Baby Winchats in our garden yesterday Aww!!

A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JENNY!

Max's Return

Last Saturday after the Rugby we went to see the new volunteers as they were having drinks and nibbles at Alex’s house in Brikama. The house was a new build and very nice inside with a fitted kitchen. We left just after nine as the children were getting tired. Whilst on the gelleh I received a phone call from Bernie I had only picked up her backpack instead of mine so Paul had to go back for it. When we got home I then realised my keys were in the backpack luckily Lynn was still up so she made me a cup of tea whilst we awaited Paul’s return.

A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JONAH 28TH FEB!

This week we had a surprise visit from Max the Pilipino volunteer he has just arrived back in the country after spending two days stuck in the airport at Morocco after falling a sleep and missing his connecting flight. We welcomed him with a bottle of julbrew and he then gave us all some presents from Marielle and himself. Marielle had followed Max to the Philippines after his stay with her in the Netherlands. Abigail received a lovely dress and some shorts, Bradley a top, Paul some flip flops and I got a lovely pashmina shawl. It was so good to catch up with him glad he is back and he says Marielle will be visiting in April which is good to hear.

Cross Country Race

Last week Bradley and Abigail were involved in their school cross country race. Bradley had been practising all week by running around the house and is really excited about competing. He is hoping to come first as during practice he is managing to come second behind a boy called David talk about competitive at such a young age. On the other hand Abigail was more reserved however she was more willing to take part than she was last year. We made our way to the school for 4 o’clock and at twenty past the first race took place by reception one class. When it was Bradley’s turn they all lined up and Mr Steven’s started the race. As they ran down the road some of the children where tripped up by others, unbeknown to us one of them was Bradley. The first runner crossed the finish line and there was no sign of Bradley eventually he came into sight taking thirteenth place. He was so upset about falling over and not winning the race. He eventually calmed down and decided to join us to cheer on Abigail. Abigail surprised us all by taking seventh place much better than last year and she was really pleased having passed quite a few of the boys from her class.

The other bit of news from the week is that Paul has been offered a job by the chancellor of the University which is now situated next to the collage campus. The job was within the sports sector and would also entail the overseeing of the new sports facilities of which Paul has been trying to get off the ground since arriving within the Gambia. Although this would be a European paid job Paul understands the need to get the children settled back into education within the UK.

Abuko & Lamin Lodge

On Sunday Paul’s uncle arrived much later than expected as the plane had developed a problem whilst flying over France so the pilot took the decision to fly back to Manchester causing a delay until a new plane arrived. He finally landed just after midnight, Paul had returned to the airport to pick him up and take him onto Mamma’s Hotel where we had booked him in for the week. After a good nights rest Uncle Chris walked to our house and was ready for his first outing to Abuko Nature Reserve. Whilst in the reserve we had our first sighting of a Red Patas Monkey as well as the usual birdlife.

Red Patas Monkey

We then made our exit crossed the road and walked through the streets of Lamin to the lodge. A young boy of Abigail’s age was pushing a wheelbarrow full of fizzy drinks which he was taking to the lodge. He offered to show us the way so Paul briefly helped to push the wheelbarrow. Once at the lodge we ordered a round of drinks and some food. As usual the monkeys were very inquisitive and one even managed to pinch a chip from one of our plates as the waiter was bringing them up the stairs. No sooner had we sat down to eat the same monkey made a grab at Abigail’s plate and managed to get some of her chicken sandwich. He then sat eating it in front of her with bulging cheeks. Paul decided to go and get a couple of sticks to keep them at bay and shortly after his return the waiter brought Abigail a plate of chips to compensate for the loss of the sandwich. After another couple of rounds of drinks we phoned Mick and Jenny to see if they were in. Mick had just gone off to the local shop to buy a bottle of gin. Abigail and Bradley decided to run on ahead down the lane leading to their house. When we arrived Jenny was busy digging some holes for plants and the kids were in a large tub filled with water, Abigail and Bradley had already stripped down to their underwear to join them. Mick and Jenny have been very busy since our last visit and have succeeded in building a bantabar as well as managing to start work on their new house on the hillside. The idea is then to offer their old accommodation to paying students who would like to learn about the charity and bee keeping. Once we had looked around we sat in the bantabar and opened the gin and a bottle of red wine which we had brought. One drink turned into another as we sat and chatted whilst the kids played. We then had a bit of a drama as we suddenly heard Teo shouting snake from down near the house. We all jumped up and went running down to check they were all okay, passing Abigail in our tracks running back up the hill. We found Bradley and Teo up in the tree house and Mea upstairs in the house crying. Apparently Abigail had spotted the snake when looking out of the window as it made its way from some undergrowth and into the bamboo at the back of their house. Its not the first time the snake has been spotted by Mick and Jenny and they believe it to be a large black cobra. It is looking likely that they may have to look at getting rid of it just for peace of mind with the children. What was only supposed to have been a couple of hours turned out to be an all afternoon drinking session. We finally made tracks for home at 7 o’clock after a most enjoyable and tipsy afternoon with Mick dropping us off at the main road so we could get a gelleh home.

Independance Day March

On Tuesday at school we had a marching parade to celebrate Independence Day. The children had made Gambian flags these were then waved as they marched around the playground.