The ‘community experience’ at Ndemban

Yesterday all the volunteers went for a day trip to a village called Ndemban (the programme called this day a 'community experience')

As our minibus arrived the villagers came out to greet us and everyone wanted to shake our hands (this lasted about 15mins!!) Some of the really small children (babies and toddlers) actually looked quite scared however the rest of the children seemed really intrigued and a group of girls followed us round the village all day! We did meet some boys later but they were less interested in us!

The day began in one of the ‘lower basic’ (primary) school buildings where we had a welcome from the Alikaaloo (this is the ‘chief’-type person who is a go between for the village and the government) the Iman (Muslim religious leader in the village), the village elders, and members of the village development committee (VDC). It was all very formal.

After the welcoming talk we went for a walk around the village (which was huge). Everybody was so polite and people came out of their houses to say hello. Like I mentioned  before there was a little group of girls who followed our every move staring at us intently and speaking in their native language (they were from the Jola tribe).

The village has rice fields (both a rice that doesn’t require much water to grow and one that does), they have fruit trees and they also grow their own food (they have a ‘vegetable patch-style’ garden) and then they have a crop field (both of which have had input from external organisations/charities). We met the women who looked after and tendered these gardens; they are really hardworking. I was trying out my Mandinka! One of the women said that I could marry her husband (i'd like to think it was because she was impressed with my Mandinka) and then some of the others told me that her husband was the Alikaaloo! So I felt very special!

After our tour the villagers put on a wonderful feast for us and we were able to try lots of different dishes. We had a final goodbye from the group of people who welcomed us and then we went on our way. It was an excellent day.