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Sunday 10th October
A lovely weekend had(what a contrast to last weekend!), doing important things like….having my roots done as lots of grey coming through – yes have found a decent hairdresser in one of the shopping plazas. Also did a little bit of ‘me’ shopping, so bought 2 dresses, (1 brown, 1 pink/orange with beautiful patterns on) 1 kanga (wrap around [bright orange with turtles on]), I kaftan – bright pink (ha, ha, decided I am of that age where I can slob around the apartment wearing a kaftan now – oh so comfortable!). Oh, and a bag (pink striped), floppy hat (more pink stripes), pair of flip flops (blue and pink striped)- all for £30 – I do love the local prices ……. just realised all of that is still less than what I paid for my M & S knickers….yes, still sore about being ripped off for my knickers!
We also had a ‘party’ here at the apartment last night which was great fun. It’s odd how doing ‘normal’ things make such a real difference to being out here. Michelle, one of the long term volunteers here, who is absolutely amazing as a teacher (real job back home, customer services manager for Sainsburys, but sadly finishing at Christmas here) is a bit of a catering whizz, so a few of us were here kitchen skivvies in the afternoon for her, and she ‘knocked up’ the most amazing food: bruscheta, home made dips, meatballs, fratata, pasta and rice salads etc. And considering there’s only two gas rings and no oven it was amazing. Great food, great chat, and trivial pursuit – what more do you want on a Saturday evening in Mombasa!
I didn’t tell you that there are continual water problems out here in Mombasa. The house has its own well but the apartment doesn’t. The tank here gets filled up twice a week from the central pipe system here (which is the root of the problems as very old, keeps cracking and leaking apparently), but often we run out in between fills. Which is bearable, however for whatever reason we have had no water here since Wednesday last week which is a bit of a pain. We have to jerry can water over from the house to put into cisterns of loos for flushing, and for washing up, but it’s no showers here now, so we have to traipse over to the house each day for a shower. Annoying and inconvenient as it is, compared to the ‘villages’ we have it easy. Obviously if there is no water coming through to our apartment, then you know it is going to be twice as bad for the villages. The quest for water is part of their daily routine, and is the number one part of each day-for families and for the school. The children are sent at least twice a day to fetch water, but have to go further afield if the water in the villages runs out. I am amazed at how much water the kids can carry. 25 litres of water in a jerry can is so, so heavy, but you see little kids carrying one of these on their heads, or you see young lads carrying two of them at once. I understand now why Madam Jane will suddenly disturb lessons to send the kids out to get water – she is very good at anticipating problems (a good Head!) as will try to store some water ahead of the next day to keep things going. So learning number patterns in maths, and putting words in alphabetical order becomes completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things!!
Been diving this morning – two dives, one at Shark Point, and yes saw loads of white tip reef sharks (more video for you to peruse!), the biggest ever moray eel – it’s head was bigger than a human head, and green turtles. A good crowd diving so had lunch afterwards as well which was great fun. So just off to house now to de-salt myself and post this blog, do my lesson planning for tomorrow……oh, and put on my kaftan (sorry, no photos!!)
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