Rain, visitors and sunrises....

Pots (having been fired in an open fire outside the pottery)
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I have now spent my longest period of time yet in Usangi - a whole ten days without escaping in search of something I can't get there!

School has been very quiet with the teachers just marking exams while the children occupying themselves (unimaginable in the UK!!) but I have tried to go into different classes to teach them English songs as they love singing.  So far, standards 5 and 6 are very good at 'Animal Fair' and standard 4 are good at 'London's burning', 'I'm a little Tea Pot' and 'Head, shoulders, knees and toes'.  I have also started using standard 5 and 6 girls (boys not keen, no surprise there) to teach 'head, shoulders etc' to standards 1,2 and 3.

Pots (dried but not fired yet)
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I have now been joined by another volunteer who has huge experience of teaching in USA (from Alaska) as well as Vladivostok and Paraguay.  She is a spritely 71 year old who I am learning a lot from.  She arrived with our country managers and Managing Director of Mondo Challenge so I had a full house of visitors on her first night.  We spent a lovely morning visiting the school and pottery introducing people and chatting as we walking accross the valleys between stops.

The pottery is going from strength to strength and my new colleague was an immediate hit with them.  It's really nice to share the teaching as we have different styles but work well together as a team.

Pots, fesh off the wheel, still wet!
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The rainy season has really kicked in now - torrential downpours all night sometimes so loud that conversations are difficult above the sound of the rain on the metal roof! The stream is running fast and loud and looks like coffee.  Everything is even greener than before and the clouds and mists are fantastic.  Steam rises from the valleys and mountainsides when the sun rises and warms up the land after the overnight soaking.  Flowers are appearing on vegetation previously only green.  The colours are  beautiful and vibrant - will try to get som photos when I go back!  When the rain comes in the afternoon, the streets empyt of people and doorways and porches become social centres (in fact, I met my hairdresser in whilst sheltering from a downpour!).  The road has a fast-flowing stream running down the middle of it and the red mud gets everywhere!

Dawn - no sign of much light yet....
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As a contrast from the soakings, I got up last Sunday morning and spent nearly an hour watching the sun rise over the peak opposite my window, taking photos as the sky changed colour and the sun eventually emerged from behind the mountainside, silhouetting the trees near my window.....

Nearly forgot!.... beastie of the week: giant moths (I don't like moths at the best of times!)