More work

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I woke up again at 6.30am, to another cloudy overcast morning. We had another big breakfast of cereal, toast, omelette and some sort of tasty sausages. I almost had several of the women convinced that they were wildebeest sausages.

We started work again after breakfast and continued making and painting furniture and working on the books. By mid-afternoon we were getting low on paint so I went into town with Asher and Bruce to buy some more.

The school is about 10 minutes out of town in the village of Moshono. The first half of the journey is on an horrendous gravel road which is more like driving over rocks than gravel. The vehicles can not go much faster than a brisk walk, more often than not we are passed by people on push bikes. The road is lined with small buildings that act as shops or people selling their wares on the roadside. Once you hit the bitumen the vehicles pick up the pace.

We weaved our way through traffic and finally arrived at the hardware store the school frequents. As well as paint, we tried to get some more small rollers and trays, but had no luck. We settled for some more brushes instead.

As soon as you step out of the vehicle you are mobbed by guys trying to sell you bangles, maps, carvings and paintings. They wait for you outside while you go into the shop and mob you again when you exit.

They seem to appear out of thin air. You get used to them after a while and either ignore them or say “Hapana Asante”, which means “no thank you”. A few smart alec ones say that their name is Hapana Asante, I simply reply that they must have a hard time in life being called “No Thank You”. They just laugh, most are young guys and are quiet fun to talk to.

While in town I purchased a sim card for TS300 or less than 30c. I also purchased a TS20,000 recharge card. The prepaid sim cards are very easy to use and very cheap, it costs about 80c a minute to call Australia. Text messages are about 15c each.

We got back to the school and finished off the painting, before dinner. Being oil based paint and humid weather we need to leave it over night to dry before we can put the second coat on. We also wear rubber gloves to limit the amount of clean up required afterwards. The only problem is you sweat so much the gloves just fill with liquid.

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Photos

Bicycle repair shop
Most town shots are taken candidly from a moving vehicle as a lot of people object strongly to having their photo taken, due to religious beliefs.