Feb
8
2010
A clandestine meeting with a journalist from an independent newspaper near to midnight in the Kombo on Friday evening was an interesting end to a week in which we attended the VSO education workshop. The meeting however was for nothing more than to present Lynn and I with a copy of the following days newspaper in which we featured. Earlier in the week we had spoken at the VSO workshop to volunteers and other partners about our work, frustrations and successes. The journalist had been present and actually was very positive about our contribution.
To add to the spymaster theme that had somehow developed during the week we were then stopped on an open road miles from anywhere by the ‘paymaster.’ Few Gambians have bank accounts so every month a paymaster travels around, complete with armed guards, to various pay points in each region. He was returning from Region Six to Banjul having been told that we were travelling back that day and somehow he spotted our car, how we do not know, “lookout for the toubabs,” did it I guess, anyway he stopped his car and gave us our monthly allowance. It was very strange one of us counting money while the other kept a close eye on a herd of renegade goats in case they suddenly mug us for our few Dalasi. The two armed guards were more interested in their dinner which they ate in their vehicle.
Our return from the Kombo was spoiled when we found that our office had been trashed, not simply by vandals, for we might have simply bitten our lips and got on with life but the guilty people were teachers who had had a workshop in the office and decided to stick their notes, discussion sheets and feedback onto our displays with parcel tape. When trying to remove them everything was pulled off and our four metre map of region six which showed the schools we had visited was destroyed. Not only were the displays destroyed but the floor and furniture were covered in food, papers, glue and who knows what else. Trashed almost is too good a word for it. You can guess our reaction. A word for the wise, stay away from the Wilsons in this mood! Look out anyone who crosses out path this week.
Feb
2
2010
Okay for you long suffering blog readers a quick quiz. I was riding on my motor bike along one of the sandy roads leading into Basse when I met, standing in the middle of road a bull, a large bull, one that would have put the fear of God into most Spanish bullfighters. So what did I do; 1. Drive like a madman towards the bull with engine flaring and horn blaring scaring it away? 2. Wait until the bull became bored and decided to walk away therefore driving onwards on a clear road? 3. Turn tail and run away as fast as my engine would carry me? The answer was a combination of 2 & 3. The bull and I decided to stop and stare at each other for what seemed a lifetime before it decided to kick up some dust and trot, no, charge towards me. Now bulls are faster than they look and my motor bike is much slower that it appears so as I struggled away I was grateful for some washing drying on a nearby wall which distracted the aggressor. I did arrive home safely and I am certain there is a Steve McQueen film where something similar happened, Does anyone know what he did and what film it was?
Meanwhile Lynn has been doing a study of National Examination papers which added to revelations about Gambian text books adds to our knowledge about why educational standards are so low. Another question for you; What is the opposite of night? Day, I hear you cry, wrong, according to a grade 6 Gambian textbook the answer is morning. Now a multi-choice question; Find the most appropriate word to replace the one underlined. Girls like initiating their mothers. Choose from a)wording, b)worrying, c)copying and d)obeying. Now even if you forget the word initiating there are real arguments in our experience for b) worrying and c) copying. Lynn is meeting with the examination board this week. We will let you know what happens.
Finally, this week we have been reflecting on time served or rather worked. One head teacher asked us for permission to return to the Kombo for a week to see his family. We, of course, said he should wait until a holiday period. Yet there he was on Friday morning waiting for a bus to Banjul. Now we have no authority to say yes or no but it made us consider the amount of time we work with people before they disappear into the ether. In twenty weeks we have seen our Director for around six weeks, one SEO for approximately twelve, another for two, the PEO for five and another SEO has not yet shown his face in the region. They seem to be able to take time off without question. Consequently our role of acting as advisors to the education directorate is and always will be limited by who is present and how long they stay. Needless to say in the UK and we guess in any first world country each of these people would have been removed from post for neglecting their duties.
Finally a poem; taken from the wall of the education office training room after an English workshop. One two buckle my shoe, three four knock at the door, five six pick up sticks seven eight lay them straight, nine ten a big fat cock. Nuf said!
