I returned home today from WEC Teen Camp where I've been for the past week.
For those that don't know, Teen Camp is a Christian holiday under canvas with a mission focus for teenagers between 13 and 18. I used to go regularly in my teenage years; from 1997 to 2000.
This was my second year as a tent leader, my first being the summer of 2005. We had a great week down in Charmouth, a sleepy Dorset beach town.
The weather was great for the majority of the week and I took all the opportunities I could to enjoy the English sea (a little colder than Popenguine though). We also went to Exmouth for 'trip day' where I made the most of the traditional seaside resort and treated myself to ice-cream, fish & chips and a cup of tea.
I was a tent leader in the second oldest boys village which meant guys aged 15 and 16. This isn't an agegroup I've had much experience with at BCS seeing as we only had one 15yr old and three 16yr olds and I was working in the youngest dorm. I was a little worried when I first met my campers. Three of the four in my tent struck me immediately as being from a very different social grouping to myself. They were the trendy kids who thought themselves 'hard', wore jewellery and listened to music I can't stand; or at least those were my immediate thoughts.
It's so difficult not to judge on appearances or to let first impressions affect long term interaction. I was however taught a lesson as these boys proceeded to surprise me with their respect and better than expected behaviour. They were by no means angels but they were also by no means the scallies I mistook them for.
I was very encouraged during the week to observe one of them in particular spending time reading his bible at night and obviously chewing over what he was hearing. In terms of group discussion and sharing, my tent remained fairly quiet all week but changes in other areas and their attitudes at the end of the week gave me hope that God was at work in these young men.
I very much enjoyed being part of the camp family and it was great to meet up with some folks who I'd not seen for a few years. There were also a lot of new leaders there this year and many of them have expressed a desire to return next year and obviously enjoyed themselves which is great. Just like at BCS, continuity is also very important for WEC Camps. If a leader is a regular and is known to the kids then they are often given greater respect and the campers feel able to be much more open about their relationship with God and the issues in their lives.
I'm now exhausted having hung around on site to help with the initial packing up process and then travelled to New Wine festival to spend the night in a tiny tent there before the long drive up north today.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Travel Day
Well, I'm now sat in Rothwell, West Yorkshire, UK connected to luxurious broaband internet having consumed multiple cups of tea with REAL MILK!
It's been a long day but I'm finally home in England starting to contemplate the next five weeks without BCS.
Travel was a mixed bag. Yesterday's trip into Dakar was a long one, traffic was horrible and I got sunburn on my right arm from the sun coming through the open car window (my brother informs me it's known as 'trukker's arm'). When we finally arrived in Dakar it was nearly three o'clock and we were pretty hungry so we went for some food. A handy hint: when eating out with girls who are ordering big plates there is no need to buy one's own food, I couldn't finish all the leftovers I was offered.
Having tried and failed to fall asleep in front of a movie at the WEC guesthouse Lesley and I departed at 6:30 in a taxi to the airport. Departures at Dakar airport was new for me, although much less scary than arrivals had been ten months previously. We fought off people wanting to get us trolleys and carry our luggage and change our money and managed to check in quickly and easily despite technical problems with the link between the luggage scales and the luggage tag printing doodah (overcome using a walkie-talkie).
Free of our bags we retired upstairs to the restaurant where we decided we weren't hungry yet and shared a large bottle of mineral water over conversation themed with summer activities and reunions with friends and family.
Duty free shopping at Dakar airport is surprisingly (or maybe not so) like any other place in the world. The only difference being that the large perfume and alcohol shops are neighboured by small boutiques crammed full of every Senegalese craft item available on the streets of Dakar; dresses, shoes, drums, silverware, paintings, t-shirts, sculpture, the usual.
As we awaited boarding some suspicious looking Brits crept up behind us trying to frighten us. We thought we'd left Ruth and Tracey behind at the guesthouse but here they were, ready to check into their flight leaving an hour later. It sounded like they'd had an interesting taxi ride to the airport but we had all made it and were ready to leave the ground.
