Well, there hasn't really been much to tell you about of late. It's all been rather routine. Finding an actual picture of God will always be a tough one to follow. Other than putting up a few more pictures similar to those already on here - which I thought wouldn't be of much interest - there really hasn't been too much.
So, in no particular order, I've decided to tell you the few interesting things that have happened or that I have learnt this week. And those things are:
1. You know in my pictures of the kids, they have a lot of holes in their clothes? Well, even if you haven't noticed, they do…have quite a lot of holes in their clothes, that is.
Far from being old and tattered and unable to afford new ones (second hand, charity clothes are affordable to everyone here). There's actually another completely different reason for those holes; it seems that someone, long ago, must have started a rumour that if you absolutely twat your clothes on a rock, it'll get all of those hard shift stains out. That rumour seems to have stuck. The really do give those clothes a hard time, I can't imagine what they can see happening, it certainly doesn't get them any whiter!
There was a kid in the pre-school class with her t-shirt on backwards and inside out because that whole of the front part of her t-shirt was missing. I'm guessing they think that a bare back is less offensive than a bare stomach.
2. The duck that's owned by the school has hatched some little ducklings! There were 12 in total, 11 by the second day I think. They're very cute, small and yellow. The mother is pretty aggressive so there's no chance of a cute picture of me holding one of them!
Instead, Francis and I opted to herd them into a pen with a broom and rake. Fatty helped out a bit too. As always, I had no idea what he was saying, but I'm sure it was kind words of encouragement aimed in the direction of the family of ducks. Safely in their pen, that's where they'll stay until they get all big and strong.
3. I can sleep, even if I'm sweating. I never thought it possible for me to do, it takes a while, but I can actually do it. Once I fall asleep on a plane, I'll be able to say that I can pretty much sleep anywhere.
4. Lugging a full gas canister, a total of 2 miles, in the middle of the day heat without any transport, is not something that I'd thought of trying before. I can now cross it off my list of things to do. It is not fun, not easy and very hot. I'm not even sure if it was necessary, maybe we could have waited for some help from a car owner. But since Fridays don't involve much, since I needed to eat some fruit and since I didn't know that there would be a gas canister involved, I thought it would be nice to get out of the village.
The journey there was on an extremely slow but comfortable flat-bed lorry, filled with freshly hand-broken stones. The journey back was shorter but much less comfortable, if you want to know how uncomfortable, my toes went numb and I have backache again. Is that enough for you??
5. I finally succeeded in taking a picture of a ridiculously overloaded chapa (that's the correct spelling, pronounced shappa). I've been part of an overloaded chapa but never managed to picture one. The odd thing was, after taking these pictures, I was told to stop. It was obviously too late to stop, but maybe they know it's bad and that's why they don't want pictures? I don't know, I just think it's funny.
6. I finally got to the bottom of why football training always, always involves doing the same thing. Since they hadn't asked my opinion, I'd thought they were absolutely fine to carry on as usual. I was just happy to join in. It turns out - and I discovered this at a very manly, pitch black meeting on the football pitch - that they'd love to hear my ideas and we're starting on Tuesday! Now I just need to add to my limited knowledge of football drills by getting on the internet!
Oh and also, there's a match on Sunday and I'm finally going to get to put my limited tactical skills to the test. Everyone is turning up an hour before kick off (it's usually 5 minutes before, if that), to give me enough time to tell them what to do before the game…I bloody hope we win, it'll be pretty embarrassing if we don't!!!
