I accept that you might have made this suggestion in good faith Daft Pegasus but as a tourist you are their next meal ticket! Having been to the Gambia and seen what the schools are like and how much education means to them I wouldn't feel comfortable lying to them by implying that I was coming to their country to help them by working in their schools and hospitals when in reality I was just one more tourist. On the whole the bumsters who hang around the hotels are non-threatening and good natured if persistent and only trying to make a bit of a money from tourists who are incredibly rich by their standards. The easiest way of dealing with them is actually to hire one of them or one of the local badged guides for the day to show you around and the rest will leave you alone. You'll be seen to be doing what tourists are supposed to - spend money and that too will be respected.

Please don't exploit them and the high regard they and the rest of the population hold for westerners who really do come and volunteer to work in the frankly appalling conditions that exist in most of their schools and hospitals. If this turns into a popular scam on the part of western tourists trying to avoid spending a few dalassi it will make life much more difficult for the genuine teachers and health workers who won't be able to go about their daily lives in peace and it could make it harder for charities and aid agencies to recruit skilled volunteers.

If you want to go on holiday to a really poor third world country just accept that you are a walking wallet in the eyes of the locals, in possession of immense wealth and that the first line of the job description for 'Tourist' in that part of the world is 'Spend Money'. if you don't want to be pestered by very poor people trying to make a living then go on holiday to somewhere where the local population enjoys a standard of living closer to your own and doesn't need to work so hard at trying to part you from some of yours.

Why do I feel so strongly about this? Because an ex-student of mine went to work as a volunteer co-ordinator for Sightsavers, a charity that sends out teams of volunteer surgeons and theatre nurses to do cataract removal operations and provides medical care for people suffering from a parasite that causes the eyelashes to grow inwards onto the eyeball and eventually destroys the surface of the eyball. Both conditions that can be alleviated very easily and cheaply because the volunteers not only don't get paid for their services but often pay their own air fares to get there in the first place so that Sightsavers estimate each cataract removal operation only costs £27. most of that on the medical supplies needed eg local anaesthetic and post operative antibiotics. If you're going to use this 'tip' to save you money and hassle whilst on holiday I hope that at the very least you will donate £27 pounds or something equivalent to one of the many charities and NGOs who send volunteers to The Gambia in return for 'borrowing' their good name.

SM

Much respect to you for that post, you hit the nail on the head.

Caroline & Kirsten

The bumsters really aren't as bad as people make out - a polite but firm 'no thank you' or equivalent worked perfectly well while we were there. It can be annoying when they try and talk to you and you just want to be left alone but as SM says, you have to bear in mind the difficult situation that the majority of Gambians are living in.

In any case, it's been good preparation for dealing with unwanted attention on our subsequent holidays - everywhere we've been since we've thought 'well it's not as intense as in the Gambia'!

SM

I respect your opinion and reasons for it. Please remember that just be being there the tourists are putting money into the Gambian economy. I have seen a number of threads on this forum where the only bad word people have on holidays in the Gambia are the bumsters. My intension was, and still remains, to offer a solution to this issue which will enable tourists to enjoy their holiday. I hope that by enjoying their holiday they will tell their friends and return themselves, thus bringing far more money into the country and also raising it's profile.

I have never visited the Gambia as a tourist but I did live and work there for a number of years.

If people are too concerned to leave their hotels for these bumsters then surely a trick to help them enjoy their holiday and see the real country is better than them staying in their hotel for 2 weeks and coming home to tell all their friends how they couldn't leave their hotel.

Nothing makes people want to give more than walking down the squalid streets of Banjul, passed the open sewers and alongside the corregated iron houses. Personally I love the country and I hope I have the opportunity to return, not as a tourist, but as a worker.

DP

HI ,I agree with some of the articles written re who where to give money too,
AS for Bumsters they are parasites, the lowest of the low in Gambia they pester the women , the most vurnrable and have no conscience,I have been robbed at an exchange I had my money a couple hassled me from the front then 4 of their friends robbed the goods from behind my wheelchair,so I speak from experience,
Tell all bumsters you do not know them from anywhere, they are not from your hotel ,you do not want to know them ,you can help yourself as you are a grownup.alternately I now resort to the international go away , get a job. I am not a money tree. I am now seldom bothered and am proud to say I have respect from Gambian friends for my positive attitute to the Gambian peoples and their country ,I love the country and its people.
A tip to remember look ahead and refuse to acknowledge a bumster, if the above has failed walk to the military and report them to the officer in charge,
As a good Gambian friend says only bitterness comes from money taken or give with a dirty hand ,never any good .