January 8th 2009 – No water No worries

Our water hole and bathroom facilities with bucket for washing!

The day began as usual with the standard breakfast fare comprising fruit and French toast; not bad but again hardly a Nigella extravaganza. I was though really looking forward to a shower and to use the bathroom facilities before we set off for the day’s activities but not unexpectedly, again, found that no water was forthcoming. Undeterred I used my water bottle to clean teeth and shave and felt reasonably prepared.
The cycle went well but again the heat drove me to lose a further litre of fluids and look dishevelled before we had even started teaching. The routine though was becoming familiar and the children all knew who we were and felt a greater sense of trust which was great. All in all our plans went as expected and I thought we did a pretty good job. I think the girls are a bit bewildered by my high fives and thumbs up to the kids but I also sense that they may actually want to follow in my actions. We shall see.
Our progress on the school garden went well in the afternoon and as we ran out of rope I volunteered to seek out new supplies. With a small piece of rope as a prop I ventured into town and conversed with the locals for directions to purchase. Suffice to say we ended up in a private house with the grandmother who makes rope from the coconuts supplying the amounts we needed. An invigorating experience and also a successful operation. (That is if you take the cut leg from the bicycle out of the equation, but it was only a minor setback).
Abdullah, our trusty guide gave us another Swahili lesson and I have decided that learning new languages is a young person’s game as I am the only one in the group who cannot remember a single word bar Jambo and akuna matata. I am not expecting to improve much but a little would be a great help.
The most irritating part of here though is the lack of functioning facilities and not surprisingly we still did not have any water. A miscalculation from the hostel operator and only remedied by buckets from the well being provided as a substitute for our showers. It was not great, especially after the exertions of the garden activities but it did seem to have the girls more agitated than me. We are promised better tomorrow but we are not holding our breaths.
The day finished with a beer on the beach and an exchange of thoughts both of home and our respective classes. It was great fun.