Friday and Saturday

Friday follows Thursday like a toilet roll follows a haricot bean and rice lunch. Day two of the second class and we seem to find a certain pattern forming. Google will only allow less than 10 email accounts from one IP address per day. For those who need a bit of information about IP addresses (imagine it is your full postal address for your own computer address for even more mind boggling information, click here).

Friday was also the day we say goodbye to two of the first phasers (as in the first phase not the shooting laser sort of thing), Alia (pronounced Aaahlia) who used her camera with great aplomb to take time lapse photographs of the shoreline as the boats adn clouds went by and not forgetting Max, who had been nicknamed (the Swahili for) Goat by the MTG girls as he had a ginger goatee. But for us Kenyan Field of Dreams people, he was the lynchpin of obtaining the cargo from the Nairobi customs, when asked if had seen a transformer for a light he said that he had a soldering iron and was prepared to make a new transformer. Luckily, the original power source had been found.

An early night, after returning a foldable golden coloured reflector to Max and said goodbye to the leavers, I had to be up reasonably early to find the new or the third phase people who were arriving in dribs and drabs.

So the sun came over the horizon as is its wont and Saturday arrived like a friend turning up for a party unlike the English defence against the Germanic attack. As you can see I am trying to type this up whilst watching THE game.

The second phasers made an epic trip to Tsavo East to watch game, quick entry – one goal followed by another that could have been a goal but wasn’t really a goal so the crowd in this wood and raffia ensoaked bar are not too happy with the lack of FIFA stewards. The guys left at six in the morning whilst I awoke to the news that in order to balance the karmc scales I would have to travel north of Kilifi to a field to show the screening. Pah, so any work was out of the window.

As luck would have it, Orange John turned up to the front desk and I took advantage and ordered a dongle, despite the fact that I am told by my computer my dongle is a dingle, and I eventually to the Orange hut – a shop, wall and huge aerial all painted orange – and got a phone. This gave me the ideal opportunity to phone my brother on the football field, similar to the one at Muchinjike but of a lesser standard, he was having a dinner party to celebrate his birthday.

But before we even got to the field, I made a side trip to a hotel on the north side of the creek, which has got the word “Baobab” in the name to reflect the abundance of the actual baobabs in the vegetation on the side of the roads. This reminds me of the trip to Kilifi from Mombassa where we passed fields of sisal that have been grown on a commercial scale. I went to see the new phasers who include Ally, On Quy and Justin from Google and some people from the BBC and the freelancers who include Chris, Andy, Martin, John and Mark. So whilst the majority of the second phase leave on Wednesday morning, their work will be continue by this last phase. I took some of them to see Orange John and then they walked back to the hotel.

Caution – this next part includes some graphic content – when the girls come to play football at the Moving the Goalposts, there will often be four teams, so whilst two teams play on the pitch, the other two teams – sorry Germany has now scored 4 goals to England’s 1 – are taken to the side and they are taught about HIV AIDS, STDs, the correct usage of sanitary towels and the potentially bad effects of an early sex life. It is thought that if you are not married and do not have children by the time you are in your mid twenties, you have probably wasted your life. Girls will probably miss a week’s education every month due to the presence of the painters or the crimson tide, the curse or their period due to not turning up as the presence of “clean” sanitary conditions to cope with their own predicament. This is something, as I used to be a teacher, that I never really even thought about when I taught in Ashford, Drax, Hastings, Muchinjike in Zimbabwe and Tenterden. I overheard a conversation between Sarah Ford and one of the MTG ladies about the advantages of Moon Cups - a form of sanitary towel where a device is put in to the front door downstairs (oh alright, the vagina). The following is taken from theMoon Cup website:

The Mooncup is a reusable menstrual cup, around two inches long, and made from soft medical grade silicone. It is worn internally a lot lower than a tampon but, while tampons and pads absorb menstrual fluid, the Mooncup collects it. This means it doesn’t cause dryness or irritation, and also that collects far more (three times as much as a “super-absorbent” tampon!). Because the Mooncup is reusable, you only need one so it saves you money and helps the environment, too.

The Mooncup is designed to be folded and inserted into the vagina, then removed, rinsed and reinserted up to every 8 hours. A light seal is formed with your vaginal walls, allowing menstrual fluid to pass into the Mooncup without leakage or odour. This seal is released for removal, allowing you to empty the contents, rinse or wipe and reinsert. Comfortable, convenient and safe: the Mooncup can be used overnight and when travelling, swimming or exercising.

I hope this helps to explain some solution, but I shall find out more later on methods used by the girls taught who can’t afford this solution.