Well it’s been a while since I did anything even remotely clever with this blog. Like update it. And it’s been a bit like homework over the long holidays – bugging me as I haven’t done anything about it.

Since my return I’ve been bonding wildly with the other ladies of the village – “Ladies Night” has been promoted to four times a year and brings together a lot of us ladies who are for the most part, outsiders to the village. Some of us are foreign, some of us not, some here for long, some not. But we’re all busy with our own projects and getting together isn’t always easy to organise. But we managed it and had an amazing time.

 

Men are strange creatures and ask us, “so what exactly do you do on ladies night??”. I have no idea what their imaginations are telling them, but it involves eating, drinking lots, talking lots and dancing. We can all struggle here sometimes; cultural differences, living on ridiculously tight budgets, struggling to get supplies (food, medicine etc.) and living sporadically without water or electricity to name but a few. So it’s been good to know that we’re not alone.

On the downside, my lovely little hut got robbed less than a month after I got back – all my electrical gizmos are gone forever – probably sold for next to nothing on a roadside market in the nearest town. It’s been a bit like bereavement for all the emotions I’ve gone through, but as a South African friend of mine pointed out, if this is my only brush with crime after all the time I’ve been coming here then I’m doing well. Doesn’t help all that much but he has a point.

So it’s been good, bad and sometimes ugly but it’s still beautiful, I still have my visa and I will still update my blog!