Uganda - saved the best til last

UGANDA!!!!
wow it was amazing! i cant stop thinking about it, i want to go back there already, i'd even do the 30hr bus ride again!! haha so i went there for a week with connie, angus, alisha, alex and candice (ross and marie the last day and a half) and i pretty much spent the whole week either, drunk, hungover or going out and being an adreniline junkie!!!!
so basically after the 30hr bus ride to the capital, Kampala we got a taxi to the backpackers, Red Chili, not much goss for that night, i had 1 beer and felt suprisinly tipsy.. but to my defense they are half a litre!!! haha... then the order is all a bit of a blur, but we got the bus to the EQUATOR!!! after however long of trying to haggle the price... which was fairly unsuccessful... we were on our way...... sort of..... the bus that was leaving "right now" actually didnt move for atleast an hour... and our row with 5 seats... actually had 8 people so yes a few adults squished in, and a few kids on our laps... poor buggers were sweating like crazy.. but we kinda couldnt do anything but take the piss out of the situation, then annoy the whole bus with singing celine dion.... well that was just Angus and myself.. awkward. But after however long of sitting on that goddamn bus we got to the equator.. so hungry we orderes food.. most of us got burgers which was just meat in a bun with a slice of tomato yumm?? i guess you get used to that... dont no how many times meg and i have ordered burgers.. with no cheese even though they were called cheeseburgers.... well that only happened once with the "cheeseburger" but pretty sure the others had pictures of cheese.
so yes got a few pictures at the equator all very exciting, then headed back..
not much else i think.. we went out one night with a few other aussies and whoever else to an irish pub, big night, then the next day we got the shuttle bus to JINJAAAAAA

so we got to Jinja sometime in the morning, and we were shuttled to Explorers backpackers where we were able to chill out and have a coffee or whatever, though i opted for the tea..
we were planning to stay somewhere else and go through another rafting company... but Nile River Explorers (the backpackers place) stole us haha.. we got a better deal so why not.
i think this day we went horse riding.. worst experience of my life.. so scary!!! i have decided i hate horses and i am never doing that again!!! 2 hrs of pure torture... but i survived... barely!
next on the adventure list was BUNGEE JUMPING!!!!!! 44m above the Nile.. honestly horse riding was way scarier!! only Agnus and I jumped, and he lost his shirt! but that was awesome so much fun!!!!
Then i think we went on a Booze Cruise.. or if you prefer... sunset cruise on the nile, with all you can eat and drink, we didnt eat much... gave the drinks a good go though.. and at the end we smuggled off a bottle of vodka and gin.. altough i think that was quite obvious... then we went back to the backpackers and continued the party. But not the greatest move.. the next day was WHITE WATER RAFTING!!!!

uh the best thing ever!!! i only fell out like 3 maybe 4 times, but it got pretty scary being in the big rapids.. they only went up to grade 5.. but still.. i dont actually no what the highest it.. but this is the highest we were allowed to do. and our guide was a bit odd.. JUMAA.. or YO? but he had me beleiving he was new at the whole rafting thing.. but i have now realised everything he said was a lie... haha i think he was one of the most experienced! but that was so fun, although on the last rapid.. we were all sooo fucked it took us a while to actually get through it... almost tipped but we made it... except angus and alex flew out..

we got a free BBQ dinner, it was awesome, best kebabs ever!! then we bought the photos but they're on a CD so i havent seen them yet.. and i got a tshirt... tshirts are my thing.. i have bought soo many!
hmm i didnt do much for the next day and a half until i caught the bus back by myself for the 30hr trip.

ORPHANAGES!!!
so in Kampala we weer all pretty keen to go to some orphanages so the first one we went to was Sanyu Babies Home... kids from newborn to 4 yrs, around 50 kids.. it was really well run and clean, although you could tell there was too many kids and not enough staff... i fell in love with a little baby.. 6 weeks old name Victor!! :) he was so cute, but apparently he was a whinge.. i'd like to call him lively!!! but that place was amazing, there was 2 white girls there in the process of adopting, one wanted twins a maybe a year old, the other wanted a toddler.. they were just going through the courts and everything.

then just by chance we weer at a shopping centre and there was a brass band playing Xmas carols so we stopped to listen and they were street kids from an orphanage called M-LISADA, they use music to get kids off the street, so we decided to pop in for a visit too.. alrought i was more keen to go get drunk... SO GLAD I DIDNT!!!! it was amazing there!!!!!!!!!! they need so much help though, it was started in the 90s by actual street kids, now they run it! there are 80 boarding orphans.. 60 boys 20 girls and 70 day orphans, it was so good they put on a performance for us with music, dancing, acrobatics everything!! we are all going to try and do as much for this palce as possible, they can only afford to give the kids 2 meals a day, and there is 60 boys living in a room no bigger than my lounge room as home!!! but i'll talk more about it all when i get home... on saturday!!!!
well thats about it i think, see you all soon!!!!!!

