Clinic Blog: 2011 Gambia Blog
July 1, 2011
Gunjur
By kboyle
Gunjur
Our main clinic in The Gambia is at the Medical Center in Gunjur, a village of about 15,000 people in the southern part of the country near the Atlantic Ocean. The village is a tangle of unpaved roads lined by walls of cement and cinder block. Behind the walls are a series of compounds that house extended families who work together to manage through the needs of everyday life.
Gunjur compounds do not have electricity (the health care clinic is operated with a gasoline powered generator). They do not have plumbing, running water, refrigeration, etc. What is in abundance in Gunjur and its walled compounds is a sense of community. The locals refer to The Gambia as the “smiling coast” and one quickly appreciates the simple altruism that permeates throughout the village.
For the people of Gunjur every ach day involves what we consider backbreaking and mind numbing work; fetching water, hand washing clothes, a mile long journey to the garden for seeding, weeding, watering and reaping. Each individual has a role and task to perform. Almost all of the work within each compound is assigned to women; the men are out looking for work and based on what we see there is very little work to be found. This is their culture and at times it is difficult for many of us to reconcile the contraditon of being a community and understanding that in the minds of the people of Gunjur fairness and equality apparently are luxuries that cannot be afforded if the community is to survive.
As with many less advanced countries, in The Gambia the sense of time is completly lost. To say that Gambians are not a time fixed people is quite the understatement. On the trip back from the clinic the bus driver may decide to make a 20 minute stop to purchase firewood for his family, an 8:15 departure for the clinic might be 9:00, food ordered in a restaurant may arrive in 5 minutes or perhaps 20 minutes - one can never be sure. For time fixed westerners this can be quite an adjustment. That being said, some of Team Gambia have found that there IS one time that is set in stone - happy hour ends at 6:30 sharp - not 6:31 and the end is determined by the bartenders watch not the out-of-towner's smart phone.