Malawia!

I feel that I have rather wasted this weekend. I planned to spend one day working and the other having a nice time doing something interesting, but unfortunately I chose to work first and then had such trouble concentrating that I got very little done and then felt unable to go out and have fun the second day also. I have had, if not the galloping gut rot today, at least the trotting variety and it has been extremely hot with little breeze. Therefore I have been rather uncomfortable. Nevertheless I got through a bit more work than yesterday but not really enough to feel prepared for the next week. On Monday nights we almost invariably have a power cut so at least my Tuesday lecture should be written by now, but unfortunately there is about a quarter of it to go. When one feels poorly and things do not go well it is so easy to let everything else that is not going well rush in and get into a downward spiral; I am afraid I have done a bit of that this weekend. Amongst the volunteers it is called 'Malawia' and apparently it happens to us all at one point or another. So this weekend was my turn. I hope it doesn't come around too often.

I have learned from Jane's mum who was here on a visit a few weeks ago the cooling technique of wringing out a flannel in cold water and placing it across the back of the neck. It certainly works even if it doesn't look particularly attractive! Jane says her mum used to put a wet cloth over her head and then put her sunhat on the top of it so she looked a bit like a French legionary. I don't think I shall go that far, but the principle is a good one!

Zoe has cooked a proper Sunday roast with two chickens, roast potatoes, and about four sorts of veg and David has made Yorkshire puddings. It's hardly the weather for it, but it still seems appealing. I seem to have fallen into the role of pudding chef and as yet again all we seem to have is mangoes, this time I have made a mango cake, using an apple cake recipe that is tried and trusted and just substituting the apples with mangoes. It looks alright and I don't see why it shouldn't taste good too.

The last two days of the course last week went well. The visitor from UNICEF didn't stay as long as I'd hoped or ask as many questions as I would have liked but she seemed interested and I think she will remember the visit. I would have liked her to talk to the students and get heir feedback on the course but she showed no signs of interest in doing that. She arrived in a huge shiny white car and Vince made her walk all round Chilomoni in the heat to see all the different parts of the project. She didn't seem to mind!

On Friday David did a presentation on Cognitive Development and learning key concepts, followed by a selection of activities at which the students were supposed to make up things to do with the equipment and say what concepts the children would be learning. This was quite a hard task for some of them. They definitely need a bit more practice at it. I think many of them and particularly the men, will really have to learn how to get down on the floor and play with children. I am becoming more and more aware of how different what we are training them to do is from what happens in local reception classes. We will have to challenge quite a lot of local assumptions.