Jan
26
2010
Those of you who have been reading our blog will understand that we have found the Gambia to be tough. We have also found the work frustrating and the demands relentless. It seems as though we now work a ten day week, writing plans, observing lessons, supporting school, training head teachers, repairing computers and running workshops. This, Lynn’s birthday week, could not have been busier and it seems a long time since we enjoyed a weekend. We had thought that people would be impressed with Lynn being 60 but birthdays are not important in the Gambia, nobody has birth certificates so when you ask somebody their age the best they can come up with is a guess. We have now found people who think Lynn is very young as they claim to be over 150 years old. So now we understand why in classes of eleven and twelve year old students, one or more of them looks and probably is eighteen or and nineteen but then, here, nobody minds. To the general public birthdays are non events. We did however mark Lynn’s special day with a special meal of beans on toast, lit three candles in the evening and enjoyed a wonderful bottle of Rioja which had been sent to us by our Spanish friends. We displayed a banner across the compound much to the amusement of the locals and tried to get everyone to say happy birthday albeit they did not get the day right.
Lynn has also found a new friend. Forgetting the lessons of the past when our daughter Sarah brought a cat back from Eritrea Lynn has now adopted a kitten called Baby. She found this at the bread shop and decided to buy it a tin of sardines. The shop keeper loves it but more so the sardines that Lynn buys it. “Baby won’t eat rice now,” says she, “buy more sardines for baby!”
Thank you to everyone who sent Lynn a birthday greeting it meant a great deal to her.
Esto, la semana de cumpleaños de Lynn y estaba muy ocupada. Los cumpleaños no son importantes en la Gambia, nadie tiene una partida de nacimiento tan cuando usted pregunta a alguien su edad el mejor ellos adivinarán. Esto explica por qué las clases de once y estudiantes de doce años tienen uno o varios estudiante que mira y probablemente es dieciocho o y diecinueve. Nadie aquí se opone. Celebramos el día especial de Lynn con una comida especial de frijoles en la tostada, encendimos tres velas por la tarde y disfrutamos de una botella de Rioja que había sido enviado a nosotros por nuestros amigos españoles. Mostramos una bandera a través del compuesto mucho a la diversión de los vecinos y tratamos de conseguir que cada uno diga el cumpleaños feliz aunque ellos no acertaran en el día.
Lynn también ha encontrado a un nuevo amigo. Ella ha adoptado ahora a un gatito llamado el Bebé. Ella encontró esto en la tienda de pan y decidió comprarla una lata de sardinas. El encargado de tienda lo ama, pero más tan las sardinas que Lynn lo compra. ¡” el bebé no comerá el arroz ahora,” ella dice, “compre a más sardinas por el bebé!” Gracias a cada uno que envió a Lynn un cumpleaños saludándolo significó mucho para ella.
Jan
16
2010
Our second week in January produced some very frustrating and also some of the funniest moments in our placement. Having just about come to terms with the problems of the previous week we expected continued frustrations and were not disappointed. One SEOs (Senior Education Officer) pedantic application of guidance given by the Director meant that we could not do any work. We were unable to access computers or even other rooms because he was not present and took the keys with him. When he returned he decided that Lynn could not be trusted and so followed her from room to room to check on what she was doing. This was both new and unacceptable which led us to a, “if we cannot be trusted meeting…?” We initiated the meeting at which the three SEO’s stated that yes they needed us there and yes they trusted us. During this meeting, which was early on very tense, the Records clerk decided for the first time in six months to do some work. Ears open she decided to drift into the room in which we were speaking and begin opening cupboards. She was also pretending to have a telephone conversation and so ignored us when we asked her to leave the room while we had a meeting. Lynn got up walked over to her and asked her to leave explaining the situation. The RC was suddenly struck blind and deaf causing Lynn to become almost apoplectic with rage. However we waited until she left and finished the meeting. As it ended I asked if there were any questions. The new SEO said, “Yes, I have a question for Mr Tom. Was Mrs Lynn in the Army?” “No,” I said, “why?” “Oh I thought she was going to kill Fatou, the records clerk, when she went over to her!” We laughed until it hurt. But none of the SEOs understood.
We also completed the inspection of a failing school in Basse and have now been asked to help turn it round. Just like London eh? The meeting we held with the staff, however, was shocking. Gambian teachers are very proud of being Gambian which I have no problem with being a proud Scot, but when they blame poor standards on interfering western countries who demand that the cane is withdrawn or they will withhold aid to the Gambia it makes us see red. Everyone was the blame the children, the villages, the government, the Directorate but especially western countries. I am ashamed to say that in defending policies insisted on by the west I told one young man that he was either ignorant or stupid. As 90% of the Gambia’s income comes from foreign aid without it bankruptcy would be inevitable. These teachers believe that without the cane children will never learn. Boy have we got work to do. Today was the region’s sports day. Three legged races, sack races and carrying the water bucket on your head were just a few of the races disorganised over the course of four hours. Pupils were not competing in age groups but according to height. A man with a stick determined if children were able to enter the race or not, leaving a tall seven year old to compete with a small thirteen year old. Hmmm, ah well they did not seem to care.
