Here is another update from the Smiling Coast of Africa. At the moment we are enjoying our Christmas holidays here, which with an average temperature of 32 degrees Celcius is a slightly different experience than we are used to. But before the Christmas holidays have started, we have taken a few steps forward in the project.
We have divided the project into two different parts. The first part is expanding the school shop together with the students by buying new and extra (food) products, marketing the school shop and getting a clear sight into the finances. The second part is to transfer the entrepreneurship workshop to the teachers and to make sure that the teachers themselves can teach the workshop several times a year.
The previous blogpost we ended with the fact that (to our surprise) all students had signed up to work with us on expanding the school shop (additional to their normal school program). Because there were so many students who wanted to join, we decided to divide the group into three different groups, each with a subject they were responsible for and one of us as their coach or supervisor. We had made it clear that the responsibility lay with the students and that we would guide them in the process, so the students had to take the initiative. In this way, they would learn in practice what it is like to work on these different aspects of setting up a business. We met separately with our own group at times suggested by the students. Actually, from the very first meetings, things were a little different and more rough than we were used to. The students showed up an hour later than agreed, or in some cases not at all. This was a bit of a switch for us, the contrast with the workshop where they all showed up on time and showed enthusiasm was suddenly very big, and for this project part the students had signed up themselves so it was not compulsory. It was rough how to deal with students with such less motivation even though we tried to get them enthusiastic it costs a lot of energy. This way the project also does not really hurry up. Hopefully after some rest in the Christmas holiday the students (as well as us) are enthusiastic again to work on the school shop.
The second part of the project was to hand over the workshop to the teachers. In order to give them as complete materials as possible, we made a workshop manual of the workshop we gave. From that moment on, we made it clear that the teachers were in charge, if they needed anything or had any questions, they could always come to us, but they had to give the workshop and arrange everything for it. This way they can give the workshop completely independently without help from the Netherlands and can also give the knowledge about entrepreneurship to the students throughout the entire year. In a meeting one and a half week after the first meeting we found out that the teachers had not really taken action and actually only came up with more problems and were not really thinking in terms of solutions. They did set a date for the workshop and we encouraged them to take action to make the workshop possible. In the coming week we will see what they have done, we are very curious about this.
Apart from the project, we really enjoyed the Gambia and did a lot of nice things. From now on, we eat a sandwich with spaghetti every now and then. At the lodge where we stay, we have really become family and we are only addressed to with our Gambian names; Fatoumata (Lotte), Sulayman (Barend) and Isaatu (Renske), so we have completely settled in. When we are there at lunchtime, we are always invited to join the family lunch, sitting and eating around a bowl with everybody. We also went fishing one night and made a delicious pepper soup from it the next day. Our big friend there is the Artist who is sometimes a bit chaotic but is always excited to see us. With him, we started to paint canvases using our ‘own style’ to become our creative selves.
Every weekend we travel to Kuntaur which is half an hour drive from Janjanbureh (the place where the school is located). We take a small boat to the other side of the river and then we take a Gelly Gelly (the public transport van that often falls apart a bit) to Kuntaur. However, the Gelly Gelly's only leave when they are full so we have had to wait for up to an hour a couple of times leaving in an overcrowded van. In Kuntaur, we enjoyed a lot of sunsets, became real rangers in search of the Red Collobus Monkey, swam in the Gambian River for the first time, soaked up some history at the Wassu Stone Circles and simply relaxed.
The school closed its doors on 22 December and the day after we travelled to Tanji (at the coast) again, because we were expecting some visitors the following days here in the Gambia. Both Lotte's parents and Renske's mother came by for a week to see where and how we had been living for the past two months. Renske, her mother and Barend have mainly visited some places in and around Tanji and Lotte and her parents have made a tour through the Gambia. We all have experienced a lot, had a great time and it was very special to be able to share this experience with someone from home in the Netherlands.
Furthermore, the holidays are flying by now. We celebrated New Year's Eve by playing djembe at a campfire and playing Crazy8, although the countdown was just a bit less spectacular (read: not spectacular) than we are used to in the Netherlands. Furthermore, Lotte and Renske joined a creative sand painting workshop, we enjoyed the beach and the sun and we celebrated Lotte's birthday with a festive breakfast, a day at the beach and a lovely western dinner at the Senegambia strip. Renske went to MyFarm for a day and Barend took the bush taxi to the Serekunda market. We also went to Banjul for a day and now we are back upcountry for the last time. It is a strange feeling that now a lot of things we will be doing will be 'the last time', in that respect time goes by very fast. We are going to enjoy our last weeks here in the Gambia before we return to the cold, rainy Netherlands!
