I didn’t sleep too well last night; just too many
conflicting thoughts and emotions running around in what passes for my brain! Stays
in Bansang are always a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but none has ever been
more so than this! Now, as it draws to a close, both Glenis and I are torn
between what I can only describe as the captivation of this “other world” where
material possessions are few, wealth is counted in pence rather than pounds,
but as the song says “ Love is all around” , and our imminent return to what I
guess I must describe as “normality”. Now those of you that have followed my
posts from Greece and Bulgaria will know well my thoughts on what passes for “normality”
. Gambia, but more particularly Bansang, turns it all on it’s head once more!
Words to describe my feelings for these wonderful, loving,
caring people fail me. It would take a poet of some stature, certainly a
wordsmith of far, far greater talent than I to express the emotions running
through my head last night and indeed this morning. Relief is in there
somewhere; relief that we have finally just about reached the end of Anita’s
huge list. Concern; certainly concern as to whether we have in fact managed to
complete our given tasks to anything like the high standard that Anita sets in
her own, inimitable way. Equal measures of bewilderment , happiness and gratitude at how completely Bansang and of
course, particularly the hospital staff have taken us to their hearts! Love…. Oh yes, a deep love that will, I know
keep me returning to my Bansang family until the day I cease to draw breath; a
love for the people, for the place and of course for Anita, a lady whose
selfless devotion to a cause she so fervently believes in knows no bounds and
should be an inspiration to us all. Amazement, that Glenis and I have managed
to co-habit in such perfect harmony for two weeks without so much as a raised
voice or frown. We have laughed together and cried together, been eaten alive
by mosquitos together and had a thoroughly wonderful time together, whilst all
the while missing and worrying about our friend, Anita and just what she is
enduring back at home in Kettering. And last
but by no means least a deep, deep melancholy at the thought of leaving it all
behind to return to a cold, heartless world of greed, consumerism and a sefishness
that pervades our so called civilized world from the bottom to the very highest
echelons of society, although that melancholy
is of course tempered by a joy to be returning, albeit fairly briefly in my
case , to family, friends and loved ones back home. And whilst these feelings and thoughts come from my heart, I
a have a strong feeling that Glenis is suffering in much the same way.
Meanwhile, today we head north
once more, across the little ferry to visit Alhargie, his wife and newborn baby
at their compound. This time we will be travelling by Scoot so it might be a
somewhat different experience than Thursdays trip in the Landcruiser,
particularly for Glen ! Before that we have a couple of brief local visits to
make; to Abdouli and new wife, and to Kaddi’s ( not Caddi, as I usually spell
it!) family compound.
Tonight we will be taking
Wandifa and Abdoul Karem to dinner at Paradise Lodge where I am sure it will
turn into a discussion of work done and still to be done… but before them we
need to confirm our return flights, pack most of our kit away, take an
inventory of what is left in the larder and do a little housework…. Hey Ho! No rest
for the wicked.
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