Month: March 2019

25th February 2019

Gambians are warm, friendly people who have been brought up in the old British colonial tradition. Whenever you pass someone on the street or enter a public area such as a shop or a restaurant, perfect strangers – including small children – will greet you very politely.

Stranger: Morning – morning!

Self: Good morning.

Stranger: How are you?

Self: I’m good. How are you?

Stranger: Fine. How der family?

Self: They’re fine.

Stranger: How der morning?

Self: It’s good. How’s yours?

Of course by the time you have gone through this exchange, the stranger is halfway down the road and doesn’t really hear your replies. These exchanges with total strangers seemed rather weird and unnecessary at the beginning but I now find them quite charming and worry that I’ll make Sri Lankans freak out by trying to engage them in this dialogue when we return home….!

Another bizarre thing is that Gambians, and also Africans in general, do not seem to say ‘goodbye’ to each other. Whether it is a morning exchange like the one described above or as one is leaving school at the end of the day, Africans never seem to use the word ‘bye’ to end their conversations with people. So I have made repeated gaffes by saying cheerily ‘Ok then, bye! See you later / tomorrow/ on Monday’ etc and then become keenly aware of the uncomfortable silence that follows my words. I’m really not sure why people here don’t seem to use any words of farewell and can only surmise that it is linked to a sort of superstitious belief that saying ‘goodbye’ might precipitate bad luck and one might never see that person alive again.

I have also started liking the way Africans end their sentences with an ‘o’ – as in…..

Me: Why is it so loud in the art class today?

African Colleague: Sometimes they do practical projects like tie-and-dye.

Me: But the kids are screaming outside and I can’t do my lesson.

African Colleague: But that’s what it’s like here-o!

I have been told that Nigerians speak ‘Pidgin’ and Sierra Leoneans speak ‘Krio’ both of which are a corrupted version of English that has developed in different parts of west Africa. My Sierra Leonean friend and colleague helps me understand a bit of Krio by speaking slowly and identifying the many English words that are scattered throughout their sentences. Since 95% of people in Sierra Leone speak Krio, I have come to think of it as a great unifier (as opposed to looking down on it as ‘pidgin English’!) since any Sierra Leonean from whatever tribe, race or religion can clearly communicate with each other.

Now I wish Sri Lankans too had a form of language like Krio – it has so much potential to bring people together through a common medium of communication!

1st March 2019

It started off as a normal ‘Thank God It’s Friday!’ (aka TGIF) day with the male staff coming in dressed in traditional garb because many of them go off straight from school to mosque for Friday prayers. School closes early due to this so everybody is in a more relaxed mood because they all consider the weekend to begin on Friday at noon!

I myself have an even better deal because I only teach the first two periods on a Friday so – eat your heart out, everybody! – my own weekend starts as early as 10:00 am on a Friday!

I usually use the rest of Friday to catch up on my marking and put finishing touches to whatever I have started during that week so that’s what I was doing in my little office when the thunderbolt dropped out of a clear blue sky!

During the last half hour of school, I heard teachers talking in urgent voices and stepped out of my room to see them walking out of their classes and converging on the common paved area in the middle of the High School. It turned out that there was a commotion near the front gate.

The word quickly spread that the 13 year old boy who had been expelled from Marina High School in the first week of February for engaging in under-age driving after the school’s cross country run (he was spinning a rented car in front of the school entrance thereby endangering the lives of the other students who were gathered outside the school gates) had returned to school with a court order.

Soon after his expulsion, his mother came into school and threw a huge tantrum demanding that her son be taken back by the Head and when he politely declined to do so, she swore at him and screamed vengeance saying ‘Allah will punish you!’

She also threatened him with dire consequences saying ‘I am Gambian. Wait and see what I will do to you!’

However, the Head of High School and the Board stood by their decision not to re-admit the boy into Marina.

This woman had somehow managed to obtain an injunction from a High Court judge who ordered the Head to let the boy back into Marina or shut the school down. William did neither and by late morning a black car with dark tinted windows and without number plates (yikes!) had drawn up outside the school entrance and three paramilitary men walked forcibly past the security guards and into the school to try to arrest him for contempt of court. We all assumed that they were the police since they were dressed in dark blue-black uniforms. However, they were not policemen – they were a paramilitary squad. Unbelievable!

