Getting ready to leave

Printing photos, sending emails, writing reports, applying for visas, saying goodbyes, scrutinising maps, attending parties, cleaning out dust. I leave on Thursday the 5th, I must be out of the country by the time my visa expires on the 21st, That give me 2 weeks to get from here to the Ugandan boarder. This will be my most hard-core travelling I have done yet. There are a few legs of the journey that have no bus routes, actually no roads. But there are trucks that deliver goods all across the country. and once I get into the south, English becomes the common language. At the end of it when I get through into Uganda I get to hang out with my mother for a bit. She is making her way back to NZ from England via anywhere she can add to her itinerary.

I spent the past weekend (which was the regular Friday day off with an extra bonus of Prophet Mohammed's birthday on Saturday) hanging about doing S.F.A. at the main volunteer flat so am now having to make up for it. while I was enjoying doing nothing I had left my door open at my house so a layer of very fine dust covered every visible surface. darn. It was only a couple of mils thick but it just gets everywhere.

I know I have mentioned the heat before but I really don't think I can over stress it. It's hot here. I have been using different methods to keep cool at night. First I was sleeping nude under the fan, I would take a cold shower several times during the night. Then after talking to the other volunteers I was advised of some more ingenious methods. Like sleeping clothed, and taking the cold showers while dressed. Using this idea I have discovered that soaking my sheets in water before I go to bed helps, and I've have even started to put my sheets in the fridge. Emily has a great idea, she soaks a face flannel in water and freezes it in a U shape to place behind her neck.

The days can also be tough. I can't take cold showers during the day because the water tank on the roof heats up, so I need to fill up a bucket and let it cool down.

You guys seemed to really enjoy that last post, thank you for your emails and myspace messages.. It's really amazing to be in contact with so many of you. I even got my first overseas phone call (from Star, who is now in Abu Dahbi) which was a delight. My mother once travelled from South Africa to Kenya.. she did it without email, blogs, myspace, text messages, downloadable UN maps. It was all landlines and post offices in those days. Anyway, here's a couple more classroom conversations for ya.

Engineering Students: 'Visit to the Ethnographic Museum' class

Ehab: Miss Rayshil, can I ask you a question?
Me: Sure
Ehab: That thing in your face, er, what is it.
Me: A piercing
Ehab: Piercing? Right. Is it a tribal thing?
Me: No, it's personal choice, but a lot of my friends have different piercings, Kind of like we are trying to create our own tribe.
Ehab: I see them on movies and music videos. Do you do it to yourself because you think it looks cool?
Me: Er, yes, I guess I do.
Ehab: Ok, does it mean you think you are bad or tough.
Me: Nope, just that you like to have bits of metal through your skin.
Ehab: Because on the TV it is just tough people who have them, they have tattoos too.


Various Students: 'So you want to write love poems' class. I asked the students to write a smiley here are some results.

'I love you like my eyes.'

'I miss you like a lost child misses his parents.'

'I need you like I need oxygen.'

'You trap me like being trapped in quicksand.'

'For me, you are like winter for the Sudanese, Like Summer for the English and like peace for the Iraqis.'

'I'm falling for you like falling off a mountain.'