So once again I apologise for such a long lapse of time between entries, I have become even more lazy than I was at home, despite doubts that this was even possible. Life here is still as good as ever, although the heat is becoming slighty unbearable. Apparantly this is the hottest it has been so early in the year for a very long time. Its hard to sleep at night now and for the first time in a long while I am not mourning my duvet at home.

We've had a lot of fun and I have recently began to wonder if perhaps I am having too much and not doing enough to be worthy. In a fit of guilt today I puchased a huge trunk covered in teddy bears and some bins for school so that they can finally discover the meaning of tidiness and hygiene (whoever thought I would be the one to teach them these values - not mum Im sure). I think I may also invest in some soap as the thought of those kids using the most rancid school toilets you could imagine and NOT washing their hands afterwards makes me feel sick. Also their fingers up their noses is a permanant fixture, so soap really would be an investment.

I'm going to bullet point the rest of this entry so that I don't leave anything out, though inevitably I will as it has been almost three weeks since the last updated but I will try my best.

1) After the school carnvial we went to ZebraBar again to spend the weekend. Last time was okay but not great so I was really looking forward to going in a better mood> And a better time was definitenly had, however, taking countless cartons of cheap rose was definitely a mistake, not for me I might add, but for the boy who VOMMITED IN MY BAG. Yes really, my ultimate nightmares came true. I was happily sitting on the veranda outside my cabin chatting with some of the others and suddenly Patrick said "Everyone, we have a situation in here" with no hint of urgency so slowly we all got up and went in to the cabin to find David lying on the floor throwing up everywhere, mostly in my bag over all my WHITE clothes. As you can imagine, compassionate was not what I was as I ran out of the cabin screaming how much I hated him. I knew the situation was bad when Patrick came to find me and said I should perhaps sit down to hear the damage. Pretty much everything in my bad had been hit. Luckily my lovely friends, kniwing my phobia, washed out all my clothes for me at 2 in the morning and normality was restored. Edward kindly tried to console me that somebodys flipflops had born the brunt worse than my bag, so things could be worse> Well apparantly not, as they were indeed MY flipflops. However, soon I began to see the funny side and the weekend was a good one. We did a lot of sunbathing, eating and taking and for the firt time in a while we all felt recouperated by the end of it. Unfortunately we had forgotton that Sunday was election day and therefore no taxis were in service so we were stuck out in the national park with no way home. After a couple of hours waiting, about six taxis turned up and we all managed to get home. Me and Lucy had told the family that we would be home too late to eat that night so we went for Pizza and then to the patisserie in true overeaters style. I can hoenstly say I dont think I had ever been that full up. So we trekked home, heading straight for bed but we had only been lying down for five minutes when there was a knock at the door announcing dinner - for the first time in my life eating was the last thing I wanted to do but alas that is what we had to do, and I think it is safe to say, food delerium set in that evening.

2) Patrick and Verity both left to go back to England. It was really sad to see both of them go as they were two of my favourites here. Patricks last night was an epic one, ending up at Nice Burger, the most hideous of all fast food outlets in the world. Veritys was more refined, and she had a party at her house a few days before to mark her leaving and her host sisters birthday. It has been quite quiet since both of them left but I will definitely be seeign them again in the near future.

3) The most important news which I cannot believe I had forgotton until now. Lucy and I were on our way to the Taylors about a week ago when we came across a tiny little kitten in a doorway. We stopped and played with it for a while as she was so sweet. She was so young that her eyes hadn't even opened yet. Then these little boys came running over, claiming she was theirs and asking if we wanted to buy her. People always claim stray animals are theirs and the most sensible thing to do, unsurprisingly, is walk away. Unfortunately, the cuteness of the kitten took over our common sense and I found myself saying okay, and handing over approximately one pound. The bouys practicalyl wet themselves laughing, as I stood there holding a little kitten, realisation dawning on me that we had absolutely nowhere to keep her - in case I havent mentiond this before, our host family have a pathological fear of cats and dont think twice about kicking them out of the garden over the wall. Our house clearly was not an option, so we called our friends who live around a courtyeard, so could hide her better than we could. Thankfully one of them loves kittens and jumped at the chance. So the cat became known as Toubab and found a new home in a cardboard box in their room. The next day they took her to the vet who claimed she neither had rabies or fleas (though we doubt this is true as weve all seen flears crawling about her fur) and gave her some calcium supplements to take. As great as this confirmation of good health was, the problem remained that we still had no permanant home. The host mother of the girls who were looking qfter her at first found out and said she had to be chucked out onto the street, so we took her for an afternoon. Our family was very unimpressed so we took her to the quiz that night with us and in s troke of luck, the project directors took pity on her and decided to keep her. For the first couple of days the novelty factor was certainly present and Louise carried Toubab round in her handbag, but I sense now that novelty has worn off and the cute little kitten has turned into a bit of a monster, biting being her favourite activity. But there is no denying that she is still very cute - Im just glad shes off our hands, not to be too heartless obviously.

4) Last weekend we had a volunteer social which is an official event all the volunteers are meant to come to once a month. This month it was a pirogue trip, which is a trip on a traditional fishing boat. Beacuase there are so many of us, we had to have a huge boat, which meant sitting on panks raised about five feet off the ground. A good sense of balance was definitely necessary. We were getting the pirogue along to a beach where we were going to have a barbeque of grilled fish. I was on a plank with a ocuple of people, sitting by the side and behind us was everyone else. My friend, Georgie was sitting behind and she had been ill for a couple of days, so when she turned up saying she was better but still lookind decidedly grey, we started to question if it was a good idea that she spent all day on a beach and a long time on an unstable pirogue. Anyways, she assured us that she was fine, but about twenty minutes into the trip she started to look even worse. I asked her if she wasnted to sit onthe side because she felt sick and she said yes, so I got down and started to walk over to another seat when suddenly everyone started screaming. I looked behind me and she was falling off the plank, totally rigid with her neck bent back. She hit her head on the side and scraped the skin off the back of her hands and when she landed she just lay there, totally still with a really manic expression on her face. We all freaked out as her face was so creepy and her eyes were really wide and she still wouldnt move. Lucy made a run for it, thinkign she was dead, so you can imagine the relief when she finally came round, a little confused, but conscious. It was very welcome when we finally arrived at the beach, where we sunbathed all day. Georgie had to be sailed home early as we ran out of water and she fainted a few more times, but the rest of the day was good, despite me not being able to put on my bikini due to a disaster with the fake tan on my thighs. I realise I probably shouldn't be applying fake tan in Africa, but sadly, this is the state of my tan.

5) Lucy and I did a walk around town the other night with two people who run the talibe centre to look for kids sleeping on the street. The idea is we take them back to the centre so they can sleep in a bed and get up the next morning. We only found two who were sleeping on a bakery floor, and at first they were reluctant to come back with us but as they woke up, they decided to come back. It was really sad because they shivered all the way and the woman who was in charge of the walk started crying, which was a shock because usually they treat the kids so badly and seem not to care, but she was clearly passionate. She was telling us about the sexual abuse the boys are often victim to. The walk was definitely an experience and I hope to do it again when I get back.

I better go now as heading off for yet more food. Budgeting has gone out the window but I am home in a week. Very sad to leave but really looking forward to seeing everybody. Sorry for the lack of updating, but promise to be better in future.

Congratulations also to Carolien and Andrew on baby Alex.

Lots of love xxx