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.
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