The Soma Cinema

We don't have visitors very often to Soma so when we do we tend to pull out all the stops and going in to hospitality overdrive in hope that word will spread and people will start coming in their droves.

Lynn stopped in on her way to Janjanbureh with her two sisters and her brother in law so we prepared a delicious brunch of eggs, beans, fried tomatoes and tapalapa. I say "we" - I made the coffee!

It was so good that they even came back for lunch the next day.

It was quite funny because as we were chatting, Christine said "So what do you actually do here?"

That certainly was a challenge to show them all that Soma has to offer. So Marcus took them out to sample the highlights of Soma. They were back within 10 minutes!

No only joking he took them to the local video club/sauna to watch Stoke/Bolton or Arsenal/Liverpool. Then at half time they were refreshed by a bottle of the finest julbrew at roadside bar. They liked the ambience so much that they missed the first ten minutes of the second half.

Of course now we have even more to offer in Soma. We now have the Soma cinema. Thanks to Marcus bringing back the smallest projector in the world from his visit home. So now we no longer have to be sequestered away in our own houses we can enjoy a social experience (as if

we don't spend enough time together!)

We even have popcorn.

So if anyone else fancies an upcountry adventure. You are all highly welcome. We get 5 stars on trip advisor.

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.

As you can see I have been doing a lot of baby holding recently. Am not complaining though. The first post was Adama's baby's naming ceremony. Adama and his wife Aminata named their baby Fatoumata. The naming ceremonies go on all day but we went after work in a little convoy. Isatou, the secretary from work was on the back of my bike, Marcus took Eustace, the koranic education officer and Mr Choi took Lamin, the IT officer. The ceremony was in Massembeh, which is just 20 minutes ride from Soma. People have different kinds of naming ceremony. Some have lots of music and dancing. What they call a programme here. Some are low key and have food, drinks and lots of people visiting to greet the baby and the parents. The prayers are said for the baby in the morning and then the visitors come all day.

The baby was passed around and we all got a turn at holding her. Everyone laughed at Marcus when someone passed him the baby and he looked ever so slightly terrified! So their proceeded a baby holding tutorial for Marcus with everyone putting in their two pennith.

The second post is a visit we made to our colleague Seedy's house. We managed to miss his naming ceremony due to a gele breakdown (for a change!) So we visited the next week to see his wife Ndey and the baby boy Fanding. We had lunch and had a constant stream of visitors coming to greet us. I managed to do a bit more Mandinka practice. The kids from the compound were the funniest. Especially the little one at the front,Sarjo. I would smile at her and she would just crack up into hysterical laughter every time. She was so funny! Usually the little ones find us scary and go and hide behind their parents but not this one.

We looked at Seedy's family photos and the kids took great delight in pointing everyone out.

we met Seedy's other children, Nyima, Buba, Fatoumata and Muhammed.

I think my Mandinka is improving and these interaction are definitely helping. Now I can understand what people are saying to me even if I can't always respond. We have started having lessons with Mrs Jawneh in the compound across the road so pretty soon we will be fluent!

The Naming Ceremony