So - i guess you could say we are now "naturalised" - we have been here nearly three weeks and feel like part of the furniture already. Wherever we go we seem to know people and to all kids we are yuvooo - white people - which is a little odd for Kiran to say the least. The bolder ones run up to us for a high five or a hug - sweet. I am finding it difficult to adapt to not really having a job yet - I feel a bit like the person who has lost their job but not told anyone, leaving the house to go to the "office" everyday. K tells me not to worry and I guess she is right - be patient - "We have time - you have the watch" as they say here. The colleague I share an office with spends her time reading motivational texts such as "Born to Win", sleeping and chatting - all done without any pretence of working - so I am trying to relax about it.
The last few days we have been on the road - last Thursday we visited Hohoe (which strangely sounds a bit like Hawkwind when locals say it) with Francis and some of the Volphig crew. We met with local disability groups in Ivy's hairdressing salon to brief them on the forthcoming visit by an NGO from Finland - an opportunity perhaps to secure funding. Later we had a look at local hotels - access a huge problem here and then visited some friends. Hohoe is a dusty, wild west kind of place - it already makes Ho look rather sophisticated - and I was itching to have a good poke around - next time. As ever the people we met were inspirational - laughing and joking and just generally having a ball - making light of their disabilities. On the way home we visited the monkey sanctuary briefly after first getting lost in the villages. Here the kids run around barefoot and naked and lines of people walk the long red road - loads balanced effortlessly on their heads. We get to see a few of the sacred monkeys - K even feeds one but sadly the place is not really geared up to disabled visitors. We arrive back late laden with avocados, bananas and a giant papaya.
On Saturday the whole Volphig crew was on the road to Jesikan, an even smaller dusty town beyond Hohoe. We were there to join in the 15th anniversary celebrations of the Jesikan Association of Disables. For breakfast we stopped at a small tea shop and K made friends with little Emmanuel who took an immediate shine to her and I am sure would have happily followed her forever more (putting to rest K's awful reputation as the woman who lied to the children of Cambodia - Michael's interpretation entirely). Incredibly the event was held in a hall which could only be reached up a long set of steps but this did not deter people who arrived in large numbers. Things finally got underway an hour late - local dignitaries including Togbes and Queen Mothers assembled on stage - with the opening prayer. It is hard to describe what followed - it began at first like some high energy warm up for a gig -the MC in long flowing white robes urged the crowd to "Lets happy ourselves today" and suddenly we were in some kind of crazy evangelical hysteria. The Assemblies of God took the floor and soon there was dancing, clapping, Hallelujas, Amens ringing out around the room. As the frenzy built up the MC detached his prosthetic leg waving it triumphantly in the air and hopping on one leg - too much! All this went on for hours, interspersed with speeches exhorting the disabled to behave morally and hell fire preaching. We finally staggered out exhausted, in a state of shock and somewhat depressed (I put myself feeling unwell for the next few days down to this).
It lifted our spirits to see how people with disabilities cope with the environment which is not friendly towards them at all. At the end of the day it was amazing to see the numbers of people with disabilities who got onto the trotro (local transport). Michael counted 25 in one! There was Kiran worryiong about 16 people and a 2 month old child travelling in the VOLPHIG trotro.
