19th March, 2015. Thursday. A Truck at last.

We had power this morning!!  Steve decided to stay at home and check the donated computers whilst Linda, Kebba and I planned to go to Nemasu, and then buy some tiles.  We set off and stopped on the main road to get some air in a tyre, when the phone rang and we were told that the truck was on it’s way and would be at our storeroom in about 15 minutes.  Change of plan!  I dropped Linda at the turntable to take a taxi to Nemasu, Kebba gave the directions to the driver, and then Kebba and I returned home to recruit some local helpers.  We arrived at the storeroom and began to take out the large items for the truck.  Half an hour passed and no truck had arrived, I was beginning to think we would have to put everything back again!  At last the truck arrived and the boys managed to load everything required on to it.  It left us and was making the journey on the south bank as the ferries between Barra and Banjul are still erratic and slow.  Kebba and I then locked the store and set off to buy the tiles for Nemasu.  We eventually reached the school, complete with tiles just before closing time.  Linda and her taxi had got lost on the way, a local boy had joined them and they had gone to two other schools before eventually arriving at Nemasu.  So much building is going on around here that the roads look different every month!  Having found the right school, Linda then spent the morning sitting in each class in turn and observing the teachers, before doing some teaching of her own with them.  We left at school closing time and headed home, Kebba followed an hour later and Steve, Linda and I went for a late lunch at Neils’ bar.  Still no Wifi.

As we are travelling to the provinces again this weekend, we decided to spend an hour or so in the store getting some supplies ready for our 3 rural schools now we have some space to move in there!

Just before 7 Mr Jallow arrived at the store on the way to our house, so we closed up and made our way home.  Our original plan for this week was to visit Mr Jallow at his school tomorrow, but he has a promotion interview in the morning and so he visited us at home.  We spent half an hour chatting and then he left before dark, we wished him good luck for tomorrow. The power was still on! And so after he left we decided to watch a film for the rest of the evening.  The truck had taken the long road via Soma and then doubled back on the north bank, we had a call to say he had delivered the goods at 10pm.

18th March, 2015 Wednesday. Rain!

We slept in this morning as it was dark, cold, grey miserable and cloudy! Very unusual here.  We got up just before nine and then it started to rain, slowly at first and then heavy enough to join the drops together. 

I took Kebba to Nemasu this morning with some more furniture for the new classroom, also to check on supplies and the building work progress.  The carpenter is busy with the roof and should finish today, the masoners will be back tomorrow to do the plastering and the tiles should be fitted this weekend when the pupils are not around.  Kebba and I returned home and then we waited for the flight arrival time for Linda. Usually we have many visitors over the winter months, but this year so many people are frightened by Ebola being present in West Africa, although it is more than 800 miles from here.   I set off for the airport and was delayed twice on the way, the first time at a police check, although vehicles are taxed here each year from the 1^st January, the tax discs are never ready on time and a period of grace is allowed when you can drive with the old disc.  Usually the discs are ready by February and then the police start checking that they are in place sometime in March, today they were checking every vehicle on the airport road, those with no tax are ‘parked’ at the side of the road until the owner brings a tax disc. (this may be several days)  This delayed me by 20 minutes and then further down the road a coach had managed to skid sideways across the road and was stuck in the mud at the back end. One side of the road was closed whilst some guys with spades were trying to dig out the back of the bus, slowing everyone down, so when I arrived at the airport the flight which was early had already landed.

Linda was one of the last through and so I was in time to see her coming through the arrivals door.  We had a porter take her luggage to the truck and then we set off home, passing the coach still stuck in the mud and through the police check again.  Eventually we arrived at the house and Linda was able to unpack and relax a bit before we went out for dinner at Cabanas.  A nice meal, but no sunset as it is still cold and cloudy although the rain stopped earlier this afternoon.  We arrived back home to no power once again, Linda was very tired after her journey,  so another early night!

17th March, 2015 Tuesday. Truck or no Truck?

We have been promised the Government Truck this morning to go to the north bank of the river.  We have some large metal cupboards for Ndungu Kebbeh and we need them out of the way so we can see what is left in the storeroom.  We decided to take all computer related boxes round to our house so that Steve can check them and make sure they are all working.  This may take some time with the state of the power supply at the moment! We then got Lynnes’ room ready for her arrival tomorrow whilst waiting for the call about the truck.  Unfortunately we waited in vain, the message came through that the truck was stuck on the north bank and the ferries were not running at all today.  Kebba returned home at lunchtime, the masoners are waiting for the roof to be finished so they can finish their plaster work.  Steve and I set off to do some shopping and I had a hair appointment at 3pm.  This is my treat here, the salon is an oasis of calm and the lady who washes your hair also gives you a head and shoulder massage whilst the conditioner is working.  Steve also went for a hair cut, those of you who know him, know that this does not take very long!  We then went for dinner at Yashminas’ and returned home to yet another power cut.  Today we had electricity for only 2 and half hours out of 24.  Fortunately I do not fill my small freezer!  So another early night!

16th March, 2015. Monday. The roof is going on already.

