Just a short note to say thanks to all those who read and leave comments. Keep them coming – it’s great to hear from you all. I don’t always get time to reply to everyone, but for once it’s not just me being lazy – it’s quite difficult to get to an internet cafe as there are none where I’m living, and often when I’ve travelled down to the main towns, I find the connctions are down in all the cafes. Latest problem is that my computer at home has picked up so many viruses from moving files around on flash drives that I’m now unable to write things at home and then bring them down and upload them. Am trying to find a way f updating my anti-virus software, but it’s not easy with a computer that never gets connected to the internet. Will keep working on it and I’m sure it’ll be sorted soon. In the meantime, things are fine here. Work varies from quite intense, 10 hour days carrying out monitoring visits on schools, to very short and dull days when I turn up at the office and find that everyone else seems to have forgotten to come. As there’s only electricity for 3 hours during the working day, and no internet at the office, it can be difficult to get things done, and I often work on spreadsheets for data collection etc at home in the evenings when the electricity comes back.

Other than work, I fill my time with reading, visiting other volunteers in Kerewan, sitting out with my landlord drinking attaya in the evenings (attaya is a peculiar drink that the men in The Gambia are all addicted to – don’t panic, it’s only very strong china tea made with an incredible amount of sugar and served in tiny glasses) and getting down to the big towns near the coast to visit other volunteers, do my shopping and relax every few weeks.

Will try to upload some more pics when I get the virus problem solved. Look forward to hearing from you all.