So Monday is Lynn’s 60th birthday. I had spoken to our compound about throwing a secret party for her but the idea of secret is a problem here and today everyone wished her happy birthday. If you would like to do that Lynn’s email address is plw8848@gmail.com.
Jan
13
2010
Returning to Basse was a little like returning home. We were warmly welcomed with open arms and smiles all around. Yes Basse is hard but it does not have the frenetic and aggressive pressures of the Kombo. We had hoped for a short period of recovery before starting work but no chance. Within hours of our arrival we had schools queuing at our office and compound wanting help with the new software that had been produced by WAEC. (West African Examinations Council) This software had been produced but not tested and when used resulted in so many errors that schools spent hours doing what could have been done in 30 minutes on paper. So Friday Saturday and Sunday produced a total of 30 hours of unwanted work. Who produces software without field testing, only the Gambia. Our arrival on Monday at the office was also a shock when we found that work we had done before Christmas had been undone in our absence. It made me want to weep. What is the point? We spent another two days in schools removing sticks and canes from teachers and staff who were using them as ways of controlling the children. Corporal punishment is illegal but here it was going on in local schools. The Senior Education Officers thought this was funny. What is the point? So once again the frustrations of Basse seem to be getting the better of us. Ah well we will settle into our vegetarian diet and begin breathing dust again. Will things improve because of us? Who knows.
Jan
5
2010
Happy New Year to you all
Christmas has been an interesting diversion for us after three months in Basse. This is the tourist season in the Gambia and although tourists are few there was some attempt to put up decorations and even Christmas trees or lights. We spent the first two weeks in another volunteer’s compound while he visited the UK. We have since moved to live with a second volunteer until our immigration papers and alien cards are renewed. Feeling a little like the wandering tribes of Israel can in itself be tiring but it has been a pleasant break. The time up to and after Christmas I spent working in the IT and planning department of the education department in Banjul. It was a real eye opener. What I saw made me think that perhaps region six is not as bad as I thought. I spent a lot of time “Capacity Building” which is actually a major part of our role in the Gambia although we may not have mentioned it. This involves trying to get people to think strategically, to use finance and resources more efficiently to work proactively and to consider the impact of their decisions. Quality assurance is not part of the Gambian psyche.
We spent Christmas Day as guests of our Director who held open house for family and friends during which we were offered turkey, pork, ham and chicken. Whilst it was all cold and lacked the trimmings that we commonly associate with a Christmas dinner it was a welcome change and a regular meat fest.
On New Year’s Eve we had dinner with other volunteers and met a fellow scot complete with kilt with whom I had my first conversation of the year about rugby and the six nations. It may have been the rather large whiskeys that we shared but by the time we parted we were assured that Scotland could and would win the six nations if not the world cup. Just before midnight Lynn and I left the younger volunteers who were going to the beach to celebrate the arrival of 2010. We decided to party the night away with a quiet cup of Horlicks and a bar of chocolate.
We were delighted that today the President altered his journey from the airport so that he could drive passed us with his full entourage en route to the palace with the Senegalise President. It was almost impressive. (Photo soon) Our last few days have been preparing for our return and we hope to be back in Basse by Friday. Strangely after looking forward so much to being back in a ‘civilised’ part of the Gambia we are both now looking forward to returning to the slower pace and demands of Basse.
Dec
24
2009
Today is national clean up day. We have just arrived back in the Kombo after an amazingly quick taxi ride from Basse. The fare was only 300 Dalasi each and we found out why Gambian cars are always falling apart. The driver thrashed the car without a thought for tyres, suspension, gears or anything else which might fall off when hitting a bump at stupid mph. He barely noticed the poor road conditions or cared if our heads hit the roof or not. The taxis that make this trip hold 7 passengers and when you get into one they wait until the numbers are made up before leaving. Lynn and I decided to pay for one extra seat and therefore got off at 05:45. We arrived in Kombo by 13:00. It was wonderful and gave us all day to recover from the bumps bruises and travel fatigue, please note I did not say sickness.
