Day one at JTR! After a bumpy ride through Freetown's streets, the minibus - affectionately known as the Party Bus - finally arrived at the J.T. Reffell Memorial School on perfect "Salone Time": an hour and forty five minutes after we were scheduled to begin teaching. A tour of the school followed, as the JTR's Auntie Pearl introduced us to each and every class in the school.
Lessons, for us, began at 11:45, as Edson, joined by Sophie, took Prep 5 Orange, Josh and Chris took Prep 5 Blur (8 and 9 years old) for an hour of fun games, Elsie, Maddie and Mia took on Prep 6 ( 9 and 10) for some mathematical puzzles, while James and Archie joined Mme. Desmarchelier and the ever-smiley M. Pierre for an hour of French with JSS 1 (10 and 11).
After a quick stop for a lunch of meat and vegetable pies, we reunited with the music group and made our way on foot to Monday's "Big Market". After much hassling and haggling, we returned to Ballanta laden down with Sierra Leonean shirts, dresses, bracelets, hats, and more, and settled in for the afternoon's entertainment: a concert of joyous music presented by Ballanta's students. This, however, wasn't all, as we learnt the local Krio song "Friton Bebi" (Freetown Baby)!
As we write this, we are sitting in our room at the hotel, having just returned from a dinner of local dishes of plantain and barracuda at the Freetown Golf Club. Now for day two! ( Archie, James and Edson)
Day one at Ballanta: Monday morning started off strong with a hearty breakfast as pupils and staff alike prepared for our first day teaching at Ballanta and JTR. Our excitement would have to wait though, as we encountered the first challenge of the week - Freetown's Monday morning traffic!
Despite some questionably long 'shortcuts', spirits were high as we arrived some 90 minutes later with the van driver's impressively funky music taste getting us in the mood for a busy day of music teaching at Ballanta. This quickly descended into somewhat organised chaos as there were so many enthusiastic musicians coming to learn! The brass players were keen to show Grace and I the hymns they'd been learning in their brass band, so after some teaching and ensemble playing they came together to play for some of us, which gives us a good idea of what we need to prepare for tomorrow.
We reunited with the JTR group for lunch, then went to Freetown's Big Market for some souvenirs before going to admire the view from the rooftop of the city council building.
We then went back to Ballanta to watch performances from some of their pupils. We began learning a traditional Krio song with long-term friend of Ballanta Charlie, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.
The day ended with a tasty meal at the golf club, where many of us tried some traditional local food. Full of a delicious dinner, we returned to the hotel ready to rest for a busy day tomorrow. ( Mr Walton)
