Bradley seems to be more of himself this morning he didn’t even cough much through the night. We called at La Parisienne to use the internet and make some phone calls. Very poor internet service we were cut of a few times eventually we gave up and left. After lunch we decided to spend the afternoon on the beach as Lucy our landlady had mentioned that she was having over some friends for lunch. We asked John to join us as he hasn’t even been on the beach yet. All packed up we found a couple of sun beds under the shade, Paul went off into the sea with Abigail and Bradley whilst me and John chatted. Adam arrived greeting us as usual with a bag full of shells for the children. Then I decided to cool off John paddled at the waters edge, eventually joining Paul in the sea in his shorts as he hadn’t brought any costumes with him, he did say when he goes home at Christmas he will bring some back as he did enjoy himself.

On arriving home Lucy was still entertaining her friends who were sat outside in the compound it was very noisy until they left at 8.30pm

Africmed Clinic

Bradley had quite a bad night coughing, I was up a couple of times giving him calpol, water and putting the fan on as quite hot. I took him off to school however I told the teachers if he didn’t feel well to phone me. When I picked him up from school he seemed okay until I bought him an ice-cream which resulted in his breathing becoming very rapid, I phoned Paul to see if he was on his way home. I undressed Bradley to cool him down and gave him some honey and lemon he also managed to eat his lunch.

By the time Paul had arrived Bradley had fallen a sleep we woke him and took him to the Africmed Clinic, it was a short wait before a nurse took his pulse, temperature, weight and height then checked his oxygen levels. We were then called in to see the doctor who took down some details and checked Bradley’s breathing. The doctor decided to monitor Bradley at the clinic so we were shown to a room the only one available was a labour room with two beds in but very clean. Bradley climbed onto one of the beds and lay down whilst the male nurse put him on a nebuliser to stabilise his breathing after which he was given some oxygen. The nurse also tried to insert a canella missing his vein the first time he tried again with Bradley’s other hand which went in okay it was incase they needed to get any drugs into his system. He was then given an x-ray, within an hour his breathing had returned to normal and he was much brighter. We were called back in to see the doctor he was happy with Bradley’s progress however the x-ray had shown a chest infection Bronchitis so he was prescribed some antibiotics. We were very impressed with how quick and efficient we were dealt with; we were in and out within three hours.

On the way home we called at Bakau beach to buy some fish as the fishing boats bring in their catch around 5.00pm. We parked up at the side of the road and walked down the incline and onto the beach. There were Gambians wading out to the boats with trays and bringing them back full of fish and women with buckets of fish gutting and cleaning them on the beach. Unsure of what to do we headed back up the beach a guy approached us asking if we wanted to buy fish, we said yes. He took us up to a jetty passing fish laid out on tables and freezers. Within the freezers there were Barracuda, Lady Fish, Butterfish Red Snapper and fish that were bigger than Bradley. We looked around bartering for a good price on Lady Fish eventually we had to settle for seven Red Snapper for 1.25 dalasi which seemed a good price.

Whilst Paul waited for them to clean and descale the fish I made my way back with Bradley and Abigail, as we walked up the hill Abigail pointed to a large web stung out between the telegraph poles with hundreds of the Giant Golden Orb Weaver Spiders as photographed in an earlier blog.. Bradley by this time was feeling a bit unwell again so we quickly made our way home we put three of the Red Snapper in the freezer eating the others with chips of which Bradley really enjoyed. We put Bradley to bed hoping that he would feel much better tomorrow once the antibiotics had got into his system.

I was hoping to update my blog this morning; however I had a problem trying to load up photos to my computer so just answered my emails, I was glad to leave La Parisienne as the air con was off so very hot it was cooler outside. I set off to pick up Bradley getting a lift of Lina who has a little boy in Bradley’s class, we arrived on time only to be told every Thursday from now on they have extra curriculum activities so may do dancing, football etc so they need picking up at 3.00pm. We both hadn’t read this anywhere, Lina dropped me back at home saying she would pick me back up at 3.00pm I said I would set off and meet her on the way. On heading off back to the school I had three cars stop to see if I wanted a lift before Lina pulled up, Bradley was happy to see me after such a long day.

National Holiday

When Paul dropped Abigail and Bradley off at school he was told that they will need picking up at 12.00pm as a national holiday has been declared due to the World Cup coming to The Gambia and the president would be showing it off at the stadium later on today. There was no point in Paul going to the college as he only had a lecture this afternoon which would now be cancelled.

Paul called in at the VSO Office this morning he spoke to Nuha re work for me in The Gambia. On returning he told me Nuha gave him a contact of an ex volunteer as she may have work available, Henrietta is Dutch and works for Ballast Nedam she has lived here for ten years and is married with two young children to a Gambian. We went to her office which is just at the traffic lights and had a good chat to her unfortunately she has nothing at the moment but has asked for my CV and will keep in touch if any thing comes available.