The flight was quite a good one, we made good time and had no disturbances. They fed us a main meal at about 11:00 GMT and breakfast at about 3:00 GMT, by which time we were nearly in Brussels. I joined Lesley after breakfast to enquire if she'd had any sleep and whether she'd been sick yet (she wasn't feeling too well) and we landed in Brussels shortly afterwards at 5:30 local time (GMT+2).
Brussels airport is nice and not too big. We killed some time walking the length of the terminal (a long straight building with departure/arrival gates along the edges), at the end of which was a beautiful view of the sunrise over some trees and a church spire (and a monstrous control tower).
We parted here as I continued on to Gatwick and Lesley caught a connecting flight to Brum.
The Gatwick flight also gave me breakfast to my surprise. In fact I was one of only two economy passengers served a complementary breakfast; the perks of a long journey I guess.
In a slight daze and trying to work out whether I needed my jumper, I eventually made it through gatwick airport to collect my bags and meet Mum at the arrivals point.
From there it was on to Ipswich to drop in on my granny recovering from a hip operation in hospital and then the long drive back to Leeds.
I slept for only an hour or so in the car. Waking up and wondering if I'd dreamt my year at BCS and realising that I was doing the classic gap-year returnee trick of talking continuosly at my mum about things she knew nothing about and meant nothing to her. It was good to get that out of the system a bit before I bore friends to death when we meet. It'll still be hard though.
Must go to bed now, I'll try and cover the emotional side of reentry in a few days time 'cos I need to gather my thoughts a bit or I'll ramble forever and say nothing worth reading.
It's been a long day but I'm finally home in England starting to contemplate the next five weeks without BCS.
Travel was a mixed bag. Yesterday's trip into Dakar was a long one, traffic was horrible and I got sunburn on my right arm from the sun coming through the open car window (my brother informs me it's known as 'trukker's arm'). When we finally arrived in Dakar it was nearly three o'clock and we were pretty hungry so we went for some food. A handy hint: when eating out with girls who are ordering big plates there is no need to buy one's own food, I couldn't finish all the leftovers I was offered.
Having tried and failed to fall asleep in front of a movie at the WEC guesthouse Lesley and I departed at 6:30 in a taxi to the airport. Departures at Dakar airport was new for me, although much less scary than arrivals had been ten months previously. We fought off people wanting to get us trolleys and carry our luggage and change our money and managed to check in quickly and easily despite technical problems with the link between the luggage scales and the luggage tag printing doodah (overcome using a walkie-talkie).
Free of our bags we retired upstairs to the restaurant where we decided we weren't hungry yet and shared a large bottle of mineral water over conversation themed with summer activities and reunions with friends and family.
Duty free shopping at Dakar airport is surprisingly (or maybe not so) like any other place in the world. The only difference being that the large perfume and alcohol shops are neighboured by small boutiques crammed full of every Senegalese craft item available on the streets of Dakar; dresses, shoes, drums, silverware, paintings, t-shirts, sculpture, the usual.
As we awaited boarding some suspicious looking Brits crept up behind us trying to frighten us. We thought we'd left Ruth and Tracey behind at the guesthouse but here they were, ready to check into their flight leaving an hour later. It sounded like they'd had an interesting taxi ride to the airport but we had all made it and were ready to leave the ground.
The flight was quite a good one, we made good time and had no disturbances. They fed us a main meal at about 11:00 GMT and breakfast at about 3:00 GMT, by which time we were nearly in Brussels. I joined Lesley after breakfast to enquire if she'd had any sleep and whether she'd been sick yet (she wasn't feeling too well) and we landed in Brussels shortly afterwards at 5:30 local time (GMT+2).
Brussels airport is nice and not too big. We killed some time walking the length of the terminal (a long straight building with departure/arrival gates along the edges), at the end of which was a beautiful view of the sunrise over some trees and a church spire (and a monstrous control tower).
We parted here as I continued on to Gatwick and Lesley caught a connecting flight to Brum.
