Salone 23: Day 7 Memorial service for PC Kombarai Peter Penfold- British High Commissioner

Today started with us hopping on the bus to Ballanta and JTR, as per usual after a good hearty breakfast of pancakes, watermelon, papaya, oranges, bananas, omelettes, cakes, coffee and powdered milk for Cami- don’t ask, the girl is obsessed (NDLR). As we knew we would have to curtail our teaching at JTR, Dimity, Ella and Cami started with some French with Y4, with General Jules next door doing the same lesson with the other Y4, whilst Gabby and Emily entertained the Y3 with some Drama games. We then took on Y6 for one final time, and Gabby and Cami did Fortune tellers- they had great fun trying to tell our fortunes afterwards! Pupils and teachers stopped at 11 am to head back to Ballanta to have an early lunch, get changed and head out.

Today was the final day teaching in Ballanta. All of us were undoubtedly fond of our students and will miss them massively despite only knowing them for a few days. We taught everything from piano to dance to playing the song ‘tequila ’ on the trumpet and saxophone. Although we were the ones doing the teaching we’ve learnt so much from the people of Sierra Leone. Their friendliness, optimism and kindness is something we’ll never forget.

We ended teaching early today in order to attend the memorial of the late PC Konmrabai Peter Penfold, ex British High Commissioner of Sierra Leone, and the reason why we , Wells Cathedral School, have this strong bond with Ballanta. He was the one who suggested the music school to Mr Ladley when in 2009, Mr Ladley wanted to establish a link with Sierra Leone, having served here in the British army during the civil war (NDLR). Despite never knowing him in person, we all got a sense of how influential and positive his life had been. Camilla brilliantly played a solo Bach piece on the violin in his honour. At the end of the service, his wife Celia Penfold scattered half his ashes and a tree was planted in honour of the man that changed the lives of many people in St Augustine’s Church garden, to the sound of Tell him tenki, Tell him thank you), a Krio tune, played by our ‘blowers’ as Mr C referred to the Euphonium, Saxophones, Trumpet and Bassoon. It was a long service (nearly 3 hours), but pupils were an absolute credit to the school and their parents of ourselves (NDLR).

We then headed to the Golf Club for supper where we all enjoyed the great food, socialised and wound down for the day. Afterwards we were treated to an ice cream at Gigibonta, where we were all spoilt for choice from an array of amazing flavours. Eva and Oriane, edited as usual by General JDA.