Telecom News Issue 2 - Flipbook - Page 10
Magdalene
My trip to Gambia
Written by David Cadle, FLM Engineer | Magdalene
A few years ago, my fiancée Natasha
introduced me to a group of friends who work
with a small organisation that has been going
to Gambia for several years.
I first went to experience a new culture and
hopefully help out in some way but had no
idea what I was letting myself in for! The last
few years have seen us working on a clinic in
the town of Serrekunda where we’ve helped to
build a maternity ward, kitchen, security hut,
storage and meeting/diagnosis rooms.
However, this year brought a new task as our
main contact Ebrimmeh Jammeh (Baccy),
had the land where he was living on taken
away and built on. Baccy has never asked us
for a single thing so last year the organisation
bought him his own land.
Raising money is difficult. We are an
organisation and not a registered charity so
money either comes from friends, family or
our own pockets. Normally, I end up doing
something stupid to persuade people to
donate. If anyone has any ideas, I am open to
them!
Last year’s project was to start building the
walls to mark his area of land. This year we
wanted to give Baccy somewhere safe to
sleep, store his tools and start the foundations
for his house. We worked in temperatures in
the mid-30s which made things difficult, so
we split into three shifts, working from 7:30am
through to 7.30 in the evening. Due to the