The Gatwick flight also gave me breakfast to my surprise. In fact I was one of only two economy passengers served a complementary breakfast; the perks of a long journey I guess.
In a slight daze and trying to work out whether I needed my jumper, I eventually made it through gatwick airport to collect my bags and meet Mum at the arrivals point.
From there it was on to Ipswich to drop in on my granny recovering from a hip operation in hospital and then the long drive back to Leeds.
I slept for only an hour or so in the car. Waking up and wondering if I'd dreamt my year at BCS and realising that I was doing the classic gap-year returnee trick of talking continuosly at my mum about things she knew nothing about and meant nothing to her. It was good to get that out of the system a bit before I bore friends to death when we meet. It'll still be hard though.
Must go to bed now, I'll try and cover the emotional side of reentry in a few days time 'cos I need to gather my thoughts a bit or I'll ramble forever and say nothing worth reading.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
A Twisted Ankle
It's Sunday night and I'm sat in my lounge with my left foot up on a pile of cushions. In my first proper game of football in weeks this afternoon I twisted my ankle badly trying to keep a lost cause ball from running out for a throw. I gained us roughly 4m defensively and put myself on the sidelines for the rest of the game.
I'm now bandaged up and I've got a crutch to help me get around. Hopefully it'll be better in a day or so.
We had a barbecue for tea tonight. One of the families from the Gambia had brought up the best part of a pig with them at mid term break as a gift for the school. Tonight we ate it in kebab form with a great Korean marinade.
It's been a nice weekend. Yesterday I went with one of the teams of kids to Kiniabour for 'Saturday jobs' where we did some more digging at the kindergarten project. When I returned to school I had my debriefing for the year with Bob & Dee and we went through the evaluation form they send off to WEC UK together. It was very encouraging. It was also good to chat a bit more about next year and my role.
On that subject, I found out this week that I'll definitely be teaching science next year. In the first term it'll be just key stage 4 (IGCSE - 14-16 yrs) and in terms two and three I'll teach KS3 too (11-14 yrs). I'll still be a general helper which means I'll have a full time dorm role too, probably in Eagle dorm again, especially as we'll have new inexperienced dorm parents for term one.
Last night was a 'dorm movie', we watched 'High School Musical' with just the Eagle kids in the dorm lounge. It was very cheesy but amusing in places (although utterly cringeworthy in others).
Church this morning was good and for the adult ministry time we heard from Jim & Paula Hanes, missionaries from Louga, up north, who are here on orientation with their kids, Amanda & Aaron who will be joining the school as full boarders from September. It was really interesting to hear first hand about how evangelism works amongst the Wolof people and the work that the team in Louga are doing.
Ulrike pointed out tonight that tomorrow is my last day off this year and asked how I'd spend it. I hadn't realised and doubt I'll do anything unusual. I'm actually very tired, I've not slept enough the last few nights.
Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy my day off despite my probable lack of mobility.
Writing about last night's film reminded me of Friday night when I watched 'Short Circuit' with some other staff. I can't have seen the film in the last ten years but I must have watched it tens of times as a child. It was great to see it again and similarly many of the other Brits have equally fond memories of the film. I saw much more adult humour which I'd missed as a child and some great malapropisms from Ben, the asian character. One of the most memorable lines though was one my brother and I would often quote after watching it: "Hey laser lips, your mother was a snow-blower"; I still don't
get it though. Now I need to track down the sequel, I remember that one being even cooler.
I'm now bandaged up and I've got a crutch to help me get around. Hopefully it'll be better in a day or so.
We had a barbecue for tea tonight. One of the families from the Gambia had brought up the best part of a pig with them at mid term break as a gift for the school. Tonight we ate it in kebab form with a great Korean marinade.
It's been a nice weekend. Yesterday I went with one of the teams of kids to Kiniabour for 'Saturday jobs' where we did some more digging at the kindergarten project. When I returned to school I had my debriefing for the year with Bob & Dee and we went through the evaluation form they send off to WEC UK together. It was very encouraging. It was also good to chat a bit more about next year and my role.
