A long weekend

So the week is worked, new friends made and the war against my office's mosquito swarm has seen many battles with victories on both sides. Blood has been spilled in, well, tiny quantities, photos shared and hours of waiting to see if we can have use of a car to visit our NYSS farm as part of my induction have proved fruitless. The three day weekend has arrived and, perhaps foolishly, I have planned nothing. Also, due to a delay at VSO, I have very little money left in my purse.

Spending a three day weekend well will require practice and forethought, alongside grasping many more opportunities than I currently am. I picked up a couple of books from the
VSO resource library. However, I underestimated my reading speed, especially in a house with the power off all day. By 5 pm on Friday I had finished one and leant the other to my housemate.

Luckily at that point an invitation to a drink at a cheap bar came through from a few other VSOs. Aso Rock is tucked behind the Traffic Light (Gambia's only working set) and has become a VSO haunt, with Julbrew beer for D20, and food for under D100 including a Tupperware box of fried meat on the bar for the peckish. It is the kind of bar known to volunteers and Nigerian expats, but virtually invisible to those with UK wages or local family lives.

At 2.30 I got home, phoning my housemate to let me in as she had our only key to the compound gate. Not exactly the quiet night planned. It was however good to spend time in company of fellow volunteers comparing notes on our week's works.

Saturday dawned and the power was on. Hurrah! As has been an occasional treat I put the film channel on over breakfast. Two movies later I decided to head out. Time seemed to stretch out with every diversion becoming a pebble in the ocean and it was now only mid-afternoon. Last year I'd probably walk or paint or run but I have brought paints without paper, and my last running attempt ended badly. So a walk to Safari Garden for a swim it was.

A swim after a walk in the sun is very refreshing. The pool is small so I have developed a habit of swimming round the edge instead of lengths. This means I can get a good swim but does make me feel a lot like a goldfish in a bowl.

Meeting some other VSOs we decided that a games night was the solution to both lack of money and sleep. Helen, as host, described it as games with drinking. I suggested actually drinking with games was probably more accurate. And so it was. Which led to a 2.30 am decision to go out dancing.

At 5 we bought breakfast and all headed our separate ways, leading into a Sunday of listening to various iPlayer downloads and a Ugandan stew cooked by Agnes, alongside contemplation of the nagging question, "how, when faced with filling a seemingly endless weekend, did I manage to add even more to the hours by failing to get any sleep?"