Well for those of you who have been following this will know it’s been a few days since I wrote, so sorry.
So here is a brief glimpse of the last few days.
Monday:
The main event was the Bocaria. I love this hour each Monday with the kids and yet somehow it’s quite a hard hour (for the English – there’s another hard phrase to say with a Northern Irish accent!).
I was not relishing the thought of going and the only reason for that was the heat. You can be pretty sure that if the centre is hot then the dump will be much hotter. However this Monday did have a bit of a breeze which was very welcome. What I wasn’t expecting was the thick smoke coming off the dump. I came home and had a shower and was convinced that one of the kids was having a crafty cigarette outside my window but the smell was actually my smokey clothes in the other room.
I know some people really struggle with going to the Bocaria and I can understand that. This really isn’t a place for those with delicate stomachs with the smells, smoke and also the sight of tonnes of rotting rubbish and people working on it trying to make a living. It really can be overwhelming.
I sat beside a 5yr old boy who was looking after his baby brother. He was trying unsuccessfully to get him to sleep, so the kid looked to me and offered the baby to me as if to say I don’t know what else to do, please will you. So I took the baby to get it to sleep and more importantly so that the kid could have a chance at being a kid and not have to get his baby brother to sleep. So off he went to sit with the older guys who were listening and chatting away and just being boys. The ash was thick on the kids today.
In my world life is too short to find and wear matching socks, odd socks are the way to go. Why waste time when you know that the machine has probably eaten one – so grab 2 socks and away you go. At least 5 mins saved. Today I came across a new sight. Odd shoes! An older guy in church was wearing odd shoes. Now I am not ready to run with this idea just yet.
I know I am kind of making light of this but the harsh truth is this guy had been coming to church for a long time and he has an alcohol problem. Two weeks ago Samaritans Feet were here giving out new shoes to people from the dump and this guy was given a new pair of Nike Air trainers. Today he is wearing two different shoes because I reckon he has sold and most likely undersold them to get money for booze. There is no program here to help people with a drink problem and beer is so cheap in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if water cost more.
Monday evening: Had a cockroach crawl across me…. … EUCK!!! I hate the bugs in Africa, please see below for a little friend I have in my room at the moment. Sweet.
So here is a brief glimpse of the last few days.
Monday:
The main event was the Bocaria. I love this hour each Monday with the kids and yet somehow it’s quite a hard hour (for the English – there’s another hard phrase to say with a Northern Irish accent!).
I was not relishing the thought of going and the only reason for that was the heat. You can be pretty sure that if the centre is hot then the dump will be much hotter. However this Monday did have a bit of a breeze which was very welcome. What I wasn’t expecting was the thick smoke coming off the dump. I came home and had a shower and was convinced that one of the kids was having a crafty cigarette outside my window but the smell was actually my smokey clothes in the other room.
I know some people really struggle with going to the Bocaria and I can understand that. This really isn’t a place for those with delicate stomachs with the smells, smoke and also the sight of tonnes of rotting rubbish and people working on it trying to make a living. It really can be overwhelming.
I sat beside a 5yr old boy who was looking after his baby brother. He was trying unsuccessfully to get him to sleep, so the kid looked to me and offered the baby to me as if to say I don’t know what else to do, please will you. So I took the baby to get it to sleep and more importantly so that the kid could have a chance at being a kid and not have to get his baby brother to sleep. So off he went to sit with the older guys who were listening and chatting away and just being boys. The ash was thick on the kids today.
In my world life is too short to find and wear matching socks, odd socks are the way to go. Why waste time when you know that the machine has probably eaten one – so grab 2 socks and away you go. At least 5 mins saved. Today I came across a new sight. Odd shoes! An older guy in church was wearing odd shoes. Now I am not ready to run with this idea just yet.
I know I am kind of making light of this but the harsh truth is this guy had been coming to church for a long time and he has an alcohol problem. Two weeks ago Samaritans Feet were here giving out new shoes to people from the dump and this guy was given a new pair of Nike Air trainers. Today he is wearing two different shoes because I reckon he has sold and most likely undersold them to get money for booze. There is no program here to help people with a drink problem and beer is so cheap in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if water cost more.
Monday evening: Had a cockroach crawl across me…. … EUCK!!! I hate the bugs in Africa, please see below for a little friend I have in my room at the moment. Sweet.
Tues: Editing CD. I am hopeful it might even sound ok. Oh and a 30th Bday Bar B Que. Yumm…….
So on to today. At 2.30 our time it was 100F in the shade! Madness…Well what else do you do when it's that temp but head to the pool. Oh yes, we took kids from the Baby House who had not really been this summer before. Seeing my wee friend Yuran in the water was lovely, he is quite cautious of it so taking him in my arms and wading into the water was very special as he clung on for life.
Today I discovered I have another use. I make a good buoyancy aid for small kids! With 3 or 4 on my back at one stage they laughed, screamed and shouted their way round the pool. I loved it. The other funny thing of course is to hold my head underwater, I on the other hand wasn’t so much seeing the funny side as I started to turn blue! (so slight exaggeration or I wouldn’t be sitting here writing now).
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