Ai Dia Ai Lama Lama – Nice to be Nice

Monday 2nd February.

There is something quite different about a Gambian sunset. Whether its the beach bar I’m currently sat in writing this, the fishermen taking in their last catch of the day further up the beach or the Atlantic waves crashing onto the shore in harmony with the African drumming practice. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Nevertheless it’s special.

Over the past two weeks we’ve settled into our Gambian lives pretty easily. We’ve got into a school routine in the week now which is giving us a focus and drive to make a real difference in the community. Outside of school, last week was a chance to find out about any projects in the area that needed help, play in a huge family football match and get far too addicted to a Nigerian soap opera called Mauraina.

Two weeks ago we observed life at the school and got an idea of how everything works. It didn’t take us long to realise that we could make a lot of difference here, not necessarily through our teaching skills but more for the fact that English is our first language and for the students who, for the most part, speak mostly Mandinka, it’s a great opportunity to learn the language from interaction and not from a text book.

We’re quickly discovering that the main meeting spot for a catch up and drink in town is a little place known as ‘Kala Kalas’, or known as the ‘Place of Dreams’ among the gunjur people. We’ve spent many a night here trying to explain to our Gambian friends an array of english sayings. Our highlights have to be ‘spiffing’, ‘lush’ and ‘sick’.

The girls and I have planned all of our weekends up until we leave in order to see all the attractions that Gambia has to offer and much more. Our plans include going to the reggae music festival in Kartong and visting James Island which was the holding place for slaves on their way to America many years ago.

Last week was our cue to take on our teaching responsibilities and I’m determined to make loads of improvements. Having just had a recent end of topic test with only 2 passes, its clear that they need our help! If I said I wasn’t apprehensive about teaching, I’d be lying. However once you get into the topic and try your best to get your message across to the students its becomes almost like a dramatical performance which is not an alien environment to me.

It’s been great to meet other volunteers out here from ‘Volnet’ which is a German volunteering program also based in Gunjur. They have their own compound near the beach called ‘Benna Kunda’ and every Tuesday they have invited us to look after a children’s activity afternoon. We had near enough 40 kids all running around, drawing, painting and much more on Tuesday so to say we were tired at the end of the day was an understatement. This is exactly what I had envisaged when I was planning to volunteer in Africa. The kids are just so inspirational to be around. No matter the standard of living, the home life and level of poverty – they all still had huge smiles on their faces. I was taken back when a little boy was telling me about his life in the village and he told me a Gambian phrase that I’ll keep with me – Ai Dia Ai Lama Lama – Its nice to be nice.

The school is made up of an older section and a new block of classrooms that was built in 2012 as part of the Happy Gunjur Project. Each of us have been given 2 classes and it’s been difficult sometimes to strike a balance between being strict and relaxed as if I came across too strong with the maths they would instantly lose interest. A lot of the teaching is done by writing an example on the black board and working through it together. I find that if I give them classwork that they either get confused or find it difficult to resist distractions from other people. Just like it took a while to get used to Mr Lorrain at St Francis, it’s taking a while to get used to responding to Mr Bojang which is my Gambian surname.

The end of the week meant I could go to the bike project on the outskirts of Gunjur to buy my African companion for my 3 month stay. I’m still deciding on a name for the Apollo Carerra bike but the purple go faster stripes are already infamous in the village. The bike project is run by a British NGO and they’ve brought loads across in a container to sell. The money raised goes to the health clinic and local primary school that they are also linked with therefore I didn’t hesitate in handing over the money as I knew it was going to a great cause. Not only did I get a bike but also Anita the director of the MBG arrived in Gunjur on Friday with a package from home containing two necessities in life, shower gel and flapjack. This isn’t any old shower gel though. Radox Sea Salt and lemongrass is one of the best combinations invented by man – up there with strawberries and cream and I have been craving flapjack ever since we arrived in this flapjackless land.

Just as I thought I’d encountered all foods in the Gambia, I was greeted on Saturday evening by a bowl of rice pudding for my dinner. Not wanting to appear rude I asked my friend to eat it quickly without the cook seeing and 10 minutes later I of course thanked her for an excellent meal… Apart from this minor setback the food has actually been okay. It is for the most part, fish and rice meals with the occasional corned beef, chicken and chips. Breakfast is now a highlight of the day with a choice of fresh bananas, apples and grapefruits all growing around my house and I am having to grin and bare the powdered milk. Last week however I noticed that some of my biscuits had been disappearing quite regularly. I asked around and everyone in the compound was on Def Con 5 level security. Much to the amusement of the whole family, the culprit was Baby Fatou, a 4 year old girl, caught behind the house with a whole slab of my cadburys dairy milk.

It was such a relief to have a beach day yesterday as its been yet another chaotic week, with us finally getting to grips with the lifestyle out here. I’ve managed to tick a lot of things off my checklist such as buying a bike and finding a surfboard, the latter of which me and a volunteer from Volnet are planning to make new wooden fins and make it ‘surfable’. This week we’ve got a lot on with construction work at a local beach bar, painting at the local primary school and heading up the marketing of a new Bee farm selling honey and bee wax. Not to mention this weekend we’ve got sports day at the school and the biggest African music festival at Kartong on Friday and Sunday. As Lamin, our Gambian friend, would say, ‘It’s going to be a spiffing week!!