We decided to look for some bamboo to try to hang the Batik’s so walked down Kariba Avenue in and out of the shops. Whilst we were looking we noticed a cooker for sale in one of the shops it had some paint missing off one of the corners, we were told it was second hand but it looked as if it hadn’t even been used so we agreed a good price. Unfortunately we couldn’t find anywhere which sold bamboo so we headed home Paul picking up Abi and Bradley whilst I called at the bakers for bread. Paul picked up the cooker in the car and connected it to the gas supply making sure everything was working okay which it was, however not as strong a flame as the stove top, hopefully we may save some gas.

After lunch Paul headed out to the stadium with camcorder in hand, we thought it best not to take the children in case of crowds so we headed to the beach instead to pick up my tie dyed skirt from Fatou leaving Awa finishing of the ironing. On arriving at the craft market Fatou wasn’t there however Adam was so he found my skirt which looks very good a deep navy purple with pink. He then picked up Bradley’s bucket and spade and accompanied us to the beach building sand castles for them. Shortly after Felix and Georgia arrived, oh Felix is now Uncle Felix as the kids have really taken to him. They had a couple of surf boards so they took Abi and Bradley in the sea in their pants as I hadn’t packed their costumes. They really enjoyed it I think we will have to look for some body board for them.

We set off for home on arriving I realised I had forgot to take my key and unfortunately Awa had already left for home. Luckily John was at home so I managed to phone Paul only to hear car horns and noise in the background Paul was explaining that the president was arriving and he couldn’t hear me. I quickly sent him a text, John made me a cup of tea then it started to rain so I was glad to be inside. Paul eventually turned up telling us he couldn’t get out until the president had done his lap of honour throwing biscuits out to the crowd as he went. Unfortunately he had missed seeing the cup but enjoyed watching the crowd, soldiers and police dancing and singing along to the music however later on he was complaining that he had burnt his bum sitting on the hot concrete.

Batik's

Here goes back to Kariba shopping centre, no problems today got on the correct Gelleh Gelleh and managed to get off just opposite the centre. I had a good look around and managed to get most things when I came out Georgia was just visiting the bank next door we had a quick chat. I jumped in a five, five taxi back to the traffic lights, basically you pay five dalasi each and people jump in and out on route. I unloaded the shopping then called to pick up the Batik’s, Abigail’s and Bradley’s jungle Batik’s have come out very well. However I don’t think Ebrima quite grasped what we wanted as we picked out three pictures to go onto one piece of cloth. Ebrima has made the three pictures into one village scene which has resulted in there being three suns in the one picture oh well never mind, I suppose it’s a talking point.

Kariba Shopping Centre

After dropping the children off at school I decided to make my way to Kariba shopping centre by Gelleh Gelleh on my own. What a performance, I picked up the bush taxi only to realise I had got on the wrong one as it turned of the main road heading towards Serakunda. I quickly stopped the driver and got out cutting through a side street back to the main road I tried to get my bearings. I then shared a taxi with a very large woman and guy squashed between them on the back seat, very sweaty. I thought I had explained where I was going only to have the taxi driver detour off the main road yet again continuing down side streets with pot holes then around to Westfield Junction which was too far for me. Dropping both passengers off the taxi driver pointed to where the main road was, luckily he didn’t charge me anything for the ride so I walked back up the main road only to bump into Max, by this time I had had enough so I jumped in the taxi with Max and headed back home passing the Kariba shopping centre on the way and not spending a penny, I may try again tomorrow.

Bradley and Abigail woke up early at 6.00pm so Paul decided to get us all up to see the sun come up; we made our way up the spiral staircase to the roof of our lodge and waited. We stayed for an hour watching a group of pelicans fly overhead and a couple of vultures sat in a distant tree we then showered and made our way to the restaurant for breakfast. On arriving at the restaurant no one was about so we decided to have a stroll on the beach meeting Maurice on the way, he was going to pick up the staff at Kartong. We waded along the waters edge the sea was still too warm at 8.30am eventually reaching the end of the bay and back. Abigail and Bradley playing follow the leader, picking shells and chasing the odd crab which appeared out of its hole in the sand. Then back up for breakfast, we sat and chatted to Maurice and ate a selection of fruit, toasted bread and muesli with natural yogurt, slowly the other volunteers appeared finally finishing breakfast at 11.00am we headed for the beach to spend the rest of the day.

Abigail and Bradley weren’t short of a hand to hold whilst they enjoyed jumping over the waves and body boarding. After a long soak in the water I decided to lie in the sun whilst Paul built the children a sand motor boat although It didn’t take me long before I took shelter under a thatched roof sun shade from the hot sun. We ate lunch at Sandele, then at around 4.00pm set off for home taking Georgia, Felix and Emily back with us and stopping to fill the tyre with some air, definitely a slow puncher. The journey was much quicker home helped by Felix amusing the children with eye spy and counting games. After all the drop offs and unloading some crates at Safari Garden we enjoyed the rest of the evening relaxing at home and went to bed early.