I wrote this post from inside a bush taxi. Was sat waiting for 2 hours before it moved. It´s so African! They never move til they´re full. Could´ve been spending my time doing more productive things on the net but nevermind!
Apart from the transport everything´s going well. Teaching wise, it´s getting a bit easier teaching grade six. We´ve been making plane and solid shapes with some of the resources I brought. Those are noisy lessons! Fun though. We´re now measuring the students heights and plotting graphs. All a lot more enjoyable for the kids than doing sums from a text book. PVA glue and muller yoghurt pots make teaching so much easier! I was never quite sure what resources to bring from home but without some of them I would be very stuck. I´ve bought maths sets for the school whilst the other volunteer has supplied more rulers. I´ve used a few of my resources at the nursery but their resource cupboard is a goldmine of stuff! They´ve had so many donations. Progress at the Nursery is still slow but at least the teachers have at least cut down on beating the kids. One makes the kids kneel down for part of the lesson if they misbehave. It´s a start! The main problem with the nursery is that it´s often closed! There has been a big court case involving many people from Makumbaya, including the father of one of the teachers. They´ve been held in custody over a land dispute with a neighbouring village so the teachers often go to attend court. As well as teaching at the school and the nursery when it´s open, I´m teaching a few more people how to use computers at the internet cafe I use in Lamin. The other volunteer teaches basic English to some of the women in the village. I help some of the women to practice and develop their English outside of the classes. The personal tuition is what I enjoy most and I feel this is where I am most beneficial.
I´ve spent some of my time away from the village at the beach. I took my host family last Sunday. It was the first time any of the kids had even seen the sea so they were a bit nervous! They loved it though. We´re going to go again and have a proper Gambian party!! I will be doing more travelling when my Gambian namesake finishes his exams. You´ll probably wonder why I´ve got no tan when I get back to England. It´s mostly too hot to be out in the sun so I stay in the shade as much as possible. I went a bit overboard when I bought suncream! I also have no idea why I brought a mosquito head net. Who would use one except maybe Ray Mears? Some of the personal items I´ve brought have have saved my life here though. The mobile solar charger being top of my list. An absolute lifesaver in a village with no electricity.
I´m still progressing with my djembe playing. The lessons are such a great way of learning more about Gambian and African culture. Djembe means ´talking drum´ and all the rhythms that I´m learning have phonetic names. I´m also teaching the new volunteer! She unfortunately finds my teacher Cosmos far too unpleasant. He´s managed to fall out with everyone else we were drumming with annoyingly. I still have lessons with him but his mouth gets him in trouble. Many people in the village have amusing ways of phrasing things in English but I could write a book of all the things Cos says. He got a bit muddled with the meanings for adultery and having fun. The result: Funication!!
For those of you without access to Facebook, here´s the link to my other photo album.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289305&id=61108717&l=3baa4b007b
Thursday 21 May 2009
Wednesday 6 May 2009
Mango Season
Its been three months in Makumbaya now and Im fitting more and more into the Gambian way of life. I can make good Attaya now and Im speaking a bit more Mandinka!
I cooked for my hosts at the weekend though which is not very Gambian. Gambian men dont cook at all. It was good to have something with meat in it and NO RICE! My family all seemed to enjoy it so Ill cook again before I go hopefully. It was a bit weird and a complete mess eating Spag bol out of a communal bowl with my hands, but it tastes just the same! Everything that Ive learnt from when I was a child about table manners and food hygiene all goes out the window! I dont worry about it though. Even though it sounds a bit gross, I actually quite like the communal bowl. Eating together is a very important part of Gambian culture and the family will often invite people passing in the street to come and eat with them. I never go back from the school without an invitation from a stranger to go and eat with them. I wish we had the same sort of community in UK. The kids happily run any errands for me, so outside of projects I dont have to do a thing!
At the nursery, the new ideas seem to be working OK but Im not been able to implement them much due to exams. (Why do 3 and 4 year olds have exams? Ridiculous!) Unfortunately, I can see problems for the nursery in the future as the money from Mondo is running out. I want to set up the garden but not if the nursery is likely to close in a year. They need new funds for a new site and for teachers salaries so Im going to try and help find them new sponsors. I wont let it disrupt my current work too much! Theres is another English volunteer in Makumbaya now which is a plus and she is working on the same projects as me, just at seperate times. Its good to see that an experienced teacher finds teaching Gambian nursery children impossible and not just me! We are rival football supporters so watching Arsenal V Man U European semi-final was a must for both of us! Weve luckily been able to watch the big European football matches which I thought wed miss. Theres no electricity in the village but several families have TVs which they run off car batteries. Its a unique experience watching the champions league under a mango tree with 20 or more villagers shouting at each other and not having a clue what theyre saying!
Working during the day is getting harder and harder with the increased heat and humidity. Rainy season is approaching. O Great! We re getting lots of ripe mangos now though. Theres two huge mango trees in the Jammeh compound so i get to eat about 5 or 6 each day. They fall onto the corrugate iron roof which sounds like a bomb going off! Its great not having to buy them as there so expensive at home. I want to export them!
Here are the links to my photos that Ive taken so far. Finally been able to get them up online! Ill keep adding more photos to these as time goes on.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289281&id=61108717&l=1a4565c44a
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289297&id=61108717&l=544068f58a http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289268&id=61108717&l=63163fd82a
I cooked for my hosts at the weekend though which is not very Gambian. Gambian men dont cook at all. It was good to have something with meat in it and NO RICE! My family all seemed to enjoy it so Ill cook again before I go hopefully. It was a bit weird and a complete mess eating Spag bol out of a communal bowl with my hands, but it tastes just the same! Everything that Ive learnt from when I was a child about table manners and food hygiene all goes out the window! I dont worry about it though. Even though it sounds a bit gross, I actually quite like the communal bowl. Eating together is a very important part of Gambian culture and the family will often invite people passing in the street to come and eat with them. I never go back from the school without an invitation from a stranger to go and eat with them. I wish we had the same sort of community in UK. The kids happily run any errands for me, so outside of projects I dont have to do a thing!
At the nursery, the new ideas seem to be working OK but Im not been able to implement them much due to exams. (Why do 3 and 4 year olds have exams? Ridiculous!) Unfortunately, I can see problems for the nursery in the future as the money from Mondo is running out. I want to set up the garden but not if the nursery is likely to close in a year. They need new funds for a new site and for teachers salaries so Im going to try and help find them new sponsors. I wont let it disrupt my current work too much! Theres is another English volunteer in Makumbaya now which is a plus and she is working on the same projects as me, just at seperate times. Its good to see that an experienced teacher finds teaching Gambian nursery children impossible and not just me! We are rival football supporters so watching Arsenal V Man U European semi-final was a must for both of us! Weve luckily been able to watch the big European football matches which I thought wed miss. Theres no electricity in the village but several families have TVs which they run off car batteries. Its a unique experience watching the champions league under a mango tree with 20 or more villagers shouting at each other and not having a clue what theyre saying!
Working during the day is getting harder and harder with the increased heat and humidity. Rainy season is approaching. O Great! We re getting lots of ripe mangos now though. Theres two huge mango trees in the Jammeh compound so i get to eat about 5 or 6 each day. They fall onto the corrugate iron roof which sounds like a bomb going off! Its great not having to buy them as there so expensive at home. I want to export them!
Here are the links to my photos that Ive taken so far. Finally been able to get them up online! Ill keep adding more photos to these as time goes on.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289281&id=61108717&l=1a4565c44a
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289297&id=61108717&l=544068f58a http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289268&id=61108717&l=63163fd82a
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