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I spoke to soon the other day; yesterday showed me why they call it the rainy season here. All morning it rained constantly. My flip flops and feet were covered in mud by the time I got to the Orphanage and my lovely raincoat made it's first appearance. The potholes in the road were like paddling pools and the roads were even more dangerous to drive on. Apparantly the farmers were happy about it, I think they were the only ones!
I taught at the Orphanage on my own all day and the children either; didn't understand me or weren't listening to me as their real teacher wasn't there or were just happy it was Friday but they played up all day!! By the end of the day the children knew the words 'SIT DOWN' and I knew that I couldn't hack it as a foreign language teacher. They couldn't find their books which they had the day before, no-one had a pencil, they wouldn't sit down, they wouldn't stop talking, they constantly needed the toilet, I was sooo stressed by lunchtime. It was a bit better in the afternoon, I came up with some English word games to play which kept them amused but it's hard to find work that all children from 4-11 years can understand. I like the hour before I leave for lunch, I usually help the ladies at the Orphanage cook for the children and the little ones sit with me and do my hair or get me to draw for them (anyone who's seen my drawings knows what a treat that is for the children!). I think I am more cut out to take care and play with the little ones than teach the older, sometimes rude, ones!
This morning I went to the Church programme again, where about 100 children from the surrounding villages come to play and once a month get fed. There are children there of all ages, the older ones were playing football or volleyball and the really little ones were on the swings and slides (one of the swings is actually just a barrel on rope!) but the rest were playing those holding hand and clapping games that little girls find fun. They were more use to a white girl being there this week so I didn't have as many cling ons this time. Then the Pastor turned up with boxes of secondhand clothes that had been sent from Australia. We organised the clothes into gender and age range and then the children were allowed to come in a few at a time a pick one piece of clothing. But there were so many children there and the choice of clothes was limited, by the time the last twenty boys came in there was nothing left that would fit them. The Church helpers kept handing them little clothes that were never going to fit or womens blouses and skirts but they didn't want them. I know we should be grateful for everything we're given but I felt so sorry for them, they looked at me like I was hiding clothes from them or that I could just miraculously produce a pile of clothes and I was very close to crying because I just couldn't help. So many of the children were happy with a second hand pair of pyjama bottoms to wear as trousers or a nightie to wear as a dress to them it was a new outfit and they were so grateful. But these boys left with nothing. I know we can't help everyone, all we can do is try to help some but seeing their disappointed faces really upset me.
For how sad I was this morning this afternoon was the complete opposite; I went on a SAFARI!! Like Victoria Falls I just can't describe the feeling when you're sitting in the open truck scanning the green bush and Zambezi river for animals. Unfortunately there aren't any lions in the National Park I was in and we didn't see Elephants as they usually move to cooler areas at this time of year. However I did see various birds, crocodiles, hippos, lots of different types of antelope, monkeys, warthogs, buffalo, baboons, zebras and giraffes! Again I have taken hundreds of photos and am cursing the computers here for not being able to upload them onto the blog. The tour guide knew loads about everything and tried his best to get as close as possible to the animals, however they were wild and we weren't allowed to drive of the track but luckily my camera has a good zoom. The safari was 3 hours driving round the Park spotting animals. We did see lots of Elephant poo and the guide said it looked like it was fresh so they had possibly been there yesterday. The giraffes were my favourite, there was a Mum with two little ones and they were just casually eating leaves in the shade surrounded by zebras. The hippos were good too, we weren't very close as they were further out in the river and we were on the bank (embarrassingly I was taking photos of a few rocks at one point until the guide pointed out I was looking in the wrong place) but they kept coming to the surface and yawning, their jaws were absolutely massive. There must have been about 15 of them that we could see lazing in the river. It was a brilliant afternoon.
I actually wore shorts on the safari and felt a bit naked wearing them instead of knee length skirts but skirts just aren't practical for that sort of thing and are too damn hot!
The African Nations Cup starts today and Zambia are playing Senegal at 11pm tonight. People everywhere have Zambian shirts, scarfs or hats on, one man even had a green hard hat, that you'd wear on a build site, with a flag on. I'm going to watch the match with the others at the guest house and have a few Mosi beers.
Lots of love xxxxxx
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