The Last Week!

Well today was the last day of school, apart from tomorrow which is parent teacher day (and a complete waste of time for meg and i - but we have to go) so, i think i mentioned ealier about the orphanage Boona Baana that we had visited.. well we have been going there twice a week for a while and Monday was our last visit.. it was pretty sad... the kids didnt really care though because they have volunteers coming and going constantly.. so it was a bit of a shut down... haha but its what we were expecting.. also we have been tutoring a staff member from the school, unfortuantly we werent able to have a "last lesson" because she wasnt able to make it for the last 4... so that was a bit of a fizzle!!! haha actually this whole week has been a bit of a fizzle.. yesterday was meant to be a sports day... but it got cancelled before anything had even started because it was too hot.. which basically means nothing was planned or organised for it!
i'll be honest i'm not in the mood for writing so it probably wont be a very long entry... haha
last weekend we took Shakira, the girl who lives with us , (she's 4) swimming! i dont think she has ever been before because she was clinging onto meg and i sooo hard!!! haha she was adorable though, i just wish we had taken her sooner!!
Today at school we had an assembly.. (2 hrs late... but thats how it is) and Meg and i had to make a speech, i was so nervous! and we got given a present.. 2 kangas each! which is good because they are nothing like i would have chosen.. but they are really what they wear! problem is.. i've bought that much stuff i hope it all fits!
It is Meg's last weekend here.. she leaves on sunday :( but i go to Uganda on sunday :) theres 5 others who are also going, so it should be loads of fun, we're going to go white water rafting on the nile.. and bungee jump!!! so i cant wait for that.. not long after that i'll be home!!! its crazy how its just crept up on us!! i dont no how it happened!!!
I'm pretty excited/nervous/sad/happy to be going home.. it just doesnt quite feel real yet...
But after the class partys today.. and when the bell went.. i was just trying to make the students stay behind.. haha it was pretty sad.. im not going to see them again.. and if i do they will be alot older!!
People have already started asking whats your favourite thing about Tanzania, what was the best experience.. or something similar.. i just dont no how to answer it, its just all the little things... like how one of the kids saitoti who could barely read last term, can read.. and quite well.. and he got 60% on his maths exam :) :) :)... he's 5.. but he has matured sooooooo much since when we first got here!!! there are just those kids who you love and the ones you hate.. (well not hate.. but frustrate you to the stage of wanting to pull your hair out.) then they run up and give you a hug.. so yes.. dont be expecting any life changing stories when i get back.. because i hate to tell you.. but i dont think i have changed too much, maybe it will be more obvious if i have when i return home.. but im still the same! haha although i have gained a bit of weight! haha..

A gem in the Heart of Africa.

