From January to March I experienced the most challenging, yet amazing three months I've ever had. Returning to the village of Gunjur in The Gambia, having visited for two weeks in 2012, was something I said I'd like to do but didn't truly believe would happen. When the opportunity arose to spend three months of my gap year there, the dream became reality!
Feels incredibly strange to say that this is my last blog from The Gambia, and this time next week I'll be back in Marlborough!
Our last week of teaching went well. I gave the class revision based activities to do on the blackboard, boys against girls. Seriously underestimated how competitive they are! The noise created was unbelievable and I received a complaint from another teacher for being disruptive... Which the class found very funny. The highlight of my final lesson was a small group of girls performing a song about me leaving and how they would miss me! It was so sweet! It was quite sad saying goodbye to some of them, there are some lovely kids at the school who I've become really fond of (although there are still some who I won't miss one bit!).
At the end of November 2014, 15 Gold DofE participants from Lloyds Banking Group travelled out to The Gambia in West Africa as part of their DofE programmes. For their Volunteering section activity they worked together and raised £5,750 to fund the building of a primary school in the country. As the culmination of their Volunteering section they travelled out to the village of Gunjur in The Gambia in three groups, each staying a week, to help build the school. Each person lived with a different local family, sharing their food and managing without running water or sanitation in the homes, despite electricity reaching the village earlier in the year.
Lloyds volunteer Abi Taylor made this brilliant short film: