Tuesday 26th - Friday 29th March - A Carnival of Welcome

Monday was such a big experience that the rest of the week seems to have merged into one remaining day of the week. As I write on Good Friday there is a growing buzz of excitement as the pupils gather to create a carnival of welcome for the students from Sir Roger Manwoods School. There were no classes this morning as planned but Tony and I attended a Board of Director’s meeting. It was well attended although we were disappointed that Saikou was not present. Apparently he had been travelling and did not receive the text. Surprisingly it started only half an hour late and finished by 1230. This precision was helped by the fact that the Chair and Head teacher needed to go to the Stations of the Cross but actually it was a really efficient meeting. We proceeded through the Agenda which started with the opening time of the Upper basic School. Our problem is that although classes are supposed to start at 13.50 most students and teachers are not in class until nearly 1415. This is because 2 o’clock prayers for the LBS are in process and some UBS students attend. We decided to set the example of keeping to traditional times as closely as possible although we were informed that many mosques start prayers at 1330. Instead we decided to start at 1345 and help the LBS pupils to be more efficient and completing their ablutions. Frankly this is dependent upon the teachers supervising their classes. There are plenty of water points available in the school now and no need for the current chaos as pupils casually obtain water and prepare.


We then discussed cutting the UBS afternoon break by 10 minutes to give them 20 minutes (in line with other UBS schools) and thus avoid extending school till after dark when it was risky for students to be going home.

The second item was my suggestion that we should have a written code of practice for disciplining children who disobey school rules. The rules are displayed but although we have the Staff Handbook to specify outcomes if teachers do not conform to professional conduct, some teachers have pointed out to us that there is no such written form for pupils. In fact, visitors to the school frequently comment upon the excellent discipline of the pupils in Nursery and Lower Basic but we have to admit that the UBS seem very casual. The problem with managing these students is that we have different teachers coming in to the school to teach the various subjects, compared to the one class teacher for each LBS and Nursery class. So the collaborative team approach is not in place.

Anyway, I had written out a draft code and invited the Board to discuss it. Gambian tradition very much upholds corporal punishment although the Education Department has announced that it should not be allowed. GamBLE adheres strongly to the Education Department recommendation but for many teachers and BoD members punishment is synonymous with corporal punishment. So if we are against the latter, it means that we are against punishment altogether. Then everyone claims that the pupils cannot be controlled. Kemo printed off for us a report on the President’s recent announcement that the banning of corporal punishment is responsible for the deterioration in pupils behaviour in schools.

Anyway, despite one member of the BoD interpreting my bringing this discussion to the table as a sign that there were discipline problems in the school, and advocating that parents should be “scared” that the school they have hitherto regarded as a model of excellence is now causing concern. He also stated that the administration should be blamed for falling standards. I was deeply horrified that he should have interpreted my action in this way and felt very bad that Moses had been held to account because of me. I had the opportunity to explain my motives and confirm that the school had a high reputation for behaviour, but this BoD member was clearly not convinced. Sang, the Chair, brought the subject to an amicable close and we proceeded to my report on the workshops we have held for the teachers in the school and Nursery teachers in Farato. This brought a much more positive tone to the discussion and even led to Sang stating that he had been thinking for a long time that it was high time that the BoD should initiate and system of “counterpart funding” whereby pledging money begets more money. We made it clear that this approach to the village helping itself to extend education would be looked upon very favourably in the UK.

There were various other points to discuss as well as Tony informing the BoD that he was teaching Modou Lamin to use a new accounts system (Quicken) that would analyse the school accounts instantly and provide up to date information for all BoD meetings. He also explained that we were going to trial a new bank, GT, with 2 teachers in order to establish a more favourable system for the staff. Currently they are finding the ledger expenses and VAT crippling at the bank we have been with for years and the new bank also offers ATM facilities which means they will not have to rush to the bank by 4 pm to collect salaries. The talk of having Grade 9 classes in the mornings in the next academic year and letting classroom space to a private Senior Secondary School were postponed till next term’s meeting, but Tony requested that this meeting should be at the very beginning of next term when he would still be present. All agreed.

We then took the minibus to the airport to meet the students. It seemed ages before they came through but eventually 12 very tired people emerged feeling hot and so relieved to be here. Apparently they met at their school at 2 am when it was snowing and discovered that the minibus they were expecting had not, in fact been booked. Fortunately some helpful parents drove them to the airport in time to catch their plane. We knew what to expect as we had been part of the planning but when the students and their teachers saw the whole school plus drummers gathered by the road side to escort them about half a mile along the highway to the school junction, they were overawed. As we stepped out of the minibus, the Red Cross Youth led the singing, drumming and dancing with “Hello Tony, it’s because of you!” and celebrated the words by including Tony in the centre of the dancing. Villagers crowded around to join the school’s festivities. It was a hot and very noisy march with lots of clapping, singing and dancing and we reached the school gates with smiles and friendly waves to greet us. There followed a very long entertainment underneath the school neem tree where the children gathered and members of the Youth Red Cross thoroughly enjoyed themselves with manic dancing. More chants of “Where is Tony? It’s because of you” and the students were then called to the centre on by one to join with Tony centre stage. They entered into the spirit of rejoicing very easily, much to the joy of the children. About an hour later the shattered UK group went to their enclave of 3 tents in the shady part of the school grounds. They take over Nursery 1’s classroom as their base for the week and we have left them to rest with cold drinks. The lady teachers are cooking chicken yassa for them just outside Tonka Kunda where I am writing this. They are pounding garlic, slicing onions, soaking chicken in lime juice and washing rice, while the huge cooking pot, set on 3 large stones, boils over a wood fire.

