month for 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, lounge, and balcony terrace, from which im writing this blog now.

Although I like my new flat its not exactly what you would call luxury this is Kaffrine after all. All the doors and windows in Kaffrine are made from metal with slats to allow light and air in or out. Unfortunately it kind of gives the impression your in a prison.

My best feature has to be the balcony which overlooks the south part of Kaffrine and the railway line in the mornings its also cool here with a gentle breeze. In the evenings I can sit out with a biere la gazelle and enjoy the sunset.

Im going to be busy of the next few weeks there are still many things to fix, the house needs painting, the shower doesn’t really drain, the sofa is broken, and I have nothing to cook on at the moment. It means meals are cheese sandwiches and angle delight mmmmmmmmm.

The house move has also coincided with the hottest weather I have experienced here. The day I moved it was 43. Lugging chairs and fridges around in that heat is not fun. We are also experiencing power problems in Kaffrine so the nights can get really hot when the small fans fail.

Still that’s Kaffrine, most adventures from the flat to come in due course however as always im off travelling soon. A few days in Dakar a week in Mali, a few days in Kaolack then back to my real home……cold biere waiting……….f the fridge still works !

Magram Water

2007-03-17T10:30:00.000Z

In Sierra Leone i was drinking Magram water. It proudly proclaims and i quote word for word

"Magram natural spring water is the best amongst the rest. It is highly competitive with international standards. It is processed with highly concentrated machines from Europe and its origin is from deep beneath the rocky hills of greater Freetown. Its cycling process moves from Ceramic rod type filter, to active filter, to precision filter, to reverse osmosis device machine unto sterilizing machine. Recommended for babies bottle."

A -best amongst the rest means there is better?
B - that is competitives with standards and does not meet them is a little worring !
C- I dont think water from beneath Freetown is particularly appealing
D - They sem to rely a lot on these concentrated machines, with no power in the city it seems a little strange.

= E if i had one i dont think i would give it to my baby !

4 Countries, 10 hours, 1 epic journey.

2007-03-16T07:55:00.000Z

Im back in Sierra Leone yea ! Readers of this blog will remember ive been here before around this time last year and now ive been back for a week. I was there to help facilitate a workshop on development report writing, doesn’t sound that exciting I know but it was a great experience and nice to facilitate something in English for once !

Enough if the work side here is a few of the funnier events from the visit to SL.

SLOK – Airlines to Sierra Leone
- Firstly there nearly wasn’t a visit al all. We were travailing with the famous SLOK airlines. SLOK flys (and I use that term lightly) from Dakar- Gambia – Sierra Leone- Liberia – Ghana. We were booked on Flight SO 104 due to leave at 3pm. We arrived at the airport in Dakar at 115 only to be told that flight SO 104 didn’t exist. Hence lengthy conversation to explain its quite clearly printed on the tickets FLIGHT SO 104 !!!!!. However we were told that we could still go on flight 103 due to leave in 5 minutes. So we ran and ran and made it to the gate just in time for them to tell us flight 103 is delayed for 2 hours. We ended up leaving exactly when we were supposed to. We have a phrase for this here we have been SLOCked.

BO – Sierra Leone
So to Sierra Leone. After a night in Freetown we went straight out to Bo in Central Sierra Leone for the workshop. Bo is hot…..its not hot temperature wise as Senegal but humidity makes you sweat constantly. Despite that its been a nice stay the town seems quite friendly and certainly has character. Its also been a strange time here as a rebel leader died and his body was brought through the town during the workshop. Hundreds of cars funnelled through town bibbing horns and following the body creating quite a disruption to the workshop ! Thankfully no troubled followed and the short stay in Bo was soon over.

Freetown – Sierra Leone
Although with many problems Freetown is a very beautiful town. Set in the mountains and along the coast it has very beautiful scenery. We had just over a day free so decided to go up to the top of Hill Station from where you can view all of Sierra Leone. We spoke to a friend who recommended a taxi that could take us around, only problem was the recommended person didn’t turn up. Instead the brother turned up in a battered taxi that jerked us round most of Freetown. Near the top of the hill the car decided to breakdown so we spent the best part of a hour trying to start it on a very steep slope and push in other areas. Despite the car I gave him a big tip at the end as I felt sorry for all the repairs he is going to have to make.
The other exciting event in SL was visiting the church I blogged about last year. I was there last year with a friend during the fundraising service for a new keyboard. I can report the keyboard seems to be woring fine an blaring out across Freetown. This time the church was raining money for the youth group. The service ended with a collection conga out onto the street.

SLOK Airlines from Sierra Leone
I thought going to Sierra Leone was a hassle trying to leave proved to be near impossible. We were told the day before that our flight SO104 again didn’t exist but we could leave on SO103 in the evening. We arrived at the airport mid Sunday afternoon (via helicopter !) only to be told the flight not going today, for the reason that – “there arnt enough passengers to make it economic to fly today”. This might sound nice for the airline but for the 20 passengers wanting to go to Dakar not very helpful, especially as the next flight would be in three days time !! So an emergency plan was needed. After chatting to some very funny random Indian businessmen we decided to go with them as far as Banjul in Gambia, then try and make our way into Senegal. It turned into an epic journey that rivalled and Michael Palin trip.

Thankfully the flight to Gambia did leave although 3 hours late. We were also informed that we would be making an unscheduled stop in Guinea Conkery, a 15min flight from Freetown. After our brief view of Guinea we headed of and landed in Gambia. That’s when the real adventure started. The Indian businessmen offered us a lift for next part of our journey. We headed off Hindi music blearing to reach the port some 30mis away. At one point I did start to question my sanity “im in a country I don’t know, in a car with two people I meant this morning, headed for a port in the hope I can find a way into Senegal !” Thankfully the Indians were lovely and dropped us off just in time to catch the ferry across the river Gambia. Half an hour later and having been in the 5th different mode of transport for the day we reached the other side of Gambia. We next had to negotiate our way from the banks of the river Gambia to the boarder of Senegal. We found a willing taxi driver how could take us the 30 miles for a £3 (bargain!) so headed off in his battered while Mercedes. Half way there and travailing along a smooth road he decided to take us on a short cut to the boarder post of Karang. Hence for the second time in a day if found myself with a stranger and a little scared heading out across the bush of Senegal. We tore through small villages and through sand dunes and after a while reach Senegal. The boarder guards although a little surprised to see a while wan there stamped my passport (certainly getting a lot of stamps out of this trip) and let us through without much hassle. By then it was about 6pm but I still needed to negotiate the 250kms to Dakar in time for a meeting the next day. Thankfully we hooked up with a WV driver and at midnight, 2 minutes into my birthday reached our final destination.

It was probably the most stressful, but also the journey im going to remember of my life – thank you SLOK.

Gadgets

2007-03-02T17:55:00.000Z

Ive made the most of an extended spell in Dakar and the fast internet connection to add some gadgets to the blog. You can check out,

- Photos memories from home
- The weather in Kaffrine, it showed 41 yesterday!!!!
- Visitor tracker, showing where people have viewed the blog from.

Other interesting gadgets coming soon!

Elections

2007-02-26T14:50:00.000Z

Sunday was our election day. Im still not entirely sure how the whole thing works but it seems the current president is likely to win another term. Elections here are a massive event, and the election period means you have to make a lot of changes to the normal routine. Most people have to vote in their home district which for some means a two day journey. Shops and other things also seem to shut down giving the place a ghost town feeling. Although we are a largely peaceful country the election time can still be full of raised tensions as different groups seek to gain an advantage. There have been reports that trouble could occur if the ‘wrong’ party wins but people are hoping things will be ok. So far here is my election experience,

- Monday I watched my first scenes of violence. The students and teachers are currently on strike over pay and conditions. I needed to get to the embassy to reregister and took a taxi through the Uni district. We rounded the corner to see students throwing rocks from the Uni grounds at the armed police the other side of the road; fortunately the police here are under funded as well so had no ammunition for their guns so were chucking the rocks back. The whole thing kind of resembled a rather more deadly game of snowballs ! Our Taxi driver didn’t seem to take much interest and drove us straight through the two sides.

- Wednesday my trip back to Kaffrine. On the outskirts a group of WADE supported were distributing leaflets to the passing cars. All the supporters had roller blades and were ducking in and out of the cars to make sure all had a leaflet. Very funny, but they were probably in more danger than the rock chucking students. I would rather face the police throwing rocks from 50 yards than the Dakar traffic on roller blades.

- Friday and some more worrying news. Friends from my church in Dakar emailed to say gangs of youths with bats were stalking the streets at night vandalising the homes of some supporters.

- Friday in Kaffrine and a convoy comes through. Official campaigning here seems to means driving around with huge speakers blaring out reggae music while 20 or so people on the roof should slogans at bemused passers-by.

- Sunday – Election day. Very very quite. All the shops are shut and there are no cars or even people on the streets. I spend most of the day watching some of the rather bizarre election coverage on TV. It seems to involve the odd interview mixed with Senegalese pop videos to fill the time.

The whole election process makes a bit of a mockery of the Bush Blair idea of us being the guardians of democracy around the world. In the UK only 40% vote and i bet a large percentage couldn’t name the main party leaders. Here nearly every one with the right to vote will often at great personal discomfort or hassle to make sure they have their voice heard. Lets hope the peace lasts and the result is positive for the development of Senegal.

I you want to read some more these two articles sum it up nicely.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7593252

http://www.namibian.com.na/2007/February/africa/077A236902.html

Cape Town - Episode 3 and 4

2007-02-19T16:26:00.000Z

Cape town - Episode 3 – The Wine

Friday, Cape Town, Wine Tour, don’t remember anything else ...................................................…………………………………………im joking thankfully we didn’t drink that much wine and managed to remember the day. We left the guest house about 10ish with two Germans and an American on a tour of some of the vineyards surrounding Cape Town. The tour included visits to 4 wineries set in stunning scenery in the Cape town hills. The first, Durbanville Hills has the amazing backdrop of Table Mountain. We sipped wine at 11 in the morning on a terrace overlooking the mountain and vineyards. Vineyards 2, 3 and 4 were in and around the town of Stellenbosch a beautiful leafy University Town with stunning views of rolling mountains spreading out in all directions.

So to the wine……after about the 10 glasses it all seems to blend into one flavour but every glass was very enjoyable made more so by drinking sitting on the grass in the middle of the vineyards chatting with random Germans. We eventually made it back to the Green Elephant about 6pm and started on the wine purchased from the last vineyard.

In the evening we were invited to a party (Braai) hosted by a friend in a house somewhere in the Cape Town suburbs. The house was probably about the largest house ive ever visited complete with pool, pool table and a huge garden playing host to an impromptu concert. More wine was drunk and the evening spent wiling away the hours listening to acoustic guitar. Very nice evening…..not much Biltong though?

