Yesterday was just One Of Those Days again. C. got the same bug I had and I was laid up with stomach pains, Arun came round in the evening and taught me some Tamil and we took C. to the hospital in the evening. The Pioneer (Muslim) Hospital, not some dodgy Christian doctor that Rev Athi-stupid took me to. After waiting an hour (spent happily grinning at pretty nurses) he was seen and the doctor told us, as Arun had before, that it was probably the Hotel Surya at fault and not our feeble English stomachs.

In short, we had food poisoning. Another big thank-you to the incompetent Reverend! I told him today and he laughed. He Laughed! The best solution appears to be to cook our own food, and avoid meat. We found some corn flakes! It's amazing that something so Western exists here. We had to cancel our classes, I sent my apologies to the HM of the Schwartz Matriculation school for not going to play guitar. We have been inundated with calls to see how we are and are more exhausted from confirming our health than from any illness!

It is St. Andrew's day today and we were invited to the school of the same name's celebrations. We missed the morning service – due to our tiredness from illness. I took some Imodium before sleeping so I managed to get some rest. I took another when we went to St. Andrew's and it hasn't worn off yet (9:15pm)! I'm desperate to go, but I can't! You can't win.

Anyway, there were a lot of boring speeches and prize-givings (academic prizes for the pupils and the teachers), then some more great traditional dancing and sketches written by the girls. This bit was fun, even though we couldn't understand a thing. Some of the sketches (we were told) were about dowries, mothers-in-law and equality of the sexes. Just the sort of thing you'd expect from fourteen to sixteen year-old girls, really.

They made us stand up while they welcomed us again, putting towels around our shoulders, as is the custom. Five minutes before this the Rev asked me if I wanted to sing! Ha. Maybe next time, I don't think. The Rev did his usual food thang with C., when C. told the girl who was serving him 'podum' (enough). The Rev frowned, an event that unfortunately makes him look very comical, and told her to give him more. Look, Rev, NO MEANS NO, ALRIGHT?