Saturday (Day 8) Homeward bound...

My last day had come and it was bitter sweet. My week had (as promised) been life changing, I had learned that those with nothing can be the most generous and that there is a simpler (and warmer) way to live....

I was excited that we were taking Fattie and the boys to the beach but as we were waiting we got the awful news that one of the sponsor kids had been hit by a car, that was all we knew so we waited to see if we were going to make a hospital visit instead of hitting the beach. A second call told us the person that has hit him had driven straight to hospital and there were no broken bones, just severe grazes. To Ginger and Sol every S4K child is theirs and I joked she would be a nervous wreck when all 200 of them are in their teens! So a bit later than planned (Gambia Time yet again) we headed off to Sol's family compound where our kids were

waiting, When I saw Fattie I was so happy because she was wearing a beautiful dress that we had bought for her all those months ago, she had matching hair bows, sun glasses and even though the sandals we got her were way too big her mum had managed to find some shoes that almost matched...she looked amazing.

We all sat in the back of the car looking out of the windows and playing 'round and round the garden' on each others palms..Fattie and Dawda are particularly ticklish.

Although she only lives a couple of miles from the sea this was Fatties first time, and only her brothers second. The boys were really excited once we hit the sand but Fattie seemed very reluctant so we sat on a sun bed for some time just taking it all in, then we took a walk down to the sea. It was very calm and holding my had she stood a few inches in the water, that was fine but each time the small waves went out they took some of the sand from under her feet and she really didn't like this, clinging on to my hand for dear life. After a few minutes we decided to go and dig a hole which was much more fun, then we collected shells and cuttlefish to decorate it with.

We hadn't thought to bring anything with us for the kids to do so we muscled in on another family that had buckets and spades, it took a while but the quality of sandcastles rapidly improved and we soon had a medieval town. Bakary then decided any that weren't perfect had to go and our town became a hamlet...Fattie was not impressed and gave him a right telling off. It was lovely seeing Ginger and Sol having a couple of hours off, they work incredibly hard and as surrogate parents to 200 kids are never off duty. All too soon it was time to pack up and drop the children off. It was also time to say goodbye to Sidat who had become a good friend, we exchanged gifts and Ginger joked about my bride price, which we decided was 2 cows 3 goats and a few chickens...which beats Ginger's lone camel!!

Chef Badjie created another benachin masterpiece and it was time to finish packing my bag and head for the airport......

A few people had said to me knowingly 'Africa gets in your blood' and they were right, within hours of being home I was on the internet looking at flights to get me back to my Gambian family. Next time I hope to stay for much longer, living with the Badjies and volunteering at Model School...but no, I am not a teacher!