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Africa

Tuesday June 28 1988

I was cold in bed last night, a new experience for me in Africa, made me quite homesick. A note for future reference, rechargeable batteries are a waste of time and energy, I put a fully charged set into my torch last night and the thing went and died on me in less than half an hour, I’ll have to buy some ordinary ones if I am to read in bed tonight.

Talking to Gilbert and Emile, apparently Phil and Sue had told them that we would be
coming out here on the tenth of July, that accounts for the garden looking like a rain
forest and the house like a building site. Where the date the tenth of July came from I
have no idea, certainly I never mentioned it nor was it ever suggested to me, ah well I’m
here now.

WEC have a school for missionaries kids a couple of kilometres from Vavoua, as I
walked out there from time a lot of kids started following me and calling out “toubabou”
which I guess is the Kouya word for “white man”. Being here and sticking out like a sore
thumb certainly gives you a new insight into racism at home.

On the way back from the school I met the “village idiot”, not an aceptable anthropological term, but what else can I use? She greeted me like a long lost son which was disconcerting to say the least.

The folks at the school seemed pleased to see me, and they will come around tomorrow with the cooker and kerosene fridge for the house. The afternoon consisted of trying to get the house into some sort of decent shape.

As Emile wasn’t expecting us he is still sleeping and working in the house, we can’t just chuck him out, can we? so it looks as if we will have a live in lodger for a while. That would be no problem but for the fact that it means David sharing our room (yet again).