Thank you Tamarside

Hi to everyone from a baking hot Gambia

This week has seen me rushed off my feet, teaching in the mornings and out every afternoon supporting local projects run by other organisations.

Very happy to be supporting a new library facility in Bakoteh run by Sheikh E T Lewis and his team.

They also run an International Centre for Street Children and Child Trafficking.

Modou and I went along to visit the place and had no hesitation at all in donating a variety of reading books at all levels to support the facility.

Mr Lewis is a Human Rights activist and very interesting person to talk to.


I shall enjoy my visits there. A small delegation came to us from Gambia College, the teacher training institute here.

We filled their truck with boxes of text books and teaching materials donated by Tamarside Community College.

I'll be visiting the College tomorrow to see the items on site and to meet the Head of Education. Suleiman Bah, one of the students I sponsored for three years in Kerewan Samba Sira is now training to be a teacher at the college so the link is especially important for me.


That's all the hard work we are doing, the fun stuff is blowing bubbles with the children in the mornings!

Pictured is Hildegard Thaler, one of our volunteers, back again this year to help us. We all love her!



Until next time,
best wishes
Debbie

Visitors Galore!

The past few weeks have seen us welcome lots of visitors from Plymouth escaping the cold and enjoying the guaranteed Gambian sunshine. Simon and Heather Judge donated much-needed gardening tools last year and came to see them in action. Heather had all the children dancing and Simon added a few more snaps to the 700 he had already taken on their visits around the local area. Tracey Thorn and her daughter Perrie Renzi and friend Keira Wilshaw, Year 9 students at Ridgeway School visited the school and taught the children with some brilliant resources they had prepared back in Plymouth. The children loved it and I think I may have found replacements for me when I go back to the UK in the Spring!
A special visitor who spent two weeks living in a mud hut on our compound was intrepid Herald photographer, Lucy Blake who conquered her fear of monkeys and crocodiles by photographing them up close and personal! Lucy was amazing, the children are still asking for her and I, personally, miss her cheerful nature and "muck-in" approach. She fetched water, lit fires, painted the school door and ably assisted with the children.
I look forward to meeting up with Lucy back in Plymouth in the Spring; she's promised to cook me a meal (in an oven I think, not on an open fire!). I've just dropped a further 3 kilos, having had malaria twice in two months. I think I'm over it now but it's been a long haul getting back to normal (well as normal as I'm likely to get anyway!).
Have had a few blips with the numbers of children attending school as a new nursery school opened in the village and many parents sent their children there to get the free uniform and school lunch, even though they were already registered with our school. I felt disappointed initially and then realised that it is far nicer teaching twenty to twenty-five rather than trying to manage forty-plus. As long as they are all in school, I don't mind where it is.
Till next time,
best wishes
Debbie

Happy New Year from Gambia

A cheery message from The sunny Gambia to wish all the Herald readers a very Happy and Prosperous New Year and to thank you for your continued support in 2010.
We are lucky to have Lucy Blake, Herald Photographer joining us for a couple of weeks later this month.
You'll be able to read all about how she gets on on her adventurous trip to the African bush when she returns with lots of wonderful pics to show you all.
Here are a few of my amateur efforts, hope they bring a smile to your faces.
Lots of love and best wishes from Debbie, Modou and their friends and family in The Gambia.

Blogging from a dry, sunny Gambia.

The rainy season is finally over, time to survey the damage done by the rain and wind and undertake repairs to fencing, buildings and roofs.

We have installed a water pump, pipes and taps and now need to find some dosh to erect the water tank we bought.

It has to go up at least 5-6 metres to ensure good water pressure and will transform our lives and give the school kids clean running water and a good supply for watering the bananas and vegetable projects.

All going well with our new website, lots of you have looked at it and we invite more of you to see what we are up to by logging onto www.gambianprojects.com.

A massive thanks to the women's group at Onward House, Greenbank who are linked up with us here in The Gambia.

They held a fundraising jumble sale for us and raised 56 pounds; that will go a long way over here.

Thank you ladies for your support.

Thank you too for the seeds, tea bags and sure deodorant!

Yesterday I took 13 nursery age children to the local beach for a splash in the sea.

For six of them it was the first time they had seen the sea the the look of surprise and enjoyment on their faces was an absolute picture.

Will upload some of our latest pictures next time I blog.

Bye for now and stay warm!

Best wishes

Debbie

Frogs, rats and mozzies!

Hello everyone from The Dark Continent!

