Gambia Blog

8/7/2019 Gambia Blog

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The Gambia 2011

Football Kit donationsBefore my recent trip to the Gambia I

had done some filming for Blackburn

Rovers Centre of Excellence, in return

they donated lots of kits and footballs.

This time, however, they put me in touch

with a guy who runs a local amateur

football team, “Darwen Spartans”. I met

up with him and he had lots, and I mean

lots, of kit for me. I ended up with

around 80 – 100 kilo of stuff. Luckily I

was traveling with family and friends, so

I got everyone to contact the airline and

ask for the charity bag allowance of an

extra 10 kilo each. On arrival at Banjul it

was even more chaotic than usual, but

all the bags had arrived safely, and soonwe were on our way. I was staying in a

rented house in Kerr Serring, and it took

me a couple of days to sort the kit out

into team strips and bag them up ready

for delivery.

My first visit was to London Corner in

Serrekunda. Me, my Dad and a couple of

friends arrived at a compound where, as

per usual, there were many more boys

than I had brought kits for, but they didn’t

seem to mind. In fact the teams share

the kits, so everyone gets the use of

them. We then drove on towards afootball pitch about a mile away, but the

Police stopped us, as our driver had no

number plates on display. A heated

argument took place with much arm

waving and even pushing, pushing the

Policeman that is!



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We arrived at the pitch - the usual

sandy patch of land. Three women

had tables laid out selling sweets (for

our benefit) so my friend bought a few

lollipops from one lady, which started

a heated argument between them, so

we bought all the sweets for about200 dalasi, and handed them out to

the kids, much to their delight. I took

up my camera and filmed the boys

doing a few tricks with the footballs,

and then we had to be on our way; it

was time for a Julbrew!

A few days later we had a long walk down the beach to Bijilo, where we

found a little shack with a garden with some tents, they belonged to some

Rasta’s. They lived in the tents and the shack was their bar. We bought a

few drinks, talked about football and the plans they had for the place, they

showed us around and we could see that they had started to dig a Well and

build a toilet block, it was getting late so we said our goodbyes and promised

we’d all be back and have a day with them drinking lots. They said they

would bring the drums and get plenty of drink in, so we took their phonenumber and said we’d give them a call.

My next football match was in

Sukuta. I arrived at a field with a

couple of friends and there were

around 60 boys waiting. This was a

proper football academy named FC

Dahaba. They were really happy toreceive the kits and they put on an

excellent match for us in the baking

sun, even wearing the jackets I’d

brought along, despite the heat. We

stayed a while and watched them

play, but time pressures meant we

had to sneak away mid game.



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A couple of days later I gave out some“Darwen Spartans” jackets to somefriends of mine who sell fruit on thebeach whom I’ve known for many years.I asked them if they’d sing and dance for

my video so that I could show it to thefootball club back home. As always theyobliged.

A crowd gathered at the Holiday Beach

club as they had heard the commotion. We

even had Benachin on the beach, which a

girl I know made for us: it’s a Gambian ricedish with vegetables and in our case some

fish. It was all cooked in one pan over

some charcoal, took a few hours to make,

and was the best I’ve ever tasted.

My next visit was to Jambanjali, a poor

village with no pitch a few miles from

Sanyang. This was my best experienceyet, as the locals here don’t often see

tourists and so don’t get many donations.

I handed out the Darwen kits, first to the

older boys, along with a few footballs

which had to be inflated, this took around

an hour! Also I had lots of brand new

Blackburn Rovers kits and tracksuits with

labels still attached, for the younger

boys. With smiles on their faces, they all

started training in the street and quite a

crowd came to watch. The younger boys

and the older boys formed themselves up

into teams and played games at either

end of the street. They were all really

thankful and sang and cheered for the

video.



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Towards the end of my trip I still had lots

of Blackburn Rovers kits and tracksuits

left. I decided to give some of these out

at the compound where Fatou, the girl

who made us Benachin on the beach,

lived. I also gave them out around the

SeneGambia area. I’ve done this for thelast few years, because I want

Blackburn Rovers shirts everywhere; it’s

good exposure for the club and the

tourists are always amazed when they

see the shirts on every corner. But I

also saved a few for the Rasta’s I’d met

at their makeshift bar on the beach. As

promised we went back, we took our

own beer and soft drinks and asked they

fetched some ice. We gave them agenerous donation (for bar hire!!) and

had a great day, with drumming, lots to

drink, and a fruit seller who give us

some impromptu dancing. The trip had

come to a really happy ending.

Since returning I have volunteered to go back for a couple of months in

November 2011, when I’ll be doing some filming for a charity in Brikama,which runs an HIV awareness and drop in Centre. I’ll be making a short film

for the organizer, Ebrima, aimed at helping raise awareness, and at getting

donations and volunteer help. I’m also going to be doing a couple of short

films for Mondochallenge (www.mondochallenge.co.uk), a charity volunteer

organization with projects in The Gambia. They want me to film some short

videos that will help promote their volunteer teaching in small schools

scheme, and maybe help inspire more volunteers to choose The Gambia as

their destination. I’m also hoping to take kits and school equipment out on abigger scale. I’ll be looking into shipping costs, as I know I can collect a lot

more if I have the means to get it there. So, until my next visit, thank you for

reading, hope you enjoy the video! Oh! And a massive thanks from me and

the people of The Gambia for Mark Atkinson of The Darwen Spartans JFC and

Gemma Donnelly of The Blackburn Rovers Centre of Excellence.

Ian Wiggins

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