Volunteer Amani
10th Jan 2007New Year Network Problems! I can`t really write about Christmas without a brief tale about New Year`s Eve as well, which I am glad to say was marginally better than Christmas Day! I decided to spend New Year`s Eve at Amani, with most of my friends away visiting their families and friends, I thought that it would be nice to see the children who were left at Amani over Christmas. I decided to go to Amani early and arrived to find a deadly hush as all of the children were watching a film, which I joined them in watching. It was a kickboxing movie with the usual bad guy-good guy routine, but the children loved it and I was rather worried that some of them were already re-enacting the final showdown, which by the way the good-guy finally won! Then it was on to the next film which was Terminator, which I always enjoy no matter how many times I have seen it! Again the children were riveted as they watched Arni. strut his stuff! The film really kept the children occupied for at least a couple of hours until it was time to eat, which happened to be pilau that evening. I joined the children in their evening meal. I made the decision to leave Amani early before midnight so that I could try to contact my family and friends around midnight. It was also quite crucial for me to be able to get home safe as I was told that there would be very few taxis that night, so my usual walk was the only viable option, and boy was it dark! To add insult to injury it had also rained ao the usual mud was present. I think that I slid home mostly, rather than walked as it was impossible to see where to step, so it was just put your foot down and hope for the best! It was jut as well that it was so dark as at one stage I slipped and went flying only to be saved by a grab for a nearby tree! I had the bruises to prove it next day, and it would have looked so funny in the daylight! Luckily it was just me and hundreds of super vocal insects! I arrived home in time to send my New Year messages to my family and friends, but unfortunately there appeared to be a huge local problem with the telephone network. I received no messages back infact for almost the next 2 days, by which time I was beginning to feel completely unloved and friendless! I sat and had a beer on the doorstep, to see the New Year in, and listened to all of the amazing celebrations that went on around the local area. At 12am it seemed as though everyone was whooping, banging drums or anything else that they could lay there hands on and honking hand held horns! The commotion went on well into the early hours as I finally decided to call it a day around 1am and went to bed. Happy New Year Ian, I thought, tomorrow I will have to clean those `` shoes again! We later found out that there had been a massive network problem over New Year, proved by the fact that I received 5 messages, nearly 2 days late all together! There was a huge holiday overload on the system plus a problem with one of the transmitters! Mobile phones are a massively expanding business here, and are beginning to allow people in remote villages to keep in contact with the outside world! I will write in more detail about mobile phones here at a later date, as it is quite an interesting point of discussion!
|
| 695 Words | This page has been read 32 times | View Printable Version |