Salone 23: Day 5 Another hot day, another pupil down…but we plough on!

Today was another early start for the JTR girls as we headed off slightly earlier than the BAMPA lot, to teach a wide range of year groups including prep 4,5 and 6. Cami and I taught some Spanish and memory games. Emily, Dim and Ella taught some drama games outside, braving the heat! The kids created such a great atmosphere and made teaching lots of fun for us. We enjoyed working with such enthusiastic children and can’t wait to do again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in Ballanta, we had a lot of old friends from the previous day coming back and having lesson with us. And as Mrs Dean had asked, we have to mention that she had 12 amazing students today, and they all said they’ll coming back for the rest of the week!!!( Oh well, Shimmy Shelley is getting popular….). Whilst she was busy with drama, Nina took a few girls to do a spot of modern dance in another room at the Ballanta. We were all super busy all morning…except that we were one man down, with Alex spending his time in the only room with air con at Ballanta, or not feeling great because of yet again Heat exhaustion…but he stayed with us the whole day, and we can report that tonight, he felt much better! No doubt the effect of having made new friends at SOS village… more on this later! (NDLR- JDA). Other musicians are also enjoying having more lovely and new visitors/ learners- with Eva causing General D to lose her mind because she had disappeared… only to be found teaching another pupil piano! Today for lunch, we had some fresh chicken and vegetable pies from the local bakery instead of our traditional rice, and we all enjoyed the change. Hope people liked them :/ because we are getting some more tomorrow!

The clear highlight of our day was the two incredible concerts our musicians played at the SOS children’s orphanage and the Milton Margai school for the blind. Tobin and Theo delighted the audience with Tequila (the music not the drink!), and everybody joined in!

Everyone in the audience had the best time and we were all brought to tears when the children from the school for the blind blessed us with a few songs. It’s obvious that these kids are truly cared for and are given the opportunity to show off their talents, and reminded yet again of the power of music. It was incredible to witness these disadvantaged children put their whole heart into the music and create such a beautiful sound. It was truly something to behold.

Naughty Niel update: Mr Coward has gifted naughty neil a personalised towel to keep himself dry. Gabby and Chrina on blog, JDA on edit and photos/ videos as usual! the Margai Milton school for the Blind choir, lead by Salieu.