hey all!
its been a good few days since my last post, but this is actually my third day in a row of visits to the internet cafe! yesterday there was a powercut and the day before the connection was down. a few things have happened since wednesday, but in all honesty i cant remember what happened on what day, so i'll just tell you as i remember it. (ie, prepare for a rambly post!)
on thurday (i think) we moved rooms whish was brilliant, because our new room has so much more space, and the beds are higher so we can put our cases underneath them. suzi left on friday so the bed underneath me is now empty, and priya and rachel have gone to lake bunyoni for the weekend, so our room is suddenly very big and very empty! just me, molly and sarah are left, but molly and sarah are going on safari tomorrow, but hopefully i wont be alone because priya and rachel should be back and there are 8 new people arriving on sunday so at least one of them will be in our room. the projects is stuffed full of people, it has a max capacity of 20, but by the middle of next week it will be in the high 40's. original volunteers just keep sending people even though theres no space. in this week alone we have had 18 new people and only 5 have left.
we are all going on a big trip to lake bunyoni next weekend, which should be great fun. it's supposed to be very beautiful and is genuinely bilharzia free so we can swim without worrying!
last night we went out to sal geust house, and (because there were so many of us and i was at the back of the queue) there was no dinner left, so i went on an empty stomach, whihc is never a good plan, but at least it was a cheap night out! it cost me 9000 shillings in total for transport and 3 drinks (which was all i needed!) whihc is about 2.25.
i decided today that i want to go gorilla tracking. i will probably never have the chance again and the permit prices are set to triple in the next year. i'm really very excited about it!
hope you are all well and i will speak to you soon!
ps. if you're having trouble posting comments, make sure the 'keep me signed in' box is NOT ticked when you sign in, and then it should work. its very wierd, but thats how it works.
love, lucy xx
Showing posts with label lake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lake. Show all posts
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Monday, 18 July 2011
screaming and swimming...
hey everyone! just a short one today, as everyone is waiting to go to sky blue (a local hotel) for some 'french flies'
we went to the beach yesterday which was really fun, i swam a bit and then we all just lay out in the sun reading books and the boys played volleyball. on the way home we bought meat (goat) on a stick from a street seller wich was absolutely gross, but apparently i got a bad one, it was all fat and no meat whatsoever. i tried a bit of someone elses and it was nice.
today i got my own class, and i'm working with the special needs kids. we have one who is physically disabled from polio, one who is deaf, and two with speech problems. we split the group and i was working on the kids with speech problems.
one of them is really very bright but just nervous with a crippling stammer. the other one has a serious learning problem as well and can't speak at all, though she understand well when people talk to her in runyankole. today in the midddle of a session she started screaming and crying at the top of her lungs, whihc was pretty exhausting ot deal with. up until then she had been very physical and cuddly, but after her screaming episodes she just went on strike and seemed very depressed. she wouldnt speak, she wouldnt play, she wouldnt do anything, so eventually we took her back to class where she seemed happier.
if anyone has any ideas about speech therapy that could help them, it'd be greatly appreciated! i want to do some relaxation techniques with geoffrey, the child with the stammer, as he gets very nervous around people.
i have to go and get my french flies, but i'll try and post in a couple of days!! xxx
we went to the beach yesterday which was really fun, i swam a bit and then we all just lay out in the sun reading books and the boys played volleyball. on the way home we bought meat (goat) on a stick from a street seller wich was absolutely gross, but apparently i got a bad one, it was all fat and no meat whatsoever. i tried a bit of someone elses and it was nice.
today i got my own class, and i'm working with the special needs kids. we have one who is physically disabled from polio, one who is deaf, and two with speech problems. we split the group and i was working on the kids with speech problems.
one of them is really very bright but just nervous with a crippling stammer. the other one has a serious learning problem as well and can't speak at all, though she understand well when people talk to her in runyankole. today in the midddle of a session she started screaming and crying at the top of her lungs, whihc was pretty exhausting ot deal with. up until then she had been very physical and cuddly, but after her screaming episodes she just went on strike and seemed very depressed. she wouldnt speak, she wouldnt play, she wouldnt do anything, so eventually we took her back to class where she seemed happier.
