We were all up early today as the shipping company had
advised that there was a chance of getting the container from the port this
morning. We arrived in Banjul
at the shipping company office, and sat down prepared for a long wait. We had only been there about 10 minutes when
the agent told us that we could go to the port as the container was ready for
inspection. A new employee, Abdoulie,
walked with us to the customs office and introduced us to Mr Morrow who would
be inspecting the contents. We made our
way into the loading area and then waited while our container was lifted down
from a stack of 4 and placed on the floor.
We then walked over and stood around waiting until the duty police
arrived to watch us break the seal which had been fitted back in October in
Armley, Leeds.
The seal was broken, the door opened and the stack of equipment, which
had been painstakingly put into the container by a band of around 30 volunteers
this year, became visible. Some settling
of the contents had happened, so there was a small space above the furniture on
display. The port boys then emptied
about 3-4 feet of goods onto the oily port floor and we waited for the customs and
National Intelligence Agency to come and inspect what we had. Surprisingly they were there within minutes
and the whole process including putting back all the items was over by 11.30am.
A record! Sue said she and Jeremy
should come every year as they were clearly a lucky charm! The agent said that all that remained was the
final customs paperwork and we should have the container within an hour and a
half. We left Steve with the shipping
company and we went back towards home, having rung Kebba to assemble a team of
15 boys to unload. On the way back as we
had a little time, we stopped at Independence Arch to climb to the top to see
the island that is Banjul, and a
short visit to the cultural museum. We
picked up some bread for sandwiches at the bakers as we were not sure what time we would eat again, and arrived home to wait for
the call that the container was on the way.
Several of the boys on standby had gathered outside our gate and were
brewing their local Ataya, or tea whilst they waited. We were hoping that it would be out of the
port gates before prayer time at 2pm
as everything is then delayed for an hour.
Unfortunately there was a hitch in paperwork, not ours, but one of
several containers which the shippers were handling and poor Steve had to wait
in Banjul until just before 6pm when he rang to say they were definitely coming
today. Those of you who have been to
Gambia will realise that it gets very dark at around 7pm at this time of year,
so I went around the house gathering up all the torches before going to the
petrol station to fill the tank so we could run the truck with the lights
shining into the container for the boys to be able to see. We borrowed a ladder and hung two torches
from the ceiling in the storeroom to act as lights (no electricity in the store) and waited for the truck to arrive. This year all our unloading boys were dressed
in orange golf shirts, so easy to spot in the gloom. The container arrived, the doors opened, the
boys had been briefed on where to put everything, and the unloading
started. Jeremy was helping unload, Sue and I were shining torches, Steve was directing. The advantage of a night unload of
course is that the container is not as hot inside, but still plenty of water
was drunk as the boys got tired and thirsty. With lots of effort, (thankfully these boys are strong!) they had everything unloaded in just over an
hour and locked into the storeroom. The
boys were paid, everyone disappeared home and we returned home for a quick
shower before making our way to Neil’s bar for a welcome beer and dinner.
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