First Week at School

This week has been a very busy week for me as I started working mornings at the Diana Mariam School in Fajara. On Monday when I first arrived the children had assembly and I was introduced to them as Aunty Denise by Madame Senghore the deputy head. I was then introduced to Mr Jadama who is the English teacher, he teaches grade 1 and grade 2 children and I will be working with him in these years. Mr Jadama’s first lesson was with grade 1 class within the class there were seventeen children aged about six years old. The children were very noisy and were shouting out answers to a question rather than putting up their hands and waiting to be asked. After the first lesson we had a thirty minute break at 10.30 the children sat at the picnic tables within the grounds eating what they call breakfast, however it is more like lunch as it usually consists of a Tapalapa (bread) filled with omelette, sardines, chicken etc or in some cases they bring a chicken and rice dish as well as bags of crisps or sweets. Jammie Oliver would not be impressed with the amount of sugary sweets and crisps the Gambian children consume at school rarely do you see an apple. After break the next lesson was with grade 2 this was a very small class of only six boys and one girl. Mr Jadama gave the children a comprehension exercise from one of the Scofield text books. I wouldn’t say a lot was achieved from this and the lesson was rudely interrupted by Aunty Alberta telling a couple of children off for not practising their Christmas lines.

When I arrived at the school on Tuesday I was informed that the children would be sitting exams for the rest of the week. This morning they would have Maths, French and Social Studies, Mr Jadama and myself would be with the year 2 children, during the Maths exam. Whilst waiting for the Maths exam paper to arrive Mr Jadama practised spellings with them on the blackboard. They had been told the story about the princess and the frog so the spellings related to the story. When Mr Jadama was called out of the room rather than just sit there I continued where he had left off. Eventually the Maths exam paper was handed out and explained to the children, however it wasn’t long before the children were putting up their hands and asking for support. In some cases they were unable to read some of the questions or they were unable to comprehend what was being asked, this went on throughout the exam with Mr Jadama and myself supporting them. The next exam after break was Social Studies this seemed straight forward and was only a one page sheet. Then they were given out the French exam which again was a one page sheet with some words in English which you had to find the French equivalent for from a list. After the children had finished an exam they had to sit until break time or until the next exam began in some cases this was thirty minutes. I found this very annoying as it resulted in the children getting bored and wandering around desk to desk borrowing erasers or sharpeners whilst the slower children still completed their exam. It would have been far better if the teachers had given them little tasks to do between exams to stop this from happening.

Friday was by far the best day for myself the children had an English exam which I was able to assist with and we then did a little comprehension exercise. I was also shown the school library which had a number of the oxford reading books of Biff and Chip. The library was under lock and key and it was obvious that there was no system in place and it was probably rarely used by the teachers or children. During the morning Mary Samba the head teacher asked me for some feed back from the week which I thought was really good. She is very passionate about trying to improve English within the school and I did suggest more group activities to help bring each other on, reading activities to help recognise key words and phonics as the children are unable to blend the letters to form a word. I have suggested a phonics workshop and I am hoping to ask one of the volunteers to run this for the teachers within the school as Mary is very keen and willing to pay for this to be done. With the morning finished I went to pick the children up from school first calling at home as I did this I passed a guy in our street carrying two huge live rats held by their tails I stopped him to have a better look, god knows what he was going to do with them, cooking pot maybe.

On the afternoon when Paul arrived home we dropped the children off at Sukey and Greg’s as they have offered to look after them this afternoon so we can do some Christmas shopping. The children were really excited about going as they were also helping to decorate the house ready for the volunteer Christmas party. Once dropped off we headed straight for Wishes gift store this is an excellent shop with imported toys from the UK. A couple of hours later we had picked a number of stocking fillers and larger presents these we left with the store as they also do a free wrapping service. We then headed back down Kariba Avenue to look at bikes as we have decided on these for Christmas. As we were nearing the shop we ran out of petrol and had to pull over to the side, Paul went to fill up his can whilst I walked the short distance to the bike shop. I had a good look around inside as it sold everything including loads of Christmas decorations. After a good twenty minutes waiting for Paul I went outside to see where he was only to see the car getting pushed by some of the locals. He thinks the starter motor has gone so we are going to have to phone the mechanic to pick the car up tomorrow. We looked at the bikes and picked Bradley a Spider Man bike unfortunately there were not many girly bikes so we finally picked Abigail a red and silver bike. The back wheel on Abigail’s bike was a bit loose the nut needed tightening so the guy went looking for a spanner. I knew this could take sometime so I decided to set off walking to Sukey’s as it had now gone 6.30pm. I set off with good intentions but soon realised that I was unsure which road you had to go down and it was starting to get dark. I decided to phone Sukey for directions apparently I had gone too far so I had to head back the way I had come Sukey then met me on the corner of her road with the children. Shortly after Paul picked us up at Westfield junction and we headed back home. Once the children were in bed we emptied the car of presents and placed the bikes in John’s house out of view as they do have a habit of popping in to see John from time to time

