Buckets, buckets, buckets

There is a big difference between a good bucket and a bad bucket… we should know. We use buckets for getting cooking water, bathing water, clothes washing water, toilet flushing water and (the local kids) drinking water. From our room to the boy’s well is about 170m one way. So to fill up x2 50L water tubs, and x2 20L drinking water tubs, and any number of clothes washing buckets takes a lot of work. I could have done a ‘Pete’ and worked out how many steps that amounts to over the 5 and a half weeks we’ve been here, but my brain seems to have gone ‘TIA’ (This is Africa).

This blog would’ve been completed a while back, 2 weeks ago actually but someone ran into a pole somewhere down near Maputo and plunged this whole region into internet blackout for a week, and now the ISP itself has a virus and can't cope, so every afternoon is a 'blackout'. TIA…

We share the girl’s house with 19 girls, and a ‘ta-tia’ (auntie), so the bathroom situation was always going to be a challenge. And it has been. The mosquitos haven’t been too bad for the rains have not come. It’s very late in the dry season and in the 5 weeks we’ve been here it’s only rained for about 10 min on one day. The girl’s house has a well, but it’s basically dry. During the rainy season – through Christmas to April-Mayish – they can dip a cup in and reach the water level. At the moment, a 2L bucket on the end of a 4m rope takes about 7-8 throws to fill a 9L bucket. And it’s muddy. So that water, for the small amount of the day it’s available goes to toilet flushing, or washing clothes.

There is a burrowing flea here called, in the local language ‘Senna’ ma-te-kenya. It lives in soil and jumps on your feet as you walk past, and then busies itself with digging a small hole in and around your toenails to lay eggs in. As it buries itself in your feet, it sucks your blood and creates an egg sack for it’s babies. The matekenya and eggs seem to at least double in size overnight and by morning you have a festy little sore. They are hard to spot, and don’t actually hurt while they’re burrowing. Nice.

The girls here are masters at getting them out with a needle, and we’ve all had them numerous times (except for me, I’ve only had one). The kids have had a few each, with Aaron having 4 in his little toe all at once. It was difficult to get out. Yes, he cried. And if I wasn’t such a hulking bloke I would’ve as well, except for the fact that the 12yo girl gouging a grand canyon in my foot was so sweet, smiling and had already probably 500 of these in her lifetime. The kids basically don’t wear shoes and the soles of their feet are like 2inch thick slabs of leather. So when they ‘gouge’, they really gouge. In their defence though, they have learned that the mazoongos (white’s) feet are soft like a ripe mango, and take it easy on us.

When the rains come the matekenya all die, but then the mosquitos come. Anyone for Mozambique…?

I stopped thinking of these kids as orphans after about a week. It’s funny the way that happens. Learning their names and hearing some of their stories, and then living with them and seeing how able, witty, joyous, capable and generous they are you kind of stop thinking you have much to offer them. I can see how easy it would be for someone to come here with grandiose plans of ‘helping those poor little orphans’ or some such dumb notions. I didn’t have those thoughts myself… just some other people I know of….

The kids start going to school around 7am, and there is a steady stream of them coming and going all day, with the last ones returning from evening school. The shortest time is only 2 hours, but it depends on what grade they’re in and whether their teachers are there or not. They don’t really follow age levels as the kids have such a vast range of competencies and experience with formal schooling. Hence, a 15yo and a 9yo may be sharing a class…

Our own day begins at a bit before 7am. Many of you may know what a shock that is for Jude and me. Even more of a culture shock is that we finish our day as early as 8.30pm. There is often a cool breeze blowing in the evening, so we have taken to sitting out on the porch of the girl’s house for a half hour and cooling off. The kids have been great with taking care of their mosquito nets and taking malaria tablets each day.

After all of that we are leaving Africa in a few days and going to India....

Are we MAD? Stay tuned....