No night disturbances this week, so we were all up and
refreshed by 7am in the morning, just
as well because the keenest of pupils were already in the playground for an 8.30am start.
The school bell is rung at 7.15am
so that the villagers can all hear it and send the children down. We hurried to clear the classrooms and were
all ready to go when the children lined up for their morning assembly. This consisted of Channeh explaining that
exams would start next week, that could only go out of the classroom to the
toilet if they asked, and only one at a time to the toilet. The National Anthem was then sung and the
school day started.
Faith is going to help Channeh in the nursery class with the
aim of introducing play into the classroom this year. Traditionally all pupils are taught by rote,
but the new curriculum states that there should be creative play, singing and
sport in the nursery classes.
We got into the truck to go, but unfortunately it wouldn’t
start, a bump start was organised with all the staff pushing the car, but to no
avail. Musa rang a mechanic in Kaur and
we settled down to wait for his arrival by horse and cart. Meanwhile the school was in full swing and we
were able to observe all the classes.
The nursery class did rote learning of jolly phonics and
then came out into the playground for PE, where Faith had them organised into a
circle for Ring a ring of roses, and then throwing and catching a bean
bag. They clearly had not done anything
like this before and it took a lot of organising, some of the smaller ones kept sitting down, and one of the boys had a pee in the circle!
The mechanic arrived, looked at the truck, announced that he
needed a part and returned to Kaur on the horse and cart. We waited for his return and eventually he
arrived with a part for a ‘temporary repair’ enough to get us back home. At long last the truck started, Jean and I
jumped in and we set off for Loumen, dropping the mechanic at his workshop in Kaur on the way. We arrived 2 hours later than planned, the children were all on their way home, we called briefly at the
school to speak to the head teacher about Faith and Mike visiting next week,
and then made our way into the village to meet with Samba, who is the head of
the school management committee. Faith
and Mike are to stay with him and his extended family next week, fortunately
the room allocated has access to a toilet in the yard behind! We left their supplies and then set off to
Kumbija with our next delivery, including the wages for the staff.
Later than planned we arrived in Farafenni, I returned the
hole punch, which although not very effective we were able to make some files
up of rhymes and songs for the teachers at the 3 schools. Lunch at Sophies, which is nicer than where
we had eaten yesterday and then we called at the well construction company
headquarters to organise the capping of the well at Nemasu. They have branches around the Gambia
and there are workers based near the airport, much nearer to Nemasu. Off to the ferry and home fortunately without incident, dropping Jean off at her hotel around 7.30pm. Home for a shower and an early night for me, although
Steve, still wound up from all the driving sat up with Kebba and watched a
film.
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