At least I had a little warning the day before International Women's Day as a couple of the girls wanted me to check that their English was correct for some questions they were going to ask people. This was the second time I had visited the Lycee for International Women's Day but last year had simply involved a little party with a few presentations in one of the classrooms, so I wasn't expecting much.

However, this year the classroom bit was just a preamble with a video, before we moved outside. Music was blaring from speakers, the inevitable mint tea was served to the VIPS (of whom I appeared to be one along with some other housemothers and teachers!). Gradually a huge crowd of kids turned up as well - lessons had clearly been cancelled! And then they got going asking a few of the housemothers and teachers questions which we had to answer with the mike addressing the whole gathering. How we celebrate Women's Day in Britain was a tough one but at least the answer to what successful professional women I knew was a little easier! And then we were presented with roses and certificates (and mine was given to me by the headmaster no less!) The whole thing was rounded off with more little speeches and then chocolate cake before everyone was hustled back into class and we went off to Marrakech - NOT to the Medina or lovely shops but the Moroccan equivalent of Costco!

It took three shared taxis to get there and about two hours later we had four enormous trolleys piled high with sacks of pasta, flour, couscous, beans, boxes of sugar, huge tins of jam, tomatoes and masses of cleaning stuff. And then the trouble began as it appeared that there wasn't enough money on the EFA bank card to pay for it all so we had to go to the hole in the wall up the road so that Khadija could transfer the money but that didn't work either! Somehow the manager of the shop was able to sort it all out, and at least an hour or so later everything was loaded up into a pick up and we headed back up to Asni. At least the unpacking was super quick and efficient with all the girls helping and we had lunch at 5pm with the driver!

As for other highs and lows it has been mainly 'highs': it is just so wonderful to see Khadija and all the girls again and they gave me a lovely welcome with lots of hugs and kisses. It's particularly good to see the final year girls who I have known since my first stay here and who seem to be doing really well.

I am now sharing a room with K as there are now 51 girls in the house as well as an assistant housemother and a lovely French volunteer, so space is at a premium. I was a little apprehensive about this but I think that my snoring is far worse than hers so I scan her face anxiously every morning to check that she hasn't had a sleepless night! And I have given her some earplugs, but I am sure she is glad to have two days at home this weekend to escape. A minor low when I arrived was to find that there was no running water because of flooding - unsurprisingly the girls were coping brilliantly, washing up in cold water from the giant water butt though I found it a little more of a challenge washing in a bucket of cold water which I then used to flush the loo, but fortunately by the time I was dreaming of having a hot shower 24 hours later it miraculously came back.

There have been some great developments since my last visit in 2017. The girls now have a reading session for an hour every evening after which a few of them give a presentation on what they've been reading, and then one of the older ones talks about the news from Morocco, Asni and the house and another gave a little talk about Womens's Day. Although I can't really understand much I was able to give my summary of my book in English (just as well!) but the whole thing is pretty impressive. After supper they settle down to their homework at about 8.30 until bedtime.

It's also brilliant that they have Nasima, the French and Arabic speaking volunteer, who is here doing a 'stage' as part of her Masters Degree. It has been fascinating (and good for my French!) to get to know her and hear what it is like growing up in France with an Algerian mother and a Moroccan father

So far I haven't done any group teaching but have helped quite a few of them with homework and revision from parts of the body to phrasal verbs and reported speech to a power point presentation in French on Koranic Schools which was seriously challenging as the girl didn't seem to know much about the topic herself so we were researching on the internet which was pretty testing for my French skills, not to mention hers! Thank goodness Nasima arrived just as we were seriously floundering!

Otherwise it has been totally magical to see the sun again, although it was actually quite rainy in the first few days. But I have done some lovely walks both in the early morning and in the afternoons and today I cycled up to Imlil on a decent road bike which was totally magical, going up the valley where a few trees were just beginning to come into leaf with the snowy peaks of the high mountains ahead. Even if I am missing the children on Mothers' Day this has to be a pretty good way of spending it.