Early days

Each day brings new sights, experiences, friends and quite a bit of culture shock along the way. I am sharing a house with two VSO volunteers who have been here for some time so they are easing me in to local life. Everyone is very welcoming both at work and in the local area. I have had a couple of lessons in Kusaal, the local language, but for now I’m limited to basic greetings so it is helpful that most people speak at least some English.

I have started work in the District Education Office but it is very much a case of meeting people and trying to find things out at the moment rather than actually doing very much. I hope to be able to go out to visit some schools soon but it will be about 6 weeks before I get my moto and I am independently mobile. In the meantime lots of local children call at the house to talk to us and play games.

The market is every fourth day and a real assault on the senses, sometimes pleasant and sometimes not so nice. There are definitely some foodstuffs there that I will not be trying!
There are some lovely fabrics and skilled seamstresses as it is quite usual to have clothes custom made.

Our house is comparatively well appointed with tiled floors in all the rooms, running water supplied from an outside tank that is mostly regularly filled and electricity. There are a couple of other similar houses nearby but all around us are more traditionally built homes, often with small compounds and some with thatched roofs. Some of the local houses are very basic. Many people have no electricity and have to fetch their water from a borehole or use a manual pump.

I wake at about 6am as people start moving around as soon as it’s light. Breakfast is usually fruit or bread with something spread on it. It’s hot even before 8am on the walk or ride to work. Walking or riding a bicycle, I am greeted with calls of ’nassara, nassara’ (white person) from friendly children along the way.
Lunch involves a short walk to nearby food stalls and sitting in the shade with a cool drink. By the time I get home after work I’m quite tired and very damp. I am getting used to the feeling of sweat trickling down my back. However, I am assured that the temperature now is nothing to what it will be in April/May. Lights out is usually around 10.30pm with the previous hour spent relaxing with a book or crossword.

Tro tros are the main form of public transport to get from one town to the next. You go to the bus station and it goes when its full. And I mean full. Thankfully the goats seem to travel on the roof!

We have to go to our nearest big town, Bolga, to get a wider variety of vegetables and other goods than we can get locally. This involves nearly an hour on the tro tro along a pretty straight but very poor road - probably as much pot hole as tarmac.

I'll try and put some photos on here soon!