27.3.14 Thursday. Holiday and Hospital

7 of us for breakfast this morning.  Gordon and family have asked to go visit Nemasu, Jack did some work there 7 years ago when he visited us as a student;  so Omar and his minibus arrived just before 9am to take us.  Steve set off to Naata to collect Ibraima, the caretaker, to take him to the hospital as he has a hernia which needs attention.  Steve arrived at the hospital around 10.30am and was there all day waiting with Ibraima, first to see the doctor and then waiting for the surgeon.  Finally, after a consultation he is booked in for the operation on Friday at 5pm.  Meanwhile we had a lovely day, we visited Nemasu where Jack was really surprised to see the changes, when he was working there they were in a mud hut in the village and we had just started building the first 2 classroom block.  Of course now they have grown to 3 classrooms in 2 blocks, with a kitchen, toilet block and walled playground.  From Nemasu we went into Senegambia, Omar dropped us off and left us to go and watch the vulture feeding in the hotel and then we went to Yashmina for a leisurely lunch, followed by an ice cream in the parlour at the bottom of the 'strip'.  We all decided to walk back along the beach to the house, so via the tourist shop we went through the Senegambia hotel onto the beach and spent over an hour walking home.  We arrived back late afternoon and we all sat in the garden relaxing for a while before changing for dinner at Neil's bar.  Steve eventually joined us around 8.15pm having dropped a very frightened Ibraima off at home.  For the first time in weeks we did the quiz at Neil's bar and came a disappointing 4th, so no prize money tonight!  A different quiz master and a dispute over some of the answers!  Never mind there's always next time.