Day at Work

Today was first day at work, and it started as a usual day. My host mom helped me to get gelli gelli (small bus) to work. It is about 1 km from my place and I will bike there in the future. Work starts at 8 am (officially) but when I got there (note - a bit late) very few people were there. My host dad, who also works at the same place, was surprised that I showed up on time. As much as I would like to sleep-in in the mornings, I promised that I will not abuse the system and (try to) show up to work on time.

My supervisor was getting ready to go to the meeting and asked if I would like to attend it together with him. Of course! So I ended up at the National Interaction Workshop on the West Africa Water Resources Policy facilitated by ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States). It was fascinating to sit at this workshop together with ministers and other important people. Again time is not money in the Gambia. The start of the meeting was scheduled for 8 am and it did not start until about 10:30am and… the facilitators managed to finish it an hour early! During the workshop the discussion evolved around the ways to develop and implement the water resources policy on national level. It was the first meeting on policy making I have ever attended. Compared to the United States, The Gambia and other countries in West Africa have to do a lot of work to manage, effectively use and protect their water resources (note – my opinion). The tools and resources to achieve those goals are so limited here and the biggest setback is funding/money. However, I met many very knowledgeable people who are passionate about their work, people and future of the country. I was also happy to see several women among the guests!