Pageant News

On this trip we did not stay at a hotel but were very kindly hosted by Linda in her house at Kotu. We would like to thank her very much for her hospitality.

Friday 11 April
Arrived at Banjul late afternoon to be met by Linda and a taxi. Settled in to her lovely house, went to a local restaurant for supper and then to bed, having caught up on the local news.

Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 April
We met up with Wandifa and visited several compounds and families, being able to spend some time chatting in each one. On Sunday evening we went to visit a couple of houses that Linda had looked at with a view to buying and were able to give her a European perspective!

Monday 14 April
We went to meet Ebrima Drammeh from GOWLA at Campama Lower Basic School to start the process of getting a duty waiver for unloading the container that we had packed at Harwell. The container ship, originally expected to dock in Banjul on 12 April, was already two days overdue and was now expected to dock on Wednesday. We then went to the Customs House in search of a declaring agent who was the person we needed for the legalities. Back to Campama many forms were signed, letters were written, money passed over and we agreed to meet again the next morning. We then repaired to The Atlantic Hotel for a well earned drink and were greeted with enthusiasm by all our friends on the staff.
On our way home we called in at a couple of schools to take letters to some sponsored children - they were all very pleased, but surprised to see us as we are not usually in The Gambia in April.
In the evening we met a couple of the further education students, Mary and Lamin, and had a very pleasant supper with them at Luigi's accompanied by Linda, Baboucarr and Joof.

Tuesday 15 April
Owing to a certain lack of water at Kotu we went next door to have a hot shower and hair wash! We then went back to Banjul to meet Ebrima Drammeh and the declaring agent, visited the port and the Gambia Shipping Agency to get more forms signed. We had a quick drink in Banjul with Bakary Gitteh who was visiting the Ministry of Education and then went to tell David Gomez at St. Augustine UBS that he was to receive some furniture off a container that was docking tomorrow! He was very happy. Many further phonecalls were made to other schools to tell them the same news. After another drink at The Atlantic we went back to Linda's and then went with Samba, one of our AAT students, to have supper at Sultan Restaurant where we were served by Alieu, another PAGEANT student. He was extremely efficient and we had a very pleasant evening.

Wednesday 16 April
Pippa went to Brikama in the morning and saw the new nursery school, Jambanjali Nursery School and Kebba - a hotel school student. On the way back we called in on two more students that she had not seen for a long time - both of them had grown enormously tall! Back to collect Tina from Kotu and on to Wellingara to collect Aminata and finally to Wandifa's compound. Here we discussed sewing machines with Aminata (she would like to start a small sewing business and wished to see if Wandifa's wife, Mariama, had the sort of sewing machine she wanted) and gave Wandifa his all singing Manchester United birthday card and a tiny Man U coloured cake! He was very pleased and told us the next morning that he had been playing his card up until 10 o'clock at night!!
That evening we had supper in the local Kotu cafe with Linda, Momodou (from Siffoe), and the Darboe twins Sainey and Alhassan. It was a very enjoyable evening with lots of laughs and Sainey and Alhassan ended up coming back to Linda's to borrow some books to read.

