v.v.quickly

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internet is very slow
only have 3 minutes left as a result
didn't have anything nasty (prob just food poisoning)
min and lauren are still in town (they were ill)
had a very nice lunch
been to hasty tasty twice already
bought an umbrella
going to bottoms up for a pizza later
staying at a guest house in iringa later
phil :)

rach, did you get the forwarded messages
jen, sorry i didn't reply earlier, i was in a rush and so didn't check for new emails after i started writing



...just bought some more time, actually - the time ran out on me so I didn't even send this, so I'll write a proper one, as I have another 40 minutes. The connection did seem to be getting better in the last couple of minutes so I'll keep my fingers crossed.



It felt very strange coming into Iringa after just a few days of village life - it didn't help that when I got to the SPW office they'd rearranged the furniture so I felt very confused!

I should probably point out at this point that I'm not malingering - I was very very ill yesterday - I was up at about 2am with diarrhoea and vomiting, and cleared my system completely in about two hours. It wasn't pleasant. I do feel like a bit of a fraud, tho, it has to be said. I've come into town and been completely spoilt, and by the time I got here I'd recovered (when I got up to get the bus at 5am I was still in a bad way).

I spent most of the day in bed yesterday, so our first seminar on HIV/AIDS yesterday evening was rather under-planned.

(Just figured out why the Internet connection was so slow - some guy next to me has been told not to download huge documents - he was warned before too - grr, thoughtless swine)

Anyway, yesterday it was very nice to see Jesca (SPW staff - all the placements are being visited over the next week - we were top of the list) - she brought bananas, avocado, popcorn (yes, popcorn!!) and POST!!!!!!!! Only got one letter, which was very exciting all the same, and a note from Min and Lauren, who were in Iringa and ill - we've all been the most ill of the Mzungu's - Lauren has malaia and they both have had non-specific diarrhoea.

It was a nice surprise that they are still in Iringa - I would have been very lonely here without them. Min had got in contact with people from Emmanuel Internaitonal (Christian Missionary Organisation), and we went to their house for lunch (after going to Hasty Tasty's for a banana milkshake - yummy!!). They fed us chicken casserole, with rice, roast potatoes, cabbage and aubergine (I needed to start filling up my belly again - very careful not to get carried away tho) - they have the nicest house too - our house in our village is all bare concrete, and very dreary (but we don't have rats, because there's nowhere for them to live - well, okay we saw one rat yesterday, but other placements are completely infested, so I think we can cope!). Anyway, they let us stay there most of the afternoon, and we had tea (WITH MILK!!!) and listened to music, and they had big comfy chairs, and it was the bestest afternoon ever!!

Then we went and bought umbrellas - it's been pissing it down for three days - on Tuesday I woke up and I was so happy to see mist and it had rained all night, and it made me think of home. I was so happy - for about two hours. Then I started to think of what I would be doing if I was home, and about all the home comforts I was missing, and I got very homesick - I even planned out my ideal day, which started with porridge and some random old war movie, and finished with hot chocolate and toast, with a pub lunch, a video and games afternoon, and the cinema squeezed inbetween (Jenny, you'll get to read all about it in your letter!!).

Anyway, back in Iringa, we've just been back to Hasty Tasty's for a vanilla milkshake and a cheese and tomato toastie. (It's alright, I haven't been since this morning - I feel fine now)

The testing was fun - stool sample (why do problems vanish as soon as you consult a doctor - it took me ages, and then there was nothing wrong with it!) and blood test (if you're interested, yes, the doctor opened a sterile needle infront of me, and he even rejected one first). Just thought you'd like to know.

The placement's really good - the Swahili is really difficult tho - I'm doing very little of the talking, and don't have much control over everything - Vende's been really good, but getting on my nerves a bit too, but I guess that's just living in each other's pockets, and having to rely on him so much. He has a bizarre phobia of moths - of all the animals in Africa, why moths?

The teachers are really friendly too - however, we did see some corporal punishment the other day, which was rather unpleasant - a couple of girls had been fighting and got five or six strokes of the cane each. We're under strict instructions not to do anything yet, tho, because it's such as sensitive issue (because it's part of the culture, it's not seen as a problem than needs to be tackled - and it is a huge problem here, even though it's supposed to be very strictly regulated).

Anyway, the teachers are really friendly (no, they really are) and everyone in the village has been really friendly actually. We met Standard VII (the top primary school class - about14-16 years) a played some games with them on Monday - teaching is very formal here so we could see they really didn't know what to make of all this informal stuff. Vende will have done the same with Standards V and VI today, without me. He'll also be giving a random selection of the three classes a KAP (Knowledge, something and something else I can't remember) [Knowledge, Attitudes & Practice] survey tomorrow morning, before I get back to Ihalimba - basically it's aim is to test what they know and what myths exist about sexual & reproductive health.

Better go now - time running out again.

Will be back in Iringa in two and a half weeks for mid-placement workshop - not much chance of getting on the internet much before then, methinks.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Phil :)