Even though I was still knackered from the journey, I managed to wake up at 7ish. Sue, Francis and I had a wander over to the small amount of shops/shacks, so I had a chance to get my bearings and take a few pictures. The school and volunteer's house are lovely, even if a little rat infested - don't worry Mum there's poison down now.
The house is much better than I was expecting, rat problem aside, there's everything we need. We've got running water on tap, a western, flushing toilet and a little porch with seats for eating and relaxing. The power we have is through the solar panels on the roof, they work fine, but aren't what I'm used to. The evening lighting is dull at most, but it can charge things as well as powering the fridge at the same time! As we've found out, it's not a good idea to charge things before dark, nor is it a good idea to try to charge two things are the same time. One and a half nights of darkness have proven this.
And so, off to the shops. I tried to give you an idea of the layout of the school - the school at the front and volunteer's house behind the climbing frame - and my short journey to the market in these pictures.
The local market has some basics, but basics is all there is. You can buy onions, yellow-y tomatoes, some kind of local lettuce that Francis says tastes like paracetamol, the occasional green pepper, garlic, potatoes and a few spring onions. There is a distinct lack of anything fruity or meaty but everyone else here seems to be healthy so I'm sure I'll manage. Oh actually, we did buy some green bananas and they turned out to be as nice, if not better, than the yellow ones.
In the surrounding shops close to the market, there are mainly tinned goods as well as rice and pasta. I've found some yoghurt that doesn't seem to need to be kept cold - though we do have a fridge - and it's actually rather good!
Cooking facilities are: one gas cylinder hob and a BBQ, so if anyone has any recipe ideas, I'd like to hear them...and no, there are no sauces...and yes, we have done tuna pasta. Maybe baked potatoes next!
Finally, after getting back to unpack what little shopping we picked up, hark! the familiar sound of a vuvezela (those annoying trumpet things from the World Cup)! I asked Francis and he said it was a football match. I also asked Francis if I could play, he was pretty sure I could! A quick change later and a minutes walk away, a football pitch of sorts and a crowd, people cheering!! The game is between our village Inhassune and another local team. Apparently there are only 5 or 6 teams that play each other. Francis called it social-soccer, no leagues, no prizes, just for fun. Even if it was for fun, it was great to see so many people getting involved, I had no idea if there was any sense of community here.
The pitch is pretty big, bigger than the ones I usually play on, which is great. The ground is not so great, it's pretty bumpy with litter and potholes but the main issue/s are the three or four well-worn paths that cross the pitch at different angles. If the ball hits one of those you haven't got much chance of predicting it's flight. On every side of the pitch are peoples properties, so you can't really blame them for wanting to chose to the shortest path to their homes. I haven't thought of a solution to this one yet but I'm working on it. Francis suggested fencing off the pitch!
Well the good news is that I got on! They bought me on at half time and told me to be a striker, I've played in most positions and was happy to get on so I wasn't going to argue with any of it. 0-0 at half time, final score 1-0 to Inhassune!! They seemed to really like the way I played, I'd get a huge cheer everytime I did something good (which was suprisingly often!), I wouldn't say that I was mobbed at the end, more of a circle of gawping kids. But hey, like I always say; a circle of gawping kids is better than none!
Apparently I was the first ever white guy to play for the team. I'm proud of that and I'm glad they let me play.
I spoke to the captain at one of the bars the other day and they want me to coach them too. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that with two footballs and an extremely limited grasp of Portugese, but the captain speaks English quite well so I'm really looking forward to it. Inhassune football tactics, particularly formations, aren't the ones I'm used to, so I think they feel that I help them. I think I might be able to too!
Spot the white boy!...