On that subject, I found out this week that I'll definitely be teaching science next year. In the first term it'll be just key stage 4 (IGCSE - 14-16 yrs) and in terms two and three I'll teach KS3 too (11-14 yrs). I'll still be a general helper which means I'll have a full time dorm role too, probably in Eagle dorm again, especially as we'll have new inexperienced dorm parents for term one.
Last night was a 'dorm movie', we watched 'High School Musical' with just the Eagle kids in the dorm lounge. It was very cheesy but amusing in places (although utterly cringeworthy in others).
Church this morning was good and for the adult ministry time we heard from Jim & Paula Hanes, missionaries from Louga, up north, who are here on orientation with their kids, Amanda & Aaron who will be joining the school as full boarders from September. It was really interesting to hear first hand about how evangelism works amongst the Wolof people and the work that the team in Louga are doing.
Ulrike pointed out tonight that tomorrow is my last day off this year and asked how I'd spend it. I hadn't realised and doubt I'll do anything unusual. I'm actually very tired, I've not slept enough the last few nights.
Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy my day off despite my probable lack of mobility.
Writing about last night's film reminded me of Friday night when I watched 'Short Circuit' with some other staff. I can't have seen the film in the last ten years but I must have watched it tens of times as a child. It was great to see it again and similarly many of the other Brits have equally fond memories of the film. I saw much more adult humour which I'd missed as a child and some great malapropisms from Ben, the asian character. One of the most memorable lines though was one my brother and I would often quote after watching it: "Hey laser lips, your mother was a snow-blower"; I still don't
get it though. Now I need to track down the sequel, I remember that one being even cooler.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Weekend Away & First Goodbyes
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.
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.
My Quiet Time Kids
Here are the kids I do evening bible study with, taken this morning:
Left to right: Tristan Molton, Vinicius Camera, Deborah Meribole, Immanuella Yisa, Florence Da Costa & Katie Gibson
Left to right: Tristan Molton, Vinicius Camera, Deborah Meribole, Immanuella Yisa, Florence Da Costa & Katie Gibson
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Centre Stage
It's Wednesday afternoon and I'm supervising the end of a R.E. exam for Chris who has gone to Mbour to take the juniors for swimming lessons.
I've spent the best part of the morning preparing the chapel for Centre Stage tonight. I was planning to do a post-concert blog but I now find myself at a loose end so I've decided to make it a before and after.
I've been looking forward to tonight for some time. Largely because afterwards I'll be able to cut my nails again on my right hand. I've been trying to revive some of my old A-level guitar pieces and I'm feeling fairly pleased with them despite some hiccups in my practice half an hour ago.
It's been tough practicing them. The nice guitar I was playing on returned to its owner a couple of weeks ago and since then I've been playing on one the worst specimens I've ever seen which I was given by Lesley when she threw it out. When I've been in the dorm I sometimes play on a poor 3/4 size instrument there.
Dirk-Jan suggested that I may find myself with a few classical guitar students next term and raised the idea of buying a couple of instruments for the school whilst back in the UK.
Tonight also is the premiere of the short film we made in film club last half term. It's been a nightmare trying to edit it but it's finally finished. It's a really girly story, reflecting the members of the club. Set in times of castles etc; a queen has a baby but fears the baby may be under threat from 'The Phantom' whose hand in marriage she rejected some time ago. The Phantom promised revenge and so the Queen sends her newborn daughter with a sled driver to be raised in the forest. The Phantom hears of the child and searches for her, finally finding her 15 years later. He overhears her talking to a bird about her terrible plight and feels guilt and other such emotions. His heart changed by what he has heard, he reveals himself to the Princess and asks for her hand in marriage. She accepts, they marry and we all live happily ever after... nearly as bad as some of the films I've seen here this year.
Well it's now the day after the concert. Quite a relief really.
It was a cool atmosphere. We had quite a large audience for an optional activity including some parents of daily and weekly boarders.
