Escape from the Snow!

Amazingly our plane took off from Birmingham International airport bang on time at 8am. My alarm had given me a very rude awakening at 3.30am, I quickly washed, shaved and stumbled bleary eyed down stairs with my bags to the kitchen to find Anita looking fresh as a daisy with tea and toast all ready for me… now that’s a really nice start to my morning! By 4am I was on my way to collect Jeanette and Chris together with Steve who was going to drive us to the airport and return the Pajaero back to Orlingbury. Once out of Anita’s lane the roads were mercifully clear of snow and of course at that unearthly time of the morning also more or less devoid of traffic, giving us an easy ride all the way!

Arriving at the airport, it didn’t take long for us to check in our immense heap of luggage (no less than 10 bags in all between us) and head off to use the 20% off voucher that Chris had downloaded to buy breakfast at Franky and Benny’s. It’s probably just me, but I couldn’t help contrasting the extortionate price of the breakfast (even less the 20%) with the poverty of Gambia. Yet again an illustration, if it were needed, of just how ridiculous the claims of hardship emanating from the UK are: Anyone who can afford to eat at the mediocre fare at these over priced, over hyped and it must be said over crowded purveyors of plastic food is quite simply not hard-up! Anyway it passed a reasonable proportion of the two hours we had to wait for our flight, the balance being spent shopping for toiletries and food in Boots as Thomas Cook fights do not include meals in the standard fare, so being tight we opted for a Boot’s Meal Deal !

8am saw us taxiing along the runway and heading due south towards the heat of Gambia and the wonderful warmth of it’s people. The six hour flight passed smoothly enough and I must confess after a couple of late nights, an early start and the stress of the previous couple of days of intensive briefings by Anita, I slept like a baby for most of the flights aided by a little Celine Dion on my iPod.

Security at the airport proved to be a little problematic as most of our huge bags received the dreaded white chalk cross from the man at the xray machine, meaning we had to report to customs for closer scrutiny of them… Fortunately the customs man got a bit fed up rifling through second hand clothes and medical bits and pieces before he got to mine…. And ushered us on our way. Bidding him a bright and courteous farewell,  we didn’t stop to look back!   Outside we were met by not one but two drivers and vehicles waiting to transfer us to our rooms at Luigi’s complex, so young Suteh got an early finish as we thought we might as well put everything into Kemba’s minibus which had to return to base anyway.  Pulling into the hotel complex, Mariama was there with her usual beaming smile to greet us and sort out our rooms, a quick shower and time to head down to the pool bar for our first, very welcome, ice cold Julbrew ! We had just ordered our second (the first having slid down rather well) when we were joined by Drs David Southall and Tanya Robbins whom we hadn’t expected to see until Saturday at Bansang. In fact neither had Luigi’s expected to see them as they were booked to arrive on 22^nd February…. However, Julie of course, worked her usual magic and managed to find them a room .

I had spoken to David many time over the past few years as we used to print the manuals which his charity projects distribute whilst training midwives and traditional birth carers but we had never actually met. A larger than life character who exudes enthusiasm and charisma in much the same way as Anita, David works in many African countries, striving to improve maternal health and reduce infant mortality; no wonder Anita always speaks so highly of him. I took to his no nonsense but affable manner instantly and the five of us spent a pleasant evening discussing various aspects of his work over a few more Julbrews, although I must admit that unfortunately much of the conversation was way over my head, although I still found it fascinating. Think I might have to purchase a few medical volumes before we next meet….