Friday 3rd October

The day before Parks 25th.

The team awoke in a usual leisurely fashion (i.e. before 8 as it’s far too hot to sleep beyond this time!) Pa Jalloh and our new driver Reginald were waiting to whisk us off to the Senior boy’s Grammar School, and proceeded to do so. After spending the average amount of time on Kissy road, we reached the school. The school is set in a beautiful backdrop, with a view onto one of Freetown’s peninsulas; and before long Laurence had taken many “snapshots” of the school. The Grammar School is the African equivalent of a British Private school. With a school motto, a school song (sung to us by our guide) and different houses, greatly contrasting to, many of the Sierra Leone schools we’ve experienced so far. In every classroom Iain used a similar speech. “What do you know about England?” he’d ask enthusiastically. And on most occasions they would reply “FOOTBALL!” with one lad even stating that the UK was the “head of the European Commonwealth!”Iain would then ask. “Does anyone support Manchester United?” Then, the children would raise their hands rapidly as Loz waved along with them. There were even a few sympathy hands raised by disliked Liverpool supporters. However, when Parks asked if anyone had heard about “Middlesbrough,” although some hands were raised initially, when he asked if anyone supported this random team, deathly silence then ensued. Each time Parks looked lost and in considerable emotional pain (near close to tears)...yet in each classroom he continued this vain search for a Boro supporter! However, the morning’s work was incredibly productive, even with Iain asking questions in an all boys school such as “so what is the male to female ratio of pupils here?”
Duncan spent a time in the school’s ICT lab, establishing that the school had one of the best ICT facilities we’d seen in SL.
After a promising visit to the Grammar School we visited the Annie Walsh Memorial School in the centre of Freetown. We were greeted warmly by all there and were soon whisked off on a tour of the school. We even had the joyful opportunity to speak in front of 500 of the pupils...all girls!
Each speaker went down a treat, especially Loz, mainly due to his introductory line of “Hellooooo Ladies!” and his final comment that the best thing about his own school had been the ladies there. When their Head Teacher then announced that Laurence was 19, there was an explosion of joyful cheering from all the ladies (there was much rejoicing!) Fearing for Loz’s life, we set off for home.
An extremely promising morning was then rounded off with some food and Uno at our local, the Sea Farers. Another moment of genius from Parks arrived when a completely incomprehensible woman came over to introduce herself to us. Loz and Duncan kept brilliantly quiet whilst Parks replied to her “Yes, a little bit of tuna, Thank you.” The fact that he didn’t have a clue what she’d actually said did not deter him from then asking, in classic stalker fashion, “Where do you live?”
As the day drew to a close, we began to prepare ourselves for the night ahead. To celebrate Iain’s 25th birthday, Phina, the bishop’s daughter, had suggested she take us out clubbing across Freetown. And so....we did.