A Typical Week

My office - where I work very hard


The following week turned out to be rather quite - a result of both the busy weekend and problems with the local power supply. I'll take this opportunity to run through a typical day back on the compound. The sunrises at approx. 7am - by 7.15am I'm out the back having a bucket bath in surprisingly cool conditions. It makes a pleasant change to actually feel properly cold water. You get used to the pit latrine quite quickly although the office does have WCs if needed. Breakfast is currently porridge with powdered milk and honey washed down with a cup of coffee. I'm usually enjoying this meal on our verander with my fellow VSO volunteers - sounds quite civilised doesn't it? We head into the office usually around 8am-ish GMT. I occasionally get a lift on a motorbike (thanks Lucy), the alternative is a 10 minute walk shared with nurses at the nearby training college. The temperature by this time has usually got into the mid/high-20s with high humidity so you can often reach the office requiring another shower. If I've been organised enough I'll have filled up one of my water containers (we have no taps in-house) and then left it in the back yard to heat up ready for my evening wash (I also have a 5 gallon camping shower, thanks Kanti).

Work usually ends at about 4pm, although it has been a little later this week. We'll usually discuss the possible delights of our evening meal in our office before heading home. We normally take it in turns cooking (yes I cook with no reported stomach problems so far!) with Kate supervising when we get into difficulty (she's a bit like Gordon Ramsay!). The menu usually depends on the vegetables in our fridges. The following items can be bought from Soma market; potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, squash, aubergine and cucumber. There's also a "mini-market" that stocks more exotic items such as biscuits, pasta, coffee etc. Apart from the stocks of tinned meat we bought in the Kombos we tend to stick to a vegetarian diet - with the occasional meaty stock cube or two. With the recent high temperatures and humidity an early evening nap helps before a hot bucket bath (my camp shower can get to 130F!). We'll either eat in the chef's home or more often than not just sit outside on our water containers watching the glorious sunsets or evening lightening storms in the distance. By the time the sun sets at 7pm we'll usually start a game of cards, scrabble or stand outside gazzing at the amazingly bright stars. Navigating the pit latrine before bed is the last highlight of the day - not!