So 3 weeks of pictures is a lot

Heyena!
Monkeys!!
My class in the library.
My students in the classroom.
Some of my students working outside of the classroom.

Even more pictures

A beach near my house.
Our roof top concert when we got stuck by the side of the road.
Stuck on the side of the road.

An amazing women's co operative where women recycle plastic bags, to make other bags. Its really amazin gwhat they have been able to do.

More pictures

Wassu stone circles (like Stonehedge)
A picture of me and some children... and me in my African outfit!
Hippos. Really far away, and under water, but hippos none the less.
Our boat that we took a trip in on the River.
A Gambian sunset.

PICTURES

Some of the children who chased after us in Jufuree, on our up country trip.
Our boat to James Island, also up country. (PS, i also have the number 9 football (soccer) jersey of the national team).
Me touching a crocodile at the pool!
Me, newly named Sako Sanneh, with my namesake, the original Sakko Sanneh. Also, a glimse at forced African dancing, which is always awkward, but enjoyable.
My first attempt at African dancing. I'm not very good.

Another "update"

Well hello! I heard that lots of people are asking when I am going to update my blog, so I will write more even though I don't have much to say.

Monday all the students started back in classes full time again. There was a big assembly in the morning, where all the students stand outside and listen to a morning prayer, and then the headmistress and/ or a teacher will talk to the students. On this day, the headmistress gave a speech about how important it was to attend study sessions to prepare for exams, and other important issues. This speech was in English. Then she gave a speech in Wollof, and in the middle she said something about tubab (the Wollof word for white person/ foreigner) and everyone turned around and looked at me. I have no idea what she said, and all the teachers around me just laughed a bit and didn't explain anything. So, I'm not sure what she said, but it was a little bit awkward.

There are 53 students in my class, which is a huge number. There are a lot of differences between the classes here and classes in America. Beside the class size, the way work is completed is very different. The teacher teaches, and my teacher uses a good amount of student participation, but is certainly the one in charge of instruction. Then students complete activities from their workbooks into thier notebooks, and bring it up to the teachers desk to be checked. This can take about 30 minutes for 6-10 questions, so things move a bit slowly.

I have been teaching science (properties of matter actually, which is good because I just taught that to students at Leonardtown). I have been mainly using the textbooks the students have, and the department of education has written a lot of hands- on activities for the students into the textbooks which is great. The problem is, the students have no idea how to do these things. We were discussing man- made v. natural materials and they were to make a chart, and go out in the school grounds and list a material, whether it is natural or man made, and the uses of that material. You would have thought I had asked them to re- invent the wheel! My mentor teacher helped to explain it to them, but they kept asking me "teacher, is this right?"

I have also had some problems with the discipline, it is hard to get so many students to keep quiet! I also think they have less respect for me because I am white. We had a little "class meeting" the other day, and things have been a bit better. The students also all yell at each other and tell the others to be quiet, which normally works pretty well too.

On things not school related, I have been learning more and more Wollof which is good. We all went to meet with the mayor of Banjul, who was on our long journey here, so the 6 teachers already knew him, which was interesting. He is very nice, and it was cool to sit in on a semi meeting of the mayor and councilmen (and women) of Banjul. Yesturday, I went to a nature reserve that is close by, and has lots of animals, including monkeys that just hang out by the path. So that was really great.

I'm realizing that my time here is about to end, and I want to travel a bit next weekend. Tomorrow I am attending Catholic mass with someone from the house and a Gambian from the University. I'm excited to see what that is like, and am hoping that I may be able to go to a mosque before I leave as well. I also may be attending a wedding reception this evening, which will also be a lot of fun.

Miss you all, and I will be home soon!! I'd love to hear what you are doing, sorry if I don't reply, I try not to spend too much time on the computer!

Dee deet toduma chicken

Salamaleekum! Well it has been another great week, including an eventful trip up country. My title means "no, my name is not chicken," which I had to say a lot during the trip because our driver started calling me chicken because they were trying to teach us how to say "chin" in Wollof and it is "shekin" and i kept saying "chicken." Such is life in the Gambia.

