Lego!

Thursday marked the end of exams for class two while class three had one final exam in the morning. The day was used to allow the children to relax after the exams and as we moved all the tables to the side of the room, a box full of Lego appeared. I wasn't entirely sure who was more excited by this, the children or their twenty-two year old teacher. Getting the children to be quiet and play nicely was a huge challenge and we were constantly bombarded with complaints of one person stealing something off another. However, when the children finally did start behaving and building stuff on their own, it was nice to see how something that gave me endless amounts of joy when I was younger could do the same for these children brought up in another part of the world with a completely different background. The children built a variety of things, most simply stacking things to make a tower before holding it triumphantly like a trophy when I went round with my camera. Others were building forts and space stations with one child in particular, one who is usually very disruptive, showed a concentration which could only be dreamed of when it came to academic work to build a large manned station complete with wings and a makeshift Tanzanian flag. Photos will be on my Facebook soon! Soon after it was the turn of class three and similar towers began popping up. They were much better behaved though, probably because of the smaller class size meaning there was more Lego to go around. Two other things caught my eye: one was the large ship one child managed to build, as well as making a wheelbarrow-like machine out of Lego technik stuff (or whatever it's called); the second was that there was far more co-operation between classmates. After school, we were subjected to a workshop on various topics, explained mostly in Swahili so I was pretty damn bored throughout.

Later that evening was the Projects Abroad social, starting with a dance show where volunteers would have the chance to learn some traditional Tanzanian dances. Some volunteers took part when we were given the chance and I was one of them. Many of the moves were fairly simple, using at most four steps, but the speed at which some of it went meant that it was really tiring, especially in the heat. Afterwards, we headed to the Chinese Dragon restaurant for, you guessed it, Chinese food. Having not eaten noodles for nearly a month, it was a relief, although the owners spoke Mandarin and not Cantonese. I had beef ho fun, which wasn't on the menu but the manager told me they could have it made. The portion was huge and the food was goo enough. We then headed back to Via Via for the night.

Waking in the morning, late, I had to run to catch the dala-dala to get to school on time while feeling pretty rough. It was the last of my volunteering and the last day of school before Easter break for the children. They were having a party for the last day, with the school providing food and drinks. There was a lot of singing and drumming of tables which doesn't do hangovers any good but it was nice to watch. I have a video to upload, but that may have to wait until I'm back in the UK with broadband.

Friday afternoon consisted of a HIV/AIDS workshop put on by Projects Abroad which was basically a refresher of my Biology lessons but there were useful bits on the rate and methods of infection specifically for Tanzania and the work that some organisations are attempting to do. It lasted for an hour and a half and included a, frankly ridiculous, clapping game. Afterwards, Quirine and I met some other volunteers and headed to Africafe for a drink and then on to Picasso, a restaurant based near the Impala hotel. The menu was extensive and the cocktails being prepared for another table looked rather tempting but I decided to rest my liver for a day. The menu is fairly extensive, with European dishes ranging upwards of 15000TSH for a main course. I had calamari with some sautéed vegetables and French fries for 17500TSH, a Sprite for 1500TSH and a rich chocolate brownie, which was delightful, for 4000TSH. Speaking of desserts, too, the café has a nice selection of desserts including: the brownie I had, huge slices of Black Forest gateaux, lemon meringue pie, cheesecake, and carrot cake. So a main, drink and dessert for under £10 and this was one of the more expensive meals that I have eaten so far in Tanzania.

The whole dinner was arranged by a girl who is leaving Tanzania on Sunday and even though I have only known her for less than a month, it's sad to see someone leave. But those are the facts I suppose. I have met so many great people over this last month, and will meet so many more until I fly back to the UK in June, but it is hard to say who, if any, I will ever see again in my lifetime. I hope I keep in touch with as many as possible but I'm notoriously bad at that, as my friends back home can probably attest to after this last month. Definitely need to get on Facebook more so I can find out what's going on with everyone at home. Blogging is great method of telling people what's happening to you. This, for example, is informing anyone at home wanting to read what I have done in this truly wonderful past month but it is a one way conversation. Now that I have blogged for an entire month, I need to make more of an effort to find out how everyone else is. Be less self-absorbed should probably have been one of my goals! Speaking of which, I'll give an update of those tomorrow but tonight I head to watch the mighty Arsenal. 'Til tomorrow.

A Little Bit of England

Lake Duluti was the venue this time for the Projects Abroad social. Located a 15 minute drive away from Arusha, the lake was yet another side of this varied land that I got to see. I had a few expectations of the lake as we were given an itinerary for the day, which included volleyball and a few other games along with a walk along the edge of the lake. We also took a football along so we would have a little kick around. I expected a large lake surrounded by flat grassy areas where we would sit with a picnic and play a bit of football under the beating rays of the Sun. What we actually found was a small, picturesque part of England in Tanzania. The lake was compact, and the area we were staying at was a built up, bar with wood chipping steppes leading down to the water's edge. There was a small narrow clearing to one side with a volleyball net suspended between a swing frame and a tree forming a makeshift court.

We were offered drinks on entry and as everyone settled down at the tables overlooking the lake, the day had the atmosphere of a school day trip with the volunteers settling down into their established social circles chatting away while the teachers organised the day's activities. First on the agenda was a walk around the lake along a small forest trail. Under the shade of the trees on a fairly cool day for Tanzania, the tranquil lake on one side and steep hillside giving rise to various trees and plants on the other, we could have been taking a stroll through a small forgotten part of England. Sometimes I half expected to find myself bumping into English school children taking part in orienteering. The walk itself was pleasant, simple enough to be able to be traversed in ordinary shoes while burning a few calories and making us all hungry for lunch. There were not that many chances to stop and take photos or even stock of the surroundings until someone spotted a snake chilling out in a tree. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a photo and apart from a few birds resting on a partly submerged tree, there was not that much wildlife to be seen.

