The children live in houses, with each house having a living room, a bedroom for the house mother, two or sometimes three dormitories for the children, a separate or
lean-to kitchen-store room and a pit latrine. The dormitories are small, with three or four sets of triple-decker bunk beds. Each house has a space for growing vegetables,
and usually a few hens and pigs running wild. Cooking is mostly done on
an open fire, which they prefer to the fuel-efficient stoves in the kitchens.
Before and after school the children have to do their chores - fetching water, gathering firewood, washing their clothes, weeding the vegetables, helping with the cooking etc. They also
have to find time for football and homework.
Bananas are multi-purpose. There are different varieties, some for cooking, some for eating. The leaves make footballs, pads for carrying loads on the head, thatch and
covers for cooking pots. The stems make rope. Small bananas also make great stoppers for the ubiquitous jerry-cans.
In the centre of the village area there are three inter-linked ponds, used for fish. One had just been drained to harvest the fish, and they had brought in a gang of prisoners
to clear the long grass. While they swung their machetes they were supervised by their female guard, armed with an umbrella! Prisoners, coming to the end of their sentences for various petty crimes,
can be hired for €1 per day. After the clearance one of the children saw a snake there,
so there was a big hue-and-cry to catch and kill it.
