"Damn it Howard, 20 years ago you cared about the science"

Well it's been a while and I must admit it's not for lack of opportunity. In fact the opportunity to jump online has improved astronomically as a fellow volunteer left their laptop here with 3g modum thing while they go off traveling for a week. Aside from very poor reliability and the fact it seems to hate me, it's been super handy to check things more regularly without traipsing into town. Unfortunately I just haven't been bothered writing. My bad.

So, briefly here a few quick updates:-

New Year's Eve was pretty much rained out here (just like NZ as I understand). And although we had great plans to go partying we would have got soaked getting anywhere. It cleared up quite late in the piece and many did go out and party noises could be heard everywhere but we were already settled in watching Short Circuit (hence the title) and a Jean Claude van Damme movie as that was all we could find. A pity I missed the chance to party at the stadium, but it was fun enough staying in and trying to stay up! Since then weather has been fine as with barely a drop of rain.

The new guy arrived very late on New Year's Day and he's pretty cool. He's studying anthropology and he's trying to do a bit of research while here which is interesting. And despite having me as a guide, he seems to be finding his way around ok. He makes feel old though as at 20, he's never even heard of Short Circuit before Amani put it on again for us last night.

I have been teaching the older class some science topics like planets, heart and lungs, eyes and ears, and sound. They really love it and are just as fascinated and full of questions as my students at home. It's kind of made me think of school a bit and how much work I need to do before it all starts again. Anxiety levels rise from time to time but I'm still just so excited about being here that I guess I'll worry about that later!

Today I played a game of soccer with a bunch of the older guys, most of whom I haven't really met before. It was full on and exhausting. I especially ran out of steam when I realised one of the younger kids must have taken my drink bottle! Haha. After that I played some music from my iPod and showed off a bit of skanking moves and kiwi vocals. Then I was invited to a concert/party thing to celebrate going back to school (term starts next week, they've been off since October!).

In fact I've just come back from the concert, tinnitus still in my ears. It was fun but not what I expected. Turns out it was also some sort of Rwanda rap/RnB idol. I lasted about 3 hours before the fact I didn't really understand a thing that was sung or said kind of wore me down. That and the production was run not quite professional. I had the thought that it could be described as a bit of an immature production. They had good enough gear but they were so excited to show it off that they over did it: The lighting guy used the strobes sooooo much; The DJ scratched absolutely everything, whether it needed it or not; And various MCs and performers yelling into mics - they already make your voice louder people! All-in-all though I'm glad I went and I got to treat a couple of the older guys to a night out too which they wouldn't have been able to afford by themselves.