I think it's been a few weeks since I've written. The time is flying by here, it's mental! I just can't believe I've been here nearly six weeks! The last two weeks have been pretty busy, and the power and water have been intermittent at best, but last night for the first time in 6 weeks, I actually had a hot shower! The water's been off for almost two full weeks up until the day before yesterday, so yesterday I booked a slot in the boys. It was pure bliss!! I brought in the good face wash and put conditioner in my hair and stayed under for so long. Such luxury! We were having a party last night because it is Simon's birthday today, so I got dressed up in a gúna and everything! However, in typical Cameroonian fashion the power was off for the afternoon, so I waved an eyeliner vaguely in the direction of my face by candlelight. Not quite the girly fun of getting ready, (particularly because while I love the boys who live next door, they're no substitute for the banter of getting ready drinking a glass of vino and talking about clothes and make up and dancing around to Hot Chip and watching Mama Mia to put you in top form for heading out!- You know what I'm talking about, Kate Ronayne!!! Who knew that badly sung Abba ( I mean some of it's fine, but really Pierce Brosnan should stick to suave and sophisticated!) is the key to getting in the mood for high jinx!

Someday, there will be water AND power at the same time and poor long-suffering Daniel is going to have to indulge me while I actually properly enjoy the getting ready bit! Still though, despite the fact that it was in the dark, I thoroughly enjoyed the shower!

So the party was EXCELLENT!!! We had THE most delicious dinner of meatballs and rice, I'd say up in my top two of Cameroonian meals. And a few beers, and three Japanese volunteers were here to visit Kosaku, so there was a good gang of us, eleven at one stage. And everyone was in top form, and Simon really had fun and the power was on for a while here and there, but most of the night was just sitting around by candlelight. There was even dancing. There was also the most MASSIVE spider I have ever seen. It was easily about one and a half times the size of my hand. It just showed up uninvited. How rude! So we duly punished it by whacking it to death with a shoe. Myself and Daniel helpfully stood on our chairs while Colby and Geneen mashed it, and it was so big it took some serious whacking. One thing you don't mess with here are creepy crawlies, because there are more poisonous ones than harmless, so the general rule is just kill them when possible. The most entertaining thing I've seen in a while though was Kosaku last night. It has quickly become apparent to me that being able to hold my own on a nice beer buzz after six or eight bottles of Corona of an evening does not a hardened Cameroonian drinker make! However, my Japanese friend has failed to learn this lesson! He is stereotypically Japanese in that even in Japan, I'd say he's quite a lightweight, and we were there about an hour when he filled up a glass with 90 proof Rum and added a teeny dash of coke. When we saw that, myself, Daniel and Simon basically just sat back to watch the show. HI-larious!!! Great chats and craic besides that too!

Last week, we took three children to the hospital to get HIV tests and amazingly, and happily, all three of them came back negative. It's so statistically unlikely that I was bracing myself for a different outcome but that was a really good day. The HIV counselling again proved to be absolutely top notch. I am thoroughly impressed with that in our local hospital. We took a pair of little twins whose parents had both died of the ominous-sounding and all-encompassing "illness", which usually means HIV/AIDS-related but miraculously they were clear. One of them got a big fright when they took his blood sample and was bawling, and when he came out to me, he jumped into my arms and bawled until he fell asleep snuggled into me. Unfortunately, The Evil Virus has affected my camera and Max was gone to get treatment meds for one of our little boys who is HIV positive because that photo would literally have been like an advertisement for volunteering! Thank God it was such a good day, and such a relief, and we even got Job sorted for another month for his treatment. He's an absolutely gorgeous little thing, and is vying with cuteness-personified-Melvin for the spot of suitcase stowaway next year.

So the other kinda big thing that we did in the past few weeks was go to the orphanage to get the ball rolling with the young people there who will be likely to move into the Youth Home. It appears they had studiously avoided thinking about the eventuality that they would have to leave the orphanage, so I had to do my best guidance counsellor impression, but now at least the seeds have been planted and I have some of the information we really need to get the ball rolling if we can secure funding. The garden project is going ahead apace too, so I think that we will actually have that organised and planted and everything in two weeks time.

