I just had the very best weekend. Paul sadly flew out early Friday morning, but then I was kept busy b y leaving to give a workshop in a small rural village called Illiassa.
Tamba, one of my students, is a man with a lot of get up and go. I had visited him before and was incredibly impressed by the way he ran his school. He runs an excellent nursery and in addition has a chicken farm and orchard which produces fresh produce for the village and enough to sell to the city areas to help pay the schools running cost. He is hoping to expand to a day care and a small farming enterprise to train rural youth. In addition to all this he organizes a yearly workshop in his village to provide additional training for ECD facilitators. The workshop is free, with catering and accommodation, if participants pay their own travel costs. Tamba is amazing!!!
The plan was to meet Glynn, a fellow lecturer who comes from England, at the ferry terminal and make our way to Illiassa. I met Glynn in the ferry terminal but walked into the terminal to be greeted with a huge ‘Awa Colley’ because a big group of my students were also meeting up to travel to the workshop and were happy to see me. We all travelled together on the same ferry but Glynn and I and her niece who was visiting, used the internet before leaving and so had to wait for the next ferry for the transport to Illiassa to fill and leave. This meant sitting in a hot car in the hot sun for two hours before taking off. We arrived a long time after the students.
When we did arrive, however, we received the most heart-warming welcoming from the students who greeted us like long lost friends, even though it had only been two weeks since college closed. It was great to catch up and I found that chatting to the students was just like chatting to a friend, which is unusual because often it is difficult to get a conversation flowing due to the difference between the cultures.
That night we all sat in Tamba’s compound and ate a dry rice and fish dish out of shared bowls with our hands and the students grouped together and caught up and sang their ECD songs in beautiful voices. They also started dancing and decided that a certain ECD lecturer needed to learn the Gambian way of dancing. It was a great night.
That night it turned out that I was staying in the village chief’s house. It also turned out that the village chief was a friend of Ejay’s father (Ejay is my neighbor) and is Ejay’s namesake. A small world! It was a hot night as there was no power and the room was stifling but it was an experience none the less.
The next day I was first to kick off the workshop with a session on teaching approaches, which I have been told was well received. Mostly I just loved the rapport the students had - it was similar again to the last day of ECD. I then had to quickly leave to make it in time to meet Sherryn from the plane. This meant going and sitting by the road and waiting for a car going back to Kombo.
I was lucky I didn’t have to wait long, but the gelli I got on was going to a compound where the people were all travelling to a naming ceremony. This was unusual because the gelli drove down to a compound and then parked and waited for the family to eat lunch, say prayers and load the gelli. So I sat on a log with the children and watched as a goat and sheep were tied to the roof of the gelli and bags of rice were loaded on top.
The people of the area I was in however must not have seen many white people and they were keen to have a conversation with me, despite my limited Mandinka. A lady came along and sat down and tried to chat to me, and then decided to be my voice and told everyone what she thought I should be saying. The result was the whole family standing round and staring down at me – not a really comfortable situation.
Eventually the gelli left and I had a great trip with the family who were really keen on trying to understand my every action – which involved regularly trying to chat to me in a language I didn’t understand. A really beautiful experience because they really were so kind. I was at least able to play with the babies which made for a fun ride.
Once at the ferry I said farewell to the family and by chance met up with some Agriculture volunteers, one being a VSO that I knew. The group was mostly from Canada and over to share farming experiences with the villagers. The ferry ride was most interesting however because right at the very end it crashed. I was sitting near a window and watching the ferry pull up to a dock because we had arrived at the same time as another ferry was unloading. I noticed the dock getting close and didn’t think anything of it until I saw the Gambians frantically moving their children away from the window. Luckily, I moved too and about the same time there was a big bang and the window smashed. It really wasn’t too bad and the ferry was still ok. It did give me a fright thought.
Tamba, one of my students, is a man with a lot of get up and go. I had visited him before and was incredibly impressed by the way he ran his school. He runs an excellent nursery and in addition has a chicken farm and orchard which produces fresh produce for the village and enough to sell to the city areas to help pay the schools running cost. He is hoping to expand to a day care and a small farming enterprise to train rural youth. In addition to all this he organizes a yearly workshop in his village to provide additional training for ECD facilitators. The workshop is free, with catering and accommodation, if participants pay their own travel costs. Tamba is amazing!!!
The plan was to meet Glynn, a fellow lecturer who comes from England, at the ferry terminal and make our way to Illiassa. I met Glynn in the ferry terminal but walked into the terminal to be greeted with a huge ‘Awa Colley’ because a big group of my students were also meeting up to travel to the workshop and were happy to see me. We all travelled together on the same ferry but Glynn and I and her niece who was visiting, used the internet before leaving and so had to wait for the next ferry for the transport to Illiassa to fill and leave. This meant sitting in a hot car in the hot sun for two hours before taking off. We arrived a long time after the students.
When we did arrive, however, we received the most heart-warming welcoming from the students who greeted us like long lost friends, even though it had only been two weeks since college closed. It was great to catch up and I found that chatting to the students was just like chatting to a friend, which is unusual because often it is difficult to get a conversation flowing due to the difference between the cultures.
That night we all sat in Tamba’s compound and ate a dry rice and fish dish out of shared bowls with our hands and the students grouped together and caught up and sang their ECD songs in beautiful voices. They also started dancing and decided that a certain ECD lecturer needed to learn the Gambian way of dancing. It was a great night.
That night it turned out that I was staying in the village chief’s house. It also turned out that the village chief was a friend of Ejay’s father (Ejay is my neighbor) and is Ejay’s namesake. A small world! It was a hot night as there was no power and the room was stifling but it was an experience none the less.
The next day I was first to kick off the workshop with a session on teaching approaches, which I have been told was well received. Mostly I just loved the rapport the students had - it was similar again to the last day of ECD. I then had to quickly leave to make it in time to meet Sherryn from the plane. This meant going and sitting by the road and waiting for a car going back to Kombo.
I was lucky I didn’t have to wait long, but the gelli I got on was going to a compound where the people were all travelling to a naming ceremony. This was unusual because the gelli drove down to a compound and then parked and waited for the family to eat lunch, say prayers and load the gelli. So I sat on a log with the children and watched as a goat and sheep were tied to the roof of the gelli and bags of rice were loaded on top.
The people of the area I was in however must not have seen many white people and they were keen to have a conversation with me, despite my limited Mandinka. A lady came along and sat down and tried to chat to me, and then decided to be my voice and told everyone what she thought I should be saying. The result was the whole family standing round and staring down at me – not a really comfortable situation.
Eventually the gelli left and I had a great trip with the family who were really keen on trying to understand my every action – which involved regularly trying to chat to me in a language I didn’t understand. A really beautiful experience because they really were so kind. I was at least able to play with the babies which made for a fun ride.
Once at the ferry I said farewell to the family and by chance met up with some Agriculture volunteers, one being a VSO that I knew. The group was mostly from Canada and over to share farming experiences with the villagers. The ferry ride was most interesting however because right at the very end it crashed. I was sitting near a window and watching the ferry pull up to a dock because we had arrived at the same time as another ferry was unloading. I noticed the dock getting close and didn’t think anything of it until I saw the Gambians frantically moving their children away from the window. Luckily, I moved too and about the same time there was a big bang and the window smashed. It really wasn’t too bad and the ferry was still ok. It did give me a fright thought.
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