Well as of tomorrow i will have been in BA for a month. The time has gone so quickly - too quickly!! Feeling pretty settled here - starting to get into a routine with my work. Currently helping with two organisations in the shanty towns, and really starting to get to know the kids now and vice versa. They must just see us all as one person as so many people come and hlep just for a few days. I am going to the same place each week now so the kids are starting to recognise me - one little girl flung her arms around me when she saw me last week which i was really secretly pleased about!

As of next week i'll also be helping in an orphange, most probably teaching some very basic english... so will be spending some time this week drawing, colouring and planning in preparation for my classes!

Now i have my routine more or less sorted i have time to expore the city - but am finding that it is definitely a city to live in rather than just be a tourist.... i don't mean at all that there aren't things to do - there are plenty of musuems and parks and places of interest.. but more often than not when i have a free afternoon i don't really know what to do with myself and just wait for the evening instead when the city comes alive!!

There is always something to do here - and alwyas something just a bit different! The experimental music night for one.... that was a friend's band called Polaco Sunshine (the name should have warned me....). They play in small and slightly unusual spaces - this was in a house but a typical BA house with indoor patio and big terrace, and random mannequin parts and old telephones hanging of walls and chairs.... We sat upstairs in a kind of attic i guess, and the banc entertained us with keyboards, triangles and strange indian instruments! The most random part though was what was extra to the music - the toy camel or head massager that got passed around the audience, the man in a nightie with pants on his head. or the sausages in a balloon that were later barbucued... a very strange night but definitely memorable!! ; )

Something else they have here every week is a night called La Bomba - a percussion group that performs in this cool venue (a bit like PS1 for Mountbatten readers!) with a great beat that everyone dances too. And of course dancing of most types is always popular here. There was a tango festival on last week - i went along to a concert, where a man was singing accompanied by guitar and he had such an amazing voice. Also saw a round of the tango competition with dancers from mainly Argentina but also South Africa, Italy and Japan! That was great to see and inspired me to try a class... but needless to say it is a lot harder than it looks, especially for an english girl!! Was good fun though - and since then have also tried salsa and rock and roll! Think rock and roll might be the best option for me - I just don't have that latino rythm!

Think its a great city so far though - definitely tempted to stay longer!