On arriving back to 'base camp' lunch was promptly served. It consisted of a burger with optional guacamole, some rice, various salad vegetables, gherkins, grilled aubergines, potato salad (my mum's is better, much to my surprise), coleslaw, chips and hummus. The food was good, the presence of hummus a welcome sight and many went back for more. Shortly afterwards a raffle took place with a small prize for every volunteer; I won a carved giraffe which I named Anastasia. Next up was the marshmallow quiz. Four volunteers including myself were sat down and were asked five questions. If one answered correctly then the remaining three put a marshmallow in their mouth and were not allowed to chew or swallow it; if no one answered correctly, all four were given a marshmallow. In the end I answered two questions correctly, two others one correct each and the fourth, answered no questions and had to stuff five large marshmallows into her mouth. Lastly, a few of us moved over to the volleyball net and began a game before the boys moved on to playing keepy-uppy. We weren't terrible.

After the day trip I headed to Empire Sports Bar to watch Arsenal win comfortably against Villa with a couple of the staff and another volunteer. I missed the first goal but having caught the replays Given should really have done better. Happy for Gibbs though, hope he stays fit for the remainder of the season as Andre Santos once again revealed his careless side when he came on late in the game. Walcott showed that he does have the ability to run rings around opposition defences and he needs to produce more of the same as he did against Villa. His second goal was sublime after almost succeeding in exactly the same manner moments before. We need to see more of this next season and he needs to contribute with a few more goals. Reading BBC this morning, I read two interesting statistics. Walcott is our second highest scorer on eight, Vermaelen third on five and this was the first time two Englishmen had scored in the same game for Arsenal since 1997. Arteta's free kick in stoppage time put the icing on the cake and after Chelsea and Spurs drew, we are three points clear of fourth. Away at QPR next weekend will be an important game, especially with City visiting the Emirates the weekend after, and three points is a must. As the night drew on and more volunteers showed up, we sat outside around a table talking books, music and films while a few of the guys tried to work out whether I slept or had a life back home. I declined to comment. When the DJ replaced the live band, the night started but it is nice to be able to sit outside the bar at two in the morning around a table because the nights are still warm enough. Oh, I'm also starting to like that one Danish song that is always played.

Confusion reigns.

Thursday morning was the worst part of my trip so far. The TL:DR (Too Long: Didn't Read, for you non-nerds) version is that I almost quit my placement but nevertheless woke up to my own stupidity, swallowed some pride and reasserted that the most important people are the children I'm teaching.

The more substantial version is that one of the students was sick, so Quirine and I went to his house at the request of his aunt to pick him up and take him to the hospital. As we went to pick up our bags, we were intercepted by the headteacher who told us we had to be accompanied by a member of teaching staff. At first we were told that this was simply because we can not speak Swahili, so we explained that there was a member of Projects Abroad already at the hospital who we had been in contact with already. They insisted we needed to take a teacher and this stand off lasted about ten minutes, after which we said okay, can you bring the teacher to accompany us. We just wanted to get the child to hospital as soon as possible. The teacher was brought, we were ready to leave, and then we were told that we needed to now wait for the director. After a period of further arguments over why exactly we needed to wait, the director showed up and took us into his office to yet again explain why we needed a teacher with us, while we sat with the sick child waiting for him to finish. I repeatedly tried to get him to let the kid go to hospital, with either Quirine and me or Quirine and a teacher, yet he was adamant that in doing so I was not respecting the rules and regulations regarding informing the office of the kid's whereabouts. At the end of the day, the whole thing was entirely trivial. He was being proud and stubborn, insisting that every box be checked without concern for any mitigating factors. We were just as stubborn and guilty of not seeing past cultural differences and the language barrier. That said, I stormed out after a while and from what I hear, he was less than respectful to Quirine. Anyway, all water under the bridge. Whatever, my thoughts on the situation or the people involved shouldn't cloud the fact that the most important people at Gohechi are the children who need their education. I was going to have an interview with the director for today but given Thursday's events I have pushed it back until Monday but it will still happen and I think that the children deserve the exposure.

Anyway, after that was a teaching workshop at Projects Abroad, which was really a feedback session on how Projects could improve their system for placing volunteers and where they could help us better while we are in Tanzania. Most of the feedback centred around improved pre-arrival information, as some care volunteers have found themselves teaching and some teaching volunteers have found themselves doing more care work. Most are fine with this but would like more information before they arrive and are thrown into teaching or care work. Much of what was discussed I had already been talking about with the next Gohechi volunteer so it was mostly rehashing that and other points covered earlier in the blog.

Onto other news. Arsenal are third! What an amazing turn of events considering at the beginning of February we were seventh. Whilst I have been in Tanzania, Arsenal are P4 W4 F10 A2. Maybe I should stay a bit longer, a year or two perhaps so Mr. Wenger can get his elusive Champions' League trophy.

Fringe, Food and F&*^%$% Kids

Today was the most tiring day at work that I've had so far. One of the teachers from class two had called to say she would not be in school today and would need Quirine to cover for her. She, in turn, asked me to assist her in teaching the class. Class two is much larger than class three and with a lot of boys too so when one is messing around, they all are. The children were talking and fighting throughout the morning period, causing us to send two of them out and shout at the rest a few times each. Quirine taught the lessons while I sharpened pencils. The children have a habit of using their pencils to hit things, desks, words on the chalkboard they don't understand, each other. This equates to a lot of broken graphite. At least we had sharpeners this week instead of using a Stanley knife. Later, at break, we went to buy cassava and some bananas and when we returned Debora, who has taken to asking to be carried every day, was waiting for me to pick her up. Now, I'm happy to do this once or twice but, when I have to keep shrugging her off, it starts to get annoying. Anyway, today she ended up jumping and throwing her knees straight into my crotch. I doubled over, Quirine and Rose, the child I mentioned in an earlier blog post, burst out laughing. Rose then proceeded to mock me by copying my pained posture and expression, for the rest of the day.

