Christmas comes early

Christmas comes early here at BCS. I don't know how much Christmas stuff is going on back home right now but it certainly seems early here. Our dorm kids started decorating their rooms two or three weeks back and Chris and Brianna started playing Christmas CDs in the lounge the weekend before last.

On Friday we took all the junior kids out to Thies to go Christmas shopping; the school has a 'secret santa' type of thing where each person buys a present for another person (student or staff) according to names drawn from a stocking and the kids are given 1000 cfa each towards their gift (~£1). We all piled in a car rapide (local public transport which we'd hired for the morning) and spent an hour or two in Thies' biggest supermarket (a large corner shop by UK standards) and 'New York 1000', a small shop which is a sort of pound shop but not everything is 1000 cfa. After a hard morning's shopping we all went to Les Delices for lunch and the kids were given 2500 each from the treat fund to buy lunch (the BCS treat fund is a fund set up to pay for special treats for the students, in particular weekend activities for those who are full time borders and don't see their parents for months at a time, donations are always welcome, enquire through the school office (see website) for details). The restaurant owners were very kind to us and put cartoon network on the TVs for us (in French of course). I was responsible for two 8 year old boys for the morning, Chan-Hwi, a Korean full border, and Daniel, an English day pupil whose parents live in Popenguine and work in Bible translation.

The journey home was filled with carol singing and trying to remember the words to 'the 12 days of Christmas'.

I need to try and write this month's update today so that I have a chance of getting it out vaguely on time this month.

Hope you're well and it's not too cold where you are.

BCS Olympics

It's been a long but very fun weekend here at BCS. This weekend saw the first ever BCS Olympics, a three day event comprising such varied sports as dodgeball, cycling, hopping, weight lifting, frisbee golf, pillow fighting, skipping, sumo wrestling, crab football and sheet volleyball. It all started on Friday with the opening ceremony. All the teams were assembled between the dining hall and the chapel/school block in their team colours with their flags holding up placards with their country's name. Each of the teams then paraded around the arena to their chosen national anthem, ranging from the theme from Knightrider to the theme from Pirates of The Carribean, and made their opening remarks expressing their thanks for their invitation and their best wishes for the other competitors. Once all the teams had done their thing one we lit the olympic flame. David, one of the boys from my dorm, ran in with a flaming torch (a wooden sword dipped in diesel) which was then passed from team to team before being used to light a small bonfire in a steel barrel (all this accompanied by suitably cheesy music of course). Each team competed galantly throughout the weekend with some very impressive individual efforts, particularly in the weightlifting. I spent most of the weekend behind the screen of my digital camera, having found a tripod in a cupboard a few days earlier. I will try and put the best photos on a CD and send them home so they can be put up on my Flickr page.

Today's my day off again, I'll probably have a lazy day on site I think although I'd like to go to the beach (the girls left without me last week, they couldn't find me :o( the phone wasn't working properly in the workshop where I was tinkering).

School Cook for a day

Well, it's my day off again and I'm back in my classroom, but only to change the songs on my mp3 player and put last week's blog entry on my memory stick. This afternoon I'm going down to Sindia to pick up my new clothes I mentioned last time. I'd like to cycle down to the beach later for a swim but I'll have to see what the others want to do because it's no fun on my own. My plans for the rest of the day include making some hooks for the ICT store room and a small lantern. I've taken to using our new school treehouse in the evenings after I put the kids to bed as a place to relax so I'd like to make a little lantern so I can take my book up there with me.

