Thursday 13th, but of course in Australia you are well ahead of us and well into your Friday. It has just started to rain, after looking threatening for much of the day. I am stuck in the kitchen, and do not want to get wet getting to my room, so will take the opportunity to pen a few words about the last couple of days.
We have been going flat out on the medical checks, each team seeing about 100 students a day. We do it class by class, and the senior team that I am a part of, has a half hour to forty minute drive to the secondary campus. It depends on the traffic. Often we will be held up by a large truck that could not possibly go any slower when going up a gentle gradient. I could certainly walk faster. I am not sure, but I am guessing it is a combination of drastic overloading, not having a powerful enough prime mover, and out of tune engines. Invariably the larger trucks are Scania, and on occasions Mercedes Benz or Volvo. I have yet to see anything like the size or power of trucks that ply our Australian highways.
The teams have been great to be a part of. Jenny and I are part of the support team, measuring hight and weight, helping the flow of kids through the different parts of the check, having conversations with the children, generally keeping order, and finally entering the data into the school’s database. The high school kids can sometimes be a handful. A couple of times I have caught some of them trying to sneak a look at the records if you are not paying attention. I think they are keen to know if anyone has HIV AIDS. It is sad to think that young kids have this sort of worry. As we move up the grades I am thinking I will need a step ladder to see the height scale. Already in Forms 2 and 3 (years 7-8), it is a bit of a stretch to see the scale. Although today one Form 3 lad was only 113 cm tall, but bright as a button and seemed to fit in well with the others.
At the end of a long day, we retire to the local watering hole to wash down the dust, and there is plenty of dust!
Tonight we gave Peter (who has been preparing our meals) the night off and went into town for a bite at Kahn’s Car Bonnet BBQ. By day, Khan’s is a motor workshop and auto spares yard, and at night the bbqs are rolled out to the pavement where Khan cooks up a storm, BBQ chicken, lamb and beef, Zanzibar pizza, plus a range of local salads of varying heat intensity. As we pulled our olfactory senses received a wake-up call from the sizzling sauces being cooked on very rustic bbqs. The array of spices and dips further excited our taste buds. On the plate it looked a bit chaotic, but great taste. The city is certainly lively at night with lots of movement and colour, and being a Thursday we had the constant loud broadcast of the Thursday prayers from the nearby mosque. (A note for our minister Anne, we need to have a conversation about broadcasting prayers and sermons.) Alcohol is forbidden at Khan’s so we had to wash down our meals with fruit juices or water or coke. Salads and spices. The red one was quite hot.
We had a small thrill today when the clouds parted momentarily and we had a sight of Mount Kilimanjaro. Tomorrow, Friday, is a quieter day. Nothing on Bill’s agenda, though Jen is still doing some checks. Some team members are going on a short safari to Serengeti.
I shall take some time to see the local neighbourhood, take some pics, do the washing, and maybe take a dala dala into town for a poke around.
So, a bit of a bland report, I am sorry. Feeling a bit tired, so perhaps a day of recuperation or three will help spark some imagination and create some interesting experiences.
Cheers for now. (Still raining and at the rate it is falling I will be spending the night in the kitchen unless I am rescued by a boat!)