Apparently my first word, and also my current predicament. The landing strip is too wet and there's standing water everywhere. In fact the rain is so bad I'm sure there is a latter day African Noah rubbing his hands and gathering his animals in pairs in the belief that his moment has come! Certainly far away in Ethiopia there is widespread flooding that has killed hundreds, the rain, a continental problem.
Hopes were raised by a sustained period of sun all of yesterday afternoon and then last night it rained incessantly, depressingly for hours! You couldn't land a plane in the car park of the compound (which is concrete) let alone a mud strip. Stuck indeed.
The prognosis is also poor, some doom laden predictions (alarmingly, from people who have been here the longest) put our possible delay at two weeks. Rather like King Canute on the beach I'm powerless to stop the water.
Other than being bored beyond all possible comprehension. I'm actually all right. I went for a walk into town yesterday. Apparently the standard of living, by African standards is actually quite good. However there are areas of deprivation here, on a scale not seen in the UK for hundreds of years.
I was the only white person on display that afternoon, and recived a lot of attention from the kids who would come up behind me, touch my arm and run away giggling. Amazing that, in this ever shrinking globe, places like this still exist within easy reach of the rest of the world.
Off the main street, a large area of people existing in huts constructed from mud and plastic sheeting, no clean water or sanitation to speak of, the largest collection of woefully inadequate 'housing' I've ever seen, again, Apparently the standard of living, by African standards is actually quite good. Poverty clearly isn't history just yet.
At the side of the road sat a small trestle table, and, (rather like the women's institute would sell lemon drizzle cake in a church hall at home) a traditional healer selling medicines. Glaxo-Smithcline this was not. One bottle of potion contained a liquid that was a guaranteed cure for cancer, depression, malaria, TB and diseases of the toe (whatever they are!) Pretty powerful stuff no doubt. An indication, also, of the standard of healthcare available to vast numbers of this continents populous.
Returned for a night reading my book (the Wah-Wah Diaries by Richard E Grant) under the stars. A view denied by the orange glow of endless street lighting in London.
