Beginning to settle in

I've been here nearly four days now and I feel like I'm starting to settle in. The last of our staff arrived this morning but we're still not a complete team as one girl has been in hospital in Thies since I arrived; the doctors have decided it's definitely not Malaria which is good and they think it's probably an infection of some kind. Yesterday a native came in to teach some of the new staff some basic Wolof which is the native language used for communication among nationals of different tribes (French is the national language but Wolof seems to be preferred by the Africans). I can now ask you how you slept, how your day was, what you are doing, how your family is and what your name is in Wolof.

Last night we had a team building evening of fun and games run by Jens and Conni, the Heads of House (responsible for the dorms) which involved pulling the school minibus up a slope, hitting each other with newspaper and traversing the sports hall without touching the floor. It was an enjoyable evening, if a little bizzarre at times.

This afternoon we're going to the beach at Popenguine for the first time. At the moment it's dull and it just rained briefly so hopefully it'll brighten up for the beach (although rain is good, it brings the temperature down).

The heat is not so bad anymore as long as you stay indoors. I'm not sure if the temperature is changing or if I'm just getting used to it. I had four showers on my first day here! Now I'm just getting used to being a bit sweaty ocasionally, it soon dries off so as long as I don't smell then it doesn't bother me too much, I'm not the only one anyway.

The phone line has been down for a few days so now that it's back I can upload all I've written so far and finally let my parents know I've arrived safely.