Once break was over we returned to teach the class and they were even more restless than the morning. With both our tethers shortening by the minute as well as getting ever more tired as the day wore on, we both began shouting at the class and sending more and more children to sit in the corner or to stand outside. It was, by far, the hardest day in terms of discipline and we decided to allow them an hour outside to run off all the energy they seemed to have saved for today. Or that was the plan, had it not taken them two hours to write down their homework. We gave them a stern telling off as the day ended before heading to the lodge next door, L'Oasis, for lunch. Remembering reading about it in my Tanzanian guide book, I had the Kilimanjaro Nachos at 14500TSH, just under £6. Kilimanjaro was the right word for the nachos, not the Western style stuff but ... different ... I don't really know how to describe it, as they were piled high with a splatter of sour cream as the 'snows of Kilimanjaro'. The guacamole-cum-salsa was nice though and I managed to devour the entire thing, pretty much only because the waiter had said I couldn't. I get petty like that.

For the evening, we settled down to begin watching Fringe, a show that I had heard was good but never got down to watching. I think the première was a one and a half or two hour episode but I'm not quite sure as there was a power cut half way through. It was one of the more impressive premières I've watched recently, although judging by this year's new series, that's not particularly special. It follows an FBI agent, a semi-insane scientist and his genius son as they try and solve cases involving “fringe science”, which the show tells us is “mind control, teleportation [and] reanimation” among other things. The premise fits for me as I quite like this sort of stuff, the acting is okay and J.J. Abrams directs, so for me its worth watching if you like the sci-fi crime thriller stuff.

If Carlsberg made Day Trips...

Saturday 15^th March marks what is one of the definite highlights of my time in Tanzania so far. We met at the Projects Abroad office at nine in the morning, after I had had a good eight hours sleep. I was awake and ready to go, in stark comparison to the previous day, but we very nearly forgot one person behind. Luckily I had his number and was able to call him but we set off half and hour late. By this point, though, I have acclimatised to everything being late; the volunteers call it African time. The journey to the springs was around three quarters of an hour along the Nairobi-Moshi highway and then on to side roads for another hour and a half. The scenery on the way there changed from build up areas outside the office to paved highways surrounded by little towns then onto desert dotted with little Maasai bomas as they tended their livestock, while we rocked and swayed on the uneven road. At one point we had to stop for the driver to work out whether the bus would make it over a mini swamp. The sky was clear and the road dusty as we finally reached little shaded oasis in the middle of nowhere. Light brown desert gradually turned into a landscape dotted with green and suddenly we were parked under the shade of trees, the sound of running water in the background. A couple of elderly tourists were already there as we all marvelled at the crystal clarity of the water and changed into our swimming gear but otherwise it was just us. The water, while not hot, was probably as ideal a temperature as one could have asked for to cool down on a warm Tanzanian day. The pool was big enough to accommodate all of the thirty or so volunteers who were swimming and further away from the main body there was a little stream, although the current was fairly strong and my astounding lack of fitness showed as it tired me out swimming against the current.

As if other attractions were needed, there was a rope swing attached to one of the overhanging trees allowing us to swing right out into the middle of the pool before belly flopping in the most inelegant way possible. A lot of fun although landing on your back did sting a little. Aside from swimming, there were plenty of low hanging trees to climb. Unfortunately I'm not in the best shape for climbing trees but I always remember watching my little 8 year old cousin climbing as high as he could with little care in the world and regretting not having had the same courage when I was young. Thus, whenever I get the chance to climb now, I give it a go and when someone pointed out a branch overhanging the water that was probably reachable, another volunteer and I decided to give it a go. He was tall enough to simply reach the branch but I needed to jump, swing and inch my way up the branches in order to get out over the deeper parts of the water. In the end I did it with much effort and a loud splash. Along one side of the pool, there was a branch or root of a tree which was conveniently placed just underneath the water with a second branch further down. The former made for a good seat and the latter a useful footrest and altogether formed a nice place to just sit and relax.

Later in the day I met up with other volunteers at the local sports bar for some food. When I broke the news to my host mother and told her I was not going to be staying for some tea as I did not want to be late, she seemed to be quite upset and gave me a dismissive wave of her hand. Now, this is the one frustrating thing about living here. I feel quite restricted in what I do, not physically, as I can technically come and go as I please so long as there is someone in the house, but rather emotionally. I understand that my host family is religious and I am a godless heathen; I understand that I come from a culture where we drink and they do not approve of drinking; I understand that Tanzanians heavily secure their house from outsiders with high walls, topped with razor wire, three doors and two guard dogs, but I am made to feel guilty about these things, when I have the freedom of a 22 year old man in England.

Anyway, the dinner we ordered at Empire Sports Bar came, in true African fashion, one and a half hours after we ordered it. I just had chicken and chips, which was nice enough. A live band was playing and we headed inside to dance, getting even more energetic when the DJ came on with European songs. African music generally isn't my thing. The night was a good one, with a chance to hang out with other volunteers but we were all tired after the day at the springs and things died down after 1am.

For me, Saturday has been the highlight of Tanzania so far. As much as I enjoy the work and meeting my host family and the school children, I also wanted to be able to enjoy myself out here and on Saturday I definitely did.

Copying is not learning.

I haven't really had time to write a blog this week due to being nice and busy. I have been continuing with my teaching at Gohechi and I have been trying to introduce new methods to the children and the teachers. Most of the teaching at Gohechi consists of the teacher reading from a book. Then writing exactly what it says in the book on the blackboard (sorry chalkboard) while the children copy it into their exercise books. I have observed two consequences of this teaching method. The first is that the children don't learn anything, demonstrated by a pointless recital exercise the teachers made class three do. They read it from their books then recited as a group by heart but when they were made to recite it individually they could not, even though they had said the exact sentence three times not five minutes before. The second is that they expect to be given every answer to every question. So for my lesson I wrote the topics on the board, discussed with the class the answers and asked them to explain them in their own words. Afterwards, I collected the books and only two students out of the fifteen consistently managed to formulate their own answers from the discussion. I want to try more of this teaching method so hopefully the teachers will begin using it themselves. One thing I must be wary of is attempting to impose my own method onto the local teachers rather than having them accept it as part of their own style. It would likely cause offence and would most likely be dropped as soon as I leave in two weeks anyway.