This weekend was a little more relaxed than the last. I spent Saturday morning hanging out in the dorm and then after a long siesta I played cricket in the sports hall. In the evening we played a game called Catacombs (sp?) where a small group of people are selected to be roman soldiers and the rest of us are 1st century Christians and the Christians have to make their way to a secret meeting place somewhere on the compound without the soldiers finding out where they're meeting. It was great fun, we turned off all the security lights so the only light we had was from the stars and everyone scattered across the compound trying to throw the soldiers of the scent before converging on a very small space in some remote corner of the school site.
On Sunday I was cooking lunch for the whole school which was a challenge. I made paprika chicken with the help of Franziska but it was a little harder than at home. Firstly we were cooking for over 50 people. Secondly I would normally use tinned mushroom soup as a sauce but you can't get it here so we made a strange mix between bechamel sauce and mushroom gloop. Time consuming and not quite right but edible at least. after cleaning and washing up I was a little late starting my siesta so I had an extended one again until 4 when I went to the sports hall to play basketball. In the evening the German contingent celebrated St. Martin's day and I joined them in marching around with paper lanterns singing "Ich gehe mit meine laterne und meine laterne mit mir", "St. Martin, St. Martin, St. Martin war ein gute mann" and "Laterne, laterne, sonne, mun und scherne" (I only caught the first lines of the songs, forgive any spelling mistakes too as I never saw them written). After putting the Eagle kids to bed I went to Falcon (the oldest dorm) to fix a computer and ended up staying there and having hot chocolate which was great.

Bonfire Night

It's Tuesday and I'm in the middle of 'teaching' the IGCSE class; I use inverted commas as the year 11s are all happily plodding along with their projects and the one year 10, Christoph, is embarking on a new active learning assignment I gave him this morning to try and liven up our somewhat dull one to one teaching sessions that are now necessary (the year 11s having finished the taught syllabus).

I'm currently enjoying my teaching a bit more as I've been able to plan ahead more this term and some of the units we're studying are quite interesting. I'm also finding it a great blessing to be able to reuse material I did with the year 9s at the start of term with the year 8s as they are now studying the same unit.
This weekend was busy. We had a bike repair day on Saturday in which I was involved which meant being up at the workshop most of the day try to ressurect dying bicycles which probably would have been scrapped by now in the UK. On Sunday I was able to play bass in our chruch meeting for the first time since I arrived. I enjoyed it very much, despite having to share an amplifier with a guitar and microphone and playing on a neck that needed a fair bit of adjustment.

Sunday was bonfire night, but of course you're well aware of that. I, on the other hand, was taken a little by surprise as it's hot and sunny here and not at all like November should be. The Brits got together and we built an impressive bonfire and we'd sent some of the teachers on a mission to find fireworks on their day off in Dakar on Saturday. They had got some pretty impressive rockets from the Korean shop on Pompidou (the main shopping street). Unfortunately they didn't find any brown sugar so we couldn't make bonfire toffee but we made flapjack instead to my old housemate Jonathan's trusty recipe which is now lodged in my brain.

On Monday I got up extra early and cycled to Popenguine with Franziska and Jacqui to see the sunrise and eat breakfast at a cafe on the beach. It was lovely. The tide was quite high and the waves were very big which was great fun for paddling. Unfortunately we had some problems with the bikes on the way home and had to be picked up by Sue, the school secretary (the cost of which will go 'through the books' as everything does here, it's almost like a cashless society here at BCS). We also made a trip down to Sindia (the village at the crossroads of the main road to Dakar, 2km away) to see the tailor. I'm now having some trousers and a shirt made which I'll be able to pick up next Monday afternoon. It will be good to get a few more clothes as you go through them much quicker in this climate.

It's now siesta time, I had to stop writing for lunch and came back at the words "On Monday". I'm now going to go and enjoy what little free time I get during the day (particularly Tuesdays) by a short snooze and perhaps a spot of reading. Goodbye.

Fleeced?

The end of a busy day and a busy weekend. This weekend was what's known here as 'the long weekend', that is the weekend which marks the divide between one half of a term and the other. This is the one time during the term when most parents will get to see their kids. Parents came from all over Senegal, the Gambia, Mauritania and other countries just to spend the weekend with their children. For the single staff this usually means a chance to get away for a few days and relax on a beach. I went with a group of 10 others to nearby Saly where we spent a refreshing two days in a small tourist resort, occasionally brushing shoulders with one or other of the five BCS families who had also chosen Saly as the venue for their long weekend. It was actually very nice to play in the pool with the kids without the responsibility of having to look after them.

