everyday life

I just thought I might give you a snapshot of what it is like for the people who live here. There are, of course, the rich ones who live in big houses but the vast majority certainly do not. The ones who have managed to get an education like the teachers seem to manage but I have never been to one of their homes so I have no idea what sort of houses they live in. Many people seem to eke out a living selling whatever they can and many of the pupils are sent out to sell goods on the street after school. The pupils tell me that some of them are told to go out and not to come back until they have some money so they sell themselves, which accounts for the high rate of young mothers round here.

Whenever the car stops, people rush up trying to sell you fruit, bread, snacks, anything to earn a bit of money. On one trip I saw a man by the side of the road breaking rocks into small chippings by hand for people to buy to put in the concrete.

The water supply comes in by plastic pipes that run in ditches by the sides of the road. they are always coming apart round here so the road outside often has puddles in it, which make the red mud splash up on the back of your legs. Sometimes there are children taking water into containers by the side of the road, I'm told they are stealing the water. I have to be careful with the amount of water I use up in the flat because the pupils have to carry it to the downstairs tank in buckets and then it is pumped upstairs to the top tank.

The electric supply is more stable now the new hydroelectric power station is finished but we do get blackouts every few days and in the evening the generator is put on when this happens. Two or three generators on in the area round the school is a lot of noise and impossible to escape from and certainly makes it hard to go to sleep.

Most of the clothes I have seen are from the USA or England and are sold in the market so there are a great variety of T shirts sporting highly unlikely logos. Some of the pupils obviously have very little but they keep them very clean. If anyone remembers their granny's rubbing board in the washtub, they are alive and well used here. Most of the women wear outfits made for them. the long skirts and tops are of the same material and they usually have a headscarf as well. They generally look rather elegant. Both men and women seem to like lacy material and the men's Sunday best is long trousers and a shirt in lacy material and they don't mind them being pink either. Sometimes they will wear the long Muslim robes and the next day look very western in trousers, and shirt.

There is very little variety in the food. Most of it is highly spiced with peppers and a lot of bright orange palm oil is used. I have seen very little refined sugar used locally but you can get it in the supermarket. Milk is hard to get, they use dried milk but I really don't like it. I'm using soya milk at the moment until I can get back to my usual supermarket.

Well the electric has just gone off so I am offline. I will save this and post it when I can. It has been 29 degrees today and teaching the women's group for 4 hours took it out of me so I went to bed for a nap after lunch but I'm fine now. Bye the way, I have tried to post photos but it just takes too long and they fail, but I will keep trying.

Best wishes,
Pat