I stayed at May's the night before my visit to Binta's compound to make sure I was there early, in the end I arrived a little after 8, late by a Gambian womans standards.

Binta and Lamin, her husband, have one little boy Mohammed, they have been married for 7 years. A family as small as this is unusual, but Binta has problem pregnancies and aborts her babies before they are can survive, around 150 in 1000 babies die at birth in Gambia, compared with 3 in 1000 in the UK, premature babies have little hope of surviving.

Binta told me, Mohammed was born because May was able to pay for some drugs and a doctor to ensure that she went full term with him.

They live in Lamin's parents compound - Lamin's father has two wives, so there are three women to help with the work, plus the girls in the family who are all expected to help. Each woman has two cooking days and four days 'off'. Days off are still hard work, washing is done every day, the house is cleaned everyday and most Gambian women have small garden away from the compound where they grow vegetables for the family.

I arrived on a cooking day for Binta. The compound has a total of 30 people (adults, children and visitors) for meals. Gambian families have small breakfasts, a meal at between 2 and 3 in the afternoon and an evening meal around sunset, so at about 7.30 to 8pm.

The idea of a man wanting to spend a woman's day caused some amusement with the women and disbelief for the men. Binta had already swept the compound, a small hand brush is used, made from the central stem of some large leaves tied into a bundle and used in small semi circular movements up and down the compound which measures about 30 metres by 30 metres. Binta, legs quite straight and bent at the waist completes this incredibly quickly and early in the morning before 7am, before the sun is up and the day gets hot.

Breakfast is regularly a porridge of some sort, made from a crushed mixture of rice and peanuts or from ground maize(sweetcorn) both are cooked with water and have sugar added, some families will add either fresh milk if available or canned milk, some eat it as it is.

Men and women eat separately, both have a communal bowl, for breakfast spoons are used and everyone takes up a squatting position, their bottoms not touching their heels, their feet flat on the ground. Gambians can squat like this as long as we could sit on a chair. I get cramp within a few minutes. Water is drunk at most meals.

Binta changed into her shopping clothes, up to this point she had been shy especially about me taking any photos, we walked up to the local market about 15 minutes away but the journey took longer with frequent stops to say 'Good Morning' and 'How is the family'. This is a polite ritual the response is always positive even if doom and disaster have struck, very close friends maybe confided with and told the problems but Gambians are more private people than we are and less prone to gossip, at least on the surface and certainly in front of strangers.

The market was wonderful, I'm a great fan of Gambian markets, they are constructed to force people into bustling close contact, there is seldom room to pass without physical contact, the ladies are dressed in bright colourful dresses, the vegetables are equally vibrant, the smells and sounds fill all of your senses. I think to enjoy such a market you first have to feel at home and secondly feel safe. I always do and so far I have no reason not too. The people are very friendly and extremely tolerant.

The shop took about an hour, with chatting and walking time we were back at the compound by about half eleven.

All hands set to taking the ingredients and preparing them for the 2 meals that would both be cooked now, the dinner would be reheated in the evening with freshly cooked rice.

The meals today were fish based, Binta had bought several pieces of dried and salted fish of different sorts as well as smoked fish that would be used for the lunch time sauce. Smoked Bongo fish has a lovely flavour but has more bones that a herring or a kipper so one job is to flake the fish and try to remove all the bones.

Vegetables are generally pounded in large hollowed wooden bowls, books say it is because the ingredients are variable in quality and that the habit is to ensure that the maximum nutrients are digested from the food, but I think Gambians just like having sauce with their rice. The ingredients Binta chose were beautiful, fresh and perfect.

I picked and pounded with the rest of them, it took the best part of 2 hours to prepare and by them Binta had cut up wood and started the fires under the pots in the small kitchen, which is a separate central hut near to the one standing pipe and tap.

As we worked we chatted, our conversation ranged from cookery, to marriage, happiness, courtship, education, children, circumcision for girls, work outside the home, second wives, faithfulness and unfaithfulness, pastimes and entertainment, religion and sex. Binta asked me, I asked Binta.

I got no sense of her being guarded or careful about her answers, it felt as if we gad been friends for years not hours, I think Binta was surprised that I was interested in womans work. Men and women in Gambia have very fixed roles, there is a safety in knowing what you do and who should do it, but the influence of the west from films, magazines and papers, is enlightening women in Gambia to want more of the freedom and experiences that the men get because of their financial independence.

Binta wants to work outside the home, she wants the products she reads about she wants the money to buy them. When she married Lamin he was a bank manager, through no fault of his the bank closed and now he has no job, money is very tight and tensions run high. Binta's lack of children does not help and there is the fear of Lamin taking a second wife when he gets back into work.

I left the compound at about 5, I would have loved to have stayed longer, May promised to bring Binta down to the shop one afternoon and Binta agreed that she would like to come and see where may spends here day a week working with GTS.

I haven't had a better day in the Gambia, I hope to have more days spent with different Gambians so I have a closer and better understanding of how this society works in such a different way to the one we have in the west.

When I left Binta was about to start the final preparation for the evening meal. A long day but the advantage of multi women households is that this day is only twice a week. I hope to visit binta again on one of her days off....