Good Morning. And greetings from everyone at Brufut Lower Basic School. The Gambia. Today is Set Settle. That is Wolof and it means tidy up

It is usually the first Saturday in every month – but The President decides. You have to spend the whole morning cleaning up your local area. No cars are allowed on the roads until 1pm and all the shops are shut.

So everyone goes outside and sweeps up.

We also make the place clean and tidy by picking up litter. Do you think Set Settle is a good idea?

And today is Saturday June 1 st. Last night it rained for the first time since early November. The dry season is coming to an end. And the rainy season starts. Most of the rain will fall in August. The rain is important for growing things. We hope it will be a good rainy season so the farmers up river can grow the rice we eat.

Now it is June the mangos are ripe and ready to eat.

You peel them and eat them raw. We also drink mango juice. Do you have mangos in England?

I think they are delicious!

Now we are on the piece of land my mother farms. This is the well we use to get water for the crops during the dry season.

These are the shells of ground nuts. I think you call them peanuts in England. We put these shells on the land to make the plants grow strong.

This is corn. It is ripe now and ready to eat.

This what it looks like when you peel of the leaves. You heat it on hot charcoal.

The street vendors sell them. They taste good. And can you see the mangos and ground nuts on the table?

Did you notice at the beginning when I was telling you about Set Settle? That some one had written something on the post behind me?

Every building is numbered. This is building 265. A census officer will visit and complete a form that records how many people live here, their ages and whether they are male or female. We are going to tell you all about this next time. It says 2013 population census. Every 10 years the government count how many people are living in The Gambia

For now we are going to say Good Bye. We hope you write soon and tell us all about what is happening with you in England.