A good start.

The second week started with an orientation visit to the local market in Wassu. This was very interesting, especially because we already visited the big market in Serrakunda. There were a lot of differences, mostly because Wassu is more in the inlands and therefore more focussed on agriculture. The people were mainly selling local goods instead of a lot of imported goods like in Serrakunda. We walked through the entire market to look at the materials we need for building the solar dryer. There was one shop that was even selling solar panels, but unfortunately the ones we need for the solar dryer were not available there. So it will be a challenge to obtain all the right materials in time! Afterwards we went to the Armitage Senior Secondary School in Janjanbureh to meet the principle in his office together with the teachers and vice-principles. We discussed the purpose of our teaching plans at the school and how this contributes to our main mission in the Gambia. We all looked forward to our cooperation! We even got a tour through the entire school, including the dining hall and the dormitory for the boys and girls.

The following days we were very busy with preparing the lessons for the school. We had to come up with lesson plans, without knowing the exact size of the class and the level of knowledge of the students, which was very hard. Then after two days we went to the school. After a warm welcome, we met the technical teachers and we defined our teaching plans to them. Our plan is to teach two different classes next week: the technical class as well as the commerce class. Both these departments will enable us to obtain knowledge that is of importance for our project, but by teaching students we can also diffuse our knowledge about solar drying and market commerce. This way we hope to learn from them as well! But first we attended a few lessons ourselves on friday in order to get acquainted with the way of interacting with the students and the educational system in this school. This day was actually very helpfull, especially to make sure our lessons will be prepared well. We spend the weekend mostly adjusting our lesson plans and communicating with the teachers to make sure everything will go according to plan next week. All the people here are very hospitable and willing to help us achieving our goals! 

Saturday in the late afternoon there was a special ceremony to celebrate the victory of Morro Ceesay, who won the Member of Parlement elections in Janjanbureh. He stands for a better Gambia, for development of rural areas like Janjanbureh. It was a very special occasion, everybody was wearing their most beautiful clothes, in particular the ladies. All the women of one kafo (a group of women from a specific village) wore dresses made out of the same fabric with the same pattern, which resulted in a beautiful image. That night we went to see The King of Kora, who is a very famous Gambian musician. We felt absolutely honoured to be one of the guests!

And last but not least, we now have the red timber for the solar dryer! In Bansang we ordered all the wood and it was even possible to immediately bring it all back to the school, were it is temporarely stored at the moment. In short, again a busy week with a lot of new experiences and activities. We are definitely looking forward to teaching at the school next week!