Happy New Year and wishing you all the best for 2013 and many more to come! My return to Basse after the New Year was delayed by the President declaring Set Settal (clean the nation) the day before I was due to travel home. Between 9am and 1pm nothing opens or moves, so the thought of being stuck on a gelli-gelli, not moving. For 4 hours plus the journey back, was enough for me to cancel it. This quite often happens, public holidays and such declared the day before by the man in charge!

Schools were supposed to re-open in my region on the 7^th January and last week I was on monitoring with the Regional Office to check they had reopened and teachers had reported for duty. Some had opened, but the vast majority had either very few teachers or pupils and in some instances had not opened at all. Even by the end of the week some teachers had still not reported. Due to the vast expanse of the region, we have also been monitoring this week. Some teachers have still not reported, other schools are still not doing anything much in the way of teaching and learning. Some have not even started their afternoon shifts or if they have, pupils have been left unattended. It is very discouraging to witness and at a few schools we visited on the 14^th January, the last work on the board was dated 9^th January. Even then they still tried to claim that they had been teaching the children since then, despite evidence to the contrary in 4 or 5 classrooms. There is a long way to go with improving education in this country, but what is really needed is a whole mindset shift. I understand that teachers have a difficult job and work with very little resources and do not receive adequate pay for their job, and perhaps this is part of the problem. However, the lack of dedication and commitment to their chosen profession by some of the teachers gives the children the impression that education is not important and perhaps this is why some do not attend school. There are teachers out there who show amazing dedication and work hard. One female teacher in a school I work with would come into school during her maternity leave to teach her class with her baby strapped to her back. She did not get paid for this, but did not want her class to miss out on teaching and learning. When teachers are absent for short or long periods there is no-one sent to cover the class. There is no supply list as in the UK. If a class has no teacher, they are either split between the remaining classes or left unattended. Either way, not much in the way of effective teaching and learning happens.

The rest of this week we will be off on trek to various UNICEF supported schools, to sensitize the local communities to send their children to school. In some communities enrolment rates are very low, despite a large population. Some communities would rather send their children to the local Madrassa than a Government one. The main difference between these schools is that the children are taught in Arabic at the Madrassa rather than English so at least they are still getting an education. However, there are still those who, although are enrolled at school, do not attend for various reasons* or do not complete their education to Grade 6. It is this group that we will be trying to reach. Hopefully, with various village groups involved it will be successful (but I won’t hold my breath!)

Other than that, not much else to report, although I hear there is a solidarity march happening in Basse on Thursday. It is to show the President support in light of the 17 points demand under Article 8 by the EU. The President is very unhappy and went on television to denounce it. I plan to be away in the bush that day, far away in the bush!!

 My time is fast coming to an end here and I will be sad to leave

 *The reasons why some children do not attend school regularly related to mainly domestic duties for girls and farming work for boys. Just before and after the rains are the main farming times. Some girls also do not complete due to early marriage, although this is more common in the Upper Basic and Senior Secondary (Grades 7-12). Other times it is school fees or reluctance by the parents for their children to have what they see as a ‘Western’ education.

(Sorry again unable to seem to upload any new photos.)

Funding refused. Not sure where to go from here. There is no money so will not get it before I finish. When schools return I will see if I can try and hijack some Jolly Phonics training to try and get some before I finish.

Christmas was a very low key affair. I stayed in Basse and had some friends over for lunch and played some Christmas carols on my laptop, which up until the day before had stopped working. Miraculously it started working just in time to get me in the festive spirit! Even in church they were not singing any of the carols that we sing back home. It was a very nice day and rather simple for a change. None of the stress or anti-climax that usually appears on the day itself. I think everyone enjoyed themselves even though it was not a proper ‘British’ Christmas.

