Monday 2nd
December
After the excitement of Saturday, Sunday was a day for prayer. With a
walk of 45 minutes each way to church and a two hour service, the
morning was fully occupied. A snatch of lunch and I was off on a 2 ½
Km walk to meet someone at 2.30 pm for the 2 pm 'Section meeting'. At
3 pm I decided to move on – sometimes I bump into someone in the
compounds who leads me to the meeting. I was not disappointed and a
member of our community lead me to the right place. It took a while
to find a bible. I made a phone call to Dilys to find the right
reading and we were able to get going at a little before 4 pm!!
On arriving back home just after 17.30 I quickly put on the kettle,
peeled some onions and put on some rice. Typically the power stays on
until about 18.15. Yesterday it went off before 18 hrs and before I
managed to cook anything. I wasn't going to cook at 22 hrs, so it was
a bowl of conflakes, a few mangoes and some roasted peanuts for
supper!
I later used the electricity at 22 hrs to contact home and catch up
with e-mails etc.
One of the effects of the power outages is that I am rarely in bed
until well after midnight. Last night it was about 1 am.
Both Diven and Jennipher had insisted that they would see me early
this morning (at least by my standards). Diven would be around by 9
hrs and Jennipher by 8 hrs!! I was up in good time!
At about 10.30 Diven arrived!! Jennipher arrived about an hour
later!!!
I decided to make a few notes of the outstanding issues I needed to
address. I also wanted to check out the laptop because I have had
difficulty playing DVDs. Since PIZZ school wants the laptop to
project videos for the children – I need something that is
operating. It appears that there are two DVDs which don't want to
play. The others are OK – suggesting that it is the DVDs rather
than laptop. I will investigate a little further.
I am keen to better understand the challenges facing the school and
the church during this difficult year.
There have been a couple of attempts to rain today. Eventually there
was just enough to wet the surface of the ground. We really need a
good downpour to feed the newly planted maize. The prospects for rain
later in the week look more promising, I hope it won't be too late.
I was reading a little about the climate change meeting in Spain. The
politicians continue to talk, but very little action is happening.
Unless something is done now, we are likely to be heading for
disaster. I have suggested simple measures in the UK such as at least
taking VAT off electric vehicles and making public transport free! If
these measures are considered radical then there is no appreciation
of the scale of the emergency. Yet the politicians are unwilling to
to even go this far! In my view we need to make it easy for people to
take the correct action – it needs to pay to be green!!
In Monze the people are feeling the effects of climate change –
severe hunger. One lady told me that if we repeat this past year's
rainfall pattern, there will be few people for me to visit next
year!!
Chris
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