Cape Town – Episode 4 – The Sea.

Last day in Cape Town – essential to visit the coast line. Candy picked us up in the morning and took us on a Cape Towner’s tour of the peninsular area. The coast line here is stunning. Mountain views on one side, blue blue seas the other, and wide brilliant white beaches stretching out for miles. We took a drive along Chapmans peak road and headed down to Boulders a beach home to penguins so tame that you can sun bathe next to them. Lunch included a massive sea food platter with crayfish, prawns and mussels….mmmmmmmmm. The afternoon included pottering around Fish Hoek and a drive back along the coast. Our sea side tour was completed with a meal out in trendy Camps Bay and drinks in a posh hotel.

So there ends the Camp Town tour. 2 blokes, 3 days, much fun.

More photos - http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/5033219

Cape Town - Episode 1 and 2

2007-02-18T12:57:00.000Z

Cape Town – Episode 1 – The arrival
After 10 days of conferencing im soooooooo pleased to have escaped for a short holiday to Cape Town. For those of you I didn’t tell, my former Stony house mate Arthur was planning to take holiday so I delayed my return to Senegal and added a short break We arrived late Wednesday into a new world. The next few blogs will detail the adventures (those possible to publish !) in Cape Town.

Ive only been here a little while but this town is already amazing. Were staying in the Green Elephant backpackers hotel in Observatory which is very cool an hippy. It a bit more commune than hotel with shared kitchens a bar and communal eating, people are really friendly and several trips already planned.

We arrived about 8pm and decided to head out for a bite to eat. Obs seems to resemble Oxford. There is a big Uni here and the place in full of small bars and eateries. We found a small place that was half bar half restaurant and ordered some food. It was then we realised its valentines night…………so I got to spend by valentines night in a bar with Arthur, not what I quite had in mind !

Cape Town – Episode 2 – The rock
Day two Cape Town for real. As we arrived late the last night it we had no idea where exactly we were, walking to the shops early morning allowed us to check out the place a little. The city is really beautiful with views of the mountain in just about every direction. We reached the shops bought some Biltong for breakfast and got ready for the day.

When in Cape Town, Table Mountain is a must. For some strange reason we decided walking up would be a nice way to spend the morning. A Taxi takes you half way up leaving just a mere 2 hour climb to the summit. The first half hour was fairly hell climbing up endless rock stairs in the blazing sun, but after a while the gorge provided shade and the climb became a little easier. With plenty of Biltong and water stops we eventually made it. Unfortunately we reached the top just about the sometime as a rather large cloud, soaking us and meaning the spectacular views promised amounted to about 10 meters ! We ate lunch (salad and Biltong) and thankfully the cloud broke a little to allow glimpses of the sea, beach and town spreading out before us. Certainly is a wonderful place from here.

After resting and eating some more Biltong we wisely took the cable car down and headed for the waterfront area. This zone is home to many swanky bars, shops, malls and street performers including a bloke limboing beneath a rope of fire. We wandered around for a little while made some purchases ate some more Biltong and headed back for a well earned rest.

The evening was pizza night at the hostel so we joined half a dozen others for pizza with many toppings (sadly no Biltong topping) in the hotel garden. Later evening we agreed to meet old WV friend Candy. We headed for a bar called extreme some where down town for a few cocktails, the bar is known for its odd décor with gadgets and design features to keep you busy for many hours. My fave were the loos all decorated separately, the best loo had one wall entirely covered in loo roll holders and a shelf full of books. The bar also had amazing chairs with built in Radio/DVD players, a glass pool, and a smoking room with coffins for chairs and a ceiling painted with a funeral seen, giving the image your in a grave looking out at people burying you.

We stayed for a while ate some Biltong then headed back to the Elephant for a well deserved rest.

Soweto

2007-02-13T10:51:00.000Z

Well finally ive been able to escape conference world and visit a part of the real South Africa. Sunday was a free day so a group of us decided to visit Soweto. In case anyone’s not sure Soweto is a township of Joburg previously home to Nelson Mandela and the place where the fight against a apartite was born. We had the whole day to experience some of the life there by doing the following:

Church
As it was Sunday the day begun with a trip to Grace bible Church in Soweto. We arrived about 10ish with the service already in full swing and the five thousand or so worshipers enjoying a rocking service from the local minister. The church had a really warm guanine feel to it and despite the size felt like a warm community experience. It was a little funny however to see popcorn and ice cream sellers offering their goods at the end of the service. The car park escape also resembled a football match.

Hector museum
After church we headed for the Hector Museum. This Museum is named after a boy who was shot dead outside his school protesting against the apartheid policy of forcing schools to teach only in Afrikaans, The Museum was well laid out and being in the middle of Soweto had large windows showing views of the township. The museum showed video clips and photos of life in Soweto and what it was like to live under the apartheid policy. It was strange watching the clips and looking out of the windows seeing the exact same buildings and imagining what happened just a few decades ago.

Lunch at Wandies
After church and Museum it was time for lunch. We headed to Wandies an African Restaurant in Soweto. The entire inside of restaurant is decorated with business cards. It gave the restaurant a unique charm. In between bites you could look up and see all the people that had visited before you. I left my card and someday many years from now perhaps I can return to find myself.

Apartheid Museum
At the end of the day we visited a museum on life in the apartheid system. The museum charts the last 100 years of South Africa and highlight the causes, effects and downfall of the system. The museum was packed full of posters, videos and stories from peoples experiences. Having been to the holocaust museum in Israel and the S21 museum in Cambodia this didn’t have the same feeling and the intensity was not on the same scale, but somehow more than the other two examples the events of that time just doesn’t seem to fit with the beautiful country of today.
.
So there ends my day in Soweto and enjoyable and challenging experience and great to escape conference world !

Johannesburg = Milton Keynes

2007-02-11T17:14:00.000Z

Welcome to South Africa

Ive arrived safely if a little late on Sunday night. The flight wasn’t bad a little long at 9 hours but we had probably the funniest pilot every. Some American who would randomly come on the speaker system with jokes. When we landed he suggested we should all have a group hug as we made it safely.

So to Johannesburg. Unfortunately im in conference world and so far have only seen a five mile stretch of south Africa from the airport to the conference centre. The centre is in the middle of some kind of retail park with big shops selling cars, electrical stuff and furniture. Surprisingly the whole place seems to resemble MK and has a little theme park feel to it. There also seems to be a extraordinarily large number of steak houses,…well south Africans like their meat !

The conference has been ok so far I had to do a presentation to lots of big experts but it seemed to go down well and a few people asked me more questions afterwards and were interested in our experiences. I guess staying up to 1am finishing flit charts paid off.
Ok better go my room has South African TV which shows endless English football yea…….hopefully I will be able to escape conference world at some point and see a bit of real South Africa.

Happy New Year - Lock Up Your Chickens

2007-01-30T09:53:00.000Z

Last night was Islamic new years eve. It’s a little odd that I get two new years eves in the space of a month but im never one to turn down a party. The Muslims celebrate here by eating (naturally !) praying over empty bowls and amongst other things stealing chickens. Apparently young boys are allowed to take any chicken they see on new years eve. Fortunately I have no chickens for young boys to steal but my friend Chiekh is busy trying to make sure his chickens are well out of sight. Last night I was invited to a couscous party, the tradition for new years eve it to eat big mountains of food as its said if you don’t feel full on new years eve you will be hungry for the rest of the year.

The children (as well as trying to steal chickens) go from house to house banging drums and asking for donations of maize, millet or money in a sort of trick or treat fashion. The funny part is that the boys and girls change clothes and paint their faces white so as not be recognised. On my walk home from my friends I was mobbed by various odd looking children demanding I hand over all my maize, which I did as I had none.

Today is new years day and the streets are quite, shops shut and the whole town does have kind of hang over feel to it. Alas im in the office but im told there are more parties planed for tonight….. yea

Other party news, ive finally managed to meet up with the expat mission group here in Kaffers. Turns out there are around 10 here from time to time and they hold a weekly English language meeting together. The groups consist of 2 Americans, 2 South Africans, 2 Koreans, a few Canadians, two blokes from Northern Ireland and me. It was one of our numbers birthdays at the weekend so party events including film night (waking Ned Devine) and a whack the snowman pinarta party……some kind of American/Mexican tradition I think. Due to the success of Irish film waking Ned Devine I lent them my Farther Ted DVDs, im sure that will be a great culturally sensitive experience.

Rally Spearsy

2007-01-20T13:50:00.001Z

This weekend happens to be Paris – Dakar Rally day. For those not familiar with car rally world or the stupid the Paris –Dakar Rally is a rally that runs from Paris to Dakar….simple hey! Well not quite....this year the Paris - Dakar Rally runs from Lisbon to Dakar...see nothings simple here. The route takes the rally right through my very town of Kaffers. We ‘joined’ the race yesterday travelling up from the south through Tamba. All sorts of vehicles and people attempt the journey that takes in some of the most challenging terrain in the world…those Lisbon streets are a nightmare!

http://www.dakar.com/2007/DAK/LIVE/us/100/index.html

Yesterday the streets of Tamba were full of 4X4 vehicles decked out in logos pulling into the temporary service station for repair and refuelling. As we parted Tamba headed for Kaffers we spotted many other vehicles completing the last leg of their long journey. The sight of the rally cars seemed to excite our driver El Hadj who promptly caught up with a few vehicles, flashed on the indicators and overtook 5 cars in one go ! Im sure if the rally was run just in Senegal El Hadj would be odd on to win.

Today the cars have continued to come through Kaffers followed by support trucks and the odd police car. Its all been a little strange seeing people complete what might be for many a once in a life times experience on a streach of road that ive travelled scores of times and for me is as familiar as taking the A127 from Southend to the M25.

Rally Spearsy

P.S in other news a parcel has arrived hurray………thanks mum for the wind up torch and to MK people for the Calendar of Milton Keynes Roundabouts, jammie dodgers, and the squashed packet of mini cheddars.

Spearsy Season 3

2007-01-16T08:18:00.000Z

Well I arrived safely back in land of sand. The other goodbyes have been fairly horrible and I end up sad for a few days however this one seems a little different. Not much sadness and straight back into living Senegalese. Maybe im getting used to life as a nomad?

So now im back in Senegal, Spearsy Season 3 can commence. Stay tuned for an action packed season. Highlights will include trips to South Africa, Mali and Sierra Leone, experiences from travelling around Senegal, more challenge Spearsy (perhaps including a mystery guest !) and possibly more mischief with fellow expat alex.

