Gambia pt. 2

I cannot believe that I we are almost at the three week mark, time has been going WAY too fast. The team has been doing so many things around the greater Banjul area in the last few weeks. Working at Sisters of Charity with sick and malnourished children, teaching Christian Religious Education in the schools, working with Gamfees (Student Ministries group), working at the hospital, Working with the Nova Scotia foundation doing AIDS Education… so many things. I have been spending most of my time working with music and also spending time in the markets with Gambian friends, as well drinking atya (strong tea) in the evenings with people in our neighborhood.

There are so many opportunities for music here in the Gambia! We are planning a HUGE concert / benefit on June 15^th in a venue that holds five thousand people, and we are expecting it to be packed out. They are even saying that it might be one of the biggest shows to ever hit the Gambia! It is a CD launch of sorts for the Holy Family band. Mike Friesen mixed their CD over the last year, and a song that I wrote made it on to the disc (how cool is that?). It’s going to be a huge party with at least ten bands playing, including out Band; Mango Tree Revival. We are getting some amazing opportunities to spread Gods word. Our band will on TV in two weeks, on the most watched Gambian program; Goodie Samdie.

The portable recording studio has been working very well, and we have connected with a local Studio. Omar, the owner has a really nice set up for something built in an African house, and we are all learning so much from each other.

On Sunday our team will be heading up to Soma to do football camps. I love it so much in Soma, it’s HOT and hard, but the people are amazing there. I am looking forward to seeing the kids again. We are there for a week, followed by a football camp in Sittanunku on the North Bank. It will be a busy two weeks, but so good.

Mariatu is keeping us alive and well fed! I don’t know what we would do without her! Mangos and passion fruit are in season right now, as well as amazing African bananas. The weather is pretty hot, but not unbearable at all.

We had a party last night with a lot of our Gambian friends and we packed out our house. It is amazing how people are the same where ever you go. The Musicians struggle with making a living at it, the students work just as hard as we do in Canada, the children act the same in school.

But my internet time is short, sop I apologize for the rushed post, and the grammar that must be so bad. Thank you for all of your prayers and birthday cards!!

Where to start…

It has been a long week here in the Gambia. Last night we went up to the North Bank to a small Village called Sittanunku that CVM has been partnering with for the last two years. They held a celebration in our honour last night that involved half of the village, a Concoron and a lot of dancing. It was a very rare opportunity to attend a tribal ceremony like that, but they were also very sure to pull us up to dance with them as well. We were quite a spectacle that is for sure. I can’t dance, but I gave it my all anyway… Today we attended a meeting with the regional chief, the elders and the heads of the various development organisations in the area. Again it was such an honour to be allowed to be a part of their culture to such an extent. CVM has played a big part in getting a solar powered water pump installed and we are planning to do more. We had the opportunity several times to share that we are working with them to show the love of God, and will have more opportunities when we run a soccer camp in the village in a few weeks time.

We also brought up some guitars and I had my drum. I drummed and danced with the village children all after noon, and we also had another dance party with the women of the village. But the time the festivities were over last night we had a few hours of sleep under the beautiful African starry sky.

Friday was Bob Marley day in the Gambia. The Holy Family Band (who we recorded with two years ago) was playing a show in Banjul, so we headed down to watch the show. It was so amazing to see them again. We have reformed the ‘Mango Tree Revival’ Band that we created on the Gambia trip two years ago, so Holy Family Band let us open for them. It was so much fun playing reggae at a Bob Marley festival in Africa! There are so many opportunities that just pop up here, and provide so many amazing friendships with the people that we came here to reach.

The team has started working with Sisters of Charity, Student Ministries, working in the Schools and we are starting to run soccer camps as of next week. As for me I am loving working with musicians. We have already decided to record with the Holy Family again as well as NGieB and possible Emcee Butcher. Also we are setting up a date to play on the Gambia Jay Leno type show in the next few weeks. #

I am sorry for the bad grammar and the lack of spell check, but life is very busy here and it is hard to find time to sneak out to the internet Café. I will try to post again soon now that we are back in the city.

Thanks for all of your prayers!