Salone 23: Day 4 Hard work and British High Commissioner’s Concert

We began the day by waking up at the crack of dawn and heading to JTR and Ballanta for our first day of teaching. The JTR group had a tour of the school from Auntie Pearl (The owner of the school), followed by 2 French lessons with highly enthusiastic year 5 for one team, whilst the other JTR team taught some Spanish alongside a very educational animal drawing session!!!

At Ballanta the musicians taught their respective instruments as well as rehearsing for the British High Commissioner’s concert. The two groups reconvened at lunch time where the first instance of staff conflict occurred. General Jules (concerned about the amount of waste in such a poor country- NDLR) wanted to limit the amount of Jollof rice to 17 portions however Jammy Jack couldn’t stand for this and proudly defended the fact that the 19 portions of rice were definitively necessary. Naughty Neil and Shimmy Shelley were bystanders not wanting to upset either parties. #stayneutral The car journey to the concert turned out to be a game of sardines for the 5 of us and Ms D left behind (as there are not enough space on the yellow bus) without a transport, where Eva practised leg day with Aunty Kitty on one leg and Nina on the other. Another problem arose when we received nothing but radio silence from Abdul (our normal chauffeur), meaning that all the smart clothes were left stranded in his car. Holly happily performed in her pyjamas (although they looked very respectable and nobody could tell!), whilst Tobin swapped his chinos for some cheeky trunks with Théo, as he was not performing tonight. Naughty Neil caused mayhem yet again after skiving another music commitment- to be fair, he stayed behind to look after poor Oriane, who was still suffered g from the stifling heat! The concert was a huge success and all the musicians played brilliantly. The final group piece with Ballanta had everyone on their feet and dancing with Shimmy Shelley popping off with her salsa moves (the British High Commissioner, Mrs Lisa Chesney was flabbergasted by these moves and said “I went down that low, there is no way I would come back up”- NDLR)

Extraordinarily, Abdul was waiting for us outside the British High Commissioner’s residence after the concert, and we managed to get back on time to the hotel, with our smart clothes in the bag at the back of his car! We finished the day with another delicious meal in the Papaya restaurant consuming even more Jollof rice!! 😋 Emily and Cami (Note De La Rédaction by JDA)