Before leaving ...

I'm off to the Gambia tomorrow, probably for six months out there as a researcher on a TB (tuberculosis) group. The project I'm involved in is looking at developing and trying out new tests for diagnosing TB. I can't say much more than that at the moment as I don't yet know exactly what I'm going to be doing while I'm there.

As regards to the Gambia, at least I can say a few things about the place : it is a small, strangely shaped West African country. If you look on the map above, it is the little line of yellow within Senegal at the furthest western part of the curve of west Africa.









The flag of the Gambia gives a bit of a clue about the history and geography : the thick blue line across the middle represents the river Gambia, which flows along the length of the country to reach the Atlantic at the capital Banjul. A long history of use of the river as a trading route by colonial British, originally for slaving and later for other goods led to the foundation of Gambia as an independant country in the 1950's.