Greetings from Bakoteh Proper Basic School in The Gambia.

How are you all in England? We hope you are all well and

we are so glad you are our friends.

You find us at the end of

the dry season. It has

not rained since

November. But now the first rain has

come.

So now the rains have come it is

time to plant crops and check our

roofs to make sure they do not leak.

The mangoes are almost ripe and ready

to eat. They are delicious. We have a mango trees in our school grounds. Do you eat mangoes?

We have been learning about clothes and we

have made a presentation about

what we have learned. We hope you like it!

People wear clothes for many reasons like to cover their nakedness or to make themselves look beautiful. They also wear clothes to

show they are part of a group - like your school

uniform or a football team strip or what the supporters wear

In Africa , because it is hot we have traditionally worn light airy clothes that let the air get to our bodies so we can keep cool. The ladies are wearing bulabah and men are wearing haftans. But more and more people

are wearing European clothes like jeans and T-shirts, especially in the towns. So on Friday all the adults try to wear traditional African clothes.

And when it is special occasion like weddings and the naming of a new baby we all dress up in African clothes. And at the Muslim festivals of Tobaski

and Koriteh we are all given new African clothes and shoes to wear.

Look at this tailor workshop. The young tailor nearest the camera is wearing jeans and a T-shirt. The older tailors are wearing traditional African

clothes.

There are many tailors in the Gambia who make

clothes. You choose your material and tell the tailor

what design you want. Most tailors are men.

Today we are off to see Mariama.

She is a very good lady tailor we

know.

Hallo I am Mariama and I am going to make some clothes

for Musa and Binta. First they have to chose the materials and then tell me the designs

they want.

The material we have chosen is called Tie-Dye and the pattern is

made by tying knots in the material before putting it into

the dye. It makes patterns. Can you see the elephant patterns in

this material. Tie-dying is a traditional West African craft that is still practiced today.

These are the materials we have

chosen. Mine is tie-dye and Binta’s is a printed pattern of Africa and African

drums

Now we have told Mariama the designs we want she measures us carefully to make sure she makes them the right

size.

Here is Mariama with her sewing machine making

clothes.

And here is what Mariama made for us

from the cloths we chose. Do you like

them?

We are at the market in

Serrakunda to buy some

second hand European

clothes. Most of the clothes

arrive in large containers by

sea. We have 25 dalasi each to

spend.

Often they are just dumped in a pile and you have to sort through and

find something you like?

I have bought this T-

shirt for 25

dalasiMy T-shirt

cost 25 dalasi too.

Do you like what we have bought?

We are going to say Good bye now. We hope you enjoyed

our presentation on clothes. And we

hope we will hear from you soon. Bye.