My Birthday

My birthday couldn’t have come in a worse week I have been so busy. On my birthday I needed to organize my six hours of lectures to run themselves in order to attend a workshop for the whole day. That unfortunately was the theme of the whole week, as the workshop I had to attend ran the whole week that I was supposed to be lecturing.

So anyway the day started off well with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and a card from Amy and Katie before our run. Then I had a phone call from Mum and Dad over breakfast.

Then I headed to work where I was mobbed by students asking questions about their assignments.

I eventually sorted the students out and then my phone was ringing to tell me the workshop had started. The workshop was to review the Early Childhood Development teacher training course for Gambia College, and to create an ECD component for the Primary Teacher training course. Essentially it is my reason for being in the Gambia. Unfortunately because the ECD lecturers are specialists with other jobs the workshop had to be held during the ECD teaching period, which meant all the lecturers and myself had to balance giving lectures at the same time as attending the full day workshops. I can tell you now with certainty that it is not an easy task!!!

So I got to the workshop feeling as if I had held everyone up at the same time as not addressing my students concerns adequately, however once I was settled in the workshop ran fairly smoothly. So a day that I expected to be quite bad turned out to be ok – although I couldn’t return any birthday messages I got from home.

At the end of the workshop I needed to organize a town trip taxi to the Kombo area to pick up a double mattress that Greg and Suki didn’t need any more as they were moving. My birthday was the only day I could do it and it worked out well because Phil was coming to stay from Janjanburreh so I could meet him there.

The taxi ride worked out well as Amy had a driver who owed her a favour so he picked me up and Paul (a VSO collegue) came with us. However not long into the journey the taxi played up! I thought oh no not on my birthday but it was just dirty fuel so the driver blew out the filter and we kept on going.

At Greg and Suki’s we had to wait (Paul left) so I had a chat to Bubacar the driver, who was from Mali, 29 (although Anne tells me he has been that for several years) and not married because he wasn’t a white woman for a wife (although I told him that is a clearly a good way to get nagged for the rest of his life but he believes they are all the same in that regard).

Then Suki, Greg, jim, Paul (another Paul) and Phil showed up and Paul gave me my first present for the day from Courtney his wife (Paul and Courtney stayed with me the week before). It was the most beautiful photo album with photo’s Courtney had taken herself.

We started to get organized to move stuff – we were grouping things in boxes when I dropped the glass lid of a casserole dish. It fell and smashed and bounced back into Phil’s foot and hit the big vein that runs across the top. Blood went everywhere!!!

So we had to quickly patched him up, pack the taxi and take him to Afrimed (the VSO approved clinic). There we waited for an hour for Phil’s foot to be stitched (two stitches) and missed my birthday tea with Katie and Amy. Luckily Bubacar was so cruisy he waited out the front for us. You wouldn’t believe it either – the mattress didn’t even fit on the taxi!!!!

Then with Phil stitched up we headed to Brikama – but had to stop a few times to distract the police at the police stops so we could sneak past as Bubacar’s boot wasn’t shut due to the stuff we were carrying!

We finally got back to Brikama and Phil was feeling ok. Amy and Katie had got us take away beans and Katie had baked me a cake (ironically it was a holiday in the Gambia but because ECD is only taught in the holidays I had still had to work). Anne and Mr Touray came over for cake and to sing happy birthday so my day ended on a really beautiful note. I also got a dress and sex beads (a beaded waist band) from Amy and Katie and some amazing smelling soap from Anne. Later in the week I also got a lovely parcel from home with a Teddy Bear in it (I could have used it on the day!!!)

Photo's to come later!!!