A month in The Gambia

A month in The Gambia….

Time passes and gradually I have really started to feel at home here. I have noticed on this journey that once I have stopped somewhere it doesn’t take long for the inertia to kick in and make it harder to leave to hit the road again even after a short rest, but this time it feels particularly difficult. Arriving in The Gambia well over a month ago did somehow feel like reaching my destination as it is here that I feel most connected to the place and people having spent more time over the years. However I did always have it in mind to continue my journey to Bambako in Mali. I was there once before but it was long ago. I have always loved the music, both traditional and more modern that one hears out of that place and it feels like a logical destination for this ride. The Mandinka people of The Gambia originally came from Mali and when I tell people that I’m heading that way, once they have got over the initial shock of the idea of me traveling there alone by bicycle, they often tell me how they have relations there. Tata Dinding told me how his family of musicians or ‘griots’ traveled from Mali and how he would love to visit there one day but sadly was not up for joining me on a bike. Now that the time has come to part with my friends and family here it’s so hard to leave. But Once again the open road calls and soon I’ll be back in the red dust of that highway heading east this time and following my dreams.

                                          looks like some one's hitched a ride.

But what of my time here? Well as I mentioned in the last post about the Fresh Start Foundation I have had a chance to connect with their projects here and help out in a few ways as well as get up to all sorts of other adventures including hosting Ramsey and Tom from the Visions Series filming for the big movie. They stayed for 10 days and we had a great time interviewing all sorts of characters talking about my cycle ride, the power of music in community, education, climate change, and how we can bridge cultures creatively. We interviewed Lamin about the work of Fresh Start and the inspiration to bring about truly positive change and even went out into the bush and took a boat on the magnificent River Gambia with my old friend Wandi to see some of the stunning wildlife of the region.

                                          

I took them to meet Tata Dindng in Brikama and we were blessed to be able to film a fantastic jam in their compound that will provide some great music for the film. The following day we traveled with the band along sandy bush tracks across the border with Senegal to a village in the Cassamance region. This area has been troubled by rebels fighting for independence for years and just this week more fighting broke out not far away and I have recently heard that Kwinella village is preparing to receive over a thousand refugees. Presidential elections are due this month and reports of trouble across Senegal has been coming through the crackly air waves of the little transistor radios that play in the shade of mango trees as the heat of the afternoon passes. We were in the village for a music festival and thankfully all was peaceful whilst we were there. The people of Dombondir village are largely from the Jola tribe and the music and performances was very typical of their culture. The drumming and dance was stunning and some great bands played over the weekend but the highlights were the kumpo dance and the traditional wrestling on Sunday afternoon.

The Kumpo involved all the women on one side singing and playing hypnotic percussion rhythms on bits of metal and all the men gathered in a line opposite them. Into the space in between leaped the crazy Kumpo dancer completely covered with long grass like a huge whirling hay stack sending ripples of excitement through the crowd. Every one sang beautiful call-and-response songs whilst the men or women would break away from the lines running towards each other, or the spinning hay stack, to bust some crazy cheeky dance moves and then escape back to the safety of their lines. Other costumed characters appeared including a scary black baboon and a one armed figure dressed in sacking who danced beating the earth with a stick. The whole event was accompanied by full power drum rhythms specific to each of the costumed dancers and involved everybody who was up for it. It was dark and I was too enthralled to take any photos any way but I did get a few snaps of the wrestling the next day.

These guys know how to work a crowd and must have spent a good couple of hours strutting about and dancing before any wrestling actually took place. Wrestling is a big deal in Senegal and top wrestlers are famous stars in the country so it was all taken very seriously and in the end one team won…. And the other lost.

Tom and Ramsey had left the festival early to go and do some more filming with Tata’s band and so when it came to trying to get home on Monday morning I was reminded of one of the reasons why I had chosen to travel by bike in the first place. I hate waiting for lifts in Africa! I was ready by 9 in the morning for a car that by 4 in the afternoon looked like it wasn’t going anywhere after all. Instead I walked with a friend through the bush, passed beautiful rice fields and crossed the river that is the border between the two countries. We never did see any immigration officials or actual border controls and it all felt wonderfully clandestine out in the wilds of Africa.