First, my cousin sent me an e-mail with lots of questions, that I thought I would answer here. Please feel free to send me any more questions, as a lot of people probably have them!
Do you have to speak Wollof when teaching the kids?
No thank goodness! The official language of the Gambia is English, but in thier homes and on the street Gambians speak either Wollof or Mandinka. So in school, I can use Engish.
Is it warm there?
Very HOT! We are very close to the equator, and the sun is very strong, which makes it very very hot. It cools down when we go into the shade, but it is very hot in the sun.
Is there much water there?
I live very close to the Atlantic Ocean, and there is a big river that runs down the middle of the country, so there is lots of water, and I could go to the beach every day. The water is not always safe to drink though, and we have little bags of water delivered to our house that we bite into and drink out of the hole we made (I will have to take a picture)
Are the animals a lot different then here? did u see any lions? R there lots of bugs?
Some animals are different. There are a lot of really cool birds, and so far I have seen hippos and monkey in the wild. There are a lot of bugs, particularly mosquitos which can give you malaria if they bite you, so I wear lots of bug repellant and take pills to keep me safe from malaria. We also have bed bugs, which according to BBC the US is trying to get rid of (which is funny on many levels). No lions here. There are also goats, chickens, cows, dogs, cats and donkeys that just walk around. When driving, a whole bunch may cross the road, so you have to look out.
What did the crocodile feel like?
rough and bumpy.
Do they have electric there?
Our house, and many other houses have electricity, but it is very expensive, and a lot of houses do not have electricity, they just light fires at night time.
Is is crowded? Are there farms there? Any dairy cows?
I live in a city, so it is crowded here. When we took our trip, we saw land that was not very crowded at all, and saw where all of the farming happens. There is a wet season and a dry season, and it is the dry season now so nothing will grow. During the wet season, they plant ground nuts, rice, cocoa, and lot of other things. I haven't seen any dairy cows yet... I think they get most milk from goats.
Did you do anything for Easter there? do they celebrate Easter?
On Easter we were driving back from our trip up country, so I didn\t really celebrate. Most of the country is Muslim, so they don't celebrate. There are some Christians in the country, so we had Friday and Monday off of school and work, so Christians could celebrate.
When are you coming home?
May 15. Then i have 3 weeks of class at St. Mary's and i graduate June 6.

We went on an upcountry trip, which was really cool to see different parts of the Gambia. On Thursday, we left happy camp and traveled across the river than to Jufure, which is the launching point for James Island. James Island is a place where slaves were kept before they completed their passage to the America's. Jufure is also where the movie The Roots is set, and the place where Kunta Kente traced his roots, so there is a lot of history for the triangular trade. Then we drove further east, and stopped at JangJangburre, which was called Georgetown during colonial times, and was the seat of the protectorate. We went on a boat trip and saw hippos (their heads and ears and backs from very far away) and monkeys and lots of cool birds. Then on the drive home, we saw Wassu Stone Circles which is one of many Gambian versions of Stone hedge. Then we went to a womens co operative where women take plastic bags and crochet them into bags that people can use.

Then came the fun part. On the drive home, our wheel sort of fell off the axel. So we sat by the side of the road while our driver and our guidetried to fix it. Then we got back into the van and drove very slowly, until it broke again. Then we got out again, and chased some children away from us (we were a little crazy), then we performed a van top concert on guitar and drums until our guide came with a public van to take home. We arrived 3 hours late.

It was a good trip, and I am getting used to everything here. My class has been interesting and i am trying to figure out the best way to teach and do classroom managment. Tomorrow my teacher is out so I'm flying solo. Hopefully it will go well!

Greetings from Sakko Sanneh!

Well this week we had our naming ceremony, and we get Gambian names. My name is Sakko Sanneh, though I keep forgetting to introduce myself that way to other Gambians! We were named at a crocodile pool, where women who are infertile go and bathe to try and be fertile. Ironically, the women who we are named after and attended our naming ceremonies are all barren women. While at the crocodile pool, I touched one of the crocodiles! (Pictures will come later). The day before the naming ceremony, We traveled to a place called the art villiage and did batik or tie dye. In the Gambia, batik is a very common art form and they use the actual pigment, so the colors are really fantastic. I tie dyed a shirt and a sheet, and have some really great designs. The man who runs the art villiage is a Gambian artist, who studied in Holland and has made this village in a place where the local villagers believe is haunted with bad spirits. There were lots of trees, and a huge vegetable garden, and it was just generally a really cool place.

I have finally gotten to see teaching in my school! The students have 2 weeks of easter holiday, but I am in grade 5, and they have study sessions to prepare for national exams. There are normally 53 students in my class, and yesturday we had 8 students and today there were 9. Despite these different numbers, I think that the style of teaching I have observed is pretty typical. It is not quite as teacher centered as I thought it would be, though there is not a lot of student participation. My teacher is really good about asking questions of the class, and expanding into "teachable moments," rather than just covering the worksheet questions. Typically, my teacher gives the lesson (about 20 minutes), and then assigns workbook questions. When students have finished the questions, they put their journals on the front desk to be checked. This takes a long time, because a lot of the students spend more time talking and messing around than anything else. One of the biggest differences, is that teachers write everything on the board and then students copy it into their notebooks, since they do not have a copy machine. Students also do not complain about the amount of writing they have to do, and are very good at working through their exercises until they get the right answer (which is nice).

Tomorrow, we are going on an up country trip, to see more typical villiages, and hopefully monkeys and hippopotomauses. All 17 of us are travelling together so we are going to be a sea of tubabs (the word in Wollof for white people. Gambians scream it wherever they see you, particularly the children). I will be taking pictures and update soon!