Dashing around the country visiting family and friends was lovely. En route we stopped off at a four star hotel for a slice of luxury, they even gave us an upgrade. How lucky were we! I had to eat my words as we got an unexpected present – food poisoning, which is a little bit ironic when I think about all the food bowls I’ve shared and munched my way through. Luckily I exploded from both ends before leaving the hotel. Nik wasn’t so lucky. While walking along the road in Anfield on our way to watch Liverpool v Newcastle, Nik’s rumbling volcano decided to erupt. Not a quiet affair and surrounded by scousers on their way to the match. There was calls of – UGH! YUK! and ‘Get it up lad’. All thinking that he’d had a skinful and having a dig at my cooking. Well as they say better out than in.
The two weeks flew by and it was that dreaded time to get back on the plane, back to my world number two. For some reason the in- flight meal wasn’t as exciting on the way back. I was greeted by newspaper headlines ‘Hippos and monkeys reduce rice yields’. What a contrast to ‘Jordan breaks an eyelash while winking at hubby number ?’ Like I said – two worlds.
No sooner was I back and I was whisked back up country to complete lesson observations. We covered the same area so it was nice to do a bit of follow up, some students had actually heeded our words. We had a couple of different overnight stops. One in a little village where myself and Catherine shared our little hut with the only female teacher in the school. We had an eventful night in store. I was happily in the land of nod, dreaming for some reason about hedgehogs, when visitor number one ran over my legs. I screamed, kicked Mr Rodent into the darkness but not being a David Beckham with pinpoint accuracy it landed on Catherine’s face which resulted in more screams. Still our host in the next bed did not wake. Mr Rodent ( I am calling him that because he seemed half way between a mouse and a rat) ran into a huge crack in the wall. I stuffed my trousers in the crack to either suffocate him or keep him out. How naive were we! He made his way out the other side of the wall came back in through the open door and when we had both just about dropped off again decided to fall between us from the roof causing more yells and commotion. Our next plan was to keep a torch on between the two of us which seemed to work for a while until a huge flying beetle was attracted by the light and ended up in my hair, more commotion. I did after much banging and clattering manage to kill that one. Morning could not arrive quick enough. We apologised to our host who politely said that she didn’t hear a thing - impossible. The story caused great hilarity between the male members of our group. Never a dull moment.
June’s tip for the month – Improve your kicking skills before sleeping in a mud hut.
Home for the night with the village kids
Meet the neighbours
Preparing dinner
The happy team
