Hotel de la Poste Saint-Louis

So I am now on day 6 and I have finally found an internet cafe with a decent connection! After my induction I felt a bit more settled and got an idea of what things are going to be like in St Louis. Started my french lessons this week but dont think they are helping much! they are really intensive and I dont seem to remember anything from secondary school! Hopefully I will improve cause it is definitely beneficial to have some french phrases...even ...

... I'm still leaving on a high though because all my other classes have worked out so well. Last week was the first week of the holidays here so I thought it would be interesting if I organised a trip to the Bassari Country (in the very South East of Senegal). I didn't realise what I had let myself in for when 13 other people said they wanted to come as well! So I set about organising hotels and our guide, thanks to one of my friends, Jonathon, who had done the ...

... in the house by myself so I have to make an effort to be more sociable. This weekend a group of 6 of us went to Touba, the Canterbury of Senegal, to look around the mosque and learn more about life in a very Muslim part of the country. Since we were visiting a mosque all the girls had to be covered up from top to toe, long skirts and a headscarf. One of the other volunteers who came with us said that she had heard a story that a girl had worn trousers to Touba ...

... feeling more like a tourist every day and it is not a good feeling. Hopefully I will back into the swing of things again on Monday, much to mine, and my family's, relief I imagine. There have been a few new volunteers arriving in the past week and it feels a bit strange because it means that I am no longer one of the 'newbies' and they keep asking me questions about Saint-Louis - I still don't feel qualified to ...

... metres from us, and they didn't bat an eyelid. One of them even posed for Lucy!! Now back in Saint-Louis and Mauritania is but a distant memory unfortunately. Today I went back into school only to be told that they were going on strike. Not really sure what nursery teachers have to strike about but that's the way things go here. I know that a lot of the other schools are striking but they are mostly high schools and the teachers are angry about their pay ...

... that I now know about the meetings so can prepare activites for the kids the night before! Just felt like he had completely missed the point - that is the Senegalese attitude for you!!! My teacher on the other hand was brilliant. He said that he would help me prepare stuff for the kids and then spend a couple of minutes explaining it to them. This of course still means that I will be left alone. After I am done here I am going to the office of the company ...

... my camera this time to upload photos but I can*t work out how to do it and my time has nearly run out. I promise that next time there will be photos to see, sorry I*m so useless. Oh, one thing I haven*t mentioned, I don*t think, there is a tiny baby in the family, only 2 months. Although she is really really cute I think she hates me, every time I pick her up she starts crying lol. I hope that in time she learns who I am.

... and show off. I just about snapped when my teacher came and saved me from my ordeal. It was fun though to watch the kids, at first, fascinated by what they were doing and then the novelty wore off!!! Met up with most of the other volunteers on Wednesday night for a quiz night - something that happens every week. I have to go next week as well because I am writing the questions. The losing team has to nominate ...

... covered the ground and made it look like the surface of the sand was rolling when they all moved in unison. Whereas they all scampered away from me quickly when I stood, I found if I lay completely still in the sand on my stomach in no time I'd have a deep personal experience with crabs walking past my nose and climbing over my legs and back. Oooooh, quite ticklish! Now this is the stuff great Lariam nightmares are made of. Our ...

... doing the tourist NOT traveller thang at The Flamingo restaurant and swimming pool that overlooks the lapping river, reggae and drumming down at the buzzing bars with local beer in hand helped us feel at home. Having established ourselves with some sweet locals and even sweeter sounds we will be sad to set off for the city of Dakar but doing all sorts of exciting expeditions there so watch this space...

XXX