Spearsy

Thanks for all the guessing the fact comments, Ally and Amy were right I didn’t go to school with Jamie Oliver or beat him at home ec. However I am disappointed many of you didn’t believe Ronaldino was a close personal friend, just look at the comments. Thanks Ron see, you at the next game.

Anyone got tickets for Steven Seagal yet?

Tagged

2007-01-06T16:02:00.001Z

Ive been tagged !

Unfortunately this isn’t an exciting electronic device strapped to my leg that bleeps if I move, but it means a blog friend tagged me on their blog. Apparently I must now reveal 5 unknown facts about myself and then tag a 5 others.

So to stop Amy moaning :-) here are my 5 facts. However I decided to make this a little interactive and invent one fact. If your feeling bored you can then comment on the one you think is poppycock (great word I think I will introduce it to the Senegalese).

1. Brazillian footballer Ronaldino (a close personal friend) waved to me in Barcelona before a big match in the Nou camp.

2. I have been on a train, boat, car and plane in 5 continents. (South America, America, Africa, Europe and Asia)

3. I have completed a Marathon in under 6 hours but was beaten by a man dressed as a chicken.

4. Jamie Olivier went to my school and I got a better grade in GCSE home economics than he did.

5. On the Simpson’s personality test (check it out here http://www.matthewbarr.co.uk/simpsons/ …… lots of fun) I am most like the character Dr Hibbert.

Guess away.......

Steven Seagal

2006-12-29T15:40:00.000Z

On my seaside walk today i saw an advert for Steven Seagal on tour !!!!! What with the Hoff having music career who next? Im eagerly awaiting the signing debut of Chuck Norris.

http://www.stevenseagal.com/

Unfortunatly i will be back in Senegal when he reaches the UK, but a urge you all to go.

Trespassing, Theft and Ferero Rocher

2006-12-20T07:06:00.000Z

As explained in the blogg below I was invited to the Embassy for a Christmas event. After a 14hour car journey I eventually made it back in to Dakar on the Saturday night which meant Sunday could be party at the Embassy time. What unfolds below is a story of trespassing, stealing and forgery but also a very funny and bizarre evening.

I was in Dakar with my friend and fellow expat interne Alex…..in case your wondering I haven’t gone crazy but there is actually another expat here in WV called Alex. This one is from Canada and studying environmental issues. After receiving the invite from the embassy I sent an email conforming my participation and asking if Canadian Alex could also come. They phoned in ten minutes and said as he’s Canadian and not a visitor he didn’t qualify……..typical.

However we decided to ignore this and both turn up and try to blagg an entrance. Our plan was to say Alex Smith (new English name) is a friend of mine visiting from the UK. Flawless plan, except Alex sounds Canadian so the plan required him to adopt a comedy British accent. We arrived at the embassy intending to implement the plan but as it turned out it was not needed. We arrived about the same time as half a dozen others and while flustered guard was dealing with the others we simply just walked in.

The Ambassadors place is just how you would imagine an ambassadors place to be. It had a winding driveway leading up to a huge house from the 1800s. The house had a sweeping veranda at the back with a view of the sea and surrounding bay. The gardens were complete with a tennis court, flower gardens and a pool. The rooms were all decorated with British stately home style furniture and the hallway adorned with a huge Christmas tree and picture of the queen. Most of the action was on the veranda with about 70 Brits mingling and soaking up a bit of Christmas. We were delighted to see free drinks, mince pies, mulled wine and a Kebab BBQ on the go. What more could you need.

We spent the evening sampling various different drinks (my favourite was ginger juice and JB) and mingling. Of course now Alex was imposing as a Brit he had to keep the accent up all night. What followed were several hilarious conversations in which Alex pretended to be from Cornwall (or the region of corn as he called it once) and tried out the new accent. I gave him a full Cornish briefing “just say you like pirates, cliffs and pasties” and he managed to fool a few guests despite my attempts to drop him in it at every opportunity.

After an hour or so (and several more free drinks) the carols started. Signing “im dreaming of a white Christmas” “sleigh bells ring” on the veranda over looking the sea, palm trees, and in 25 oc added to the odd scene of the occasion.

A throughly enjoyable 'fake british experience'

Alex

P.S Happy Christmas to all. Im returning tonight so probably no Spearsy for a few weeks. But tune in again early Jan for more challenge spearsy, life in the desert, and all the fun of Senegal.

P.P.S more on the special embassy challenge by request !

Another Invite

2006-12-15T19:04:00.000Z

Another invite,

Fresh from the invite to the event on the battleship the Embassy has sent me a second invite. This time by email it read:

You are
cordially invited
to Christmas Carols and Mulled Wine
at the Residence
at 18.30hrs on Sunday 17 December 2006
There will be a collection in support of Senegalese charities
RSVP (by 12 December please)

Dress: décontractée

How exciting a mulled wine event. At last something vaguely Christmassy in Senegal. As im Dakar on the Sunday I can go. Stay tuned for news of the event. Im also thinking of setting myself the second challenge spearsy….. to steal something British. Im imagining the embassy to be full of napkins and alike crested with the British seal. Any ideas on what I could pinch, no suggestions that are likely to land me in a Senegalese jail please !

Alex

P.S im even more confused by this dress code lark now, what on earth is décontratéé??????? Ideas?

Kaffers

2006-12-10T18:24:00.000Z

Ive spent the last two whole weeks in Kaffrine. That sounds fairly normal but it’s the longest continuous period ive been here in the last year. Its been nice getting to know my home town a little better and not having to sit in cars for many hours endlessly travelling.

Kaffrine has a great atmosphere to it and a lot of charm, but also a sadness. It’s a dying town. 30 years ago the peanut industry was in full swing and there was a lot of money in the town. Now all the big processing firms have left and with them the money. The passenger trains between Bamako and Dakar no longer run and there isn’t much of a reason for people to stop here any more. As an indicator the bar next to me only takes about £5 some nights. Only a few years ago it was packed with locals. I wonder if Kaffrine will be here in 20 years. People coming from the villages now pass straight to Kaolack or Dakar in search of better employment. Walking around Kaffers its also obvious that decay is setting in, buildings are falling down and houses remain half built as owners run out of money.

My days have been spent mostly in the office catching up on some emails and document work and getting to know some colleagues here a little better. The evenings have included further trips to the cinema (Japanese kick boxing film, and a French detective film) drinking ‘biere la gazelle’ with random strangers, and visiting various peoples houses. As a sample here is what Saturday night had in store.

It began with dinner at chez Janine’s (yep still here….more on that another time!) sitting by the fake Christmas tree and watching Francophone Miss World. I must add this wasn’t my choice but Janine’s. Im not sure who won but Miss Tahiti would be my choice for a date especially if you got to go and visit her place. Half way through the catholic priest turned up and watched the end with us, he seemed to enjoy it too! Around 9 I left for the cinema and a confusing evening working out the plots of bollywood films. I returned about 11 with a party in full swing in the bar at chez Janine’s. As was evident that sleeping would be a no go due to P Diddy tunes blaring through the walls, I decided to join in. A few more Gazells later and I felt suitably equipped to get to sleep despite the gangster rap parties next door.

Just a typical evening in Kaffers.

P.S Hope you like the new blog

Technology

2006-12-08T14:15:00.000Z

Since coming back to Senegal ive been amazed several times by technology. Given a laptop and a internet connection its incredible how the outside (or possibly inside) world opens up to you. Here are four ways to be impressed by technology,

Skype and web cams. In one day a few weeks ago I spoke to people in Mali, Senegal, Sudan, France, UK and US….all for free. My brothers web cam is so clear I can actually watch his TV through the web cam. However appoligies to various friends and family who have picked up the phone and heard what they though was a mouse. When i call to non skype phones i sound really quite.

YouTube and photobox. The wonders of short videos and photos have allowed me to share stuff with the world in seconds and keep a lasting memory of my travels.

Sopcast a (possibly illegal) player that allow you to watch free live football through the internet.
EvertonFC – subscription allows me to get 30 mins highlights from every match and live comentary for only £3 a month.

However this does pose a dilemma. I only have access in the office so I risk becoming a hermit with a virtual life in the internet. I must ration myself, after all despite all the technology it’s the people in the real world give you the biggest laughs.

So up to date and western hermit or local intrepid explorer of the random world? mmmmmmm?

The Rex

2006-12-04T14:25:00.000Z

Much to my joy, amazement and anger ive found a cinema in Kaffrine! Anger as I haven’t found it before, amazement as there isn’t much in Kaffrine so a cinema is amazing (there isn’t even one in Dakar) and joy because a trip to the cinema in any country is a treat.

The Rex is hidden behind the main market and im told has been showing films for 30 years. It’s a large open air cinema with a lower and upper seating level capable of hosting about 500 people mostly on stone benches. The entrance is through a remarkably small entrance for the size of the venue, which is probably why I haven’t seen it before. It costs 150CFA (15p) downstairs or 250 CFA (25p) for a seat upstairs. Here are some pictures of the venue.

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/4575813

Films are shown on a Saturday and Sunday evening. At this time of year the films start about 9ish as if its not fully dark its not possible to see. As I was in Kaffers on Saturday I decided to make my first trip. I arrived about 8:50 and opted for the balcony seat….at 25p I though I should splash out a little. They were showing a film called DON and although I had never heard of it, it seemed to draw a big crowd with about 300 present. DON turned out to be an Indian film about a spy. It was kind of a Bollywood James Bond very odd. There was lots of action, car chases, and gun fights but also big Bollywood dance scenes. The dialogue was also rather odd…a mix of English and Indian with French subtitles.

Despite the oddness everyone seemed to love it and at the end gave it a standing ovation. There isn’t much else in Kaffers I guess any film is welcome !

A news update

2006-11-29T19:58:00.000Z

Its been a few weeks since my last blog so I thought I should do a bit of a news update. Here is what’s been happening in my life over the last 20 days or so.

WORK
I know I vowed never to write about work on the blog, partly as there is precious little non work time at the moment so the blog gives me an escape and also I shouldn’t really rant about work for all to see. However Ive think an update is necessary.

Ive been in the south of the county conducting a survey on transformational development. This is a large social/economic survey looking at well being of children, participation, interdependence, local systems and structures and other exciting things….ok….when I write it it doesn’t sound that exciting but it means i have an opportunity to spend many weeks in villages learning more about life there, which is always a privilege. My role has included training people in quantitative survey techniques, conducting sampling, organising pre tests and analysing data. Other work has included working on a proposals to support the capacity building of disabled peoples associations, start an animal breading project, and an educational promotion project. All this means with the travel my days are often 6am till well after dark, but its all such fun it doesn’t seem to make me too tired.

