I helped Patrick out the other day with his final tuition payment. The way is now clear for him to take his exit exams in July in order to graduate in August. Pretty amazing. He’s worked like a dog—for a long while I wondered if he wasn’t overdoing it, especially given his other responsibilities. But the younger kids have stepped up, especially Fatou, who now does the lion’s share of the food preparation, and somehow or other he’s managed to keep up and pass all his classes. His scores aren’t scintillating, but C’s get degrees.
Once he’s graduated, he assures me that he will be assigned a grade-school teaching position, with an option to undergo additional training in two years in order to teach high-school. Not bad for an orphan from a nowhere village.
I thought it would be entertaining for you, dear readers, to get a glimpse of his daily commute. Patrick, as I have mentioned before, does not live directly in Brikama, but rather in a small village on the outskirts. He rides his bike—which I bought him on his birthday a year and a half ago at the usual massive Gambian discount1—on the dusty roads about a half hour each way. I was thinking he would stop periodically along the way and snap a photo or two. He sent me sixty-four.
I figured since there’s a limit to how many I can post here that I’d split them into groups. Should be sufficient for the next few editions of Chankan Ouwass. So let’s get rolling:
One last photo before I go. This is Patrick back and December, wearing traditional clothes and sporting new glasses. Go Patrick!
Until next time, thanks for reading!
It’s impossibly expensive to send anything to Gambia, but you can get most things there for pennies on the dollar, though electronic items tend to be refurbished and several years out of date.