Rainbow Beach Resort

We had quite a lie in this morning as the children didn’t wake up until gone 7.00am, we changed and decided to go for a walk. Within the resort in a tree we saw three Gonolek birds, a bright red breasted bird with black wings and a yellow patch on the top of its head as well as loads of chattering Weaver birds. We took the road to the lagoon and walked along a track which was slightly overgrown in areas. After seeing quite a few birds we made our way towards the beach, Abigail and Bradley collecting shells on the way. As we passed the fishing boats we spotted a cloth with some fish heads poking out from underneath it on closer inspection the fish were small three foot long sharks.

On arriving back at the resort we ate breakfast then spent the rest of the day on the beach. On the afternoon Jenny, Mick, Teo and Mia arrived with some of the children from their village in tow so I introduced them to Paul and we stood chatting in the sea cooling off. Bradley played with Teo for a couple of hours before we packed up for home. On the way back we called at Jackie's as we are borrowing her Christmas tree as she will be spending Christmas at home this year. As we loaded the tree in the car Jackie said to Abigail you are in charge of the decorating of it not Mummy, Abigail was pleased with this remark. We dropped Sam and Jackie of at Atlantic road, Jackie also plays touch rugby with Paul on a Sunday.

Tanji Museum

This morning we called at La Parisienne to make a couple of phone calls and also to pick up a cake which I had ordered on Wednesday on Cathy’s behalf for James. I was shocked when the cake wasn’t ready as I had asked for a morning pick up and it wouldn’t be ready until the afternoon. Usually they have plenty of cakes on display but today there were a couple of larger cakes and one small vanilla cake. There was no option but to ask for a refund so I could see if Le Palais had any chocolate cakes, luckily they did however it still required icing so would take another thirty minutes. I ordered and paid for the cake then returned to La Parisienne to meet Paul before setting off back home. We quickly packed a holdall as we are staying over at Rainbow Beach Resort at Sanyang to celebrate James Birthday. All packed we phoned Sam telling her to make her way to our house as she was travelling down with us, however the plan is to first stop off at the Tanji Museum on the way.

We arrived at the museum for 11.30am after a brief introduction from the guide we were able to look around the museum at leisure. On display were instruments, animals, photos, batiks, woven material and seeds to make dye from. The guide then took us around the museum grounds showing us a working well which Paul decided to have a go at and an area where a couple of guys were weaving wool into table runners which were for sale to visitors. Whilst in the grounds there were a number of squirrels running up and down the trees, the guide told us what each tree was used for. We were then shown a traditional compound area with husband and sons houses at the front of the compound and the wife and daughters at the back this is so the husband knows who is visiting the women within the compound. The husbands wives will stay in one house and take it in turn to visit their husband at his house during this time they are responsible for all the domestic work within the compound. In each house were raised beds made out of a bamboo frame and covered with palm leaves no mattress however we did sit on them and they seemed reasonably comfortable. With the tour finished we were shown in to a type of pagoda traditionally known as a bantabar and we were entertained by some drummers, a balafon player and singer.

We were back on the road and arrived at Sanyang, James and Cathy were laid on a couple of sun beds however the rest of the gang were still to arrive. We ate our picnic lunch, put our luggage into our room and changed for the beach. The sun was very hot, which was a nice change as most of this week it has been very overcast. James decided to build a volcano for Abigail and Bradley to stand on which meant Paul was able to have a quick snooze. Eventually Amy, Emily and Andrew arrived, they had decided not to stay over so will be making there way back home to Brikama this evening much to Abigail’s disappointment. Andrew was on top form after last night however he was covered in mosquito bites, Abigail had counted over fifty on his back. He had apparently called at Safari Garden on his way home from the commissioners and had chatted to the security guard before falling a sleep so the mosquito's feasted on him.