For New Year I came to Kombos and have to say had one of the worst journeys yet! The bus eventually left Bansang, where I had been for the weekend, at 8.30am. It took about an hour to work its way to JJB (a journey of about 20mins!) We arrived to find a crowd of people wanting to get on to the already packed bus. They then proceeded to try and push themselves onto said bus. There were all sorts of arguments between the driver, apparenti (conductor) and passengers. A Policeman was watching on doing nothing. When we eventually did leave JJB, the bus was crammed with people sitting on empty jerry cans or benches in the aisle. Some others were standing for the rest of the journey to Kombos. It was not even over yet, the driver kept stopping by the side of the road to pick up yet more passengers and run what seemed like personal messages of collecting firewood and watermelon or just to have a smoke. The lady behind me at one point tried to push her way out of her seat after having had an argument through the window with him. Personally I would have let her out to face him, but others were not so keen to let her face him! It was not over yet. 3 hours later we reached Soma (should take about 1.5 hours) where we were told we would be leaving in 15mins. 1 hour later we left. By the time we reached Kombos it was about 5/6pm. During the course of this journey I also had the misfortune to have a young girl of about 8/9 fall asleep on my lap and wet herself all over me........not just once but 3 TIMES. I kid you not! I could do nothing, the bus was so squashed I could not even move her and she would not wake up either. The joys of travelling in The Gambia! Definitely not taking the bus again, will go for the gelli gelli next time.

(sorry can't seem to upload any photos today!)

My LCM workshop (in my office that I have all to myself!)

In the last week I have shared my home with 2 furry little flat mates! I woke up one morning to hear scrabbling sounds coming from my window. On shinning the torch through my mosquito net, I saw a rat poking its nose out from behind the curtain! As you can imagine I was not too keen to get out from under my mosquito net, despite being desperate for the loo. As soon as it was light I was out like a shot calling for the boys in my compound to come and help deal. They were rather unconcerned about the whole thing and eventually made their way into my house to help deal with it. The next one made its way into my food cupboard and munched its way through a packet of spaghetti! I returned from visiting a friend in Soma to find rat droppings all over the place. This one has since disappeared. I swear I saw it in the early hours of the morning, but when the sun rose it had vanished!! Just hope it does not come back. Mind you, could have been worse.......spiders or snakes!

Group sorting task - LCM statements/Teacher Directed Statements)

Phonic activity to use with pupils

Science activity (Float/Sinking)

I have also had my LCM workshop, which went well and the feedback was very positive, so am now trying to get funding to be able to deliver it to more teachers in the region. My aim is to work with the cluster trainers, for them to lead the training and I’ll support them. It can be hard trying to get some teachers to make lessons more learner centred, but hopefully this workshop will help give them ideas on how to make lessons more active for their pupils. I feel it is important that the cluster trainers lead the workshop as I have shared my skills with them and they now need to share it with their colleagues. They need to move it forward themselves as no-one else will do it for them. I have found that there are many hardworking teachers in The Gambia who want to improve and change their practice, but struggle to do so as they have no support or quality training to do so. Much of the training they receive is pretty much of the chalk and talk variety. I hope to have got my funding approved and all workshops completed before the end of February when my placement will end. I fear that if they are not, then these workshops will not happen, which would be a rather sad thing!



Njie Family Salibo
 

My Compound Family

The 26^th October saw the Muslim festival of Eid-al-Adha, otherwise known as Tobaski in West Africa. It celebrates the day Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac, to God. As a result of his devotion and willingness to sacrifice his son in God’s name, God stopped Abraham and provided him with a ram to sacrifice instead. It is probably the most important time of year in the Islamic faith. Everyone travels home to their families to celebrate and the pressure for each family to have a ram to slaughter is enormous. Those that cannot afford a ram feel quite ashamed that they cannot afford one for their family. In the morning, they go to the prayer ground in their new or best clothes to pray with the local community. It is much the same as at Koriteh, only it felt more crowded this year. It is mainly the men who go and the women stay behind at home to prepare the lunch. On return from the praying ground, the men change then they slaughter and skin the ram, according to Islamic law. For those of a delicate disposition, skip to the next paragraph! They dig a small hole in the ground and then place the ram over this slit the ram’s throat and let the blood pour into the hole, where is seeps into the ground. Then they skin the carcass and remove the meat. They then keep some for themselves and give some to family and the remainder is given as charity, to those who cannot afford a ram of their own. One of the 5 pillars of Islam is Zakat, the giving of charity, so this is a very important aspect of Tobaski. Lamin walked out of the compound with a very large platter of meat for the neighbours who did not have a ram of their own.

Tobaski Ram (no longer!)

After this, the cooking of breakfast began. On the menu today and for the next few days was....any guesses? Ram, ram and more ram. I even had the delight of eating ram’s head...not once but twice! I wish I could say I was brave enough to try the brain or tongue, but I looked for the meaty parts and ate them. Then after lunch, as with Koriteh, groups of children came round in the sunglasses and new clothes for Salibo. It was a nice day and I am glad that I have celebrated it here in The Gambia as I suspect it is quite different to the UK.

