High jinks at the high table

It's Tuesday which usually means, as it does today, that we find ourselves in Umuahia and hence have the opportunity to update the blog.

We have just finished a management training event, where all the managers and supervisors in Amaudo got together to explore our job roles. My favourite part (apart from lunch) was when we were asked to imagine Amaudo was a ship and to think about where we would be on the ship. I placed myself on the bridge updating the captain's log with all the relevant data, but I don't envy Hazel who found herself up the mast with a disabled child, insisting that this was an important part of the child's rehabilitation.

On Sunday, we went to a birthday party. Now we are just coming to realise that just about every event (birthday, wedding, fundraising event, send forth) follows pretty much the same format. Hazel and I were called up to the "high table" which basically means we get to sit at the front with the chairman, are first to be served the ubiquitous garden egg dipped in peanut butter and are generally expected to give the "celebrants" more money than the mere mortals in the general congregation. The MC follows a more-or-less standard agenda, with prayers, speeches, dancing and, on this occasion, a game of musical chairs with about 15 children competing for one chair. One has to wait to the very end for one's food but I must say it was worth waiting for - however, the standard fare of rice, salad and a chunk of meat is becoming rather predictable.

Tomorrow we travel to the capital Abuja on a bus that has such luxuries as a toilet, air conditioning and your own seat. We will stay with former Amaudo volunteers, Polly and Julian and their young son, and we are due to return to Abia State on Saturday.

Bye for now

Andrew