Wednesday 2 February 2011

So here we are at the end of day one.
Ali and I met up- luckily -courtesy of Darlene, a very very large  lady taxi hustler with great charm. We've gone off her now but that's the next story.
Habitation Hatt Hotel is a little sanctuary which we needed for a couple of nights while we sorted ourselves out, Ali sorted out all her film equipment and we found somewhere cheaper.( 6.30pm and no mosquitos. How wonderfully unexpected is that!)
As I took a cold-only shower early this morningI looked out onto  one of the smaller camps. What  struck me then and has all day is how incredibly clean and stylish absolutely everyone looks. It's obviously a point of honour. I saw one one  - only one admittedly  -young guy coming outof the unfenced tent area in an immaculate white shirt and pressed looking trousers on his moblile and carrying a briefcase.

Food and drink.
Ali has got this amazing gadget that her paramedic special friend has givern her. It's a STERIPEN.You plonk it in up to a litre of water, the light comes on and the tubes glow blue as they steralise-in seconds. Amazing. Then you a) drink it ( thank god as I haven't found any bottled water yet) or b) mix up your Tesco dried milk  and add it to a glass of muesli and eat it with the other end of your toothbrush. This is partly because I was  very happy to have goat for supper last night but didn't fancy it for lunch as well.

Darlen fleeced us today. so dissappointing. We needed to have the v. important meeting with Rachelle from FRADES, our partner organisation and find the cheap guest hous that we are moving to tomorrow.
What is the point of giving to a 'taxi'  driver  an address when so many of the roads have gone or are impassableand all the names of the roads have disappeared? We bumped up and down and drove down blocked alleys  for three hours.Luckily we found Rachelleand had a very good meeting setting up the work( more of this tomorrow) but Darlene totally  failed to find the Guest House and then tried to charge us $80  for the trip.  I'm going to have to adjust  to USA prices being charged for things you need knowing that 75% of the population earn under £3 a day.

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