England v USA

On Sunday afternoon we decided to go for a walk. We called into the VSO office to pick up any post and then made our way around the rear of the building to the cliffs. From here we were able to walk along towards Leybato’s so Paul could then stay for his game of rugby. As we were walking along the cliff I suddenly spotted something in the water. We sat down on the cliff edge and waited with our eyes glued to the sea then we saw it again. It was a pod of dolphins close to shore which now and again would surface so we got a glimpse of their fins. It looked as if they were pushing fish towards land so as to then catch them We continued on to Leybato’s which is where we left Paul to play rugby whilst we decided to walk home.

We were woken up on Tuesday morning at 3 o’clock to the sound of rain on the corrugated roof which you can imagine is quite loud. The rain continued for the next two hours with the occasional thunder and lightning, this woke up Abigail and it took her a while to go back to sleep. By the time we were up the rain had stopped and the ground was already starting to dry up. As I walked the children to school there was the odd pool of standing water ideal for the mosquitoes. There were also a large number of fly’s which appeared to be burrowing out or into the sand, maybe they had hatched due to the rain arriving.

Today all VSO and Peace Corps have been invited to the British High Commission to watch the football match England v USA. We met up with Sam on route and arrived at the commission for 5.30pm. Once through the security gate we were shown to the poolside area. The area was decorated with English bunting flags and footballs. The commission had put on a barbeque and bar which was to be paid for. Within a gazebo a projector was ready to show the match with seating in place. Amy, Emily and Emma were already there wearing their football tops which family had sent out to them, they had also bought Abigail and Bradley Saint George hats to wear. We bought some drinks then Abigail, Bradley and Paul decided to try out the pool along with some others. We placed an entry for the time of the first goal to be scored the prize was the winnings 1000 dalasi. The game started so we quickly found a seat within the gazebo to watch. The atmosphere was very charged especially when England scored the first goal unfortunately it wasn’t to last as USA also scored. Once the match had finished I took Abigail and Bradley home whilst Paul stayed a bit later talking to a Gambian who had been educated in Yorkshire.

Abuko Nature Reserve

On Monday Cathy paid a visit to Dianna Mariam she had been invited by Mary to the morning assembly. Aunty Alberta led the assembly and had the children showing Cathy their phonics skills. Then after a rendition of happy birthday to Mary as it was her birthday, Cathy was presented with a Gambian costume and shirt for James as a thank you for all her help with the teacher training of the phonics. We were then all given a can of pop and a brioche pastry for Mary’s birthday treat to the children.

On Wednesday it was my birthday I was woken early to be given some chocolates and a Nintendo game, unfortunately my new clothes would need some alterations. On the evening we went out for a meal at The Blue Kitchen partly for my birthday and also as another leaving meal for Cathy, James and Felix. The children had a very late night as it was gone 10 o’clock before we arrived back at home.

This morning we were up early as we have decided to go to Abuko Nature Reserve, this time I made sure I packed my camera. We arrived at 8 o’clock paid our 30 dalasi entrance fee and then walked into the park. This time it was very different to the last time we had been in the rainy season. We were able to keep to the path and followed this across a bridge which last time was submerged in water. We arrived at the education centre where there was a lookout area across the crocodile pool. We managed to see a couple of crocodiles in the pool and a Violet Turaco which was flying across the pool. The Turaco has violet plumage and a red and yellow forehead very pretty when it is in flight. We then walked to another bird hive, Paul decided to go off route I wasn,t going to chance it as when Paul came with his mum last time he saw a black cobra. He managed to see a Green Turaco, this is a green bird with a Mohican tuft on its forehead. Other birds which we spotted were Splendid Sunbird, Little Bee-eater, Robin-chat, Weaver birds, African Darter’s, Night Heron, Osprey, Eurasion Coot, Plover’s, Pied Kingfisher and Broad-billed Roller which is a reddish copper colour with yellow beak, so more birds for Abigail to tick off her list.

Little Bee-eater

We continued on walking through the reserve not seeing an awful lot other than a couple of vervet monkeys, these are very tame and come quite close to you. We arrived at the centre where they have some sorry looking animals in cages, baboons, monkeys, bushbuck, turtle, parrots and the adult hyenas which I remember from last time.

