Ellie in the Gambia

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Amy and Carl

Holiday time.

Yummy prawns.

Tiny little lizard

Sunsets - I have far too many pictures of these!

A lovely easter weekend at the most secluded beach in The Gambia... until all the VSOs and their guests decend onto it that is!!!!

They still have Julbrew though

And sunsets!!

The weather was really cold so they kindly made a bonfire for us which we toasted marshmallows on. How very english!

I dont know who was more excited the children meeting the toubab

Or the toubab meeting the children

We worked for our dinner though, pounding the rice.

Schools... See I work!

This is the library commitee stood in the library I spent a lot of the winter sorting. Unfortunately I no longer have the pictures from the beginning as they got stolen with my computer.

This is Medina Sancha. A school in the middle of nowhere on the border with Senegal. They have only just had this building built. Before all lessons were taught in temporary classrooms like the one you can see on the left.

This is a very typical example of what it is like inside a Gambian classroom.

Inside a temporary classroom. As you can see no good for rainy season but a lot of schools have these.

Learning lots.

On Independance Day the children joined the forces to do a march past as part of the ceremony.

Followed By an athletics competition.

I only took pictures of the high jump im afraid due to my bafflement at the lack of crash mat and my awe at how high the children can jump.

At one of the other schools I go to there is this magic tree. The palm tree is not behind the big tree it is coming out of the middle.

Soma Proper Lower basic and the White People

I had an interesting January and February punctuated with different white people entering and leaving my life.

Starting with these 2 little lovelies. The letter of the week was C. Culture, cocktails, cake, coco ocean and confusion.

We had an award ceremony with the British High Commisioner at Soma Proper school

. Awarding an honoury commonwealth MBE to the leader of the scout lodge.

The scouts put on a performance for us.

And so did some local, traditional performers

After the ceremony and performances we were given lunch.

Then the lord leuitenant of Hampshire helped some children plant some mango trees in the schools orchard.

The following week some of the teachers from the celebration party came into Soma Proper to teach some PE lessons.

With some fun and colourful PE equipment

That all the children really enjoyed using.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Christmas in The Gambia

I drove the 170km on my precariously packed bike.

I had to do 2 ferry crossings. The 1hr crossing my front tyre was touching the taxt in front of me and my back tyre was cm from the water with just a bit of chain inbetween - dont rock the boat!

First night down in Kombo and straight to a Christmas party - Christmas songs, chocolate log, mince pies, brandy butter, cheese and crackers and mulled wine.... and no this is not a volunteers house. This is the lifestyle I could have had if I stuck with science and came to the gambia to work for MRC.