Our trip to The Gambia – The Smiling Coast of West Africa.
This is our very first blog post on our new blog site www.daepam.com. This site was created to document anything Disaster and Emergency related throughout our studies and our professional lives. A place to share our experiences and thoughts.
As human life is thought to have started on the African continent, what better way for our blog to start its journey than a trip to The Gambia in Africa. This opportunity was presented to us by Marion MacLellan one of our lecturers from Coventry University and arranged by my partner in crime and fellow Firefighter Paul Cowin.
So after various injections, malaria tablets, packing and gift sourcing, we are ready to leave to gain some valuable and much-appreciated experience. Paul & I will be working with Gambia’s Fire Service and National Disaster Management Agency to whom we are very grateful for allowing us to visit and look forward to meeting. Only three trains, a car journey, a six and half hour flight and a twenty-minute taxi ride to go…. we are both very excited!
Although Paul and myself serve in two different UK fire services, we would like to acknowledge David Hutchings and the GAFSIP for their support for our visit.
Paul and I are both serving firefighters in the UK and are currently studying towards our MSc in Disaster & Emergency Planning & Management at Coventry University. For anybody considering furthering their career or a career change, we can both highly recommend both this course and Coventry University.
Richard Clark GIFireE