I have also been to a Swahili workshop at Projects Abroad this week. It was quite useful and a good chance to get to know some of the newer volunteers, and a good start to learning some Swahili. After, there was the social at Mama Leo's and a few of us went to Empire and Via Via. I booked a room at Arusha Backpackers for 14400 TSH, which is about £5.70. I'll need to do this every time I go out as I can not get into my house after 10:30pm. At Via Via I became reacquainted with Jägerbombs and I stumbled around back to the hostel, falling down a hole in the process. It was only after I passed out and came to in the morning that I learned that the female volunteer I was in Via Via with had been mugged at the bar, which sucks. I still feel quite bad about getting so drunk that I just left her alone there. Maybe I shall take it easy on Saturday.

The following morning, I felt rough. Really rough. That Friday was Dirty Friday and the Projects Abroad volunteers were heading to one of the orphanages/schools we are associated with so we could paint the walls a nice yellow rather than the prison grey that the children had previously had to look at. The journey there was horrible as was the first hour or two that I felt like retching at the mere thought of doing anything other than lying down. After lunch I recovered and helped muck in with the work. The end result was an impressive one with the courtyard looking distinctly brighter and more welcoming than before, although I got oil paint on my boots, shirts and shorts which won't come out. That sucks.

Weekend 10/3/12-11/3/12

When you go from working every weekend, with the odd weekend in Lancaster or Preston thrown in, to having no plans in a small town in Tanzania, it is a bit of a shock. On Saturday I spent the day walking around town checking out the exchange bureaus in order to get the best rate on my pounds and looking for somewhere to buy a USB stick. I found a place selling a 1TB external hard drive and considered buying it to take home as my 2TB one is more or less full now but it was US$210. No thanks. The day was a brilliant one and walking back in the middle of the day in clear blue skies granted me views that should not be described with words but, as I forgot my camera, words will have to do. Walking through the dusty roads of a poor part of town devoid of high rise office building sites and trees allowed me full view of Mount Meru in the distance with a single, solitary cloud suspended in the sky just above its peak. Anyone who had managed to climb to the summit that day must have had the most amazing view over the surrounding area and on towards Kilimanjaro. I really want to be able to climb Mount Meru as it is closer and not as expensive as Kilimanjaro. However, it will still provide all the challenges as its larger, more famous cousin and I will definitely need to improve my fitness and lose some weight but that is hard when I am eating much more than I did back in England. I really need to exercise more in order to counteract the amount of food I am being given to eat by my host family and I don't want to offend anyone by refusing their hospitality.

We also were without water or electricity for the entire day and this, like at home, meant limited use of the television or laptop and therefore extreme boredom for Quirine, Glory and me. We all become so used to electricity and our electrical products that we depend on them. It gave me a chance to start some of the reading that I have brought and I began with Ernest Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea', the short story that won him a Nobel Prize for Literature. Thus starts my progress towards another one of my goals that I set out in an earlier post. The host family also have the collected works of Hans Christian Anderson and all of the Stieg Larsson books for me to crack on with after I have finished my ones. Later that afternoon, Quirine and I went to the Maasai market and I was able to have my first taste of Tanzanian bargaining. I ended up buying some candlesticks for 13000 TSH each and a necklace for 1500TSH. As we walked to the market, we passed through what could have passed for suburban America had the road been in a better condition and the houses not been surrounded by prison like walls. It could have been the setting for a Tanzanian version of Desperate Housewives. The market itself was not particularly spectacular. Many different stores sat in a small semi-circle with their owners effectively blocking your passage until you entered their store. The problem was that nearly every store sold similar if not exactly the same merchandise. Very rarely would I find something that caught my eye because it was different. The candlesticks did, as did a few other items like the malachite chess sets (valued at over 100000TSH by the owner but I could probably knock it down to under 50000TSH) or a hanging painting.

Afterwards, we had lunch at a local bar with two other volunteers. It was a European style sports bar and it was a relief to have a greasy cheeseburger and chips with lots of tomato ketchup. There are a few things that I miss about England and the food is one of them. Sometimes it was nice to just be able to have a monstrously unhealthy kebab or a Subway or brie. Now I'm hungry.   

International Women's Day!

One week in. Tanzania is growing on me even more. I had my one week evaluation today where they asked me information on how I was finding Tanzania and the family I am staying with. Incidentally, I have answered all of the questions on my blog anyway and when he asked how I found living with Moses and Benedeta Jacob, I just refreshed the answer I gave to a volunteer who will be staying with us in April. The experience so far has been amazing but so different to what I expected. The family have made me feel like a guest at a hotel, with my own room and en-suite bathroom equipped with Western facilities, three meals a day if I am at home and, today, I came home to all my clothes washed and ironed. I have found the people of Tanzania generally very friendly, although you get the usual sort trying to sell a tourist anything and everything. It has been a bit of a shock but I have felt so welcome that it does not really affect me in the way that it might have.

Thursday 8^th March marked International Women’s Day and I was asked if I wanted to attend with some other Projects Abroad volunteers as it may have been of interest for my human rights project. Having been to an excellent International Women's Day event while at Lancaster, I was happy to go along, even though it meant that I was unable to teach at Gohechi for the day. It also provided me with plenty of photo opportunities and something to write about. The walk itself was a great experience, with hundreds of local women from many different organisations and groups attending the walk, and lasted roughly an hour. At the head of the walk was a band but all along the line of women there were songs and chants to go with the banners and placards, most highlighting violence against women. As we passed local men a volunteer holding our own hand drawn sign was pressing the message. It was a benefit that they were young, white women as they instantly drew male attention. The walk culminated in a park outside the Impala Hotel, with different stalls giving away leaflets or selling items made by women and a local dance troupe to provide entertainment.

