Other Schools

hi everyone,

ON Friday we did the trip round the other three schools to deliver supplies of food and books. We left at 5:30 am becasue it is safer to do the first bit in the dark than the last bit over the mountains and it is a 12hour trip in total.The first bit was on fairly good roads but the last bits to the schools were tracks. The first one is a junior secondary school because there is a state primary in the village. It was next to a river and rather picturesque but probably full of bilharzia. I played a game with the little children who crept up behind meand I turned and roared like a lion and they ran off laughing. They would have kept it up all day. No one ws at school because of the holiday but quite a few children live in. There was one boy with a hole in his ankle and the tendon was sticking out and it was open to the dirt and flies. The monk from Korea is also a doctor and gave advice and the drugs were bought for him. The chief gave us a meal of newly harvested rice and stewed cassava leaves. They are like spinach but heavily spiced.

In the next village, one of the pupils had malaria and he ws treated and we finally got to the primary school in the lst village. Miriam had brought back lots of lovely resources from England and the chief's (adult) brother had a great time doing a big floor jigsaw with the children. No-one had ever seen a jigsaw and had to be shown how to match the picture. The chief fed us with the same as before but spicier and we had oranges afterwards.

On the way back we collected firewood, rice, cassava leaves and other supplies. Luckily there is a roofrack but people were still sharing the back with sacks and baskets. We got back at 5:30, very tired, hot and sweaty. Today I went to Mass but that is another blog.
Pat