Thursday 17 April CONTAINER UNLOADING DAY
We arrived at Campama at 9am to meet everybody and were in the port by 9.20am. We were told that the container had arrived but where was it?! Search ensued and it was eventually found in a corner of the port. A monster truck was despatched to lift it down and carry it to where the inspection by police, NIA, and customs would take place. It was now about 10.30am. The seal was cut off the container, the door opened and several things removed so that the inspection could take place. We waited about another hour and then the officials arrived. Pippa and Tina chatted to the officials who were very interested and expressed gratitude for our efforts in bringing items for schools to The Gambia. The container passed the inspection and the items were reloaded ready to be transported out of the port. It was now about 11.45am and all was looking good. We were told we only needed two more signatures but we had to go into the centre of Banjul to obtain these. By 4.30pm we had obtained one of the signatures and were still waiting for the second. This was eventually obtained by Wandifa, who accosted the only man in Banjul able to sign, when he came out of his meeting for a comfort break! We rushed back to the port to find that our container had now been loaded up on a lorry ready for transport to Campama - but not yet! We still had to go through the scanning procedure, and eventually collected another FIVE pieces of paper! At last the container was pulled out of the port at three minutes to six in the evening. Just as well, as the port closed for the day at 6pm! We arrived at Campama at 6.20pm where our team of unloaders (who had been waiting since 1.30pm) were ready for us. Unloading started in daylight....... and finished in moonlight at about 9pm! All the headmasters were then responsible for their own materials which were eventually cleared from the school at about 9.40pm. Back to Linda's where she took one look at us and poured us both a large Julbrew! After a pizza and a bottle of red wine we felt a lot better, and so relieved that we had achieved what was, after all, the main purpose of our visit!!

Friday 18 April
Up early, as we only had the morning left before our flight home. We visited Yankuba, one of our students who had hurt his leg unloading the night before, and took him some bandages and medication. Also visited one of the nursery schools, and took 2 Trekker microscopes to one of the secondary schools. The science teacher here was very enthusiastic, and promised that these would be well used by his students.
Back to Linda's to pack, wave goodbye to Wandifa and Fax, and off to the airport accompanied by Linda and Alhagie, her driver.

Pippa and Tina would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to: Linda for her wonderful hospitality; Wandifa for his untiring efforts on our behalf; Ebrima Drammeh for his calm and reasoned advice at times of stress; all the PAGEANT unloading team who worked so tirelessly, even in the dark!;the students who entertained us each evening, and to Fax for driving us ( and remaining calm most of the time!). The letters of thanks that we have received from many headmasters have made the whole experience worthwhile.

It was a rather exciting afternoon for me, after returning from school in the evening only to be told by Sainey that "We are having a dinner with Pippa tonight"!!!!
Vividly remembering how beautiful, wonderful, great and lively it was back in February when we had a dinner with Pippa, Ian, Frances, Rosie, Lauren and other older sponsored members, I quickly put off my uniform, into my ordinary clothes and rather rough pair of slippers, and off I left with Sainey to the appointed place.
After joining Tina, Pippa and Linda at the dinner table. I learnt with surprise that Tina was indeed Frances' mother and so funny and educating she was about Autism whose victims she teaches.
Asked as to what kind of drink I would love take, I decided to help mysellf to a wonderful malta!!!! And for the dinner I decided to help myself with meat bruchette and chips!!! (my first ever time to eat it)
The dinner went so greatly, wonderfully and quite happily wth lively and educating discussions.
But one thing I would have to make Pippa and Tina know is, I was a little bit jealous as they were in the first place paying much attention to Sainey who is under the sponsor of their artist, great and amazing 86year old mother.
Nonetheless, they shouldn't be sorry because I don't lose a sleep over it.

Nigel Walsh will be running in the 2008 Comrades Marathon in South Africa on 15 June. This is an ultramarathon of 56 Miles (90km) between Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Each year the direction is reversed, so this year it starts from Durban. (more details)

Nigel has run over 50 marathons and ultramarathons, and has raised a lot of money for various good causes in previous years in this event. This year he is raising money to help the Toilets and Textbooks project. This project is being undertaken by students from Oakham School in the UK and the Copenhagen International School in Denmark. They will be helping Kings Kid Academy, a nursery school in The Gambia, by providing them with educational materials and building them new toilets.

If you would like to sponsor Nigel, please click on this link for more information, to donate by credit or debit card, or to contact Nigel by email to arrange a pence (or pounds) per mile challenge.

Mahmoud Achten Nursery School is one of the many schools in The Gambia which is now being helped by Pageant. Pageant members, John Emery and Jane Bull, have been supporting this school for over a year, and have achieved some great improvements, including new toilets, with mains water brought to the school for the first time. A lot still needs to be done. The school needs a new roof, the walls need repairing, the fence needs replacing and the school is short of teaching aids. Many of the children's parents are too poor to pay the modest fees, so headmaster Abdoul Kassim Mahmoud subsidises them from his own pocket.