Lamin & Sarah

After Tobaski I travelled to Kombos for Sarah’s wedding. She arrived back, with her parents, to marry Lamin and Lilli and I were bridesmaids. It was a lovely day and was good to catch up with her again. They married in the registry office in Banjul. It was quite an event, about another 5 couples were also marrying. We were all squeezed into one room where everyone was married one after the other. It was quite a surreal event what with the registrar’s being quite a scary woman, not to mention her phone going off in the middle of one of the marriages. Then there was the bride who kept falling out of her dress and exposing herself to one and all, the canned drinks that must be brought so that the marriage can go ahead!! We did wonder what they did with 48 cans of drinks, per wedding that is. We worked out it was about 250 cans for that day! Then it was to the place they had their first date for lunch, which was lovely. After which we spent the afternoon lazing round her hotel pool before heading out for some dancing in the evening.

But now is back to reality and work. I have another LCM workshop on Saturday for the Cluster Monitors and trainers. Even some of the Peace Corps in the area are coming along. So hopefully all will go well!

Schools have now returned and I have started revisiting them after opening. I say they reopened but they are only now teaching the curriculum and assigning teachers classes. Bear in mind the schools opened on the 17^th September! Not long after opening I went on trek to the North Bank, where I had not visited since July. The landscape has changed markedly since I was last there. The river is up a lot further at the ferry.  The corn has grown everywhere so some roads were completely enclosed and barely passable on my bike. I kept wondering if I was actually on the right road at some points. The bush is so green and fertile because of the rains you would think you were in a different country at times. It was really nice and tranquil in those places.

Basse Ferry (before rains)

North Bank

I squeezed my bike through here!

North Bank

 

I conducted my first workshop at the weekend on LCM, Learner Centred Methodology. It went well and the teachers were generally receptive, but the crunch will be whether their lessons will become more active. The school has invited me back to hold a material productions workshop next month. Teachers in The Gambia do not have the luxury of being able to order any kind of teaching aid from a catalogue that would be common place in a UK classroom. They literally have nothing to use or work with. We try to encourage teachers to make use of resources they find around them; cardboard boxes, sticks, stones, bottle tops. Another problem is that teachers struggle with ideas for teaching aids and also how to use them effectively. Part of my next workshop will be to show them how to make and use teaching aids such as number cards, number squares, dice effectively and the various ways in which the pupils can use them.

Basse Ferry (after rains)

I have also become involved with a newly opened ECD in Basse. Although my knowledge is more based at primary level, I have agreed to help as the teachers are not qualified and ECD teaching is, at times, very difficult. I am using Sarah’s manual, of which I gave them a copy. I went back today to see how they were getting on but they have not been doing the activities on a daily basis as advised. It will be a long road, but the teachers are willing and receptive which is half the battle here. I have also started to tutor a young boy in Grade 3. He has managed to get through 2 years of school without learning all his single sounds. He is a bright boy and his spoken English is not too bad. Unfortunately, this not the unusual here but the usual. There are a variety of reasons for this. Teachers work long hours here, from 8.20am to 6.20pm if they are on double shift (teaching 2 classes a day) so they do not get much time for planning, class sizes can be 40+, a lack of resources, but also as teaching is mostly chalk and talk, pupils do not get much of a chance to do activities or to discuss their learning with a partner or group or even on their own. They generally copy from the blackboard. Even the boys on my compound, in Grades 7-9, copy the vast majority of the work in their jotters from work the teacher has scribed on the blackboard. They are not given the chance to think or discuss their work or learning. It actually makes me want to cry at times. Don’t get me wrong, there are some teachers who do active lessons and give their pupils the chance to think and discuss, but these are in the minority. More work is needed here to support the teachers. Giving schools a budget to work with would be a start. At present schools are funded by the pupils and other donors giving money to the school fund. This is what the HT uses to pay for repairs to the school, painting, resources (if they have any), providing food at school based workshops, basically everything bar salaries.

Well I think I have rabbited on enough for today. Till next time!

