Big Ben

I know its a strange thing to say but my life has been changed by a giant water bucket. He is big and green and my most prized possession, I feel a similar love for my water bucket as I did for my car back in the UK. Therefore just as gave my car a name I have now given my water bucket a name, Big Ben, on account of his enormous size.  The reason I love him is because he has just made my life so much easier. Now I can hoard water in my house. Therefore when the water runs out in the village I don’t have to join the mad dash of people literally running with buckets and jerry cans down the dirt track. I’m not good at running with a jerry can, not that I ever really do as I get someone to fetch my water for me, but still it gives me peace of mind...not that I have to worry at the moment. Considering it is supposed to be the dry season it is incredibly wet.

It rained so much today that I was literally rained in, in my house. In some ways it is a similar fate to being snowed in, in the UK in that the tracks become too treacherous to walk or drive a motorbike along. Because all the tracks round my way are made out of mud, (some of my TTC kids have never seen a tarmac road!) when it rains hard and continuously for more than a few hours they become very slippery and unsafe. The wet mud sticks to your shoes so you have no grip and its a bit like skating on ice.  A few brave souls will still try to get down the tracks but most people hibernate. Fortunately when it rains here its not usually for much more than 20 minutes, an hour at most so it doesn’t normally disrupt your day too much but today it rained hard and solidly from 7am until about 5pm so every track was a red river.

Some poor little girl was stood out in the rain in her short sleeved school dress, looking obviously very cold and miserable with her shoulders hunched and no jacket or umbrella which kind of broke my heart. Especially when I remember the battle I used to have to get kids back home to even wear a coat, I don’t think these children would need to be persuaded! Its little things that you see like that that remind you of the poverty here. I take it for granted that I can always be relatively warm and dry, I don’t think I will anymore. Although people say when you return back home you do eventually take all these things for granted again, and I’m sure I will...but hopefully some of the lessons learned will stick.