Issues

Today is the day of the blog. On Monday we are leaving the capital to travel by bus to a rural area to the West of the capital. We are staying there for a week before heading to the south-west in search of more interviewees. The village we are staying in next week has no electricity and definitley no internet so I may not take my computer with me for the next 2 weeks. I am therefore filling 2 weeks worth of silence now. However, to make this less of a mass of text, I am going to go for some bullet points highlighting some of the of our experiences:

- Mosquito Nets. Mike gave up on his last night and slept for the first time without it. There are not many mosquitoes around but those that there are seem to like biting me. So, I've kept mine up. However, last night when I got up in the night I got confused about whether I was using mine or not. The result enabled me to commiserate with a fish being fished.

- Supermarkets. Although we are trying to live cheaply and so eat what is easily available at the markets, some things we can't manage without. Our first issue was breakfast cereal. We caved in there after just a few days. Today we had to buy squash. We keep feeling like we have got to the point where we can't drink any more water without some flavour. However, things in supermarkets are all imported and so horrendously expensive.

- Supermarkets. Because things in supermarkets are imported and expensive the clientele there is usually of the wealthier persuasion. As a result, all the street sellers congegrate there. Mike is well practised at ignoring them but I feel rude doing so. I need to get over this though as it could get expensive. I was vaguely interested in a book one guy was selling and that was a fatal mistake. I ended up with about 10 people crowding round me trying to sell me things. Next time I'm just going to run.

- Safari. It seems the best place to see elephants is a park called Nazinga. However, to get there and drive around when there you need a car. The guide book says that you can theoretically hire a car at the park quite cheaply but in reality there never actually are any. However, the book does go on to say that you are amazingly allowed to go into the park on bicycles! I don't think there are many lions in this particular park so tha main danger is the elephants. I've heard however that they are very small and docile creatures and that if they extend their ears it means they are pleased to see you.

- Dust. The harmattan winds have started blowing early this year apparently. The locals are not happy. Everything gets very dusty very quickly even when the winds are not blowing. The poor lady who cleans the guesthouse every day has a terrible challenge. I was mysteriosly ill the other day and coldn't stay awake for more than an hour at a time. Sana tried to blame it on the distance we had cycled that morning. Not wanting to accept defeat in the cycling stakes (we'd only done about 10 miles!) I am blaming it on the dust according to another person's theory. It's either that or a brief tropical disease!