I can hear a staff meeting going on there too and I am guessing that with the arrival of the male staff just at the end of the welcome ceremony, we are facing a slight quandary. The Government Census requires teachers to take part (5 from each school) and although only 2 of our teachers’ applications were accepted by the procedure to do the training on Wednesday, it seems that most of our male staff have been accepted “by arrangement”. As all the ladies stayed in school cooking today, it is understandable that they are a bit upset. We also face a problem with how many teachers will be in school on Monday, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it and Moses is keenly focused upon making sure that the SRM party have a productive time.

Moses went to the service of the Stations of the Cross this morning and traditionally the Christians make a food called nambur which is steamed rice mixed with condensed milk, apple, baobob seeds (like sherbert) and sugar. It is like liquid rice pudding and shared by Muslims and Christians alike, drunk from a cup. Moses’s wife had prepared a bowl for all the teachers to share and we had been persuaded to buy the ingredients for some more. I had intended to cook it with Darbonding, but I did not have time because of the meeting and trip to the airport.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we spent doing staff appraisals. Most of them were positive experiences and one that I was expecting to be challenging was, in fact extremely happy. Amie had been asked last visit to speak English in class and to be more active when she had time off in between her Islamic studies classes. To help, I had revised her time table to specifically place her in classes where English was taking place. Partly this was to ensure that she worked as hard as the rest of the staff as she is paid full time to deliver a much shorter time table. When she heard the news she was overjoyed and expressed her happiness with the greatest smile I have ever seen her produce. She also went to fetch her Schemes of Work which it turned out she had tried really hard to write in English. It was obvious she had written them herself as there were mistakes, but she had not asked someone else to do it for her instead. Result!!!!

I had such a fright the other day when I was going to our kitchen cupboard to fetch a frying pan – a gecko jumped out of it as I picked it up. My immediate reaction was to scream and jump backwards but the little creature was more disturbed than I was and sped up the wall. Of course I scrubbed the pans thoroughly and calmed down. Now we keep the doors shut tight.

Tonka Kunda Club is expanding from the 4 children that came to play Ludo earlier last week. Yesterday we were up to 20 at least and organising them with 2 Ludo games, one game of draughts, 2 jigsaws, reading books, a pack of cards and Bingo. Very dusty, noisy but such good natured fun.

Teacher training afternoons have gone well this week. It has been Maths and we have had a very enjoyable and effective time playing with ten rods, cubs and doing number bonds to 10, plus getting over excited with a Snap game that I made which requires the player to shout “SNAP” when 2 numbers make 10. I extended this to a similar game where the two numbers make factors of 5 but none of the teachers seemed to click that 7 + 8 or 6 + 9 equalled SNAP. Anyway we had fun and they sat 3 tests (which in fact were the very tests I set Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 I January). The point of doing this is only partly to assess their level. It is also to find out what might be the problems in the classroom in how basic addition and subtraction are taught. Every teacher was keen to take part and the feed back is that they want more. So I am going to try to plan a self help programme using the extra text books that we have and guide them in meeting 3 times a week to work together. Some of them want to take Grade 12 Maths exam to get on to the Early Childhood course or go to university, but every teacher who took the Grade 3 test failed to get 100%. 2 scored 75% and most scored under 50%. “Maths is fun” is our theme and hopefully the expectation that it is virtually impossible to pass the G12 exam will change in years to come. Big programme then!

The Agric Science teacher is trying to apportion the vegetable beds to groups of his G8 pupils to give them practical experience. His way of going about it was chaotic and he was clearly sinking under the loud voices and enthusiasm of the pupils. One problem was so basic it was heart breaking: the new carrot seedlings are being disturbed by students digging up the tubers of potatoes from last year’s crop to eat. Although starvation is not the problem, often the students are hungry by the end of the day and their diet is fairly monotonous. Potatoes are a treat, even raw! So I helped him set very clear targets for each group and write down the names students for each plot. I think it would be a good incentive for each group to earn money from their produce as I suspect that a prize for the best of 14 plots may result in acts of sabotage. The UBS students are young men and women now and we suddenly realise that the nursery school that we started with has become a college. These very students were our preschoolers 13 years ago!

Tony has spent a lot of the week shopping for the UK students, checking the plumbing of the flush toilet and buying recoil and onions for the cooks to use for their evening meals. But a good deal of the preparation for their visit (erecting tents, preparing electricity for lights in the classroom) has been done by Modou Lamin who worked with Tony last year. He is excellent news for the school and works hand in hand with Moses to great effect.

We met with the SRM teachers, Moses and Modou Lamin on the verandah of Tinka Kunda to go through plans for the coming week over a beer, Fanta and coke and then Abibatou called that supper was ready. Modou Lamin joined us in the students’ den and all the lady teachers served a magnificent meal which the students thoroughly enjoyed. They all used forks and spoons even though we said they could eat with their hands, but it was enough for them to grow accustomed to sharing a bowl of food. Abibatou and Jorjor had thoughtly placed the chicken separately to the bowl of rice and vegetables that Tony and I shared so that I could indulge in a really good meal. Usually I have to pick around the edges to find rice that has been saved from the flavours of the meat!

