Bonjour! Hope you are all well. I had to laugh last week when I saw on the bbc website that UK teachers were on strike.....for all of one day. Over here we have just finished our 3rd week of strikes, and no-one knows if they are going to continue into next week or not!

In the meantime I have been temporarily transferred to a small private school. After spending the first few days with the preschool (who all spoke better french than the few primary classes I'd observed at the state school) I was thrown in at the deepend! The school is officially a "bilingual school", and as such has a small mixed ability class which is taught in English for students who come from anglophone countries. I arrived on monday morning to be told that the teacher who normally takes this class was ill - would I mind taking over?! With all of 2 minutes preparation time, the ideal of planning lessons in advance went out the window. Fortunately several of the pupils were also absent, so the class was only 3 students from 2 different grades, and lessons ended at lunchtime, so I only had 3 1/2 hrs to fill....

Since then I've been taking the odd CE1/CE2 class (8-10yr olds) doing some maths, reading and even some french grammar (there is something distinctly odd about me teaching french grammar in a francophone country, but there we go...).

The other 'mini adventure' I had recently was going to the post office (oh yes, even the most mundane of errands is an excitement here...). After a long hunt for wrapping paper (something which is obviously not used here very often...) I had decided to post Kieran's birthday present (K - it is coming, honestly!). The post office was chaos, there is no such thing as a queue in Senegal, although bizarrely everyone seemed to know who they were 'behind' despite the fact they were all crowded round the counter. A compassionate security guard noticed my hesitation and asked if I was french or american (the 2 options for a white person here). When I said that I was english, he nodded (as if that explained everything), then took the present and made towards the door. Confused and slightly concerned for the safety of the package (no, I wont let on what's in it) I followed him, only to spot a small stand selling postcards, stationery, enveloppes etc. Ahhhhhh....I had to buy the jiffy bag outside, then take the parcel inside to send. The security guard then proceeded to explain (in very slow, basic french) that I had to write the address on the front, then buy some stamps at the counter....oh dear, us poor ignorant westerners! When I finally made it to the front of the "queue" I was told it could take anywhere between 3 days and a month...

Rebecca and I spent last saturday on l'Ile de Gorée, a small island off the coast of Dakar, where we had seen a festival advertised. Helpfully, the posters gave no time or accurate location, and there was no signposts or other hints on the island itself. However, we did eventually find it and were treated to a rather ecclectic mix of traditional Senegalese string music (I have to say, it's not something I'd recommend), drumming (very, very cool), storytelling (we didn't understand most of it) and modern Senegalese music (who'd have thought that an electric guitar and traditional arabic melodies would work, but there we go...)

This weekend we are planning to go and visit 'Lac Rose' - a pink lake which is saltier than the dead sea. It is supposed to be very, very touristy, but apparently you can't come to Senegal and not go...

I look forward to seeing you all in the not-so-very-distant future, only a month to go! For those of you who are interested, I fly back on 1st June (leaving Senegal at stupid o'clock in the morning). Will try and write again before then though.

Lots of love as always, xxx