As of today schools are set to go back on the 17^th September. Fingers crossed they do, as I really want to get back visiting schools and actually doing what I am supposed to be doing. Since returning from Senegal I have been going to the office and trying to plan workshops for their return. The office staff have been and gone to Kombos and come back and as no schools are in there is not much for them to really do. The postings for the teachers are now out. Every summer, the Directors of each region meet to decide where teachers will be posted. A teacher can find themselves at one school one year and then in another the next. Sometimes these schools can be at other ends of the region. Even Head Teachers can be moved without warning. The only teachers who have any permanency in their postings seem to be the Cluster Trainers for FIOH and GATE. They have been displayed for all to see in the Education compound here in Basse, so there has been a steady stream of teachers coming to find out their fate.

A couple of weekends ago I went to Kombos to see off Sarah, my fellow Basse VSOer, who left to fly home. This time I decided to take the gelli rather than the sept plas. I decided it would be better as could not be bothered with the Barra ferry and all its travails. I was pleasantly surprised. I was there before noon, 5 ½ hours it took. For public transport on the south bank this is amazing – AMAZING! My return journey was not quite as good. Lilli, a volunteer with Tostan who had worked here for a year before being transferred to Kombos, came back with me. We got to the garage at 7am. We were thrown off the first gelli to make room for late coming ‘pre-booked’ passengers. The next one did not leave till 8.30am. By 2pm we were still not even half way. We eventually got to Basse at 7pm! Between breakdowns, passengers fainting and being taken to health centre, checkpoints where we all had to decant and untarmaced roads, it took us almost 12hours.

Basse is only about 400km from Kombos. Tomorrow I am going back down as the new volunteers are arriving, at least one of whom is being posted to Basse to work in agriculture. I am going to get the gelli again – mad I may be but at least I do not have to worry about getting the Barra Ferry!

Alieu, friend & Lamin in Kortiteh outfits

As I am sure you aware we have just completed the month of Ramadan and being a predominantly Muslim country, The Gambia was fasting. I fasted for a couple of days and just managed it. It was for not the lack of food that I struggled with, that didn’t bother me. It was being unable to drink anything, not even water. Having to fast for 30 days in this heat is ‘not easy’ as many a Gambian would say. When Gambians break fast, it is traditionally with a cup of sugary tea and bread followed by their meal. Even though they are eating less meals during Ramadan, their spending on food goes up as they like to eat nice food when breaking fast. In West Africa the celebration is called Koriteh. In the morning, I went with Alieu and Lamin to the prayer ground along with the rest of Mansajang, for community prayers. Essentially it was a piece of ground weeded and stripped for the community to come together to pray. I found it very spiritual the way everyone came together to pray, a whole community at one. Men, women and children. Afterwards, we went home and helped Mariama cook the feast. The afternoon was dedicated to Salibo. Sailbo is celebrated over two days. Groups of children in brand new clothes go visiting different compounds looking for money from people. It reminded me of Hallowe’en back in the UK, except without the fancy dress or jokes. I am told the same thing happens at Tobaski in October. Next time will make sure I have plenty of Dalasi coins to give out.



Mansajang Prayers

Salibo group...too cool for school!






Last week, two other volunteers and I visited Senegal for a week’s holiday. We spent a few days in Dakar and St Louis. What a contrast to The Gambia and Banjul. They are miles ahead by far and we felt like we were in Europe rather than Africa. Dakar is so much more developed than Banjul. We spent a lovely time eating good food, not to mention the wine! Forgot what red wine tasted like it’s been that long! There is so much to do in Dakar, 3 days was not really long enough. We spent a day on a little island called N’Gor which had a lovely little beach where we spent the day. It is only reached by pirogue so has no cars on it and is very peaceful. The next day we dove headlong into the mayhem of Dakar and its Marche HLM. This is Dakar’s material market, with all sorts of beautiful and colourful fabrics for sale. If you every visit Dakar, this is one place to visit.

St Louis is further north and is a lovely place with lots of nice galleries to wander in and out of. It was the first French settlement in Africa and was at one time capital of French West Africa, before usurped by Dakar. It straddles the main land, and island and peninsula. It is very easy to get round and we mostly stayed on the island as there was lots to do and see. The peninsula is home to the fishing fleet of colourful pirogues, but unfortunately this has led to a very dirty beach full of rubbish, but this does not deter the local children from enjoying the surf. We had a very enjoyable time in St Louis and Dakar. Thankfully, I remembered enough French to get by as very few people speak English here.

( Sorry no photos of Senegal as took me over an hour to upload the 3 Koriteh ones!)

Now what to do with the rest of the holidays, just been told that they have been extended to the 17^th September and some rumours have it as the 23^rd! And they complain about the loss of contact hours!