Look at that

So on Saturday afternoon I decided that I would take advantage of my garden and went to sunbath with my book. Before long I noticed a little face standing looking at me. He giggled and shouting for his sister. They both came back, he pointed at me and said to his sister 'look at that!'. He then proceeded to ask me 'what are you?'. This was a question I was not prepared for and was at a loss of how to answer. I said I was English but it did not seem to squash his curiosity. Jeramia is our three you old neighbor who is now very intrigued by the crazy msungos. He wanders over regularly to come over and stare at us and has gone as far as trying to climb through the bars on our door to get into our house!

I have started work this week and have been hugely impressed. I am working for an NGO called Water and Sanitation Association of Zambia. We enhance capacity in the water sector through training, collaboration, networking and research. The kind of thing we do is put waste water treatment systems in poor rural areas or peri-urban areas. These systems turn the organic matter into Biogas which can then be used as energy for up to 70 houses, the water is used for irrigation and the remaining matter used as  fertilizer. That is only one of the projects but they are pretty impressive, especially when you are talking about areas or townships where there is currently no electricity or gas and no toilets. We have a mini version of this system in the gardens at our office and other than accidentally stepping in some of the fertilizer I have been really impressed with the system. We also do training with schools in deprived areas around hygiene and sanitation hoping to lower the level of cholera and other similar diseases. I think I will enjoy working here a lot.

A huge challenge tackled this week is my washing. At home anything which needs to be handwashed is either risked in the washing machine or left in a corner of my room for about a year. Now I have to handwash all of my clothes. It took about 2 hours to do one load of washing. You then have the arduous task of ironing everything because of Putzi fly. To date these are my biggest fear in Zambia. They lay their eggs in your washing and then when you wear your clothes the eggs hatch and you have a family of maggot growing under your skin. I have never until yesterday ironed any pants before but for peace of mind spent about 5 minutes on each pair as the only thing which kills the eggs is ironing. My mother and Granny would be proud of my completely ironed outfit today!!!

It seems that I am the most attractive I have ever been as I get asked out by a wide variety of men in the most bizarre locations. I find this most odd as I currently have a special streaking sunburn which makes me look a little bit like a piece of bacon, a cold (yes in Africa!!) combined with hayfever and dust allergies, mosi bites all over me, bruises as a reaction to my anti malarial pills and hair that looks like it has just escaped from the eighties that no matter what I do will not be tamed. At first this attention was flattering, now it is just a hassle as it is only because you are msungo rather than my dazzling personality. My favorites have been a 17 year old packing our bags in the supermarket who asked if he could come back to my house with me or the shop assistant called Happy who offered to make me happy if I gave him my number!!!!! Most female VSO staff wear wedding rings married or not so this weekend I am planning to get my wedding ring!

We have a talent show at work next week which is compulsory. Any thoughts or suggestions of what my talent can be are very welcome.