Tom and Ramsey are back in the UK now armed with lots of great footage to make the movie and I’m ready to embark on the next stage of the adventure. The money’s all finished long ago but the road lies ahead calling and the journey continues.

There’s so much more I could say about the joys of village life in rural Africa but I’ll leave that up to your imagination for the moment and for my part step back out into the reality of the unfolding experience as I’m reminded of an old eighties kids TV program that sang out those immortal words;

 “Why don’t you… switch off the TV and do something more interesting instead!”

Time to get off the computer and water the vegetables in the sun baked plots over in the garden..

Much love to one and all

Ed

The Vision

Yes, Yes, Yes. So I’m hitting the road. The dream has been in my heart for too long so its time to head south slowly on my bike...        Yes i did say my bike! ...

It's time to live the dream!

I’m Going to cycle from my home in Lewes, East Sussex to West Africa:

First to Newhaven, then take the ferry to Dieppe, across France, over The Pyrenees and then follow the Camino de Santiago west to Galicia, then south through Portugal and on to Andalucía in the south of Spain. I’ll take the boat from Tarifa across the straights of Gibraltar to land in Africa at Tangiers, then south through Morocco from the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara Desert. Across Western Sahara and Mauritania from sand dunes to the Sahel and into Senegal and then to The Gambia. Following the river Gambia I’ll head east into Mali and then, well who knows, maybe I’ll turn round and come home again.

The motivation for the trip is simply to follow my heart in its quest for rich experience and adventure but the project is developing in all kinds of ways and on many levels:

• I will be travelling, somehow, with my guitar on my bike so I hope to seek out teachers in Spain and in West Africa and learn from the beautiful guitar styles from these regions, from flamenco to the desert blues. I hope to spend time studying music and get prolific writing songs from the dusty roads and bit of busking and performing en route I’m sure.

• I am linking with Carlton hill Primary School in Brighton where Movingsounds has been running projects for the last year. The children will be able to follow my progress, receive blogs about my journey and even ask me questions along the way.

• Sustrans’ sustainable transport team will also support school’s projects, with ‘Bike it Ben’ kindly helping out with the project. Children will be able to learn about the different challenges that I’ll face on such a journey but also explore the different cultures, music and geography of the different countries along the way. There will also be a strong focus on the environmental reasons for travelling by bike and so children will learn about the impact that we are having on our planet.

• The whole journey will be fossil fuel free (apart from a couple of short Ferries) and so education work will also focus on environmental issues of climate change and peak oil. The whole journey will indeed model our vision of sustainable solutions in the face of these epic challenges: Empowerment, creativity and low impact living.

• I will be working with 'Substantial Films' and 'A Purpose For Life Foundation' to document my adventure and the education work of Movingsounds. Check 'em out at http://substantialfilms.co.uk/ and also

at http://visions-series.com/index.htm/

• Through sponsorship from everyday people such as your good self I will raise money for a small charity in The Gambia called Fresh Start Foundation (check them out at http://fsfgambia.org/). They work with vulnerable children in poorer areas but are also developing a sustainable forestry project and working with schools in the region exploring environmental issues and their changing climate. I will visit these schools and run workshops in the local villages around these themes.

• The Fresh Start Foundation also supports Kwinella Primary School in the Gambia with which I have had a connection for 16 years and I am so happy to be able to give a little back for the generosity that they have always shown me.

• There will also be a possibility to connect the school children from Carlton Hill with the village schools in The Gambia where I will be working.

• A portion of the money raised through sponsorship (25%) will go towards the costs of the trip and school visits to Carlton Hill School in Brighton. the remaining 75% will go directly to support the work of the Fresh Start Foundation in The Gambia.

• It will of course be an inner journey for my self, exploring themes of pilgrimage and a time in the wilderness. It’s about 5000 miles so that’s plenty of time to contemplate life and my real purpose in these incredible times. I will be keeping a journal and hope, ultimately to write a book of my adventures.

• The trip is a radical statement of re-empowerment, environmentalism and cross cultural understanding that I hope will inspire others to truly live their dreams and work for a better world in harmony with one another and our home: the earth that we all share.

I will be leaving on the morning of the 5th September and will be part of The Phoenix Village Fair 3rd September, Performing with our band, Dende and promoting the project.

ONE LOvE