Boys on teaching practice

Now that the 4th year boys are out for their month of teaching practice I find the days even slacker than usual.  I didn’t teach until 12.10pm today and finished at 1.30pm.  Fortunately there are lots of things to do in the lab, sorting out boxes and generally blowing the Sahara dust off everything.  There’s still no constant running water and no sign of the problem ending.  Rumour has it that the pipes were sabotaged by workers who were disgruntled about their wages.  The lab is stocked with a huge variety of equipment which was provided by the British Council.  Sadly, most of the equipment is too sophisticated for the students and so it’s never used.  I have to follow the general science curriculum and rarely does it mention anything about using scientific equipment to show the students anything.

I went back to school with Huseini to be with the prefects for a meeting on school discipline.  He showed me a termites’ nest and it was fascinating.  There were so many of them on the surface that it seemed as if the ground was moving.  It’s amazing how nature can provide us with ants that work in the day and termites which are active in the dark.  One morning I watched the termites by looking down the long funnel-like extension they build up from the ground.  The hole was about 2 cms across with one centimetre thick walls to the chimney so it must be a labour of love.

Teaching practice time is hated by the students.  The Kumbotso Teacher Training College sounds posh but actually it’s a school for male students who are not academic.  Instead of being destined for university the government sends them to us to be trained as village teachers.  While they are with us they have electric light and running water but, when they are in the villages the conditions are far more primitive.  I hear that most of them leave school and never go into teaching because the conditions are not good and the pay is poor.

Huseini goes market shopping

Huseini did some market shopping for me today.  He came home with a mountain of vegetables.  I commented that he’d got far more for the same price I usually pay.  He said, “That’s because you are white.”   He definitely comes in handy and luckily I like him.  It’s unusual for a man his age to be single in this part of the world.  I’m too shy to ask him why.  Maybe he’d end up asking me the same question as I think I’m older than he is.

While doing the dishes, and staring into space through the window, I was jolted into action by the sight of a small Tuareg camel train ambling across the dried river bed.  I dashed madly about, looking for my camera, and I managed to take a photo of the Tuareg dismounting and leading the camels to drink at the nearby water hole.

Filling in income tax

I was over at Huseini’s learning about filling in income tax forms when Wilma arrived with another Canadian teacher from one of the eastern states.  While we were talking I could hear the welcome trickle of water as it dribbled spasmodically into the bathtub.

I was eager to tell her my story of Joseph and so, as soon as I could, I began to tell her of our meeting.  “Not you too!” She said.  “It sounds like the same man who visited the McLeans.  He managed to get N25 from them.  Then the next day they came home just in time to prevent someone from breaking in.  Whomever it was had almost got the door broken down.”  Wilma said they believe it was the same man as he had visited with them and had had a chance to see the house.  I told her that on my walk back to the highway with Joseph I had told him of our new security system; maybe the prospect of 1000 boys charging on the illegal entrant put him off paying me a second visit.  Wilma said she would have to pay a visit to the Ministry of Education as it was obvious that he was getting information from our personal files concerning our families, home address by working there himself or having a friend there.  He wouldn’t have got much from my place as there was nothing lying around that he could have eyed to steal later.  This is a test of my faith to see if it turns me sour against all Nigerians.

I went back home with Wilma and was happy to turn on the bath tap and have water coming into the bathtub with great force.  This happens later in the evening and I think it’s tied in with the end of bath time for the Africans.  I’m at the end of a long row of houses and so I get a trickle when they are using a lot of water.  I also play safe by putting water in the bath just in case it goes off again.  It means I can’t have a bath but I have a wash cloth bath instead.  I’ve realised how little water I need.  In the morning I scoop a mug of water from the bath and I run it over my hair.  It’s always stuck up when I get up so I need to dampen it down.  I catch the water in the sink and I give my hands and face a wash.  Then I use the water for my shave.  If there’s a serious water shortage I capture the water and chuck it into the loo.

After saying goodbye to Wilma I came back into the house and found myself paddling through water which was overflowing from the bath.  It was in the kitchen, hall and bathroom and so I had a mopping up job to do.  I didn’t mind as I told myself the floor needed washing anyway.

My jumping spider friend

Still no water.  It’s been off for three days.  I’m worried about our thousand boys as they are walking miles with buckets looking for water.  Apart from needing it to wash their clothes they also need water to perform their religious ablutions prior to praying.  I will give my neighbour Hussaini some of my water if he hasn’t any for his prayers tonight.  The village boys are coming to the tap in steady streams, tying up their donkeys, fixing the hose pipe, turning on the tap and finding no water.  It’s amazing how little we can manage with if we have to, but on the other hand, it’s amazing how we suddenly want to drink as soon as we know there isn’t any.

It’s dusty and warm again today.  I’d love to. jump into a cold bath.  The goats are out there busily stripping a little bush of its leaves - they never last long once the goats see them.  I fed the lizards with some carrots today.  I felt sorry for them.  They are like little dogs, scampering after peelings when I throw them something.  There is a real pecking order and the big lizards drop from the wall with a thundering slap, onto the cement, and chase the little ones away.

I’m amazed at the tenacity of the plants here.   The morning glory flowers brightly each day, only to shrivel up at the end of the day.  I have a bush with bright yellow flowers on it today.  I hope the goats will leave it alone until I’ve had a chance to take a photograph.  The wind and dust are blowing it all over the place so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

I’m intrigued by the toilet rolls.  As the roll gets smaller, so do the size of the sheets.  For a while they were only about 2cms wide and now the roll is almost at an end and there are no sheets at all, just a continuous piece of paper.

I’ve discovered another animal friend in the house.  It’s a jumping spider.  I bent down to have a closer look and was taken by surprise when it jumped up and almost hit my nose.  It is fun chasing it across the floor and watching it jump along as if on springs.  It will be company for my flat spiders.  They are so flat when they move around a corner they practically slither around rather than walk.