Originally we planned to travel to Kaolack on Sunday when the others headed off to Yen, but on Saturday Master P (our host in Kaolack) called to tell us unfortunately his wife is ill so it'd be best to go on Tuesday. Given this, we joined Mr T at the international school where he teaches English on Monday morning. After a quick tour of the (very nice, vibrant) school, and lots of hellos to the staff, Mr T took us to meet the Head. It was at this meeting that we were told, in passing, that we will, in fact, be staying till Saturday, so we're here in Dakar helping at the school for this week! I'm helping in Mr T's class while Zara does the same with another teacher. The school is bilingual so the students spend half of their days learning in English and the other half in French. This can be tricky as the range of language abilities (especially in English, since French is one of Senegal's national languages) is wide, but the kids are all very cute and friendly, and pretty well behaved. We chatted with some of the kids during lunch, the most worrying part being any time we mention Kaolack; the kids are less reserved than the adults in telling us how unbearably hot and full of mosquitos it is there. If Senegalese kids (who are used to hot weather) say it's bad, I dread to think how Zara and I will cope while we adapt to the temperatures.

Today has been reasonably similar to yesterday so far. I helped the kids with their exercises in Mr T's classes if they needed it and we chatted at lunch while some of the girls played with our hair and showed us how to make loom band bracelets. In the afternoon I sat in on one of their music classes, which involved singing along to a variety of songs; from French ones about being able to speak every language (very appropriate as Senegal is chock-a-block with multilingual people), to If You're Happy and You Know It, to Let it Be. We take the school bus home, which gives us a bit of a tour of the Dakar suburbs -some streets are pretty green, while the sand is vibrant red in other parts. Yoff is near the airport, just off a dual carriageway, and we seem to notice more and more shops every time we walk down the main street.

I'm going to try to upload photos in my hour at the internet café, so hopefully they should be up with this. I hope you like these updates (if you do, odds are you're my mother, but I'm happy to write just for you, mum).