I had intended to write this morning about the junior weekend-away just passed but I can't help but first express some of the emotion of this day and the general atmosphere on the school compound.
Today is the 25th of June, the date parents were given as the only possible early leaving date before the end of term.
I got up for assembly this morning as it was the final chance to say goodbye to the four children leaving permanently today.
Among those leaving was one of my closest friends among the children, Florence Da Costa. Florence is half Brasilian, half French. She started at the school at the beginning of this year with very little English and firmly attached herself to me as her favourite uncle. Her family are leaving the field and settling in France where Florence hopes to attend a bilingual school so that she can continue to improve her English (which is very good now).
The other three leavers are the Kray girls, one of the families which are a big part of BCS modern day history. Terissa, the oldest student in the school, is one of a very small number remaining who knows all three BCS sites. I was closest to the youngest, Sarah, who was in my dorm.
Some people were very tearful this morning, many of the older kids have been through this more times than they can remember. Saying goodbye is one of the major features of a boarding school like this and often people have to accept that they will never see their closest friends again; people who they share their entire lives with for two thirds of the year. The Krays will return to Australia, not exactly nearby for a holiday.
In general there is a sombre mood this morning as those still here realise their own impending departure, many for the long term.
So, onto lighter matters:
The weekend-away was a great success. We started on Friday night with a 'squash night' (sleep-over) in the dorm lounge. All the juniors, including day students & staff kids, were packed into Eagle lounge, the floor covered in mattresses. We watched 'March of the Penguins' on a big screen I'd made on one wall out of bed sheets. Whilst some were a bit apprehensive at the thought of a documentary I think everyone enjoyed it in the end. Jacqui and I slept in the lounge with the kids and tried to keep discipline and ensure
that we all got some sleep. Whilst I didn't sleep fantastically the kids were actually immmaculately behaved considering the excitement level. I think I will get a shock if I ever work with kids again in the UK; I take for granted how good these kids actually are even when they're not so good.
On Saturday morning we ate a quick breakfast and then loaded our mattresses and bags onto the waiting car-rapide which we accordingly bundled into and headed off for Malicka. Malicka is not far from Dakar and we made good time on the road.
On arrival we unloaded the car-rapide and proceeded to erect our accomodation for the night. We had eight tents and I was in a single man one by myself. Some of them took a little time to work out but we got them all up reasonably quickly and they all lasted the night.
Once we were settled in the kids started to get impatient for the swimming pool and so for the rest of the morning we spent most of our time in and around the small pool there.
The place where we were staying is the base of a percussion making and metalwork ministry run by a Dutch woman named Herma. She has a beautiful compound with lots of greenery, a small swimming pool and a small basketball/tennis court. She employs a lot of local staff both in the drum workshop and around the compound to do gardening and cooking.
We were supplied with a lovely bowl-meal lunch cooked by some of Herma's ladies. I'm not sure what it was but it was a bit like the Wolof rice we eat at school regularly. Meat and rice with no sauce but plenty of oil to keep it from being dry. There were several types of meat including one rather funny tasting one I'd never experienced before which the kids told me was probably some kind of giant snail. A little rubbery and very pungent.
After lunch we had our usual siesta. In tents this proved to be rather warm. Especially as the humidity is now pretty much back. As I lay in my tent I was producing puddles of sweat where my arms were in contact with the ground sheet. From the look of my arms and chest I would estimate somwhere between one and two large beads of sweat per square centimetre on my upper body and the formation of some kind of trickle running down somwhere different every few seconds. Needless to say I got no sleep and niether did the kids. After an hour and a quarter of this enforced sauna we pronounced it officially 'end of siesta' and the pool rota started up again. The kids were very happy to spend all afternoon in the pool, something they don't get much of usually. Some of them played a little cricket, Katie losing the ball over the wall three times, the last time for good.
In the evening we had a BBQ and tried to fight off the flies and then we sang a few songs together before the kids retired to their tents for the night. Once the kids were in bed and prayed-with Heiko, Doro, Jacqui and myself snuck back to the pool for a spot of night-time swimming. Very relaxing.
On Sunday morning we got up early and packed up, having breakfast surrounded by flies once more. The car-rapide arrived a little early and so we loaded up, sang a song together, prayed, thanked Herma and then hit the road.
We were back at school by 10:30 which was great. Now we just had to clear up the dorm lounge from Friday night and get the tents up again in the chapel to dry out.
My afternoon was spent in bed and in the kitchen.
1 comment:
Hey U Andrew,
Terissa here. I thought I should probably point out that I wasn't at all three schools. It was only Keur Massar and Kiniabour for me!!! Bourafaye was a long long time before me!!! All the people who went to school there left a couple of years back now...though craig might have been there. He would have been a baby though!!
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