I visit Rhumsiki

 

Not a lot has changed from a month ago, except I have relaxed in to it. In reality what choice do you have? You have a hissy fit and come home because people aren’t behaving how you want them to behave or you keep trying, but engage yourself with other distractions.

Last week we had one thunderstorm for about 1 hour and no electricity for 5 days. I can cope without running water now, but my lifeline of filtered ice cool water in this sweat drenching heat getting cut threw me into the doldrums. Luckily we had electricity in the week in April when it hit 50 degrees centigrade.

All 40 odd volunteers in the extreme north cope with this by going on little week end ‘vacances’. While we may only get a living allowance, if all you eat is tomatoes, cucumber and mangoes, you save, and we use the extra to be a tourist. This month I went to Rhumsiki which was 2 bone shattering hours on an unpaved road there and back on the back of a motor bike, but at the end some government sponsored hotel where you are the only occupants of the glorious swimming pool other than stork like birds and swallows dipping in and flashing their blue underbellies. Gwendoline and I (who is one of four 65 year old volunteer Trojans here) went and had our fortunes told by the crab sorcerer and went on a couple of guided tours. Andre Gide described Rhumsiki as one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s close to the Nigerian border and awash with cheap Nigerian whiskey and the local beer brew of bil-bil. It is also an animist area which is predominantly pagan rather than Muslim or Christian.