Hilda Ogden Head Gear

I’ll have been away from home for 8 weeks on Wednesday, time has been passing so quickly.  I’m getting used to the slower pace of life and the environment.  We have the most amazing electrical storms, it floods so quickly and you get soaked through in seconds.  The dust storms are incredible, you get sandblasted and an excellent exfoliation. However, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the heat and it’s still to get a lot hotter. It is rarely less than 30° in my room when I go to bed. When I’m at home, still in the guest house, I wear a wet head scarf tied round my head like the one that Hilda Ogden wore with her curlers, most unattractive.  The local women have it sussed with their clothes that protect them from the sun and flow really elegantly.  Most people here are from the Dinka tribe and are very tall, some of the women are around 6 feet and most weight less than my left leg. Unfortunately when I try to wear their robes I look like I’m going to fancy dress party as Casper and if I just try the head dress I look like I’ve tried to strangle myself.  So Hilda Ogden it will have to be. 

 

The wildlife has been more prolific in the last couple of weeks.  There are bats the size of large magpies that fly about during the day, I think they sense when a storm is coming and know that there will be loads of insects.  I’ve never seen such big bats.  A few nights ago I realised that I had a visitor in my room.  I could hear things being gently banged into then eventually being knocked over.  I didn’t know if it was something that had slithered in under the door or was something with sharp teeth and a long tail.  Thankfully it turned out to be a frog, I had to chase it out only to find its friend waiting for it outside.  The donkey disappeared, the puppy died and the kitten has still never been seen again. 

 

The president visited Wau, we got 2 public holidays which is not as good as it sounds because there was a lot of security, the officials had taken over River Lodge so we couldn’t go there and we couldn’t get to the other lodge because there were road blocks.  Like Malawi the holidays were announced by loud speaker the night before in Arabic so it meant nothing to me.  I pitched up at work both days only to be told to go home. 

 

Work has been busy and there have been problems with the generator which runs in the mornings.  Someone filled it with oil and it took them a couple of days to identify the problem.  We now have other problems with it so nothing is kept cold in the fridges but we continue to give the drugs even though they are probably inactive due to the heat.  Some of the students were meant to go on placement a few hours drive from here but the roads were so bad they have had to stay in Wau so we have more students around than we should have.  There may be some developments in the college soon but in Africa plans change and developments are delayed so I’ll wait and see.  In the meantime its get on with work and the Hilda Ogden head scarf.

 

I hope everyone is well at home and enjoying the healthy cold climate which I’m really missing.