On Thursday last weekend VSO arranged for us to visit the British High Commission. They gave us advice on our own safety and told us how they can help us out if we get in trouble. After that I had the rest of the day off work. Mboge said I could take the day off as I had worked so hard from Monday-Wednesday. Sweet! I spent the day on the beach again but this time I decided to go off exploring down the coast on my own. I didn't make it far because so many Gambians stopped me to talk.

Everyone is waiting for the tourist season to start. At the moment the beaches are quiet with only a few Gambian men exercising and fishermen pulling in their nets from the shoreline but come the 15th October I'm told the situation changes and the beaches will be packed full of holidaymakers…or so they hope. One guy on the beach enticed me over by shouting, 'Do you want to see my monkeys.' I didn't but I stopped to chat anyway. Once you tell them that you live here they don't hassle you as much.

He told me that last year he noticed not as many Brits came to The Gambia on holiday. I explained how people are holidaying at home more often these days because of the economic situation and he said 'I know there is a global economic crisis but believe me when you British feel it, we feel it.' What he meant was that his income depends on the money he makes over the tourist season (Oct-April) and he has to make this money last pretty much all year. Tourism is the biggest employer in the Kombos region and many people come here from up-country during tourist season to try and make money. Whilst it may feel like people are hassling you everywhere you go to buy their stuff, and I agree that it's annoying, it's basically because they really need your money.

Fridays are half days at work in The Gambia (isn't my life tough) as the Muslims go to pray at the Mosque. I spent the morning catching up with my emails and doing a bit more research on The Gambia's voluntary sector to try and understand what groups and networks already exist. After that I went to - you guessed it - the beach and met up with my fellow VSO-ers. We have all had an easy first week as none of us were expected to do much; we were only expected to get slowly acquainted with our new colleagues and place of work. My colleagues are busy with other work at the moment so I am waiting until they have time to meet and plan my objectives which should be next week. In the meantime I am trying to do reading and research, though the power and internet keep going, and I'm taking time to slowly get to know people so they get used to having me around. I think this is probably the most important thing I could do at this stage anyway. Mariama asked me why I was not at work on Thursday and said, 'We missed you in the office yesterday.' It was very good to hear.

On Saturday, Helen, Natalie and I went to Serrekunda market with the aim of buying material so that we can have Gambian outfits made for Tobaski which is a major celebration in the Muslim calendar here. We were all prepared for the fact that toubabs are charged twice that of Gambians. We were told that 35 dalasis for a metre of material is a good Gambian price and that we'd be doing well if we could get it for 50. They tried to charge me 100. Luckily for me Helen is great at haggling because I am terrible. Thanks to her we managed to get material for 45 dalasis per metre each. We hopped on a van and went to Bakau to see a tailor we had been introduced to. We had a look through some Gambian fashion magazines and picked outfits including African style head scarves. In total my new skirt will cost £5 and my Tobaski outfit £11.50 and that's for all the material, lining and to have it made to measure! I bet I will look like a right plonker but it will be funny and it will impress my Gambian friends and colleagues.

I had an interesting evening on Saturday as a few Gambian lads who live near me invited themselves round to my house. Everyone wants to be friends with the new toubab in town. My neighbour Sheriff stayed until about 10pm. I introduced him to rave music, playing it as loud as I could on my new Bose speakers (see Dad- I told you I needed them) whilst there was a massive thunder and lightning storm outside. Then the power went and we were stuck in darkness again. The power has been out a lot this week and when there's no electricity it's difficult to do much. I usually just go to bed. I try to make sure my laptop and portable speaker are always charged so at least I can still listen to music.

I could have happily stayed in for the evening at that point. It was raining heavily, it was pitch black outside as there are no street lights, I knew I'd have difficulty getting a taxi and I'd have to haggle to get a decent price. It all felt a bit too much like hard work. However, we had all planned to go dancing in Senegambia which is the touristy part of the Kombos and I'd not been before. Things don't get going until late anyway so I headed out at 10.30pm to meet my friends at a bar (more like a shack) at Traffic Light. Traffic light is the name of junction along the main street in our part of town so called because until recently it had the only set of traffic lights in the whole country.

I had palm wine for the first time (my month long self imposed booze ban was almost successful). It has an interesting flavour- vinegar with a salty after-taste. Apparently the way to drink it here is mixed with Guinness. I didn't try it. About 1am we headed off to Senegambia. It was really strange going to a bar and seeing other non-Gambian people. We met up with some US Peace Corps volunteers and headed to a club with them. The club owner was Michelle from Oldham. The music was pop-dance and it was all terribly un-African so we left. We went to a club opposite called Waaw. It was much more African, in fact we were the only toubabs in there. The DJ-ing was a bit random but the music was much better, more reggae and dancehall. It was hot and sweaty. Gambian men kept grinding up on me. There were a few pickpockets about. I loved it. We stayed there dancing until about 5am then the others got tired and made me go home.

On Sunday everyone met up again at the beach at 5pm in time to have a swim and watch the sunset. We all agreed it had been a very successful, fun and interesting weekend and we are all VERY happy with our new lives in The Gambia.