18 November 2016
Day 16 -
Thursday
Upcountry
today. It is a long drive and we left the hotel at 5.30 with a packed breakfast
(thanks to the kitchen staff for this). During the day we heard that Mo Lamin
has been discharged from hospital. We were all pleased to hear this.
Once you get
beyond Brikama the road is very good, a new highway that is every bit as good,
or indeed better than your average British ‘A’ road. We made good progress only
being slowed down by the numerous police, army or immigration checkpoints, but
they were all in a good mood today.
We arrived in
good time at Soma, our main destination., Our first school was Misera Basic
Cycle, just out of Soma. It is right next to the border with Senegal, so close
that I think if one of the students there had given one of the footballs we had
brought a really good welly it would have landed in Senegal!
We were greeted
by the principal, Mr Modou S Faye. We were soon dignified by the presence of
two pillars of the community, the village imam and the village chief. All three
are delightful and enthusiastic people. We were there to give the school some
money to build a fence around the school (we would call it a wall). The fence
serves not only to protect the children, but also to keep out people and the
goats, sheep, cows and oxen that wander about
.
We also had brought
over the first two of many holdalls containing sports kit donated by Haslemere
Prep School when it closed. Each holdall contained a full kit of 12 football
shirts, shorts and socks, along with 2 match balls and 2 practice balls. 12 eager
young students were called for to try them on.
The school also
has a large garden so we were able to give them a selection of seeds donated my
Manor Green school.
After that we
were entertained by Grade 9 girls with a traditional song and dance and some
readings and a poem from senior students.
Misera school
is in a Fula village.We don’t often go to Fula villages and we think that it is
very important that we keep touch with villages such as this which are some way
off our “regular” area.
We then went to
Kani Kunda LBS where we met with the principal, Sainabou Sonka and were joined
by two members of the School Management Committee, both called Saidykhan – we
were in Wandifa’s home village. We discussed the proposal for the sinking of
the borehole by The Water Point mentioned in an earlier blog. They are very
keen for the project to proceed. One issue we will need to address is that they
would like 7 or 8 standpipes running off the tank, but the estimate only
provides for 5. We will see what we can negotiate.
We also had a look at some
of the furniture delivered to the school from the last container and how it is
being used.
To Wandifa’s
sister, Wonto Saidykhan’s compound next for a chat, some freshly picked
groundnuts and bananas ripe from the tree. For those who have never eaten a
fresh ripe banana, they really are sweeter and juicier than those that have
been transported from the tropics and ripened in the UK before being delivered
to supermarkets.
A brief visit
to Pakalanding UBS to pay some sponsorship fees and look at how the furniture delivered
was being used and then to our final call in Soma, the Soma Health Centre where
we were very pleased to donate some baby clothes. Included were some very small
hand-knitted baby hats suitable for premature babies, some hand-knitted jackets
and more conventional clothes such as baby-grows.
On the drive
back we made a short diversion for refreshments at Tendabar Nature Reserve.
Whilst there Yankuba spotted that the printed menu had a photograph with Pippa
in it taken on an earlier visit some years back. I will try and publish that
when I get back to the UK – it needs some enhancement.
The long drive
back went smoothly until we reached Brikama when we had to join the usual
smog-filled traffic jam from there back to the hotel.
An excellent
day out. For those who visit the Gambia and haven’t been there, I heartily
recommend going there. It is just so pleasantly different from the “usual”
areas.
The football kit with the principal, vice principal and the village leader
Wonto, Wandifa's sister (The baby is not hers!)
