25 November - Heat

Apart from one day, it has not rained since we got here. That’s seven weeks of unbroken ,blistering, sweaty heat. Each night I go to bed thinking of ways of avoiding getting too warm. Should I lie on my back or on my side? Should we have the net open? The fan on or off? Should I shower (sic) before bed or will this cause my body temperature to rise? The business of staying cool consumes my thoughts as I’m preparing for sleep.

The students have gone home for the long holiday now and this seems to have led to a reduction in the noise level at night too. We’ll have weddings at the week-end, but on the whole, the place is very quiet. The marking of end of term examinations is almost complete and then we’ll have nothing to do for eight, long, hot weeks. We plan to get involved in one or two local projects; otherwise being here, doing nothing will cause us to miss home and family too much. None of us can work out why VSO brought so many teachers out immediately before an eight week holiday.

The big day, the day that all this tireless rehearsal has been for, is upon us. Tomorrow, we go as honoured guests, for the graduation of about 72  five-year-olds from their Montessori kindergarten and progression to primary school. The dancing, singing, shouting, shimmying, drumming, tantrums, shoe flinging and even crying will all have been worth it. Honoured guests will also be treated to a handsome meal as I spent the morning helping staff crush garlic, scrape ginger, cube beef and peel vegetables for tomorrow’s feast.

The respite from the heat comes at the end of the day with our daily dip in the ocean at 4.00pm. It is fast becoming a group swimming lesson with Kelvin, Muksini, Joshua and another boy there today, all wanting swimming lessons. I’ve promised them all another session tomorrow and I’m expecting them to practise their strokes before I get there. The goggles and snorkels have already proved extremely good value. Even better value is William’s fridge, which we used to freeze some bars chocolate, courtesy of my mum, which we shared tonight for supper. Perfect!