Every day Steven begins with praise songs and devotions. Here is a clip of the students singing in the Mandinka language. The words mean "Jesus saves me, yes, He saves me, because of this I will praise Him". Not all of the students know this language, as some of them speak Wolof or another dialect, and many are not from Gambia. At the end of the clip, the guy in the back is Fadil, who is from Mandinka tribe, and was sort of "leading" the song.
Yesterday Steven's wife Helen took me to a presentation where the speaker (a Gambian who teaches at Syracuse University in NY!) spoke in English but there was interpretation into Wolof.
On Friday the students received a chart listing their jobs each week - the Summer Duty Rota, it was called.
Each day a different student will have worship songs, a 5 minute devotion from a specific passage in Ephesians, and prayer; another student is to sweep the classroom floors, arrange the chairs and connect the fans, one cleans toilets and makes sure there is TP, and 3 others take care of snacks (cold drinks and cookies are served at the mid-break around 6-ish.) Also there is a guy each week in charge of electricity. I would assume that means getting the back-up generator going when the power goes out. I think it is somewhat of a job, because I have seen Steven going around with a couple of large tools when he has had to do that.
There are 2 ceiling fans in each classroom, but with so many students it takes a couple more outside the rooms, which have to be shut down of course when it pours rain. :)
Here is one of the fans which we had to disconnect during a recent downpour, and move back in to an unused room.
Lastly, here is Saikou, one of the students, who had a question, and Dick discussed with him after class. He was asking whether or not God's punishment of Moses (not to enter the Promised Land) was too harsh. Saikou gets up early each morning to read his Bible for at least 2 hours, or else, he says, he feels unprepared for the day. Oh, my, I should do this!
His shirt is from his sister's wedding, he says. This is a new custom for us. When there is a wedding, a special anniversary, etc., everyone has their clothes made from the same cloth so they all match. When we stayed with David's friend T. B. in Accra, Ghana, there was a picture on the wall from their 40th wedding anniversary party, and everyone's clothing was made from the same material. Very cool custom!
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