OK ENOUGH WORK NOW BACK TO ASSUSING THINGS

HOUSE
Nope….not moved yet. The longest house move in history is still ongoing. I now have furniture, but the water and electricity has been cut off. If I can just get the furniture and services in place on the same day I might finally be able to move in. Im hoping this weekend I can finally make it. Stay tuned for more news.

WATERMELONS
They are absolutely every where at the moment. All along the road you can see huge piles. You can buy a whole one for about 40p and feast for a few days. You can also see them growing in the fields. It was very bizarre. When they are small the field looks a little like a golf driving range, littered with small green watermelons.

LARIM DREAMS
Ive been on Larim of and on for 5 years now and constantly for the last year. Larim for those who have not heard of it is medication for malaria prevention with some potentially nasty side effects. On the box it list as side effects ‘suicidal feelings’ I would hardly call this a side effect….more like a major effect ! Thankfully ive had no suicidal feelings yet, although another one of its side effects has been occurring lately, odd dreams. In the last couple of weeks here are the weird dreams I can remember

• Being chased by watermelons, no matter how fast I ran they kept coming.
• Dreaming that as part of her new contract my friend Telf has to work one day a week as a nurse in a Birmingham hospital. It meant she had to commute every week from Nepal.
• My friend James got a job as a hairdresser in Kaffrine.

I think I need a rest.

Dinner on board

2006-11-17T15:38:00.000Z

My social life isn’t exactly riveting at the moment work, travel and sleeping seems to take all of my time so I was very excited to receive an unexpected invitation.

In my office was a small envelope marked URGENT. Turning it over the back of the envelope was marked with the British seal and had a stamp

ENYOYE PAR L’AMBASSADE
DE GRANDE BRETAGNE
DAKAR

I began to think the worst and that the authorities are after me for entering without a visa. However I opened the envelope and an invitation slipped out to a posh gathering.
The invitation read:

The captain and officers of H.M.S Southampton
request the pleasure of the company of Alex Whitney

for a Reception on board.
Saturday 4th November at 18.30

Dress: Lounge suit or equivalent

How exciting I had been invited to a party on a battleship ! How or why im still not very sure, but all the same it had fantastic colonial excitement to it. I began to imagine some seen reminiscent of a Agatha Christie novel with elite society sipping cocktails with the sun setting of the coast of Africa.

Just one small problem though I received the invitation today the 17th of November. Im already 2 weeks late for the party, Doh. Don’t suppose the ship will wait for me.

Over and out

P.S anyone know what lounge suit dress is???

Haircut

2006-11-15T18:05:00.000Z

As I was on my ten minutes walk home the other day I passed a small barbers and decided spontaneously that I should get a haircut. The Barbers is just around the corner for Chez Janine’s and ive heard the guy playing BBC world before so figured he might speak English and understand my delicate hair chopping instructions. Turns out he was from Ghana and spoke English. He ushered me into the little room then promptly left. I was a little bemused even more so when I heard a small generator start up outside. It seemed very excessive to power one pair of clippers especially as the power was on.

We had a small chat and then I proceeded to give him the instructions. I wanted the usual, short round the sides, bit off the top and the front spiked up. He told me to learn forward and set about his work. This was when things stated to go wrong, as I was leaning forward it meant I could no longer see the mirror. A couple of minutes later and with a rather alarming growing pile of hair by my feet I decided to look up, this is where I saw the damage.

The barber stepped back and looking puzzlingly into the mirror said “mmmmmmmm its very different cutting a white mans hair, im surprised how easily your hair comes off”.

I retreated to my home and studied the damage in the mirror. I guess its not too bad, at least by hair grows quickly.

Dragons Den Deux

2006-11-11T11:28:00.000Z

Good evening Dragons, my name is Alex Whitney and i have returned to the Den to ask for £200,000 for 20% in my business “spearsys pot holey filler” * Let me paint you a picture, you work for a NGO in an non identified West African country and you spend many hours a week in a car bumping on roads with pot holes that look more like creators. You arrive back ‘home’ tired and with a sore back. Let me paint you another picture you work for a NGO in an non identified West African country and you spend many hours a week in a car it’s a smooth cool comfortable ride because the roads have been treated with ‘Spearsy pot holey filler’. You have heard of polly filler, well pot holey filler works on the same principle just with a bigger trowel. The revolutionary new filler material binds with the existing surface to form an instant long lasting seal.

The £200,000 will be used for the start up costs for a factory in a West African country…perhaps Senegal…. to manufacture ‘Spearsys Pot holey filler’ so that hard working NGO workers have a back left in 10 years time.

I will now take any questions.

*Spearsys Pot Holey Filler is bought to you by the manufactures of Spearsys luminous tents, the award winning multi million pound business.

P.S As you might be able to gather ive been spending many many hours in cars lately. Over the last 10 days ive probably covered over 2000kms and 50 hours in cars. Really really missing smooth flat roads ! Still its not all bad...... dawn, crossing the river Gambia at Tambacounda.

Challenge Spearsy – The results

2006-10-30T19:46:00.000Z

After some thought and a check of the weather, I decided to go with Amy’s recommendation and head for Ngor island. Thank you to Annie and Dan for their thoughtful suggestions ! But I decided to start off with a relatively simple challenge. So after an early morning trip to by guitar strings for a Pastor….don’t ask ! …… I took a taxi to the north of Dakar and the bay of Ngor. As explained you have to take a 10min trip in a Dragon boat to reach the island. It turned out to be a pleasant ride and not scary as first thought, although they did give out 5 life jackets, hardly enough for the 50 or so passengers.

Ngor is a very beautiful residential island with around 200 homes, two restaurants, a few craft galleries, one shop, and no roads. All the houses look like small cottages with volcanic stone walls, blue doors and white sandy front gardens. The island has loads of small twisting alleyways to explore and from which glimpse the bright blue sea.

Its usually a quite tranquil place to come with a loved one (or a book in my case !) and spend the day…..however not today. The random Challenge Spearsy decision had took me to Ngor on the day of the 3rd running of the annual Senegalese Surfing cup. One end of the island was home to tents, BBQs, pumping music and surfers from Europe and West Africa. What luck, I was able to spend the day hanging out watching people surf 12ft plus waves of and feast on free Jamaican BBQ.

Surfers who wanted to enter posted their names on a board. I did consider (when no one was watching) pinning my name on the board just to hear the announcer say on the loud speaker “Aleeex Wheetneey ou est Aleeeex ?????” but a though someone would see an I would have to surf. Although I didn’t stay for the end I hope Francoise Clut won, just for the name.

Upon leaving the island I was chatted up by 2 Senegalese fisherman who offered to show me their pelicans. My usual reaction would be to think the worst and run a mile, but on challenge Spearsy day I decided to accept. It turned out that thankfully he meant what he said and showed me two pelicans he keeps on his fishing boat to help catch fish. We had a lovely chat about fishing and how technology was ruining the traditional industry and the effects of urbanisation on the traditional fishing villages. They invited me back the next week to watch the local village dragon boat contest.

I left early evening after having had a good day and coming away with a much improved tan, thank to forgetting to bring any sun cream.

For a first Challenge Spearsy it delivered a lot. Had I left the day to my own decision I would probably have gone to the office and worked….so keep reading, Challenge Spearsy will return with more challenging challenges !

Check out the photos here

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/4305741

And the video here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL3N9wSRpMk

Alex

P.S for Ally a photo you might enjoy.

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/album_photo.html?c_photo=1019424668

Challenge Spearsy

2006-10-24T12:08:00.000Z

Ive been thinking the blog needs a new feature for my return to Senegal so ive come up with Challenge Spearsy……thanks Webster I stole the idea. Every now and then when I have free time and a choice, im going to let the loyal viewers of Spearsy.com decide my actions. Ive been watching Dave Gorman and reading the Yes Man a book in which a guy realises he wants more excitement so decides to say yes to every written and oral invitation. It’s a great read (check it out here http://www.dannywallace.com/ Dave you would love it) This has prompted me to become even more random than I already am.

So what im going to do is post my choices and let the person with the best justification posted as a comment decide my actions.*. You can even suggest and extra challenge should you have an idea.

So the first ‘Challenge Spearsy’ is this: A have a free day on Saturday in Dakar, shall I,

- Go to Ngor Island. A beautiful small residential island in the bay of Dakar. You have to take a small dragon boat there which scares me a little !
- Go to Club Med. Never been there yet but it sounds promising.
- Go to the Novotel café, watch English football, drink tea, and use the wireless.
- Go for a long walk around the Dakar coast.

After the event I will then post a review possibility with photos, and or video evidence.

At the moment Ally, Amy and Sarah have the advantage as regular commenters, but any one could win. Get commenting. !

Spearsy

*Spearsy accepts no responsibility for what might happen to him while on a challenge. Accident or injury sustained will be on the responsibility of the commenter…… and possible invalidate my insurance policy.

I went to the market and bought

2006-10-23T12:28:00.000Z

Sunday is Luma day or market day. In the town of Birkelane about 20mis drive away everyone gathers each Sunday for a farmers market. It’s a little more impressive that Stony or Hadleigh farmers markets and is home to hundreds of little stalls selling fruit, veg, meat, animals and all sorts of objects. People come in from the villages from up to 100km away to sell things they have grown or made. Birkelane is in one of our programme areas and the market has been a huge success. We have supported people with credit and skills training. Walking through the market with one of my colleagues was a great privilege to meet lots of people now earning a living with the support of the programme.

The market is divided into 4 section Fruit and veg, live animals, meat, and objects. I had a good morning walking around the market and trying to work out what things were. At the end of the morning we left with a sack of meat, some nuts, mint, onions, and some tea.

Check out the rest of the photos on flickr. (See left)

Ramadan

2006-10-14T18:31:00.000Z

This month is Ramadan month. Ramadan is the Islamic fasting period when Muslims go without food, water, sex, games and generally any form of entertainment from sun up to sun down. Ive named the period ‘no fun in the sun’. With slogans like that I should get a job in the Islamic marketing association im wasted on this development stuff….anyway im getting of the point here.

Being in an Islamic dominated country Ramadan has a big effect on you even if your not observing the period. Shops shut, little food is available and there are loads of festivals and events. Around sun down groups from the mosque come out and give away free water and dates so when the minute comes people can break there fasting.