if anyone has any ideas about speech therapy that could help them, it'd be greatly appreciated! i want to do some relaxation techniques with geoffrey, the child with the stammer, as he gets very nervous around people.
i have to go and get my french flies, but i'll try and post in a couple of days!! xxx
Saturday, 16 July 2011
Classes and Clubbing...
hey all, sorry about the extremely short post yesterday that i just re read and was a bit of a nonsense post really.
yesterday after i took little brian to hospital we came ino town and i bought a few things and used the internet at the internet cafe. i also bought some gin, whihc seems to be the drink of choice around here, and is ludicrously cheap. it comes in sachets, rather than bottles, and each one is 100ml. you can buy a pack of 12 sachets for 5500 shillings, which is less than 1.50 in england! we came back from town on a boda boda, which is basically a motorbike that you can hire as a taxi. i was bricking it but it was actually ok, i'd had to ride one earlier in the day anway to take brian home from hospital. we had races and we came second, and the people who were in the lead broke down and had to be collected by anther one of the drivers!
when we got back the goat was being barbequed african style on sticks which were shoved into a log on the fire.it was really yummy and nice to have some meat! after the goat we had a few drinks and the headed out to the sal geusthouse, which is a local club. it was a good laugh though some of the african mens dance moves were questionable! the africn women were very keen to dance with us because they arent alowed to refuse a man if he wantes to dance with her or even if he wants to tae her off for a quickie, so they like to dance with us because we can get rid of the men, or turn it into a group dancing experience rather than a sexual couples dancing thing. one girl i was talking to was only 14 and she was absolutely terrified that a man would drag her off at any moment. i spent the night pointing at my ring (which i wear on my wedding finger but on the wrong hand) and telling people i was married!! it worked well...
a big group of volunteers went off to rwanda fr a couple of days thismorning, so the lodge is a lot quieter, but we did have 2 new people arrive, who have moved into my room, so i wont be alone as molly and sarah have gone on the rwanda trip.
as tomorrow is sunday and there is no school, i think some of us are going to church with the kids in the morning to see the singing, and then we are all going to 'the beach' which is actually the shore of nikaboko lake, so that should be interesting!!
yesterday after i took little brian to hospital we came ino town and i bought a few things and used the internet at the internet cafe. i also bought some gin, whihc seems to be the drink of choice around here, and is ludicrously cheap. it comes in sachets, rather than bottles, and each one is 100ml. you can buy a pack of 12 sachets for 5500 shillings, which is less than 1.50 in england! we came back from town on a boda boda, which is basically a motorbike that you can hire as a taxi. i was bricking it but it was actually ok, i'd had to ride one earlier in the day anway to take brian home from hospital. we had races and we came second, and the people who were in the lead broke down and had to be collected by anther one of the drivers!
when we got back the goat was being barbequed african style on sticks which were shoved into a log on the fire.it was really yummy and nice to have some meat! after the goat we had a few drinks and the headed out to the sal geusthouse, which is a local club. it was a good laugh though some of the african mens dance moves were questionable! the africn women were very keen to dance with us because they arent alowed to refuse a man if he wantes to dance with her or even if he wants to tae her off for a quickie, so they like to dance with us because we can get rid of the men, or turn it into a group dancing experience rather than a sexual couples dancing thing. one girl i was talking to was only 14 and she was absolutely terrified that a man would drag her off at any moment. i spent the night pointing at my ring (which i wear on my wedding finger but on the wrong hand) and telling people i was married!! it worked well...
a big group of volunteers went off to rwanda fr a couple of days thismorning, so the lodge is a lot quieter, but we did have 2 new people arrive, who have moved into my room, so i wont be alone as molly and sarah have gone on the rwanda trip.
as tomorrow is sunday and there is no school, i think some of us are going to church with the kids in the morning to see the singing, and then we are all going to 'the beach' which is actually the shore of nikaboko lake, so that should be interesting!!
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