mud hut

it takes me about 30secs after waking up friday morning to remember the boys are gone.. suddenly the day seems pre-determinedly bleak. having breakfast up in the communal area, i half expect to see sam trudging up the path in his tsavo-dirt-stained pj pants or olly smiling at me annihilating him with hugs. but nothing. a lot of the girls are pretty down too and decide to stay in bed and chill out. i i know i need to get out and do something else i'll be miserable all day, but i feel so flat that i decide to head out in the afternoon.

thankfully, after lunch the work-eager group is small enough that continuing with the toilet seems futile. instead we walk across the village to continue building the mud hut another group had started on. it's a nice change of scenery and i do my best to cheer up.. we arrive at a small cluster of huts where the wooden skeleton of one beckons. there are kids playing nearby who shyly come to greet us, the girls laughing in delight as they see themselves mirrored on my camera screen. the eldest grabs my hand and pulls me in direction of a dirt path where i discover 10 tiny puppies rolling around in the dirt.. they are absolutely gorgeous. my sadness from yesterday temporarily melts away as i start tickling these goofy bundles of fur, picking them up, rubbing their bellies.. laughing as they chew my shoelaces. this is exactly what i needed (:

after a while i'm called back over to the hut - time to start building work. we shovel dirt in to two wheelbarrows and mix in water until the result is the most amazing, thick, goopy mud in history. it's perfect. a few of you reading this will know my love for mud and i'm like a little kid again, eagerly scooping up handfuls and rolling them between my hands to form the mud-balls that make up the hut walls. we work quickly and eventually mere handfuls aren't enough.. i end up churning up the mud with my entire arms whilst chris stands by with the dismissed shovel, clearly amused.

and then the inevitable happens - a mud fight is declared. i must admit i was the culprit who started it and by the end we're pretty much all well and truly grubby. joe manages to trick me into leaning over the wheelbarrow which results in the top half of me being coated in the stuff. the kids are all staring at us like we're abominations, laughing when i rub a handful into matt's neck or draw muddy tits onto george (mature, i know..). and then the work day comes to an end and we pile our gear into the back of dipesh's (the camp manager) ute, who seemed fairly amused at the state he found us in during his visit. needless to say, the locals we passed along the way appeared to be concerned for the sanity of us mud-covered mzungus.

back at muhaka the new 1-monthers are all sitting around in the communal area.. i think my mud-covered state made a fairly interesting first impression to say the least.. then, of course, i realise there's no water left in the showers. perfect. by now the mud has dried to a thick crust and the only thing left to do is take a long and arduous bucket shower..

evening comes and goes.. unfortunately the gloominess returns. i'm gonna need to keep myself as busy as possible for the next while because as soon as i'm not occupied the 2-monther's absence is awful.