Monday 28 February 2011

Day 1 at the District Office

After 10 hours sleep,( the heat is exhausting), I arrived at the office for the daily "Devotion". There were about 24 of us by the end of the short service.The hymn wasn't familiar but everything was in English. Madam Director gave a few notices and some urgent issues were shared. The staff always meet together at 8am on Mondays. The Circuit Supervisors (School Advisors) are then in their own cluster areas for most of the week. Other officers are more easily contacted during the week. I was welcomed into their "family" and introduced myself. The rest of the day, I spent trying to learn some names and match them to responsibilities. Apart from a couple of well used computers in one office, the others are just furnished with desks and chairs. Clearly, as I expected, there are no resources. I shall be visiting some of the more local schools this week. I don't get the rest of my motorbike training for a couple of months apparently, so I'm cadging lifts further afield for a while.

Laura and I went out for lunch and had spicy groundnut (peanut) soup with a piece of rabbit and Fufu ( a large lump of mashed yam that is elastic and vaguely like mashed potato). You eat it all with your hands and can only manage half the fufu as it sits very heavily in the stomach. I've found pasta now so things could look up on the familiar edible food front! The tomatoes taste lovely but are strange shapes.

Following a few requests I shall take some photos around Nadowli and the house tomorrow and work out how to upload them. Watch this space

1 comment:

  1. First day at work!! Always a tricky one. You made it. I'm guessing with the heat & the interesting local produce you will shedding pounds!! Dont get too close to the goat- could be on the menu later.

    We are turning vegetarian in the Tropics!!
    Looking forward to seeing some photographs too.

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