It’s Sunday night (Glenroe time back in the day) and today was quite a good day, a relaxing, refreshing and reenergizing day as a Sunday should be. I slept in until I naturally woke at about 9 which for anyone who knows me well is unusual but our body clocks have totally adjusted. When I did get up I set about tiding the room and washing my cloths (well swirling them in water removing the sweaty smell, it’s impossible to wash them well here). I then decided to paint a picture of the front of the guesthouse so I set up a table and chair out front and started to paint. It was so warm out there and there was so many things buzzing around me, it was like a bunch of drunken people were playing Operation beside me. Everyone who passed said hello “how are you” even when I wasn’t looking at them. One liitle girls asked to paint beside me so I gave her paper and a brush. The scenery out front is amazing there is an unspoilt view across a valley/ Today there were large fires burning in the valley. We were due to meet a kid at four who was to show us a sample of his father’s paintings to see if we wanted to buy them (the painter Koshi is in most guidebooks). At about half 2 we were getting really hungry and decided to go into town and buy us some dinner in one of the recommended restaurants. We expected this to take about 2 hours as you would so we arranged to meet the painters kid later. As it turns out it only took an hour (if this was the recommended restaurants god help those who eat in the rest). We walked in and the waitress (well women who worked in restaurant) looked at us blankly so Dan said possibly the most unusual but straight forward words possible “we want food”. She gave us a table and still looked at us blankly so I asked for the menu to which I got a response I wasn’t expecting “I can give you a menu but we only have chicken and chips”. After spending ages agonising over the world of choice on this one item menu we ordered four. We then waited agonisingly for the food (motillium tablets and thoughts of food poisoning on the mind, we even worked out a bathroom rota if the worst happened). The food when it arrived was acceptableish. The chips were decent but so bathed in cooking oil you could have floated a boat on the plate. The chicken was a leg that was so devoid of chicken that it was either eaten already by someone else or the chicken had a prosthetic limb. As she didn’t offer us a drink I decided to ask for one, there was a big poster for Mosi beer on the wall and I seen a guy walking and buy one, so I decided to ask for one to which she replied “what is Mosi” (I was beginning to think we were in some kind of candid camera show). I eventually ended up with a coke. We fished the meal and left it cost about €3 each, we didn’t tip (I’ve got a tip for them tho, try offering more than one choice) . I haven’t felt any ill effects yet but I’ll with hold judgement for a bit. When we got back a we looked through the paintings and there was one that we all really liked so we ordered 4 and the kid said his father would paint 4 copies for tomorrow (the poor man will be up all night painting, the son probably whipping him to work faster). We were then asked to play soccer with some of the boys so we had a bit of a kick about on the tarmac. One teenage girl from the orphanage called “Mahula” (spelling defiantly wrong) joined in in her bare feet. She then picked up my camera and took loads of photos of us and about 20 of the same picture of the 2 boys. I got my laptop and showed them the pictures onscreen (they then asked me if I had any Justin Beiber music on my computer, I’d rather wipe my arse with a belt sander than listen to that shit to be honest). About then a group of American teachers arrived (with tales of grandfathers with Irish toenails). The first guy we met had a belly so large it would have solved Zambia home shortage on its own. They were really friendly though and we talked for a bit before going up to play with the young kids. Dan nearly broke my arse by dropping the seesaw while I was on it holding one of the babies. (Áine saw a 3 day old baby that had been left at the orphanage yesterday). The kids are so cool and its great fun playing with them, they all want your attention. I was holding onto the babies as they slid down the slide, I picked up one kid who clearly needed a nappy change it was horrible how bad he smelled. We also tried to help an older girl with her Physics homework but I’m not sure how much help we were. Once it got dark we went back to our room and listened to some 80’s/90’s disco pop tunes on Dan’s laptop. Singing along to classics such as “YMCA, “Dr Jones”, “Girls just wanna have fun” and “Cest’t La Vie” by Bewitched (currently languishing in the where are they now pile) id say there was a few anonymous phone calls to the anti-homosexuality department of the local police from those who heard us. They probably issued a code red when they heard the Bewtitched. To round off the evening we had some bread rolls and watched Team America (have you ever seen a man eat his own head). And that brings me up to now where I’m lying in bed ready to sleep. Day 13 awaits.
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