I’m feeling a little left out so in sympathy with my Muslim brothers ive decided to also give fasting a go. (Please note Mr Tim Hughes this is not my first step to becoming Sheikh Mohammed Whitney but and attempt to understand Islam better :-) ) So this is how my fasting has gone so far :

Tuesday, Woke up about 8 and went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Eat a boiled egg, French bread, orange juice…….remembered Ramadan……DOH !......oh well there is always tomorrow can start then.
Wednesday, Woke up a 6 to get to bible study (why do Christians insist on doing intellectual things at ridiculous hours!) got there about 7. It was my first one and I suddenly remembered it was a breakfast thing. It was with some American guys from the military and I wasn’t sure how they would take to the Ramadan thing so alas I broke my fasting again with croissants, jam and tea….. oh well there is always tomorrow can start then.
Thursday, Woke up at 7, brushed teeth and watched CNN for a while……. DOH !.......Ramadan….but hang on technically I didn’t swallow water and I put CNN down to education rather than entertainment so im still ok…few. Around 11ish a team mate showed me a pinball game he had on his computer and we played during the tea break…… DOH DOH DOH…..that’s entertainment….. oh well there is always tomorrow can start then.
Friday, didn’t even bother. I think the lesson learned is that I would be a rubbish Muslim, which is handy as im not.

So there ends my Ramadan fasting plans. Will try again at Easter. The Catholics here fast for a period, maybe that might work better?

British Embassy

2006-10-13T16:19:00.000Z

Now im back in Senegal I have to do one of my most favourite things, go to the British Embassy. As a foreign citizen one must register………means you get free stuff and an invite to the Queens birthday reception so does have an upside. Now a visit to register might sound boring but the ‘fake Brutishness’ of it always makes me laugh.

After going through the gates you are ushered into a small waiting room with a woman at one end behind a counter. This time there were about 20 Africans there waiting to have visas (probably turned down :-( ) processed. The waiting room is the thing that makes me laugh the most. It decorated in ‘British’ things to softly sensitise the prospective applicant. On the walls are pictures of red busses, the London eye, Big Ben and a giant map. Above the counter is a picture of the queen in full ceremonial dress circa 1985. The best bit, much to the bermusement of the visa applicants they were showing East is East on the TV !. I’m sure sights of Bradford didn’t fit with the bed bus image they see on the walls. Still I applaud the British Embassy for portraying all of British culture.

Turns out im registered till January anyway so was a waited trip. Still get to go again in the new year…........ :-)

Back in Senegal

2006-10-07T17:33:00.000Z

Hello all,

Well after several hold ups ive finally arrived back in Senegal. Unfortunately leaving friends and family doesn’t get any easier the more you do it and I still left feeling a sad and not relishing boucoup days alone in the desert. But with several days to settle back to life in Senegal I seem to be returning back to my normal mellow happy self.

Will post some news soon I already have a few funny incidents to ramble on about, and with my new found video skills lots of fun to be had. First here are some new ways to contact me.

1 – I’ve joined the world of Skype, yea.
For those who have Skype, my user name is alex.whitney so send me your contact details. It works in Dakar, not sure about Kaffers yet but hopefully it should be ok there as well. It was amazing to have a chat and see Annie and Dan in Paris through the wonders of Skype and Webcam.

2 – Comment on my blog.
My blog now allows you to comment without having a blog.

To comment on a posting if you don’t have a blog, click on comments, leave your comment then choose ‘other’ or ‘anonymous’. But don’t forget to leave your name.

Alex

P.s this doesn’t mean no funny emails, texts, phone calls, or carrier pigeons. Still all those please.

Horton Film Studios

2006-10-04T11:01:00.000Z

The studios of Wenham, Whitney and Elliott proudly bring to the small screen 3 summer blockbusters staring Geller, Spearsy and The Hogg in................

Saving Private Ryan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvLiv2LyUNY

Jurassic Park
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWd3KGnXqug

The Blair Witch Project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtGZmK7OBe8

................and an out-take

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxMlPd97ymM

Or click on the links on the video section.

Photos and Video

2006-09-19T14:54:00.000Z

Very exicting, photos and a new video section now available ! Just click on the links to the right.

Action packed last (well sort of) fortnight.

2006-09-18T10:59:00.000Z

Alas im not back I the land of locusts, heat and sand but remain temporally stuck in the land of green, mild and English. Due to logistical reasons ive had to put back my return for a week or two. It means missing work, Senegalese people and beautiful scenery…….boooooooo………but getting more time to see friends and family…..yeaaaaaaaaa.

So whats happened in the last two weeks. Well a lot ! Here are the highlights.

Paris
As I now have family living in Paris (how cool does that sound) a trip was defiantly necessary. My mum and I spent a couple of days with my sister and family checking out their new town. For me it was a great opportunity to get back into French, im surprised how much I remember. Finding directions and ordering food all seemed to come quite easily. A fun day was had doing tourist stuff in Paris….you know…..up the tower, along the river, stare at the church etc, but a fun experience. Although note to self, should I ever find myself with small children, steer clear of the Paris metro. All those stairs not exactly buggy friendly.

BBQ with the lads
Also got time for a last meeting of the Essex lads aka Dave, Michael, James. Had a nice BBQ at mine, meats in many varieties were grilled without succumbing to my usually habit of dropping at least 50% in the fire. This time it was you Mike. The night finished in typically random style by driving out to an island in the estuary at 1am and seeing how long we could remain before becoming cut off by the rising high tide. We left at 3am when the water covered the road by at least a foot.

Weekend in London
In typical Whitney style I was intending to meet my brother in London for lunch, but ended up meeting for precisely 90 seconds. The reason, the one day im in London and he is… yes you’ve guessed it, in Milton Keynes watching Robbie. But I had other stuff planned so was still a top weekend. On the Saturday I went to Vinopolis, a wine tasting event for Sarah's birthday. At Vinopolis you take a tour through the world of wine learning how to taste wine, then putting these skills into practice many many many times ! After 25+ shots of wine and a trip to the absinth bar it all began to taste a bit similar, but much fun was had by all.

The next day was DAY FOR DARFUR and being in London with two friends having spent time there it was only right to attend and support the call for action. The thought of standing next to people beating drums after a night of wine tasting didn’t sound an appealing prospect but the head was fine and the protest proved to be interesting and challenging. I must admit I know little about the roots of the conflict in Darfur, but having spent time in Cambodia and witnessed the aftermath from Genocide everything possible should be done to help this country end this kind of conflict. Ive always thought bringing more soldiers into a war zone is not a great idea but there are cases where there is little other choice.

Food, parties and a trainee reunion.
Whenever I leave there seems to be an endless string of food related leaving events. So thanks to Jill for pizzas, Sariti and Nina for Thai food, Arthur for a roast, and Horton housemates for trying my Senegalese dishes. And lastly I also had time for a trainee reunion with Cambodian/Nepalese Telf, superstar LEAP guru, bloging genius and all round groovy orange mad buddy.

Now what’s left for the next week or so ?

P.S Blog now allows anyone to add a comment. You dont need a blog just click on comments and add your response. Nothing rude i know where you all live !

David Hasselhoff

2006-09-09T13:15:00.000Z

Just a truly awesome video. Apparently they are going to release this, surly guaranteed No 1. The Hoffs a genius.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3382491587979249836

Perudo

2006-09-07T11:45:00.000Z

Last night saw a return of world record holder Alex ( 9 dice) Spearsy to the Perudo dome for a match with local rivals in the Perudo hotbed of Horton. Spearsy, who has been on a 9 month Perudo sabbatical in the desert of Senegal to ‘contemplate the real meaning of Perudo’ triumphed with a victory over arch rival Ridout.

On his defeat to Ridout in the first round Spearsy was quoted as saying ‘all the rule changes are not good for the game. It used to be about the Perudo, but TV money is ruining it’. Spearsy also heaped praise on Webster who mysteriously went out early despite being in partnership with Spearsy said ‘the lad did well, I hope heavy defeats don’t drain his confidence’.

Ends

Notes: For non MK people who wont have a clue what im talking about I will explain at another time.

Dragons Den

2006-09-05T08:09:00.000Z

Good afternoon Dragons, my names Mr Whitney and I have come today to ask for £75,000 for 15% of my company Spearsy’s Luminous Tents. (SLT) Let me paint you a picture. You’re at a festival having fun and end up leaving the beer tent in the early hours of the morning. You’ve had a few and stumble around the campsite looking for your tent….you cant find it anywhere…trip over guide ropes…..wake small children…..and start to sober up.

Now let me paint you another picture. You’re at a festival having fun and end up leaving the beer tent in the early hours of the morning. You’ve had a few and stumble around the campsite looking for your tent… then you remember you purchased a Spearsy’s Luminous Tent and there shining through the sea of tents is your tent…..you reach it quickly and are in bed in minutes.

The tents will be made in five designs to suit all tastes, and we hope to sell 30,000 a year at 40 – 100 pounds each. We already have orders from Millets and camping and general.

I will now take any questions.

Greenbelt

2006-09-04T15:17:00.000Z

Here's a blog on last weekends fun at greenbelt. For old undergrad Uni mates ‘Greenbelt’ is not referring to one of our endless lectures on the green land surrounding London, but a Christian Music and Arts festival. Although for some the words ‘Christian music and arts’ for some brings up images of hell on earth (aka Cliff Richard) its actually a really chilled out hippy event with loads of interesting radical talks and some great Christian and non Christian acoustic music. If you want to know more check it out here: http://www.greenbelt.org.uk

So here are the highlights from the weekend.

Dave Andrews
A very interesting speaker. Managed to get to a few talks given by Big Dave. He’s basically a speaker on developing and modelling Christian community with lots of anger and radicalism thrown in. He is asked to preach a lot at churches on community and usually goes to the church a week before dressed as a tramp and makes notes of how he is treated. The ‘sermon’ then consists of him simply reading the notes….that the kind of sermon a like.
He gave a really excellent talk on my favourite quote from Ghandi ‘you much become the change you want to see in the world’. Basically talking about how we so often focus on trying the change others but our real focus should be on changing ourselves. Read more here: http://www.daveandrews.com.au/

Ukulele orchestra of Great Britain
Probably the funniest band in the world. You’ve not heard teen sprit (Nivana) till you’ve heard it played on the ukulele. Around 8 ukuleleists (or how ever you say it ! ) belt out modern songs on the ukulele. The lead singer was also great fun. You can download tracks here: http://www.ukuleleorchestra.com/main/home.aspx

Beer and Hymns
Probably the best event. As it sounds hymns in the beer tent. Around 1000 people belting out bread of heaven, how great thou art, etc was an amazing experience. It was so loud I think I lost my hearing for a while. The session was due to last 45mins but continued for a good 2 hours. Some people are not so sure about the hymns and alcohol part, but ive honestly never heard hymns sung so loudly. My reasoning is that people would be in the beer tent otherwise……. so why not mix it with a little praise. Let take worship to the people not the other way round.