We settled the students in, one was very much in need of some tlc as he had a blister and needed a bandage. It’s been a very long and challenging day for them and I think they will sleep well. We sat in the dark on the verandah with a beer, contemplating our day and as Baba walked past he called, “Have you got a power cut?” So witty as we do not have any electricity. Slept well.

Monday 25th March - What a Day!

Phew! What a start to the week. A comparatively low key Sunday fades into the distant memory as we cope with the challenges of one day.

A Senior Management Team meeting to start the day. We confirmed the publicity about the creative writing competition that I set last week and clarified the procedure for leaving the library cupboard open to students but closing the Reading Scheme cupboard at 1 pm. There seems to have been a lot of confusion here, with the Reading cupboard NOT locked and the middle cupboard locked so that pupils who are desperately keen to read are unable to access books. Baba complained to me that this was the case and said he thought it had been set like this because I might be “peaced off” if the books went missing. I was thrilled with his concern that pupils SHOULD borrow books and if they ended up in their compounds then all to the good of siblings who might benefit BUT if the Reading scheme went missing I would certainly be “pissed off”!

Most of the morning was spent doing appraisals with the Primary school staff. We started with Kemo in Grade 6 and for the most part they were positive discussions. I used the same format for each teacher and covered both their classroom teaching, their post of responsibility and vision for the school. Baba almost had me in tears when he stated how much he loved working in the school.

And so we went into the afternoon knowing that the Staff were meeting to discuss how to work with the Sir Roger Manwoods students. We heard raised voices from the meeting and were not that surprised when Moses came to confess that they were arguing about taking part in the coming census. Apparently the 10 year exercise was going to be improved upon by inviting educated teachers to apply to become census workers. They would receive 10 days’ training and then spend up to 3 weeks collecting data. Rumour had it that each participant selected would receive D700 a day – so no wonder everyone wanted to take part. HOWEVER, if every school was entitled to send 5 teachers that left us with 1 teacher in the Primary school for the week when Sir Roger Manwoods are here! Because? This was all going to start on Wednesday (the day after tomorrow). Not much time to sort out a plan. It was unbelievably complicated to understand who had applied, what the dates were and what to do. With the help of a blue mug to signify who had the right to speak, the initial tension turned quickly to co-operative exchange and a few phone calls to collect more facts and about 1 ½ hours later, we had done all we could to make a plan. It turned out that 5 teachers had applied, although Ansumana was not sure, but many others had filled in their application forms but delayed sending them because of the arrival of the SRM students. Moses phoned Regional Office to find out if these applications could now be considered but the names had already gone forward. Even so, the Officer in charge offered to put forward 5 further names from our school if we sent them immediately. We drew lots for these and everyone accepted the situation

Other points were raised at the meeting which clearly arose from deep misunderstandings about requests we had made. The first was concerning the situation that the students arrive on Good Friday which is (a) a public holiday and (b) during the school holidays which officially start on Thursday but coom0n practice is that they will start on Wednesday. They will also want to be working in school next week, including Easter Monday (another public holiday but also in school holidays). We sent information concerning this quandary months ago. It always falls that SRM come to school during holidays and every year for 6 years the teachers have happily agreed to work a longer term and have their school holidays a week later. We assured them that although we would not require them to teach on Friday, they would be encouraged to come in at 3 pm to greet the SRM party and for this they would be given an extra day of holiday. The same would apply to working on Easter Monday. So in fact, although their government school colleagues will have 2 public holidays absorbed into their school holidays, our teachers will get 2 extra days on top of their school holiday to compensate for working. From being accused by Kemo of sabotaging the President’s public holidays we finally arrived at very willing agreement to work with the SRM students.

The second concern was about my request for teachers to put Early Morning Work on the blackboard. Was this compulsory or voluntary? It turned out that everyone was under the impression that I wanted them to come in as early as Ansumana who is frequently in his class from 7 am onwards. Because he had been praised by Moses for providing EMW for months and this having an effect on his pupils’ test results, all the rest of the teachers were terrified they were being asked to make the same sacrifice. So we worked that one out – they only had to be in class 5 minutes before the start at 8.30 and could even put the work up on the board the day before. And they did not have to spend extra hours marking it.

Oh dear, the lessons we learn in communication. I realise that the people receiving information need to understand not just the words, but the intention behind them AND the shared objective for the content of that communication. Very often when we make requests or statements, our words are repeated, partly in obedience and partly because that is the learned method of receiving information from “elders”, “seniors” or teachers. Understanding the content only comes after much deeper and longer communication processes.

There was no time after all this discussion to run my teacher workshops and so we finished the day working in the office on writing up records. The Alkalo (head of the village) sent a big bowl of cooked cassava, bean stew and a spicy sauce for us around 5.30, so we ate this with a couple of the teachers, the caretaker and night watchman. All vegetarian, so I was replete.

The results for the end of month tests for the Upper basic School were given to me and the English seems very good, but I am concerned about Maths, so I really need to speak to the teacher to see the questions and the students’ scripts.

We finished the day buzzing with what had happened and had no need to cook as we were full of the Alkalo’s food.

