Fish Supper

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE & ALAN!!

We were up early to make a visit to Africmed, I can’t believe that we are due our one year booster jab for Hepatitis B and Rabies. Abigail was so brave no tears however the opposite can be said for Bradley I am just glad that Paul took him in and not me. With the trauma over we went for a walk on the beach near to the Coco Ocean Hotel and Spa. We noticed a couple of fishing boats bringing in their nets further on up the beach so decided to take a look to see what they had caught. As they were nearing shore locals just appeared from no where a guy came onto the beach riding a motor bike and women carrying buckets turned up. I must say this has to be the best catch we have seen so far. The nets were full of Bonga fish, Cuttle fish, Crabs, Mackerel, Captain fish and a solitary lobster. The women set about washing some of the Bonga Fish and placing them in one of the buckets of which we roughly counted about sixty of them. Bradley was happy watching and poking the fish as they jumped about on the sand. Meanwhile the guy on the motor bike was in deep discussion with one of the fishermen. He eventually loaded up some of the fish onto the back of his bike. During this we decided to ask for a price for the captain fish which looked very much like lady fish. After a bit of haggling we finally got the price down to 125 dalasi for a good sized fish With the fish washed by one of the locals we set off back to the car with Paul carrying the fish by its gills. We managed to find an old plastic sheet on the beach so we wrapped the fish up covering it with some leaves picked from a tree, we must remember to leave plastic bags in the car for emergencies. Once home Paul set about gutting and filleting the fish at the outside tap. I must say he is getting good at this as we ended up with four good size fillets so fish and chips is on the menu for dinner.

Angela's Farewell

This week has proved to be tiring, enjoyable and tearful. On Monday Bradley had a very restless night with signs of a slight temperature. I still sent him off to school asking them to phone me if he was unwell. After picking him up he slept most of the afternoon and ate very little. It wasn’t until the evening that the full extent of his illness showed itself, when I was awoken with him franticly rushing to the toilet with an upset tummy. This resulted in him staying off school Tuesday and Wednesday as every thing he ate just went straight threw him. We decided to give him a course of dehydration salts which proved to be a tearful affair as they are not the best tasting of drinks. Bradley did still manage to accompany me to the school each day for an hour so I could teach Jolly Phonics to year 1. By Thursday he was much better although not happy that I took him off to school after having spent two days with me at home.

Also on the Tuesday Angela dropped in for a cup of tea and was met by a screaming four year old. I can’t remember the last time Bradley had a tantrum but it resulted in me and Abigail going into the bedroom out of his way and letting him scream for thirty minutes. Angela’s arrival seemed to do the trick and he soon calmed down. We met up with Angela again on Thursday at Omar’s before she left for the airport and her long flight home to Australia. Before leaving she gave Abigail a present of her hat which she always wears saying it would have a good home. After a lot of chatting and tears we swapped skype accounts so as to keep in touch. We said a fond farewell with maybe the chance of meeting up in the future if we happen to go to Australia or Angela comes to the UK.

This week has gone so quick and has been very enjoyable for myself at the school and seeing how much the children are enjoying the Phonics has been a big buzz for me. Maybe I’ve missed my calling as a teacher I did always enjoy delivering training courses when working for Bells.

Angela's Leaving Party

Today we spent the afternoon at Kinza’s beach bar as Angela will be leaving for Australia on Thursday as she has come to the end of her VSO term within The Gambia. We set off walking to Kinza’s with John, Bradley however was lagging behind and not very happy to walk. When we arrived there were already a few of the volunteers there so we found some shade as the sun was very hot. Bradley was not feeling well and decided to lay down in the shade he eventually fell a sleep. When he woke up he decided to take a dip in the sea which he enjoyed he seemed much better. Whilst some volunteers had a bite to eat others chatted in between taking dips in the sea to cool off. Abigail and Angela persuaded Sam to plait their hair as they were impressed with her self made plait. We packed up to leave at around 6.30pm once Paul had finished playing his touch rugby and saying our goodbye’s to Angela whom we will all miss. I did ask her to try to call around for tea before she leaves. Once home we quickly ate a late dinner and put the children to bed.

Jolly Phonics

This week has been another busy week, on Monday Cathy was back at the school teaching the final part of Jolly Phonics to myself and the teachers. We spent the first couple of hours finishing off our resources before revisiting the previous letter sounds taught and then moving on to the final set of letter sounds. We also covered the teaching of the tricky words which are unable to sound or blend to make a word. We finally finished at around 2 o’clock so before leaving to pick up the children I quickly checked that Adja had photocopied the workbooks which I will need tomorrow to start my training of the Phonics to year 1 children.

Friday and I have completed teaching letter sounds s and a to the children in year 1 which they have thoroughly enjoyed especially the Jolly Phonic songs which they are even singing to me in the playground. The lessons ran smoothly partly due to the preparation before hand and the children being very receptive to learning the sounds, songs and actions which accompany the Phonics. Mr Jadama supported me within the class helping the children with their letter formation however he was a little shy when it came to singing the songs and was happy for me to take the lead in this. The children were pleased when they could see their work displayed on the wall as I have set up an area in the classroom just for the Jolly Phonics. Overall this week has been very enjoyable and I am looking forward to teaching next weeks letter sounds.

After a late breakfast we headed out for our usual Sunday stroll we decided to try to walk to Bakau along the beach. On making our way passed Leybatos and starting to walk down the steps towards the beach I slipped and ended up tripping and falling flat on my side, winded and a bit shook up I got my breath and managed to sit up whilst Paul went off to get some sea water for the cut to my knee. I was fine just pleased that I had not knocked over Abigail and Bradley as the last step was quite a drop to the beach through the erosion of the sand so could have been a nasty fall for one of them onto the rocks. We continued on along the beach collecting shells and picking our way between the rocks and ebbing tide. We even saw what looked like small Portuguese man of war jelly fish washed up on the beach. Finally we arrived at Bakau fish market with many of the brightly painted fishing pirogues out at sea and moored up on the beach and a lady squatting down between the rocks I can only guess what she was doing ur yuk. We took the road to the fruit market and had a quick look around buying some vegetables and a couple of bags of groundnut paste for Domada. We set off back home by now I was feeling a bit battered and bruised from my fall. We finally arrived home just after 1 o‘clock with two very tired and hungry children, I quickly made a chicken and squash stew for dinner. The rest of the afternoon was spent at home with Paul cutting some of the tree branches for Aunty Lucy and Abigail and Bradley playing with some of their Christmas toys whilst I made a chocolate cake for tea.