Salut !(I'm realising that I'm soon going to run out of local greetings, I'm going to have to get more creative…)The state schools here are still on strike, so my temporary move to the private school has become permanent.My thursdays and fridays have been consecrated to giving computer lessons in small groups, which all the children are very excited about, and I spend the rest of my time helping out with one of the older classes and taking the odd maths or grammar lesson.This monday was a national holiday (another one, we had one a week last thursday as well…), so Rebecca and I took the opportunity to head up to St Louis in the north for the long weekend.St Louis is known as a rather touristy town, although neither of us could quite work out why as, in truth, there is very little there other than some old colonial buildings and a beach. However, this weekend was the annual international jazz festival, so we decided it would be worth the 4-5hr journey each way.Given that it was the jazz festival, we decided to book our hostel beds in advance rather than just turn up, as we would otherwise do.So, the previous saturday, Rebecca phoned up a small hostel and reserved 2 dorm beds - all well and good. However, we arrive on friday evening to be told that our reservation wasn't in the reservation book, and the hostel was full - as was every other hostel/hotel in St Louis. Great.Turns out (talking to other hostel guests) that it's not uncommon for a member of staff to take a reservation over the phone, then walk off and forget about it. Usually this isn't a problem as there are more beds than guests, but this weekend…. We quickly played the "but we're white females travelling all alone" card, and were told that they would "make a plan". Turns out that the owner is in the middle of renovating a second hostel just round the corner. Work was due to finish on the 1st may, in time to be open for the festival, but they didn't start work until the 4th (Senegal time….). From somewhere they found us 2 spare beds which they put up in the most finished of all the rooms, and we finally had somewhere to sleep for the weekend. It smelled of paint, the floor wasn't finished and the bathroom door didn't lock, but it had a roof- and that's all that mattered! When we got back from dinner, 3 other mattresses had been placed on the floor- apparently we weren't the only ones with reservation problems…The saturday we wandered round what little there is in St Louis and bought tickets for the evening's concert. The ticket said that the music started at 8:30pm, but being rather used to Senegal time by now, we turned up at 9:30pm….only to wait for another hour!We amused ourselves by reading the programme - which told us that 2 acts were playing at the same time, and that thursday's concerts were happening after saturday's concert…we've yet to work it out.We were then treated to an hour long fashions show before the music started (again, we've yet to work out why…).Anyway, the music was fantastic - 3 very different bands, including an excellent one from Mauritania which combined jazz and traditional music.Having not started until gone 11:30pm, the concert continued until almost 3am, so we spent much of sunday sleeping, before meeting up with some other volunteers (one of which Rebecca went to school with, small world!).We went to another concert in the evening (started at 11pm this time, which I suppose is an improvement) which was also brilliant, before getting a pain-au-chocolat at the patisserie at 4am…The patisserie doesn't close at all during the jazz festival, and most of the musicians head there after their performances. You know it's been a good night when you go to sleep to the sound of morning prayer at the mosque…Our last day was almost as stressful as the first. The only real way to travel between Dakar and St Louis is by "sept-places", battered old cars which wait until they are full (with 7 passengers, hence the name) before driving the 4 or so hour journey non-stop. Well, that's the idea anyway.A couple of hours into our trip, our sept-place suffered a blowout. Everyone piled out, the women huddled under the only tiny amount of shade for miles and the men set to work changing the tyre. We all piled back in and set off again….only to stop ½ an hour later with another flat tyre.This was potentially more problematic, as we had already used our spare tyre.Fortunately, while we were stood looking thoughtful (in the sun this time, no shade) another sept-place passed and generously gave us their spare. Quite what we would have done if they hadn't I don't know…I hope you are all well and not too stressed by exams (for those of you to whom that applies). Look forward to seeing you all in a few weeks!Lots of love as always,xxx