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 8th
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.
