Friday 19 August 2011

ageism and art (on the face)...

hey all!

yesterday we had summer camp, and a lot more kids turned up, which was uplifiting. a teacher also came, actually the mother of the girl who i had admitted to hospital with malaria.she tells me her daughter is completely recovered. the kids were bit nuts yesterday, especially as there were quite a few from ruhanga boys who arent used to having volunteers around, ajd arent used to doing those kinds of activities. we let them use the dressing up stuff, and they did colouring in quite hapliy all afternoon, intermittently going outside to check out the outdoor games.

prossy, the racist baby, was quite friendly with me yesterday and even sat with me for a cuddle for quite a while, and wanted to be on my hip for most of the day. i absoolutely love babies, so i was happy to indulge her. when i was stood chatting to the teacher and to Amon, our volunteer coordinator, she fell alseep on me, whcih was so cute, what was not so cute however, was that as i took her into a classroom and sat down with her still asleep in my lap, she proceeded to empty her baldder all over me. that si the second time that child alone has peed on me! she is far too much of a tiny tot to be walking around in underwear, because she wets herself even when awake, but her mother can't afford nappies for her. i'm gonna buy her some today, at least enough to last a week, and then i'll know its safe to pick her up!

yesterday we had the treat of 2 good meals in a row. mash for lunch and chips and meat for dinner. it's not that i dont like the food here, but its so repetative i just have no appetite for it. we get plain rice and plain clumped together spaghetti every day, apart from the occiasional interruption when we get mash or chips. and of course rolexes on a wednesday night, when marass comes. he is coming on sunday for an extra visit, when he has promised to teach me to make chappatis!

today we did face painting with the kids at school which they absolutely loved. we all arrived with our faces painted and they wanted to look just like us, though a lot of them went and washed it off almost immediately. i think some of them thought it was real paint, and if it dried it wouldn't come off easily. the teachers also wanted to try it, though they seemed hell bent on lightening their skins by just using the white paint. it didn't work well. i have noticed a lot of skin lightening products in the shops here, and it is clear that a pale complexion is sought after.

after face painting me and lauren decided we wanted to come into town (mainly so that i could sort out my uni accomodation!!!) so we flagged down the first passing vehichle, which just happened to be a truck. first he wanted to buy 100 bricks from the birckworks next to the lodge, but he didnt tell us that before we got in! we could ahve walked by the time he had loaded all of his bricks!when we were finally underway, he turned to me and asked how old i was. i told him i was 18, anmd he laughed and said 'no no no, you are 30!' i was like ummm no i'm not! then he looked at lauren (who is 28) and said she was 22!he totally didnt believe i was 18 in the slightest. we had also got into the truck with our faces still painted like butterflies, but he didnt say anything about it! we are going out to sals tonight and we plan to keep our face paint on for that!\

tomorrow is saturday and so hopefully everyone who is out on trips will be back by then, so the lodge will be a bit busier. its so wierd that its so quiet now, there are only about 6 of us left!

we watched a film called the tourist last night which has johnny depp and angelina jolie in it, so we were expecting it to be good, but it was absolutely crap, but quit amusing at how bad it was. lauren geussed the ending within about 30 seconds, and we were like, 'oh god that would be rubbish', and then thats exactly what happened!

not much else to tell you all really, see you soon!

love, lucy xx

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