Wednesday 20th March - Exciting Progress

I was overjoyed on two separate occasions before 9 am today!  First of all Jorjor came up to Tonka Kunda at 8.00 to ask if I would write some more Early Morning work on the board or could she?  Could she? Could she????  I nearly hugged her!!  When I went into her classroom about ¼ hour later there were about 20 children all sitting at their desks filling in the missing letter of words she had written on the board and, more to the point, she was overjoyed at their response.  I have to forget that it is nearly 2 years ago that I first suggested that this might be a good idea to engage pupils as soon as they come to school.  It is happening and that is something to be delighted about.  I went from there to write some work on Darbonding’s board in Grade 3 and happened to call in on Ansumana at his desk in Grade 4.  He established early morning work about 2 terms ago so he is the crowned lord of following up ideas from workshops!  Anyway he asked me for more folders for his Special Needs pupils and I was amazed when I saw the completed one from Effo who has profound learning difficulties.   Ansumana had marked it all carefully and she had excelled.  That was not all though, he then told me that he had recently learnt a little about psychology and as a result had interviewed each child in the Primary School who has been identified with Special Needs and made notes on what they enjoy doing after school.  He wants to compile a profile on each one of them so that they have a positive dossier when they leave school.  He almost blanched when I told him I was so impressed that I wanted to hug him.  Instead he informed me he would type all his notes up for me to file!

From start of school till break time both Tony and I prepared documents and files on the computer to back up everything we have done so far.  We are both determined to follow through everything that we start and try to avoid being pulled into new ventures.  Having said that, I talked with Moses about the fig tree.  Ebrima had injured himself with his machete when chopping up the branches yesterday and Moses was supervising Abdoulie doing the same job.  I was relieved to hear that he had changed his mind about investing in charcoal.  Instead of paying a man to put the wood through this lengthy procedure (which could easily result in a pile of ashes costing D1000) he was going for the safer option of selling off the wood to local bakers and anyone else who wanted wood for cooking.  The only other distraction was listening to a mother coming to claim she had paid her child’s school fees waving receipts.  The argument was over the fact that the receipts were from a totally different school!  The policy of sending pupils home if they have not paid up is working but the real problem is that the policy does not wholly go into action unless we are here. 

During break Tony met with Abibatou and Amodou Lamin to plan the lunch and breakfast for Saturday when I am running a Workshop for 27 Nursery teachers from Farato and Modou Lamin is concurrently running a Red Cross workshop.  GamBLE is donating the lunch for the latter in lieu of a cash donation. 

In the middle of my meeting with Abi Sanna had introduced me to a gentleman who was organising Tag Rubgy Leagues in The Gambia.  I had in the past been in email contact with him and Bruce, my brother, had connected me to him through a lady in UK called Margaret who worked with UK Rugby Clubs and the Tag Rugby movement in The Gambia.  I had asked him to wait for me but, I admit totally forgot, so when he stepped forward literally as I walked towards the teachers in the classroom I could not avoid talking with him.  This made me very late and I have always prided myself in demonstrating the importance of teachers being on time and prepared in the classroom.  Of course, everyone was very understanding and we started straight away with more handwriting.  I was extremely pleased but also very surprised that every single teacher was able to write perfectly within the handwriting lines, whereas yesterday many of them struggled.  It seemed like instance success!  We continued with sound building exercises and everyone seemed very enthusiastic.  I do hope that this approach filters through to the classrooms so that pupils are encouraged to work out spellings and reading from the skills and clues that they build up.

Straight after the workshop I returned to Tonka Kunda and put the kettle on for our lunch of hot bouillon.  Tony was still in the office on the computer but he came up to the house and we sat down at 3.45 for our simple lunch.  I had promised the Grade 6 pupils they could come to Tonka Kunda Club and called to them.  “Wait a minute” came the reply from somewhere among the banana trees.  Then 4 girls appeared and told me to close my eyes.  I did so and when I opened them I was presented with 4 huge bouquets of bouganvilla flowers.  I felt so happy.  They eagerly settled down to Ludo and within a few minutes we received the message that Kemo was ready for a meeting with us and Moses.  So we abandoned our drinks, left the girls playing with instructions to return the game ot the office when they had finished and settled in Moses’s office for a meeting about the Upper Basic School (UBS).  We covered every aspect and all agreed that clear and regular records of staff attendance, staff qualifications, pupil attendance and test results were essential.  We are working towards proving that this school will be a UBS that parents will pay any amount to send their children to, but in the present situation we are seen as an experiment.  All the more reason to be diligent about records. 

After 1 ½ hours we returned to Tonka Kunda to write up more records, but sitting waiting for us under a tree was a Nursery teacher that came to our workshops in 2006.  She had seen us at the Independence march past and came to visit.  She spent a good half hour with us and asked to be remembered to Sarah who came from Kent to work in the school in 2006 and had had her hair plaited by this teacher.  It was really humbling to think she had made such an effort to continue a friendship that started so casually 5 years ago!

It was 6.30 pm and we really had not stopped all day.  So we settled on the balcony with an early beer to write up records. Supper was curried cassava and yellow split peas with a cucumber salad.  One pot cooking is required as the gas for the second burner is finished.  We played 2 games of draughts and then fell into bed.

