Wednesday 13th February

This morning  we attended an outdoor Ash Wednesday Mass in the grounds of St Joseph's School.  We have never experienced anything quite like it, there were approximately 1700 children all sitting and listening to the Priest deliver the Mass via loudspeaker.  We were lucky enough to receive the ashes after the Mass from Father Vincent.  As we walked through the market later in the day the locals recognised the sign of the cross on our foreheads and shouted "Ash Wednesday", one friendly local even traced the sign of the cross on Mrs Meally's head.

After Mass we shared our 'Culture in a Suitcase' with Ms Alpha's class.  The children predicted what would be in our suitcase and they weren't far off in the guesses!  They particularly enjoyed looking at all of your faces on the tea towels and reading your names.  They also enjoyed role playing with the plastic tea set, even offering Mrs Lewis a cup!

As we were leaving the school were beginning to prepare for the Wells Cathedral School performance tomorrow, remember this is the same concert that they performed for you last week.  They are kindly erecting a canopy in our honour - they have seen how hot and sweaty Mrs Meally and I have been this week!

Miss Brooks

Tuesday 12th February

Miss Brooks and I were very proud of ourselves today, we found our way to St Joseph's all by ourselves!  We avoided the mountain hike and took the market route into town.  

Once at the school we went to observe two of the classes, Social Studies and Literacy.  Miss Brooks was watching Miss Alpha teach a lesson about refuse and also learnt a little about making her own polish, the children are tested on this as part of their national examination!  I observed Literacy, the students were learning about adverbs.  It was interesting to see the children working in groups as we do at home.

We were treated to a 'non spicy' lunch of fish and rice with all the teachers of St Joseph's.  Whilst Miss Brooks seemed to cope very well with the heat, I struggled and went a slight pink colour!

Tomorrow we are looking forward to joining the staff and students for Ash Wednesday Mass and meeting Father Vincent.  We also plan to share the Culture in a Box with a few classes.

Mrs Meally

Monday 11th February

This morning Mrs Meally and I went to see the children of St Joseph's.  We arrived at lunchtime and it was mad, we were greeted by hundreds of excitable children.  They ran towards us almost knocking us over!!  The children were quickly assembled and began their lunchtime prayers.  Instead of lining up silently they were lined up singing. Instead of walking in quietly, they marched in singing and clapping - We're going to have to talk to Miss Nolan about introducing this (What do you think school council?).

After a welcome song from the senior school we were taken on a tour by the school council, what a lively bunch they were!  The tour seemed to be never ending - they had 18 classes each with about 60 children in!!

At the end of our visit Miss Alpha volunteered to take us back to JT to meet the rest of the Wells Cathedral group.  This walk, or should I say mountain abseil, was a death trap - Miss Alpha got us very lost and we given the chance to explore the mountain in villages in our flip flops!  A walk that was supposed to take 10 minutes was one long tiring hour trek!

Not being satisfied that we had done enough exercise, in the evening we took part in the local 5k running club.  Needless to say we didn't run it!!

Miss Brooks

Sunday

Today we all ventured in to 'Congo Town', one of the busiest and poorest communities we have ever been to. The local children ran to us immediately and shouted 'photo me, photo me' as soon as they spotted our cameras! There was lots of music coming from all corners, people were hanging about chatting, laughing, singing and dancing. Some people were busy working on market stalls and in small shops, even though yesterday was Sunday!

Yesterday evening, Miss Brooks and I were on 'cooking duty', which meant we had to cook for 16 people - all the Cathedral School students! We made rice and vegetables which went down a treat... I have learnt though that Miss Brooks' Maths might not be as good as I thought as we ended up with enough rice for 32 people!! So It's rice on the menu again tomorrow night!!

After our busy morning, we returned to our accommodation to relax and get ready for the busy week ahead! Tomorrow we are going to see Mrs Lewis and Ms Alpha at St Joseph's school. We cannot wait to see them and meet all the children!

Mrs Meally

We've arrived!

We've arrived safely at IMATT!  After a 4:30 start we all sleepily boarded the minibus ready for our journey to Gatwick, most of which Mrs Meally and I slept through!    Once at Gatwick we had limited time to do a little bit of shopping, my favourite hobby, before boarding a spacious Gambia Bird aeroplane!  The inflight entertainment was interesting and so once again Mrs Meally and I slept through most of the journey!

Having arrived in Sierra Leone the first thing that hit us was the incredible heat and such friendly people!  The next stage of our journey was the dreaded boat trip across the river (Mrs Meally needs a 

lesson on rivers as this was most definitely an ocean we had to cross!), luckily a speedboat was on hand to take us across!

Arriving safely the other side we boarded another minibus to take us to IMATT.  As we travelled through Freetown we saw lots of people still shopping at markets, eating in restaurants and lots of people walking in the roads (road safety lesson are definitely needed here!)

Having a piece of toast and a cup of tea then off to bed!

Miss Brooks

All Packed and Ready to Go!

Suitcases packed and everything is ready to go!
Alarm is set for 3.30am, hope it wakes us up in the morning.

Keep watching the blog for more photos and news throughout the week.

Mrs Meally :o)

A New Friendship

The Headteacher at St Joseph's Primary school, Mrs Patricia Lewis

Our new friends:

The Cultural Village

Near the end of the trip we visited the Cultural Village. This is a little village in Freetown where lots of families live together. African culture is very much alive in the village - the children here are taught traditional African dancing and drumming and the adults make traditional instruments and clothing.

