06 April 2012
Day 6 - North Bank
Today we were up very early to head across the river to the North Bank. After some nifty parking from Abdoulie and some swift negotiating from Yankuba we made it on to the first ferry without too much trouble. After a very long (1 hour 40 minutes!!) windy journey we finally touched down on the North Bank, however it was not a wasted journey as Yankuba learnt the fine art of Sudoku! Our first stop was Barra-Essau Upper Basic School. We witnessed some very good revision sessions taking place in preparation for Grade 9 exams and handed over some money raised for the school by Sarah Hayes who ran the marathon dressed as a bottle! They hope to use the money to provide a shady area in the large playground for the children to eat their lunch – a very worthy cause! Next stop was Bakalarr where we were greeted by headteacher Bakary Gitteh. He showed us the progress of the current PAGEANT project which is the building of junior teacher accommodation. Half the rooms are almost complete and good progress has been made on the others. After a delicious breakfast (at lunch time!!) we set off for Juffreh to visit Wandifa's brother Bakary and his family. There we gave the children some small gifts and caught up with the progress of all of the children. We were very lucky to receive some beautiful necklaces and huge thanks from the whole family.
Our hearts sank when we reached the port as we had just missed the ferry... however we kept ourselves amused by pretending to be the three wise monkeys, making friends with local goats, and making guesses as to when the next ferry would arrive. Thankfully the next ferry arrived in less than an hour and we managed the crossing home in good time. After a spot of dinner in the hotel, we all collapsed gratefully into bed!
