Returned to Kacha Imeri with Frederic, a fully zippable tent and a good box of supplies. Frederic is a photographer and film-maker and together we will try to illustrate the life and health issues faced by people here. It will be a hard week trying to weave a film out of the many complex realities, characters and stories, and the very first challenge is that the door to the hut is much too small for Frederic to pass through.
Erot was away and the ada karin quiet so we walked to the river to feel the cool atmosphere and watch the fast waters, then came slowly back into the setting sun for an evening with the family. Goats continue to be born and new ones – plus dry or drying placentas – seem to be everywhere. A few have been rejected by their mothers and the wives tie these dysfunctional pairs to a tree hoping to force the bond.
Spent hours on the mats in the darkness, eating and enjoying the family’s company. So long that the milky way, a stroke near the horizon in the east when we cooked (and I had noticed for the first time that the clever tool we all use to make maize meal porridge is actually an ancient goat’s vertebra wedged on a stick…) had shifted all the way over to the Ugandan side of us, the west, by the time we turned in. Or rather we, gripping lightly to this dry part of the earth’s surface, had turned on its axis. Saw four shooting stars as this slow rotating fairground ride took place, and learnt that their meaning here depends on which direction they shoot in – linked, as usual, to enemy threats, animals, fortunes.
Erot returned from town drunk but jubilant, especially overjoyed to see a man - Frederic. With some choreography from him the children did an extensive performance of songs, games and dancing, demonstrating their crystal clear voices, perfect memories for song lyrics and game logics, 20:20 night vision and some very funny dance moves.
