Fun with laptops, fundraisers and football

Hi everyone,

So as mentioned we went to a fundraiser for the community health initiative that GIVE has been supporting. Before going however Katie and I decided to multi-task by working our work…and more importantly our tans! So we camped outside while drafting a monthly report form that we will have the board send to us. Our multitasking was however interrupted by one of the local children who has taken a special liking to us: Bridget (we think that’s her name but she has given us a few different ones depending on when we ask). She was fascinated by our computers and the sounds they would make. It was very interesting to watch her try and figure out how it worked. For example removing the internet stick from the laptop would cause the computer to make a sound, as would putting it in, but only if you waited. She is pretty bold and confident so if you try and show her too many things at once without letting her do the exploring herself she is perfectly happy pushing your hand away from the laptop. We first showed her around typing on word (which she thought was funny but couldn’t quite get the hang of).

Katie showing Bridget around the laptop

 She then caught me taking a picture of her and Katie, so she asked to use it. She is quite the little artist and was pretty good with the camera, although the zoom function still confuses her and as a result most of her pictures are super zoomed in! After she went around taking some pictures we went back to the laptops and I showed her some of my own pictures. Here she found the zoom function much more interesting and would always spend a bit of time zooming into parts of a picture to see everyone’s faces. The only pictures I really had were from the village and from my trip backpacking through Europe from a few years ago. It was pretty funny though because Bridget would always point to people as if to ask if I knew them…even though they were complete strangers in the background of my pictures.

Photographer Extraordinaire: Bridget

My portrait by Bridget: Aren't I charming

 After playing around on our laptops for a while we had to go in for lunch and to get ready for the fundraiser. The place it was to be held at is around a 20 minute bike run away, and we were told it was starting at 2:30, so naturally Maurice arrived a little after 2:30 himself. He then told us it had been pushed back a little bit. Still not sure how that works. The fundraiser was a funny affair, with a bunch of chairs under a large tree with a bunch more chairs under a tent facing back at the tree. There was an MC for the event and a DJ who was playing some weird music. Naturally we had to shake everyone’s hand when we got there and there was a lot of ‘soda’ handed out. Eventually we were honoured with a seat under the tent as people continued to arrive. There was a very funny little girl who started crying every time she saw Katie or I, apparently we are very scary looking! 

Katie can be pretty scary sometimes you know...

The ceremony consisted of a few speeches and some dancing (which Katie and I got dragged into!) before the donation portion began. One person would come up and talk then donate some money, at which point anyone who knew the person would donate on their behalf. Once we figured out what was happening it was pretty funny because people would donate 1 shilling on someone’s behalf (just over 1 cent Canadian). The event went on for a while, with nearly 2 hours of that before it started to rain and everything was moved inside. This was fortunate timing for us, as we didn’t have to get publicly recognised for donating and managed to steal away to go watch the Arsenal game.

We biked quickly back to Obambo market where we had seen signs up advertising the game. We hid our bikes in the computer shop and went inside the viewing place. 30 bob for a seat so we stood by the wall. It was packed in there! Easily over 60 people in this tiny little area (naturally all were male). The difference in demographics compared to the bank members was pretty stark. We caused a slight stir for coming in to watch the game and heard the term ‘mazungo’ bandied around a few times (it means white person). The power went out from the storm not long after we got there, but once it was back on we settled in to watch the Manchester City match. The game was fairly interesting for me, but I think Katie was just more interested in the atmosphere than anything, despite my best efforts to explain all the back stories (ie. How the title was to be decided by that game). Occasionally the screen would split into two as it showed highlights from other games, and it became clear that some teams had more support than others! About half the people were Manchester United fans that got pretty excited once they scored, and the other half went nuts after Manchester City scored. Halftime eventually came and we went outside to get some fresh air. The temperature change was pretty large between the inside and outside from all the body heat and because of the rainstorm that had passed over. At times it had been hard to hear anything because of how loud the rain was.

I was pretty tempted to watch the second half but it would have been pretty dark by the time the game was over and Katie wanted to go back, so we waited a bit to see if Maurice would come. To kill time we awkwardly stood in the centre of the market to call our dear mothers for mother’s day before then heading home because Maurice was nowhere to be seen. He said the fundraiser was still going on. They must really love their fundraisers!

So that was all for Sunday as we called in a fairly early night because we had 3 (!) focus groups the next day. I will catch you up about those and other things tomorrow,

Bye for now,

Graham