Next year when I return to Plymouth for my annual Spring visit please ensure I stay there until the rainy season has finished in The Gambia.

It is simply a nightmare. Water is still pouring through the roof of my mud hut due to an infestation of rats in the grass roof.

They keep us awake at night munching away metres above our heads; what goes in one end must come out the other and delightful brown stains now decorate our newly whitewashed walls, not quite the same effect it might have on Changing Rooms with a designer's creative touch but once the rains stop next month we should be able to rectify everything.

The night time chorus of frogs croaking away in the pools of water outside the compound add to the nocturnal symphony and with the irritating mozzies and ants nipping at me at frequent intervals I have to say, I am missing my home town at present.

Modou my husband had a horrific car accident in July and wrote off our vehicle; I now have to wait hours in the pouring rain for local transport which often doesn't run when the waters are high, trudging through calf-deep mud and wading through stagnant water to go and buy something simple like loo roll or water.

I must have been mad to put myself through this!

The other side of the coin is seeing the beautiful smiles of happy children, attending school for the first time in their lives (one of my pupils is 14 and has just learned how to use a ruler, three are 10 years old, the rest are 3-7 years old).

Hearing them singing English songs and repeating absolutely everything I say, leaving the school chatting away to each other in broken English, makes the insect bites and the discomfort less of an issue.

Until next time

Debbie

From Plymouth to Banjul

If you are a resident of the South West, please don't ever complain about the rain! The rainy season here beats the UK climate hands down, absolutely torrential, flooding everywhere and the accompanying wind destroys fences, roofs and anything portable!

So next time you feel a little drizzle, enjoy its light refreshing effect and think of me watching the water pour down the inside of my house as I run about placing buckets, bowls and anything vaguely ressembling a receptacle under the deluge.

The journey over from Gatwick to Banjul was an interesting experience this time.

Four burly security guards and two armed police bundled on two handcuffed fighting and kicking deportees at the last minute, shoving them into seats at the rear of the aircraft, much to the horror and panic of the surrounding passengers including many small children who ended up crying.

Not quite what the tourists were expecting as a start to their relaxing break in the beautiful Gambia. Luckily the authorities at the Banjul side had everything in hand and the situation was much calmer and controlled on arrival there.

Please check out the new website coming shortly at www.gambianprojects.com and many thanks to Danny and Shauna Templeton of Latchbrook, Saltash for their kind assistance with setting this up for us.

Last year their children and several neighbours donated loads of children's toys, books and clothes which have been enjoyed by the village kids here. I was really touched by the kids kindness and thoughtfulness as they handed over much loved toys to help their African friends who have so little.

Thank You kids from your little Gambian friends, they'll be writing to you soon.

One door closes, another opens....

Today I sit at my keyboard feeling very sad; it's not the drizzle and the grey sky causing this, it's a meeting I had this week with some lovely people which has effected my normally bubbly, smily mood.

I was invited into Sparkwell All Saints Primary School to meet the staff and children. I was shown around a beautiful school with amazing resources in a picturesque setting on the edge of the moor.

The students were delightful, well-behaved, polite and very switched on to the outside world, asking intelligent and sensible questions about my experiences and the way of life in The Gambia.

The working atmosphere was calm, orderly and productive and the children were happily working away at their tasks.

The quality of work on display and the organisation of the school was impressive and I have to say I'm known for not being easily impressed!!

So, how come after such a wonderful visit I feel so dismal? This wonderful village school is closing at the end of term due to falling numbers.

What an immense pity and what a shame. It reminds me of the small corner shops being forced out of business by the huge supermarkets, because today that is what schools in the UK are, businesses.

What a pity that good educational practice and fantastic facilities are simply being chucked out. I would like to thank Acting Head Jill Watts and her team and the lovely pupils of Sparkwell Primary school for inviting me to see something amazing before I return to The Gambia in a couple of weeks time.

I am sorry that your school is closing and I do not think that it is right that it should be doing so. Thank you for the lovely ideas and generous donations you have given for the schools in The Gambia.

At least some good will come from this and I thank you all for that.

Barnaby Bear will be happy in his special bed in his mud hut and will provide a lot of joy and interest to the pupils at The Orchard School, Madiana, which will be his new school.

He will learn Mandinka and eat lots of bananas and he'll tell all the children there about the beautiful Devon school he was once in.

If the Gambian children saw Sparkwell Primary School, they would definitely not understand how it could possibly close, but then again, life in The Gambia is so much more simple than here.
Slowly my smile has returned as I shall be doing very soon.