Fatou, fetch the water

We have a guest post today from David Rose of Red Robin Books, publishers of the Dundee Picture Book Award nominated Fatou, fetch the water, by Neil Griffiths.

Fatou, fetch the water

Fatou, fetch the water by Neil Griffiths

A children’s picture book inspired by a village in The Gambia, was recently nominated for the 2011 Dundee Picture Book Award. Fatou, fetch the water, written by Neil Griffiths, illustrated by Peggy Collins and published by Red Robin Books was one of four books shortlisted for the award run by the Education and the Leisure and Communities Departments in Dundee and voted for by local school children.

Fatou, fetch the water

Fatou, fetch the water by Neil Griffiths

Fatou, fetch the water is set in The Gambia and tells the story of forgetful Fatou, who is asked by her mother to fetch a fresh supply of water from the village well. But will Fatou return from her journey through the village with just water, or with much more than she expected? This charming tale tells of the joys of giving and receiving. It also contains a section of facts about the cultures and traditions of this colourful nation, so children can learn as well as enjoy. There are also free downloadable resources, based around the story available at www.redrobinbooks.com, where you can buy copies online at £6.99. For every copy sold, a donation goes to the Project Gambia charity, helping to improve schools in The Gambia, (www.cornertolearn.co.uk/project-gambia), so you won’t just be getting a great story, you’ll also be helping a great cause.

Author Neil Griffiths in The Gambia

Author Neil Griffiths in The Gambia

Red Robin Books author Neil Griffiths recently travelled to The Gambia to re-visit the village that inspired his picture book. While there, he was able to see the difference that his charity, Project Gambia is making to the community. Its aim is to support and oversee the education and welfare of pre-school children in Gunjur.

At school in The Gambia

At school in The Gambia

After a visit there in 2005, Neil witnessed first-hand the difficult conditions that school children endured. However, he couldn’t help but feel touched by the enthusiasm, optimism and warmth of the children and staff. So Neil set to work establishing Project Gambia which is now in its sixth year. Supporting the TARUD Pre-School in Gunjur, the project has exceeded expectations and has achieved many of its goals, including school and playground expansion, vegetable and flower gardens and a water tower. The charity has also provided opportunities for training and curriculum development to support and resource other schools in the area. Now Project Gambia is looking ahead, setting new goals to achieve, but still in need of support.

For more information on Project Gambia visit www.cornertolearn.co.uk/project-gambia.

A visit to Manduar Lower Basic

Today’s post is from Natalie who is The Gambia Experience’s Commercial Development & Support Manager. She and her 9 year old son, William, recently visited The Gambia and cemented relationships between William’s school in Hedge End, Southampton and Manduar Lower Basic in The Gambia.

Manduar Lower Basic

Natalie and William in class at Manduar Lower Basic

This was my 5th visit to the Gambia in as many years so I was aware of the poverty and basic education system that I was going to encounter, but this was the first time I was taking my son, William, who was 9.

After booking my holiday we started to get involved with the school partnership project relaunched by the School Development Fund regarding linking schools, which children of Gambia Experience UK staff attend, with similar schools in The Gambia.

My son attends Freegounds Junior School, Hedge End, Southampton that has 360 pupils aged between 7 – 11 years. On asking the school whether they would like to partner a school in The Gambia, we were greeted with a resounding ‘yes’ and luckily the head teacher, Mr Malcolm Barrett, a keen ornithologist, had visited The Gambia some years previously with The Gambia Experience, so was keen to follow up on a country he had experienced firsthand and make a difference.

The School Development Fund put us in touch with a similar type of school, Manduar Lower Basic in Manduar about 45 minutes from the tourist area. The school has 364 pupils also aged between 7 – 11 years, so really was as close a match as we could have hoped for.

Before departing the UK, Mr Barratt and Mrs Hawkins from Freegrounds Junior School had looked through the school pack and sorted a fantastic donation of school supplies from pencils, sharpeners, erasers, exercise books, tracing paper, as well as batiks made by Year 4 and letters from each class. In addition, the School Development Fund gave a donation of £50 from which we bought educational posters, flashcards etc.