So we arrived for national clean up day. The President ordered that this day be observed each month so shops don’t open, taxis don’t run and the police apparently wander around making sure that everyone is involved picking up litter and sweeping compounds. Taxis get cleaned and even trash cans on wheels, sorry buses, are cleaned out. That said the day makes no discernable difference to Basse so I am not sure how effective it is here. I guess though that showing willing is better than nothing.
Our arrival was further enriched by finding several packages from our friend Pam who decided to supplement out diet with tasty foods from the UK, albeit soya. We look forward to the taste of Lincolnshire sausage meat back in Basse. We also received three wonderful parcels from Sarah who sent us a Christmas tree, photo soon, as part of a homemade advent calendar of presents to take us to Christmas. It now the 19th so we intend gorging ourselves to catch up on every lost day.
So we are now back in the Kombo living in another volunteers house while he goes back to the UK. The Kombo is an area south of Banjul which is slightly less third world. It has supermarkets, restaurants, a wide variety of shops and even boasts a bookshop. Here we are constantly asked if we need a taxi, want to buy a phone card or bootlegged dvds. Already we are missing, Toubab, Alpha and Sira and of course the pounding of grain at 06:30. We are now sharing a compound with a VSO family with two small children which is great and will make Christmas special but of course make us miss our Grandchildren.
So the year ends with us taking a great big deep breath. Since returning to the Kombo I have been working in the IT department in Banjul, I have also lost almost two stone in weight and Lynn around a stone we are tired but still alive well and determined to make 2010 a great year. (Sorry to go imperial for you educators.) We miss all of you and wish everyone a very special Christmas and of course a wonderful new year. Sorry for the late publishing of this blog and thank you to Sarah who was kind enough to point out that it had not been uploaded properly, technology eh. One early warning, don’t forget that Lynn celebrates a very special birthday on January 18th. We will be back in Basse by then but I am sure she would appreciate emails from anyone kind enough to remember. Bless you all from both of us
Navidad Feliz a usted. Lynn y yo hemos vuelto a Banjul durante la Navidad después de un primer término agotador. El viaje era muy largo pero ha valido la pena volver para. Teníamos una Comida de Navidad buena en la casa de nuestro Director y disfrutamos de nuestra primera copa de vino en mucho tiempo.
Comenzaremos el trabajo otra vez la próxima semana y volveremos a Basse el 4 de enero. Deseamos a todos ustedes un muy feliz año nuevo 2010.
Dec
12
2009
What a week! Following last week’s assertions that I had devoured all six yoghurts I was determined to put the record straight but to continue the debate after the week we have had would be pointless. I began and ended the week with visits to schools across the region while Lynn was dragged in to being a judge in the Gambia’s version of the Miss World competition. On Monday I rode around 48km, Tuesday 160km and Friday 38km on what I contend have to be the most horrendous roads in Africa. It is impossible to describe how remote these schools are or indeed the villages they serve. Children are expected to walk or cycle up to 8km to attend school where most of the teachers are untrained and only qualified by virtue of having attained a minimum of three passes in their basic secondary school exams. I have been frustrated to find teachers berating students for being late to school. Yet unlike their teachers none of these students have watches, and in some cases their villages don’t have clocks or watches, but it appears acceptable that teachers and Head Teachers can be up to two hours late for a meeting but unacceptable for students to be five minutes late. Needless to say on Friday a meeting I attended, which started almost two hours late, and at which head teachers began complaining that students could not get to school on time there were a large number of very subdued slightly embarrassed folk leaving the meeting after I pointed out their double standards.
Between school visits I have been installing the West African Educational Certificate software onto computers in schools with students in their final years. It was common practice in previous years to stick a student’s photograph onto their certificate so employers knew who they were. Sadly this was abused as students with good passes and certificates changed the photographs and hired out their certificates to undeserving students. This may have been very enterprising but it was illegal. The new software will print the photograph onto the certificate. That said the program is full of bugs and does not recognise that some students called repeaters can be 22 years old when they complete their secondary school education.
