Hey - today is Sunday, even though it's Friday. We keep forgetting that the holy day here is different from what we are used to - gets confusing sometimes, but we're getting the hang of it. The reality of trying to operate on a Sunday is the same the world over though, whichever day it falls on, and it is hard to get work done today...
We have met many people in the local communities. We have sat with councillors, mayors and holy men, drinking endless cups of chai (sweet tea) while we tell them why we are here and what we hope to do. They want more than just being the subject of occasional TV and newspaper reports - they are not an idle curiosity; they don't want fifteen minutes of fame. They want to live safe and secure in the knowledge that someone somewhere cares enough to give them the help they need.
We have explained that the only people who can do the job properly are the IAEA, but they were not permitted to do so. Indeed, apparently the inspectors have already left, it's hard to know what to say when someone asks you if you can get them back to do the work. I had to be honest - we can't clean the villages or treat the sick, and we can't get the IAEA back by ourselves, but we will try everything we can to at least identify dangerous areas, to give them the knowledge they have been denied and to bring the outside pressure needed to bring the Inspectors back to finish the job properly.
The senior cleric of the Tuwaitha area is an impressive man. Young and serene and powerful. He cannot shake my hand because I am a woman and he is unmarried. He cannot be filmed or photographed with me for the same reason. It is of course a very different culture from the one I am used to freely operating in. I was told by one woman that no woman is allowed to travel unless in the company of her father, brother or uncle. Rianne and I must be quite a sight hanging around with our team of assorted misfits! (no offence guys when you read this later!!)
I am learning much from the people and this place. As well as the culture and customs, I have learnt a few less significant things - I can sit cross legged for several hours on end listening to the locals talk, drink unimaginable quantities of chai, sweat unimaginable quantities of chai, I don't mind flies sitting on the end of my nose any more (well not for long anyway). I have learnt that timing is a VERY relative thing, communication is nothing to do with language and traffic jams in Europe and America are laughable compared with what you can achieve here with a small dirt road, a bombed out bridge and hundreds of black smoke billowing trucks in the space of five minutes.
Most importantly I has seen just how easy it can be to walk away from a problem when it isn't on your doorstep, or outside your school - and how wrong it is to do so.