Blogs from District of Banjul , Gambia, Africa - page 5

so on saturday night Jarry and Fatou Ngoneh were getting all dressed up. they asked me if i wanted to go to Laila's (pronounced la la) birthday party. laila is in grade 2. she is from sweden and turned 10 on friday. so i said "sure." by the way, i'm currently in senegal and the keyboard doesn't make sense. the q and a have switched, the w and z have switched, the m is after the l, and the comma, period, and apostrophe are all misplaced. it's very difficult to type. we drove to laila's house which is near to abc 2 and went in. we sat in the living room for a minute until we greeted her mother, and then we went out back to where the party was. people were everywhere. family, friends, and ... read more

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! 1. BUY ISHMAEL RIGHT NOW. if it's sitting on a bookshelf somewhere because you've already read it, lend it to a friend. it's one of those books that the entire human race needs to read. 2. the address you should send school supplies to is my address at home in the states. if you know it, awesome. if you know my mother, ask her. if you don't know either, send me a message and i'll send it to you. i'm gonna collect them all at home and send them all at once once i get home. 3. if you want to send me things here (ie books, candy (both of which i would love)), send it to Kate MacDougall ABC Learning Center P.O. Box 1754 Banjul, The Gambia in other news. it hasn't ... read more

It's been a while. Sorry. So last Friday, i worked in Grade 4. I taught and such. Not very eventful. Although Mr. Jallow is the best teacher i've seen here. he loves what he does, and he makes things really interesting for the kids. it's really great to work with him. in the afternoon i was in drama club. The Norwegian woman Cece wasn't there, so i taught it myself. first i taught them "zingamama" which they loved. then i taught them lion face lemon face to exercise their face muscles. then i taught them about improv and we spent the rest of the club time playing "bus stop." They had a blast. After school Jarry and i went to Marina to see Aunty Bin. She's the head of marina, which is an international school with ... read more

That's my name! and it's been so worn out. so let me explain some things because it would be easier to reference people after they've been explained. the respectful way to address an authority figure is by calling them Aunty if they're an unmarried woman, Mrs. if they're married, and Mr. if they're a man. Aunty Bin is my homestay mother and founder of the ABC learning center. two of her sisters are Aunty Fatou and Aunty Ngoneh. Aunty Fatou lives with us and makes food for school lunches. Aunty Ngoneh is the head of ABC 1 (nursery school through grade 2) and her daughter is Fatou Ngoneh. Jarry is my 20-year-old homestay sister. Aunty Bin adopted her about a year and a half ago. her family lives in some other part of Gambia, but Jarry ... read more

Slamalikum! That's Wolof for hello. i'm learning wolof because the official language here is english, but everyone speaks wolof anyway. so california. a good three weeks. two trees fell down across the road, we did a sweat lodge, hung out, ate food, and did inner journey stuff. we had a lot of fun. marin, corinne, and zoe turned our cabin into a fort and we slept underneath it the whole time. at the end of the three weeks it was time to go to africa. at 2 am on wednesday morning, Sam drove Liz and I to the sonoma airport where we caught the shuttle. liz was dropped off at hawaiian airlines first and then i was alone. i got to the united terminal and slept. on my flight to Washington DC i sat in front ... read more