Parting gifts

This amazing outfit was presented to me by Mr Kinteh the chairman of the head teachers association of Kaiaf cluster. I love the colours but you can fit two people inside it!

Lay Bato

These photos were taken at Lay Bato during Mam and Dad's visit. They actually won this holiday and 68 pounds on the lottery apparently, just before they came out. It is a favourite place of my friend Vicky and I when we visit from upcountry. Good place to chill out and read and watch the sun go down.

Me and Vicky

Mam, Dad and me

Playing with parachutes

This is at Kolior lower basic school. The Nursery teacher Mr Sabally and I introduced the children to the parachute. The bit they liked best was when we put the balls on the parachute and they could watch them all fly off.

Final ECD workshop

parachute games

Ellie showing the teachers human obstacle course. No resources required, only bodies.

playing Brikama, Basse, Bansang

Chris and Sohna our secretary from work with her little boy

Today I did (probably) my final workshop in The Gambia. At least it was a fun one to finish! Thanks very much to the staff, children and parents of Risca Primary who donated their harvest festival money for 2 years running so that I could put on these workshops. Thanks also to Christine my new neighbour and colleague in Soma who very kindly donated the parachute to my cluster of nursery teachers.

Tobaski in Kerewan

This cheeky trio is Ebie, Sainey and Sudaise.

I spent Tobaski in Kerewan with Vicky, Suky and Nfamara. We hung out for most of the day at Vicky's partner's compound, Sonko Kunda. It was a really special day and will be added to my best memories of The Gambia. Nfamara's family are wonderful people and made us very welcome. The day starts with prayers when everyone, men, women and children go to the mosque.

When they return they slaughter the Rams, some of the meat is give to families who can't afford to buy a Ram.

The Ram is then cut up, no part is wasted! The men then cook the liver is over a charcoal stove and everyone gets a piece.

In the evening everyone gets dressed up in their new tobaski clothes. The children go round from compound to compound asking for Salibou. They get sweets, biscuits or a dalasi coin.

The women cook with the rest of the meat.

This is lunch. Ram Benechin. Very nice!

Nkey, Pa Sonko's second wife and baby Asnau. Sadly baby Asnau's mother Kaddy died recently but she is being very ably cared for by the women of the compound.

Vicky and Nfamara in asobi (outfits in matching fabric) People often have these made for special occasions.

Some of the women and children of Sonko Kunda. Left to right. Maimuna and baby Isatou, Fatoumatta, Amie, Vicky, Fatoumatta, Bintou and Sudaise.

In front Ebie

Nfamara making lei for us. It's lovely! Evaporated milk with lots of sugar boiled over the charcoal stove in a burrada (small kettle)

Me, Fatoumatta and Amie

Ram fried with onions and spices! This was the second course, after the Ram's liver which was also delicious.

Silence of the Rams!!!

Nfamara chopping up the meat.

Pa Sonko, Nfamara's father and eldest son Lamin chopping up the Ram.

Breakfast mono made with cous with lots of tinned milk and sugar.

Passengers

It's going to be a sad sad day when I have to hand over the keys to my trusty bike!

You won’t get far when riding a motorbike in The Gambia without having to take a passenger. That’s just a fact of life. For me it is at least. As I approach someone who is flagging me down my head is usually saying don’t stop don’t stop! but my heart is saying its hot, that person is going to have to wait an age to get a vehicle, they’re old, I have a space on my bike, I’m going there anyway etc. So today was one of the many occasions when I ended up with an unexpected passenger. This time it wasn't really a choice though. We had just come from our workshop in Kaiaf. I had passed the checkpoint but Ellie had been stopped by the policeman and was taking ages. So I just pulled over and was looking behind me to see where she was when an old lady, must have been about eighty came running up, plonked herself on the back and said “Toniataba” (which is a village near Soma) . She took me by surprise so I just drove, chuckling to myself. She clung on to my back pack for dear life as we went bumping over pothole after pothole. When we reached the turning for the village it was obvious that she was expecting door to door service. So into the village we rode, slipping and sliding our way through the sand. She didn’t seem fazed. When she got off the bike we exchanged names and she pointed me on my way on the back road to Soma. I just smiled to myself all the way home it was one of those priceless Gambian moments!

Some Soma Creatures

Lizard swimming pool. Not sure he really liked it though. I fished him out with a tin and his little lungs were pumping like mad!

Posing goats

(not many mountains to climb in The Gambia so they have to make use of the walls instead)

This delightful chap was on my mosquito net.

big millipede

I saw a snake in our compound this week but it didn't hang around long enough for me to photograph it and neither did I!

Return to Medina Sancha

The well ( the echo is great)

ECD children drawing pictures of their mums and dads in the sand

The school farm, the corn you can se is all owned by the school which they can sell to raise funds

Bright new shiny building!

New pit latrines

The grade 2 class

Return to Medina Sancha

It was exciting to return to my favourite school and see the shiny new buildings that were now surrounded by fields of tall corn. Newly whitewashed walls, bright shiny corrugate, recently planted trees in the yard and a proper office for Mr Boye. Only the ECD class were still housed in the old style woven classroom. It is also good news that the Fresh start foundation were coming to do a feasibility study to provide a borehole for a water supply for the school. That would mean that they can then start a school garden. Also the letter asking for funding for building a kitchen was written and that would mean the school can become part of the world feeding programme. I took some books scrounged from my niece and nephew for the beginnings of a library and also took a big mat for the younger children to sit on for story time. The community are apparently very supportive of the school so everything is coming together quite nicely for Medina Sancha.

Outdoor washing

The offending washing line

Washing dishes

This is the floor AFTER I have cleaned it!!

This is Vicky and Marcus at our local bar

“You have got to have systems!”

Before Marcus left to go back to the UK Vicky came to visit and was the second person after Ashley to experience the luxury sleeping quarters, the bamboo bed with deluxe (pop up) mosquito net. Vicky enjoyed this experience, she claimed, but I got the distinct feeling that she was somewhat disturbed by my house! I don’t know what it is but a lot of my good friends seem to be somewhere on the OCD spectrum and Vicky is I would say towards the high end of the scale. Maybe I am drawn to people who seek order in their lives. Who knows, but Vicky did take me aside and give me a bit of a pep talk. “You know Luc, you don’t have any systems. You need systems”

The washing up system (or lack of it I suppose) was the first thing that disturbed her, the outdoor washing up system was the second thing and she was ultra disturbed by the fact that my jerry cans had no lids and by the sagging washing line just by my bed that threatened to garrot me every time I got out of bed. This she fixed in an instant just by hoiking it up high so it was above my head. Amazing the most common sense things that never occur to me! She suggested that some time during the summer she come and help me sort my systems out.

So that was that, when I returned from the UK at the end of the summer I was able to go and visit Vicky in Kerewan for a few days to get a look at her systems first hand. There were buckets and kettles galore. Bucket with a lid to keep dirty dishes in away from insects, a bucket for waste water so that one can rinse and drain things into it. Two buckets for bathing water and a very nifty toilet roll holder made out of rope and a plastic zip lock bag, perfect for the rainy season. (Simple yet ingenious) Wish I had a photograph! She had to laugh when I got out of her bed and ducked to avoid the invisible washing line!

I wished I had taken my camera so that I could have taken a photograph of the systems in order to replicate them exactly. But I had to be content with a mental picture. As soon as I got back I went bucket and plastic kettle shopping at the market. So now I have at least rudimentary systems in place which no doubt need some fine tuning. But I am sure Vicky will help me with that on her next visit!

At The Compound