A dinner of fish and chips was served on the beach again, followed by the chocolate cake we then sat around a camp fire and chatted. We had brought the pop up tent with us so when the children get tired we could put them in it and carry them to the room when we go to bed later on in the evening. It was a bit colder than last time on the beach however the fire kept us warm, the most annoying thing was all the butterfly’s flying around and landing on us or into the fire. Once the fire had died down at around 11.30pm Paul carried Abigail and Bradley off to bed.

The Commissioners Residence

This evening new volunteer’s have been invited to a reception with the British High Commissioner in honour of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment who are currently out here training the Gambian Army, apparently every year British volunteers from VSO are invited to attend. I had picked up the invitation on Tuesday from the VSO Office, as soon as I saw the envelope I knew it was important as stamped on the outside was the Royal Coat of Arms in embossed gold. When Paul opened the envelope on the evening I was a bit disappointed as it was only addressed to him. The next day Paul queried if it was possible for the family to attend as the reception was only from 6.30pm until 8.30pm so not at all late for the children, to our delight we were all able to attend.

The dress code was smart casual so once ready we walked the short distance to the British High Commission only to be told by the security guard that the reception was being held at the Commissioners residence at Cape Point. Paul had not read the invitation properly so he rechecked it to find out the address and we set off walking. As we walked we kept checking if any taxi’s were approaching as we would have at least a thirty minute walk thus resulting in us not arriving until 7.00pm, very late. We finally managed to flag down a five, five taxi and arrived only ten minutes late. On entering the gated area two security guards asked us our names and checked this against a list before we were allowed access. Then when we entered the house we were asked to sign a visitor’s book before making our way through the large hall to the garden area. We were welcomed by the commissioner and then offered a selection of soft or alcoholic drinks by one of the waiters. Within the garden were a couple of marques which were set up for the purpose of serving drinks. There were already a number of people in small groups chatting however none of the other volunteers were there so we found ourselves an area close to the fence which overlooked the sea and beach, this happened to be the very beach which we had spent an afternoon on back in September at Cape Point.

The other volunteers finally arrived they had stopped at a local bar for a couple of drinks, Greg and Andrew had already had a few too many. By now the waiters were bringing around drinks and canapés, constantly circulating the guests then refilling their plates from the kitchen. Whilst myself and Paul were talking to Cathy and Amy one of the guys from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment came over and introduced himself he had been sent over by some of his mates. Paul kept the conversation going asking him about the regiment and what they were doing in The Gambia apparently they come out a couple of times a year to train the Army. It wasn’t long before the rest of his mates decided to join us, Amy became the centre of attention once they had found out who was the single girl within the group. During this time the children were happily being entertained by Emily and Andrew who were upstairs on a veranda lookout area. Bradley at one point was running his car down the stair banister so I decided to join them and have a bit of a nosey at the same time, the veranda had some wicker settees and a coca cola fridge, through the patio doors was the upstairs lounge area. Paul did a bit of circulating talking to the deputy commissioner and some of the guys from the Regiment. The children by now were getting tired so I went to find him so with quite a few of the guests having left we decided to make for home thanking the commissioner for a pleasant evening on our exit.

Ecole Diana Mariam School

After picking up the children today from school I quickly showered and changed as I have a meeting with the Head Teacher of the Diana Mariam primary school, Awa was happy to watch the children for an hour. I had heard that they were looking for assistance with the English language so last Tuesday I called in to take a look around the school. I was shown around by the Deputy Head who seemed very nice and I was very impressed as they seem to have a lot of resources. In the yard area was a large trampoline and primary coloured picnic tables with parasols. The reception classrooms were displayed with posters on the walls and a number of toys and learning aids, the children were busy sat watching a French DVD on the television when I was looking around. The primary area was a little less colourful and the classes were much smaller in size, I was surprised to be shown into an ICT suite with five computers. As we went from classroom to classroom I was introduced to the teachers who all seemed pleasant. They currently only have children up to grade three as they are adding another grade on each year. They are a bilingual school teaching French so the children when in class automatically switch to speaking that language.

The Head Teacher Mary Samba is a lawyer so the school is run by the deputy in her absence. When I arrived I had to sit and wait in reception as Mary had phoned to say she would be late. After a ten minute wait I was introduced to Mary and we chatted about what she was looking for. She wasn’t concerned with the fact that I was not a qualified teacher she just wanted the children to have interaction with the English language through reading, writing, phonics etc. I did explain to her the issue of the children and their hours of schooling at Zenith, she was quite happy for me just to work mornings assisting the teachers. I have agreed to start this Monday so I am quite looking forward to the experience of working with the teachers and especially looking forward to helping the children.

Ecole Diana Mariam School