As the other volunteers left, I decided to take a trip to the Njiro Complex which, in the end, consisted of a supermarket, a food court, a cinema and four or five stores selling clothes, toys and books. The supermarket was what most interested me though as when I walked inside a majority of the brands they stocked were the same as the ones I had to take customers to at ASDA. Carex soap, Nando's peri-peri sauce, Vina Albali Gran Reserva (although 2001 not 2004) were all there, as were the white shoppers. It was nice to know I could head somewhere if I ever got homesick and buy some Nando's sauce to have with my ugali. On the way back to my house I was befriended by another local, who apparently wants to become a tour guide if he gets enough money. He followed me all the way back to Mianzini before I managed to get rid of him at the point where I turn into my road.

Later that day was the Projects Abroad social. Everyone met at the office and went down to a local Swahili buffet. Compared to the nine volunteers that were at the International Women's Day walk earlier, it was a welcome surprise to find a whole room full of people. At the buffet I sat at first with two girls I had met earlier at the walk, but found my place taken as I went to get food so ended up sitting in the main room watching football on the TV with a Projects' employee, a Dutch volunteer and we were eventually joined by an Australian. This accounted for almost half the men there with two other male volunteers, one of which had finished his project anyway, in the other room. I may or may not have mentioned before my surprise at the lack of British and male volunteers in Tanzania and I felt it at the social. As my house-mate did not attend, I felt rather alienated at the beginning of the night, but as they closed out dinner with a view to switching the venue to Via Via, a popular bar here in Arusha, I was not going to say no to hanging out for a couple more hours. Here it was easier to chat to people as the environment of standing around was a little more conductive and a drink or two helps. The shy child of yesteryear still rears his ugly (uglier?) head every once in a while. Anyway, I was not able to stay long as I had to get a taxi home at 10 due to not having a key to the house and I did not want to disturb my hosts at 2am in the morning. I am told that a popular solution for my conundrum is to stay at a local backpackers hostel so, next time, I will be able to stay later hopefully.

On Friday I was back at school, where the children were taking tests. This meant that I was mostly making sure everyone behaved rather than teaching but I also had to intervene at one point to explain what one of the answers meant for a child as the teacher either did not understand the question, did not understand the answer or just simply ignored the poor girl. I'm not sure which would be the better option, to be honest. I was also visited on site by Robert, a Project's employee in charge of the teaching and human rights projects, for the evaluation. One thing we did hit upon was whether I liked Tanzania, which I do for many reasons. One of those reasons was because I actually feel rather safe in Tanzania. I find the people really friendly to the extent that strangers on the dala-dala (minibus) will check your change to make sure you haven't been overcharged. However, I have two things going for me: I'm used to sticking out. I'm a BBC who doesn't speak Chinese, went to a northern university and studied English Literature; and I am a bloke. I heard tales from my house-mate, as well as from other volunteers on Thursday's social, that they get harassed far more with men approaching them asking if they were married, touching them and even a few on-the-spot proposals. I, on the other hand, don't get marriage proposals from the Tanzanian women (neither do the other male volunteers before you start) and like I posted in my last post, everyone probably thinks I can do kung fu.

Hopefully I will get to meet more people over the coming weeks. 'Til next time.

Okay, children get out your books, pencils and Stanley knives

So yesterday I joined class three for the morning and observed the teacher teaching the most advanced class in Gohechi before they had to move schools. It was pretty much the same as the first day except I was able to give a vocational skills lesson. These are lessons centred around verbal communication and practical skills designed to give Tanzanian children the skills they need to get a job. I was required to read a short story and get the children to answer comprehension questions. I think they found it a bit difficult to adapt to my accent and I was possibly speaking too fast. I was also given an introduction by the pastor, the owner of Gohechi, who wanted to know more about me, what I wanted to achieve and what skills (and more importantly, what contacts back in England) I had to offer. He made a plea for me to help promote his school in any way possible as they are struggling to find ways of financing any expansion of the school. He explained that the children were supposed to have lessons in the afternoon until 4:30pm but as they could not afford to buy enough food for lunch, they sent the children home at 2pm.

I left the school at noon in order to visit the Projects Abroad office so I could update the team and use their faster and more reliable internet connection. I was invited to attend Arusha's International Women's Day march on Thursday as it would be a useful introduction before my human rights placement beginning in April. After leaving the office, I decided to take a walk towards the Eastern side of town and the town centre with its landmark clock tower. As I walked towards the centre of town, I was greeted by a local who spoke very good English. He seemed eager to talk to me as he followed me all the way to the centre of town, pointing out lankmarks and chatting away about Arusha and asking how it was different from the UK. I found out that he was a guide and would probably expect some sort of payment after so I let him tag along and asked him any questions I had on the surrounding area. It actually turned out to be very useful. He showed me the town centre and the market; he also pointed the way to the Masai market and showed me the museum, a bar called Via Via, and the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the Rwandan Genocide. He explained that it was possible, and free, to go and watch the trial going on, which is something I definitely want to do when I have a spare moment. He did eventually lead me back to his street stall and was attempting to get me to buy a wristband for roughly £4 or 10000 shillings. To be honest, I actually had enjoyed his company and I had gotten an enjoyable afternoon walk as well as useful information from him so I was thinking about given him something like that anyway but this way I got a wristband out of it too. Quirine later told me that they were worth about 2000 shillings, but I didn't particularly mind.

Today, I was back in class three but took a back seat for most of the morning session. As they began a lesson called Personality, Development and Sport, a mixture of P.E. and lessons on ethics and responsibilities, it began to really dawn on me how little they had. When I was in school, gymnastics in P.E. consisted of getting the floor mats out and climbing the frames or ropes (I always loved climbing the ropes). Here, it was balancing on a table. I also forgot to mention in my previous post that these children don't have sharpeners for their pencils. They use a blunt stanley knife. Anyway, today I was able to teach again, this time History, which is heaviliy focused on economics and family than anything we have in the UK, and helping supervise group work on grammar.

