I thought I start by mentioning Áine just broke her mosquito net (sorry Dan’s) for the second time by sitting on it. So to today and a day where quite a lot happened to make up for yesterdays lack of happenings (for some reason Microsoft word considers this sentence a “fragment, consider revising” but hey what does it know). In fact such alot happened today that I made a bullet point list so that I include them all. The morning started with the short walk to Leonard House the orphanage where there are some really young babies. We went there to dig a trial hole for a septic tank. To do this we needed as hovel so we asked around if there was one we could use and one of the men was on his way to Boytown in a jeep and he said he would bring us one back in “20 minutes”. As we discovered before Zambians opinion of time is that it gives people a very rough idea of when things will happen but it shouldn’t really be something that you follow (I understand the irony of that sentence been written by an Irish man but they make Irish people look German “Das is efficient Ya”). So while we waited we decided to play with the small army of kids that was following us around. There was one kid in particular who just clung to me and wouldn’t let me put him down, eventually he started playing with the measuring tape from my bag and by the time he was bored of that he made Áine his cling to and picky up Makua. We were playing with the kids outside and some of the really small (between six months and 2 years) babies who were inside were climbing up on the window sill and shouting out to us. Their carers invited us in to their dormitory. They were possibly some of the cutest kids you could ever see but for 2 things, some of them had nappyless shit covered arses and all had badly runny noses. We were picking up the shit free ones and lifting them high in the air to play with the toy birds hanging from the ceiling. The smiles on their faces and their giggles as they touched the birds would make even the most hardened of soul smile. The kid I was carrying started pointing at the TV screen, where there was a conference hall full of people on screen, and was pointing at all the Makuas (white people) in the crowd it was really really funny. As I mentioned some of them had very shitty bottoms and there was one baby in particular who kept following us and looking up at us with the cutest smile wondering why we were picking up all the rest and not her, so I picked her up a few times, holding her at a distance and lifted her high in the air her giggles of delight were heart warming but the smell of poo was a bit overwhelming (the staff eventually changed her but there are so many kids they are overworked). When eventually we were told that we wouldn’t be getting a shovel today we thought we better head back and prepare for the workshops. We said goodbye to the babies but it was really hard to leave cause they all started to cry and we felt so bad. To prepare for the workshops I made 3 towers to test, one which would stand and 2 that would fall over. Then we were called for dinner. Oh good I thought I’m hungry. Was I made to regret saying oh good. When we arrived in the kitchen there was a rotten smell of fish, which (shockingly) turned out to be the four fish sitting in the tray for our dinner. These fish were horrible browny black looking things with heads attached. Looking at them made me gag so needless to say I enjoyed a dinner of very metallic spuds and an apple (oh how I’d love a steak). After dinner it was workshop time so we headed for the High School where we were to meet the Deputy Head at 14.00. Again Zambians wonderful time keeping played its part and it was about 2.30 before he showed up. His name is Corbett Mananega and when he arrived he went into his office followed by a well dressed women and shut the door without saying a word to us (remember how I mentioned the couches in his office) at which point me and Dan stared laughing imagining we heard the sounds of the couch springs being pressed into action and the women squealing Oh! Mr Mananega. The more we thought about it and the more we sang “Love Shack” the funnier it became until we were both it fits of laughter. The words “Mr Mananega” and “Mr Mananega’s Love Shack “ have already become a running joke and are destined to continue to be so. More and more men and women then started going into his office which just made the whole thing even funnier (Manage á huit). Again it was one of those things “you had to be there” but it’s fair to say the next time I see him I’ll find it hard to keep a straight face. About 2.45 a teacher came and eventually brought us to the assembly hall where there were 600 students waiting for us. The hall had a stage and I got there a few minutes before the rest and they all started clapping when I walked onto the stage. I’ve never felt so white. Later one of them told me I looked like Justin Beiber, oh the shame. Áine started the presentation and straight away they all burst out laughing (which we were told was because they found it very weird to be taught but such a young white women who was studying engineering). She continued the presentation on the difference between Ireland & Zambia and the differences between renewable & non renewable energy, which went down really well however we noticed she was saying the word OK over and over again and when we pointed it out to her which only made her conscious of it and say it more. We’ve been slagging her about it since. I then started my section of the presentation and found it so daunting trying to explain it to such a large crowd but after 2 slides I settled into it and really started enjoying it. I even managed to get one or 2 laughs from the crowd when making jokes which was cool (and that how I met my first wife, bu dum chiss). My section focussed on using AutoCAD and telling them about Gravity, forces and bridges. Dan then talked about towers followed by Jamie talking about Health & Safety. I then helped Jamie put on and explain the H&S protection gear. After that I thanked everyone for listening and asked if anyone had any questions and I got loads of hands up. It was really hard to hear the questions from the stage so I had to jump down into the crowd to understand them before getting back on the stage and repeating the question and attempting to answer it which was really good fun and a found myself really enjoying it. When the Q&A session was over a load of kids surrounded us on stage all asking about engineering. Overall it was a big success. We were invited into meet the Head Teacher in his office, which had even fancier couches (yes we childishly giggled, more of a love palace here tho). He gave us a bottle of coke each, said the presentation was really well received and invited us back tomorrow to take a group of Grade 11 (16/17 year olds) science students which we accepted. He all asked us to fill out 2 different visitors books. On the way home we were treated to a few songs by the schools brass band. It was really cool, they had such an African sound with majorettes aswell as they marched along the airport runway. After another trip to Lovemore trading for bread rolls we had supper and had another fit of hysterical laughing which is becoming a nightly occurrence (Mr Mananega and his love shack provided some of the laughter fuel). We then sat down and watched “Mike Basset England Manager” a really funny film. When it was over I was outside on the phone (to mammy) when I was told there was lunar eclipse happening and Zambia was one of the only places to see it. It was spectacular as the moon became all orange. Finally me and Dan had to wash our teeth into the toilet due to someone unknown having a slow and methodical “shower” in the bathroom. So that was a long post for a long but enjoyable day. I hope tomorrow can be just as enjoyable.
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