The concert started with some recorded pieces from year 7 music class. For the last few weeks they've been collecting sounds from around the school site and U.Chris put them together into some sort of musical arrangement, kind of in the style of 'musique concrete'. The first piece, 'People', was a bit rough around the edges and too long but the second, 'Places' was far more interesting and was received fairly well considering its limited appeal. More class work was then followed by individuals and small groups on recorder, voice and piano. I was the final act of the first half however before me was a mystery guest. He was a guest of the Jins and was just here for that evening but had asked if he might perform. I was a little nervous as he too was a classical guitarist. He played two pieces very well and although they were maybe not quite of the same difficulty as mine he played them much better than I did. Yet another lesson learnt in pride perhaps.
Upon talking to this guy afterwards it turns out he's studying music in an American university and will be performing the Bach Lute Suite (of which I played a piece) in his junior recital.
My nails are now all short again which makes typing this much easier! It's still a bit of a novelty having short nails again. I intend to make the most of my enjoyment of it by playing the bass sometime today; it's no fun playing bass with long nails, it sounds and feels bad.
This weekend is the special weekend away for the kids. I've just remembered I have to make a packing list and a swimming pool rota today. It will be the final weekend for Florence and for the Kray family. Florence is already feeling a little sad and has spent much more time with me than normal the last few days. She's one of the children I'm closest to and I will miss her. She is moving to France with her family (French mother, Brasilian father) and will be starting at a French/English bilingual school. She had almost no English when she started here back in September. The Krays have been here a long time; Terissa is the oldest student in the school, Megan was one of the kids baptised last week and Sarah has been one of my Eagle dorm girls this year. They are returning to Australia where the girls have had a hard time previously during furloughs. Please pray for them all and the friends they leave behind.
I've spent the best part of the morning preparing the chapel for Centre Stage tonight. I was planning to do a post-concert blog but I now find myself at a loose end so I've decided to make it a before and after.
I've been looking forward to tonight for some time. Largely because afterwards I'll be able to cut my nails again on my right hand. I've been trying to revive some of my old A-level guitar pieces and I'm feeling fairly pleased with them despite some hiccups in my practice half an hour ago.
It's been tough practicing them. The nice guitar I was playing on returned to its owner a couple of weeks ago and since then I've been playing on one the worst specimens I've ever seen which I was given by Lesley when she threw it out. When I've been in the dorm I sometimes play on a poor 3/4 size instrument there.
Dirk-Jan suggested that I may find myself with a few classical guitar students next term and raised the idea of buying a couple of instruments for the school whilst back in the UK.
Tonight also is the premiere of the short film we made in film club last half term. It's been a nightmare trying to edit it but it's finally finished. It's a really girly story, reflecting the members of the club. Set in times of castles etc; a queen has a baby but fears the baby may be under threat from 'The Phantom' whose hand in marriage she rejected some time ago. The Phantom promised revenge and so the Queen sends her newborn daughter with a sled driver to be raised in the forest. The Phantom hears of the child and searches for her, finally finding her 15 years later. He overhears her talking to a bird about her terrible plight and feels guilt and other such emotions. His heart changed by what he has heard, he reveals himself to the Princess and asks for her hand in marriage. She accepts, they marry and we all live happily ever after... nearly as bad as some of the films I've seen here this year.
Well it's now the day after the concert. Quite a relief really.
It was a cool atmosphere. We had quite a large audience for an optional activity including some parents of daily and weekly boarders.
The concert started with some recorded pieces from year 7 music class. For the last few weeks they've been collecting sounds from around the school site and U.Chris put them together into some sort of musical arrangement, kind of in the style of 'musique concrete'. The first piece, 'People', was a bit rough around the edges and too long but the second, 'Places' was far more interesting and was received fairly well considering its limited appeal. More class work was then followed by individuals and small groups on recorder, voice and piano. I was the final act of the first half however before me was a mystery guest. He was a guest of the Jins and was just here for that evening but had asked if he might perform. I was a little nervous as he too was a classical guitarist. He played two pieces very well and although they were maybe not quite of the same difficulty as mine he played them much better than I did. Yet another lesson learnt in pride perhaps.
