04 March 2008
Our last few days in The Gambia
First of all, apologies for the last instalment of our blog being so late - we ran out of time to type it up in The Gambia and since our return we've all been working back in our normal jobs! But here it is...
Sunday 24th
Sunday 24thSunday was one of the best days of our trip! Like last Sunday, we took 12 sponsored children shopping in Banjul market, and gave each child (and Wandifa) 250 Dalasis to buy whatever they wanted. We then took them to a local restaurant, Billy's, for lunch, which they thoroughly enjoyed (chicken and chips!). We gave out prizes for the two best shoppers - earrings for the best girl and a wind-up torch for the best boy. They were then desperate to come back to the hotel beach for a drink and swim in the sea; some of the children had never been in the sea before so they were extremely excited. Rosie and Frances got pulled in fully clothed while Lauren was left in charge of the little ones. Pippa played a game of pairs with a group of the children, whilst the rest of us tucked in to a big bag of chocolate coins!
In the evening, we'd all been invited to a thankyou cocktail party at KMJ nursery (where we taught in the first week). This was even more fun than we expected - we arrived to see a big 'Thankyou PAGEANT' banner on the wall, and lots of seats around a long table decorated with flowers! All the teachers were there - Jai, the headmistress, Ansumana, the administrator, Ousainou, the accountant, and the class teachers; Fatou, Tumani, Mamadi. Ansumana's family also joined us for dinner and after a bit of dancing we were presented with lovely presents and a certificate each to say thankyou! The teachers said they had learned a lot from us and that they had really enjoyed our visit, and we said how much we had enjoyed ourselves there and that we're definately hoping to come back next year!