Apart from that, I also got yet another job which is what could be the rather dubious position of facilitator of teacher in-service training in the schools here. We've managed to establish a partnership with Teachers Without Borders which has written the programme and it needs someone on the ground to deliver it, and that responsibility has fallen at my feet, because I'm here and in contact with the TWB people, so by the end of the year I will have trained teachers and also then have to train facilitators to deliver the programme so it can run again after I'm gone. I really have to draw the line there though. I can't take on any more work here. I'm flat out and haven't even started my teaching yet! Famous last words methinks! Although in fairness I am trying to work on delegating so have set Max the pretty big project of figuring out what the kids in the sponsorship programme need. This is a pretty big month for us, because it's back to school, so there's probably more that needs to be bought this month than at any other time of the year.

Oh we got a new volunteer this week too. Her name is Zeph and she's Scottish and a complete legend. She was here before but had to go home because she got sick, but now she's back for three months. Franki left last week, and Colby leaves on Monday, so our number is gradually reducing although we're all pretty interested to know if there will be new people coming out sometime in the next few months, particularly myself, Daniel and Simon, because we're the long-haulers that are left, and three is a very small number!

Next week myself and Daniel have to go to Yaounde (the capital) to get our Visas sorted out. It should be a good fun trip, although the actual journey might not be. Thank God the two of us are heading together because at least when there's two of us we can laugh about stuff that would drive you to tears if you were on your own. We're seriously excited too, because we've already decided that we're going to get dressed up one day and go to the Hilton Hotel (There's an actual, real Hilton there) and get cocktails (actual, real cocktails), and we're going to eat like kings. We've heard a rumour that there's a place that serves actual, real burgers, so we're going to research that one. And supposedly there's an AMAZING supermarket there that looks like an actual, real Western Supermarket, which we are ALL very excited about, because we'll have a shopping list as long as our arms from all of the other vols. But because obviously we can't really go out at night in Yaounde, we've already planned a cheese and wine night. It's going to be brilliant. Real actual cheese on real actual crackers. Bliss. I just hope the Visa bit of the trip works out ok. We have a contact there who is going to help us out a lot, but we've heard horror stories about people being refused in the offices and having to go into different countries to get them at the border and all sorts so fingers crossed this one works out. Plus there's the official price of the visa, and then there's the ACTUAL price of the visa, because everyone you deal with gets a cut of their own. It's tremendously frustrating the way they make things so hard here for people who are working to help development in Cameroon. The corruption here has to be seen to be believed. The Gendarmes just sit on the road, and take money from every car that passes by and that's all they seem to do, because the drivers are like maniacs, and the rules of the road are literally made to be broken here and the Gendarmes don't do a thing to stop any of that. They just sit on their bikes, blow their whistles and collect.

Right I have just been informed by the rev that I have to give a presentation tomorrow morning that is WAY bigger than what I actually thought it was so I have to go and prep that. He has a great habit of neglecting to explain to me exactly what is happening at meetings and then introducing me to a room full of people who all wait expectantly for me to impart great wisdom, which is difficult as I really have none, and it has resulted in a number of quite embarrassing situations thus far-for example I was under the impression that tomorrow's meeting was with one man who co-ordinates teacher's meetings in the area, but I have literally just found out that I have to give a presentation on the TWB in-service programme to about 60 people. Thank God I found out now!!

And then we're all off to have Zeph's pasta and a scrabble night. (Oh it's crazy out here!!!) Hope all are well and enjoying the summer break. I'm doing the facebook thing better than I have ever done it before, so see if you can find me if you're on it, and I can be better at keeping in touch, especially since supposedly tomorrow I'm going to be connected to the internet on my own laptop. However, I've heard that one before so I would be wise not to hold my breath on that one.

K everyone, keep in touch!!! Hugs xo