It's eerie and quiet at the Academy today as the boys and some of the staff have gone home for Christmas. Laura and I are not returning to the UK however, we are off to The Gambia for Christmas and New Year.
In October half term a few of us visited the Banana Islands for a day out. We only went to one of the islands, Dublin, where we visited the beach and had lunch.
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| Where we live in Tombo is marked 'A' |
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| The Banana Islands from Kent Beach |
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| The Beautiful Kent Beach |
We had a nice morning on our own beach followed by lunch, the boat back and then our favourite game of where's the cab.
Taxi's are one of my biggest frustrations out here. When they are not trying to charge white folk a 500% mark up for journeys, they are almost never where we agreed them to be at a set time or are not answering their phones when we do try and invite them back to where they should be collecting us from. We thought of a foolproof way of dealing with this which is to pay at the end of the return journey but all that has really meant is that they don't do return journey and then arrive at the Academy in the evening claiming the first fare. Aghhhhhh!!!
It's not just taxis that have left me a little frustrated though. In order to make our house a little more secure, we needed to get a little bit of welding done on our back door. The welder arrived bang on time, looked at the job in hand, got some metal and got his tools out. At the end of his machine were two wires which he jammed into my kitchen plug socket (having forced a pen into the top pin) to get it working. One minute of welding then took place before the machine cut out. He's blown the fuse. In fact he's blown my fuse so none of my plug sockets worked down one side of my house. He asked for another socket. I politely indicated that I didn't want the rest of my house to befall the same fate and that I need electricity and I sent him packing with transport money and then called the electrician. T.I.A. as we say - "This is Africa".
Back at the Academy we welcomed a new volunteer teacher at half term, Daniel, and what a God send he has been. Daniel has taught GCSE Maths and Biology courses to our first generation and done a brilliant job too.
The boys have continued to surprise and delight me this half term, most of them are so studious it puts many UK students to shame. CBF students realise how fortunate they are to have free secondary education and this opportunity to also work on their football and possibly become a professional footballers. For too many students I have met at home, school is something done to them in some kind of spiteful act.
During a rare free afternoon in exam week I was able to take the education team down to the beach during the week...something we can never do normally. I've been really blessed with these great guys.
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| Team Education. Liverpool shirt not mine...honest. |
And finally we had a Christmas party and then a Christmas 'bash' where the students performed their plays and dances they had been working on in project time since December. They didn't disappoint either, I think we have uncovered some real talent as well as seeing what some of these boys look like in drag.
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| The boys surprised Mr Kian by coming to the party in all his clothes |
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| A Christmas dinner of sorts |
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| Playing ladies...quite well |
So that was our first full term at CBF Academy. Laura and I are very excited about our holiday in the Gambia and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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