Of Ballet Class... and scabies.

13 March 2008

Yesterday I wrote how I dropped into the community for a day. Well, the day grew wings, and became five, and some of us will live happily ever after.

A crisis in the city water supply, from where we [ahem] borrow our water, meant no water for several days. We are [ahem again] not in a condition to complain.

I called Daniel and Daniel to come and spend a few days here, and help lug buckets of water up the hill. Those who have visited the community know this is no small challenge. Thanks to global warming, which is all George Bush's fault, the past few days have been 40C. Like, who needs water then, right.

Unfortunately, yesterday we had an outbreak of scabies. It was inevitable that something disgusting would happen under these conditions, so now I know why the Universe put me here at this time!

For those not familiar with scabies, it is a disgusting little invisible mite that plays havoc with your skin, is insanely itchy, 100% related to unsanitary conditions [duh...] and can only be got rid of with lotions. It won't fade into the ether by itself.

There were only three people seriously affected, I'll get to that. We managed to isolate it and coat every kid from head to foot in a smelly lotion and stop it dead in its tracks. On the positive side, it showed these people very graphically that all our hygiene lessons are, in fact, based on fact! On the negative, the three people who suffered and will suffer for several more days are... me, of course; Daniel, of course; and the little old Grandmother whose foto is on one of the blogs, sweeping the mud clean for a place for the kids to play! The three cleanest people are the three victims. Sheeesh. I am NOT in Daniel's good books at the moment..

I celebrated my misery by getting three of the little girls into ballet class. [It's not sexist, boys are welcome to join as well]. I managed a tourist to pay their tuition, monthly, for a year. It's just 40 bucks for the three together. Sure, we need steel and cement DESPERATELY but we also have to grab every chance to push ahead on many fronts at the same time. So we have the computer classes going now, rolling right along, and ballet, and we have started a primitive English class, but until we get funding it will be very haphazard. Not that the kids would notice.

Today I went to pick them up from school, God how many years since I've done that! What an astonishing thing it was, as all the kids from the community swarmed out of the gate and jumped all over me, in front of an army of amazed middle class parents. Haha. A unique thought was sent to me in an email today, which fits perfectly in. These kids are called the millennium kids, and as I walked home surrounded by a dozen 7 and 8 year olds, that thought bounced around inside my head. Interesting, huh..

Below is one of our ballerinas, with Sarah, one of our early tourists. [Sarah... and everyone else... where are the emails you guys promised me? Not in the same dead letter office as my fotos from New Zealand?] If ever any child was destined to benefit from the discipline, structure and attention of this art, these are the three. They cost me scabies, and Daniel's ire, but ho hum who wants to spend another shitty day in paradise anyway....

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