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.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment