Niets zo cliche als het zachtjes zuchten van de zee

One week later, one more week of experience in this country.

Weather:
Unfortunately for me, but maybe you are glad to hear, it has been raining a lot. Was there a lot of sunshine in the first two weeks I was here, since Friday this has changed and reminded the country we are still in the rain season. When it rains, it rains beyond what you are used to in Europe. Heaven drops down, within minutes more water comes down than in a month of London drizzle. It comes suddenly and disappears suddenly and it doesn’t leave even a huge amount of puddles. It only has a sustained effect on the intensity of the lush green colours.

Education:
Regarding education Gambians are trapped. Within the country there is no good education, salaries are low for teachers and with a population of 1.4 million it is difficult to fill universities within the country. The only realistic option is to study abroad; however all the neighbouring countries are French, a language not learned at school. Not easy, English universities are expensive and far away. Due to this there are just not enough skills in the country to govern itself. For example transport. The EU is investing in the infrastructure in West Africa, but talking to a guy from the EU this works as follows: the Gambia is eligible for funding by the EU, but since nobody in the country can do the paperwork the EU does the paperwork. When money is allocated money can be spend, but since nobody knows how roads has to be build this is done under governance of the EU with companies as Ballast Nedam (Dutch!) and other infrastructure companies. Engineers involved with the machinery are not local but expats. The show is totally run by foreigners. All shops/restaurants/hotels I know are run by the non-indigenous (Lebanese/Indians/Germans/Belgians etc.). Due to this the Gambian middle class is very small, and it needs a money spending middle class so badly.
One of the schools available is the vocational training programme related to SOS children’s village. Last weekend I spoke to a lady who works there, she told me there is a big shortage of vocational training facilities. A problem recognized by the department of education, where she worked before, but they were not able to change it. A shame because I truly believe that vocational training is the first step in the good direction, because it are mostly skills what can be traded within the community.

Why are there not more private schools? Apart from some posh ones for the expat off-spring there does not seem to be a wide selection. A teacher should be able to life from a class of 20/30 pupils you would think.

Demography:
Almost the only people I meet/see on the street are only boys in the age class 15-25. Seldom are it older people, and sometimes woman. This is directly related to the demography, which is heavily skewed towards the younger ones. 40% of the population is under 14, only 2.8% is above the age of 65. I am still figuring out what the total impact is of this on the economical structure, but I assume it will be more difficult to send kids to school if you have so many and you just are very busy to feed/dress them, drama’s of mortality, and that all those children has a big effect on the money you have to spend. But on the other side there is quite a big work force of people 15-25 what I don’t see is very actively used (aka sits on their arse).

Food
To spend as much money as possible while I am here, and also just because I am lazy, I never cook. Every night I eat out. But how do I do this the on the most morally justified way? So far I have decided that the way forward is to eat in the restaurant next door. By chance the most luxurious venue in the wide surroundings. Doing it this way I employ as many people as possible to get the food to my mouth. Not only the 4 or 5 waiters make a living, but also the security, the gardeners, the kitchen boys, and maybe some more useful staff making each night an experience as was it the afterlife deserved by mother Theresa herself. I feel slightly bad about it, but all people in the chain involved do employ some skills, try to work and gets rewarded. For my opinion it is a better system than giving money away. That I am top of the chain in this occasion makes it pleasant for me.