Had a really nice couple of days despite the vile amount of couscous. Part of this Muslim holiday is the eating of copious amounts of the horrendous faux rice. As Ive mentioned before my family are not Muslim yet they felt it appropriate to take part in this particular tradition and we had enough couscous to feed the whole city. There is no word other than repulsive. It was dark brown and there were, no lie here, 20 saucepans of it. Ive just about pulled through but Im finding it hard to sleep at night as thoughts of couscous keep going round and round in my head. Have discovered through two other volunteers a really cheap bar about a thirty second walk from our house. It is amazing and a litre of wine is 85p. Needless to say some hazy moments have been had. 

Victory reigned last night as once again we won the quiz for the second time. Unfortunately the happiness was short lived as it dawned on us that if we hadnt cheated, which we did A LOT, we probably would have actually come fifth. But nonetheless we managed to enjoy the prize drinks and are not looking forward to writing the next one. Im going to try and make it extra intellectual after the slating of the celebrity focussed one we did last time, so any suggestions would be much appreciated.

This morning I did the talibe breakfast which I do once a week. This involved cutting up about 500 baguettes and filling them with chocolate spread and oil. All the talibes come in and eat it and have a cup of coffee as they dont eat for the rest of the day. Because breakfast runs from 7 till 10, we never get to school until late. I don't have a problem with thios and embrace the three hour day. Today though I was in a particularly horrendous mood and the thought of school in general made me feel physically ill. But off I went with Lucy and as we turned the corner into the street the school is on, I was met with the sight of about 500 little kids all shouting and going crazy. Yes, it was another hideous school trip. So as it finally became clear that we were in fact taking the entire school, 2 year olds and all, out for a nice walk, my mood worsened. Immediately I had ten kids hanging off my arms shouting 'tata tata' and pointing at various other kids who were meant to have hit them/said the wrong thing/stolen their bag etc etc. Then I saw the clown and I knew things could only get worse. On a slightly different note, I must admit that recently; despite the violence towards me, Ive started to realise that the clown is nothing short of a hottie. But alas I must remember that he is a clown, and not a particularly funny one, and hence is hugely undesirable. Anyway we continued on. About ten taxis has to swerve to avoid hoards of kids fighting in the road and once again many new injuries were incurred. The point of the trip was still not exceptionally clear and my mood was getting worse and worse, not helped when the warty girl ran up to me and rubbed her face on my hand. Suddenly the clown started beating the drum he always takes about with him and ran into a shop about the size of a small car. The whole school followed him, with a few getting severely crushed in the door. When the clown emerged with 100 CFA (10p) it suddenly became clear that we were in fact fundraising. This is possibly the worst fundraising idea a school has ever had without a shadow of doubt. The fundraising continued and many innocent memebers of public had their houses turned upside down all in the name of 5p. Finally after about half an hour we arrived at the second part of our school, which is for older children. I still dont know why we went there because it was the worst part of the school trip by far and that is saying something. All 500 squeezed into a space big enough for about 5 people and the fighting contined. Soon one small boy was trapped undr a fallen blackboard and others had begun a huge pile on. Then the toilets overflowed and the smell was so incredibly bad I cannot describe. Lets just say that school cleaners here put cleaning at the very bottom of their top priorities list. Once we left that school and I finally had my two little favourites holding my hands I felt slightly more positive about the situation. Lucy saved a tiny girl from a trampling and we all managed to walk through the school gate safely, with the school eleven pounds richer as a result. The day after that got better. We arrived back at breaktime and the kids played and I taught them the hand game which they dont get but still enjoy. Lots of them recited Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and I must say the words are finally starting to resemble something like English. Then we got back into the classroom and Tata Adama announced that I had presents for them all. This is when the moment finaly came that I could give out the sunglasses that I had been given by an optician in Fishponds. The sunglasses are tiny and the most outdated things you can imagine but it was like Christmas had come early as we handed them out (after a warning that if anybody was ever naughty again their sunglases would of course be confiscated). It was so cute as they all put them on, and the slightly less advanced members of the year put them on upside down with the tags still on. Then I brought out the camera and they went crazy trying to be in the photos. I took loads of them, and managed to get some of my particular favourites, which I will upload as soon as I find a computer capable of doing it. So all in all it turned out to be a very cute day at school and I got a special thanks from the headmaster and hundreds of 'Merci Tata Coomba' s. The only downside wazs another teacher who told me if i gave them to one clas I had to give thel to hers. Considering I have never seen her class I did feel this was slightly unfair, but I just nodded and will deny all knowedge of the conversation when she asks again. The next day I was told that the money had been used to make these cake things for the children. Was looking forward to the cakes all day until I was given one and they had MEAT inside them. I think that it is azctually criminal to make a MEAT cake but the children enjoyed it which is the main thing and to be fair, I probably need another cake like I need more rice, i.e. not a huge amount. The same day someone finally fell victim to the safety nightmare that is the metal chairs at school. Her nail got caught and fell off and I was the only one in the classroom. Im not sure if any of you know quitez how sick nails falling off makes me feel but the answer is VERY; I am ashamed to report I ran out of the classroom shouting about a nail and asked creepy teacher to deal with it. Poor girl was probably expecting some sympathy but I was not the one to giv it to her that time. We hugged the cutest puppy ever earlier which belonged to a talibe and no rabies symptoms yet, touch wood. Must go as no time left but as always hope everyone is fine and all is going well. Lot of Love xxx