Our visit was over the Easter break so we liaised with the head teacher, Mr Jammeh, of Manduar Lower Basic and arranged to visit on Wednesday 27th April; little did we know at the time but the school had been closed for the Easter holiday and was due to open on the Thursday, but as they were so keen to meet us all, the teachers and children came in on their holiday – can you imagine that happening in the UK?!

Manduar-Lower-Basic-31

William is welcomed into Manduar Lower Basic in style

On arrival the head teacher greeted us and showed us round the classrooms. I was impressed that each classroom wall was decorated with maps, pictures and lessons all relating to a similar curriculum followed in William’s school, such as telling the time and a pretend shop to learn about money.

The school was only built 8 years ago so compared to some my colleagues had visited recently, was relatively well equipped with blackboards, desks and chairs; however supplies of basics such as exercise books and reading books for the children were lacking. William was greeted by smiling children, sung to and welcomed into classrooms as the star of the show, initially an overwhelming experience, however, once invited to join the obligatory game of football in the ‘playground’ he found himself much more at home!

Mr Barrett, the Headmaster at Freeground Junior School also passed on this message:

With the help of The Gambia Experience, Freegrounds Junior School of Hedge End have entered into a school partnership with Mandura Lower School. The two schools are of similar size with 360 children each. Mandura has eight classroom teachers and Freegrounds has twelve. One of our Year 5 pupils visited Manduar during the Easter holiday and met Mr Jammeh the Headteacher. A parcel of gifts from Freegrounds was gratefully received and the two headteacher’s have been in contact via e-mail.

We look forward to making further links in which the pupils contact each other via the internet and by letter. It is hoped too that in the future, some staff and pupils will visit the The Gambia.

Climbing Kilimanjaro to build a school in The Gambia

In August 2010 Hannah Braye climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in memory of her friend Lucy raising over £1,000. This will go to help build a school in Dairuharu in Brikama and the first classroom being built will be dedicated to Lucy, a former Gambia Experience client.
The following are some highlights from Hannah’s fascinating account of her climb. Her determination is a real inspiration and I’m sure Lucy would be very proud of her. Hannah’s account can be read in full on “Nyodema’s” blogsite.

Alice, Emmanuel and Hannah

Day 1 – Londorossi to Big Tree Camp
So today is the first day of our Kilimanjaro trek. Alice and I met our guide Emmanuel yesterday evening (we are the only two in our walking group). He is 26 years old and has been walking the mountain since he was 17, working his way up from porter to waiter, to cook, to assistant guide and finally guide.

We set off early from the hotel. The jeep ride once we get into the national park is extremely bumpy. I am sat in the back seat; there are only a few inches between the roof and my head, which takes quite a beating. How Alice manages to drop off for a cat nap is beyond me! From the gate where we sign in we can make out Mount Meru’s peak hazy in the distance.

We drive past the local potato farmers who are collecting in their crop and finally alight at the foot of the rain forest in the early afternoon. This is where our adventure begins.

The walk through the rain forest is fairly steep but we take it “Poley Poley” (slowly slowly). At times the pace seems almost ridiculous but Emmanuel tells us it is the best way for us to acclimatize.

Day 2 – Big Tree Camp to Shira 1
The day starts with breakfast of a similar size to last night’s dinner. The porridge is a particular challenge. Tanzanian porridge is brown and very watery the oats have been completely ground up. It tastes of little until large dollops of Tanzanian jam, which is as sweet as opal fruits, are added. The porridge will become a daily challenge for some of us. It takes Alice 3 days to pluck up the courage just to try it. Before we set off the porters of an American group also staying at the camp sing a song about the mountain. It is a song that Emmanuel will sing to us many times as we walk. Some of the lyrics are Akuna Matata (which means no worries in Swahili, as most of you will know from a certain Disney movie about a lion cub). I actually prefer the porter’s song to Elton John’s.

As we head higher the rainforest stops abruptly and turns into alpine forest. The trail is narrow and head high plants grow on either side of us. Now we are out of the forest the sun is hot and trail becomes increasingly steep.

