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Sunday 20 November - Sinchu Baliya
Sunday morning was spent in almost complete
idleness, apart from sorting out some of the gifts to take on visits
and taking photos of a little girl who is requesting sponsorship for
her schooling.
In the afternoon we took a fairly long taxi
ride to visit the home compound of Omar Janneh, the Science
Co-ordinator of Sinchu Baliya School. He and his wife Fatou
have named their baby daughter 'Pippa', and we had been invited to
the family home to see her for the first time. Omar and Fatou have
five children altogether – 2 boys and 2 girls plus baby Pippa – and
we were looking forward to meeting the family. As is the Gambian
custom, it was not only the family that we found waiting to greet
us, but a large number of neighbours and friends from the
surrounding area. It is the harvesting time for the peanuts, so many
of the women were shelling the nuts while they sat and chatted –
they were happy that the crop has been a good one this year.
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the gathering |
Fatou |
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Omar with baby Pippa |
Fatou with baby Pippa on
her back in the traditional manner |
more family & friends |
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the women shelling
peanuts |
more family & friends |
We had taken some family gifts and also a
large batch of the 'Harvest Festival' seeds for the village women to
use in their vegetable gardens – they were all very happy about
this, and about the money for tools, which started an animated
discussion as to what would be most needed.
When we left the family, Omar came part of
the way to show us his orchard in which he hopes to build his own
compound – the one we had visited belongs to his wife's family. The
orchard is a beautiful plot, with a number of well-established mango
trees, several other fruiting trees and a well, but it is obviously
a very long-term project.
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Omar's orchard |
When we got back to the hotel we found that
our 'seed banner' that we had made from a selection of seed packets
and some cling-film had become rather battered due to
over-enthusiastic handling during photographic sessions. Having
tried several remedies without success, Sandra had the brilliant
idea that the application of some heat would make the cling-film
stick again. She then spent some time solemnly ironing the whole
thing on the floor of our room – the things one does on Gambian
holidays.....
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