The cooler 29'C was great for our 06:50 jog, but the 40'C afternoon felt every degree hotter than the early morning!
It is disconcerting in this season that we have a warm toilet seat when we visit the bathroom...!! It is also disconcerting that the water inside the toilet is warm! It makes me cringe to know that this heat is the perfect hotbed for all kinds of potentially nasty germs brewing in our bathroom!!
(just in case you were wondering, the brown marks in our loo are nothing sinister- these are stains caused by the limescale in our bore-hole water!)
It was also disconcerting this morning when I popped out to a local shop with our 3 children, only to be greeted by the screams of a South Sudanese toddler inside the shop. Terrified, she pointed to us as we stepped into the shop, shouting, "Khawja!" This is a term used to describe white-skinned people. The poor child was petrified by the sight of us!
Pointing repeatedly, crying and screeching, she captured the attention of all the customers and shop-keepers. Her tall, regal-looking mother swiftly lifted her, placed her high on the counter further from us and laughed at her child's obvious discomfort around us, the foreigners.
As a person who likes children, it was disconcerting that the mere sight of me is enough to terrify and upset a small toddler!
These small, disconcerting incidences are just little reminders that we are foreigners here- in a land which is different: where the heat affects our life in unexpected ways (!!) and where we stand out by the colour of our skin.
Ugh. That toilet looks disgusting even though it's only caused by limestone. Poor little toddler. We were either Devils or Angels! love nana xxxxx
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