Wukro, day 6, training and trekking

Today has been a day on which physical activity has reigned. After the hour and a half of training with the girls, some 15 of us, along with aid workers, went trekking for over four hours around the mountains in the area. To be honest the track was quite nice, with a certain degree of difficulty. Some of the children from the mission accompanied us. We are still amazed at the ease they have to walk with flip-flops, running among pebbles and stones, climbing up rocks and trees, some even barefoot (of course, us, well we were wearing trekking boots). In the last stretch we had to carry a couple of them for a while because they were exhausted and that way they could recover a bit, but even so their physical strength is impressive; imagine six-year-old children taking an over 4 hour hike with simple flip-flops. We truly enjoyed this activity.

In the afternoon, three of the girls prepared coffee with popcorn for the more than 20 ‘forenyi’ (as they call white people) in the mission. We spent 2 hours with the traditional ceremony of the ‘buna’ that was explained on day 4.

After supper, the aid workers and us got together and went to a bar in the city to have something to drink. The atmosphere among us is extraordinary; we are meeting very pleasant people, and as we had to respect the rules at 22:00 we were back home. It is not well-seen for people to be out in bars past that time. The natives are already up at 5 in the morning. Their schedule is quite different from ours. It goes with the sun, and at 6, when the sun rises, it is when they begin to count the hours. The ‘daytime’ hours are from 6:00 to 18:00 (in our schedule), and ‘night time’ hours are from 18:00 to 6:00. That is, our 6:00 is their 00:00. Also, their calendar has 13 months: 12 months of 30 days and 1 month of 5 or 6 days.

On 11 September they celebrate their New Year which right now is 2004.