Yesterday was our last day of school before the Easter holidays, I taught my IT 6eme class in the morning and half way through my lesson (getting them to make powerpoints on their favourite footballer / wreastler / singer) some of my 5eme English students came in to see if they could ditch class at 10am, cheeky as ever. I refused of course and said that if they didn't show up I would go to the principal. The class went pretty well, it was on arranging plans / acc...

We've been seeing a lot of Connie, a Peace Corp volunteer in Joal, recently. She introduced us to her neighbour, Samba, who is a Batik and tie-dye artist. He's set up an art club for 5eme students (year 8s) in another school here. Julia and I have been to the first two classes and really enjoyed it. He was speaking to them about the philosophy behind art and got everyone to draw their perception of art and explain it to the group afterwards. In our art club yes...

There have been two major Muslim festivals recently. Firstly, the annual pilgrimage to Touba and secondly, the Gamou, celebration of the prophet Mouhamed's birthday. We didn't go to Touba, which I slightly regret, but due to many students missing school for the festival, I had a really fun class, doing lots of songs and games with those who stayed in Joal. We went to Thies for the Gamou last weekend and stayed with Aicha's family. Julia and I got new boubous and ...

Before I start talking about my travels, I'm just going to update you on the last few days in Joal before we set off. I had a nice long chat with Amadou about weddings and customs before going to his neices' double wedding reception in Dakar. He said that when people get married in Senegal, the man chooses whether it will be a polygamous or monogomous arrangement. Apparently most people go for polygamy, because if you choose monogomy, you can never change your m...

Since my last blog entry, we've had two lessons with the art club. After weeks of asking Aicha when it would begin and her forgetting to check in school, she suddenly announced 'it's today at four!' Eight kids turned up on the first lesson and eleven on the second. We're expecting more to come after the holidays. So far we've gotten our students to decorate the covers of their sketch books and then do free choice drawings, which they could turn into jigsaw puzzle...