My first day at work

The day began at 3am with an enormous clap of thunder. What followed was certainly the fiercest most flashy thunder storm that Mike and I have ever witnessed. The rain was torrential and we pottered round the house checking windows. However, when we woke at 6am the living room was flooded. Several inches of rain had built up on the veranda and had then made their way under the front wall of the house. To add insult to injury, the water was no longer running from the taps and I was covered in a heat rash from where it had been swelteringly hot before the storm broke. So Mike and I mopped while our lovely house girl managed to make us a delicious breakfast despite there being no water.
So I set off for my first morning at the office unwashed but fed, hoping I looked respectable as we have no mirror in the house. I walked the 15 minutes to Walewale District Education Office in the rain and arrived at 8 o clock in time to chat with the cleaners. The rest of the staff trickled in and I arranged to accompany the lady who is in charge of the School Health Education Programme for the day. Thinking to take advantage of facilities before going out into the villages, I asked where the toilet was. The answer was, there wasn’t one. I could go and use the urinal in the corn field (yes, apparently ladies can pee standing up in Africa... I think I may have to put my shewee to the test) or I had to go to a nearby school and ask for the key. Before I could pick between these appealing alternatives, the Headteacher of the nearby school had been summoned from inside the office and four of us processed about 20 meters amidst conversations of what I intended to do and had I got paper. We arrived, much to the delight of about 50 children sweeping the compound before school. The head then went retrieve the key for the padlock and I was escorted to three wooden latrines at the side of the playground. After all that effort I felt duty bound to perform!
The car eventually arrived to take us to a village 18 miles away. The roads had not been improved by the torrential downpour of the night before. I fell to wondering how this would be on my motorbike...Hmmmm. We were warmly greeted at the school by a very young looking man. Sadly the Head teacher had recently died and this young chap had been brought in to support the assistant Head. He looked about 20! We assessed by interview some of the girls at the primary school. This was for a scheme to support 10 girls through their education with uniforms, books and fees. Many of the girls were about 15 years old. African schools don’t worry about age cohorts. If you start at 9 or 10 years old you join the Grade 1 class and work your way up like everyone else so there can be huge age ranges in each class. You also have to pass tests to get promoted so this adds to the age range if a child is held back a year.
Anyway, we got back about 3pm and headed for home, still with heat/ allergic rash raging and to find no water at home. Happy days!

(Picture added of Charlotte at her desk in the District Education Office - goats in the background).