Is it Tuesday yet ?

All of a sudden time seems to hang heavy on me; it could just be because I’m marking time until the arrival of Anita in a few days time, or it could be the constant battle to try to get anything done. Thankfully, that doesn’t include Morro and his team, who are forging on relentlessly. I’m not sure if they are going down further than originally planned, but It’s certainly far deeper than I had expected. Part of the reason for this is the wetness of the sand; lack of any appreciable maintenance on the building and particularly on the drains and water pipes has left water seeping under the building for years and it is a very big part of just why the subsidence has occurred. Yes, “that man” has a lot to answer far.

Speaking of which in spite of repeated assurances that I will have it “in the morning”,I still await the costings on the other major project we are waiting to get started on, the extra staff accommodation at the Mite house and the bat clearance in the roof of the same building. I had hoped that we would have been a week into it by now but still no sign of any movement. I have a strong feeling that we will still be waiting to start it when Morro has finished the children’s ward. I really hope not as he is scheduled to start work on other staff accommodation upgrades next.

This is the remains of the Gela-Gela that crashed just
before I left Bansang a few week ago in which amazingly
 only one person was killed

This morning saw me up and out on the C90 bright and early for a ride down the Trans-Gambian highway to Brikama Ba, a nice little run of about 30km. I was looking for some wickerwork beds that I had seen for sale by the roadside on the way back from Banjul, but I guess they were  further out than I had thought as I didn’t spot them. My idea is to put one on the veranda  outside Anita’s house to sleep on, as there are only two bedrooms in the house and whilst I usually sleep quite happily on the couch in the lounge, there is no air-conditioning and the temperature is going to be way to high for comfort. So a little bit of “al-fresco” should do me nicely. I’ll get Sutay to stop on the way down to Banjul on Tuesday morning if we see them… Mind you I haven’t worked out how to get it back to Bansang yet ! Even in The Gambia that may prove a little too much for a C90 !!!

Back at base the excitement got underway with a gathering, I’m not sure what for, including the obligatory drum band, Kankurag, Masquerade and dancing, which provided a few nice pics. Then half hour or so later as I walked down to Lamin’s motorbike workshop I spotted some smoke coming from the hill behind the hospital where Sulayman and I had walked a couple of days ago then a few minutes later the Avon & Somerset Fire Brigade came rushing up the road… well their fire engine did anyway. Hopefully that one was soon sorted, although I haven’t spotted it returning yet!
Then it was back to the hospital to see how the work was getting on. Inspite of it being Saturday Morro and the boys had been hard at it since 8am.They had a near disaster when the trench they were excavating for the foundations collapsed at one end, giving one of the men a bit of a fright as he onlu just got out of the way !

Undeterred, they soon had it shored up with a couple of pieces of reinforcing rod. a part of the railings that they had taken from the wall and some hardboard...  Health and Safety would have a fit! Anyway, eventually the first concrete of the rebuild foundations was laid, and I toddled of to Sul's for ataya! All in all not a bad day! 

Sulayman with Mohammed, Gansery and baby Binta

As Tanya is on call tonight I cooked us a vegetarian curry for supper, managing to use up most of the vegetables that were getting past their prime;and I didn't have to open a single can. Sure enough we had hardly finished the washing up and she was summoned to the labour ward...

Tomorrow all being well, once I've seen Morro started, I'm having a bit of a day off and checking out the route from Georgetown, where the Scoots usually cross the river Gambia, right round to the Bansang ferry. If it all works out OK we may use that crossing this year which will drop us right in the centre on Bansang and also finishes the trip off with a nice section of sandy track...a little bit of a sting in the tail!

The River Gambia from just below Bansang Power Station