Under Attack!!

Ok, after the last lengthy serious(!) blog I’m gonna stick to a few tit-bits that I think may amuse you…

First up is the attack of the flesh eaters – Jigger Bugs! These are small little critters that somehow manage to munch their way under your skin without you noticing, before settling down to gorge themselves on your flesh whilst creating a ‘nursery’ for the eggs they begin pumping out! The first thing you notice is an itch…this is soon complemented by a small, indiscriminate black dot on your skin and, if you leave it - which I have the habit of doing (I have a lot of itches out here - see ‘skin-eaters’ below) – the area starts to ache and the black dot gets bigger!! Luckily we have the community clinic next door and Justine has kindly dug these critters (3 and counting) out for me (think razor blade, large safety pin and a lot of pain!)

Next up on the ailment front is the attack of the skin eaters! Both Karl and I have been suffering recently from some invisible beast that attacks us throughout the day leaving us covered in small red bites which are incredibly itchy! From doing some reading we think they are small flea/lice like creatures which, thankfully, live in our clothes and not our skin (you have to look for the sliver lining in these situations!). So we have finally done what my mum advised me to do before I left the UK – we have invested in an iron and ironing board and are vigorously ironing all our clothes before we put them on (this, we are advised, is the way to get rid of the little b*stards). It is weird when people that live in mud huts are shocked to find out that we haven’t been ironing our clothes the whole time! Actually it’s interesting what you find once you enter the mud huts in the village – clocks (with grandfather style pendulums) on the wall, chairs, tables, beds, radios…I was expecting to just see a mud floor and straw for a mattress!

Something that has always fascinated me is the fact that whenever you see Africans living in a rural village on tv they always have shaved heads – but how? Do they burn their hair off? Do they use a sharp knife? Do they get some small exotic animal with razor sharp teeth to graze on top of their head?! …For the case of Bajjo the answer to the mystery is a disappointing one - one of the neighbours has standard electric clippers and, when there is power, he simply shaves the hair of the locals for a small charge (about 10p)!! In addition, African hair grows at an incredibly slow rate so they only need to shave it 3 or 4 times a year (versus my hair which needs doing every 3 or 4 weeks!). However, it is really my hair that is the fascination here – not the hair on my head – but the hair on my legs!! The locals simply don’t have any and they are amazed by the fact that I do! I’ll be standing talking to someone or looking at the view and suddenly feel something on my leg, I’ll look down and one of the kids in the village will be sat by my feet stroking my legs!! Even the adults get involved, stroking away, its quite bizarre!!! Anyway, the really funny thing is, I’m not even that hairy…whereas Jez, who is coming out in November, is like a gorilla and has a good rug of hair on his chest – you are gonna get mauled Jez, hahaha!!!

Another thing for you (Jez) and mum (who is coming out next week) to be wary of are the local ‘head choppers’! As recently as 2001 there was a group (loosely associated with the Lords Resistance Army in the North of Uganda) who were capturing people (mainly kids) on the road from Bajjo to Bombo (the local town where we buy our food) and chopping their heads off! Apparently as many as 2 or 3 heads were chopped a week!! The children had to use the road (which descends down into a valley from Bajjo before reaching Bombo on the other side of the valley) as all the secondary schools are in Bombo and this was the only access route! This is no joke – I have met one of the kids who was captured, but fortunately released by the group! Just as disturbing is the fact that a famous witchdoctor lives in our village of Bajjo and, I have been reliably informed, he sometimes requests the head of a human when performing some of his rituals. People requiring the doctors services then pay someone to get a head for them – the going rate to chop off a head is in the region £350 – a tidy sum when the average pay for someone here is less than £1 a day!! But don’t worry Jez/Mum, we are on good terms with the witchdoctor – he likes the programmes we are running in the village so we are safe for now!!

Keeping with the ‘attack’ theme – this time from cyber-space (potentially the geekiest line I have ever written!) - my hotmail account was recently hacked and a number of emails sent to friends claiming I had been robbed and asking for money! Apologies to all those who received the fraudulent emails…I just hope no-one fell for it and sent money!

Finally, just a quick note on our latest success out here (you’re not getting away without a quick bit of self-praise!), we have just hosted our first Village Party! It was an all day event involving sports tournaments for different age-groups (5-a-side football, netball and volleyball), drumming and dancing performances and food stalls…All this was really just a way to get the community together for the real purpose of the day – a health talk delivered by Justine (the local clinician). We intend to make this a monthly event and focus on a different health issue each month. It was a great day (although bloody knackering) with almost 300 people attending...My team got to the final of the 5-a-side football tournament but, unfortunately, lost 2-1…probably a good thing otherwise we might have had our heads chopped!! ;)