Weekend activities

Friday was another bank holiday – this time because Muslim New Year fell on Saturday, so New Year’s Eve was given as a day off. After confirmation of this (which came at 1pm on Thursday – slightly more notice than the last public holiday I suppose!) everyone rushed around to get everything done ready for the long weekend. For me and Ebou at the VSO office this meant making final preparations for our trek on Sunday, and going to the bank to withdraw our float for the week away. As all banks would be closed on Friday and Saturday we weren’t the only ones needing to draw money, so you can imagine the queues! Thankfully it didn’t take too long, and we were soon able to begin our long weekend.

On Friday I met Helen, Tara and Eduardo for lunch before heading to the beach. There I discovered a new passion… body boarding! It was so much fun! We have really noticed a change in the sea lately – the temperature has dropped and the waves have really increased. When we first arrived it was calm enough to lay back and float, and it was the temperature of a hot bath, but now the waves crash and roar and it is definitely cool enough to make a swim feel refreshing. The waves are good enough to surf and body board, and after a quick tuition from Doodoo I was instantly hooked and spent about two hours in the water. Workout DVDs and watermelon hand weights may be a thing of the past – this was a far better way to exercise, and I could really feel it in my shoulders and arms the next day.

Nicola body boarding

On Saturday evening Helen, Nicola and I attended a disability gala dinner, a fundraising event organised by one of the other volunteers here. VSO had bought some tickets for the event and wanted some volunteers to go as well as office staff, so Haddy generously offered the tickets to me to share with Helen and Nicola. The event was held at Ocean Bay, one of the big hotels at Cape Point, and was a funny evening. I was lucky with the raffle and won a meal for two at a Lebanese restaurant worth 700dalasi! Helen won a DVD player, which would be a great prize if she owned a TV!

And then this morning I was up at 8am to go ‘on trek’. A couple of weeks ago VSO asked me to lead this year’s Annual Partnership Review. This involves meeting with all of VSO’s partners and holding a meeting or workshop to evaluate the impact they have had over the last year. As many of the current volunteers are coming to the end of their placements, and leaving over the next few months, we are also combining the APR with Final Placement Evaluations and have quite a busy schedule programmed to see everyone before they leave. I was excited to go up country, as so far all my time has been spent in the Kombos, but had no idea what the week would hold…