Tumani Tenda

On Wednesday we were all off work and school as it is a Islamic holiday. We had arranged for Keboteh to pick us up in his taxi at 8 o’clock and take us to Tumani Tenda. Tumani is a village just east of Brikama and is home to a community of Jola’s. Visitors to the site can stay overnight in basic lodges by the river and experience the rural village life. The camp is a community run venture and all profits go back into community projects such as running of the nursery school, fencing of the vegetable gardens and the planting of trees. They also offer the chance for you to have a go at various activities such as cooking, fishing, oyster gathering, batik making, tie dying, forest walks and dugout canoe trips on the river. On arrival we were offered drinks followed by a talk on what they were trying to do in the community. We were then shown around a couple of the lodges which were very basic with a separate toilet and showering area very much like camping. There were a couple of young female doctors from Ireland who had stayed overnight in the lodges. We then choose one of our activities, a trip through the mangroves in a dugout canoe. Abigail was the first to board and because the base of the canoe was wet she slipped and banged her elbow and back on one of the seats so that was a good start to our trip. Once all seated we were taken out into the river tributary and through the mangroves. We could hear the oyster shells snapping shut as we went. We sighted some herrings and king fishers within the trees however our best sighting came when Paul noticed something on a fallen tree the locals said it was a fox but on later looking in one of our books we believe it to have been a mongoose. Back on dry land we sat chatting to the two doctors and drank some coffee then a game board was produced by the Gambians for a game of ludo. Apparently the doctors had played them last night and said they were very good at the game. Abigail joined in helping to roll the die whilst Bradley watched. I went off to investigate the cooking off our lunch. The ladies were in a hut and were pounding and chopping ingredients, these were then added to the pot. After fifteen minutes I had to leave as the hut was just full of smoke, I am glad I didn’t opt to do that activity. We ate a lovely lunch of chicken yassa with rice and salad.

After a little rest the next activity began the doctors and I decided to have a go at tie dying. We were given a piece of cloth and had to decide how we wanted our design to look this was quite a hard decision as there were no samples on display for us to look at. Two of us opted for circles whilst the other girl choose squares. We had to lift up our cloth from the middle and tie string around at various stages to create the pattern. The other pattern consisted of folding the cloth into strips and then folding it into triangles. We were then given gloves and one by one our chosen colours were mixed. We had to wet the cloth then dip it into the hot dye solution being careful not to burn our fingers. It was then wrung out and the rope was cut before it was hung out to dry. As the drying took place the colours started to appear. The square design I have to say was the best choice of colours and would make a lovely beach wrap. We had enjoyed the day however I think there was a lot of sitting around, if they had really tried they could have got more activities into the day therefore earning themselves more money for the village. We finally left the camp for home just after 4 o’clock.