Our chair Diane Fisher reports on her third week in the Gambia, where she’s been securing the land for Ceesay Nursery School’s permanent school building and watching a country celebrating a new political era.

This week has been a complete contrast to last week. On Saturday evening, former President Jammeh finally left the country and took asylum in Equatorial Guinea. The sense of relief was palpable.

Of the 26 children currently sponsored through the Ceesay Nursery and Primary School charity, only nine are in Serrekunda. The rest had either fled with their families to Senegal or Guinea Bissau or had been sent ‘up country’ to stay with relatives in the villages until the political upheaval passed.

I visited each of the nine children at home, spoke with them and their families, delivered gifts from their sponsors and took some photos. These personal visits are crucial in getting accurate insight into how much of a difference the sponsor’s support has made to the child’s life and education.

We ended the day with a visit to the site of the new school to ensure the brush clearing was going as planned.

Monday passed in a flurry of meetings: one with a contractor to get professional building advice, but even more useful was the meeting with our newly retained lawyer. He came highly recommended and has already been worth his weight in gold, leading us step by step through the very complicated process of ensuring the school’s land is legally secured.

Mr Baboucarr Secka has the air of an elder statesman. He was educated in the UK and seems a true humanitarian, charging us a nominal fee of 2000dl (£34.50) to advise us, draw up a water tight legal contract with the sellers and generally be on call to help us navigate the confusing demands for permits, ‘development fees’ and government stamped ‘certificates’. He has met with us nearly every day and even introduced us to others that can advise us with practical building queries. So far he has refused further payment; he says he wants to help us achieve our aims as it will benefit his children’s children and the country he loves.

Once we knew exactly what to do, we spent most of the week going from one government office to another, getting the correct documents, and having them signed and stamped by various civil servants. Since most of the offices were not yet functioning at full capacity and about half of the staff had yet to return to the city, it was a slow and frustrating process, but by Friday, we were able to meet with Mr Secka and he pronounced the land now completely safe. With each of us in possession of copies of the legal documents, we started to organise the construction work.

On Friday I was also able to catch up with four more of the sponsored children, who had returned to Serrekunda. They are all doing very well and enjoying being able to go to school. All week Gambians trickled back into the city. For many, it was a difficult and costly journey, as many unscrupulous drivers and traders capitalised on their plight.

By Wednesday, Gabriel Mendy had also returned. Gabriel is a young man who has consistently graduated top of his class and is now waiting to start a medical degree at Gambia University in September. He is an excellent negotiator, honest, very quick and reliable and will be working with Mr Ceesay, to help him supervise and organise the building work, ensuring that we get best value for money.

Gabriel will also be helping Mr Ceesay involve the community, maximise every dilasi we have and send me reports and accounts every week. I am paying him a local salary myself, as I believe that it is the best way we can ensure transparency and reliable progress reporting. I spent Thursday morning training him up on the reporting and accounting structures I expect and going through his job description, duties, etc. Mr Secka has offered to inspect the building work at the end of each stage and advised me not to release payment for the next stage until the previous one is approved.

Another meeting I had was with Lady Kira Dalton, founder of the Oyster Trust – a charity that has built and developed a handful of nursery schools and two medical centres in the Gambia. Lady Kira has lived here many years and knows how things work and what they should cost. She went through our projected school building budget with me and advised me that it is indeed possible to build our school within our budget. She also had a wealth of advice on how to enable the school to be self-sustaining, and I hope to build strong links with her.

Finally, on Thursday afternoon the new President, Adama Barrow, flew in to take office. The whole country exploded with joy! Driving home on Thursday we passed thousands of people walking up to 10 miles to the airport, to welcome him. Every car was full inside and out, the roofs adorned with jubilant youths. #GambiaHasDecided t-shirts were everywhere, even on our dignified head teacher Mr Ceesay!

Everyone was smiling, and I have noticed that music has returned to the Gambia! Everyone is playing music – on the radio, in their compounds, on the street, in their cars. The mood is joyful, peaceful and light. Gambia, ‘the Smiling Coast’ that I know and love has been reborn.

As outgoing Gambian president Yahya Jammeh finally hands over power to his successor Adama Barrow, our chair Diane Fisher reports back on a troubled week in the country.

To my dismay, most of our work this week has been delayed due to the stalling of the outgoing president Yahya Jammeh. He was due to hand over power to incoming president, Adama Barrow, on Wednesday 18^th after 22 years in power. It wasn’t until the very real threat of ECOWAS military force, plus the diplomatic skill of a number of West African presidents was applied that he finally left on Saturday 21st.

The 68 hours between were some of the longest that many Gambians had ever lived through. Due to the State of Emergency and the general atmosphere of fear, those of us who did not evacuate to Europe or flee to rural areas or neighbouring countries were advised to stay in our compounds until the situation had resolved itself. This amounted to days of house arrest and even if you went out, nothing was open – no shops, businesses, schools, offices or banks. No one was on the street. There were no children scampering in the lanes, no gaggles of young boys on the corners and not even any goats or chickens scavenging outside their compounds! The only activity was at the checkpoints manned by soldiers with big guns on all the paved roads. We had no choice but stay at home and watch CNN or Twitter to find out if he had “left yet”, or, in my case, binge read and work on my suntan on the roof!