Upon talking to this guy afterwards it turns out he's studying music in an American university and will be performing the Bach Lute Suite (of which I played a piece) in his junior recital.
My nails are now all short again which makes typing this much easier! It's still a bit of a novelty having short nails again. I intend to make the most of my enjoyment of it by playing the bass sometime today; it's no fun playing bass with long nails, it sounds and feels bad.
This weekend is the special weekend away for the kids. I've just remembered I have to make a packing list and a swimming pool rota today. It will be the final weekend for Florence and for the Kray family. Florence is already feeling a little sad and has spent much more time with me than normal the last few days. She's one of the children I'm closest to and I will miss her. She is moving to France with her family (French mother, Brasilian father) and will be starting at a French/English bilingual school. She had almost no English when she started here back in September. The Krays have been here a long time; Terissa is the oldest student in the school, Megan was one of the kids baptised last week and Sarah has been one of my Eagle dorm girls this year. They are returning to Australia where the girls have had a hard time previously during furloughs. Please pray for them all and the friends they leave behind.
Monday, June 18, 2007
A Week of Many Birthdays
There have been a couple of things this week which I would have liked to have devoted an entire entry to however, as usual, life here has been to busy to allow it.
As you may know, this weekend was my 24th birthday, an occasion worthy of comment of course, but also earlier in the week I made my second visit to the British ambassador's residence for another birthday.
On Thursday I was accompanied by Ruth, Tracey, Lesley, Dee and Sue in a 'sept place' taxi into Dakar. We had been invited by the new ambassador to join the annual celebration of the Queen's birthday. It was a rather larger affair than the Christmas do. All the other ambassadors had been invited and we were rubbing noses with UN officials and such. The ambassador made a short address in English and French (his French is not great, he was quite obviously reciting a memorised speech which didn't sound very natural). There was also a short speech from a Senegalese government official whose English was much better than our guy's French, the highlights being "we've been working hardly..." and his finishing words, "God save the Queen, God save Abdoulaye Wade" to the literal sense of which I gave a hearty 'Amen' (Wade is the recently re-elected Senegalese president).
The main highlight of the evening, besides the company in which I went, had to be the food. It was a buffet, the first table you saw containing seven varieties of English cheese! Tintern with chives, Stilton, Stilton with apricot, Wensleydale with cranberries, Keen's farm unpasturised Cheddar, Pilgrim's Choice mature Cheddar, and some other blue whose name tag had blown away in the evening sea breeze. Also on that table was smoked salmon, cold sliced steak and little folded ham crepes and olives on cocktail sticks. This was my favourite table. All the cheese we usually get is Edam and we rarely get to eat it on its own. Also throughout the evening there were waiters serving assorted finger food of varied origin and barbecues serving meat kebabs of different sorts. I spent most of my time talking to the others from the mission community but towards the end of the evening I got into a conversation (or rather was spectator to a conversation) with a very excitable Senegalese man from the UN drugs and crime department who wanted to tell us all about his very intersting work and the terrible socioeconomic state of Guinea Bissau. Luckily Nathan, who I was standing with at the time, has a little more knowledge of the situation than me and was able to sustain the conversation.
The taxi ride home was long but more pleasant than the journey there as I was no longer paranoid about sweating through my best shirt however my waistcoat is now distinctly crumpled having been sat on for an hour and a half.
I look forward to my next opportunity to dress up for 'Centre Stage', the school's annual concert on Wednesday night.
So, onto the second birthday.
