Greetings once again from The

Gambia!

Today we are going to show you

how to play a great game and learn a new skill all at the same

time!

We bet you can’t guess

what the game is!

Here I am filling buckets with

water ready for the game!

I wonder if you can guess where we

balance the bucket??

Today we are going to show you something

we in The Gambia

call bucket balance!

That’s right, on our heads! Did you

guess correctly?

Now I wonder if you can guess why people

in The Gambia and other African countries balance things on their

heads??

In a country like The Gambia

many people do not own cars so

most people have to walk carrying there belongings

with them

Because we walk so often we find it easier to carry things on the top of our

heads as it is far less tiring than carrying things with our arms!

We start carrying small items when we are

young, which helps us develop our balance so

we can carry heavier things as we grow

older

This bucket is full of water, if I tried to carry it with my arms it would feel

much heavier!

To help make sure things don’t fall when we balance them we use a cloth to help

grip the object to the top of our head!

Here I am with just a cloth on my head waiting for a bucket to balance on it

Most Africans have curly dry hair and

this helps us because it means the cloth sticks to our heads quite

well

Because most Europeans have flat shiny hair we think it might be harder for

them to balance things!

Here are some people carrying things on their

heads in every day life in The Gambia

Most people in The Gambia will carry

water from the well to their home each

day, this is how bucket balancing came about!

It’s not just water people carry mind!

Can you see what these ladies are

carrying?

That’s right food!We don’t have

plastic shopping bags in The Gambia!

Here are some women carrying there washing

home after leaving it in the sun to dry!

What do you think you would carry on

your head if you could?

Remember we have been balancing buckets for a long time so you might want to practise with an empty bucket, we don’t want you all

getting wet!!

We thought it would be a great experiment if you tried balancing

buckets on your head to see how you get on!

We love playing bucket balance races!

As you can see each person races against another person to see

who can get across the playground first!

Once you have practised balancing a bucket you may like to try racing

each other!

It’s great fun!

Obviously if you drop your bucket in the race you have to go back to

the start!

You can either race each other or race as a

relay team against another team!

We’d love to know how you got on!Maybe you could

write to us and tell us how you did!

We thought it would be great if you held a bucket balance race

at your school!