Today we ran our first peer education sessions of the trip. For many it was our first experience working with The Gambian communities, and coming away some of us felt quite emotional.
Raising awareness of breast cancer is something many of us are hugely passionate about and being able to spread that message among the communities and potentially help save lives was very rewarding.
It was also nice to meet the students and find out a bit about them.
In total we trained around 60 trainee nurses.
We headed back to the Gunjur Project for lunch and then had a couple of hours around the pool while the mechanic fixed the light in the van. Some of the girls were hard at work revising for exams which was impressive.
Brikama craft market was an experience. Jemma and Sue are absolute pros at the bartering so we followed them round to pick up some tips before giving it a go ourselves. It was a success (we think) and we came away with a decent haul.
Then it was back into town to grab some fabric. Driving through town in itself was fun. It seems there is no hierarchy on the roads. If you want to go you go! The fabric shop (or shops) were huge. Gorgeous patterns from wall to wall. After a very very long time, we all managed to finally choose what we wanted and it was back to the Gunjur Project for tea.
When we got there the tailor was waiting for us. I did warn him he was going to be busy, but I don’t think even that prepared him for what was to come… Dresses, millions of Gambian pants, tops, skirts and co-ords – and hopefully a bucket hat if there’s enough material left.
Some of the girls then had a little game of Uno, and the rest of us had a little bit of beer which was delightful.
Tea was again delicious (I think we all went with the Gambian dish – bennechin) and then we got a very pleasant surprise with the offer of ice cream with our desserts!
By this point we were all pretty much half asleep so games night was put on hold and we all got an early night!
By Sam & Lauren