On the Friday afternoon we visited the art market in the village where there were lots of little stalls selling souvenirs from carvings to jewellry to paintings. Shortly after entering this densely packed maze of little shops we were set upon by hordes of Africans inviting us to 'come look my shop!'. I was with a group of four girls and so was naturally asked which one was my wife which caused some amusement. The funniest part was what happened next though. I suddenly felt a strong hand grabbing my wrist and before I knew it I was being dragged away by a big black woman saying 'looky my shop'.

Ten metres away and down a passage I found myself in a cramped little stall faced with hundreds of tourist trinkets, none of which I had any desire to purchase. Next she reached over to part of her display and produced a necklace which she proceded to fasten around my neck with the words 'un petit cadeau'. Before I could refuse it (I don't even like necklaces) she had pulled out a little bench and sat down, pulling on my wrist, still firmly grasped, to join her. At this point I knew I was in the hands of a professional and would leave her humble shop poorer than I entered it. After I had joined her on the bench she got out her fan and started fanning me and encouraging me yet again to view her wares, probably accompanied by some reference to her good prices, I don't remember exactly. I sat in silence, not knowing what to say or do and definitely not wanting to buy anything and so she started showing me individual items.

When she ran out of things within her reach she got a friend to bring down higher items but I continued in my attempt to resist her. At some point I realised I had lost and decided that if I was to spend money I would get something I could use so I pointed at a shaker hanging beside me and asked her what one does with such a thing. She took it down and promptly demonstrated the technique before placing it in my hand so I could have a go. At which point I was assured that this instrument was in fact always played in pairs and I needed two. I sat there with two strange looking shakey things and decided it was time to go for it so I asked how much for just one of them.

She started at 15000 cfa (~£15), I made my fist move, 500 cfa (~50p), she laughed at me (I like to think I drive a hard bargain). She came down to 10000 and placed the second shaker in my lap assuring me that I really needed two. I went up by a few hundred cfa, I think she knew at this point I wasn't going to rise to where she wanted so she changed her method and got her friend to get down another instrument, a type of rattle, this was added to my pile. '5000' she says for the lot, I'm not having it. She starts throwing in bracelets, 'pour ta famile' she claims. I'm getting fed up by this point and want to get out of her shop. So we eventually settle on 3000 cfa, much more than I wanted to pay but I couldn't be bothered any more. I reach in my money belt to find the cash but unfortunately the smallest note I have is a 5000. She readily accepts this and closes her fist tightly on the crumpled note.

'Where's the 2000 change?' I ask. 'My friend will get it for you' she assures me. I look at her friend in the entrance, a slimmer woman but equally capable of fleecing me. My heart sinks. I dutifully follow her out of the shop to the stall next door where again a bench is pulled out and I'm made to join her on it. 'Look my shop' I'm instructed again. I had suspected upon pulling out my 5000 note I would never see my 2000 change and now I knew. This second woman intended to give it to me in the form of goods from her shop. She starts by getting down a small wooden model of a 'car rapide', a very Senegalese mode of transport that all the tourists love because they're so colourfully painted and un-western.

I didn't want a car rapide but this didn't matter by this stage, it would make a good gift back in England and by this point I was aware that the story that would accompany it was going to be a long one. I tried my best to argue in French that this model was not worth my 2000 cfa and so she reached over for a bracelet, this time a thick one that looked like it was made of leather stuffed with something and she fastened it around my wrist. This alone, apparently, was worth more than 2000 cfa; 'Yeah right!' I thought, being the sarcastic Englishman that I am (you realise how much of a cultural stereotype you are when in such an international community).

It seemed like my ordeal was finally over, she wasn't going to give me anything else and I wasn't in the mood for collecting more souvenirs I didn't want so I thanked her, in my polite tourist way, for ripping me off and left her shop, having a close shave with one of her neighbours who also saw me as rich pickings.
The rest of the staff were wondering where I'd got too and I was sad to find that Ruth, who'd also been dragged away by the arm, had come off far better than me, escaping with her free gift and all her money.
Nevertheless, the story amused us all on the journey back to the hotel and hopefully has amused you too. All sarcastic English comments are welcome and appreciated as the sign of affection as which we (culturally) use them.

