So we’ve decided to stay another two years. This gives us a real headache to sort things out in France; We need to find new tenants for Le Coty (if Richard and Jacky really have to leave!), homes for the dogs, sell anything we don’t need, make sure that everything can keep ticking over for another two years. If anyone knows someone who might be interested in renting Le Coty, let us know. It looks like Mick will be coming back alone as it is so expensive to fly at the moment as there are no charter flights due to the season. The rains started a few weeks ago and will continue now until the end of October, scaring all the tourists away. The children and I will stay here, enjoying the rain but we’re not looking forward to Ramadan when no-one eats or drinks between dawn and dusk and the imams wail through loud-hailers from every mosque (and there are many) all day long.
We’ve got about 6 weeks now before Mick leaves to make at least a few of our ruins lost in the jungle habitable! The property used to be the Ecco School of Drumming created by a Norwegian man back in the 1980’s, then abandoned about 10 years ago. We were visiting the neighbouring gardens when we saw the domed roofs of the ‘restaurant’ poking up through the undergrowth between the palm trees, it was like something out of Indiana Jones, wonderful curves and arches, all in red brick. We had to explore! There are five concrete-lined wells and seven buildings, including a large toilet/shower block, small roundhouses, the restaurant and a real wacky underground house built into a cliff (rare in the Gambia) overlooking the river Gambia. It has taken 5 months of negotiations to finally get to the point where we have an agreement to take over the property.
In order to create a centre for beekeeping, firstly we need a lot of hives – we have made 40 for the experiments and are collecting and making as many traditional hives as we can. We will also need a honey processing room, a store room for equipment, an office/shop to display equipment for sale and loan, and a ‘bantaba’ (an open covered area) for training and general lying about!! We have just started work roofing all the roundhouses to provide this – the costs are minimal as we are using the bamboo which is everywhere on the site and grass which we managed to get the last of before the rains began, there’ll be plenty more in September. We have three employees now: Bah2 who has worked for us for a while and will be our field officer after the rains, now he’s are plants-man: Balla, a young lad (who reminds me so much of Sam), who comes from a very poor village on the north bank, he’s as bright as a button and knows all the traditional bush crafts: then Albino who used to work for Helge, the Norwegian, and was involved in the original build, he is so humble and yet without him, we could do nothing – his favourite phase is ‘Small, small’, which means one thing (and more importantly one thought) at a time. We are learning so much – to build a whole roof with only a machete for a start.
Initially we will live in the processing room as we will have nothing to process until the end of the year. We can’t wait to move there, it is so beautiful: we were camping there when the first big thunder storm of the season rolled up-river and seem to park directly overhead for about an hour (Teo slept through it!!!). In the morning the ground was covered with bright red soft beetles that looked like giant red spider mites. The children had hours of fun gently stroking them which made them curl up into furry balls. By the end of the day, the bare earth was already turning green as all the dormant seeds germinated. Now, 3 weeks later, it is like the Garden of Eden. We had a bit of trouble getting down the drive as a stream forms across the entrance but we managed to find some large rubber pipe on the side of the road and have now made a bridge just wide enough for Pinky Ponk – yes she’s still going strong although whether she will cope when the rain really starts remains to be seen.
As an aside, we are having a bit of bureaucratic hassle with Pinky as we can’t get another Laisser Passer for her allowing her to stay in the country on foreign plates. We casually took her to the Senegalese border as we had on numerous occasions, but as it was raining we thought we would use the main Seleti crossing which was on the tarmac rather than the usual one at sleepy Darsalami – what a mistakes. The customs man there wouldn’t give us a new form and after much discussion, we had to leave Pinky on the border, walk back to the nearest village with buckets full of tools etc to catch a bush taxi back home. We then had to plead with the Chief Commissioner of Customs in Banjul to give us an extention which he did for a week. At least we got Pinky back and by this time, the customs official felt so guilty about causing such a problem that he gave us a new form and offer us 50 dalasi to cover the cost of the bush taxi!! He was only doing his job and we’ve done well to get away with it this long. Now they want 34750 dalasi (about 850 GBP) import duty for her!! Where there’s a will there’s a way, as Pinky is the only vehicle of the charity we are entitled to a duty waiver if only we can jump through all the right hoops, get all the appropriate stamps and signatures – we are working on it and have until Wednesday before we become completely illegally.
Back at the centre, we’ve (well, Balla, Bah2 and Albino) dug 60 huge holes for planting loads of fruit trees including citrus, mango, banana, papaya and even coconut over the next few weeks. We were given some passion fruit vines which I planted 2 weeks ago and they are already up to the roof lines! We have a large nursery where we are growing many good bee-fodder plants and live fencing from seed which will also get planted by the end of August. Two-hectares is quite a daunting garden!!