Tuesday 19th March - After the Rain

Delighted at wake up and shake up (the school assemble for active movement and song) as introduced by the students from Sir Roger Manwoods School last year.  It is an excellent way of encouraging punctuality and alerting the brain.  But the delight was in a tiny Nursery 2 child leading the session.   So far the Grade 6 pupils have shared the lead occasionally with grades as young as Grade 3, but this was a treat and the tiny boy knew every word and calmly waited for the entire school to copy him.

Tony and I then had a meeting with Moses at 9 am about running the Upper Basic School.  Tony and I are both reading a fascinating book called “After the Rain” which I came across in South Africa and it is enlightening in terms of leading and managing in Africa.  Whilst not making allowances for different cultural circumstances, we can draw closer to working efficiently together when we understand the characteristics of different participants in the running of the school.  The author compares all leaders to different African animals: lion (centre stage, retiring but definitely presiding), snake (not very friendly and hisses at everyone but her input should not be underestimated) , eagle ( watches, waits, observes, assesses, analyses and then swoops), elephant (watches everyone, keeping out of the way).  I see the Eagle in Moses, albeit a very benign one!  Certainly no talons.

Later Neneh (the nursery mother) arrived with her adopted son, Ebrima Jallow, who has just left school and wants to volunteer to come to our Primary school to better his own education and help out.  We were impressed with his fresh honest approach and promised to put his case to Moses.
I observed 2 teachers with individual reading classes.  I am thrilled that the sessions now seem to be established and regular, I could wish for more use of flashcards and phonic aids to recognising words.  Instead the teachers just repeat “No, try again” when a child does not know a word.  But at least we have a system in place and the fruits are definitely flourishing in the classroom and exams when so many more pupils can read the questions!

Straight after school I ran an hour’s workshop with the teachers which centred on handwriting and reading skills.  The response was really eager and receptive and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them.  About 12 turned up and they really loved trying to improve their handwriting using special lined paper.   When it came to making up sentences with alliteration, they excelled with their ideas.  Please, now can we take this energy and enthusiasm, let alone understanding, into the classroom?

When I returned to Tonka Kunda after this a small group of Grade 6 children were waiting to ask if they could play games.  Oh, how lovely Tonka Kunda Club is back.  For a few visits we have missed the groups of children who come to ask for drawing materials, books to read and games to play.  So it was with real joy that I found Ludo and Jenga for about 8 children to play.  They were in school for Computer Studies but had arrived early.  When they went at 4 pm to their class the message had obviously spread and the children who had just finished Computer Studies came across to play games with us. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon making a Sound Wall, creating new folders for Grade 1 special needs children and committing various notes to the computer.

Tony spent all day working with Modou Lamin to transfer the accounts to Quicken, sorting out salaries and talking to the man who has offered to turn the fig tee into charcoal (for a whacking fee of D1000).

We finished the day with the news that the goat that was sacrificed to the Independence celebrations and gave the school D1000 should never have been selected.  The sole criterion was that he was castrated and, therefore of no future use, however once the children had caught him, the 3 male teachers slaughtered him only to find that he was a complete male.  The castrated one is still happily grazing around the compound.  Ooops! 

Tony cooked home grown cassava (courtesy of Ebrima, nightwatchman) with rice and tomato sauce, we played a game of draughts and then fell to bed.

Monday 18th March - Encouraging Signs

Up to the call to prayer and a real working day.  Delicious fresh bread and tomatoes for breakfast but we have run out of coffee.  8 am on the dot the Senior Management Team arrived for a meeting and that went smoothly and efficiently, followed by assembly which was not that memorable: something about speaking English instead of the “vernacular”.  The nursery children had been sent home as no one remembered to tell them on Friday that they did not need to be in today due to their long day at Independence on Saturday.  All the staff were in and they were surprised to be sent home too!  Sohna (Nursery 1) has started College as the Early Childhood Development course runs in the school holidays although it always starts a week early which makes it a challenge to organise cover.  She came in to visit at lunch time and asked how her pupils had been without her – not realising that they had been given the day off.  Planning ahead (or even following traditions that every year Nursery Schools have a day off after Independence celebrations) rarely seems to be incorporated in Gambian life.   Perhaps we presume too much to know what tomorrow brings and to set our actions accordingly?

I started with a tour of the school to greet the classes and teachers.  Tony’s plan to train Haddy (G2) to monitor the text books fell at the simple fence that she was not in today.  So he went straight into training Modou Lamin to use Quicken whilst I met with Abibatou to discuss how she runs the Nursery.  We inspected the Nursery classrooms and I asked her to pick out the aspects of each one that indicated that stimulating learning was going on, that children’s work was being displayed and that the learning aids were clean, tidy and up to date.  Nursery 1 definitely scored the highest in these respects and Nursery 2 & 3 suffer from dirty walls and dark concrete floors.  We need to provide new furniture in Nursery 2 which is using recycled small tables and chairs that have been in the school from almost the start and all the backs of the chairs are broken.  In November we replaced the furniture in N3 with locally made tables and benches and we plan to do the same with N2 BUT we will not use the same welder man.  He just does not seem to be able to measure or follow instructions and once too often have has supplied goods that are far from good quality. Moses told Tony off quite severely for accepting his shoddy work last time!

