Well we're HALF WAY through the year! For the first time, I've got less time left in Senegal than that which I've already spent here…wild. Katie and I celebrated appropriately last night with Fanta and chicken yassa baguettes, and I thought I'd mark the occasion by giving a slightly more thorough round up of my official duties here and chat a bit about 'everyday life', as has been requested (though one could say ordered), by one particularly zealous reader. It's just as well, as nothing earth-shattering has been going on since the last update (excluding final paragraph OF COURSE).

Excitingly enough, we've been working pretty much non-stop since getting back from New Year and Gamou, which has been pretty exhausting - lessons run from Monday to Saturday, starting at 8am each morning. However I don't have lessons on Thursdays which allows me to do something a bit different - been working at the hospital a lot but also hoping to work at the port at some point with some neighbours, which would be pretty cool. My classes have all just finished sitting their first set of formal exams called compositions, which means I've marked about 400 test papers….snore…let's move on (though my flicks of red pen are starting to look like a real teacher... I wonder if I'll make the grade one day...!).

One of the newest additions to my schedule is joining a group of lycee students who write and produce their own journal in classical French to spread around Joal and the wider community. They each contribute their own funds to the journal, and also get up to a bit of singing and sketch-acting during meetings.

Ah, of course, we had the patronal festival! Celebrated over a period of three days, it was a huge bonanza of flashy new boubous, crazy kids, and LOTS of church services. The music was particularly awesome, the choir loft being so full it felt like a party, everyone dancing/swaying and singing their hearts out! We all had a fantastic lunch at a nearby school and then spent the obligatory 4 hours or so standing around, chatting, drinking all manner of fizzy pop and admiring Katie's new purchase - Jesus material! She has since had it made into a stunning shirt and trousers, I will be sure to add a photo.

Our lycee English club has been gaining momentum, in fact tomorrow we are headed to Dakar with a number of students for a meeting with the Association of English Teachers in Senegal (ATES -part 2 of the event in Saint Louis), where they'll be performing English language sketches and meeting other English students/teachers from around Senegal. We recently had a blast with a great poem, if you don't know it, excuse me for one moment, you'll need to have a read:

One fine day in the middle of the night,

Two dead men got up to fight,

Back to back they faced each other,

Drew their swords and shot each other,

Deaf policeman heard the noise,

And ran to save the two dead boys,

And if you don't believe it's true,

Go ask the blind man, he saw it too!

In February we were lucky enough to welcome the wonderful Mama Thwaites and Kitty Thwaites (since re-named Coumba in Senegal) to Joal!! We met at the airport, spent about 6 hrs overnight in a hotel, then went right on down to Joal-Fadiouth. They enjoyed (I hope) a somewhat short but full visit - we had an outdoor mass at which they were presented by a rather stuttering other Thwaites, boubous were donned, fanta was drunk, a smashing (and somewhat sweaty) time was had by all. We also spent a day in Dakar at the wondrous Renaissance monument (see blog 1) and at the stunning N'Gor beach.

That's all for now folks, have a great day! Amee