Last day at the school. Fundi's being difficult, wanting all the work, the painter insists that two coats of half gloss half solvent is better than one of gloss, this makes rather a mess when red gloss is applied to the top of a black gloss undercoat! Oh well... Being pestered by the school, council and local village officials for more money / resources / equipment. Maybe just the diarrhoea and headache talking but not all the people seem so great now.
They see white people as people with money, when people in the past have given them assistance with the school or gifts and such, so they expect the same from us. Its hard for us to say no, knowing what they want would cost about the same as a meal for 6 in a restaurant back home, but the budget has gone and we've already put our own money in.
Colin's got what I had yesterday. By lunch had finished 2 rooms and nearly finished another, all but the messy skirting board to a good standard. The group is feeling better after a "bitch" session, that I happily slept though, last night. In the afternoon the school had an assembly for us with singing, dancing and speeches in Swahili and some English, we presented our gifts (basic resources, and sports gear). Next the meal, we had asked the village women if they would to prepare a traditional meal if we bought the ingredients. The meal was roast goat with various side dishes created entirely out of yams and banana (Geoff accurately summed up as - you stew the ingredients in a bucket for a week, then eat the bucket). The goat was roast whole, and carried into the room to be served, legs, hooves and head included. Was washed down by the local brew, banana beer! More speeches followed the meal, they spoke in order of importance, head master, head of school board, village chief, pastor. (Geoff made the suggestion that they decided who was most important in a pie eating contest, which given the relative sizes was plausible!) In the pastors speech I discovered that I was sent by Jesus who had shown us the light and given us the will to help those with less than us... So there!
The meal finished in the twilight and we struck camp, and moved in to the class room, to enable an early start the following morning, dangerous task getting into bed with all the lines supporting mozzi nets around! Went to bed, slept badly, went to the loo at around 2 am to find Colin still there! 6 hours later!