Everything started taking form, furniture was being build, training was taking place with our doctors and optical leads, order were processed, and generally the team set about putting everything in place.  As planned, not quite everything went as planned, so we made a great effort to be flexible. We are starting to understand Paul, the clinic manager, who keeps repeating “Be Flexible!” 

Having said that, you should know that everything went pretty well!! We managed to hang out the banner in the front of the hospital, got feedback of our radio ads from local Gambians, and presented our communication materials to the CEO of the hospital and the optical leads. We seem to be in the right track and that makes us very happy.

After lunch we went to a meeting at Paradise radio station, visited two schools to set up appointments for the rest of the week, and finally recorded three ads in the Community radio station. I have to say this has been so far the most awesome experience of our trip for me. There were at least ten people inside a very little “radio station” that consisted of two little rooms with some mikes, a computer and a lot of cassettes (haven’t seen those in years!) We had to actually record some of the ads in English ourselves, and we did it in a tape recorder! Soon we will be famous all over The Gambia.

But what really made our day was a story shared by one of our team members tonight at the debrief. As he was buying some mangos outside of the hotel a little kid approached him, read his clinic t-shirt that said OneSight, and told him “I’ve just heard about you on the radio!” 

The people of Farafenni know we are here, and hopefully they will see the result of our work long after we leave.

Good night everyone!