Monday 17 February 2014

12.2.14 Wednesday. Jamwelly



We were up and organised this morning with the truck as we were travelling up country to Jamwelly today.  Doug, a  new contact from our local bar,  who spends 10 weeks here each year, wanted to come and help with the building work, and so he arrived around 8.45am and we all piled into the truck and were away by 9.30am.  The travelling today was mostly uneventful, the road is almost finished now, and the Senegalese are not coming through the crossing point at Soma, so the queue was relatively small.  We waited about half an hour and then crossed to Farafenni where we stopped for our usual omelette sandwich and coffee, did some shopping and then drove on to Jamwelly, arriving around 4pm.  The builders have almost finished the plastering, so Doug was straight in to the temporary classrooms to see their handiwork and to help finish the job.  We got the beds set up for the night and met with Channeh the head teacher to discuss the progress in the school. The builders finished for the day and we all sat around waiting for dinner which was being cooked for us by the school cook and two of the teachers.  The chicken, which had been running around an hour ago, was prepared and the dinner arrived around 8.30pm, by which time everyone. including the builders had showered.  The 6 builders are sharing one of the classrooms and so Steve and I were in another, Sheila and Fiona in the third and Doug in the office.
The British contingent retired about 10pm, Steve, tired from the driving, was straight to sleep as was I, but the others were kept awake by the builders who like most Gambians retire late, sitting round a fire, talking, laughing and drinking local tea until the early hours.

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