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Strange meetings

A clandestine meeting with a journalist from an independent newspaper near to midnight in the Kombo on Friday evening was an interesting end to a week in which we attended the VSO education workshop. The meeting however was for nothing more than to present Lynn and I with a copy of the following days newspaper in which we featured. Earlier in the week we had spoken at the VSO workshop to volunteers and other partners about our work, frustrations and successes. The journalist had been present and actually was very positive about our contribution.
To add to the spymaster theme that had somehow developed during the week we were then stopped on an open road miles from anywhere by the ‘paymaster.’ Few Gambians have bank accounts so every month a paymaster travels around, complete with armed guards, to various pay points in each region. He was returning from Region Six to Banjul having been told that we were travelling back that day and somehow he spotted our car, how we do not know, “lookout for the toubabs,” did it I guess, anyway he stopped his car and gave us our monthly allowance. It was very strange one of us counting money while the other kept a close eye on a herd of renegade goats in case they suddenly mug us for our few Dalasi. The two armed guards were more interested in their dinner which they ate in their vehicle.
Our return from the Kombo was spoiled when we found that our office had been trashed, not simply by vandals, for we might have simply bitten our lips and got on with life but the guilty people were teachers who had had a workshop in the office and decided to stick their notes, discussion sheets and feedback onto our displays with parcel tape. When trying to remove them everything was pulled off and our four metre map of region six which showed the schools we had visited was destroyed. Not only were the displays destroyed but the floor and furniture were covered in food, papers, glue and who knows what else. Trashed almost is too good a word for it. You can guess our reaction. A word for the wise, stay away from the Wilsons in this mood! Look out anyone who crosses out path this week.