Updated
February 5, 2004
Gambia Tourist Support - Advert
GTS Tujering Farm Stay
Getting to know people in Gambia really pays off & while researching a special GTS members Day Out into rural Gambia we discovered Anthony's family
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GTS runs the Day Out every Wednesday - but you must book in advance as places are limited to just 10 and the special buffet has to be prepared in the GTS kitchens.
Tunko our first female host arranges everything.
Karl & Zoe wanted more of the real Gambian thing & it would be hard to find anywhere better to see how life is lived day by day. Anthony and the whole local community are from the Manjargo tribe, Christians and settlers in Gambia from Guinea around 100 years ago.
With them they brought many skills and because the community is poor, they can afford few of the whitemans imports so their cultural way of life is little changed.
Anthony and John speak excellent English and are throughly enjoying showing and relearning some of the techniques used by their father and grandfather and almost forgotten before I got them to jog their memories.
Any visitors wanting to spend a day or two on the farm should contact GTS to make the arrangements.
The
trip can be run on a Monday or Tuesday returning with the full day party
on the Wednesday
PLEASE give us notice to make the necessary arrangements
GTS provides your survival kit, and all your transport, even picking you up from your hotel.
A
TWO night THREE day stay at the farm including the GTS Rural Gambian Life
trip costs £60 a person.
( * * £52.50)
The above but just ONE night - TWO days costs £40 p/p ( * * £35)
The Rural Life Trip including a GTS buffet costs £20 for the full day out with no extras other than discretionary tips at the farm and to the GTS family running the Brufut compound. ( * * £17.50)
* * GTS annual members get a £2.50 a day reduction
With concrete and tin development spreading over the Gambia like a forest fire it is getting hard to find the really ancient Gambia - but this visit provides the next best thing with mud houses, palm and grass roofs and a family expert in the old and new ways
Comments to GTS
Talking about this day out to Zoe and Karl, prompted Zoe to ask if it would be possible to spend a whole day at the farm with the family - we arranged it the next day and with a small survival kit of a torch, candles, matches, two pillows and some bottles of water, I took them to the farm in the early afternoon and left them there with Anthony and his family.
The full rural trip ran the day after and along with 8 GTS members we arrived at midday to be greeted by Zoe saying she wished she had spent her whole holiday there - "it was fantastic, Anthony and John his brother and the whole family were brilliant, I just loved it"
Karl offered to send me a short account and the following with pictures is what he sent after returning to England.
Real Experience
Real Gambia
Real Fun!
This is what you came to The Gambia for surely! And this unique experience
can be found by spending some time on the farm at Tujering.
This is not for the average tourist but if you want to experience life as it is in The Gambia and the harsh realities that are faced everyday then a few days spent here will almost certainly provide this and open your eyes to a different way of survival.
No running water and no electricity but a family: and community that are so close in surviving purely off the land and the resources around them.
. 
. 
A well for water: a palm tree for, well, as you will learn, for almost anything from beds, to fences, to sauce, to tapping for alcohol: plants for rope, boabo for ice cream: and animals from goats to pigs, to chickens to dogs plus many many more interesting survival techniques that will leave you being amazed at the self sufficient life style that has been imposed on the Gambian way of life.
The communal meal times are an excellent way of getting close to the family and life style to see how day to day living is accomplished and how leisure time is passed.
We thought that Anthony, John and the rest of the family, plus the neighbouring compounds are some of the nicest people we have met.
Despite the tough times that they face every day, nothing was too much trouble and they were only to happy to answer any questions that we enquired about and ensure that we didn't go hungry!
Although, how anyone manages to have a shower with water from the well, mixed with water heated in a tin can on a fire in total darkness I will never know - but believe me, for these guys, it looks simple!
.
Food was delicious despite the absence of the home comforts of a fitted kitchen: and the sauce made from the palm tree was very nice indeed.
Although the room was basic to say the least: anything else just would not provide you with the experience of what The Gambians have to endure everyday without choice, and you certainly do not hear them complaining about it.
We could however write a small novel of the experiences and learning curve made during our stay here, and all we can say is go for the experience, it's something you will not regret.
Karl Dutton and Zoe Witcomb
We would also appreciate your feedback and thoughts on this trip if taken. We can be contacted at karldutton56@hotmail.com
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