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With just 13 Gibraltarian soldiers in his team, the RG's Officer in Command, Acting-Captain Dayan Pozo, is responsible for four weeks of training for over 450 Gambian troops. In the same barracks, Corporal Norman Pozo is training twelve vehicle mechanics in the technical and practical skills of vehicle maintenance:
"These guys have lots of ability and enthusiasm but they lack technical knowledge," he said. "I particularly enjoy the work because I really feel that I'm accomplishing something with them."
Several miles away in Fajara Barracks, Warrant Officer Class 2 Danny Rowbottom and Colour Sergeant Trevor Nunn are busy as well, training Gambian officers in all aspects of running an effective Operations Room. They cover such topics as signal communications, map-reading and report-writing.
Out in the Gambian countryside, Corporal Ronnie Wallace and his team of 20 GAF tradesmen are hard at work on the team's community project. In the space of a couple of days they renovated a run-down classroom at a local school. It now has a complete new roof, a new floor, re-plastered walls and it has been completely repainted:
"This project began when a little child approached Major Bonfante in a filling station and asked him if we could give some help to their school," Corporal Wallace said. "We felt that it was appropriate that we put something back into this area as this is the area where we do the training. And my GAF tradesmen are fabulous to work with!"
The final piece of the British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT) jigsaw is the police course being run by Inspector Paul Richardson and Sergeant John Goodman of the Royal Gibraltar Police.
This course is being run in conjunction with the Gambian Commissioner of Police, Mamo Job, and with local Chief Superintendent Fajaro who has just returned from a two-year deployment to Darfur. Over 160 policemen and women are being trained not only for a Darfur deployment but also for possible detachments to Liberia or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In running these various elements of the training package, Dayan Pozo must always consider the tropical heat and humidity of Banjul. Every day, the temperature rises to the mid-30s with very little shade for most of the students or the instructors.
Britain's Acting High Commissioner, Susannah Montgomery, explained that they all appreciate the work done by the RG:
"The RG's work is of enormous value to the Gambian people both to the Armed Forces and to the people who benefit from the community projects. But it also does a lot for Britain's image here. We are particularly pleased that the RG's work is continuing as it shows that Britain, and Gibraltar, are still interested in the people of the Gambia."
Perhaps the people who benefit most from the RG's military advice and training team's work are the RG soldiers themselves.
Lance Corporal Marco Galliano said:
"I'm newly-promoted and this is the first time I've given lessons to soldiers and on what a magnitude. Some of these groups contain 200 soldiers and they're all willing to learn and they give 110% effort in the lessons. If I tell them to do it a certain way, they do it right every time and with aggression. The satisfaction of being their instructor is immense."
19-year-old Lance Corporal 'Ash' Rodriguez agreed:
"It's a pleasure to teach these guys," he said. "They're polite, they ask lots of questions and they just seem to want more and more information. When you're teaching them you feel very proud, it's a great experience."
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