On Friday night I'd been up very late preparing the exam papers and mark schemes for this week's annual senior exams. Consequentially I actually forgot that it was my birthday the next day and didn't realise until shortly after entering the shower the next morning. BCS birthdays start with candles at breakfast and someone praying for you before the dininghall is filled with the tuneful (or not so in this case) sounds of 'Happy birthday to you'. I enjoyed the morning despite working. I went with a group of kids down to Kiniabour for 'Saturday jobs' where we helped put in some drainage for the new kindergarten which the school raised money for last year. In the afternoon I was unfortunately quite tired after my late night on Friday and felt that I wasn't able to enjoy my party as much as I should have. I had a joint party with Chris who is exactly a year older than me (and is already married with two children!). After our party we had a meeting about next weekend which will be the junior weekend away. The evening late-night activity was an outdoor game involving running and water which I sat out of, joining the old people on the sidelines talking about various issues of going home and coming back and buying guitars for the school.
It's lunch time now so I shall have to leave it there. I'll try and write about centre stage before the end of the school week.
As you may know, this weekend was my 24th birthday, an occasion worthy of comment of course, but also earlier in the week I made my second visit to the British ambassador's residence for another birthday.
On Thursday I was accompanied by Ruth, Tracey, Lesley, Dee and Sue in a 'sept place' taxi into Dakar. We had been invited by the new ambassador to join the annual celebration of the Queen's birthday. It was a rather larger affair than the Christmas do. All the other ambassadors had been invited and we were rubbing noses with UN officials and such. The ambassador made a short address in English and French (his French is not great, he was quite obviously reciting a memorised speech which didn't sound very natural). There was also a short speech from a Senegalese government official whose English was much better than our guy's French, the highlights being "we've been working hardly..." and his finishing words, "God save the Queen, God save Abdoulaye Wade" to the literal sense of which I gave a hearty 'Amen' (Wade is the recently re-elected Senegalese president).
The main highlight of the evening, besides the company in which I went, had to be the food. It was a buffet, the first table you saw containing seven varieties of English cheese! Tintern with chives, Stilton, Stilton with apricot, Wensleydale with cranberries, Keen's farm unpasturised Cheddar, Pilgrim's Choice mature Cheddar, and some other blue whose name tag had blown away in the evening sea breeze. Also on that table was smoked salmon, cold sliced steak and little folded ham crepes and olives on cocktail sticks. This was my favourite table. All the cheese we usually get is Edam and we rarely get to eat it on its own. Also throughout the evening there were waiters serving assorted finger food of varied origin and barbecues serving meat kebabs of different sorts. I spent most of my time talking to the others from the mission community but towards the end of the evening I got into a conversation (or rather was spectator to a conversation) with a very excitable Senegalese man from the UN drugs and crime department who wanted to tell us all about his very intersting work and the terrible socioeconomic state of Guinea Bissau. Luckily Nathan, who I was standing with at the time, has a little more knowledge of the situation than me and was able to sustain the conversation.
The taxi ride home was long but more pleasant than the journey there as I was no longer paranoid about sweating through my best shirt however my waistcoat is now distinctly crumpled having been sat on for an hour and a half.
I look forward to my next opportunity to dress up for 'Centre Stage', the school's annual concert on Wednesday night.
So, onto the second birthday.
On Friday night I'd been up very late preparing the exam papers and mark schemes for this week's annual senior exams. Consequentially I actually forgot that it was my birthday the next day and didn't realise until shortly after entering the shower the next morning. BCS birthdays start with candles at breakfast and someone praying for you before the dininghall is filled with the tuneful (or not so in this case) sounds of 'Happy birthday to you'. I enjoyed the morning despite working. I went with a group of kids down to Kiniabour for 'Saturday jobs' where we helped put in some drainage for the new kindergarten which the school raised money for last year. In the afternoon I was unfortunately quite tired after my late night on Friday and felt that I wasn't able to enjoy my party as much as I should have. I had a joint party with Chris who is exactly a year older than me (and is already married with two children!). After our party we had a meeting about next weekend which will be the junior weekend away. The evening late-night activity was an outdoor game involving running and water which I sat out of, joining the old people on the sidelines talking about various issues of going home and coming back and buying guitars for the school.
It's lunch time now so I shall have to leave it there. I'll try and write about centre stage before the end of the school week.
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