On 9th January our chair Diane Fisher and steering group member Mala Gassama flew out to Serrekunda in the Gambia to kickstart our project to build Ceesay School a permanent building. Their first task? To buy some land for the school. Diane reports back on their first week.
Happily leaving behind the cold, wet UK, we disembarked into blinding sunshine and a wave of welcoming heat. We were warmly greeted – the solo flight from the UK that day as the rest had been cancelled due to the current political uncertainty in the country. Reliable as always, Mr Ceesay, Ceesay Nursery School’s head teacher, had found us a driver who was waiting to collect us.
We drove for about 20 minutes to Mala’s mum’s house, where we are staying. We were warmly greeted by her lovely family and spent the rest of the day getting Gambian SIM cards and credit for our phones, changing money, shopping for food and water and hanging mosquito nets, kindly lent to us by Mr Ceesay.
On Tuesday we spent the morning looking at the land for the new school. We visited the plot that Mr Ceesay had identified as his first choice, after months of preliminary research. This land measured 40 x 50m – big enough to build the nursery school and have room for future expansion. It was flat, mostly cleared of brush and already had a small boundary wall built around it. It was in an area that had just opened up for development, which meant that it had no electricity or water yet and was a long way from the closest houses, but at a good price – 300,000 dalasi (dl) (£5,085).
Mala opened the negotiations offering 200,000dl (£3,390) and she and my sponsored ‘son’ Gabriel worked as a perfect negotiating and translating team, eventually getting an agreed price of 250,000dl (£4,238). We went home and called the money changer to come and change our money. He didn’t have enough money so we had to call a second man, who only had mostly small notes. The counting became almost farcical as Mala, her brother and her sister and I stayed up late into the night counting out 250,000dl, much of it in bundles of 5dl (10p) notes. We ended up with an Asda shopping bag full of money! The exchange was scheduled for the next day.
On Wednesday morning, two shocks occurred: I woke to discover I had completely lost my voice. I could not even whisper! Also, during the night, someone who had seen Mala and myself (an ex-pat and a white person) looking at the land had gone to the village elders and told them rich foreigners were trying to buy the land. The elders put the price up to 400,000dl (£6,780)! We walked away from the table. None of us wanted to have further discussions with people who went back on their word or were dishonest like that. I also had a fever so I stayed at home all day and rested and Mr Ceesay and the land negotiator went and looked at more plots. Late in the evening they called Mala (I couldn’t speak) and told her they had found another plot that was better.
The new plot was closer to the main road, had electricity, was not too far from a water supply, and was big enough – 40m x 38.5m. The price was 300,000dl, negotiated down from 325,000dl. We could go see it in the morning. I questioned if the same thing could happen if Mala and I went along but was told that the Alkalo (village headman) of this village was educated and the elders had the reputation of honest men. In the evening we got the first money changer to come and change all our small bills to big bills and help us to recount it to get the amount absolutely accurate.
On Thursday my voice had turned into a husky croak and we went to see the land. It is beautiful, much nicer than the first place! It has some shady trees and several houses very close with friendly people who assured us they would love to have a school there. We met the elders and Mala and I could tell they were open, honest people who wanted a school to bless their community and for their children and grandchildren. We unanimously decided to buy this land.
We measured it out and photographed it. Then we examined the documents showing the present ownership very carefully and photographed them. The elders and the land negotiator and Mr Ceesay all counted out the money together. The previous owner’s son stayed with us, with the money, while the rest went to get the new papers drawn up with the Alkalo. When the new ownership papers came, we examined them carefully, photographed them and the money was transferred.
The smile of pure joy on Mr Ceesay’s face, after 21 years of struggling and teaching in rented, insecure, inadequate accommodation was priceless!
The next step is to register the ownership at the Land Registry Office. Mr Ceesay registered it with the local land registry office, which cost 1000dl, but to ensure that this land title is completely legal under all government regulations, now and in the future, we need to register it at the Brikama Land Registry Office, which we will do Monday, if it is open.
Ceesay Nursery School 