I popped, unplanned into the reading classes and found that I had to give a lot of guidance to Jorjor and Lamin about helping children to read the individual words, using clues such as initial sounds.  There is still far too much of the teacher reading and the children copying, but overall the level of independent reading is definitely increasing.   Old ways die hard and my attempts to support and train the teachers seem to infiltrate very slowly.  But I would surely take a long time to absorb new ways of teaching a new subject, such as car maintenance, I guess.  We all need familiar hooks upon which to hang our new learning and plenty of time, practice and inclination to secure it into our teaching methods.

Then I met with Moses and we discussed monthly tests and the need for good foundation in the four rules of Maths.  We also agreed to follow his plan to collect in samples of English exercise books from each class room.  He reminded me very strongly to take the samples randomly myself and not to accept those offered by teachers.  Once we had done this he, Abibatou and I settled down after school to go through them.  It took 2 hours but we found some good things – high standard of hand writing, some evidence of creative writing in Grades 4 & 5 and quite a bit of differentiation in tasks set for quicker and slower children. 

Tony went to observe Lamin give and Arts & Crafts lesson which was totally theory but he assures us that he gives 2/3 of his lessons as practical.  And I have been invited to one on 2nd April!!!!   He showed me some fascinating mats made of dyed hessian looped into more sacking and backed with plastic rice sack.  Ingenious, attractive and practical!

I finished the day typing up my notes and analysis of the English exercise books and I am sitting in the staff room to juice up the lap top and as I write I can through the open door,  see the 4 goats springing and gambolling around the compound.  They have been feasting from the fig fruits of the fallen tree and I suspect that they are more than a little tipsy!

Tony is immersed in accounts in the office but it is getting dark and that happens very quickly here.  So it is now time to go back to Tonka Kunda, start cooking our poppadums that we routinely have with a cool beer before cooking supper.  I think it will be a sauce of tomatoes, onions, herbs on pasta.

All in all a productive day with lots of positive feelings as well as clear ideas about moving forward to improve learning standards. 

Sunday 17th March - To the Beach

We rather selfishly decided last night to book Abdoulie so that we could go to the beach today.  I have workshops planned for the next weekend and the students will be with us after that.  They get a trip with Tony’s Tours to the beach but I decided to grab the opportunity to have one day of relaxation (even though it is early in the trip).

So I am now sitting on our verandah, keeping this journal up to date and planning the work for the coming week.  I intend to take my day-to-day planner with me to the beach  but even here it is very pleasant to be in the shade on a very hot sunny day, the wind wafting the large banana leaves like fans to keep me cool(er) and listening to all the sounds:  children playing, many different birds twittering, chirping and calling and the rhythmic pumping of the well water.

 We have not been able to get on to the internet so far since we arrived but Tony has gone to the office to investigate.  The problems with electricity supply have returned in the last fortnight.   Apparently the fuel supply is limited and so the authorities are rationing access to evenings only.  This makes sense for domestic purposes but not when we are trying to run a school and computer classes.  However Bert’s brilliant generator helps keep a limited number of computers going for the office although the printer clearly uses too much and cannot find the energy!

Took some planning material to the beach but also relaxed in the warm sun and cooling sea.  After an hour of having the whole place to ourselves, apart from the friendly greetings of the owners of the bar, a large Lebanese family decamped near us, set up a BBQ to cook very smelly meat and allowed their numerous plastic cups and plates to be buffeted across the pristine sand.  It was such an intrusion to the ambience, so with the sun slowly descending we left around 5.30 pm and returned to a lazy evening on the verandah playing draughts

Saturday 16th March - Celebration Day

I checked with Abibatou (Deputy Head and Head of Nursery) that the ladies had actually gone to bed last night but they were all back by daylight preparing the food and packing up the minibus with 40+ children, cooks, pots and pans. We spent our breakfast on the balcony listening to the banter and arguments as to who should go where with what. At one point and several times thereafter we could hear Moses’s voice saying, “But we are all talking the same thing.” But it adds to the adrenalin and anticipation. At least 5 times we were interrupted with requests:

1. The cold box (so it will be warm beers tonight)

2. A knife

3. The wooden stirring paddle

4. The iron long handled strainer

5. Another knife – no two (nearest we got to forward planning)

6. Money for foo-ell (petrol)

7. Finally a little girl who could not speak English and from her shy words and gestures received 2 bowls from me but immediately returned saying spoons and, in Mandinka “3”. When I produced 3 spoons she was very clear that she only needed one

Abdoulie arrivged early to take the first mini bus load to the site of the Independence celebrations. All but about 4 children (that is 36 pupils aged 6-7 years old) piled into the minibus plus 3 teachers, classroom benches, floor mats, cooking pots and set off. Left behind were the rest of the teachers the cooked goat stew, 40 loaves of tapalapa, firewood, cooking pots, plastic chairs, 2 cool boxes of drinks, and ourselves. On Abdouli’s return 25 of us piled in on top of the aforementioned articles and we drove off. We stopped 3 times en route, once to pick up a lady with baby and large bag, once to collect gallons of baobob juice and finally in Brikama to buy clips for the girls’ head decorations. By this time even Moses was beginning to make judgments on the lack of organisation. Anyway we arrived in merry frame of mind. Jainaba had led some group singing throughout the journey which even culminated in standing up and dancing (how do the Gambians manage to create space as well as time???). With 2-3 people to each seat and standing room only just an option, this was an incredible sight!