We walk for about 4 hours and as the path gets dustier and steeper I put my camera away in my back pack. Of course a minute later we round the Shira ridge and against the perfect blue sky we catch our first glimpse of Kibo, the Kilimanjaro summit, its white glaciers glinting in the distance.

We are camping at Shira 1 camp on the plateau which is at 3500m. At this altitude even just turning over in your sleeping bag gets you out of breath. This coupled with the 4 ½ litres of water we have drunk during the day and the diamox tablets we are taking to prevent altitude sickness (the main side effects of which are tingling hands and feet and an inexplicable need to wee continuously) makes for a broken nights sleep.

Day 3 – Shira 1 to Shira 2
Today we are doing an easy walk for 3-4 hours across the plateau. It is one of the acclimatisation days built into our route to give us the best chance at reaching the summit. The plants in the moorland are beautiful and Emmanuel laughs at how many photos I stop and take.
The sun is very strong today and Alice and I both start to burn despite using factor 40 sun block. As we near the edge of the plateau we realise why. We are above the clouds! They stretch out below us, soft, white and fluffy, the kind that you just want to roll around in. I remark that it’s like looking out of an aeroplane window. Emmanuel is intrigued to know whether planes have windows and whether you can open them. He says he hopes to fly someday. We discuss some of the places he could go and suggest England, although he seems unsure about the weather. It’s a bit of a reality check given how much we take just getting on a plane and hopping to another country for granted. I really hope he gets to fly one day.

Day 4 – Shira 2 to Barranco Camp
Today is a harder days walking. We are ascending to 4600m before dropping back down to 3850 to camp, as this will help us to acclimatize. As we climb steadily higher the moorland fades out into rocky terrain with large boulders scattered about and not much growing. Alice isn’t feeling well with the altitude at this height and it is a bit of a wake up call that this isn’t just a lovely little walk we are doing.

As we walk Emmanuel teaches us some Swahili. His favourite phrase is ‘poa kachizi coma dizi’, (pronounced porky cheesy camondeesy). This translates as ‘super cool like crazy banana’. We think something maybe lost in the translation! We teach Emmanuel ‘easy peasy lemon squeezy’ in return – something I come to regret on summit night when, whilst I have my head between my legs in an attempt not to pass out, Emmanuel insists the walk is easy peasy lemon squeezy! My favourite Swahili phrase I have learnt so far is ‘la la salama’ which means sleep well, which I certainly did that evening after the exertions of the day.

Day 5 – Barranco to Karanga Camp
One of the strangest effects of the altitude are the crazy dreams that you have. The sleep is much lighter and I find I am having 3 or 4 memorable dreams a night.

The start of today’s walk was not so much of a walk as a climb up the cliff face opposite camp. The fact that there are no photos of this part of the trek is testament to how steep the trail was.

The rest of the walk is up and down, up and down for about 3 hours. We climb to 4200m but descend to 4100m to camp at Karanga, which in Swahili apparently means peanut. It feels like we are camped on the edge of the world.

As we are camping higher than we have before the wind is much stronger. Most of our tents don’t have any pegs and the porters use large rocks to pin them down. During dinner the mess tent takes a real battering and it feels at one point like it might actually be blown off the mountain. A miniature dust storm swirls up around us from the floor and our food becomes all of a sudden crunchy. We each hang on to a corner of the tent with one hand and a pole/plate/table or whatever we can get hold of with the other. It is at this point that Matt decides to break into a rendition of Gloria Gayner’s ‘I Will Survive’ at the top of his voice which sends us all into hysterics and bowls and plates flying.

Day 6 – Karanga to Barafu Camp
Today is only 3 hours walk up to 4600m as we need to rest in the afternoon for the summit attempt tonight, although the trail is quite steep.

Barafu means ice in Swahili, which is extremely fitting. There aren’t many redeeming features to Barafu. The wind is biting cold and so noisy. The terrain is like being on the moon, thick dust swirls into the air and is constantly in your eyes and throat. Even the ravens don’t inhabit Barafu. The wind is so strong our toilet tent stands no chance of staying upright and the long drops are positioned right on the edge of an exposed ridge so that the wind howls under the tin roof and a blasting ice draft blows up from underneath you. There is however a beautiful view of the neighbouring mountain. It is also over 5000m but it is a technical climb so not many people attempt it. Its peaks look like the turrets of a castle and it reminds me a little of Tryfan in North Wales.

