Sunday 6 April 2014

30.3.14 Sunday. Kumbija



Breakfast at 7am, and on the road for 8am.  The journey to Soma took just over an hour and then we had to wait at the ferry for nearly 2 hours.  The Senegalese traffic has started to build up again and there was quite a queue.  We arrived in Farafenni and bought buckets for the school, and then Tess, Alice, Jack and I went shopping in the market for vegetables for dinner tonight.  Steve and the others went along to the supermarket to buy rice.  All purchases made, we met with Mr Sowe who followed us back to Kumbija to the school.  This is Gordon and Sharon’s first visit since we put the wall around the rest of the playground, so it was a different view for them today. The wall is good for security, but it means that we can no longer see the villagers about their daily business of fetching water and leading the animals out to graze.  The weather is getting hotter now and so after a meeting with Mr Sowe about the progress of the school we all relaxed in the shade for the afternoon until it cooled down about 4.30pm.  Into the minibus with Steve driving we went  round to Farato to visit Ousman’s family.  We had taken bubbles and balls and so all the children played for an hour or so before we went outside to look at the new machine. Sharon had raised money last year for a milling machine which has been installed in a shed outside Ousman’s compound and is used every afternoon for milling millet, maize and cous.  Alagie from Kumbija operates the machine and ladies from the surrounding villages bring their cereals to be ground into flour.  The ladies from Farato are running this as a business and are hoping to save enough money to pay for some of the children to go on to further education.  Alagie arrived and started the machine, which was very noisy, ladies and young adults started to arrive with bags and bowls of cereal and the work began.  Lots of photographs were taken as the flour was produced and the customers made their way home.  We then said our goodbyes to the family and made our way back to the school for the evening where we all had a shower before Alagie arrived with the dinner.  The ladies of Farato had donated chicken for our evening meal and two bowls of food arrived as Tess is vegetarian and she got her own dinner.  Dinner over, we sat and chatted before retiring for the night.

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