Con Number 1

The situation in 2006 is very little different to the situation in 2002, Lamin has married the woman from Norfolk and moved to the UK, the legal papers and court case await his return to Gambia for long enough for him to be served court papers or for us to reach a private agreement.

That day will come, in the meantime, the compound remains in limbo and is now fairly well surrounded by the new TAF estate.

See March 2002 and May 2003 updates at bottom of this page

The main purpose of GTS is to create a partnership relationship with a number of local Gambians and from that base promote sustainable employment for local people.

Brufut is a vital link in that plan. We found this part of Brufut quite by accident and even Lamin was unaware how close it was to one of the most significant sites in the Gambia, but we all knew it was special. It has an atmosphere of calm, a sense of magic. This is a very special place.

Lamin bought the land for us in mid 2000 as his brother Njundu arrived in the UK for a 6 week visit. Work started immediately on building a wall around the land, using local labour.

In October 2000 I spent a flying visit to sort out preparations for the container's arrival and also to see the site for the first time. Lamin was moving in with his girlfriend from the UK and apart from having to sort out issues with him about the shop and his old compound, we saw very little of him. We met to go through and sign our partnership papers, but most of the time was spent with Foday, who once again provided me with space for my camp bed on the floor of his tiny room in the village of Lamin.

We agreed to have a well dug, because although piped water is due in the area in the near future - the construction work was made so much more difficult with the only water supply being half a mile away.

In December the well was finished and work started on the buildings around the container that will provide accommodating for the builders in the short term and later stores and GTS workshops.

A rough design for our first main building was completed, it will be a circular 3 story timber building with plastered panels the top floor providing panoramic views over the sweeping Kololi bay. This should have started in the first week of January, but Lamin sprung it on us that he was not happy to stay as a GTS partner and that he wanted to leave to concentrate on his own thing.

This has caused a delay until the paperwork can be completed to transfer ownership of the Brufut land to GTS and remove Lamin as one of the partners. I do not pretend to understand why Lamin has decided to do this now, but we hope he is happy with the new arrangement and that we will continue to work closely but independently in the future.

I hope to visit again in March/April and as long as the current delay is not too long, I hope that construction will have resumed. The ground floor will be the main reception centre and will be used for a wide range of activities - allowing the locals to expose the 'Hidden Gambia' to our members..

Horticulture, local medicines, fishing (sea and river) and food preparation will be popular starters, but there are local metal workers, weavers, carvers, fabric dyers and batik workers who will all provide inputs on site and help with member visits off site.

It will be nice to have the library housed and in use by local people and members. We hope GTS members will add to the c3000 books we have already collected, by adding a few each time they visit. There is no library in Brufut and although GTS will hold a deposit on books borrowed, this will be a FREE library and resource centre for local children and their parents.

Once we have electrical power we will setup the first 'FREE Computer School in The Gambia - Although courses will not be completely free, they will be run on the basis of covering costs and not to make profit.
No one in the neighbourhood who wants to learn how to use a computer will be excluded on the basis that they cannot afford it.

As if this is not enough GTS is keen to support art in the schools and the community. We hope May Rooney - a qualified graphic artist who is currently setting up a project in Gambia to recycle paper for use in schools, and working this yera as our sponsorship co-ordinator, will become the organiser of our annual Raphael Art Awards - starting first two local middle schools, the schools will benefit with funds towards materials, the children will win prizes and all the work entered will be put on sale with half going to the artist and half used towards the funding of the competition in the following year.

For more details of this initiative - please see our Art pages

Safe House

We have moved a little in our aims by employing Mamady as our gardener and when I left in late January seed beds were being prepared and planted. I look forward to seeing the results when i visit at the end of May 2002.

May 2003 - very little change with the Lamin situation, the legal process in Gambia is slow unless you have the funds to speed it up - it would not be right to consider it as a safe guard against the likes of Lamin, who mainly get away with thefts of this sort.

Mamady has got married and moved to set up a home with his new Gambian wife and GTS has a new watchman.

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