The journey had taken us along very basic roads once we left Brikama. I could feel this from the movement of the minibus but I could not see anything through the windows as I was buried under children and waving arms. En route home, Tony and I sat in the front and from there could observe very rural scenes of poor homes, roaming animals and only the occasional kiosk type shop and compound, usually in desperate need of repairs to roof or walls. But the atmosphere outside the school that was playing host to the Independence event was buzzing and we drove through hundreds of children gathered with the pots, pans, firewood, gaily attired teachers and banners proclaiming their school name. We found our children and almost immediately served them with their breakfast. They had waited for nearly 2 hours for our arrival and demolished the stewed goat (who only yesterday was named Ben and innocently tripping around the school) served with lettuce and bread. Soon after we lined them up in twos to stand for what transpired (and perspired) to be 1 ½ hours waiting in the mid day sun to queue for the march past.

To begin with the waiting was an entertainment of gazing at the wonderful outfits that both the school children but especially their teachers were wearing, and greeting people that we knew through Early Childhood workshops. But soon the need for water and plain boredom seeped into all of us. About 110 schools each with around 30 children and scores of teachers, had to be organised to march in line past the presidential gathering. There nursery children dressed as government officials sat in plush chairs in the centre of crowds of adults and children. Apart from the stauture and high pitched voices of the “dignitaries” when they made their speeches, the excitement and press presence might well have indicated the real president and his entourage were the centre of the day’s excitement. Finally, then we marched past and march we did. The children were perfectly in time and took the whole exercise very seriously. Two military bands played as we processed and we then lined up to wait yet again for the other schools to do the same. We were school 37 so we knew we had a long wait. Inevitably the interest waned and before the President came to make his little speech some of the teachers and children started to peel away from the line up and return to their shady spots under the mangoes. Our children decided en masse they needed to go to the toilet and never returned. So Sohna, Baba and I felt that someone should attend to the Presidential words, stayed for that and then followed our children back. By that time about 6 schools were still solemnly lined up in front of the VIP tent.

Back in camp the ladies were cooking vats of chicken, rice and vegetables and we waited for about an hour for this to be served. Their skills and routines were the centre of entertainment and admiration to the rest of us. The whole experience was very typical of Gambians relaxing and celebrating: extravagant costumes, haute cuisine and everyone enjoying a banter, sharing a newspaper and just patiently passing time. After the meal of fried chicken, fried rice, fried vegetables and cool baobob juice (a mixture of condensed milk, the sherbert from baobob seeds, apples, bananas, coconut and sugar) we were replete and some of us were ready to go home. All the children piled back into the minibus with cooks, cooking equipment, chairs, benches and a couple of teachers. The rest of the teachers stayed behind to watch one or two of our pupils take part in the sports finals but Tony and I were very pleased to be on the first trip back. We finally returned home around 6 pm and the teachers’ group did not follow until about 3 hours later. It turned out that this was because a school in Brikama had gone home leaving one of their children behind. It was our staff that spotted him and took him in the minibus to a police station in Brikama to help him find a home. Poor little chap did not know his name or the school he came from he was in such a state of shock.

Tony and I went straight to bed after our supper of chickpeas cooked with fresh aubergine and tinned tomatoes and slept extremely well despite the loud music from a naming ceremony.

Friday 15th March - Independence Day Preparation

Usual breakfast of tapalapa (French bread) local margarine and marmite plus Tony yogurt that we bring from UK and is now in its next stage of being mixed with powdered milk to make the next generations throughout our stay. Mixed with local honey it tastes lovely.

We had scheduled a meeting with Moses for 9 am and this went smoothly, positively and amicably through till break time at 11. We stopped then and gave the teachers a packet of Friday biscuits and resumed at 11.30, through till gone 1pm. We covered the management and progress of the Upper Basic School, reviewing and updating the school time table, checking that all teachers in posts of responsibility were fulfilling their roles, sorting out the nightwatchman’s duties; establishing a policy for increasing the production of the garden and planning our direction and involvement during our visit. The biggest news was that the extra children are now gone. We are all so relieved that Moses was able to report this.

Tony’s main job this visit will be to train Modou Lamin (bursar) to use Quicken and then Moses will have daily access to the accounts. Mine will be to continue with analysing exercise books as a way to check on how work is progressing and teaching is taking place in each Primary classroom. I also want to focus particularly on basic Maths and install a policy of thorough practice in the basics of arithmetic.

The afternoon was spent sorting out the Tonka Kunda cupboard and checking on the school accounts to the background of ladies cooking excitedly in preparation for tomorrow’s feast at the Independence Nursery Schools parade. This is an annual event and held in a different school in the region each year. Our Nursery 4 children dress in their best uniform and ALL the staff – both Nursery and Primary – plus head teacher, nursery mother and caretakers – dress in brand new Asobi. This is a traditional custom that for all important celebrations such as naming ceremonies, weddings, funerals, religious festivals, a family, or compound or team from school, even an entire congregation in church, buy the same material and each person chooses a tailor who makes up a garment to suit the individual. Each year the extra stitching and exotic colours become richer. The Independence Parade is both an historic celebration and a chance to show the Early Childhood Development world of schools, teachers and the press, how highly you are regarded by your sponsors. GamBLE pays for the Asobi and we are happy to do this within limits of cost. The garments then become the school uniform for the year since teachers wear their Asobi with pride for months to come.