I have also told Projects Abroad that I am interested in writing a piece for their monthly newsletter that is read by past, present and future volunteers and I will link these here if/when I get them done. I also want to do an in-depth blog post on Gohechi, its aims and the the challenges they face so watch this space.

Also, if you could spread the word to anyone who might be interested by the things covered in the blog, then please spread the word.

Finally, the children spent the entire day trying to copy my eyes and make me do kung fu.

'Til next time.

First Day of School

Everyone sort of remembers their first day at school and this one, for me, was no different. I was collected at 9am by Robert, a Projects Abroad employee, who took me via dala dala to just outside Mount Meru hotel. Robert is a nice intelligent guy who has a university degree in geographical and environmental science or something similar from Dar Es Salaam and was nice to talk to. Getting off the dala dala I was greeted with yet another dirt road leading north, indistinguishable from my own, or the other one I accidently walked down on Saturday. Turning right onto yet another muddy path led us past the usual mud houses but then became a trail through tall trees and greenery and on the right came Gohechi, a collection of classrooms fronted by a big...tent. The classrooms themselves were the usualy mud walls, corrogated sheet roof things but the dining area  was literally a tent. I arrived in time for lower school break. This consisted of two classes of nursery aged children running around a yard about half the size of Lonsdale quad. A bit of background about Gohechi. It is a mixed primary and nursery school generally for children from poor backgrounds or orphans. The classes are baby, nursery, class one, class two and class three; the classes are arranged according to ability rather than age. After being cautiously observed by the smaller children, the bolder ones ran to me and attached themselves to my legs. And refused to let go. Ever. When we had finally release me of their grip and taken them in for their lessons, it was the turn of the older children to have their break. These kids would range from around 5 to 8 I would say but Quirine told me that some don't even know their own age, or how to spell their names. The children were running about wildly, calling for the teachers to allow them to play with the football. Nothing was really different from any school in England, except some of the play was a little more violent than I remember but, then again, my memories of those days is hazy at best. After the break I was taken by the hand by two children in class two and really wasn't given an option: today I was going to observe class two's English lesson where the teacher was trying to explain when to use 'have' and when to use 'has'. As a native speaker, this is second nature and even when I tried to explain it to myself I was using concepts such as first, second and third person which these kids would not understand. First step on a steep learning curve, I imagine, as I am only at the school for a month.

As the day drew to a close, the heavens opened. It is entering the rainy season and the monsoon like rains battered down keeping the children who had been messing about in the classroom before going home trapped. It did give me a great chance to observe two of the children though, two girls called Doris (or Dorice, her name is spelled differently on all her books) and Rose who's giggling and liveliness would not have looked out of place in a British primary school. It was disturbing to imagine that if one were to transport them into a parellel universe, as two American or British children, they would have probably acted exactly the same, growing up together and becoming the classic best friends trope seen in many a high school drama. Both Quirine and I stayed later to do some tuition for some of the struggling children and I got the chance to do a bit of teaching on my first day. The children were working on subtraction, in particular subtration that required carrying over, and it was a good test of my ability to communicate a point across to the children who were understandably shy and reserved. As we left the school, the rain had stopped and we were treated to a magnificent view of Mount Meru rising up into a sky free of cloud.

Finally a message from Glory whose house I am staying in: I greeting everyone he or she sit. I am GLORY.  I am at kilimani primary  school  at  MANCHESTER place i am a girl i am 10 years old  I love my FAMILY ,teachers and my friends. [Spelling has been edited, full stops added]

Film, Football and Computer Games

So I finally got access to the internet today. A welcome relief but I am still unsure as to how much exactly it costs to go online. The family own a dongle and volunteers are allowed to use it to connect to the net. It requires you to buy a top up card much like pay as you go phones. A glaring contrast to the UK where I have a perpetually connected broadband connection with no download limit and Wi-Fi. Today I spent the morning heading to Shoprite, the local, more Westernised supermarket in order to buy soap for my bathroom. The afternoon was spent with my new found internet connection catching up on the latest Premier League action as I caught the Arsenal match on Saturday and the first half of Chelsea but there is no way to check the scores once I left the bar.

Speaking of Saturday's football, I was invited to watch it with Projects Abroad's staff, which included three Arsenal fans and a Liverpool fan. We headed via dala dala (a local minibus which apparently is exempt from what little road safety laws exist in Tanzania) to a bar on the outskirts of town. As the match started I was able to try my first Tanzanian beer called Kilimanjaro, which was crisp and refreshing if a little plain. The match itself was a tense affair, and I apologise to anybody who doesn't like football for the next paragraph or so, with Arsenal looking like they weren't that much interested in getting anything more than a draw. When Liverpool took the lead, I feared the worst but when we equalised, and Liverpool proceeded to miss more chances than humanly possible with only eleven men on the pitch, I did start to believe, especially after Suarez's nausia inducing dive to win a penalty from which Arsenal's man-of-the-match Szczesny produced a wonderful double save. Sure enough Robin Van Persie finished excellently from Alex Song's pin point pass. The bar erupted, partly because Arsenal are one of the bigger teams in Tanzania but also because Tanzanians support the club of their choosing and any African player. The three largest clubs are Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal but I was told an anecdote of how, even though many Tanzanians were supporting Arsenal in the North London Derby a last week, they cheered when Adebayor scored his penalty simply because he is African.

Football haters can read again now. In England football (there is a wider point I promise) on a Saturday dictates the day. You get up in time to make last minute changes to your fantasy football team before the 11:30am deadline, Football Focus at 12, early kick off at 12:45pm, 3pm kick offs, evening match at 5. However, in Tanzania the early kick off was at 3:45pm and Chelsea's 3pm kick off followed after. The sheer familiarity of being in a pub watching football on a Saturday immediately threw me back to the UK and half way during Chelsea's match, I started mentally cursing the broadcaster for not giving a list of the 3pm results. It was a shock when I realised that the game was a 3pm kick off and all the other games were being played at the same time. It was something that could have brought on a sense of homesickness but it didn't. It is, I think, a clear sign of how welcome I have felt in Tanzania.

