Christmas in one week and we're trying our best to get into the christmas spirit. Louise, Mohammed and I spent Thursday decorating the cherry tree in the garden with snowflakes, paper chains and concertinas. It looks pretty but it's certainly an alternative christmas tree! I've also been busy making christmas cards and this afternoon we're off to Mbour to buy a few bits and bobs. I think we'll substitue stockings for socks filled with pastries (oh Louise just phoned me to tell me that she had to give blood at the school. strange.), pop on some wintery tunes and eat a lot. However it might be well after christmas as we're heading to Ziguinchor on an overnight ferry on Christmas eve to do a PT site visit. Very exciting!

We've also managed to get to a couple of celebrations in the last few weeks. The first was a Ganale - to celebrate the return of a couple from Mecca. It mainly just involved sitting in a room of fancy middle aged women talking, (a lot) eating (a lot) and praying for about 5 hourq. During one prayer everyone started crying which was a bit unsettling but apprently it was only as they were feeling so in touch with Allah and got a little emotional. We also got a cupful of some holy water brought from Mecca and a few dates too. Yum. The second celebration was Tamxarite, the Islamic new year which was celebrated on December 15th this year. Everyone makes lots and lots and lots of couscous, wraps it up in big dishes and sends it to all their neighbours. As you can imagine this means you have to make an absolute feast so I sliced all my fingers whilst cutting oninos and peeling kilos and kilos of vegetables. Fortunately it was very tasty and we ended up having dry couscous and milk for pudding and for breakfast the next day. After dinner on Tamaxarite there is a Senegalese tradition called Tajaboon where everyone dresses up as the opposite sex and goes from house to house dancing, singing and asing for rice and money - a little like Halloween but in my opinion far scarier. The dancing is wilder, the singing and drums are louder, the children are older and they paint all their faces in white so they look like mad transvestite ghosts. Needless to say we joined in and had a great time.

As for the usual day-to-day things Louise and I cut each others hair the other day which I found far too exciting. We then had to bury it in the garden as otherwise people will steal it and try to perfrom voodoo on you. Apparently. So anyway a lot of my hair is now buried under the sand in the garden. Nice. Wednesday we've started helping out at the preschool as we have the morning off and they need help with cooking for the kids. However my whole timetable is going to be reshuffled so I'm not sure I'll be able to continue which would be a real shame. The whole timetable situation is a bit of a shambles at the moment and my classes have been a bit of a nightmare recently. Half the kids are completely off the wall so it's a little difficult. Yesterday was not a success as one of the classes were incredibly noisy, I came out and my shoe snapped and then found that someone had stolen the pedal off my bike and I couldn't get home. Oh dear. I think I need to find a bike repair shop somewhere and soon. Watermelon and papya season will soon be over but until then I need a bike to transport the tasty things!

I've got Christmas shopping to do and a test to prepare so I'll leave you there. Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year and make sure to enjoy the holidays!