A banta le!

Mandinka for "It's done/finished."

Just finished the WFP Food Security and Livelihood Assessment trek.  We went around the country taking surveys to help the World Food Programme figure out what the food security status of The Gambia is. I've thrown the term food security around a lot, so here's an official definition:
"Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietart needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life"- World Food Summit, 1996
As one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, and one of the smallest, food security is a big concern here. Gambia is a net importer of food, which means the country doesn't produce enough food to support itself and has to buy almost half its food from outside its borders. And being among the poorer countries, affording said food is sometimes an issue for people.  So the survey is supposed to help inform the government, NGOs (non-profit organizations, etc) and the UN on what their plans should be to address this in the future.

My team covered the West Coast Region. It was me and 7 guys in a minivan for about 10 days. Me, a driver and 6 interviewers (mostly university students.) Treks get better with time, so for the first few days, I was super stressed and running around like crazy, but by the end it was fun.  My role was organizer.  I had to plan the days, keep the team moving and check all the surveys for obvious errors.  I just did the background work. I had a great team. We got along great, spent a lot of time together, and were all a little sorry to see the trek end.

Pictures and hopefully an amusing story or 2 to follow...