{"id":1520,"date":"2014-03-13T08:44:07","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T07:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/?p=1520"},"modified":"2014-03-13T08:44:07","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T07:44:07","slug":"a-benefactors-diary-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/?p=1520","title":{"rendered":"A benefactor’s diary – Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last month, Mel and Dee Bixley went to The Gambia and visited many of the African Oyster Trust’s projects.\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>The following blog post is Part II of a series of articles based on extracts from Dee’s diary. You can read the background to their involvement with the Trust, plus the first extract from the diaries, here<\/a>.<\/em>
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<\/br>Thursday 6th February\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong>
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<\/br><\/span> At 10am we begin our journey up country.\u00c2\u00a0 Our final destination tomorrow will be Jappineh Health Centre, the home of the ambulance.\u00c2\u00a0 We collect Fanding en route and he and Kira debate whether this will be a goat, cow or donkey day.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0
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<\/br>In fact, the leisureliness with which all these creatures wander into the road makes it a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmixed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 day. Driving in Gambia has many challenges.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of the unmade local roads have huge potholes to negotiate.\u00c2\u00a0 And where sand has accumulated, the need to accelerate and go with the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcskid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is imperative if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to get stuck.\u00c2\u00a0 Once we understand that Kira knows exactly what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing, we relax!<\/span>
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As to Gambia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s major roads, there are regular check points where you must stop for the police, military or immigration authorities.\u00c2\u00a0 However, as soon as they realise its Kira, their stern attitudes soften and they salute with alacrity.\u00c2\u00a0 The fact that a gun is pointing at us from a camouflaged hut nearby doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter – Kira has clearly earned their respect and affection.A visit to The Big Tree Nursery received an ecstatic welcome for Kira and Fanding!
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<\/br>We arrive at Moses Guest House in Soma, the best place to stay near Jappineh.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0
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<\/br>Moses is a small establishment, five or six rooms situated around a courtyard, where we drink tea from pint mugs. \u00c2\u00a0Kira must read something in my face – \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your comfort zone, Dee?!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she teases.\u00c2\u00a0 She is right to do so. \u00c2\u00a0
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<\/span>\"Picture\"<\/img><\/a><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

After all, we have a flush loo, a tap in the wall for cleaning our teeth, and Kira has thoughtfully supplied a travel kit of essentials.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0
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<\/br>What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more, our host has been out and purchased toilet paper for us.\u00c2\u00a0 When people are this keen to please – to hell with my OCD tendencies!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Last month, Mel and Dee Bixley went to The Gambia and visited many of the African Oyster Trust’s projects.\u00c2\u00a0The following blog post is Part II of a series of articles based on extracts from Dee’s diary. You can read the background to their involvement with the Trust, plus the first extract from the diaries, here.Thursday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Last month, Mel and Dee Bixley went to The Gambia and visited many of the African Oyster Trust’s projects.\u00c2\u00a0The following blog post is Part II of a series of articles based on extracts from Dee’s diary. You can read the background to their involvement with the Trust, plus the first extract from the diaries, here.Thursday…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

<\/span>\"Picture\"<\/img><\/a><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n