Daniel Bedingfield
If you like your music heavy on the cheese then Bedingfield is your man. I don’t think ive ever heard a singer include human beat boxing on nearly every song, but the 14 year old girls seemed to enjoy it. Unlike Daniel I didn’t get through this and left before the end.

Food
Its been a while at least a few weeks since my last food blog so i thought i should write another. I’ve been to a few festivals and Greenbelt is defiantly the best for food. Its actually impossible to find a bog standard burger van. Heres my top 4 greenbelt meals.

1 – Lamb Kebab – Roasted lamb in pitta with humus, couscous, sun dried tomatoes and loads of other goodies.
2 – BBQ Chicken – chicken, couscous, olives, and carrots and basil
3 – Jamaican Jerk pork – spicy pork, rice and beans.
4 – Spanish potatoes – as it sounds
5 – Mackerel and eggs, great breakfast meal

Lastly, wouldnt be a festival without a little rain and mud !

Very Lax

2006-08-21T12:01:00.000Z

Sorry to all for not blogging sooner ive been very very very lax on the blog front since returning. Here is an update on post Senegal (Phase 1) activities during the last three weeks.

In no particular order ive crammed in the last three weeks:

- a couple of Stony roast dinners with Arthur
- Trip to Greenwich with the family (boat ride under tower bridge, Greenwich park, and a visit to the rather disappointing royal observatory.
- Couple of Table tennis sessions
- Eating takaways in many varieties ( fish n chips, Indian, Chinese)
- Essex random night out with the lads, involving curry, fairground rides, pubs, and a 1am trip to Tescos.
- Cricket match Vision v Simoen. Won man of the match.
- Colchester Zoo with the kids. Saw some most excellent Sea Lions.
- Maze Maize, As it says on the tin a maze made from maize with hidden cartoon characters and a Snow Queen. The kids didn’t seem to enjoy it too much, but I had loads of fun.
- Football. Won man of the match.
- Cricket session in Essex.
- Noodles in Oxford
- Games night in MK. Won man of the match.
- Baby sitting
- Church in two different town.
- Plenty of football watching.
- 2 Sounthend United Matches, QRP and Stoke.
- A little work,
- And the dentist. Doesn’t sound fun but certainly a lot preferable to a Senegalese dentist.

And ive still got to fit in:

- Meeting old Uni friends in London
- Trip to Oxford.
- A few parties
- Weekend in Paris
- Meeting friends in Nottingham.
- More football, cricket and table tennis.
- A little more work
- And another trip to the Dentist.

Looking forward to retuning to Senegal for a rest !

Celebrations

2006-07-27T17:55:00.000Z

My last week in Senegal before the summer break has been both really tough and also a lot of fun. Tough because we have practically had no power for a week, and the generator at the office is broken. It means after the laptop battery is finished there’s not much work that can be done and its far too hot to stay in the office. However the fun part has come through attending numerous parties.

Celebration 1 Birthday.
On Tuesday my friend Eryns had a birthday so a party was organised. We all turned up at another friends house about 830 for food and dancing. The food part consisted of mutton, chips and spicy onions, eaten by hand in traditional Senegalese style. The dancing was to a mixture of Senegalese and American gangster rap (which is the style here) and when on till about 1am. It was a great night and a good chance to relax a little. It’s the last week before the summer break so everyone’s in a last day of term type mood.

Celebration 2 Birthday
Thursday and its Jannine’s (guest house owner) birthday. She is 77 and says after 60 you don’t really celebrate anymore so there wasn’t any form of party. Still I gave her a seed map picture of Africa that I picked up in Sierra Leone that seemed to make her happy…I think….she said something very fast in French but was smiling so I think it was appreciated.

Celebration 3 – Naming ceremony
Not a birthday this time, but a naming ceremony. One of our accountants had a baby last week and as is the Islamic tradition, after 7 days you have a naming ceremony and invite some guests. We showed up about 10am for the event, for some reason I was a little nervous, probably as I didn’t really know what to expect and had images of (as the only white man) being asked to kill a goat. Thankfully it was an informal version of ceremony and ended up lasting only about 30 minutes.

So to the ceremony, all the men were shown into the lounge and proceedings started. What I guessed must be the imam begun to pray and others joined in shortly afterwards. After about 5 minutes the praying was done and the food part could begin. We were first given a handful of small biscuits that everyone instead of eating stored in various pockets. Thinking this was some kind of tradition I followed suit. Then came the food. I was expecting some kind of rice or meat, but it turned out to be sweet custard type stuff with grain. Very strangely it tasted exactly like the apple crumble muller light corner yogurt. I tucked in with everyone else and now realising what they were for, dropped my biscuits in the custard stuff. A few minutes after finishing everyone gave their greetings and left. The baby or the wife didn’t seem to feature in the proceedings.

Celebration 4 – Sortie
At the end of July as is the tradition all they staff of the base go on a trip to relax after a long hard year. This year it’s a trip to the capital of Gambia. The trip was planned for Wed –Friday, but because of reporting deadlines subsequently moved to Fri – Mon. Unfortunately for me I leave Saturday so the trips off. I’m a bit disappointed as was looking forward to relaxing with friends but cest la vie.

African Banks

2006-07-24T10:30:00.000Z

I hate African banks, in fact im not really keen on any type of bank but Senegalese banks seem to really annoy me. Each month I receive a cheque to cover expenses, which results in a trip to the bank to get the cash. Usually someone else is going so I just get them to do it, but last week I had to make the trip myself.

Banks are normally confusing places with lots of procedures and various forms needed to do the simplest of things, Senegalese banks seem to encompass all these aspect but with a touch of colour.

So last week I ventured to the CBAO in Kaolack. I walked in and took a seat at the back to observe people and try to work out the procedures. After 5 mins or so I realised they use a ticket system (like the meat counter) so took my ticket and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited…… The problem, I had number 237 and the clerks were currently serving 152. After 45 minutes or so we were only up to 164. At this rate I calculated (well there was nothing else to do) I would have to spend the night there.

After a little while longer a bloke dressed in army uniform walked in straight up to the clerk and was served immediately. Being British and from the land of polite queuing this was obviously a crime secondary only to treason. So just as I was giving the army bloke nasty looks….probably not good as he had a gun…I noticed my colleague walk in. I explained my situation and asked if it always takes this long. He said yes but don’t worry I know the clerk and walked me straight up to the desk pushing past several people. I was served in 2 minutes and out of the bank in 3.

Well I guess corruption sometimes has an upside.

Bravery the bike

2006-07-10T12:46:00.000Z

Kris W (Triathlon man), Telf and any other biking friends, you will be very pleased to hear ive purchased a bike. This is for two main reasons, 1 – I really need some more exercise all this beef is not good for the waistline, and 2 – we have some transport issues in the base so im attempting to cycle to some ADPs.

Just across the road from Chez Jan’s is an electrical store that also sells bikes. Now this might sound random, but it fits well with the random nature of the shop. It sells everything from DVD players to nappies, mayonnaise to air conditioning units, im not lying you can actually by all of these items here. I think they could do with some marketing training im not sure how many of his flat screen mini TVs he’s going to sell in Kaffer’s. Its also not a huge store it only has space for about 10 people at anyone time. The owner is also the landlord for my new place, before you ask…..no I haven’t moved yet…that’s another story.

So to the bike, its called Bravery very apt for Senegal. Technically it has 26 gears but it has a manual change system. If you want to change gears you have to manually remove the chain and reposition it in another gear! Ive had a couple of rides, and its become evident that its been a long while since I last rode a bike. Riding through sand kills the legs and im struggling to walk. Anyways I shall persevere, after I return to Senegal im planning a trip 100kms to East Kaolack ADP then perhaps the 400kms to Kolda !!

New signing delivers silverware in his first season.

2006-07-04T08:20:00.000Z

After a big money move from WVUK FC in the January transfer window, Alex ‘the cat’ Whitney helped the WV Kaffrine side to their first silverware since the clubs formation. The amalgamated WV and local authority side ‘Administration’ recorded their historic first win with a 1 – 0, victory over the much fancied dominate force of ‘Santé.’ The team were cheered on by a crowd of more than a thousand, and twice as many goats, in the Kaffrine Stadium.

Unfortunately the cat was cup tied (re working somewhere else on flipping LEAP stuff!) and unable to make the final, but after hearing the news remarked ‘I knew the lads would do it, im very proud and looking forward to helping the team regain the trophy next season’.

Kaffrine Times July 2006

England v Portugal

2006-07-01T20:44:00.000Z

I cant believe it, penalties again. This time we only one player managed to score one and he’s mostly German. Im feeling a bit lonely now as I have no one to share my misery. Im writing this from a wireless café while watching France v Brazil. The café is full of French people and France are one up with not long left……great that’s really going to cheer me up.

I’m hoping these French people don’t get too excited, im wearing my England shirt, and there are plastic chairs nearby things could get ugly.

To slightly happier news, WV Kaffrine have won the football tournament!!!!!!! Unfortunately ive missed most of the other games due to work, but heard yesterday we won the cup. The final was played in the Kaffrine ‘Stadium’ in front of a few thousand. That’s more than MK dons get.

Photos

2006-06-24T16:43:00.000Z

New photos, click right on Photos 2

Dakar, rest, politics rant, and the latest on the house move.

2006-06-24T14:59:00.000Z

As several family and friends have asked for some updates on what im up to, here’s a blog with a whole load of thoughts, activities, comments and updates. It’s a bit of a jumble, but enjoy.

Ive returned to the big city for the first time sine mid April, for a few meetings and a rest for the weekend. Not having been somewhere ‘developed’ for some weeks feels a little wired, but also now familiar. I know some people here, how things work, where to shop etc. Having been out in the ADPs for a few months im looking forward to doing the following over the weekend:

- have a bath
- eat something else other than rice, fish or meat.
- Go to a nice restaurant
- Sleep in an unlumpy bed
- Do some exercise
- Go to a church
- Watch some world cup matches on a CLEAR TV.
- Feel cool and not like a boil in a bag meal for once.

My Plan for the weekend, is to do something like the following; Saturday, long walk around the cost line, lunch somewhere on route, afternoon in the NOVOTEL café watching Ger v Swe and hacking into the hotel wireless (ha ha they will never know) evening in my favourite bar with a beer and the Arg v Mex game. Sunday; a run, church, more football, and a visit to a excellent Thai restaurant.

