We got up at 5.15am
and set off for Mansea beach to collect Christine. Faith, Chris and I got in the backseat of the
truck, Mike and Steve in the front and we set off on the south bank to the
ferry at Soma. A smooth journey for most of the way, there is only about 25
kilometres now which hasn’t had tarmac put down, also it was cloudy and so not
as hot for travelling. We arrived at the
ferry terminal and a small queue had formed of cars and buses, fortunately we
are quite well known there now and we were ‘
helped’ to the front of the queue and crossed quite
quickly. Farafenni was as busy as ever,
we made our way to Sophie’s for lunch, but were very surprised when we got
there that she was not cooking this time.
We found an alternative venue, had lunch and then set off for Jamwelly,
arriving around 12.30 in time to see all the children. Channeh was waiting for us outside the school
with the nursery children all chanting ‘welcome, welcome’ as we arrived. The caretaker came and shook hands and smiled
at everyone, his English his minimal, but he is trying to learn. We toured the school and then Channeh asked
all the pupils to line up outside whilst they sang the new school anthem. Well, we girls were in tears and Steve was
filling up. I can’t remember all the
words, but basically they were thanking the charity for the school and then
singing that they hoped Mr Wallace would rest in peace forever. School was then dismissed and we met with
Channeh to discuss what the school needed in the way of resources. We have 3 new teachers here this year, all
from outside the area. Channeh then went
with us on the truck to Kaur, where we visited the Lower Basic school to
inspect the work which needs doing to convert an old building into a library. Channeh was disappointed that I hadn’t
‘noticed’ that she was divorced.
Apparently she had removed her earrings, a sign of a married lady in her
tribe!!
We then travelled on to Loumen where we were spending the
night. The nursery was closed when we
arrived, but the head teacher, Mr Bah, came to meet us and Samba, the head of
the school management committee was waiting for us at the school. We set the classrooms up for the night, with
Chris sleeping in the head’s office and then showered before eating the meal
prepared by Sambas wife for us. We all
retired for the night and Steve and I slept like logs, partly assisted by my
cough medicine and Steve removing his hearing aids. Chris however, heard strange noises on the
roof, and was very frightened, she went outside and walked around with two
torches, one in each hand out at the sides, so that anyone who was around would
think there were two people! She
couldn’t find anyone, but loathe to go back in the room where she also heard music;
she knocked Faith and Mike up and went in with them. Next morning, the head asked her if the bats
had disturbed her sleep at all, and the music turned out to be her mobile phone
which was letting her know the charge had gone!
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