Everyone was awake with the sun and so we all congregated in
the meeting room to discuss the days’ activities. The Belle Vue Girls and teachers were anxious
to go into lessons with the host school to see the differences between an
English and a Gambian school lesson. The
English girls had all taken a course on ‘Reading Matters’ so that they could
help the host pupils with their English reading and pronunciation. Steve and I decided that as we were so close
to Essau, one of the schools where we have provided a library, we would go on
an impromptu visit this morning as they had rung to ask for help in repairing
some bookcases. We took the minibus with
Mamood, the driver, and went the short distance back down the road to Essau,
unannounced. Mr Secka, the headmaster had
helped us last week to obtain a Government truck to deliver all the boxes to
Ndungu Kebbeh that Belle Vue had sent on the container and we had included a
dozen boxes for Essau on the delivery.
We arrived with Fiona at the school and went into the library to see
what was required. This library was
built in 2004 and the school here have really looked after it, we re-furbished
it in 2008 and it still looks new! We
were really pleased to meet the new librarian, Mr Jallow, who was the head
teacher at Kanuma before he retired, what a nice surprise for all of us. He has rearranged the books and was busy with
a catalogue of every book sent in the latest delivery before adding them to the
shelves. Unfortunately the wooden shelf
supports on some of the bookcases have split and they need replacing. We had a meeting with the deputy head and the
librarian and it was decided that the wooden supports should be replaced with
metal ones and then a thick plywood shelf put on top. We were delighted with how the library is
being used and looked after, with pupils from the University in Banjul
also coming over the river to use the facilities.
We returned back to Ndungu Kebbeh, very pleased with what we
had seen. At the school we found that
lessons had finished for the day, it being Friday, and the Belle Vue party were
teaching some of the pupils ‘elastic twist’ and other games. It was decided that the visitors should then go
with some of the pupils after our lunch and visit the village. The scouts (bless them) were still on show,
wearing the new uniforms that one of our sponsors had paid for and still
keeping us entertained with their marching and drilling skills. The afternoon was spent resting until it
started to get a little cooler around 4pm
when a football match took place between England
and Gambia on
the field next to the school. The
Gambian team looked really smart in their new kit provided by Belle Vue, whilst
the English team looked, shall we say ‘different’ playing with their handbags
over their shoulders in the first half.
Needless to say the Gambian team won, and they then went on to repeat
their success at volleyball. Another
drama was performed for us this evening before we were served with the
traditional dish of Domada for our evening meal. It was during the drama that we discovered
that we had to change our travel plans for Saturday morning. We had received a call to say that the ferry
would be in Barra ready to leave at 7am,
and we needed to be at the port by 6am
to secure a place on board. Also to
complicate matters we have just been told that tomorrow is ‘Clean up Day’ and
unless we arrive in Banjul by 8.30am we will not be allowed to travel on the
roads until 1pm. Another 4.30am
wake up call for us all.! The girls took
all of this in the same good humour as the rest of the visit. We all gathered for our evening meal and then
played a game before retiring. The girls
were really excited by their visit and went on to sing for a while after getting into their beds for the night.
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