Sunday (Day 2) Meeting L'il Fattie and Abuko Nature Reserve

Finally the day had come to meet Fattie and her family. I woke too early and laid in bed listening to prayers over the load speakers from the nearby mosque, followed by raucous cockerels and then a crying baby in the compound next door (where Denba lives)

The plan was to leave at 9.30am but I had a very early lesson in 'Gambia Time.' Ginger gets 1 hour of internet connection every morning and this is essential for her to update her facebook group on how their kids are doing and post all the photos she has taken and edited the day before. One thing I hadn't been told is they have a couple of dogs called Skinny Minnie and Bongo, Skinny is no longer skinny and is quite feisty as she is an ex street dog that had been abused and taken in by Ginger, Bongo is her son and friendly but boisterous and noisy. This is relevant because I couldn't leave the house until they were put in the enclosed patio and I had been given the 'all clear'

Anyway we managed to leave at 10.30am and drove approx. 20 minutes to the compound that Fattie's family live in...a compound is the name for a walled area with accommodation in it, Ginger and Sol only have their house in the compound but most have several families in, sometimes related but not always.

I was slightly nervous of meeting Fattie's mum, I didn't want her feeling condescended to, the last thing I wanted for her to believe was that this big white woman felt she couldn't manage to care for her own children but I need not have worried.
She was lovely and all smiles, thanking me in her broken English. I gave her the clothes so agonised over in Asda and they seemed to go down very well. I had also brought things like TY's, vitamins, toothbrush and paste, scissors, shower gel and of course the footballs.


We had arranged to take Fattie and her 2 elder brothers Bakary and Dawda to Eagle Heights.
If you get the chance you MUST visit, based in the Abuko Nature Reserve and run by a team from the UK they are planning to restock the country with big game animals over the next 10-15 years. Currently they have the only Lion in Gambia, a 4 month old male cub called Baba and a couple of cheetahs to start their breeding programme.
(Thanks to Ginger Badjie from Skoolz4kids for letting me steal her photos)  I don't think the kids had been there before as they were very wary of the animals, Bakary in particular wasn't keen on the birds of prey getting too close and Fattie REALLY didn't like Baba the lion.

After we watched the bird display and met the big cats we had a nice cold drink and strode off into the bush to find crocodiles, Ginger was in charge and we followed the number signs to the Darwin Field Station, supported by the University of Warwick. It was incredibly hot and the crocs were mostly under water but we did see some snouts poking out!

After the excitement of the animals it was time to get the kids some food so we stopped at a local roadside cafe so they could eat. While we sat there was a lot of commotion on the road and suddenly 3 trucks with machine gunned whizzed past, followed by several cars with blacked out windows, an ambulance with its sirens and lights going, another couple of blacked out people carriers and 2 more trucks with machine guns...apparently the president Yahya Jemmeh was passing through, I think he had heard I was in town and was coming for a look...                                     


When we dropped the kids back I was taken to Sol's family compound which was nearby and introduced to his family, they are LOVELY, so kind and welcoming to this complete stranger.
After meeting everyone and spending a couple of hours just chillin' we headed back to base for food. Chef Badjie created a masterpiece called Benachin, a one pot rice dish made with beef. Denba came round to join us and after helping him with his homework the previous days traveling caught up with me  and by 8.30pm I was ready for bed, I left Ginger on the sofa editing her photos from the day ready to post online in the morning.