Bye Bye Marielle

On Sunday we were woken by heavy rainfall this was a welcome relief as it was so hot yesterday. Abigail and Bradley decided to put on their bathing costumes and venture outside with umbrella in hand. Once the rain had stopped we made our way to the Butchers Shop Restaurant for brunch this was a thank you from Mr’s Clarke (Zenith’s head teacher). Paul had helped with sorting out a Science exam for year 5 and then helped with the marking of the papers. When we arrived there was another table of peace corp volunteers already there, it is very good value on a Sunday so seems to be used by them quite a lot. An hour later Kate, Lucy and Kanti turned up so we pushed another table to ours and sat together. We ate a fried breakfast and then helped ourselves to the buffet lunch. In between we played dominoes and uno before leaving just after 2 o’clock.

On Monday we invited Max and Marielle over for dinner as a final leaving meal for Marielle. She will be going back to the Netherlands on Thursday. I decided to feed the children earlier as the curry I had cooked was a bit too spicy for them. Marielle arrived with a large bag full of some of the things which she was leaving behind. Wrapping paper, cups and clothes I am sure we will find a use for them. We ate popodoms and pickles followed by the curry and rice. We drank lager and chatted until after nine which is when they left for home.

A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY TO BIG SIS LYNNE!
On Wednesday it was the last day of term for Abigail and Bradley this meant we had to pick up their reports and speak to the teachers. Paul was unable to attend due to a VSO conference which he had been attending yesterday and today. I arrived just before 9 o’clock and first spoke to Abigail’s form teacher who also takes them for English. She was very pleased with Abigail’s improvement this term although she did comment on her still being very quiet in class. I looked through some of her work and then spoke to the Maths teacher who was also pleased with Abigail’s work. We were given all of her books and exam papers to take away with us. We then went to see Bradley’s teacher in Reception 2, she was very pleased with Bradley’s performance and had no issues with him going into reception 3 in September. Her comments were he is a very bright boy and in the short time of him being in reception 2 he has done some excellent work.

On the evening we were invited to Max’s he had organised a leaving party for Marielle. We arrived at around 6 o’clock. There were already a couple of Gambians there a lady who used to work in the VSO office she left just before we arrived in August and a man who is a musician and plays in a bar at Palma Rima. Lucy, Kate, Phil and Kanti arrived shortly after us followed by Rachel and the other Philippinoes. We chatted and ate crisps and pizza then once the football match had finished Max sang a few songs on his guitar. We left just after 9 o’clock saying our good byes to Marielle. Every one was planning to make a night of it by going to Churchill’s bar for a bit of Karaoke.

On Thursday Paul had arranged to meet Alpha. Paul had set up a meeting with a company called Asset who offer help and advice on setting up a small business. They also had a meeting at Western Tours before arriving back home at midday for an omelette lunch. Then at 2 o’clock we went to meet Mick and Jenny the bee keepers for some advice on bee keeping. They have been living in Bakau since January as they are getting a house rebuilt on a plot of land at Lamin. We arrived at Bakau market and phoned Mick so we could meet and go on to his compound. Once at the compound it didn’t take Abigail and Bradley long before they were running about with Teo, Mia and a little Gambian girl chasing the cat and playing on a rope swing. We chatted for a couple of hours and looked at some of the hives which they are looking at doing trials with. Before leaving for home we invited Mick and Jenny around for lunch on Sunday.

On Friday we spent the afternoon at the Safari Garden pool. Paul came up later he has taken some of this week off as holidays as he has been busy for the last two weeks invidulating exams. This has proved to be another farce for him as a volunteer as he was rotared in for 15 exams and the rest of the maths team were only doing 7 each. Mr Coroteh had organised the rota for the exams, you may remember this is Paul’s boss in charge of the maths department who he had a bit of a falling out with in Mansa Konka. It seems the rota favoured more the Gambian lecturers and more work was passed onto the VSO volunteers hence why Paul decided to take some time out. Paul left Safari Garden around 4 o’clock to go to Yundum as he is now coaching some scouts to play rugby along with Bio on a Friday afternoon. We packed up and set off home for dinner, it was surprising at how much sun we had caught we were all a bit sunburnt.