I thought maybe I should write something about work in case anyone was under the impression that all I do is swan about going to naming ceremonies and party in the Kombos!

There are some schools and villages that you really take to heart here and Medina Sancha is one of those for me. It’s a new school built by the community out of trees and branches and other local material. A very aesthetically pleasing school. I especially like the twisty tree trunks which act as the main supports for the structure. However not entirely practical when you consider that soon it is going to empty with rain for hours at a time. Here’s hoping that a concrete stucture can be built in the next few months! Water is difficult there because there is only an open well which is something like 45 metres deep so it is not safe for the children to be anywhere near and the water isn’t suitable for drinking. They have to bring water from the village. There are only 3 classes, 1 nursery class and 2 grade 1 classes but some of the children in the grade 1 classes are up to 14 years old. If they haven’t been to school before they start in grade 1.

I would decide to like visiting a school where the journey is like a cross country scrambling course with deep sand for much of the way and an unlikely amount of horse cart traffic. But anyway its usual here for me to turn up for work with sweat pouring off me and covered in dirt.

The headteacher is extremely dedicated and hardworking. He was posted there as he can speak Wolof and therefore could build relationships between the community and the school and teachers. After meeting him at a worskhop that I was involved in he asked me to come and work with his unqualified teacher who hasn’t had any training. So I willingly went to try to teach her some basic classroom management strategies.

I have to say it wasn’t a particularly easy week but in the end was extremely enjoyable as I got to know the children and the teacher, Delam, better. It brought back memories of what it is like to teach all day. But here of course you are teaching all day in the searing heat. Delam is only nineteen and had had no training at all so you really have to try to understand what it must be like for teachers like her. She is posted in a village far away from her family and trying to survive on not much money. And of course I suppose I was at first really exacerbating the classroom management problems, having a toubab visitor causes great excitement! Then of course there is my limited wolof, as I am myself a Mandinka. So there was a lot of sign language. One word that was firmly entrenched in my Wolof vocabulary by the end of the week was “toglen” (sit down!). These children were lovely, funny and very willful. I loved the way that they rabbited on to me in Wolof convinced that I should understand what they were saying to me! One little girl, Ndey Yassin said something to Delam (the teacher) one day and Delam laughed so I asked her what she had said. “She told me I was very ugly!”

We put some classroom rules in place complete with drawings and a song. We did a storytime each day. I did it in English and Delam in Wolof. We made a book of our favourite foods. Really not as easy as you might think! Especially when their pencils keep breaking and we only have one pencil sharpener. We went outside for some outdoor games, duck duck goose, (gambianised into goat, goat sheep) and traffic lights, although I am not convinced that the children in this villlage have ever seen a traffic light. Every day at break time we all sat together and had peanut porridge and sour milk, (chiurro gerta)which is actually very nice! At the end of the day I was always invited home for lunch by the headteacher or Delam. So at least my Wolof greetings improved - slightly!

This one is mostly for the benefit of the smaller blog followers namely my niece Isabella who I thought would enjoy these pictures..... The children of the compound - Nyara and Arabiatou appeared at our door giggling excitedly one night with their heads wrapped in scarves. The scarves were removed to reveal hair all adorned with minties, bubble gum and butterscotch. It came out that it was commonwealth day the next day and it was a tradition for children to decorate their hair with either sweets or beads. I can imagine the schools the next day were very colourful. I also can imagine that the children were a nightmare as they were the following evening when they had eaten all the sweets in their hair! They did save us a minty though.

Naming cermonies galore! This one was the child of Seedy's niece. It was a more elaborate occasion than the previous one. Complete with many gifts bought by the relatives, fabrics, baby clothes, rice etc. It even had a compare (here called a griot) who was doing a rather good job of getting everyone to part with their money. He even did a translation in English especially for us.

Prayers were said collectively with all the men sitting on mats together and then exchanging cola nuts.

There was food, food and more food. Then music and dancing into the night. We managed to escape before anyone dragged us to the dance arena. Phew!

We should perhaps have left before though as this was one of Ellie's first outings on the bike. The village of Sankwia was only ten minutes away but the road resembles a scrambling course so doing it in the dark was quite a scary initiation. I did lose ellie when she came unstuck in a rather deep crevasse at one point but she eventually emerged.