The final 3 days...

Saturday 20th 2008
The morning started with a visit to a psychiatric hospital down some winding, narrow side streets just outside of Banjul city. We were shown around the hospital by an interesting Cuban doctor (the only psychiatrist in the whole of The Gambia). Conditons although basic were excellent for a hospital of this kind. The hospital houses around 80 psychiatric patients many of whom we met in the court yard whilst they were socialising and exercising. We saw the patients living areas and the kitchen and laundry facilities. The Cuban doctor also discussed the drug regimes and side effects and illustrated his enthusiasm that the patients should have as many family visits as possible. The most common condition in the hospital was reported to be schizophrenia (a condition which seems more prevalent in certain tribes than others) and psychosis.
We then headed off to the Abuko nature reserve- one of the most famous ones in the Gambia. We were able to walk around the nature reserve for a couple of hours and observe some lively monkeys as well as hyenas and baboons. Some of the monkeys were very domesticated and readily approached us looking for food! Then it was back to the hotel for a bit of R&R in preparation for the evening "Welcome/Farewell Party"!
Donned in our tradtional African dress which had been procured for us by one of our Gambian colleagues: think bright long dresses and head scarves and interesting shirts, we headed to the medical school.
The lively party began with some welcome speeches by the executives of UniGamSA bidding us farewell and welcoming the new cohort of premedical students to the university. I made a small speech presenting one of the doctors at the hospital with our donated equipment and also presenting our frame of the hippocratic oath in Welsh and English- kindly made by Professor Julian Hopkin. The Gambians were thrilled with the frame and also presented us with a lovely African carving symbolising their enthusiasm for the link.
Then the competitions started! I was chosen to judge along with a couple of other Gambian medical students and a Cuban Dr. Helena Wilcox sang an excellent rendition of "Stand by Me" and came a very commendable 2nd place. Cathy Malcolm bravely volunteered for the dancing competition and finished superbly in 1st place! Well done! After lots of eating and attempting to dance in our African attire we retired to bed!

Sunday 21st December 2008
Our last full day! After a morning relaxing by the pool our Gambian colleagues arrived and took us to one of the nearby beaches for a picnic. This proved a most relaxing enjoyable way to spend our last day- eating freshly cooked fish, playing a bit of scrabble and when that all proved too much, hopping into the sea for a cool off! We also said the majority of our goodbyes to the students who had come to Swansea on elective.
We then headed out onto the main Senegambia strip by our hotel to celebrate our final evening together donned in our Santa hats- credit going to Sian for buying them!

Monday 22nd December 2008
The final day. A slightly hectic morning of packing! Some of the UniGamSA executives arrived to say goodbye and followed us to the airport for the final and fairly emotional goodbyes, before we boarded the plane for the 6 hour flight back to Manchester (a rainy and wet 9 degrees!).
We have truly had the most amazing and enjoyable trip- and feel we have experienced the full spectrum of activities in the life of a typical Gambian medical students: from religious festivals to nature reserves from diabetic foot surgery to neonatal ward rounds, from dancing competitions to picnics and from primary health care centres to psychiatric hospitals. It has been a truly inspirational insight into life in the Gambia and I would like to take this oppurtunity to thank our Gambian colleagues for all their efforts in being such superb hosts.
We will be making a presentation on our experiences on Tuesday 13th January 2009 at the Institute of Life Sciences Building on Swansea University Campus at 7pm. We hope to show some of the most interesting photos from the trip and hopefully some of the video footage that we shot to make the documentary on the link which will be released later on in 2009.
by
Gemma Peachey