Firstly, Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all have a nice Easter weekend and enjoy a bit of relaxing and whatever else you get up to.

My actual Easter holidays finished around 2 weeks ago now so now it's back into the last semester before the summer. The holidays were very busy but very good. After Kaolack we met the 2 new volunteers from Ziguinchor and went to the desert of Lompoul and did a bit of camel riding (uncomfortable) and then I picked up my parents from the airport. We visited Goree island together, a main port during the slave trade in Dakar, being the most westerly point in Africa and so the shortest distance across the Atlantic to ship slaves. Mum and Dad then came to Joal and did a lot of meeting, greeting and eating, including a baptism and a day in the Sine-Saloum delta in a pirogue visiting the islands and chilling out. After this we went south-east to a national park and watched the hippoes conversing in the river and the baboons and antelopes hurrying around and then we took a journey even further south to close to the border of Guinea Bissau. The journey was a little eventful in itself as the car broke down in the middle of nowhere save for a tiny village at the roadside. Lucky for that as the women of the village brought us a bench and some bottles of honey they were selling and I sat in the woods catching up on the world news that my parents had brought and waiting for the car to be fixed in the heat of the day (which apparently reached up to 45°?!). Unfortunately it wasn't possible so a kind man took us in and offered us a lift but a few miles down the road one of his own tyres went. Thankfully he had a spare and we made it to Kedougou in the end, just about in one piece!

Here we visited some traditional Bedik villages which were beautiful and local man, Yapito, provided lunch in his hut and spent an afternoon singing, dancing and embarrassing ourselves with some of the village kids. I refused, for the hundredth time, to get my hair braided. It's just not flattering for me but they don't seem to understand that! One village we went to on the top of a hill gave the first real 'view' I've had in Senegal and it was the first hill I'd actually climbed - and I felt it! Another day we visited the waterfall of Dindefelo which is a beautifully secluded waterfall, not too far from one of the villages and was perfect for some swimming followed by a fishy lunch and mangoes. What a life! Finally it was time for Mum and Dad to continue without me as work called and I left them in Tambacounda for our respective epic "sept-places" journey back home. It may have been epîc but it was relatively interesting, or at least what I could make out, as 6 old men spent it complaining energetically about the president, Abdolaye Wade, and getting very animated about Libya. Plus they stopped in Kaolack to discuss it over lunch and as an apology for holding up the journey bought my lunch so that was nice. I actuallyended up taking a day trip to Dakar the following Saturday to see my parents off and spent a lovely day wandering around and seeking out the nicest restaurants and corners for drinks first.

Since being back in Joal Louise and I have got our art club off the ground and finally made an idea become reality. My parents were very generous and brought out a lot of materials and books and things (and some flashing bouncy balls which are great for power cuts and keeping Mohamed and Mariam entertained) which gaver us the kick start we needed! It is held twice a week for 2 and a half hours a time at Aicha's primary school. Basically how it works is the top 10 students in the 4 older classes can attend and the idea is to have it as a bit of a motivation for the children to work hard and do well in school as well of, of course, to learn art! Anyway our first one was a resounding success despite starting with the very basics, shapes and a bit of 3D, but we ended up with a very nice border for the classroom with very realistic looking and colourful buildings. This afternoon we're making Easter cards which should be exciting and hopefully we can do a few crafts in the future, maybe even paper mache if we can get hold of balloons in Mbour and scavenge a few bits and pieces. Everyone is really enjoying it so far, Louise and I included, and it's nice to be doing something really local for us, right in the neighbourhood. It means that most of the kids know our names now and have a little more respect so the pestering has started to become less frequent.

Now that I'm into the last semester of teaching it seems like this will all be over in no time! I'm going to miss it so much! Well, not quite all of the teaching but it has its moments and everything else I will. We're getting all the final tests finished up before the compositions and I'm trying extra hard to improve my English teaching for the last while and hopefully see some improvements before the end of term. I attempted a bit of my 1ere class in wolof the other day which amused them greatly and fingers crossed they might be a little more willing to participate more considering I tried out my wolof and no doubt sounded pretty horrendous!

Other small events... Sinead and her parents came to stay for a couple of days earlier this week and have a nosey around Joal. Aminata Fall had her 5th birthday party so we spent an afternoon making begnets, eating deep fried food and dancing wildly with kids dangling off our hips and last Friday we watched the Calvaire, a Christian pilgrimage a week before Good Friday which involved a few hundred people marching through Joal, all carrying crosses. Easter this weekend so Ngalax it is... some sort of peanut soup with baobab fruit in it... could be interesting. After that... who knows what will happen?!

Hopefully I'll be able to write again soon but stay well and enjoy your easter!
Kirsty x