Renovating the main larger buildings is going to cost more and this can only be justified if they will provide additional income to the charity so it can become self-supporting and not reliant on donations. We have proposed operating a volunteer scheme where people come and stay at the centre, helping out with all aspects of the charities work including beekeeping, training etc out in the villages, gardening etc. Whether this goes ahead will depend on the success of this first phase and the board of directors. But, before then, if anyone fancies coming out to give us a hand, as long as you can pay your way, we would welcome you with open arms.
We’ve got about 6 weeks now before Mick leaves to make at least a few of our ruins lost in the jungle habitable! The property used to be the Ecco School of Drumming created by a Norwegian man back in the 1980’s, then abandoned about 10 years ago. We were visiting the neighbouring gardens when we saw the domed roofs of the ‘restaurant’ poking up through the undergrowth between the palm trees, it was like something out of Indiana Jones, wonderful curves and arches, all in red brick. We had to explore! There are five concrete-lined wells and seven buildings, including a large toilet/shower block, small roundhouses, the restaurant and a real wacky underground house built into a cliff (rare in the Gambia) overlooking the river Gambia. It has taken 5 months of negotiations to finally get to the point where we have an agreement to take over the property.
In order to create a centre for beekeeping, firstly we need a lot of hives – we have made 40 for the experiments and are collecting and making as many traditional hives as we can. We will also need a honey processing room, a store room for equipment, an office/shop to display equipment for sale and loan, and a ‘bantaba’ (an open covered area) for training and general lying about!! We have just started work roofing all the roundhouses to provide this – the costs are minimal as we are using the bamboo which is everywhere on the site and grass which we managed to get the last of before the rains began, there’ll be plenty more in September. We have three employees now: Bah2 who has worked for us for a while and will be our field officer after the rains, now he’s are plants-man: Balla, a young lad (who reminds me so much of Sam), who comes from a very poor village on the north bank, he’s as bright as a button and knows all the traditional bush crafts: then Albino who used to work for Helge, the Norwegian, and was involved in the original build, he is so humble and yet without him, we could do nothing – his favourite phase is ‘Small, small’, which means one thing (and more importantly one thought) at a time. We are learning so much – to build a whole roof with only a machete for a start.
Initially we will live in the processing room as we will have nothing to process until the end of the year. We can’t wait to move there, it is so beautiful: we were camping there when the first big thunder storm of the season rolled up-river and seem to park directly overhead for about an hour (Teo slept through it!!!). In the morning the ground was covered with bright red soft beetles that looked like giant red spider mites. The children had hours of fun gently stroking them which made them curl up into furry balls. By the end of the day, the bare earth was already turning green as all the dormant seeds germinated. Now, 3 weeks later, it is like the Garden of Eden. We had a bit of trouble getting down the drive as a stream forms across the entrance but we managed to find some large rubber pipe on the side of the road and have now made a bridge just wide enough for Pinky Ponk – yes she’s still going strong although whether she will cope when the rain really starts remains to be seen.
As an aside, we are having a bit of bureaucratic hassle with Pinky as we can’t get another Laisser Passer for her allowing her to stay in the country on foreign plates. We casually took her to the Senegalese border as we had on numerous occasions, but as it was raining we thought we would use the main Seleti crossing which was on the tarmac rather than the usual one at sleepy Darsalami – what a mistakes. The customs man there wouldn’t give us a new form and after much discussion, we had to leave Pinky on the border, walk back to the nearest village with buckets full of tools etc to catch a bush taxi back home. We then had to plead with the Chief Commissioner of Customs in Banjul to give us an extention which he did for a week. At least we got Pinky back and by this time, the customs official felt so guilty about causing such a problem that he gave us a new form and offer us 50 dalasi to cover the cost of the bush taxi!! He was only doing his job and we’ve done well to get away with it this long. Now they want 34750 dalasi (about 850 GBP) import duty for her!! Where there’s a will there’s a way, as Pinky is the only vehicle of the charity we are entitled to a duty waiver if only we can jump through all the right hoops, get all the appropriate stamps and signatures – we are working on it and have until Wednesday before we become completely illegally.
Back at the centre, we’ve (well, Balla, Bah2 and Albino) dug 60 huge holes for planting loads of fruit trees including citrus, mango, banana, papaya and even coconut over the next few weeks. We were given some passion fruit vines which I planted 2 weeks ago and they are already up to the roof lines! We have a large nursery where we are growing many good bee-fodder plants and live fencing from seed which will also get planted by the end of August. Two-hectares is quite a daunting garden!!
Renovating the main larger buildings is going to cost more and this can only be justified if they will provide additional income to the charity so it can become self-supporting and not reliant on donations. We have proposed operating a volunteer scheme where people come and stay at the centre, helping out with all aspects of the charities work including beekeeping, training etc out in the villages, gardening etc. Whether this goes ahead will depend on the success of this first phase and the board of directors. But, before then, if anyone fancies coming out to give us a hand, as long as you can pay your way, we would welcome you with open arms.
