Day Four - Monday 19th January

Today Kabs is to collect me at 8.10a.m. to visit three schools after drawing cash from the bank to fund the refreshments and toilet block for Bakoteh Infants School. I have trouble at the bank, I do not have my Visa pin number as I was quite sure my cash card would suffice - but it does not. I must now use the Bayba Express Service to arrange electronic money transferral from my bank to Serekunda the same day. I ring Roger, my bank Manager, and smile as I hear him say, 'HSBC bank Deal, Roger Howes speaking, how can I help you?' in his familiar, dulcet tones. I can see him in my minds eye sitting at his neat desk, dressed in a nice suit and collar and tie and I look at myself and my dirty jeans, scruffy hair, nails and filthy feet as I sit on a pavement on the edge of a busy main road watching donkeys pull carts, taxis whiz past and lorries full of workers setting off for the days toil. In my right hand I hold my mobile and in my left a cooked sweet potato just purchased from a basket balanced on the head of a young Gambian girl with beautiful eyes and a smile as wide as the sea. It almost matches mine.

I tell Roger my problem and bless his soul - he helps and arranges it for me with London branch of Bayba Express. (I have the cheek to further ask his help just a day or two later and again he helps without complaint- although I later learn he considers I am more of a nuisance to him when I am on holiday than when I am at work (for Roger is the Centre's Treasurer!)

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Today is the day to visit three more schools of varying sizes and make-up.

Some schools in Gambia are Government run Schools and although there is no charge for the actual schooling parents must provide all pens, books and a uniform - a massive undertaking for the majority of Gambians. Even more so and often impossible if they want further education. Teaching books are provided by the Government but in totally inadequate numbers for class learning and these are to last for three years at least.

Others are private schools and run by the local communities, most are desperately poor on facilities and struggle to survive. The teaching standard is poor and without structure. GTS or other charities support some, like the ones I visited, and this really is how they survive. Some have no help whatsoever.

The first school after GTS Bakoteh Infants School was vastly different. This was a government run school with 3,558 pupils, was well organised by Gambian standards and had 70 staff, 78 classes in 48 rooms. The children attend in two sessions, either morning or afternoon between the hours of 8.30 to 6p.m. Teachers usually finish for the day about 7p.m. There is no school transport; all the children walk in to school. Despite the school being Government funded, (salaries and 30 printed books a year) there are still major sustainability problems. The day-to-day funding needs worsen each week as inflation here continues to rise. Life is hard enough as it is - there is little chance for continuing education for the majority of students and the Headmistress spends much of her time looking for sponsors for her bright pupils, trying to raise money from a variety of sources to buy much needed equipment and replacing damaged taps and general building upkeep.

GTS provide books and pens and support as much as it is able but this is an extraordinarily large school and the overriding problem that day for the organised and capable Headmistress was the need for a compatible printer for her very old computer. The financial pressure of having to arrange all photocopying for lessons to be contracted out at 2 dilasi per sheet and the pressure on funding were outlined to me. Her wish to print out 700 to 800 copies of the text for lessons was of overriding concern and she sought the help of Kabs and GTS to help find a second hand printer. Kabs offered to help. I was concerned - I wondered did she realise how much computer ink cost? That number of copies would exhaust a tube in no time at all and if it was as expensive here as in England, and I was sure it was, then they could have even greater financial concerns.

I gently pointed this out and whilst I agreed they needed a printer I tactfully suggested they might be better to also seek funding for a Photostat machine, this too needed ink of course but the running costs would not cost anything like the printer ink in my experience or the contracting out of Photostatting. So, although I was unable to financially help perhaps my own experience lent thought to a better way of handling their current overriding concern. All they need now is funding to buy a Photostat machine!

I have had to hold myself back in offering to buy the things that are needed at every school I visit - but I will raise money somehow for GTS so they can continue their vital support to schools, decide the priorities and expand their programme of assistance. The thing I like best about GTS is their determination to ensure the local community plays its part in supporting the school plus its well managed but not overt monitoring. (An active PTA thrives at this school but it does not fund raise, it only deals with development of the school.)

I bid the Headmistress farewell and we made our way to another large senior school where Kabs paid the monthly sponsor money for the education of a young girl from a desperately poor family. Sponsorship of individuals is another form of GTS help (they currently sponsor 30 children) they do not pull out like many private sponsors when the child reaches 15 but fund further education when it is so vital to maintain learning and allow the child to develop further.GTS itself struggles to survive yet it achieves so much - I could not have found a better charity - I so hope they will find me a suitable worker for the future.

Finally we went to a small private infant school called Lambai Nursery (Dumbarton Scotland.) So named because of two sponsors who visited Gambia and GTS, were very impressed and returned to Dumbarton and raised considerable sums from their own community for this school and continue to sustain it I believe - again monitored by GTS. (One feels safe raising funds when one knows it is guided through such an honest charity and every penny is accounted for and standards monitored whilst on-going support to all is always available.)

The little ones greeted us warmly, they were obviously used to seeing a white face. Chaos ruled and as we were shown into the Headmasters 'office,' a 5ft. by 2.6ft. hole the children all tried to get in with us. We discussed the home problems of the children there. They were all from desperately poor homes and were it not for the school preparing and cooking a meal every single day of the week (7 days) they would go hungry.

The Headmaster then took me to see the 'kitchen' - a black hole of a concrete hut with no windows and an open door way. Outside the heat was overwhelming but inside that hut it was like a furnace. Two ladies were inside stirring food in two massive cooking pots with lids over open fires. This they do as I said, every day.

I asked Lamin (yes another Lamin it is a very common name out here) the Headmaster what happened to the children during school holidays. "We do not have holidays" he replied - "they would starve if we did." "What about your holiday, who takes over for you and the other 5 teachers then?" "No-one" he said, "I do not take holidays." I then realised that this man had worked 7 days each week without a break for 10 years! I don't know about the other teachers.

Not surprisingly the Headmaster had the most compassionate eyes I had ever seen - it shone out of him. I can't tell you how many times I feel humbled by these people - and no, my emotions are not getting out of control - I am truly awed by the level of support shown by the Gambians to their fellow man. We have lost so much in England - only a major disaster causes our community spirit to rise to such levels and I think the last time that happened and lasted for any measurable length of time was the war years of 1939 to 1945!

My camera has run out and I am unable to take photographs of the children and the poor small school, which cares, with the help of the good people of Dumbarton, Scotland, for some 90 little children aged from 3 to 7. The building belongs to the local Iman, leader of the church/mosque and is rented for the sum of 19,000 dilasi per year (a thousand dilasi is about £20 so you see 19,000 is a small fortune out here. Presumably Dumbarton meet the cost - I do not know any further details, I just hope the support is sustained.

I am going back on Thursday if I can to revisit this school to play with the children for a while and take some sweets. They are so open, friendly and happy - they expect very little so when they do receive their faces say it all.

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