Will we ever move?

We have now been in the Gambia for a month (well me and the girls) and we are still in our temporary accommodation. As nice as this is, and as much as the girls adores our neighbours (for Amelie her new 8 and 6 year old playmates and for Elise their dog as she tends to fight over bikes with the 3 year old), the itch to more somewhere permanent is taking hold. I am simply yearning to hang something on a wall and Elise is yearning to bake a cake (as our current oven does not work ) – strangely baking seems much more attractive to me as well! The Gambia may not be known for its desserts and baked goods, but we may yet pick up some tips as the girls have been invited to the local bakery for a cookery lesson. At first I thought the owner was just being polite – they love children (and the smaller the better it seems) here so Elise gets a lot of attention – but after the third invitation I am ready to hand the girls over for the morning with the expectation of picking them and a tray full of chocolate croissants up later.

We were hoping to move into our permanent house on the compound at the end of this week, though this is now moving into next week. I think we are on the home stretch, though in my enthusiasm to test everything out I may have shorted all the electrics on a visit earlier this week – I may not pack quite yet!

The main news is that Amelie has started school. Her school is a lovely space - large play areas and roomy classrooms. The head teacher greets you every morning and afternoon, and it is a genuinely personal greeting - for example today a conversation about Elise’s mosquito bites and our experience of heat rash - though with only 50 pupils (aged 3-14) personal attention is much easier. There are only five children in Amelie’s class and she is certainly enjoying all the attention! We are only a week in, but it doesn’t seem too claustrophobic and the classes all mix at breaks and for PE which means she has a wider pool of friends and there are older children from the compound whom she knows, can see at break and have helped her settle in.

School has also been good for meeting the neighbours. Amelie’s school appears to have three main groups of clientele: MRC, diplomats and other. People appear to like to identify their own kind and so I have been approached by several people whom I had no idea lived on the same compound opening the opportunity for some more social interactions – after a month of solo childcare in a foreign country during the holiday months I am fairly desperate for some adult interactions.

Elise is completely desperate for her nursery to begin. Every day she trails after Amelie into school and has taken to carrying an empty lunch box or school bag as well. Unfortunately for her she has another week of mummy’s company until she can start nursery. I feel slightly unadventurous in having chosen the most British of the nurseries that I visited, but the facilities seem so good and Elise fell in love with the place immediately (I had to work through a large list of bribes to extract her). The nursery is run by a British lady and her daughter who came highly recommended (and I think you need a recommendation to get in which the family network at MRC luckily provided). They are both artists so the nursery is beautifully and very colourfully decorated and I am hoping to pick up a batik or two which seems to be a side line. From the start, both Kris and Katie completely engaged with Elise and did this so successfully that she talks endlessly about her new “friends” (if Elise doesn’t know a name the person is automatically called “friend”) and when she is going to see them next. It is a very small place and only takes 15 children aged 2.5 - 5 years. They only do morning sessions so our wonderful maid is going to turn nanny to give me some extra working hours in the day (see below).

I know that some people (who will completely know who they are) were very interested in staffing matters so here is where we are at. We currently have the most wonderful maid, Perinne. I hate the word “maid” as it really doesn't do Perinne credit and she certainly does not need anyone to tell her what to do. In England I often gave up asking a cleaner to do various tasks (mainly dusting) as it just seemed beyond them to work out how to do it properly. Perinne is the complete opposite and usually comes to me telling me what needs to be done and regularly turns up with a new implement needed for the smooth running of the house – my birthday present was a laundry basket! She really is a star – she can cook (has been teaching me some classic Gambian dishes), can iron a mean shirt, is wonderful with the children (having six of her own) and so babysits and speaks 5 languages. We are currently plotting how we can entice her home with us! This week we also took on a gardener. I am hoping Alex will also show a lot of initiative as I am completely clueless as to ideas for landscaping a garden in this or any climate – my only vision is for a tree house for the children which are popular around here. My other concern is that he has picked up that I speak French and being originally from Senegal now will only speak to me in French - I am not quite sure my gardening vocab is up to scratch though. Elise is completely mystified and keeps asking me "what are all those strange sounds coming out of your mouth - speak properly mummy" - just as well I didn't send her to the local French school!