Oh poo...

[Email - To: All]

That's really annoying - I wrote an email in Mafinga on Friday and the Internet crashed as I sent it. I didn't know if it had scraped through or not, but it obviously didn't, because I didn't receive it. Not that long, but bloody annoying all the same.

Basically, the event on Wednesday on "Jinsia na UKIMWI" (Gender and HIV) went really well, though it started late, mainly because of Chloe (SPW staff) coming for our, Nundwe's and Vikula's monthly meetings, so it all started later than it would have done - the clash was not intentional, as we were trying to do several things at once as a result. However, it give us another opportunity to show off to SPW staff how good our placement is, even though the CAG and the school did all the real work.

Vende and everyone else in our ward wanted to come into town for various reasons, but I didn't really want to, as I've spent enough time outside the village. I compromised in the end when Getruda suggested going to visit Wasa's placement, so we, joined by Julia went there on Friday after spending the morning in Mafinga.

When we got there it turned out that they had an event planned for yesterday (Saturday), so that was very good timing indeed (I was worried that they weren't going to be there - there seemed to be an awful lot of volunteers on the move this weekend.

The event was really good there, too, even though it started really late, and they had plenty of people turning up eventually (after 1pm) - Nick and I walked up to the bar to tell people they were welcome to come, and that it had already started (a blatant lie). We had ten volunteers there in total, because Erny turned up from Kiponzelo and Rose and Ann from nearby Usengilindete too. So, it was a bit of a party atmosphere.

The wazee (elders) football at the end was the big highlight - I've never seen a funnier game. It was three-nil and all the goals were really scrappy, last-ditch efforts. All the action was at one end, too, so Nick and I made sure we stood behind the right goal. At the end the winners held aloft the goat rather overenthusiastically - felt a bit voyeuristic at taking pictures of the poor thing, but they'll be great photos. The women's netball ended in a draw, and they said they didn't have time to play on to find a decider, so they forwent their share in the goat - not quite in conjunction with SPW sports rules, but it helped stopping any fights break out.

The bus was really funny this morning - it took ages to start (the bus route starts in Wasa) and they kept on stopping to fix it before we even got going. Eventually we set off, after some very unencouraging noises from the engine, and the first time we stopped they had to roll-start the thing to get it going again. This continued in much the same vein, though it started a bit better each time, until we got to Usengilindete. At this point we found out that the conductor was driving the bus (even though he doesn't have a licence), and we would pick the driver up in the next village, and he would take over from there. It still didn't sound like he knew how to use the clutch properly, but it was much better from there. For some reason it was also deemed necessary to stop the engine and then start it again, before being able to pull away again after stopping. The words "laugh" and "cry" sprung to mind, but we were in too much of a party mood (it being Wendy's birthday) and too used to Tanzania for it to bother us. Then a girl of about 12 peed on Wendy's lap, and we amused ourselves much of the way playing the "Casio game", using the stopwatch on my watch to get as close to different times as we could. All very childish, and reminded me of being about 12.

Now we're in Iringa, and will watch the football tonight and then go home to Ihalimba tomorrow.

Somehow I've kept all this vaguely brief - not sure how.

Two months to go...

Phil :)