Meanwhile Lynn spent the week attending committee meetings and trying to make sense of the chaos that was to become the Basse heat of the 22nd of July Pageant. July 22nd was the date of the coup when the President came to power. Four female students from each high school in the region were invited to attend the pageant and if selected would qualify for the finals in Banjul, where the winners would be given a university grant plus living expenses and a permit to study abroad. Lynn spent several days trying to make sense of the disorder and finally was called upon to act as senior judge in the event. Each candidate had to parade in four different costumes these being African, National, Sports and finally evening wear. During each parade they were asked questions to assist the judges in determining the winner. Questions like; what was the historical medical advance made by His Excellency Sir Sheik Doctor Professor Jahya Abdul Aziz Jammeh, President of the Gambia? Answer: The cure for aids. (See Youtube) As a footnote, Lynn did not write the questions. Strangely one question which foxed most girls was; what monument was built to celebrate the July 22nd revolution? Only one of the contestants recognised and understood the word monument!
That said this does not even begin to describe the event itself. On Friday evening almost 900 people packed into a hall designed for 250. There was no lighting, no decoration, no order simply confusion and anarchy. Seats had been put out for the audience but these were attached to the desks that children sit at so it did not take long for the audience to begin climbing up onto the desks for a better view. It was hot. So many bodies in such a small space climbing to get a view of the proceedings was a recipe for disaster. Then despite Lynn’s best efforts the compare decided to change the proceedings, tamper with arrangements and run the show his way. It was bedlam. Half way through many people were leaving because they could not see, the event was dragging on and the audience were in an anarchic mood. When desks and tables not designed for standing on began to break under the weight of five young men they decided to take revenge on it by breaking it themselves. The compere decided to call security, a small elderly man who spent most of his working life drinking tea under the trees at the entrance to the school and hoping that nobody tried to break in. It took this man almost two hours to arrive, look at the pandemonium and leave. Meanwhile I had stepped in. Using the practiced authority of years of headship and the strange power of a toubab wielding nothing more than a torch I began throwing youths out of the hall, sorting out fights and stacking broken desks and chairs. When the generator died at 10:30 the poor lighting that had been turned on half way through the event died with it and my torch and a few mobile phones was all that stood between an orderly exit and potential tragedy. By eleven o’clock six hours into proceedings the judges were ready to declare the result and calm again ensued. Lynn had time to engage in one final row with the compere who took it upon himself to announce the scores given to every candidate so that the girl who came last knew that she only scored 16 out of 100 while the winner got 64. Lynn’s sense of protecting the self esteem and dignity of the losers was lost on the Gambians so she walked out. We got home at 11:30 to finish the week exhausted annoyed and frustrated.
As I write this epistle it is late Saturday evening. We have today played petanca with two very enthusiastic and competitive Cuban Doctors which was a real change they were great and gave us the opportunity to practice our Spanish. VSO are now having their Christmas party in Banjul without us, thank you VSO, and we are about to watch a film on the laptop. We are already thinking of packing for our trip to the coast in seven days and hope to spend Christmas and New Year in slightly better surroundings. Please note we have decided not to send Christmas cards this year so I hope you are not expecting one. Thank you for your continued interest in our blog more news from the Kombo next week.
Dec
6
2009
I began this week with a heavy cold, my first in years, as Tom went into work. This might have been picked up the previous weekend when we went on a long boat ride along the river Gambia in a small boat powered by a man and a paddle. He used a strange kind of turning action to move the boat forwards as he stood precariously at the back. By Wednesday I was fit enough to join a flurry of activity at the office and we ended the week spending very long hours in meetings and preparing training materials and presentations for teachers and getting ready for meetings in various schools across the region.
The strange thing about Basse is that it appears that everyone knows us. Having visited almost every school, children and now adults from pop up every corner of the town, villages and streets have replaced their cries of ‘Toubab’ with ‘Sira’ & ‘Alpha’. To further illustrate this point , we went shopping on Saturday morning only to be accosted by a young man we had never met before who welcomed Tom with the line, ‘ are you the VSO man that fixes computers, can you look at my laptop?’ Similarly I am now seen as somebody who can help with homework and am visited every evening by young children who want their help in doing their school work. I am delighted to say that I have been given 100% every night by teachers that have not commented on the different handwriting used to do the work. We also had a first last week when bugs began crawling out of a computer that Tom as repairing. Real bugs, not computer bugs but small nasty quick real black hard to kill bugs. Needless to say I made him fix the machine outside in the compound.
At the moment we are in a Gambian winter. Everyone is wearing padded parkas as temperatures have dropped to as low as 18O C, 12O at night and in fact it has become so cold that I turned our fan off for the first time since our arrival. Consequently we are now active and happy, wandering around in a bearable heat with cloudy days. That said walking is still hard work. It appears that the creeping Sahara has turned even the Gambia into a sandy country. Every path, bush highway and road is like walking along the beach at Skegness. It is not hard sand but a soft orange sand that makes your feet filthy and wears you down as if you were climbing dunes away from the sea. We have got to the stage where even soaking in a bucket for an hour has little effect!