At our early dinner we stock up on carbohydrates and I think the nerves start to show on everyone as we prepare for summit night. We go to our tents and attempt to sleep but at this altitude and with the wind shaking the tent continuously around us I’m not able to drop off. If I reach the summit I will already have been awake for 24 hours.

We gather in the mess tent at 11pm for tea and biscuits. Alice and I polish off an entire bar of dairy milk in preparation for what lies ahead. One might have thought that I was fairly prepared for the summit. I had fared well so far, not suffering with any symptoms of altitude. I had taken double the dose of diamox to the previous days, as instructed and I was toasty warm, my summit outfit consisting of 2 pairs of thermal leggings, walking trousers, waterproof trousers, 4 layers of thermal tops, a thick fleece, a down jacket, a waterproof jacket, 2 pairs of gloves, a fleece hat and a ski mask. But I’m not sure anything can fully prepare you for summit night!

We start off ‘poley poley’ as ever. The moon is only one night short of full and the path is illuminated in front of us. Emmanuel and Frank don’t use head torches. However we’ve only been walking an hour or so when the queasiness sets in. This can be controlled fairly easily by continuous burping but Frank has to carry Alice’s backpack for her from early on. As we pass 5000m I start to feel light headed. I have a pocket full of sweets which I munch on continuously in an attempt to keep my blood sugar up (apparently it plummets drastically at extreme altitude). The further we go the more the yellow dots start to dance in front of my eyes to the point when I can hardly see the floor below me and with every step I feel as though I could pass out. Emmanuel doesn’t let us rest long, constantly calling “twende twende” (lets go, lets go), as the trail is extremely exposed to the wind and there are few places to shelter. Soon I too have to surrender my back pack to him to. The temperature drops to -15 degrees. The first things I lose feeling in are my hands, then my feet and face. It’s around this time that I start to compose the email in my head…the email explaining to everyone who had sponsored me that I didn’t make it to the top.

It is only down to Emmanuel and Frank and the way they look after us that we manage to struggle on through the next few hours. Frank does up my shoes laces when my hands stop working because of the cold. They give us their walking poles and head torch when mine runs out, rub our hands to get the feeling back, get the water from my back pack (the only bottle that hasn’t frozen solid) and pour it in to our mouths. And all the while Emmanuel sings to us.

Gradually my head starts to clear slightly. I think my brain can only concentrate on either the cold or the lack of oxygen but not both at the same time. We find our rhythm. We’ve been walking for 5 hours at this point but all I have is what feels like a few minutes of conscious memory. Just as I start to fear the mountain may be starting to get the better of me again, Emmanuel announces that we are nearing Stellar Point, where we join the crater rim. From there it is only 45 minutes to an hour to Uhuru Peak, the summit. The timing is perfect to give us hope. I know that if I can make it to Stellar point there’s no way I won’t make it to the summit, I’ll have come too far. However, Emmanuel may have been a little premature in his announcement as it feels another age before I look up from the floor to realise we are on the rim and Emmanuel is gathering us together for a group hug. It’s 5am.

Up on the summit the temperature falls further to -20 degrees. It’s so cold that the boiled sweets I’m sucking won’t melt in my mouth anymore and I have to spit them out. As we follow the edge of the crater round there are dark shapes appearing all around us and icicles grow vertically up from the floor.

Unlike the last 5 hours the last hour passes in a heartbeat as I anticipate the exhilaration of reaching the top. And all of a sudden we are there!

With the light comes a feeling of great joy and achievement and another round of hugs. It also illuminates the precarious nature of our journey around the crater rim at times!

