13.1.14 Monday. Serrekunda market

Today we took Mell and Jim down to Naata to see first hand one of the Charity schools.  We arrived at break time and were mobbed by the many pupils here, before the bell was rung and they went into their respective classrooms.  Mell wanted to hear some of the songs that Faith had taught them a few weeks ago, so Abi took some of Abdoulies class into the playground whilst Steve and I took the younger class and gave them jigsaws and building bricks to play with.  We stayed until school finished as I had arranged to take Mariama shopping for bowls for the childrens lunches.  Abdoulie came along to translate and the 6 of us set off for Serrekunda market.  When we arrived the road was blocked by a marquee as yesterday had been a religious festival and prayers were still being said today, so we were unable to drive through to the market so Mell, Jim, Abdoulie, Mariama and I got out of the truck and continued on foot.  What a first day experience for our friends, the market is chaotic at the best of times and was busier than ever today, also extremely hot as it was just before 2pm.  We found a pot stall eventually, however it was such a long way back to the truck  with heavy purchases, that I only bought the pots for Naata and not the others I had wanted. We fought our way back to the truck, dropped off Abdoulie and Mariama and then continued on the main road to my hairdresser where they dropped me and went off shopping on their own, they were then going back to the house to collect Ruth and John.  We had all arranged to meet at 5pm for a sunset meal and so I got a taxi down to meet everyone when I had finished at the salon.  Dinner over, we crammed 4 of us into the back seat of the truck, with Jim in the front (he is over 6 foot) and returned home where I found that Steve had organised a satellite dish to be fitted so we can get the news! They had left the electrician fitting the cables but unfortunately he had run the black wire straight down the newly painted cream wall in the lounge, which was a bit of an eyesore – so a job for the morning for Steve and Kebba!