The children here in the village were some of the poorest that we say in Sierra Leone but they were some of the most talented dancers! Again, they all seemed so happy even though they had so little.

St Joseph's Primary School, Freetown

WOW, today we went to visit St Joseph's primary school. It is a huge green building on one of the busiest market streets in Freetown. I was welcomed by Patricia Lewis, the Headteacher. She gave us such a warm reception! Chatting with her I learned many things. One thing that really shocked me was that there are 980 girls in this school (aged 6-12) and there are only 21 members of staff. 3 of whom are not not even paid by the government - they are working for free. The children at the school danced for us and sang some beautiful songs.

We are very excited to be forming this friendship with St Joseph's school. They are so grateful for the support we have given in the form of a donation and all the gifts the children brought in to share!

So many hugs & cuddles!

St Joseph and the children!

The Mercy Ship

We visited the Mercy ship this evening. It was an incredible experience, possibly the highlight of the trip so far. I will tell you all about when I get back. What was so wonderful was the fact that all the people working on the ship are doing so voluntarily. This means they do this difficult work for no money at all. I saw lots of photographs of children who had operations that really changed their lives. I can’t wait to share it all with you soon.

Tomorrow, we are going back to the JT Reffell school as they are the only school not on their mid-term break tomorrow. We are going to do some Firework art with the children. It’s going to be great. I hope I don’t get my uniform too messy!

Adventures at the weekend

(1)  The Halloween party – What do you think of Mrs Meally’s costume? Think it’s scary?

(2) Tacugama Chimp Sanctuary – This is a special place where the chimpanzees are looked after and released back into the wild.

(3) The Beach – I love the beach. I even wore my swimming trunks today so I could go for a dip. This beach is so beautiful. The sand is white and the sea is clear.

St Joseph's Primary School, Freetown

Today we went to St Joseph’s school only to find that it was shut! It looks like a massive building all painted green. We also learned that it is an all girls school! The school is in a really busy part of town. Right outside the school gates there are many many people selling all kinds of things, trying to make a little bit of money. There is a wonderfully busy atmosphere here… some people are selling music and so are playing lots of African music really loudly. Other people are selling fish and vegetables. There are people selling clothes and bread and everything you can imagine. This is where most people will come to do their shopping as there is only one supermarket in Freetown and it is very expensive to buy things here. We are going to try and visit St Joes again on Tuesday. This is when the school re-opens.
I am very excited about tomorrow as Mr and Mrs Meally are going to a Halloween party! They have really scary costumes – I can’t wait to see them!

JT Reffell French Memorial Primary School

JT Reffell –

Today we spent the day at a local school called the JT Reffell French Memorial Primary School. It was brilliant. We brought loads of resources to give out to the teachers including a great big parachute like the one we have in school. I got to meet lots and lots of children at the school. They all wanted to give me a cuddle because they don’t have a teddy bear of their own. One girl gave me a big squeezy hug and another put me on her back (like a piggy back) and said: “Look, look Auntie, my baby”. In Africa a lot of the Mums tie their babies onto their back with some cloth and carry them around like this. The babies seem to like it and it means that the Mums can still do their jobs with both hands. We are going to visit St Joseph’s school tomorrow. I am incredibly excited and a little nervous as well.

p.s. In Sierra Leone, the children don’t call Mrs Meally, ‘Mrs Meally’. Instead they call her ‘Auntie Sarah’. They call all their teachers “Auntie!”

Congo Town

Today Mrs Meally went to Congo Town with the other staff and students from Wells Cathedral School. I stayed at home because I was still so tired after the long journey but when Mrs Meally came back she showed me all the photographs. She told me that they had a great chance to walk along and meet some of the people that live here. The children showed everyone their great big smiles. Mr & Mrs Meally gave out lots of sweets and lollipops to the children – they were so excited. Seeing the children and where they live should make us all feel very lucky to have a warm bed to sleep in each night.

Arrived in Sierra Leone

After a long flight and some delays in the airport we finally arrived in Sierra Leone. As soon as the doors on the plane opened the hot African air hit me! I had to ask Mrs Meally to loosen the top button on my shirt – it was so warm. To get to Freetown (where we are staying), we had to get a boat across a narrow little strip of water. This was great fun. The boat was so small and close to the water that I got splashed loads! The kind men from the British Military training centre (where we are staying) met us at the port. There were also lots of Sierra Leonean friends their to welcome us all and give us a hug! It was lovely to be welcomed so warmly tonight… I am very excited about tomorrow as we are going to visit a very poor area in Freetown called ‘Congo Town’. The houses here are mainly made from wood and tin and are very close together but the children have some of the biggest smiles in Africa!

A Quick Swimming Lesson

Miss Hughes and Class 3 were kind enough to take 'Ted' along to their swimming lesson this afternoon. What a clever idea. It is going to be so hot in Sierra Leone, maybe as hot as 40 degress so it's likely that Ted will need to cool down by having a quick dip in the pool!

Class 3 gave 'Ted' a quick lesson and confirmed that he is now a confident swimmer. They also told me there was no need for me to pack any arm bands for Ted!

Sierra Leone is on the West coast of Africa (Can you find it on the map?) - there are lots of nice beaches there. I'm looking forward to jumping over some waves with Ted now that I know he's a good swimmer.

Thank you Class 3 :o)

Getting Ready for the Big Journey

Today in whole school assembly, Miss Nolan introduced us to a new student in our school! Can you see him in the picture above? We don't know his name yet. All we know is that he is coming on the trip to Sierra Leone! He has his school uniform ready and his backpack. I hope he isn't afraid of flying in an aeroplane!