Sally

This week we have enjoyed spending another week in the resort of Sally in Senagal. We were closer to the centre this time so we had much better access to the shops. The apartment had the use of two pools one of which was right next to us and then another situated next to the resort restaurant, however on the Monday they started retiling and grouting the restaurant pool hence it was closed for the rest of our holiday. The week was spent relaxing by the pool or taking walks along the beach. On one such walk we spotted a Pelican and we were then suppressed when another lady started calling him by his name Daniel. We watched as he came waddling over to her to take a fish from her hand he even begged for it and wagged his tail which amused us all. That was it the children ran off to get more fish as we had noticed loads of tiny sprats which were getting washed up by the tide. I started walking off to help and happened to glance to my side and got such a shock as Daniel was happily waddling along by my side as if I was taking him for a walk. We then spent some time feeding Daniel by throwing the sprats into the air for him to catch. The next day we went looking for Daniel again armed with a tub full of sprats, at first there was no sign of him however a Senegalese lad took us further inland to the house where he lives and then called his name. He swam across the stream to get his fill of the fish which we had collected. Abigail and I even got to stroke his feathers which were very thick and soft. On one of our walks we walked to the resort near the Marina where we had stayed at Christmas, we got such a shock as the villas close to the beach plus the Marina Restaurants had been burnt down to the ground. Apparently it happened four months ago when some one had lit a firework which landed on one of the grass roofs and just spread from villa to villa, there was even a shell of a badly burnt out boat in the Marina.

View Of The Pool Over Our Wall

Daniel The Pelican

End Of School Term

A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LYNNE!

On Monday we held a party for the children with music, dancing and food as it was the last day of term for them. This also meant the last day for me to say goodbye to them, gosh I am going to miss some of the children and teachers. At midday Ida presented me with a leaving present of a tie dyed tablecloth, thank you card and paper flowers (made by Craft Club Uncle Musa). I thanked them all for the gifts and support they have given me whilst working at the school. A big thank you went to Mr Jadama for my first year of working with him. I then thanked Auntie Ken who I have immense respect for and who I will greatly miss, at this point Auntie Ken covered her face and had to leave as she was so upset. All was going well until Auntie Mansetta and Uncle Musa started to sing to me a thank you song. Mansetta speaks French and only a little English, she has such a lovely voice no guessing what happened, I started blubbering. To top this I then had the children crowded around me singing a song which I had taught them for African Liberation Day, It’s A Small World before then giving me a group hug At 1 o’clock I said my final goodbye’s to some of the children Fatou, Momodou, Sheriff, Nina, Fattoumatta, Ramatoulie and Carl to name just a few. As for the teachers I will see them tomorrow as it is parents open day also I plan to pop in during summer school before we leave for the UK.

Painting Workshop

This week Abigail has been helping Mamaddy with some of his paintings. He is an Artist close to the market and Paul has got to know him through playing touch rugby on a Sunday. Mamaddy runs a youth art class where the children visit him after school and he gets them drawing and painting. Abigail and some of the other children were helping to paint a map of Africa by painting the ocean blue, Africa yellow and then painting in the sunset with red, yellow and white paint the finished result is quite effective.

Painting In The Sunset

On Tuesday Awa brought a little visitor to see us, her daughter Louise who we haven’t seen since she was one years old she is now nearly three.

On Wednesday and Thursday Abigail and Bradley were off school as year 3 and 5 were doing their Gambian National Exams. They were both pleased as it meant they could come with me on our school trip to Tanji Museum.