A typical Friday.

Get up at 6 A.M. and make tea with water from the thermos flask, boiled the night before.

Cccccold showers (and the mornings ARE cold here). 7.30 Ignace, John's motor bike driver arrives and he judders off on his 5 mile of hell. Valerie, our lovely help who comes twice a week, arrives with a woven basket to sell us which we can't resist. I have a sedate 5 minute walk to school, admiring the splendid view and greeting everyone I meet. I have a split day on Fridays and return home at 11 o clock. Phocas, our nightguard has oiled the lock on the gate using about a litre of oil and my hands are covered in it! Soon after I get in my boss Calixte arrives with a plumber to fix our toilet (for 4 months we have been flushing with buckets). Kalixti assures us we are going to have" une toilette tres operationelle". Plumber leaves and returns later with another part. An old man appears at the gate with his arm strapped to piece of wood and his leg all swollen. He tries to tell me he has fallen and needs money. I feel so sorry for him but have no change so tell Valerie to tell him to come back at 2.

He goes obediently away. John returns at 1. We are just having avocadoes for lunch when Mathias appears at the gate. He has brought us 20 eggs and is begging forgiveness for the fact that 2 weeks ago when we gave him money to buy us some goat meat and potatoes he spent it all on sorghum beer. We forgive him and he has repaid us bit by bit and is now a better man ( so he says). The old man returns promptly at 2 and we give him 500 francs about 70 pence. I return to school at 2. 30 and on the way see the most incredible pale blue bird.

4.30 and it's the weekend. The plumber has fixed the toilet by dismantling the sink. He's going to return tomorrow to fix the sink!! We sit and look at the beautiful view until 6 when it's quite dark. Time to light the hurricane lamps and the charcoal stove so we can eat the beans Valerie has cooked and enjoy the heat. No solar shower tonight. The sun wasn't hot enough to heat the jerricans of water. A few beers and we turn in before 9 p.m. sweet dreams inside our mosquito net.