I feel like I could stay on the top of the mountain forever. But it is still well below freezing and we have to keep moving. We begin the long descent down. If I didn’t know that only an hour or so earlier I had walked up the same path I never would have guessed. The mountain is thick dust that your feet sink down into. All I have the energy to feel is relief that I made it. The sun becomes increasingly hot and slowly the feeling returns to my extremities in a flash of pins and needles, all except the fingers of my right hand, which stubbornly remain numb for the next week!

So now the adventure is over and I reflect on it all. We’ve been through a lot, wind, rain, glaring heat and dust storms. There have been tears (me secretly at the top), singing and a lot of laughter. We are filthy, bedraggled and greasy. There have been the inevitable toilet issues along with nosebleeds, black toenails, sunburn and an awful lot of snot. It is impossible to hang on to much dignity when walking Kilimanjaro. But as Alex so rightly put it at our last meal together, you regain it all and more when you reach to the top.

El Parrandon 2010 – fundraising for The Gambia

El Parrandon 2010

El Parrandon 2010 - fundraising for The Gambia

We featured two of Natalia Finfando’s posts on the blog in the past – Making a Difference parts 1 and 2 – both of which detailed her time volunteering in a Gambian school. The posts proved very popular and we had a strong response with people wanting to help and looking to volunteer themselves. Well now Natalia has joined a charity, Let The Children Live, that seeks to raise money for children in The Gambia and Kenya, and there’s a fundraising party on June 19th at The Latin Corner in north London. If you’re around and fancy some tapas and Latin American music long into the night then go along. It’s for a good cause! You can find out more at the Muthurwa Foundation website.

Stuck in The Gambia because of volcanic ash … and school starts on Monday!

A guest post by Caitlin Phillips-Ennis (age 11) – reproduced with permission of ‘Drumbeat’, the newsletter of the charity Fotga (Friends of the Gambia Association).

Dear Drumbeat,

This Easter I visited The Gambia for the 3rd time. There were 9 of us – 6 grown ups and 3 kids and we all had rooms next to each other at the Senegambia Hotel. We had a fantastic holiday enjoying the hot sunshine, the beach and swimming pools, the lizards, birds, monkeys and vultures, long lunches at Ali Baba’s and great nights out (Jo Jo’s, Scala, Tao, Kora) Our Gambian friends made us very welcome and I was so happy to see my sponsored child (Mammy) again. We had 4 years of news to catch up on so we had lots to talk about!

Of course our holiday went far too quickly. Mum and Dad had to go home on Tuesday but I was staying on with Nanny and Grandad for 3 more days. I waved to the plane as it flew over the Senegambia and shouted “See you on Friday!” then I jumped in the pool again.

But I didn’t see them on Friday. Because of the volcano in Iceland we had to stay in The Gambia (what a shame) and we didn’t know when we would be back in England (oh well, never mind!) We kept in touch via e-mail and on Sunday Mum reminded me that I was supposed to be back at school in Ashtead on Monday morning. When Nanny suggested that I went to school with Mammy in The Gambia instead, Mum and Dad assumed she was joking, but I thought it was a brilliant idea!

Caitlin and friends in class

So at 8am on Monday morning I arrived at Serrekunda Lower Basic School and was welcomed by the Headmaster. When Mammy arrived she took me to her classroom and I met the other 49 children in her class and sat down at my desk. The first lesson was Science (the skeleton and muscular system) followed by Maths (fractions and percentages) The teacher was very strict and expected everyone to work very hard. Anyone who talked during the lesson had to go to the front and put their hands out so that he could hit them with a stick. I was definitely on my best behaviour in his lesson! At break time Mammy looked after me and we shared our food with each other. After lessons in English (writing sentences) and Quantitive (reasoning) the afternoon pupils (another 50) started to arrive and my Gambian school day was over.

What an amazing experience! Thank you to Mammy, her mum Binta, everyone at Serrekunda Lower Basic School, Doudou – the best driver in The Gambia, Mr Bah’s nephew for the art lessons and all the staff at the Senegambia Hotel and The Gambia Experience. But most of all, thanks to the Icelandic volcano for the extra fun I had and to my Nanny and Grandad (True Friends of The Gambia) for showing me this amazing country and its people.

Jerejef
Caitlin (aka Khaddy)

Caitlin and Mammy