November 3, 2009

“Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life.”
-Herbert Henry Asquith, submitted by Pam

Harran is in Iringa now. We received a gift from him this afternoon: doorstops, locks and hot chocolate mix. We’ll no longer have to ration our cocoa.
In the moring Pam taught and I worked with Ebrania as usual. Around noon, however, Pam and I got the chance to see the Form 2s start their history exam. Headmaster Titus also shared with us a copy of the math exam that the students took yesterday. Pam was excited because a few of the questions were very similar to ones she went over in class. I hope they were all listening.

Just before dinner a large fire raged across a mountainside below us. I can’t remember if any of my teammates have mentioned them, but I feel I should do here anyway as they have become a commonplace occurrence. Started to either clear land for cultivation or chase game to places where hunters and their dogs can make a kill, these fires dot the mountains and there is rarely a day or night where you can’t spot the flames or smoke of one. To use them for hunting is illegal but farmers will regularly use them to help prepare land, especially so now in the months before the rainy season.

Muhammad thinks the one that caught our eye was started for the latter reason and got out of control. It was by far one of the biggest we’d seen. We watched the flames spread and dance until Momma Tony called us in for dinner.