Falling water

This is my second day of school. For those of you whom I have not yet told, I’m here in Holy Rosary College, a school for girls leaving school, to teach them secretarial and IT skills, it is run by Nigerian Nuns of the order of the Holy Rosary (originally an Irish order, it seems). Since they are teaching girls, they attract a lot of aid from various doner bodies, even CISCO are keen to support teaching IT to girls (also keen to promote their networking equipment) have made available at reduced cost (a cost that was borne by USAID, I think) the satelite dish and networking equipment that I am using to submit this article and the college teaches a CISCO Network Academy course.

I set my clock for 6.30 this morning in an attempt to be asleep more of the dark and awake more of the light. I had a relatively early night last night as i was tired from the first day of school. Not that it was a hard day, but its warm and everything is a bit more work and a bit different. I woke up in the middle of a strange dream in which I had gone to a very strange concert that featured The Cramps, Swing Demon was there, involved in running it all. And this was before I read her account of GNSH.

Had my cold shower (first falling water of the day) — the water heater that my predecessor fitted has had the cable cut through and Im a bit wary of trying to mend it in case its electrically unsound ( I have had an electric shock on the head from one of those Fawcets of Fear in South America — and porridge with mangos and plumbs, yum!

Than came to college and had another go at my email (the power went off almost as soon as I had updated the blog yesterday!). A message from Denise made me intensely happy and intensely sad At The Same Time. I think this is to be expected. But it meant I was crying (the second case of falling water) on the way to visit Tala High school (for boys) and the priest in charge, with sister Pauline. I tried to explain and she tried to understand. I think we do ok. But dont let that stop anybody emailin me or writing a reply to this entry. I’d much ratehr hear from you than not!

Its been raining a lot (more falling water) for the last couple of days, which is not usual for this time of year. Nominally we are in the dry season. It rained pretty much all the time last night. This morning there were big puddles by the road, and accross the road (its only made of dirt) on the way to Tala High School. Some of the permanent puddles — the pits where stone has been quarried from the ground to build the college, in fact, have oil poured on them, Sister says, to prevent mosquitos breeding there. The one we were looking at was deep rusty red, so I had thought it was iron deposits from the ground.