speak to them Keira, they’re mad, they’re crazy, they just want money”. When we sat down in our breaks, the kids would love to braid our hair; however, half way through having our hair done, Mr. Ralls came over to say lunch break had ended, they then pulled their fingers through the plaits ripping them out – so painful! They were pulling our hair every direction, then suddenly my hair started to fall around me, it turned out that if a strand of hair didn’t fit in the plait or got in their way, they would simply tear it out. We often had to watch what we were saying. Something which Roisin accidently forgot one day, when she announced to me (whilst surrounded by a group of children) that she was hungry. The children disappeared as we turned to speak to Mr Ralls and it turned out that they put their money together, bought a sandwich and approached me asking for Roisin, they explained they had bought her a sandwich so that she wouldn’t be hungry. I made sure they ate the food themselves. The kids in general were always smiling and happy. If we were working then they would come in and help with sanding, painting etc. They would get covered from head to toe but they didn’t care, because they were so enthusiastic and keen to help us.


On one of the days we were there. Mr Ralls had volunteered for everyone to teach a class of students. Roisin and I were put in charge of a Year 3 class which had around 70 students. This was definitely a challenge! We played some spelling games on the board and split the class into two teams called Crocodiles (my team) and Alligators (Roisin’s team) we both chose students who would come up to the board and race to write a word we had chosen. It was heartbreaking to see the difference in ability especially when a seven year old beat a thirteen year old who had been held back a few years due to not passing her exams. We went outside and played ‘The Hokey Cokey’ (a favourite with the children), we taught them ‘Who stole the cookie form the cookie jar?’ (But replaced the word cookie with apple and jar with tree thinking it was slightly harsh). We then had races, which got very confusing due to there being only two of us to announce the winners, organise the children and do all the other tasks..


On our second to last day at Bakau Primary School, a group of students who had left years ago including Mussa and Obie, led us through the slums for a day out. The slums were a shocking reality. The litter was scattered around the pathway, open sewage on the left, young toddlers sitting on the right. Yet they all came running up to us, just to hold our hands. Firstly we went to the Alligator Park, where we all got a chance to stroke ‘Charlie’ the alligator and have a quick photo. We then were led back through more of the slums and I saw the girls I had got close to following behind. We walked


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Gambia


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