Well that was the plan. The day begun well I started off on my long walk along the coast line, but my progress was hampered by the new development along the coast line. The development (here where I go into my politics rant bit) will build an underpass, new casino and hotel complex and a beach front park. Im sure this will be good for Dakar but I get really frustrated when I look at the rural quality of life and the amount the government is spending there, then see huge amounts spend on ‘luxury’ developments that will probably be owned by foreign investors. If anything this development will increase rural – urban divide and thus suck more people into leaving the countryside for the capital, where there arnt services to cater for them. I also don’t like this development because its injured my toe and put paid to my weekend of exercise plan. As the development is ripping up the costal path I had to scramble along part of the cliff to get past the road works. Unfortunately I slipped and kicked a rock. It hurts a lot and im struggling to walk at the moment, so running is defiantly out; Dam government white elephant projects !!!!!!

So to house news……………no I haven’t moved yet…..and still ‘technically’ live in the guest house in Kaffrine. I say technically because I haven’t been there for a week and its another week before I return; Life in DME means life on the road. I’ve now stayed in over 20 different places in the country. However some progress is occurring, some of my furniture has arrived. Last week I went to the house in Thies where my furniture was being kept to choose what I needed. I felt awful as a Brazilian couple were staying there and using the stuff, I had to walk around an choose what I needed. I took their cooker, lounge chairs, fans, and even the bed their 3 year old daughter used. Sill I has had a good chat with the owner about the World Cup and if Brazil beat us I wont feel so bad.

England v Sweeden

2006-06-21T09:00:00.000Z

Much to my relief i made it back to my hotel in Kaolack just in time for the England game. The hotel has a small bar/restaurant with a big TV behind the bar. I made my way straight to the bar and sat on a stool as close a as possible to the TV. The bar was quite at kick off, well when I meant quite, I mean empty. There wasn’t even a bar man. After waiting a few minutes I eventually decided to help my self to a ‘biere la gazelle’ (beer of choice in Senegal) and left the cash out for when the bar man arrived. After 3 more beers (they are almost wine bottle sized) later and a growing pile of cash next to me the bar man and the evening guests stated to arrive. So picture the seen, me sitting at the bar shouting at the TV and behind me a room with about 20 diners expecting a calm, french resturant style evening.

After a few more beers (I also had not eaten anything since breakfast) and England’s second goal, I think I told a rather startled middle aged French women to ‘stand up for the Engerland’. Then Sweden’s late equaliser, and unfortunately the French barman decided to applaud this. I told him to Feck off….nothing ruder…just Feck off……ive been watching my Father Ted DVD so it was just the first thing that came into my now rather blurry head. Fortunately I said it in a polite tone and the barman didn’t speak any English so no harm was done.

Soon after the match finish I took up a seat further back in the restaurant and tried to return to my normal self. Unfortunately only a few minute later I was then joined by our Christian Commitments Coordinator who had just arrived. I have vague memories of the next hour discussing the differences in Christian dominations in Senegal, all in French…goodness knows what I said. The next morning he greeted me as normal, so at least I didn’t tell him to feck off as well.

Hanging around

2006-06-18T11:14:00.000Z

In this job you often have a lot of ‘dead time’ waiting around for something or travelling. Over the past 7 days ive spent 43 hours in a car. And not spent 3 nights in a row in the same place for several weeks. Its hard but also lots of fun.

Living in a small town means there aren’t many opportunities to escape. So if I do want to ‘get away’ for a few hours and use up some ‘dead time’ I head for the internet. I found an interesting site ‘what superhero are you most like’ lots of fun check it out.

Turns out im most like Batman.

Batman
Congratulations! You scored a super 79%!

Cool, calm and powerful. Whilst your actual super abilities may not be anything too dazzling, you have earnt the respect of both friends and enemies in response to your amazing fighting skills, strategic (see strategy Webster……strategy) combat and experience. Luckily you have access to the greens which can fund all your majorly cool gadgets, vehicles and weapons! Also, you're reluctant but still accepting to the idea of having a teammate/side-kick, which just makes everything a whole lotta fun, doesn't it now! On the down side, you've probably suffered some sort of trauma at a young age. Similar to the Wolverine, your past is a base for your current motivation, undertaking some kind of personal vow in search of justice. All in all though, you're one tough nut. There's not a lot of people who have the minerals to go up against you, and you're experienced enough not to get cocky and let the little things like never finding happiness get you down!

Street food

2006-06-18T10:53:00.000Z

Most advice for travellers in a foreign place, points to staying away from street food and local water. However in Kaffrine it’s a little difficult and the street food is far too tempting to resist. Ive also been blessed with (touch wood) a constitution that seems to make me immune to most illnesses. Despite more than a year in 8 different developing countries ive yet to have a single days sickness, and im not particularly careful. So here is my top 5 street food experiences in Senegal.

5 – Watermelons.
In the southern part of Senegal, south of Gambia the climate is very good for growing lots of different types of fruit. You can buy a whole watermelon for about 80p. Here’s me with one a bought earlier.

4 – Chaff (peanuts)
In the Kaffrine – Kaolack area the most popular agricultural activity is the production of peanuts. All along the main road to Dakar you can buy small bags of roast peanuts for around 2p. Using peanut oil in cooking is also really popular.

3- Mangoes
This is the season so there are loads available. They are also huge. Normally about the size of melons. You by them by the bucket (about £1) Im eating about one a day at the moment; also very nice with melted chocolate.

2 – Fish and rice
The Senegalese national dish can be bought just about everywhere and is also a cheap way to eat. The rice is more like couscous mixed with onions and olives.

1 – Grilled meat
My favourite. Street sellers have small metal carts with a draw full of roasted meat. The carts have coals inside to cook and heat the meat and the natural hotness of Senegal keeps it warm. For about £1 the seller will carve up a few chunks mix it with seasoning and fried onions, and present it to you wrapped up in brown wrapping paper. The meat is usually quite chewy but tastes amazing, and is the closest thing to a Kebab you can find.

Sandstorm blowing in my head

2006-06-13T08:29:00.000Z

Last night we had the second major sandstorm. This time, no rain but tonnes of wind. The sand gets everywhere, and left me chocking after breathing in what seemed like half the Sahara. I woke up with sand covering my bed, and a carpet an inch deep.

So ive now got that mid 90s Cast song ‘there a sandstorm blowing in my head’ stuck in MY head.

Vision v Santé

2006-06-04T12:46:00.000Z

Much to my delight after my last blog on the WV football match i learned that the match was part of a tournament. Groups from Kaffrine can enter sides with the winner going through to the national tournament. The final of the national competition is held in the National Stadium….in front of 70,000 !!!. There is only the national league above this one….so we are effectively playing in the equitant of the championship. WV because of lack of players have joined with others from the local authorities to form the ‘Administration’ team. We have been drawn in a tricky group against tournament favourites Sante (health) and the unpredictable Ecoles elementaires (school teachers)

POOL A
Ecoles elementaires
Administration
Sante

POOL B
Lycéé
Secteur informel
Para Militaires

So after the win over Ecoles elementaires we faced Sante….and I was playing. Our regular keeper was away so I was given the nod. After the big money move from WVUK FC in the January transfer window (undisclosed fee) the crowds had got news of the new lad making his debut and the numbers swelled to about 400.

So to the match. It was on the same, rather tricky pitch. The goals seemed to be about 3ft wider that full sized goals, and the string for crossbars made it rather difficult to judge the height. I was given the first half, with the heat every team operates a squad rotation policy for health reasons.

After a few routine clearances my first real challenge came. A cross from the right and a shot to my right hand side, I made a nifty dive and the danger cleared, the 400 went crazy. Then towards the end of the half the big moment. A mistake at the back left me with a 1 on 1. I came steaming off my line and made a textbook dive to the right. I was so good you could easily see it on the opening credits of match of the day with inspirational music playing in the back ground. Unfortunately as I dived right the ball went left and we were one down.

My game ended at half time and was applauded off by the crowd (that or they were relieved I was coming off without making a horrible error) the second half was a dull affair and I don’t remember any chances. Then with about 2 mins remaining we were given a free kick about 30 yards out. The shot was taken and somehow squirmed under the keeper, 1-1. The ref blew a few seconds later and we had a draw. Im told we normally lose by 3 or so to Sante, so it was a great result, and means we have made it through to the semi final, where we will probably play the Para Militaires.

The post match celebrations were the same as we drove back through the streets of Kaffrine.

My local shop

2006-05-31T18:29:00.002Z

I like local shops. Ive always managed to live close to a small shop and like popping in to pick up the essentials. I though I would write about my local shop in Kaffrine. It’s on the 10min walk between the office and my home. When in Kaffrine I normally pop in for a sprite. The shop doesn’t sell a lot but it’s the biggest in Kaffrine and the closest you can get to Tosco’s around here. I’ve made friends with the shop keeper and he saves a can for me each day. Here are some interesting thinks you can by here:

- a good quarter of the shop is whiskey or gin. In a Muslim country this is a little odd, but this is Senegal. When I asked someone why, they said ‘well the Koran’s just full of advice really, you can take it or leave it’ – testament to the relaxed attitude here
- Packets of German bisques called ‘biskrem’ very nice, im addicted.
- SUNQUICK – an orange drink you dilute to drink. Its almost impossible to get the concentration right. Normally it task like mildly flavoured orange water, or so strong it makes your eyes water.
- Pringles – life saver
- 1 litre jars of Mayonnaise

The Vision v The Teachers

2006-05-30T08:29:00.000Z

Saturday saw the long awaited entry of WV into the local football tournament. At this time of year the football season starts and anyone can enter a team. World Vision were drawn in the first round against a side of teacher from the local school.

Like all Word Vision sides across the globe, the WV side consisted of 2 WV players the rest being ringers. I dropped as many hints as possible that im not bad in goal, but alas wasn’t trust with the responsibility. Responsible for the DME of $10 million across 23 ADPs and direct responsibility for 3 staff, sure go ahead…..trusted to keep the ball out….fat chance. Still they said I can play in the next round and judging by the performance of our keeper in this round im in with a chance.

So to the match

The pitch
When I say pitch it was more like a flat sand pit, not a blade of grass to be seen. There are hazards on each side. The open railway to the left, and the road and long line of trees to the right. The trees overhang the pitch by some 20 feet in places….so long high balls down the flanks are out. There is also the hazard of the odd goat in places. The best bit was the lino’s. Fully kitted….black shirts, shorts, whistle; green and orange flags, yet the goals had a piece of string for the cross bar. In the preceding game one of the players produced an incredible overhead kick only for the goalkeeper to fumble it some 5 feet over the string. However because of the crowds reaction to the shot the ref gave the goal!

So to the match
WV quickly went one up, thanks to a wicked bobble from a long range effort, que wild celebrations from the largely WV pro crowd of about 300….well there isn’t much else to do in Kaffrine.

Soon after the teachers equalised, shocking error from our keeper, I would have kept that out, 1-1. In no time the teacher went 1-2 up, cross from the right and a tap in. Then just before half time 2-2, great skills from the tricky No 13 (not a WV player) and the ball drilled home.