We continued on around the rest of the route, we decided to cut back to the entrance and education centre where we could have a picnic lunch. We hadn’t seen a lot of animals so very disappointing when suddenly we heard the shaking of branches and on looking into the surrounding trees there was a group of red colobus monkeys. These monkeys are very shy animals however we had the advantage of being in the education centre lookout so they didn’t seem aware that we were there. I managed to get a few photos as we ate our lunch we then decided to leave for Brikama

Red Colubus Monkey

After a quick stop at Brikama to get some alterations done to our clothes we were back on a gelleh and heading for the coastal route. Once at what they call the turntable we jumped in another gelleh for Hibiscus House as we had arranged to meet Felix for the afternoon before he fly’s back home tomorrow. The hotel had a lovely poolside area so once changed we were straight in the pool and hot tub to cool off. Sam, Jerry and Maurice were also there so we enjoyed a pleasant afternoon with them.

Goodbye Weekend

On Monday I took the children into Dianna Mariam, they spent the morning playing on the trampoline and swings whilst I was helping Mr Jadama in class. I was really chuffed when I went into year one as Jerry one of the children gave me a bag saying it was from his mum as a thank you for helping him to read. When I looked in it there was a box of mini weetabix, some cakes and some material which I later found out was about six metres long. Just before leaving school I was informed that tomorrow is a public holiday for African day so they will be closed.

Paul went to college and was also continuing on up country to Mansa Konka he will be away until Thursday. He is helping deliver a workshop to head teachers with a couple of other lecturers from the college one of which is his boss at the college. They were supposed to be leaving by midday however when Paul phoned on the evening they had not left until gone 5 o’clock so had arrived at Mansa Konka at around 10 o’clock at night as you can imagine Paul was not amused.

On Tuesday we had another trip to Brikama as Rachal invited us through for the day and the plan was to visit her and Amy’s tailor. We arrived at 10.30 and met up with Rachal we then had a short walk to her compound for a quick drink. She is staying in the same compound as Amy and Anne. We then called at one of the tailors where we were given a bench to sit on and handed various clothing books. I handed over the material and showed him one of my dresses which I wanted copying he took my measurements and drew a sketch of my dress. Then Abigail was measured for her western style dress and we agreed a price. Unfortunately I had forgotten to bring my skirt which I wanted copying so I decided to have a skirt made on my next visit. We then called at another tailors to get a Gambian style dress made for myself and Abigail from the material which Jerry’s mother had given me, and I also left Bradley’s trousers to be altered.

On Thursday Paul arrived home very angry, upset and frustrated things had not gone very well whilst up country, his comments about his fellow lecturers who accompanied him are too rude to print. He found them very lazy and unwilling to contribute to the workshop saying they didn’t know much about it and thought he should do it. This was a joke as Paul’s boss Mr Coreteh has been employed at the college for the last ten years. From day one things went from bad to worse with the teachers complaining about what they were getting paid to attend the workshop. This is standard practice within the Gambia even if you only turn up for two days out of the three you still get full pay. Also they were complaining about not receiving drinks with their meal, again this is standard practice to be fed at workshops. It also didn’t help that the other two lecturers obviously had come to Mansa Konka because their family were from there so there were occasions when they would disappear during or at the end of a workshop without any meeting or discussion as to what is to happen on the next day. Paul was lucky to be able to vent out his frustrations on Lucy, Kate and Kanti as they are living in Mansa Konka and had offered to cook for him on an evening. It all finally came to a head when Paul questioned the full payment to teachers who hadn’t attended all three workshops, Mr Coreteh said he was wicked and walked off. The following day the female lecturer then stepped in after Paul had given the teachers an action plan to complete by also asking them to complete an evaluation at the same time. Paul thought this needed to wait until the end of the workshop so confronted her, this resulted in a few choice words by herself. Paul was directed into another room by one of the staff, this resulted in the female lecturer following him and shouting more abuse at him. Mr Coreteh then came in which resulted in all the blame being hurled at Paul. He was lost for words as to how unprofessional they were instead of working as a team he was made out as the scape goat. As you can imagine the drive home was very charged although silent.

Today the gang are all meeting up at Sanyang as a goodbye to Cathy, James and Felix as they will be all leaving next week. We jumped in a taxi with Felix and Sam as our car is getting fixed yet again. We arrived for about 1 o’clock and booked into our room and then changed into our costumes. The afternoon was spent sunbathing, reading and chatting. Abigail and Bradley had brought along some of their beach toys so they had no shortage of people playing with them. With happy hour just started we ordered a couple of rounds of julbrews and were then entertained with some drumming. Amy went to join the drummers as she has had some lessons so was able to keep a rhythm going. This resulted in a group of kids showing us their latest dance moves, probably the next generation of bumsters. We went to our room to shower and change for the evening, we had decided to wear our new costumes from Alpha with the exception of Abigail. We laughed when we came out of our rooms as Amy and Emily had changed and were wearing curly black wigs which they had bought. After a quick photo shoot we sat down to our usual fish and chip dinner washed down by julbrew. Once finished we sat around a camp fire chatting. Bradley was the first to fall a sleep, we had brought the tent so put him to sleep in their followed by Abigail an hour later. Sunday was spent sunbathing up until 5 o’clock which was when we left for home.