The fire alarm was rung to get all the students and teachers out of class and onto the playing field where William addressed the gathering and told them that he was compelled to close the school for the day and asked the kids to tell their parents to check their mail over the weekend because they would be sent an email informing them about when school would be re-opened.

That’s when we all realised that things had become serious and all the teachers gathered together in front of the administration building to hustle the paramilitary men away from William. My old allergy towards all military personnel emerged and I raised my voice and asked them to ‘bugger off our campus’. They looked shocked at the angry reaction of all the teachers as all 60 plus staff surrounded them while a few of us closed the door to the Head’s office and stood guard in front of it.

As the paramilitary men were hustled off towards the entrance gates, the students rushed forward after them hooting and stopped at the front gate laughing as they hastily clambered back into their black car. The kids spontaneously broke out into the Marina school song which I have never heard sung with such gusto and feeling before!

The Chairperson of the Board of Governors who is herself a Justice of the High Court arrived within minutes and advised the Head to answer the court summons. So a lawyer parent who had also arrived at the school drove William to the High Court in the capital city Banjul. The teachers all rallied as one and also made their way to the High Court as did Paul and Rai and me who were given a ride by another parent.

We all sat outside the room where the High Court was in session and waited for a couple of hours until a decision was reached. No one could remember such a thing ever happening in the history of The Gambia over the expulsion of one child. And certainly not on a Friday afternoon!

When the Head of the High School finally walked out of the court room, we couldn’t believe what we heard. He was out on bail with the case being fixed for the 18th of March – and one of the bail conditions was that he had to re-admit the boy to Marina School. We were all simply incredulous.

Everyone returned to the school and met in the main hall where we all expressed solidarity with William. He asked the teachers to meet and decide what they wanted to do on Monday and said that he couldn’t tell us what to do because it had to be our decision.

There followed a heated discussion in the staff room and it was agreed that we all signed a petition stating that we were not willing to have the boy in the school and would refuse to teach him in our classes.

Meanwhile the parents and Board members continued their meeting in the hall and made a decision to close the school on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th March in order to file for a restraining order from the court to stop the student returning to the school – and to re-open Marina school on Wednesday 6th March.

Teachers and parents were sent emails over this weekend informing them of this decision. So we are looking at a four day weekend now and planning for any eventuality that might take place when we return to school on the Wednesday.

28th February 2019

It’s hard to believe that it’s the last day of the month and February 2019 has already gone down the chute! It started off well with lots of fun days in school (with Extra Curricular Clubs raising money for charity and a cross country fun run) and plenty of running water in the house. We then had a very welcome mid-term break with a five day holiday that included the Gambia’s Independence Day on February 18th.

The Gambian flag’s red stripe stands for the sun, the blue for River Gambia and the green for the forests of The Gambia. The white stripes stand for the peace and unity that binds them altogether and makes one country of all the different tribes (Mandinka, Wolof) and religions (Islam & Christianity).

The High School had an interesting Science Fair last Saturday afternoon where families could come and check out the High School kids’ projects and watch them take part in a mini-robotics competition. 

But it was all downhill after that with NAWEC seeming to be very mean with their regular water supply during the last week of February so that at the time of writing this post, we have been without a drop of water in our taps for five days at a stretch!

Paul and I started our new fitness regime walking through the neighbourhood after school three days a week.

We walk down the sandy stretch of road alongside our house which falls onto Atlantic Boulevard (in reality, a small tarred road with very little traffic!) which hugs the rugged coastline of Fajara. We then branch off down any of the sandy country lanes that criss cross the area and wander down beautiful paths that cut across forested areas back to Garba Jahumpa Highway (actually just another tarred road with only slightly more traffic than Atlantic Boulevard!) and then back home.

It does get to us though when we have to return home and carry heavy buckets of water through the house just to have a bath afterwards. But hey, what the heck – this is Africa!!

We had the annual High School Science Fair on Saturday 23rd February 2019. It was well organised by the Head of School and a very hardworking committee and turned out to be a resounding success.