Week 31 (18 - 24 Feb 2007)

On Sunday afternoon we were invited to visit the mother of our neighbour (Lillian). It was a fairly typical home with several buildings and relatives living together on the compound. We were made to feel very welcome and shown around her house which is partly completed. The windows are bricked up until she has enough money for the frames and glass and there is no plaster on the walls. She does have a tin roof because the usual thatched ones need to be replaced each year as they get eaten by termites. If anyone knows of a cure or way of preventing termites eating the wood please let us know. There would be a huge market for it in Africa. We have seen evidence of the destruction they cause and know that there are some in our own home. And talking about destruction, there was a minor earth tremor at 5.30am on Monday morning. The doors and windows were rattling for a few minutes but that’s all. One neighbour rushed outside and was praying frantically. Andrea asked about his wife and 2yr old son. “Well, they should have taken my movements as a sign!” They stayed indoors.

Our temporary home help, Monica, started on her own on Monday. Mary trained her for a week or so but now Mary is about to deliver a baby and will be taking a break from the walk and work. But not for too long! Monica is waiting for her ‘O’ level results before deciding what to do. Her English isn’t as good as Mary’s and she is very reluctant to do or say anything in my presence for fear of being disrespectful. I wonder if she will still be with us when Laura comes!

We learnt to play canasta this afternoon with Cathy Asiki’s children. I’ve played it before but a long long time ago and it’s too complicated to learn solely from a book. It was good fun and in the extended break we’ve booked a further lesson next week.

It was Laura’s 22^nd birthday on Tuesday. Although we missed her and this was the first year Andrea hadn’t made her a cake we were able to speak to her in the evening. She seems to be having a great time without us! Richard even manage to try to phone as we were speaking!

Wednesday was very hot again. Nearly 40C.

On Thursday I acted as chauffeur (thank you for spell checkers as I hadn’t a clue how to spell that one!) to the One who does all. (Andrea came too.) An American family who home school their children were having problems with fractions. To be accurate it was only 2/3rds of the children who were having the problems. The youngest is only four and just learning to read by herself. So they requested the help of a Maths teacher for a while. I spent the time chatting to two visitors from Washington DC and as a result would like to visit there sometime. We then went to lunch with a Canadian family (5/6ths of their children present) and then the 3 Vandermeer girls + 2 Asiki girls had a knitting lesson. It took me about 1/10^th of a second to share my knitting wisdom before handing over to the expert. I spent my time on the computer preparing a scheme of work for Physics. Next time I might join the knitting club.

The main event on Friday was when Andrea sowed some trousers upside down and it was too late in the evening to work out what had gone wrong. Poor Teddy No 2 was naked from the waist downwards for a whole day! While it might be cooler, I don’t think I’ll try it. Anyway, the temperatures dropped considerably and although the maximum was 35C it was only for a short time with the average being around 23C so that I was able to continue lesson preparation during the afternoon.

Some of our (male) neighbours played Ludo all day on Saturday but as it was cooler again they had to go inside. I didn’t join them as I can’t play Ludo. Lillian was sitting outside in the afternoon but was wearing a coat. There was a breeze so a little wind chill factor. We continued to sit out in our shirt sleeves and shorts much to her amazement and were finding the temperatures a refreshing relief! Eventully she excused herself because she was too cold!