Christmas au Senegal was an interesting one. In fact it wasn't in Senegal at all. Once the school term finished we headed to Thies with the famalam for a big wedding. It was pretty damn exciting, involving plenty of costume changes, cooking, eating, chit-chatting and ataya brewing. We enjoyed a day whiled away at the house with lots of coming and goings, then headed downtown for the reception. The best of efforts had been made with decor and refreshments, with an abundance of flashing lights and fizzy pop - a whale of a time was had by all.

Soon after Katie and I nipped off, destination The Gambia. We managed to cover most forms of land transport by the time we reached the border, and after running into some rather chatty security guards, made it through to Cape Point where we met up with the other volunteers and enjoyed a week or so on the beach, enjoying learning Gambian Wolof (Yangi fine?) and the local ceep u jen den (where we ate lunch daily), and hanging out. We made a couple of trips into Serekunda, and Katie and I went as far as to buy a load of fish and potatoes from the market to cook our favourite Senegalese dish. Tribute must be paid here to champion fish-gutters Katie and Lena.

After a week the motherland was ardently calling us back; we made our way down to Ziguinchor in Senegal's beautiful southern Casamance region. We got a bit of an insight into the project there and enjoyed an awesome lunch of the river before re-grouping the Katie and Amee team and heading towards the coast for the Abene Festivalo - a percussion festival in a very small coastal village near Kafountine. Abene itself was interesting - small but with a large quota of Gambians and Rastafarianss, most of whom would not turn their nose up at the occasional illegal substance...We stayed at a great campement (Senegal's answer to resposible tourist options) owned and run by a quadrilingual guy called Cherif. The song 'I shot the Sheriff' seemed to be the running theme-tune for the place, and we had a great stay. We spent the days walking (slowly) around, enjoying the beach and occasionally zipping around on the back of a motorbike (jakarta in local lingo) - best way to get around on the sandy roads - and the evenings at the festival, enjoying the spectacle (and occasionally participating) of Diola and Mandinka dancing, singing, and drumming, standing amongst locals and tourists alike. At New Years' Eve we watched the show and then made our way to the beach with the rest of Abene's resident and visiting population for a huge bonfire, fireworks display, and to crowd around the drumming circles with the CRAZIEST dancing I'd ever seen!! Hence 2013 was seen in with style, with coca-cola, and for Katie, a chicken yassa sandwich.

Soon after, our jaunt around the country was over, and we made the 14hr overland journey back to Joal, covering about 400km and two border crossings on and in a variety of motorbikes, sept-places, buses, boat, and taxi. Bit of a marathon but so cool to see so much on the way. Once back in Joal we were straight into lessons on the 2nd Jan. Enthusiasm was somewhat lacking but we soon got them up and running again. Classes went swimmingly, with my beginners covering the present simple tense (breakthrough!!) and everything else progressing nicely. I've got involved with a local French journal written by high school students, and English clubs are now up and running at all 3 schools. We also enjoyed an all-night party at the church, during which I might've just dropped a few awful dance moves and eaten an even more awful amount of fataya. With the prospect of working non-stop until Easter, Katie and I were somewhat daunted, however it soon became obvious to us that this was never Senegal's intention, so fatigue nicely avoided there. The Islamic festival Gamou (celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed) came conveniently round on the 23rd January, bringing with it a few days off and a visit once again to Thies. The festival followed the general Senegalese format that seems to be a winner here (eating, drinking, and the occasioanal boogy) but with Gamou we got the bonus of an all-nighter at the mosque (headscarves included). In fact, our night was pent just outside the mosque, along with the rest of the women. We enjoyed a 5hr recital of the Qu'ran, interspersed with some relatively upbeat singing and something which seems to resemble Islamic dancing. You sort of step from side to side and wave your arms, clicking your fingers. I thought I might finally have found a dance I could do, but that unfortunately failed miserably once I remembered I can't really click. Due to a huge number of family members literally dropping and sleeping throughout the house I spent the night on a prayer mat on the floor but nevertheless slept soundly until we returned to Joal in the morning.

We've since been back in Joal trying to get back into the rhythm, however the latest teacher strike is threatening to unseat us and our nicely prepared pupils before their exam in February. Both Katie and I have been teaching nonetheless, but we inevitably lose lessons which don't start at 8am as the kids just go home, and it's somewhat frustrating. However, we are up for a challenge of COURSE, and that is what we're getting! I've also started teaching my lower sixth class at the lycee, which is a challenge from the word go - standing up in front of SIXTY-FOUR students, most of whom are older and taller than me. However we've had a somewhat raucous time learning English colloquialisms (see you later, alligator) and competing in verb conjugations with Noughts and Crosses: Miss Amee's grammar edition.

We've been at the church a ton recently, preparing along with everyone else for the patronal festival this weekend - a two day affair involving plenty of eating, dancing and traditional singing of Serer songs, harmonised by yours truly for the choir.

I hope Christmas and New Year were seen in with a party wherever you are, thank you so much for the support of my blog, it's so awesome reading the messages!!

Amee x