First!

Welcome, one and all, to my newest adventure. A foray into the weird and wonderful world of blogging which will hopefully entertain many and horrify few. I will probably blog about anything that springs to mind. I don't really have something that I wish to focus on; however, as it says in the description, I will probably be spending most of my time keeping track of what I am doing while in Tanzania for the benefit of my friends, family and myself. 


Firstly, though, I think it is only polite to introduce you to my mundane existence. Unfortunately, when I look at my life, nothing particularly interesting seems to happen but when you spend much of your time watching ridiculous TV shows, I suppose that real life seems to be rather boring in comparison. Prior to my current state of unemployed limbo, I worked in the alcohol section of ASDA. Not exhilarating work but it still provided a welcome distraction six days a week. I say limbo but, in actual fact, I am supposed to be preparing myself for a four month stint in East Africa. Tanzania to be more precise and Arusha to be even more precise. I have finally paid the entire invoice, booked my flights and found out the details of both my accommodation and my placements for my time in Tanzania. However, I still need my final round of vaccinations as well as buying T-shirts, shorts, a hat, a backpack, and a netbook in order to keep myself, and hopefully you, entertained throughout the months.


I fly out to Tanzania on the 1st March, with British Airways taking me from Heathrow to Dar Es Salaam and then Precision Air from Dar to Kilimanjaro Airport. From there I will, hopefully, be met by an employee of Projects Abroad (the company I am using, www.projects-abroad.co.uk, a pre-departure review of which to come later, possibly tomorrow) in order to take me to meet the family I will be staying with. Yep, no hotels and spa treatments for me. The family consists of a Mr and Mrs Jacob who have a little 11 year old girl named Glory and own a shop and backery. I think they mean bakery. I must admit that, while I know that many people are not native English speakers, misspellings are a pet peeve of mine. I think I may offer to proof all of their material while I am there. 


My first month in Tanzania will be spent at the Gohechi Centre which caters, I'm told, for 2-8 year olds, many from broken families. This scares me. I've never worked with children of this age before, my only other experience of teaching being a short placement at a secondary school for half a module at university. Another thing that scares me is that on the myprojectsabroad page lists it as care, when I did ask for teaching but as there's only two weeks to go, I wouldn't want to cause any confusion or disturbance regarding my preferred choice. As my dear father loves to remind me so, not everyone is afforded this opportunity. Likewise, it does state on the projects guide to not have any expectations of preconceptions on what your experience will be like, but I think that is almost impossible for a mere mortal such as myself. I always envisaged living in a family with a son around my age, maybe in his teens, teaching in a school for 11-16 year olds where I could play football and have conversations with. I am not complaining though and I will just have to take this in my stride, however filled with stutters and slips that may be.


That said there are other worries on my mind, mainly of the financial kind. The fees that I have paid to the company I am going with cover accommodation, food and insurance for the period that I am volunteering. For the three weeks after that, I am on my own. Which is a daunting prospect both for my person, as I have never travelled alone before, and for my wallet. I have been looking at hostels and backpackers lodgings and have found some suitable places but I worry sometimes about security, especially in Kenya which is not exactly the safest country. However, for under £125 for seven nights you can not really argue with the price. Ideally, I'll make some great friends in Tanzania who just happen to be travelling the same time as I am but, realistically, I will be on my own for the duration. I thought I would be fine with that but now the anxiety starts to set in. What exactly shall I do on my own, not only after the placement but during it too. Whereas, at home, I have endless amounts of Community re-runs and high speed broadband, with which I can play a few games of League of Legends, I struggle to think what it is I might do on, say, rainy days when no one wants to go outside? Maybe I will rediscover my appetite for reading. I hope I do anyway, judging by the amount of books I intend to take with me. Which books do I intend to take with me? A blog post for another time I think.