I ended the day making several simple maths games from a store of second hand books that a UK school have passed on in favour of computer programmes and white boards. Some excellent ideas and I will use these to train the teachers as a group, then support them in putting the games into their respective classrooms. After supper Tony and I trialled my game of SNAP with numbers up to 10 and the aim was to spot the 2 numbers that totalled 10. It seemed to work well in the dark so I guess it can only improve in daylight! Gradually I have managed to empty the cupboard of materials sent from UK and either sent them to the school store now that Abi guards that (art materials, spare paper and uniform) or directed them to the classrooms with a training package attached. We are now left with the essentials that we need from day to day – mostly stationery and reference guides.

We had cold beer at sundown as Tony had found some ice earlier in the day (MUCH nicer drink than warm) and this gave me the courage to take a cold shower. We supped of local aubergine, okra and onion sauce with local pasta spirals. It was difficult to sleep as the chatter and laughter from the ladies still cooking went on till gone midnight. The time and ritual surrounding preparation for a special event is always an opportunity for relaxing, plaiting hair and immersing the whole self in anticipation and social gathering. The expectation of delicious food in a community that rarely eat anything extra than fish, rice and vegetables, fires the excitement.

Oh but I have refrained from saying what they are preparing to eat……….. we have had 4 goats for well over a year now and they were donated to the school to benefit the poorer families. We have had three kids born to two nannies but sadly all died. So the next step is to sell a male goat (castrated to prevent roaming but thereby, no longer for reproduction) and the teachers had already enquired, with their price, if they could have one of the school goats. All parties are satisfied: the school has the funds expected from the goats, the teachers have a feast and the nannies remain to produce further goats to replace the ones that we sell. Feeding them during the dry season is expensive and although the garden is now fenced with corrugate panels, the goats frequently stray in to munch on seedlings.

Thursday 14th March - Karen & Tony to the Gambia

We did not even attempt to go to bed during the night that we prepared to leave. We had packed what we planned to take in the way of school materials and sundry items such as Friday biscuits (a tradition to give the teachers once a week). Couple of years ago we did not pack any due to weight restrictions and we were left in no doubt that biscuits should be the last item to sacrifice! No it was all the work based action that we focused upon all night. There is nothing like leaving home for a month to concentrate the mind upon the office/work based essentials.

Rob (Tony’s son) and family had been staying with us for a couple of days and we have thoroughly enjoyed being with them and in return to borrowing our house for a holiday in England, Rob ‘agreed’ to drive us to the airport. We arrived in good time to check our 50kg in but we were delayed at security because I was carrying £5,000. Totally legal but customs needed proof that we had withdrawn it from a bank and the office was called who had to find a policeman. We stayed calm and (of course) complied and in the end we were congratulated upon what we do, but just in case we were benefit frauds, the procedure had to be carried out. All this left us with very little time to follow our routine of buying a newspaper, water, salad lunch for the plane, toiletries from Boots and books to read, let alone have a sit down breakfast. So we forfeited the last three items in the list and made straight for the departure gate. 

Once on the plane we realised that it was only half full (worrying for Thomas Cook’s future) but the journey was uneventful and, although long, we arrived safely, on time and went through passport control and luggage reclaim very smoothly. Abdouli and Modo Lamin met as on arrival with smiles and we jumped into the car and were knocking at the school gates within half an hour of landing!

So many friendly faces to greet us with welcome back , here is your second home how are the family: your grandsons, your mother, your son, Paul (who they know had a serious accident a year ago) but almost the best message was from Kemo who arrived at the balcony of G6 above us and threw us a piece of chalk each, stating with a smile, you can carry on now! 

Our first glance at the school immediately showed the accident that had happened only the day before. The huge fig tree outside Nursery 1 had released a heavy branch onto the roof of the school, smashing the iron sound bar, causing several holes in the roof but so so fortunately harming no one. The very little children inside were understandably terrified and all sorts of reports went home to parents about fire, storms and probably the end of the world. Some were even too terrified to leave the classroom to go home. What fortune that they were all safe to tell these tales. The rest of the tree has been amputated, casuing damage to the swings, sadly. 

Years ago Master Hobart and horticulturalist on the Board of Directors planted his own mango seedlings near this tree, anticipating that it would one day have to go and be replaced by his fruits. Nature has decided that now is that time. Its fig fruits are inedible to humans, bomb the nursery roof every year and the huge leaves required endless sweeping later in the year. Symbolically to us, its passing represents the start of a new era. It was under that very tree that the villagers and local dignitaries gathered to receive the first cheque of £1000 that we gave in 2000. In 2003 they gathered again with the scouts to welcome our troop and receive our second instalment. But now we have moved on to a bigger school, new developments and the mango trees are ready to welcome the new generation and provide the hopes and nourishment for the years ahead.

We spent 3 hours sweeping, wiping and cleaning our house and putting up the curtains, making the beds with sheets and brewing a cup of tea. Apart from the dust (we have no glass on the windows) and numerous evidence termite trails up the walls and on a suitcase, we found everything smelling sweet and turned Tonka Kunda into a comfortable home with ease. We supped from dried soya mince, a tin of tomato puree and Tony went into the village for fresh onions and rice. Accompanied by a very warm beer (no ice in the village at this time of day) we enjoyed the meal and fell asleep almost before going to bed. I hit the pillow at 2010 and did not wake until Tony brought me a cup of tea at 7 am, so I missed the calls to prayer, the cockerels and donkeys completely.