31.1.14 Friday Kumbija and home

Up early and cleared the classrooms of our beds and personal items before the pupils needed them.  The children started to come through the gates from 8am onwards and are joined by their teachers and Mr Sowe before the 9am start.  As it is Friday, school finishes early today, and some of the staff were dressed in their best clothes.  The English visitors split themselves between the classes to observe, whilst the Canadians, Steve and I talked about the practicality of walling the 4^th side of the school.  The local fence which was down one side has got damaged and will not provide security from the animals when we plant more trees and vegetables here. The family at the other side of the local fence are throwing all their rubbish into the playground and it was agreed that Mr Sowe would visit the chief of the village and ask him to speak to the family. All the visits complete, Omar and his party set off to Farafenni whilst we spent some time measuring walls and completing a list of jobs to do for Jim and Mell to do whilst they are here in the next few days..  We set off for Farafenni, had breakfast, did some shopping and then met the others for the journey back.  Jim and Mell were making their own way back to the school after completing some purchases. Once again it was quiet at the ferry and there were only a few cars waiting to cross, after a short wait we were all loaded on and crossed quite quickly.  Omar is quicker than the truck when we have a full load (cous and ground nuts) and so we waved goodbye to the others as they set off for home.  At the check point we managed to collect 2 soldiers to travel on the back of the truck as we already had two ladies from Kumbija inside. We stopped and delivered books at Kalagie and visited a yoghurt plant where we met the organiser and took photos of the facility.   The 3 of us arrived back home around 5pm and had a welcome shower and change before making our way to Neils bar for a quick supper.