(Last day of CCM. In our Friday dress!)

(Our noisy and nosey sheep!)

I don't really have any pictures of Saturday. But here's one of me giving Lynn a ride to CCM. (Cool helmet!)

An interesting Saturday!

I will tell you about my interesting Saturday but first an update about Medina Angaleh. Fortunately at the recent CCM meeting. That's the big education meeting held every month. The schools predicament was brought to the attention of the ministry and they have promised to build them a new staff quarters. So that's good news!

But back to my interesting Saturday. I haven't had many hairy travel stories for a while and this is mostly due to my brand new motorbike which is just too good and too reliable. Flat tyres and waiting at the side of a road in the hot sun seem to have become a thing of the past. Don't get me wrong I am grateful for that. But it doesn't make for exciting stories. However the advent of the rainy season makes things slightly more complicated.

Last Saturday I was running a workshop in Kwinella for nursery teachers and had to be there at nine. I had loads of stuff to take with me and had to put it all into a plastic shopping basket

and tie it all onto the back of my motorbike. Then I had my backpack with even more stuff in. It would have served me well if I knew anything about tieing strong knots but in this area I am a bit clueless. Anyway I tied the basket on as best I could and went on my way. At this time it was just beginning to rain. Needless to say I had no waterproofs on and the shopping basket had lots of holes in it! I was also aware that it was set settal which is national cleaning day and the regulation is that you don't travel after nine because you are supposed to be at home cleaning your compound. This was about eight so I had about an hour to get there. (Might I add I was already feeling a bit hard done by because it was a Saturday and everyone else was still in bed!)

Within ten minutes of travelling I had to make my first stop as the shopping basket was slowly edging its way off the back of the motorbike. So I stopped, tried to tie it back on and then went on my way again. When this had happened about 10 times between home and the first police checkpoint I thought I had better enlist some help. So I stopped and asked the nice policemen to tie it for me! Problem solved, so I thought! By this time I was also racing the black clouds which were descending and praying that the slight shower would stay a slight shower!

Well the nice policemen who had helped me out had actually tied the rubber straps so tight that the plastic shopping basket was breaking and it was still edging of the side of the bike. For quite a while I was riding with one hand on the motorbike handle and one hand holding the shopping basket in place. By this time I was also conscious that I had made so many stops that nine o clock was probably fast approaching. Adding to this every time I stopped to tie the basket back on my hands got more and more covered in black from the rubber straps and my clothes got more and more covered with oil from leaning on the bike.

When I was just about to reach Kwinella I had to stop at the checkpoint where I was duly reprimanded for travelling after 9.00. But as I was stopping at Kwinella, they let me go. Phew!

So you can imagine the state I arrived in to do the workshop. Adding insult to injury as I stopped to open the school gate and by this time the rain was coming down more heavily. I decided to untie the basket which promptly fell of the back of the back, Spilling the contents of the shopping basket (including my nice, newly printed ECD books) all over the wet sand. Thankfully, the children who live at the school, seeing my distress rushed to my aid. By this time I had also acquired a cut finger from somewhere so there was blood running down my hand. Abass and Alieu took all of my stuff in out of the rain. Jarra ran to get a kettle of water to clean my hands and Alieu even reminded me that I had abandoned the motorbike outside the gate.

I was a little bit flustered to say the least and was rather relieved when the headmaster told me that as yet only 4 participants had arrived. I now had time to gather myself before we started.

Another complication arose though as when I arrived the family and a few extras were about to have breakfast and being the very generous people that they are they insisted that I join. Having not much appetite recently I really wasn't that keen on having meat and rice at 9.30 in the morning but knowing how important food is I duly took my place around the food bowl and tried my best to eat a few spoonfuls. Only you can never get away with a few spoonfuls. " Eat more, eat more. Lucy what's wrong you are not eating." This is usually the way it goes at food bowl time.

Eventually I decided to start the workshop with my meagre 4 participants but we swapped things round a little and started to do some book making, contending with the deafening noise of the rain on the corrugated roof and dodging the puddles that were forming on the floor of the classroom. Very soon after the workshop started there was breakfast for the participants. Bread, onions, fried canned spam, fried potatoes and mayo. Also hot, sweet tea. All very nice but this time I had already had one breakfast. Again it was "Come on you're not eating, you must eat!" So I managed to force the second breakfast down.

All's well that ends well. By the end of the workshop we had about 12 participants, the rain had stopped and everyone participated well, sung songs played games. I had to leave as soon as the workshop ended to be back in Soma, as that evening Marcus, Ellie and I were judging the Miss 22nd July Scholarship pageant. But of course when I went to leave without having lunch there was uproar and the head teacher Alagie announced that he wasn't the least bit happy about me leaving without eating. So the food was rushed out. I sat down this time to Benechin, (fried rice and meat) I was feeling rather like Dawn French in that episode of Vicar of Dibley where she eats about 5 Christmas dinners. Especially since for the last week I had been surviving on bananas and banana milkshakes!

I motored back to Soma, hitting every puddle. So the time I got back me and the bike were a mud splatted mess. Managed to shower and change in time to get down to the venue for the scholarship pageant which all went without a hitch. Apart from the fact that because it had rained all morning the insects were out in force. So we spend a large amount of the pageant being dive bombed by insects, flapping our hands in front of our faces like maniacs. Simon Cowell never has this problem I'm sure!

So that's my interesting Saturday. Thankfully this week's Saturday workshop is within walking distance and this time I am going to make sure I don' t eat for at least a day before!