At half time during the Chelsea match I decided to take my leave and hop on a dala dala home. It was getting dark quickly and I got off a junction before I was supposed to. Not being too familiar with my surroundings the dirt road I walked up looked fairly similar to the one I lived on but on further exploration I soon realised my mistake. Not wanting to wait for another dala dala I decided to risk it and take a lift on one of the many, many motorcycle taxis back to my road. It was the first time I'd ever been on a motorcycle and just made me want to get one even more! Although it was a little scary. Walking up a dark, muddy road lit only by the makeshift shops on either side and car lights surrounded by Tanzanians is an experience I will not forget easily. Not that I felt unsafe at all, though I suppose I had the same sort of apprehension that others do in England when the street lights go off at midnight.

Anyway, Sunday brought a trip to the supermarket and credit for my phone and credit for the internet. Quirine, the Dutch volunteer, and Glory headed off to swim while I marvelled at the download speeds via dongle in a poor third world country being faster than Rapidshare (the b*****ds). When they got back, I was in my room watching Community when Glory came and lay beside my on the bed. Now Community isn't really an inappropriate show but the scene at which she sat down to watch was the darkest timeline in 'Remedial Chaos Theory'. Thinking through the episodes, the only one that would be vaguely interesting to a child would probably be 'Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas' so I flicked to that and chatted to Quirine while Glory watched, seemingly happy. Twenty minutes later she had finished watching and was perusing my very limited selection of games. Which means the Microsoft ones and a demo of Chicken Invaders 2. Not to be put off, she tried most of the games on my laptop before moving onto my HTC, where I discovered that Angry Birds has a truly universal appeal. Now I do wonder why on Earth I didn't put more movies on my laptop that she could have watched. It would be fun, something we could do together and could possibly help her with her English. Titles such as Tangled, Toy Story, Aladdin, and How to Train Your Dragon spring to mind immediately as films both she and I would enjoy watching. A real facepalm moment if ever I had one. Alas.

First Impressions 03/03/12

First impressions are the most important, they say. That's why you should always have a firm handshake. My first impressions when I landed in Tanzania were that it seemed like two different places. From the air over Dar Es Salaam, I saw nothing but green fields and farms. Other than the types of houses I could make out, I could have been flying over England. Then I landed at Kilimanjaro, was met by a Projects Abroad employee, and was driven to Arusha. Outside Kilimanjaro airport the land seemed barren. The sun was out and beating down, the land around me seemingly devoid of life. It seemed like it does in the movies. We passed many shepherds herding their animals, mostly goats I think, and a few small ... I hesitate to call them towns for they were no more than a few shacks dotted by the side of the road. It was fascinating but humbling too. This wasn't exactly the pictures and stories you see on Comic Relief, but these Tanzanians were not rich by any means. They say life is more sedentary here and many people were simply sat in some shade away from the midday sun.

We arrived just north of the town of Arusha via the road from Kilimanjaro. To my left were a couple of high rise buildings, one incomplete and one that would not look out of place in the City. To my right, in the area I knew was Mianzini where I was staying, were shacks. As we turned right, driving up what seemed to be a dried out river, the road got extremely muddy and bumpy. To the left and right were simple houses made of what looked like mud. I hesitate to use the word mud hut because it would make it seem that they were primitive but it was my first impression. The family I was going to stay with, however, owned a fairly large single floor house within the perimeters of its walls. There is a fairly large courtyard at the front which resembles a scaled down version of the drive ways of some of the more expensive detached houses in the UK. The living/dining room was comparable to the house I stayed in for my second year of university, containing a coffee table surrounded by a sofa set, TV, what looks to be a fairly expensive hi-fi set and a dining area complete with table chairs and a sink for washing your hands before dinner. Off this main room there is a kitchen and three bedrooms, mine being roughly the size of my own at home but with an en-suite. (Side note: Bruno Mars has just come on the radio. I travel across the world and I still can't get rid of him! Maroon 5, that's better.)

The family consists of: Moses Jacob, a tour guide and safari driver; Benedeta, his wife; Glory, their daughter; two maids; a quiet, lazy cat; two dogs and some chicken. The family are extremely friendly and are very insistent that I am able to call this my home for the next three months. There is also another volunteer, a dutch girl called Quirine who is also teaching at Gohechi, which is a bonus. I find myself always trying to conform to Tanzanian culture and norms but occasionally find myself doing things that I think I shouldn't be, things that are normal at home, which is frustrating and confusing. However, all this pales in comparison to being kept up at night by the barking dog or woken up at the crack of dawn by the rooster in the yard. I'm told that I will get used to it in a few weeks and I will stop noticing them. The cat on the other hand lazes around and is more friendly. This is why I like cats more than dogs.

The first that I experienced was the food. As soon as I arrived, Benedeta was there with a glass of mango juice and told me to sit at the table. Lunch was a meat stew served with chips and a sour salad. Having spent most of my last week in England trying to sample the last Western takeaways that I would otherwise miss (a key one being Subway), I was suprised that I was being served chips. Dinner later was another stew  with beef, potato and something that seemed like okra served with rice and a vegetable that I think was spinach. The stews form the main part of the meal and they are very tasty, even if the two that I had the first day were very similar. I did mention that I would like to try ugali and Benedeta has hinted that she may make it so it will be an interesting experience. I look forward to that and all the other home-cooked Tanzanian food I will get to sample.

UPDATE: So I tried ugali. It is a paste which looks at first like the sort of dough you would make char siu bao out of (the roast pork buns at dim sum). It is thick and you slice through it with a knife before jabbing it and lifting it onto your plate. You also take some vegetables and some stew. In order to eat ugali you break a chunk off with your right hand and compress it so that it will not fall apart at first contact with moisture. Then you grab some vegetables or meat, again with your right hand, and dip it in some sauce before shoving it in a rather ungainly manner into your mouth. Every website I've read says that you form a ball with a indent in the middle to hold the sauce...meh.