Bedspring improv

Monday again. Not much happened today to tell you about, just some guitar some football and some bed springs, so I'll tell you about the weekend instead. We had a great day on Saturday. The morning was the date of the much hyped staff vs. inter's football match. I was in goal for the staff and we gave the intermediates a good lesson in how to win a match, we won 7 - 3. It was my first time playing in the hotter part of the day (not that it's ever cool during daylight hours), I think, had I been in a more active position, I would have run out of energy quite quickly but playing in goal is relatively effort free when your defence is of any quality. The match ended up in a bit of a water fight as the water cooler we'd brought up to the field for team refreshment became the focal point of quite a chaotic episode of splashings and soakings, quite nice if you were hot and sweaty. In the afternoon we had a whole school trip to the beach which was great fun. I cycled there and back which was good (although the bike I was on was horrible). I spent most of my time with Josephine, the youngest girl in our dorm, a Nigerian, who had never swam in the sea before and was quite afraid of it. We spent most of the time sat on the edge of the sea getting pushed around by the heavier of the incoming waves but ocasionally I carried her into the deeper water where we enjoyed the bigger waves until she got too scared and asked me to take her back out. On Sunday morning I took the senior kids for the teaching part of our Sunday meeting. We did a bible study on different old testament prophecies which reveal things about the coming Messiah (Jesus). It was really encouraging for me to prepare it just seeing the sheer volume of prophecies undeniably fulfilled by Jesus and I think those who made the effort to participate properly were encouraged too (although it was hard work sometimes having such a wide age group and so many of them). In case you were wondering about the bed spring reference earlier that was one of the pieces I found today for the drum kit Chris and I are making, it should work very well in my bass drum pedal design. Bye4now...

Volleyball Match

It's a while since I last wrote so apologies if that distressed you although I doubt anyone looks at this regularly enough to care. It's Monday again, my usual blog writing day (my day off!). It's been a great weekend. On Saturday morning we had a visit from the Dakar Academy (DA) senior volleyball team (our main rivals) and we played a friendly match against them in our sports hall. DA is a much bigger school than BCS and some ex-BCS-pupils go there for post-GCSE studies; as a result, their senior team is made up of year 12 and 13 boys who are quite tall. In contrast, our senior volleyball team usually has two year 11s, a boy and a girl (one of which is currently ill), two year 10s (one currently recovering form illness) and a bunch of younger kids some as young as year 8. DA practice daily for several hours, BCS practice weekly and play very little outside of that. Despite this obvious disparity we put up a good fight and in the first game we went several points ahead early on. Unfortunately this didn't last and we were quite well beaten by the end, although we put up a good fight. Most of the school was in the hall to support our side. There are some crude stands on one side of the hall which were well packed with spectators of all ages and we made a lot of noise (I took a drum in with me which was fun!).

The afternoon's activities were meant to take place at the beach in Popenguine (including the birthday of Immanuella, a Nigerian girl in my dorm), however the weather was pretty dismal which meant we spent the afternoon in the dorms playing games which was great fun. In the evening we played hide and seek in the dark which the kids really enjoyed. The boys from the Korean dorm joined us and the youngest attached himself to me whilst searching for the other kids as he was afraid of the dark. On Sunday we had our usual whole school meeting in the chapel for which I was able to play the Djembe and then my team was on Sunday lunch prep and Lesley and Franziska made stew and mashed potato (very tasty) whilst Margrith made a delicious yoghurt and stewed apple flan/pie/cake thing for pudding. After siesta we had the first adult intermediate level French lesson which was fun (although rather basic, being the first lesson), after which we had a big football game outside, Aunties and boys vs. Uncles and girls (school staff are referred to as Auntie or Uncle, so I'm Uncle Andrew). We won 4-3 even though Uncle Adam became an Auntie half way through to even things up a little. In the evening we had FIX which is a monthly-ish worship event which this time was based around the opening of the new prayer room which was set up over the summer. The kids had spent most of the afternoon decorating it and it looks really cool. Hopefully they'll take ownership of it and it will be a really great focal point for prayer for many of the kids (and staff too). I've probably written enough I think, off to the beach later hopefully...