Next generation of bumsters

On Wednesday Paul met up with Alpha from the village of Kenuma, he is helping them to get some of the local tour company’s to visit the village compound to experience the dancing and maybe buy some batiks. Unfortunately when they called at one of the tour company’s they were told everyone was at a big meeting in Senegambia preparing for the Kanili Roots International Festival which is held bi yearly. This will mean another visit to the kombo and tour guides for Alpha. On the evening Paul produced some clothing which Alpha had made for us, myself a dress, Abigail a top, Paul and Bradley a shirt and trouser set. They were produced from batik prints and were very unique. Paul and Bradley look like a couple of red Indians in their sets also Bradley’s trousers will require some alterations however the rest were a perfect fit so overall we were very pleased with them.

On Wednesday Abigail and Bradley broke up for the term holidays, they will be off for a week however Dianna Mariam school is only closed on Thursday and Friday so I have agreed to go in all day Monday with the children and just help out in the English lessons on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Thursday we made a trip to kariba to get our weekly shopping we decided to walk there and back for the exercise. We have noticed a change in the weather this week, very hot and sticky evenings as we enter the hot, humid and rainy season. When we arrived home we were all in need of a drink and very sweaty. We decided to spend the afternoon at Safari Garden and welcomed the coolness of the pool however the temperature did feel much warmer than usual. Abigail and Bradley enjoyed playing with a couple of Gambian girls in the pool learning some of their pool games.

Today Paul left the house early at 6 o’clock to meet James and Felix. They are walking the final section of the coastline from the border of Senegal on the north bank to Denton Bridge were they started their last walk back in April. They managed to get the first ferry across to Barra and found a jeep which was going to Jinack Island. The jeep already had four ladies waiting so including themselves this meant seven passengers. The jeep was very much like the eight seater we had took to Nikola Koba game reserve so they thought one more and we will be off. They watched as another jeep going to Jinack left wishing they had jumped onto that one instead. Then another couple of people got onto their jeep, finally with twelve people seated and two stood on the rear bumper it looked as if they would be leaving. The driver then started to connect wires under the steering wheel, thinking things couldn’t get any worse he then got out and went to the front with a crank handle and turned it, the jeep started. They watched as he slowly sauntered back to the jeep thinking give it some revs, give it some revs. The jeep died so he had to try again with no luck. The jeep was then pushed down the road fully loaded a number of times before the driver finally asked everyone to get out. They then watched as another vehicle pulled it along the road. The jeep started so once all on board they were back on track. On arriving at Jinack the driver then asked them for double the fare saying it was standard because they were white toubobs. No wonder the tourist industry is suffering when the white man is getting ripped off like this talk about racism. Luckily the boat trip across to the island this time was free as Saddy was in the boat. Saddy was one of the waiters from the resort where we had stayed back in January. Once across Saddy and a couple of others took them along the bolong to the mouth of the river and the starting border of Senegal. They then accompanied them so far on their walk before turning off to head back to the village. They reached Barra by about 2 o’clock and had just missed a ferry so they had time for a quick beer. Once across on the ferry Paul and James continued on along the coast however Felix jumped in a taxi for home with blistered feet. They reached Denton Bridge by 5 o’clock and were back home just before 7 o’clock, Paul this time was also suffering with blisters.

As for myself Abigail and Bradley we spent the day with Cathy shopping at Brikama. We had hoped to meet up with Amy so she could take us to her tailors however she had already made plans to meet Emily in the Kombo. We were on a gelleh before 10 o’clock, the ride was slow with lots of stops to let people on and off. Once at Brikama we made our way to the market to buy some material to have some clothes made. I wanted material for a skirt and dress and Abigail also wanted a dress making. After lots of looking in and out of shops with very much the same material I thought we were going to be going home without any luck. Then in two shops a couple of doors from each other we all found what we were looking for. Abigail’s material is a nice deep pink and white flower pattern. I picked a brown and turquoise material for a skirt as well as an aqua green print for a dress. We also bought some jewellery at a good price. We were back home before 3 o’clock very hot and sticky but we had had a successful day out, we now just need to get them made.