The picture above looks over the land from what will be the entrance to the school. The hut on the right is the right hand boundary of the land. The classrooms will be situated along the right hand boundary.
The next picture shows the land from the back of the plot (where the toilets will be). The house in the background belongs to Abdoulie and his family. Abdoulie is one of our Gambian trustees. He is a trainer in the Gambian army.
There are 3 Gambian trustees altogether: Abdoulie, Terema and Sally. They, 3 other parents and our friend Alimamo (without whom none of this would have been possible) form the nursery school Parent Teacher Association (PTA). In the next picture, shading from the sun are, from the left, Awa, Terema, Abdoulie's wife and Sally. Awa is a member of the PTA and is the local community midwife.
On the left is Malang, an artist and builder. On the right, Thomas, a superintendent in Banjul Prison. Both are PTA members with children who will attend the school.
While we were there, we held the first PTA meeting. We discovered that we are honored to have each of these people working with us for the good of the community. For example, they decided that they don't just want handouts but want to work directly with us, Afrikaya supplying the material and the community supplying labour for free.
Guided by our designers, student architects Jack Munro and Yashin Kemal (overseen by their professor), the school will be as eco-friendly as possible. We plan to use compact earth bricks for the build; solar and wind power for energy; and to drop a bore hole so that the school will have it's own water supply that can also supply the whole community.There were 3 trees on the land. Unfortunately, we had to cut 2 down. 1 because it was old and decayed but the other because it was exactly where we planned to build classrooms. When we visit in February 2011, we will replace the trees with 2 mango trees which will eventually provide shade for the playground area.
This is the remaining tree which is known in English as a monkey nut tree. Whilst we were walking the land just before we left, Geoff asked Malang to remind him of the name of the tree. Malang replied that it is now named after the man 'who gave you fire' (inspired us): Kebba Jaina. As you can imagine, a few tears were shed.
As I mentioned, none of this would have been possible without our friend Alimamo Ceesay. Alimamo, a proud Mandinka Gambian, has worked tirelessly for Afrikaya for well over a year now, with little reward. He is our representative for most of the year when we are not there and does most of the leg work for us. This has included travelling to Banjul to the Ministry of Education at least 10 times in a matter of 3 weeks, in a heat wave, to get them to sign a Memorandum of Understanding.
Alimamo Ceesay
facinating and inspiring.
ReplyDeleteThis is excellent work you're doing!
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