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Travel Pageants and Latecomers

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.