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And it's time for yet another blog entry now we're into March. I imagine spring is beginning p^roperly back home and while it was never exactly winter here the days are getting hotter and it's almost light these days when I buy bread for breakfast. Returned home yesterday from a quick trip to Dakar which turned into a slightly longer trip. The intention had been to leave by 7am on Saturday and come home the same evening to visit the International fair and help supervise a school trip for Aicha's primary school via the animal park. Unforunately I woke up feeling a little funny but figured the feeling would pass which it didn't. Let's just say it must have been very amusing for those we passed to see a samm white bus full of Senegalese school children and some toubab with her head stuck out the back throwing up. Nice. So I ended up ignoring the porcupines and pelicans and lions and tigers and got a taxi to Sinead's where she set me up with a little bit of dairy milk, especially imported from London, her laptop and Avatar. Louise and her ventured out to some Peace Corps celebration and left me to sleep it off which was dutifully done and we got home in good time Sunday morning.
Louise and I have finally finished the 4 banners just in time for the visitors who arrived last night and they're now brightening up the entrances to each school. It took a good couple of weeks of hard work every evening after school and weekends but they turned out surprisingly well. Unfortunately we managed to paint the hall floor blue in the process and tear half the sitting room wall paint of but THE SOFA SUITE (we are going up in the world!) arrived on the top of a bus at midnight the other day so its very attractive brown 70s style upholstery draws the eye away a little bit. Louise also lost a bucket down the fishermen's well and we flooded the house again, although not as bad as last time, so everything is just about intact, at least in our house. On a brief visit to the Diallos the bed snapped in half whilst we were sitting on it, thank goodness people have a sense of humour!
I am absolutely loving my 5è class at the moment. There's a good core of kids who are so enthusiastic and I love teaching them. There's my two best students Mamadou and Bakéba who have saved me a couple of times when no one else gets it and Aida and Fatou who always give it a try and who are finally beginning to ask if they need help, Touty who's a bit cheeky and always has her history books out and Abdul who looks confused a lot of the time but smiles blankly anyway. We had a bit of fun with biscuit bribes the other day and juggling balls flying around the classroom and I've got them again in an hour or so... can't wait! Although the other day one of the girls suddenly sprinted out the classroom having apparently had a "crise." I've yet to figure this out properly as apprently a couple of years ago a "crise epidemic" swept through the school. Basically you suddenly have the urge to fall over or run out of the classroom hysterically and you can't help it. The twins were telling me how people are really scared of it but to be honest it just confused me completely. A bit like my 1ère kids. They continue to look completely confused and I sometimes feel like I'm talking to a brick wall.
My hospital efforts have finally paid off and I worked in hospitalisation a few times before deciding that there wasn't really enough work there to merit my prescence until the rainy season. It was very interesting while that lasted though although a lot of sitting around. The first patient I saw with the nurse though had a very big infected hole in his foot. I didn't think I had a problem with anything like that and I remember thinking 'this isn't so bad at all' until my head started spinning and I sort of staggered out clutching my stomach. It improved however and I watched the next lady who had literally lost half her face and you could see the back of her tongue be cleaned up without any other effects. That shouldn't happen to people though. It was like a horror movie or something; the skin should be there... Another girl came in who had third degree burns from a gas canister blowing up in her face and she was in absolutely agony. The kind of thing you see in fire safety talks... So now I'm on the maternity ward which is a little bit easier. They provide family planning facilites which I spend some time in consultation with paperwork but the other day I helped out a bit in pre-natal consultation. The doctor made me do a pre-natal consultation on my own which was quite full-on but really interesting.
We've also had visits from Sinead, Orlando, Gareth and Master P over the last few weeks who, according the the rules of Senegalese Teranga, were treated like Kings and Queens. Even managed a quick trip in the delta on a pirogue to admire the granaries and pelicans and hosted a small 'party' with the neighbours on our roof and served ataya with my sparkly new ataya set (courtesy of Secret Santa who got held up and arrived a couple of months late). And finally one of the most special things happened yesterday since coming here. Seynabou and Fatou Faye had their babies so we made them chocolate cake and took some nice soap round for them each. Anyway Seynabou has called her baby Louise!! And there's another lady on the street who's naming her baby Christine (Kirsty is impossible) today! It's so sweet! So baby Louise has her photograph, 2 days old, next to our Yekini poster and New Year cards from the family forming a little shrine to all things good in Senegal.
Better send this off before the computer goes. Hope all is well back home, Until next time,
Kirsty x
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