Tom got very excited last week after a shopping trip to Basse town – he found some yoghurts which he brought home and as I remember it devoured all 6 of them that evening! He claims I had some but that I don’t remember and today there is not a yoghurt in sight. It has reminded us that when something is in the shops you buy it because tomorrow it will be gone and unavailable for months.
Life here in the Gambia was very frustrating when we arrived as everything was so slow and we did nothing but now we are accelerating along a highway which demands more and more of our time. We continue to play petanca most evenings and are joined by some regulars and a hotchpotch of other ragamuffins. We also continue to attract a large following of spectators and a mixture of passing onlookers including the women who sell ground nuts and bananas.
Looking forwards we have been asked to assist in the training of newly qualified teachers in Janjanbureh and Tom has been asked to visit and support the IT department in Banjul so along with the scheduled demands on our time that could keep us occupied until 2012 the new year promises to be a busy if not an exciting one. We are of course looking forward to Christmas but not the 12 hour ride back to the Kombo from Basse. Please note, last weeks video that went missing is now available, see last weeks blog.
Nov
29
2009
The week started with Lynn having to go into work by herself as I had a virus which affected my sense of balance, no jokes please. Every vertical movement I tried brought waves of nausea so it was a quiet week for Lynn as she went to work to review the previous weeks training events. That said the whole week was geared towards Tabaski. Tabaski is the Wolof word for sacrifice and it is a national holiday that takes place 2 months and 10 days after the end of Ramadam to commemorate the story of Abraham. Every family sacrifices a sheep on Tabaski morning and the rest of the day is spent feasting, giving presents and in prayer.
Just as in the UK the final week before Christmas brings a sense of anticipation and excitement so it is here before Tabaski. The families in the compound had purchased two rams for the celebration and these were tied together outside our home for the week awaiting their fate. On Tuesday they were sent to be cleaned ready for the slaughter and as Friday approached Lynn and finally I did not want to look at them. Now to be clear we know it is slightly hypocritical of us because we eat meat and the rams were to be slaughtered for food but what we found hard to stomach was that after prayers on Friday, Tabaski, every compound and every family in every village in the Gambia would watch as their ram, sheep, goat was slaughter in the same hour of the same day. The whole family, including young children, would watch. In our compound the families wanted us to join in “the fun” but needless to say we were out on more urgent business, like hiding at a friend’s house so we could not witness the events.
Three days of celebration follows Tabaski and everyone dresses in their finest parties and visits friends. Groups of youngsters from 3-21 wander the streets looking for adults whom they ask for “Salibo” a gift of money of anything else one might wish to give them. That said it was difficult to know the level of gift we should offer. One group of 4-5 year olds were overjoyed at the gift of 5 Dalasi while a group of 15-19 year old girls looking very western in their Saturday night finest were quite disdainful of their 25 Dalasi. Sure I know that 5D is only 10p and 25D around 50p but hey you can buy 5 eggs for 25D.
There were some funny sights seen which sadly we couldn’t take photos of as it seemed inappropriate, some Gambian adults are very anti photographs and believe that it removes their souls, so we always have to be careful. On Thursday we saw a man cycling on the main road with a large washing bucket tied to the rear pannier of the bike in which was a goat. Now knowing each goat’s fate tempered the moment but had we seen it at other times it would have been quite funny for the goats seemed quite happy sitting watching the world go by as the man struggled to cycle along this potholed street.
Highlight of the week was an impromptu concert put on for us at our friend’s compound. Juan and Olga had invited us for lunch during Tabaski where we played Petanque, the pipes and generally avoided the moment of sacrifice. Seven girls aged from 7-11 arrived at the compound to say hello and found our boule on the floor. Not knowing what they were loved the chinking noise they made when knocked together and so decided that they should sing while tapping out a rhythm with our boule. It was great. Gambian children have a real sense of rhythm and often spend their time drumming and singing. See the short clip below.
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Voy a tratar de escribir un poco de información para nuestro blog en español. Si usted puede leer esto y ve algunos errores que haya cometido por favor perdóneme y luego dígame cuales son. Pondremos fotos e información sobre nuestro trabajo aquí.Blogroll
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