Day 5- Katchang

By the fifth day of the trip, we had lost almost all concept of time. The days seemed to be merging together due to our waking early before sunrise and staying awake all day until returning late at the hotel each night. This day was no exception. Leaving the hotel at 10am, our journey to Katchang would be our longest journey. 

We made our way to the port where we were scheduled to catch the 11:00am Ferry  for a 1 hour 30 minutes ride to the northern side, then travel for 4 hours to the village of  arriving at 4:30, spend two hours with the locals and distribute the supplies until 6:30, then rush back to get the return ferry for 11:00pm. However as with all epic journeys, things mapped out slightly differently!

The ferry got delayed due to propeller maintenance issues, so we were stuck at the port for three hours. Some of the group members wanted to turn back and go back to the hotel, but we knew we had practically a whole village waiting for us on the other side, and therefore didn't have the heart to turn back. 

The port was really busy with the hussle and bussle more becoming of a market place. Due to the long delay we all jumped out of the vans and started mingling with the locals. 

Boarding the ferry.

When it was finally time to board the ferry, it was like a gold rush!! The officers at the port were aware of our project through the media and let us on, but what was to come was really a sight to see. 

On the ferry.

For most, it would be the first time boarding a ferry; it won’t be an experience they will forget in a very long time. The masses flooded the ferry, trying to get a space because of the long wait between each departure. Vans , carts, and even animals were put on the ferry, at times it resembled Nuh (a.s) ark. Once we got off the hour-long ferry journey, we had another 4 hour car trip to complete.

50 football for children

3 hours into the journey everything was going fine. Until we broke down, the idea of breaking down in the middle of nowhere was daunting... These were testing times as the group grew agitated and restless. 

The engine being cooled down.

Stranded in no man's land

Praying Salah and waiting for the minibus to cool down.

Trying to find alternative transport to Katchang

Br Abdulahi our guide having a stretch

The young people playing football whilst waiting for the minibus to be repaired.

As Katchang was one of the key milestones of the G2G project, we were all looking forward to going there. We reached the village by 7pm, just before sunset and close to Maghrib time. We were received by a crowd at the entrance of the village and were welcomed in with a heart-warming nasheed from the young students of the village.

The students of Katchung welcoming us.

After the welcome, we walked with the villagers from the entrance of the village to the school. This village had 140 compounds with each accommodating 3-4 families, all without electricity.
The only light available was the lamps and torches provided by the villagers and our mobile phones. The village elders spoke a very refined classical Arabic, similar to the Quran so we were provided with a translator.

The translator present.

We were welcomed and then taken inside to pray our salah. We sat down with the village elders and had a meeting to discuss how we could help the village, they were so pleased that we ventured out so far to visit them; at times it became very emotional.

This was one of the highlights of our entire stay in The Gambia. The people were very warm and patient (they waited for us for five hours from 2:00pm until we arrived at 7pm). We had already pledged a contribution of £2000 toward a communal prayer area, and instillation of solar panels for the school worth £1589.47

Handmade bricks for the community Masjid

The solar panels to be installed

But after seeing the dire poverty first hand we then decided to make an additional donation of 140 bags of 25kg and 50kg of rice to each compound. We also sponsored 46 orphans in the village.

Having a chat with the students- the brightness of the room is from the camera flash 

We realised that catching the 11:00pm ferry was not possible. The next ferry was at 8:00am so we decided to stay in the village until 2:00am, sleep in the van whilst travelling to the port and taking the morning ferry. In the mean time we all got “stuck in” to some local food and made some more new friends.

Eating local foods in the dark

Drinking tea, Gambian style

One of the Hifz reciting Quran beautifully 

On arriving at the port at 6:00am a small group of us decided to wait outside and have a look around. We saw a local brother opening up his stall for business, we hadn't eaten since having dinner at the village and didn't know when we would have our next meal, so we decided to chance it. Scrambled egg in a baguette with a mug of coffee was perfect! Fajr time was upon us and so we prayed in the Masjid which was conveniently located directly outside the port.