Previously on Monday, Mala and I had decided to travel to Banjul while we could, as she had some family business to organise. It took a long time due to checkpoints and the resultant four-lane traffic jam, and when we finally arrived, the city was already a ghost town. Anyone who could leave already had, and those left were quickly packing in order to flee before the midnight deadline on the 18th. No transport was running inside the city so we had to walk everywhere and by noon I was already flagging.

We got back to Westfield by 1pm, met Mr Ceesay and collected the detailed school plans from the architect. I was overjoyed to see that he had done a fantastic, professional job for only 4500dl (about £78). We then went to officially register the land.

First we had to go to the bank and pay 5000dl (£86) Land Ownership Transfer fee and then take the receipt to Brikama, the second largest administrative headquarters after Banjul, where the offices were still open and functioning as normal. We went to the office of the Ministry for Local Government and Lands to get an official Transfer of Land Ownership Certificate.

Apparently, registering land officially is still fairly unusual as it is much more involved and expensive than the unofficial transfer procedure that we completed last week (hence all the horror stories you often hear regarding disputed ownership). It is usually only foreigners who insist on this.

Next we took our certificate and the architect’s plans to the Department of Physical Planning and Housing. Here we hit our first real snag. Apparently, the architect’s plans were fine but the location plan was not – a representative of the office would have to physically visit the plot to see it was where we said it was – translation: pay more money. Lots more of the same as he outlined this ‘tax’ that would need to be paid and that ‘development fee’. At this point it was late in the day, we were all exhausted from miles of walking in the heat and dust and I decided to call it a day, until I could check and double check what these additional fees were for and if they were legitimate, negotiable or even necessary.

Tuesday was a day of rising tension and fear, increasing or diminishing in concentration as rumours circulated and new events unfolded. We heard that president-elect Adama Barrow’s 8-year-old son had died the previous day from dog bite – everyone suspected ‘juju’ or foul play. [Steering group member] James [Scurry] updated me by text on the growing crisis and in the morning I stocked up on food and essential goods. We developed a back-up plan in the event of needing to leave the country.

In the afternoon I went to Jeshwan and went around builders’ merchants getting estimates for the prices of the school building materials. On the way home, Jammeh came on the radio and declared a State of Emergency – I admit this sent a shiver up my spine, especially when we went past the airport and I saw that soldiers and sandbags were already in place. As a lifetime student of African history, the precedents were too terrifying to dwell on.

Wednesday morning was crazy as nearly all my friends and family were texting to see if I was alright. Mala’s phone didn’t stop ringing for hours. We walked up to the main road and it was empty, no transport even if we wanted to go about our business. I bought phone credit and came back to start what would be nearly four days of kicking my heels, waiting for Jammeh to finally go, so we could get on with things – four precious days of watching time slip away.

But it was, as it turned out, a truly memorable time to be in the Gambia – a wonderful opportunity to watch this country I love so much transfer power fairly peacefully, to a democratically elected President. It was a true honour to share this historic moment with my dear friends, a joy to listen to Barrow’s inauguration speech – short, to the point, sincere, positive. I could not help but compare it to the verbose, insincere, pomposity of the American president-elect’s speech the following day. I think the Gambia is on the brink of a really exciting future of opportunity and progress. I am cheering them all the way!

It is an incredible privilege to be here now, finally in a position to build a nursery school which will give poor and orphaned Gambian children the best possible start in life. This opportunity has only been made possible thanks to all the extraordinary people in the UK and around the world who have helped us get this far – nearing the finishing line of this project. Soon we will have a modern and well-equipped nursery school, owned, managed and staffed by Gambians, both Christian and Muslim, working in peace, harmony and understanding.

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.

On Sunday 7th August our chair Diane Fisher and her team of volunteers hosted a fundraising open mic-style gig at the famous Water Rats pub in central London. Between entry money and the raffle and auction, we raised nearly £450, bringing us another step closer to generating the £20,000 needed to build a permanent building for Ceesay School.

The evening was opened by the astonishingly talented Kadialy Kouyate from Senegal, who treated us to some original West African music in the form of his kora playing. The kora instrument is a 21-string lute-bridge-harp used extensively in West Africa, and its beautiful sound brought a welcome element of the Gambia and Senegal to London for the evening.

Kouyate was followed by the acoustic pop and good humour of Jenny Stevens and Richard Suchet. The duo powered through covers of well-known chart hits such as Rather Be and Sexy And I Know It, eliciting some excited reaction from the crowd.

Joss Ewert was next on stage, using his incredible voice to play us some original songs, plus his own beautiful take on Bob Marley’s Waiting In Vain.

Indian dancer Pooja followed the interval with a solo performance of some Bollywood fusion – a modern take on traditional Bollywood dance. You can watch video of her performance on our Facebook page.

The show was closed by Seb Tiley and Ben Halton, who left the crowd baying for more after an entertaining three-song set. But we had to get on with the raffle and auction, which included a number of popular prizes such as bottles of booze and tickets for Historic Royal Palaces.

The evening was closed by a speech from Andrew Mendy, a Gambian UK resident who campaigns against female genital mutilation, raising awareness both in the UK and the Gambia. He spoke about the incredibly positive impact help from charities such as Diane’s have on children in the Gambia, giving them different and positive opportunities as they start out on their lives.

All together a fun and valuable evening, which brought us very close to the half way mark of our fundraising goal. If you’d like to donate to our building project for Ceesay Nursery School, please visit our dedicated MyDonate page.