At 8am this morning the centre was a hive of activity and I got involved. Several mothers were peeling potatoes and preparing the food which was cooked in huge saucepans on wood fires, the men were erecting a gazebo out of tree trunks and tarpaulin and the rest of us got down to cleaning. We cleaned every door and window and other bit of paintwork around the place, then mopped the walkways, arranged the chairs and tables for the guests of honour. We also cleaned hundreds of plates in washing powder and cut and folded serviettes.
The official programme (we discovered) was due to start at 10am but only by 12 noon were the finishing touches finally being put to the gazebo and seating arrangements and the sound system started pumping out music.
The event proceeded with speeches from various people and singing and dancing by the children and mums of the centre. One lad with an amputated leg was hopping around like crazy!
Rather than being a guest of honour, having to sit at the top tables which I normally am as a Mzungu I got to help out and see what was going on behind the scenes.
My jobs included handing out fantas, plating up portions of food on the floor of the orthopaedic workshop, running home for various utensils they suddenly realised were needed (as I live the closest), and distributing the food. At one point I stepped into a large hole which had been dug for a tree trunk but had not been used, almost sending plates of food everywhere. We didn't have enough plates for all the guests (no one know how many people would turn up anyway) so just reused the ones the first people had finished with and people got a toothpick to eat their food with if they were lucky. At one point I thought there wasn't going to be enough food to go around but how wrong I was! As a helper we got to eat in the workshop after all the guests had eaten. I have never seen people eat so much food in one go, and still be thin. There seemed to be endless buckets (yes, buckets) of potatoes, ibitoke (green banana), meat and coleslaw.
The mamouth job afterwards was the washing up - done in cold water with either bars of soap or washing powder. I was on rinsing duty and must have been at it for almost 2 hours. Then dried everything with a pillowcase!
Once the clearing up was done we watched the last half hour of Rwanda v Zanzibar football match. I was about to head home but was told I had to stay for the after party party- apparently when all the people organising the day sit together, talk about the party, thank each other for their work, oh, and eat MORE food!
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