"Why this Book"

The book is based around my diary written during a trip undertaken at the end of 2005/beginning of 2006 from Carmarthen in Wales to Bansang in The Gambia.

The plan was for eight of us to take a group of Honda C90 scooters down through Morocco, across the disputed territory of Western Sahara, into Mauritania, through Senegal finally arriving in The Gambia, and then to Bansang. Enroute we would cross the High Altas mountains and the Sahara Desert; oh yes, we would also have to traverse a mine field…..

With us we took an ancient Mercedes van loaded with Medical Aid and equipment for Bansang Hospital, some spare scoots and our personal/camping kit. We would donate both the truck and the C90’s to the Hospital for use by their doctors, nurses and outreach personnel. It is a form of transport widely used in the third world due to it’s reliability and low running costs

On a tour of the Hospital, one scene moved us all greatly…to quote from the book;

“However, the sight that stopped the group’s banter quicker than any other on the trip was, undoubtedly, the infants’ burial ground. This was not a cemetery or graveyard in the accepted western sense of the words. It was merely a barren piece of land, surrounded by litter on which were dotted small pieces of cardboard held in place with rocks. Each piece, we were told, marked the body of an infant. They were there to stop the Hyenas from digging up the bodies as soon as they were buried. I didn’t count them, I don’t think any of us did, but the sight moved us all very deeply.

We all vowed to put an end to this appalling situation by having a perimeter wall built right around the hospital grounds; to encompass the burial ground. It would certainly put an end to the problems with the burial ground. It would also safeguard the staff, both generally and more specifically when using the outside facilities of the staff quarters. Additionally, it would define once and for all the grounds that were the hospital’s and therefore needed to be kept clean and litter-free.

Every penny of the cover price from the first 500 copies of this book will go to build that wall. From further sales, only minimal material costs will be deducted, with the balance going directly to fund further project at Bansang Hospital and the Alexander Edwards Clinic at Sambel Kunda.