No power for 2 1/2 weeks then it came back.....for nearly 48 hours! Actually it is far less frustrating knowing you won't have power at all than having it coming and going at random times. For several days we had no water as well and that was hard. Still it puts it into perspective when you know that most people here don't have water or electricity ever. We have watched people toil up and down the steep hill to the lake with jerry cans on their heads. What right have we to complain if water doesn't come out of our taps for a while but complain, we do.
The night the power came back will stick in our minds. We were sitting in the candle light when a police car arrived. The power came back as Nurse Emily was walking towards the Medical Centre. It was a newborn baby found naked and abandoned in a banana plantation. He was still covered with grit and soil. He fought magnificently for several hours but his temperature was unrecordable when he arrived and even in the incubator, they couldn't get his temperature to rise very far. Eventually his lungs bled and we lost him. He had been outside for too long. We took him as one of ours and arranged his funeral. Festo, the carpenter made a coffin, Social Worker Annet got the paperwork done, Jackie went with the town clerk to find a burial spot, Leonard and James dug the grave, Mike led a short service at the grave. All very intimate and special but ultimately so very sad.
On a brighter note, Rosie returned from the UK but Emily leaves for good on Thursday. On Wednesday morning she and I will try and climb the hill for her to have one last look at the view of Lake Mutanda then in the afternoon we will have fun and games with the children. She will be sadly missed.
At the end of the month we say farewell to our Administrator Jackie. In traditional style for a big celebration we will kill and eat a pig. Meat is a rare luxury for most of our staff so it will be a treat for them. After the customary speeches the staff will perform traditional dances to drummed music.
Here are a selection of vegetables that have grown from seed since we arrived back in July. We have enough tomatoes to last 3 months.
The children are eating their first courgettes.
There will soon be carrots, broccoli, cabbage, cucumber,
leeks and there are a vast array of herbs. The speed of growth
is phenomenal. Strangely the rhubarb is not doing so well but
it is going to transplanted onto a mound of manure - of what
variety I am not sure, nor will I ask!
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