Yesterday was the big day, the container arrived and got loaded. Meanwhile it is already on the way to Hamburg / Germany and on the 25 December the ship will go to Banjul / The Gambia.

Just before completing the loading the delivery of the blackboards arrived. That was close!

Now keep your fingers crossed, that everything runs smoothly!

Thanks again to all the supporters!

The container is going to be unloaded within the next days.

After two entire weeks of endless red tape and official channels, we got the container out of the habor. It took multiple visits at the Ministery of Education, of Finance, the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), the Gambia Port Authority (GPA), the clearing and forwarding agent, Delmas Gambia, customs at the port (inspecting the cargo and so on) etc.; umpsteen letters, stamps, guarantees, signatures...

But finally we also received a duty waiver and an exemption from the demurrage that had meanwhile arisen from the delay.

The day before loading, the truck, the ministry of education intended to provide, broke down. We had already wasted two days waiting for it and now this! Repairing it would have taken some days and because of the upcoming weekend (which starts Friday) and the preparations for the 50th Independence Day celebrations, we would have had further delays. To avoid this, we had to go and find a truck for the next morning. We found a friendly driver and quite a good truck at a rather reasonable price at Jimpex area. Later the driver said, if he had known before how stressful, chaotic and exhausting the procedures at the port were, he wouldn't have made the deal with us. And added: If somebody asked him again to pick up donations from the habor, he would refuse the deal. It was his first (and obviously last) time there.

After the port staff finally lifted our container to the ground for the second time (the first was the custom's inspection a couple of days ago), we hired some guys to help us loading our truck. We were literally human forklifts, heaving up everything onto the truck manually. Some packages weighed more than 180 kg. Only the copy paper we had to remove from the two pallets and load the packets individually, since we couldn't lift the more than 750 kg, that each weighed.

After that, our truck had to be X-rayed by the port authorities, driving an X-ray-vehicle around our truck, (presumably) also  distributing the radiation liberally to the people standing nearby.

Because of some more or less bizarre, time-killing events (e.g. suddenly we found our papers locked away in an office and the only owner of the key had gone to a funeral. But without these papers we were not allowed to leave the habor...), we just managed to get out of the port before closing time at 6 pm. With us, all the eagerly awaited donations...

(rough) Cargo List:

• Chairs and office chairs
• Footballs, ball pumps
• First aid supplies, 2 sick beds, sphygmomanometers, clinical thermometers etc.
  
• Tools, electric installation supplies (power sockets, light switches, cable etc)
• LED tubes and sockets
• Gardening tools, watering cans
• Computers, keyboards, computer mice, screens, cables, printers, D-Link Sys, Scanner, Laptops etc.
• 1 fan
• Stationery (notebooks, exercise books etc)
• 2 pallets Mondi copy paper
• World maps
• Various Toys
• 1 mattress, sheets and pillows (for reading corner)
• Books
• 1 book shelf
• 5 black boards
• Chalk
• Clothing, shoes, bags, bed sheets, curtains, towels, blankets, pillows etc.
• 2 sewing machines
• 85 Solar powered desk lamps
• Clocks
• Rechargeable batteries, charger (spare batteries for solar lamps, clocks etc.)
• School materials (hundreds of pencils and crayons, watercolours, erasers, sharpeners, rulers, pencil cases, etc.)
• Several hundred little deko-dustbins as pencil holders
• Stuffed animals

Some items were new, some in mint condition.

The truck arrived 3 am in the morning in Janjanbureh (former: Georgetown). On the way one of the tires had a puncture. Since the truck was already using its spare tires, there was no choice but to continue the journey with a flat tire. However, we're in Gambia and the situation was laid-back as usual: The other wheels carried the broken one anyway.

Thanks to a letter from the ministry of education, the truck was able to pass all the police and military check points on the way without further delay or disturbance and possible damage or loss of the donations.

The first ferry crossing the Gambia River at Janjanbureh to Lamin Koto went 8 am. It is able to carry up to 3 cars or one truck at a time. We took the first ferry with our little car, the truck had to wait for the second. From Lamin Koto it is only a rather short drive to Wassu, where the students were already eagerly waiting for us to arrive.

Some obligatory speeches were held. Afterwards the strongest boys of the Niani Upper and Senior Secondary school started to offload the truck and arrange the donations in the school yard, from where they were carried in the various school rooms for the later distribution or installation.

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The first aid course will take place on the 23 and 24 of May 2015. Mr. Momodou Laineh of First Aid 4 Gambia is going to train the 20 teachers of the Niani Upper and Senior Secondary and the Niani Primary School in Wassu.

As mentioned earlier (Dec 2014), each course is based on a 1 day (6 hours)/10 persons UK Emergency First Aid at Work course which covers

1. Effective use of first aid equipment and hygiene
2. Aims of FA
3. Assessing situation
4. Dealing with unconscious casualty  -  breathing
5. Dealing with unconscious casualty  - non breathing - CPR with manikins adult and child
6. Choking
7. Burns
8. Shock
9. Wounds
10. Sprains and strains.

All candidates receive a certificate on successful completion of the course.

Courses are delivered by Mr. Laineh who is able to train in English, Mandinka and Wollof.

All courses are fully adapted for The Gambia.

First Aid 4 Gambia, a registered Scottish charity SCO40837, is going to train the teachers free of charge. GAMBIAid helped towards the costs for travelling and accomodation of the trainer.

Photos coming soon.

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Let me share a story, about how a donation can improve lives.

 We bought simple sphygmomanometers (device for measuring the blood pressure) and took them to Gambia. One family in Bansang received one of them.

I heard, that meanwhile every morning the elderly people are queuing up in their frontyard to have their blood pressure measured.

They are little professionals already, coming early morning before breakfast, relaxing 15-20 minutes, so they can measure the resting heart rate, not saying a word and not moving, recording the results and adjusting their habits accordingly. They say, it really helps them to stay healthier, to have a general idea of the state of ther blood pressure and to keep track of it at no charge. In case they register health problems, they can immediately consult a doctor. They appreciate this device a lot.

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The principal received 20 printer cartidges for the Brother ink jet printer and a print head cleaner. Due to possible customs restrictions in Gambia, we couldn't risk to take more this time. Next time, we are going to bring along some more cartidges for the other printers.

Principal Momodou Kanyi is thanking the generous donors.

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