Forty-eight students from the Gambia College year two social and environmental studies students and lecturers have recently returned from Guinea Bissau after a-week-long excursion trip.

Described as the first of its kind, this initiative provided an opportunity for the students to discover a country that is historically and culturally linked with The Gambia. Students who spoke to this paper said they were warmly welcomed by their Bissau-Guinean counterparts. According to them, The Gambian diplomatic mission, through Gibril NT Secka, deployed all the necessary efforts and measures to make their stay a success. They seized the opportunity to thank Gambia's head of diplomatic mission for the service he rendered to them. ''We were there physically to see for ourselves , the historicplaces that we were reading during our classes," said Omar Sanneh, head of the Social and Environmental Studies department at the Gambia College.

He then added that during the team's second meeting at  Baa-Faata, a town near the capital,  Bissau, the acting head of Gambia's diplomatic mission in Bissau, Gibriel NT Secka expressed delight in the college students' visit. He also revealed that Pascal da Conha, sub-director T'chico Te College in Guinea, reiterated the long-standing bilateral relationship between Bissau and Banjul. He added  that Abdoulie Jallow, the governor of Baa-Faata Region described the students' visit as a manifestation of the peaceful and cordial relation between the Gambia and Guinea Bissau. ''He described President Jammeh as a real pan-Africanist who has a great concern for the freedom and liberation of the African people.

The team also visited the old Portuguese colonial home as well as Boma -  significant historical places of West Africa.  The team ended their visit at the Amilcar Cabral Memorial, a nationalist leader whose image has been immortalised at the centre of the town in 1976, and  finally  Kaabu another  well renowned West African destination. The head of Gambia College SES department went further to explain that they were  highly welcomed by Kebba Sanneh, governor of Kaabu, and who expressed appreciation for the students' visit to his region.