Our Scout Group, Ise Valley has been supporting Bansang Scouts in the Gambia for many years. Our Group Scout Leader Jeanette and her husband Chris have been visiting Bansang to support the hospital and scouts regularly. Jeanette had always wanted to take some of the scouts and young leaders to Bansang to support the local scout group.
The planning and fundraising for our trip took around eighteen months. Our fund-raising involved jumble sales, easter egg hunts, cream teas for Mother’s Day, toy sales, charity nights and holding a stall to sell refreshments on the way to Wicksteed Park on bonfire night to help pay towards the trip.
Five young leaders and Five leaders from the Ise Valley Scout Group went on the trip to Bansang. We took with us books, school supplies, toys, sanitary products, and other items that would be useful to the school and scout groups. We left Kettering on Monday 2nd January and stayed the night at a hotel just outside Gatwick Airport, as we had an early morning flight on Tuesday morning. We were all in good spirits when we arrived in Banjul, the capital of The Gambia. The flight time was around six hours. The heat hit us when we stepped off the plane. We spent the first night in Sukuta Camping and Lodge, we had taken our own tents with us. We went out for a meal on the first night.
On Wednesday, we went to the local beach, and to the local Monkey Park and we enjoyed the company of the local scouts at night-time, they were all so friendly and made us feel really welcome. They sang their local campfire songs, and we taught them ours. The temperature was 23 degrees at 9.00 am in the morning.
On Thursday morning we set off for Bansang, this was around a 10-hour journey. We will never forget the welcome we received when we arrived, most of us were overcome by emotion. We camped at Bansang school, the school children and local scouts joined us. We shared stories and songs around the campfire.
The donations that we had taken were given to the school and the scouts. Ise Valley Scouts had purchased some land for the school to have their own vegetable garden, and the purpose of our trip was to develop this garden for them and plant the seeds needed to grow their own food. On Friday we spoke to the students at the school about the garden, and we went to Bansang Town to get the equipment that was needed for the garden, including garden spades, forks, wheelbarrows and buckets. We started work on the garden with the local scouts.
On Saturday we completed some more work in the garden and then we were very privileged to have the honour of being able to visit Bansang Hospital. We spoke to patients in the hospital and were able to see a baby that had been born 30 minutes earlier with her mother’s permission. We found the hospital quite different to ours and again a very emotional visit.
On Sunday we went on a boat trip with some of the local children, we saw hippos and crocodiles, the boat trip was quite scary at times and it was a relief to get back ashore. Many of the local children had never been on a boat before so it was amazing to share that experience with them.
On Monday we spoke to the school children about the work we had done in the garden and had to say our emotional goodbyes as we were travelling back across The Gambia to be nearer to the airport for the next day. , we went to the local market to buy gifts for our families before we made the journey.
On Tuesday morning, we flew back to the wet and cold UK. We will never forget the welcome we received in The Gambia and it does make you realise that we take a lot for granted in the UK. We hope to return to The Gambia sometime in the future.
We gave a presentation night on Monday 3rd April where we invited all the charities, companies and family and friends that donated towards our trip. We invited members of the scout family, which also included current scouts from Ise Valley as it is hoped the group will return in a couple of years to carry on the work the group has started.
Ellie, Libby, Sophie, Tilly and Oakley (Young Leaders)