Tanzania is about to enter its rainy season and it did rain later on in the day. The rain brought a welcome relief from the heat and the Projects Abroad staff member, named Regan, took another inductee, named Julie, and me to a small local eatery where she could have lunch and we could sit out the rain. This was a fascinating period where we got to know Regan and about life in Tanzania. It was roughly 24oC and I was comfortable in that heat. Regan, however, found it cold in his T-shirt. We also talked about TV and movies. It turns out that Regan loved the first two Twilight movies which is disconcerting. Maybe, if rubbish such as Twilight can make it to Tanzania, I won't have to wait that long to see The Avengers after all.

Happiness 02/03/12

Are you happy in life? How happy are you? On a scale of 1 to 100 with 1 being completely unhappy and 100 perfectly happy, where would you land? These are questions that I often ask myself. I am a pretty analytical person; I believe that I have the ability to take a step back from the mess and confusion that is everyday life and look at events and circumstances with a more objective opinion that my involvement usually allows. However, these are rarely questions that get fully discussed in the open. We all like to think we're happy. We all like to think the people surrounding us are happy. I suppose it allows us to accept our first world guilt when the media bombards us, once or twice a year when its Comic/Sports Relief time, with images of poverty in India or Africa. It also allows us to accept any decisions we make as the right ones and, as narcissitic creatures, we like to think we always make and always have made the right decision.
There usually comes a point, though, when we look at our lives and are not completely satisfied. We decide to change things. This usually happens on January 1st of each year when countless resolutions are made and then forgotten a week later. How many times have you decided to change your diet to lose weight? Do more chores to help out your parents? Watch less TV and read more books? Learn a second language? I've done all of these and, to be honest, I do them all regularly in cycles. I have never followed one of these through. Sure, for two weeks I might pick up a book instead of switching on my laptop but that soon ends when I discover a new internet obsession. When faced with such a drastic change in circumstances, one is forced to change, to reevaluate. For the next three months I won't have the unlimited bandwidth and broadband speeds I have at home. The people around me will all speak Swahili, not perfect English. This is an opportunity for me to improve, to experience new culture and situations not available to me living in England.
So, what are my goals?

1. Learn Swahili. There are multiple reasons for this, first and foremost because it will make life in Tanzania so much easier. Secondary reasons include becoming bilingual and speaking a language that much of my family speak (Yes, I will learn Cantonese at some point too. Sit down).

2. Read more. I'm an English Literature graduate for crying out loud. I should be reading often anyway. But I don't. I brought with me a collection of Hemingway's, The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, Yann Martel's Life of Pi, a Fitzgerald collection of short stories including 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', and Friedrich Nietzsche's Why I Am So Wise.

3. Get fitter. I hope that the lack of TV will give me more time to do some exercise. I really need to get into shape.

4. Learn to cook a new cuisine. My cooking repetoire is fairly limited and needs expanding. My list of impressive (personal opinion) limited to about two. Being able to cook some unusual Tanzanian dishes would be a quirky alternative for dinner parties.

5. Appreaciate what I have at home and not take things for granted. We are spoiled in the West. I have never really appreciated the fact that I have been able to have an education of the quality that I have. This needs to change before law school.

6. Gain a unique experience. In today's job market you need something to make you stand out and I hope this will help me on my way to standing out.
So, there it is. We shall see in June how far I got.

Jambo Tanzania!

Hey everyone! (I'm an optimist) Just to let you guys know the format of my blog post from now on. I will most likely be writing one every couple of nights as I experience more in Tanzania but will not post them as I write. I will probably write them offline on my laptop then connect every once in a while to the internet in order to post. I think. I may end up logging on every few days anyway so may be able to post as I go but who knows? Not I at least. Anyway, here is a short piece I wrote on the plane.

02/03/12

Sitting at Terminal 5, the first thing I notice is that there's no free Wi-Fi, which sucks. The second is how quiet it is due to only having British Airways traffic passing through. I had trouble at the baggage check in as my bag was two kilos too heavy. Luckily, the woman working at the counter was Chinese and let me get away with 24kg. Sometimes the perk of being a minority is that other people of your race are willing to give you a little bit extra to help you get along in the world. It probably also helped that my parents were there chatting away in Cantonese with her.

Beyond that came debates about what I had or had not learned throughout this saga and the usual family debate about politics, religion and human nature. As you can tell, it's always fun and games at the dinner table. Then came the moment when I had to say goodbye and head past the security checks. I have not done anything like this before. Travelling alone to a foreign country with limited funds and limited contacts. It scared me and I'm not particularly ashamed to admit it. It is a scary thing, leaving all you are comfortable with and going into a world which may be completely different or relatively the same. The fact that this is unknown is more troubling than which of those two options turns into reality. I would love to have a completely different experience to what I am used to in England but really Tanzania is just another country trying to make its way in the 21^st century. It's not stuck in the dark ages or anything. That said, I can not wait to meet the family I'll be staying with and learning about the Tanzanian culture. Also, I fairly enjoy flying.

I have just realised that I'm sitting on the wrong side of the plane to watch the sunrise...damn.

Missing Posts

So it seems that I keep not finding time to post, or rather have nothing interesting to talk about. Last week saw: the completion of my Community marathon, with my cousin a new fanatic; shopping for clothes, shoes and mosquito repellent; and reading up on the internet about Tanzania.

At this point I am rather excited and, although I will miss so many things, including the aforementioned TV programme alongside Batman, The Avengers, and others, I really am looking forward to beginning an exciting side adventure on my own. There's not much else to say. The usual problems of not having enough room in my suitcase and Projects Abroad e-mailing me with a confirmation letter stating my date of arrival incorrectly have cropped up, as has Specsavers somehow managing to get my prescription one of the two glasses I bought from them on the same day wrong. However, things are now in place for me to leave sunny England and arrive in what will probably be a rainy Tanzania, knowing my luck. I will do my utmost to post regularly, even daily but we shall see how much free time I get, how much I have to say and how good the internet is over there.

The next blog post shall be from Tanzania! Or Heathrow depending on whether I get bored waiting for my plane.