Farewell to The Gambia

Leaving The Gambia I start to reminisce   About all the people I have met And all the things that I will miss   Domoda and nebe to name but a few Peeing outside under the stars too! Crazy roars of thunder waking me as I sleep The first scoop of water in 40 degree heat   Vibrant colours strolling everywhere Beautiful sculptures in place of hair Alluring fabric enticing us in Foster Clarks with plenty of Gin   The Kerewan crew, sitting round a fire Daily offerings of endless attaya Food bowl; the need for all to be fed Gigantic butterflies flying around my head   Lamin, my bike, what more can I say A love affair that ended sadly one day Slipping and sliding across a sea of sand and the best accidental wheelie throughout the land!   But by far what I will miss above all the rest Are all the people I have met who are simply the best! It is true what they say about the Gambian smile I will not forget the kindness for quite a while   To volunteers present and volunteers past Thank you for making my stay such a blast! It has been a privilege to share this adventure with you Cheers to you all and The Gambia ever true

Party time...

My last Saturday night in The Gambia consisted of a fab party to say goodbye. Thank you to all for making it a night to remember x -especially the live music- (thanks Max, Nap, Lucy and lamin!!), the Gambian Cocktails (thanks to Emily and Amy) and the magnificent Gambian decorations (Courtney you are officially the best!). Will miss you all xx

Saying Goodbye to Kerewan...

So the time had come to say goodbye. I had my last nebe breakfast, my last day at work, my last visit to Paul and Courtney's compound and said my final and surprisingly emotional farewell to my motorbike. I then took my last gelli gelli to Barra followed by my last ferry trip to Banjul. Kerewan was good to me and I will miss everyone dearly.

It’s a long way to Basse...

I was determined to see Basse – a large town to the far east of the country – before I left The Gambia and I am glad that I did. Amy, Emily and Sam left at 7am on a Gelli Gelli from the Kombo and picked me up at Kerewan around 10am. The journey was long and bumpy with quick stops at Farafenni for breakfast and Jan Jan Bureh to catch a ferry on and off the Island. We arrived in Basse at around 6pm and was greated by a great rain storm. We made it into a small bar just in time to watch Ghana's last game of the world cup L   Memorable moments in Basse... ·         Jim's ceiling – just beautiful! ·         Being welcomed into Jim's compound (lovely family) and having a fishing lesson from Sam and Jim... ·         Boat trip down the river – saw a kingfisher dive into the water, grab a fish and then whack it senseless against a rock... ·         Eating Caba fruit for the first time (Momodou, the boat man, climbed into a tree to get us some)- tasted like sour dweebs and nerds (remember them?) ·         Seeing lots of vultures- personally my favourite birds in The Gambia although not the prettiest... ·         More fabric shopping ·         Chicken and spaghetti- yum!

Training Film and booklet finished!

My main project in The Gambia, after discussing ideas on how to improve the standard of reading with one of the cluster monitors, was to film good teaching practice and to write an accompanying booklet to be used for teacher training.   The Aim of this resource: The aim of this film and training booklet is to improve the standard of reading in The Gambia by: ·         Sharing good practice in the teaching of reading amongst Gambian teachers; ·         Showing practical examples of how training on phonics can be used in a Gambian classroom; ·         Providing a visual resource that can be used when training cluster training teams, teachers, head-teachers and cluster monitors on the process of teaching reading effectively   On Sunday 27th June 2010 we presented the film to the head teachers in the region and the teachers who took part in the filming.  The resource has now been shared with The Gambia Teacher Training College, the University, the Jolly Phonics national trainers and will be shared with the Ministry next week. I really enjoyed working on this project and will be sad to say goodbye to the teachers and cluster monitors that I have worked closely with over the last year. I wish them all the best for the future.

Cooking the Gambian way...

So Emily, Amy, Rachel and her boyfriend Nick had a spare Sunday so decided to head down to Tumani Tenda Camp to learn to cook Yankatan (or bahaal in Wolof) which is basically rice with pounded smoked fish and ground nuts. The method basically consisted of picking out the tiny bones from the fish and lots of pounding!