The carpenter has almost finished the timber on the roof at Nemasu, so corrugate is needed today.  Steve, Kebba and I set off for Nemasu, leaving Fontou cleaning the house.  We stopped to buy faceboard for the verandah and left Kebba to have it delivered by horse cart; whilst Steve and I went off to buy corrugate and look for tiles for the floor.  Shopping is relatively easy if you have transport here; shops in the main commercial area are concentrated into like kinds.  All the builders merchants are clustered around Kanifing, and so that is where we headed for corrugate and tiles.  We have built up a relationship with some of the suppliers and so we went straight to Metallum for the corrugate as they have the most choice and give the charity discount.  We loaded the corrugate and then went to look at the price of tiles this year.  The cost of living here is rising rapidly and all goods have increased this year, especially anything which is imported.  We found some tiles nearly the same colour as the existing verandah at Nemasu and ordered them for later in the week.  We managed to return to Nemasu in time for the carpenter to start on the corrugate and then returned home.  We were expecting the plumber today as the new metal tower was ready and waiting for him on our flat roof, sure enough just after the appointed time, Boto arrived to plumb the tank into position on the metal tower.  Now we need the tower cementing to the roof and some damage to the floor and wall repairing, a job for Kebba when he has finished at Nemasu later this week.

Steve and I went to Neils’ bar for dinner and tried again to get on the internet, but because of all the power cuts the back up batteries at Neils’ have not yet recharged.

We returned home to find Kebba and two helpers moving the sand which had been delivered outside our gate onto the roof.  One filling buckets, one outside the front of the house and Kebba on the roof with a rope, pulling the buckets up one by one from the second guy.  All preparation for the repairs needed later.

We spent the evening at home, again with no power, but the generator has been fixed so we can at least have a back up supply now.

15th March, 2015 Sunday 2 Dinners!

We had a late lie in and then set off for the Wild Monkey for Sunday Brunch.  Kebba wanted to visit his mother and we aimed to be back around 1pm so he could go with Omar in the truck..  The Monkey, despite claims to be open 24 hours was closed, and so we went to Cabanas and had Brunch near the beach.

We got back to the house and just as we arrived Ousman rang to find out what time we would be arriving for lunch as it would be ready at 2pm!  Obviously some miscommunication here as we understood he was just going to drop in this afternoon with some paperwork.

We had to delay Kebba’s departure and set off for Brikama, where Ousman and his second wife have a compound in a village also called Farato (same name as his home village in the provinces.)  Ousman met us on the main road and then we followed him back to his house as this was the first time we had visited and we didn’t know the route.  Most places here do not have names on the streets and roads, and certainly no numbers on the houses.  There is no postal delivery system, if you want post you have to rent a post office box in the nearest town.

The house is nearly a mile from the main road and we followed Ousman in the heat and the dust to the house, where we were met by Agie, one of Ousmans’ daughters from his first wife, Agies’ sister and Awa, daughter of Mr Sowe.  Fortunately they had some iced water for us as it was really hot by this time.

We went into the sitting room and I was given a local fan to use whilst we waited for our second large meal of the day.  We felt rather like the Vicar of Dibley as Agie kept filling our plates despite our protests of having had enough.  Eventually she believed us and having had our fill of rice, noodles, beef and prawns, we were able to sit and relax a while before taking our leave.  We managed to get back to the house in time for Kebba to still visit his mother, some 25 miles away, Omar drove him in our truck as they were taking some furniture for her.

Another power cut this evening, so it was an early night for all of us.

14th March, 2015. Saturday Set Settal

We needed to go to the bank again this morning, for both charity and personal money and to buy corrugate for the roof.  We got up and had breakfast and just as we were setting off to the bank we were told that it was Set Settal today, in other words clean up day, which means that no-one can drive on the roads between 9am and 1pm and all businesses are to be closed.  So no money for us today!!  This is so the nation can clean up all the rubbish lying around, sadly this doesn’t always happen. Kebba, Cham and I had arranged to meet this morning to go to the storeroom and sort out a space for me to work in, fortunately the storeroom is within walking distance, but we needed to load the truck so we risked the short journey around the corner.   We spent the best part of 4 hours sorting boxes and arranging them into piles, depending on when we need them.  Chris is coming in April and so we stacked all the boxes she needs at the back of the store out of the way. All the boxes for Ndungu Kebbeh near the door because we are hoping for a truck this week, and all nursery boxes at the side for me to divide between all the schools.  Eventually we had finished, we loaded the truck with some boxes for a local school and some tables for Nemasu and drove home.

Saturday is supposed to be Kebba’s day off, so he got changed and went off to play football, leaving us to have a relaxing afternoon in the garden, despite the banging from the roof of the guys welding our new water tower.  An early dinner, the welding was finished ready for the plumber tomorrow to replumb our water supply to the roof tank, Kebba returned from a successful match, and a film chosen for our evening’s entertainment.  No power cut tonight which was good, we managed to watch a whole film before bedtime

13th March, 2015. Friday. Nemasu and storeroom

The work continues, Kebba and I sorted out the wages for the workmen and then Steve, Kebba and I went to the storeroom to load some furniture for the new classroom.  We are trying to make space in the store, so we are going to put the new items into Mr Sallah’s office until the new building is complete.  Kebba and Steve then went to Nemasu to deliver the items and I stayed to sort things in the storeroom. We have a large delivery to get ready for Ndungu Kebbeh from Belle Vue Girls school in Bradford, another Government truck is expected next week.

More timber was required today and that was also delivered before Steve rang to say the plumber was on his way and so I returned home, closely followed by Steve.

The plumbers’ men arrived and unloaded all their equipment, they are making a new metal tower for the tank on the roof as the old one has started to corrode, and there is a danger of the tank full of water crashing through our roof.  !!

They took all the metal and a generator onto the roof and spent the rest of the afternoon up there welding pieces together.  Kebba returned home earlier than expected this afternoon, the builders have done all they can until the roof is fixed, so they are having Saturday and Sunday off so the carpenter can get on with his work.

We decided to go out for dinner, so got changed and went to Cabanas on the beach, where we had dinner and I had cocktails whilst watching the sunset.

Home to find that we had yet another power cut, fortunately our generator has just been mended so we had power until we decided to go to bed.