Half time – plenty of Kirene water and a mango each.

10mis into the second half 3-2 to the Vision. The second for the lively No 13. He beat two players and coolly slotted it home. The rest of the half was most WV missing chance after chance, then with 5 mins left…..drama. WV player clean through again was cruelly brought down on the line. Well, there were no real lines to speak of on the pitch, but the foul was roughly where the line would have been…wild shouts from the WV crowd for a pen…protests from the teachers…final result…a free kick. In keeping with the other chances the kick was wasted and not long after the ref blew for full time. Final score 3-2 vision.

Shortly after the finish, some 10 people piled in one of the WV cars and we drove through the streets of Kaffrine bibbing the horn and chanting Vision…Vision…Vision.

I top evening a great to feel a part of the town and enjoy and event.

WV Kaffrine & Supporters

The goals

Disasters

2006-05-27T14:15:00.000Z

I’ve just seen the news this morning of the earthquake in Indonesia. Its very sad news. I was in Yogya just 6 months ago and recognise many of the buildings that look destroyed. The epicentre is also exactly where I visited the beach south of Yogya. My friends are a long way off in Jakarta but have friends in the city that I was going to meet during my stay there. Ami Eka, if you read this let me know if they are ok.

The earthquake also comes at a time when we are measuring vulnerability in an ADP. In a place where 44% of people get Malaria and household (average 11 people) daily income is 21p, it reminds you how fragile life is sometimes.

Im Alan Partridge a ha !!!

2006-05-16T12:02:00.000Z

Much excitement at faulty towers today as new guest has arrived. We have an evaluation of a project in this region so an Australian chap has arrived to facilitate the evaluation and to stay in the guest house. Im normally the only guest here so its great to have some English speaking company. Its also quite funny as he speaks no French so im translating for him! I’m impressed with how well my French is coming on that I can translate the basic for someone.

So to Alan Partridge, now ive been in the guest house for 3 months my suspicions of me becoming like Alan are growing. The arrival of the Australian chap confirmed these as I was able to show him around and point out all the ‘unique features’ of Chez Jeannine.

Here’s a picture of the guest house. To those who ive spoken to since arriving I normally call from the roof terrace next to the TV aerial.

But it appears I will finally be leaving Chez Jeannine, my apartment across the road is ready and hopefully I move next week. As I mentioned im inheriting a load of stuff from the last Expat. Here is the list of stuff I get to chose from. I’m really excited to know what a ‘oreiller imprime’ and a ‘teraillon’ are, if anyone knows please let me know. Also excited to see I have a welding kit, time to take up a new hobby I think.

1 Table à manger + 8 Chaises
1 Table en bois
1 LIT Superposé + 2 Matelas
1 Lit double + Matelas + 1 Table de chevet
1 Lit + 1 Matelas
1 Filtre à eau monté
1 Etagère montée dans la salle de bain
2 Etagères montées dans la cuisine
4 Fauteuils + Canape ( 3 places )
3Climatiseurs
1table basse en bois
1 Poste telephone
1 Neon étanche ( 1,20 m)

abonnement telephone mobile
poubelle a pedale
tapis de bain poly
taie d'oreiller 10.(3*2200)
rideau pret a poser (6*12500)
rideau pret a poser (12500)
oreiller imprime (3*3900)
scie a metaux
kit tringle f forg (16900*7)
Couverture
Egouttoir
thermos 2l
plat ovale (3*3000) 2
saladier duval
poubelle a pedale
jeu de 3 tapis de bain
lampe de chevet
teraillon (balance de menage 3 kgs mecanique)
planche a repasser
tefal bouilloires
achat flash disque (cle usb 256 mo)

achat equipement villa esther /matelas ressort simco 5 ET .
2 ventilateurs nova
2 ventilateurs
moulinex grils (croq'gauffres express)
moulinex-robots:at7 (robot ovatio 3 duo)
machine a laver wespool xqg50/601
Refregirateur
CUISINIERE

Salt River

2006-05-13T16:31:00.003Z

Last weekend i went swimming for the first time in 4 months. About 1 hour away is a salt water river. Its so hot, people dig pits by the side of the river, and then flood them. A few weeks later you have salt.

Swimming is a like the Dead Sea, Israel. You can simply float….very relaxing. There is also a strong current so you can park, walked half a mile up stream, jump in and simply lie there while you float back to your car.

When you get out you have to scrap the salt of your skin and clothes, but im told its good for you. Telf sound like your facial experience, only free.

P.S Typical - miss the first FA cup for 20 years and its the best of all time ! (not including Everton 1 Man Utd 0 1995)

24

2006-05-13T12:10:00.000Z

To my utter joy, my birthday present has finally arrived….Yea. My birthday was 6 weeks ago but never the less it was great to receive some reminders of home. I received a card from Charis with a lovely drawing of of of….well what ever its supposed to be its very lovely. I also received the complete first complete first series of 24. I managed to resist watching it in the UK, for fear of getting hooked and never finishing my OU course. Its very good and im hooked already.

So in honour to 24, here is my 24.

The following takes place between the hours of 12.00 midnight and 12.00 midnight on the first day of the ADP redesign X.

12.00 – 1.00 Sleep
1.00 – 2.00 Sleep
2.00 – 3.00 Sleep
3.00 – 4.00 Sleep (ok my life isn’t as interesting as Jack’s but it gets better keep reading)
4.00 – 5.00 Sleep
5.00 –6.00 Sleep
6.00 – 7.00 Get up, Have a shower...doh no water again! Eat French breakfast)
7.00 -8.00 Travel to workshop venue
9.00 – 10.00 Travel to Workshop venue
10-00 – 11-00 Facilitators meeting
11.00 – 12.00 Workshop problem analysis
12.00 – 1.00 Workshop problem analysis
1.000 – 2.00 Workshop problem analysis
2.00 – 3.00 Lunch, were by the sea so a lovely grilled fish with rice….mmmm
3.00 – 4.00 Workshop Project Design
4.00 – 5.00 Workshop Project Design
5.00 – 6.00 Kill presidential candidate…sorry thats Jack…. Workshop Project Design !
6.00 – 7.00 Workshop Project Design
7.00 – 8.00 Workshop Project Design (people can certainly talk in West Africa !)
8.00 – 9.00 Diner more fish
9.00 – 10.00 Facilitators meeting….more talking !
10.00 – 11.00 Sleep
11.00 – 12.00 Sleep

So there you go, my 24. Not quite as exciting as Jack Bauers, but still had some fun.

A Very Long Walk

2006-05-06T13:51:00.000Z

As i said, last weekend i went for a very long walk. Having walked/run a marathon I've got used to walking for long periods. I suddenly realised i haven't been for a long walk for several months. So as i was in Dakar for the weekend i set out early to explore a bit more of the town........well that was the plan. Unfortunate i decided to 'quickly' pop into the office to check mails, 3 hours later i left, returned to the hotel and then started the walk at 1130. Dakar is a peninsular so if you walk in any direction you reach the sea after 30mins or so. As its also Labour Day i decided to head for town to see what was happening. My route takes me along the coast line and into the centre. Labour Day meant lots of protest marches by many of groups asking for different things. But as this is Senegal there didn't seem to be any hostility, all the groups were accompanied by dancers, drummers and a lot of noise. After pausing for something to eat and watching the marchers, i started again exploring new areas Dakar. At the far Eastern part of Dakar i reached the very posh expensive parts with amazing houses on the cliff tops over looking the bay and Goree Island. Walking around this part really brings home the inequalities in a county like this. This part looks any Med city very beautiful and very different to life in Kaffrine.

After about 3 hours walking i was starting to feel the heat so caught a taxi back to the hotel. It was great to be out waking again, in Kaffrine its just too hot after about 10am so its nice to explore where its relatively cool.

So there ends Labour Day, celebrated by everyone by not doing much work

Taking a Taxi in Dakar.

2006-04-30T18:59:00.000Z

Now my French has improved ive the confidence to take taxi’s in Dakar. It’s a great experience and every time it’s a different adventure….or the last journey of your life.

There must be thousands in Dakar, and they easily out number cars. It means travel in Dakar is very easy and when you work out the price, fairly cheap.

So what so exciting about a taxi ride in Dakar?...... well here’s an example of an average taxi

- they are all back and yellow Peugeot cars
- Ive yet to be in one that hasn’t had a crack in the windscreen
- Most seem to be made of at least 20% brown parcel tape, one had used parcel tape to fix the gear stick in place!
- They all have pictures of the owners Marabout stuck somewhere in the cab.
- Its rare if you find one that all the door shut properly…and impossible to find one that hasent got a dent or had a major prang.
- Most have a lease 50% rust, one I could actually put my hand through the whole in the door
- They will all say they now where you want to go when you get in….. most wont havent a clue.
- One today got a puncture, the driver simply got out and walked off.

My favourite Taxi story is from yesterday. I took a taxi around 7pm…..bad mistake, this overlaps the prayer time. A couple of minutes in the driver pulled out his prayer beads and steering one handed while counting with the other hand begun muttering his prayers. This is very important time to Muslims and you mustn’t interrupt during this period. There was just one problem with this scenario, he didn’t know where I wanted to go, so he proceeded to communicate through a series of nods and points (still counting beads, steering and praying) to find out where I wanted to go. After several near misses and lots of wrong turns we eventually made it. I gave him a big tip for such and interesting ride.

I have a house !......well flat

2006-04-29T22:26:00.000Z

At long last i have an appartment in Kaffrien to move into. After over 90 days in various hotels and guest houses we have found somewhere i can move into. There arnt many house in Kaffrien so its been a bit hard to find one.

Im moving to a flat thats oppersite the guest house ive been staying in and above a TV / stereo / electrical / well just about everything, shop. After living above a funeral directors it seems fitting.

So to the flat. Its on the first floor qnd I have 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, lounge and a terrace. All very grand and im not quite sure what im going to do with 3 beedrooms? but this is rural Senegal and houses arnt really made for single people so its as small as they come. Its a bit of an odd design all the rooms open on to a corridor that is exposed to the open air, at least this will help with the heat!

As for furnature im inheriting a load of stuff from the last expat here. Im quite excited to see what i have, apparently i have a TV, fridge, and all sorts of furnature. As all the rooms are boxed shaped and there are no windows or AC in most of the rooms, hopefully the furnature will add some colour.

As for when i move, well the flats not what you would call fully built yet. There are stairs but no sides leqving a 30m drop if you miss your footing, your in trouble, still least it has character. Im really looking foward to moving and not having to constantly pack! Think i should be there in a week or two.

Will upload photos soon