Read more about this school on this Pageant page, and please help then by making an online donation.

On 8 April, the Foundation for Disabled People (FFDP) held a presentation ceremony at its head office in Banjul, at which 16 wheelchairs were handed over to disabled people. These had been built in the FFDP workshops to their own special design, with funding provided through Pageant from the Mayor of Haslemere's charitable fund.

Read more about FFDP on this Pageant page, and see the report of the event in the Gambian Newspaper, the Daily Observer.

Students from Oakham School, in the UK, and Copenhagen International School, in Denmark, are collaborating in a project to provide a school in The Gambia with teaching resources and a healthy learning environment. They have chosen King's Kid Academy in Temasu, near Lamin, to the south west of Banjul. Pageant will be helping them with fundraising and advice.

They will be travelling to The Gambia in July to build a new toilet block for this school. They will also be providing textbooks and other teaching materials. Read more about their project on their own website and on this Pageant page. Please support this project by making an online donation.

At least 30 cluster monitors, senior teachers and head teachers recently took part in a three day workshop on school management. The workshop was held in Armitage School in Janjanbureh in the Central River Division (C.R.D).

In his welcoming remarks, Mr. Fabrama Ma Fatty, Assistant Regional Secretary for C.R.D, said that the workshop was very timely, because education is a dynamic process with emerging new ideas and innovation in the area of management. He further stated that the workshop aimed to enhance capacity for school managers. He urged the participants to make the best use of the training. According to him, the training was organized and funded by the Swedish Teachers Union in collaboration with Gambia Teachers Union.

For his part, the Acting Secretary General of the Gambia Teachers Union, Mr. Essa Sowe, said the importance of the workshop could not be over emphasized and added that, based on experience, there are lot of trivial issues within the GTU, which need to be addressed in terms of the general conduct of members. According to him, some head teachers, even though they are the school managers, don’t know the basic instruments that govern their lives as teachers and managers.

Among the other speakers was Mr. Pa Daniel Mendy, program officer of GTU who spoke at length about their many roles in enhancing capacity building for teachers.

Socialis for The Gambia recently inaugurated three classroom blocks at Sanneh Mentereng kindergarten and lower basic school in Ghana Town (Brufut) in Kombo north, western region.

In her speech the Regional Director of Education for Region 2, Madam Mati Bouye, spoke at length on the importance of education. She said that educating the future leaders of the country was a step in the right direction. She then commended Socialis for The Gambia for complementing government efforts in providing quality, accessible and free education for all the pupils of the school.

For his part, the coordinator for Socialis for The Gambia, Mr. Hatab Beyai, said Sanneh Mentereng School started operations in 1999 with a total enrolment of sixty students. At this time it was a nursery school only. It later increased its enrolment to three hundred and seventy eight pupils and was both a nursery and lower basic primary school with a double stream up to Grade 4. One hundred and ninety four of the students are boys and one hundred and eighty three are girls. He said all this was thanks to Brigitte Flick, a German philanthropist and the pioneer of the school. According to Mr. Beyai, Mrs. Flick was here in the Gambia on holiday and thought it was important to established a school in Ghana Town. The idea was brought to the erstwhile Alkalo of Brufut who, without hesitations allocated a plot of land to the school for to be established. Mr. Man Fried Weigll, Vice President of Socialis for The Gambia, commended and thanked Hatab Beyai for a job well done. He said without him the school would not have been a reality. Mr. Weigll added that a technical workshop is being planned to equip young people with a trade.

Among the speakers were Adam Cham, National Assembly Member of the area, Mr. Jeng and the Alkalo of Brufut. All expressed their belief in the importance of education for young peoples. The inauguration concluded with a drama show by the Grade 1 pupils and also a cultural dance.