Hard labour!!

Weather has picked up a bit and we are well into working hard!

On Sunday we navigated the local buses, which is an amazing feat! If you want to catch a bus you stand by the side of the road and wait for a minibus that must be at least 30 years old to stop... it is the most bumpy ride imaginable and you sort of have to jump off while it is still moving when you reach your destination. We went to a local seaside town and the sun shone, there were huge waves with lots of surfers and we had a good day. They still use reed boats for fishing, the same as they have been doing for over 2000 years.

On Monday work began. We spent 7 hours painting and gardening and cleaning, it was pretty exhausting and the girls couldn't get their heads around why we are paying £10 a day to work so hard! Now the sun is shining, even though it is only about 23 degrees, being so close to the equator the sun really burns. About midday the wind begins to blow and being in a desert it is pretty uncomfortable... sand everywhere! Today we have spent the whole day painting. During the morning when the kids were at school it was OK but in the afternoon it was hell.. kids see paint = want to paint/ throw paint/ tread in paint / paint one another / paint us/ take paint /eat paint/ take brushes... you get the picture?? Obviously with these sort of kids it would be an issue anyway but not speaking the same language is not easy at all.. Thankfully we eventually got help and most of them were removed from the scene, but our hard work was ruined! I have to admit something at this stage, after working for virtually all my adult life with children in some capacity or another, a lot of them with difficulties, I've sort of had enough of them and prefer old people! The girls keep saying 'can't we just take one of them home?' and I cannot think of anything worse!

Evening times are a bit strange, there is no central point for the volunteers to sit around, so everyone just tends to go and sit in their rooms, which is all a bit of a shame. I'd like the girls to get to know the others, as they are their ages but so far it isn't happening. When work for the day finishes there is time to go and play with the kids for a few hours and Jo and Mili have done that a bit, obviously I prefer to sit and study the walls in the room with earplugs in!

We are fed three times a day and the meals are OK. The cooks are making a special effort to provide us with vegi food.. although this evening the girls have taken the brave step to go and risk a bus and go to a supermaket for extra supplies.. I think they are hoping that they can find a McDonalds somewhere to get some chips!!