argh where to begin... i was a bit hesitant about going to Rwanda to begin with... the price suddenly dropped from $500 to $370 then back up to $600..... for one day... well 1 hour really... to spend with the mountain gorillas.. after a bit of umming and arring... i finally decided to go, the bus there, well we were told a 30 hr bus ride, we got to the bus station really early because our tuk tuk driver misunderstood our time.. we couldnt even eat breakfast! so we left the house in a rush and then our "allocated" seats which got changed on arrival had a broken window! uh 30 hrs on a bus without a window.. i dont think so, (the africans dont seem to find it necessary to have windows open) it gets stuffy!!! anyway i fought and argued with everyone, bit hard with the language barrier, but we got good seats in the end.. we had to sleep in the bus overnight.. it stopped and everything.. not very comfortable, anyway when we got to the border we had no idea what we were supposed to be doing, so we were sort of just wondering around, got pushed in the right direction eventually so that all worked out fine! BUT at the border i saw a Bank of Kigali ATM so i thought well i only have 20,000TSH on me (less than $20 and not valid in Rwanda) so i better get money out.. well my ATM card wasnt in my hand bag... or back pack.. or big bag! so we messages Mama.... and it was sitting at home on the bench (i blame tuktuk driver for being early) so i still had my $600 due for the gorillas, then accomodation and food and whatever else we decided to do. But we moved on.. Meg could pay and i would pay her back.. so we kept on moving along on the bus FINALLY after 2 hrs at the border doing pretty much nothing!
well so much for arriving in Kigali in the morning.. we got there at 8pm.... and my god Kigali is huge!!! we had no idea of where we were.. it was dark.. we cant speak French (they speak french and also rwandan or whatever its called) after once again getting pushed in the right direction.. a "taxi"... if it even was a Taxi, We soon found out that we were unable to identify a real taxi from normal people offering you a lift.. so you sorta just had to wait for someone to say taxi? and then hope you were safe.. anyyway i had a few places to stay written down.. 4... we tried 2.. both booked out.. on the 3rd we got lucky.. but Meg only had a few Francs from the border.. and we had to pay for the taxi.. accomodation and food... which was impossible, so we paid the taxi what we could.. kept enough for our first proper meal of the day and i gave the people my passport as payment for the night. the place was alright.. it was called "One Love" bloody expensive though! but i think alot of our money went to their charity.. supplying artificial limbs for people at no cost! so i guess a good reason. anyway this was thursday night...
So Friday we ventured into town... well walked.. in the complete wrong direction.. eventually got a taxi to take us to a place to change our money over ( i cant spell it beaurou? no idea) we paid the taxi then walked to the Bank of Kigali.. well....... first incident of the day! (many to follow) Megs ATM card didnt work.. wasnt accepted for some reason.. so we asked what was up.. they said try the bank down the road... so we did, we thought it would be all fine.. it had internation ATM available here, blah blah blah.. well didnt work.. so we were a little bit panicky.. we had less than 10 000 francs to our name.. but meg remembered she had a credit card at the hotel so we went back there, picked it up and went back to the bank and tried to get money out... sure go ahead right...? wrong!!! it didnt work.. we were literally in Kigali with 2000francs to our name ( enough for 2 plates of chips) and that was it... but for some reason the guy tried again on a euro machine and it worked... so we got the money in euros, changed to US and some of that changed to Francs.. ugh confusing! well after this we thought we should book our return ticket for monday (meg wanted sunday) so we got another taxi to the bus station, went to TAQWA the bus line we went there with.. but they told us we could either leave tomorrow or the following week... so heres the next problem for the day... we had the gorillas on Saturday.. so that was out.. and we had school on Monday AND there was no way we could afford to stay in Rwanda for an extra week! well after much consideration.. weighing up all our options ( including travelling through 3 countries) we decided to check out flights.. so we got our lovely taxi driver ( who tried to rip us off) drove us to a shopping centre and just hung around ( we had alot of travelling and we needed a car... public transport is a bitch when you have no idea what your doing) the first place we went to wanted US$500 for a one way ticket to DAR, then we found 2 other places that both quoted US$386.. so we went back to the hotel, got my passport, ate lunch, paid accomodation and then booked out flight home for the Tuesday!
We then needed to pay the remaining $600 for our Gorilla Trekking permits so we decided to go to their office which unknown to us at the time is 2hrs away!!!! so the guy took us to another tour operator who could speak English.. he told us of this, but new the guy we had been speaking to so he called him for us.. now.. and only now we were able to tell him where we were staying so we could be picked up at 4:30am the next morning, (i forgot Mama gave us a ZAIN sim card which was supposed to work in Rwanda... it didnt, so we had no communication with anyone! and we were also meant to be staying with Mamas friends daughter, didnt happen) but finally, gorillas was sorted, the rest of the day we TRIED to unwind but kinda hard when you just paid an extra $386 you kinda couldnt afford!!! so anyway off to bed we went then woke up at 4am the next day!
we got ready but apparently we were supposed to be ready at 4..? first we heard. great start to the day! but our driver was nice, and the drive was beautiful, so many green hills!! and the mist was bellow us.. it was really beautiful and the 2 hr drive went to quick! but we arrived at Musanze (the base) to meet up with everyone else and get out permits.. well our permits were late, no suprises with out luck, and when i handed over a $100 bill it had a 3mm tear in it, the guy tried to return it and i give him a new one.. kinda hard when thats all i had, anyawy apparently we also owed him an extra $25... that we didnt have! but he let that slide as long as we paid it later... we still havent.. but we were split up into a group with 6 others... a few swiss girls.. and 2 old americans and 2 AUSTRALIANS!!! the first aussies we had met outside the volunteer group in 4 months!!!! and they were from Geelong. My god their accents were hilarious! typical aussies! they were an older couple, but they reminded me of Mum and Dad.. it was nice! :) so we were off to see the AGASHYA group.. it had 25 gorillas and 1 silverback.. lots of babies!!! it was only a 40 minute walk through the jungle! i thought it would have been alot longer because they choose where you go on your fitness level so i thought because we were young they would assume we're fit.. they didnt.. thank god!!! haha but our guide Fransiour?? worked with Diane Fossey and he was so funny, would act like a gorilla and make their noises, he was really weird!! haha
So when we got close to the group we had to drop our bags and just go in with our cameras so we got our glimpse of 3 gorillas almost immediately, it was pretty amazing, they were just eating bamboo.. we had to try and keep a distance of 7m, and the fransiour tried to make sure this was done, but once arrogant american didnt really want to listen.. but we walked around a big tree and there was sooo many!!!! including the silverback.. they didnt really seem to care that we were there.. not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing, but i dont no.. they didnt do much haha.. ate? i saw one pooing.. took a photo.. i had a young one beat its chest at me.. well not sure if it was actually AT me.. but it was a bit scary! the mother and babies were cute.. i saw the mum give the baby a kiss on the head.. very cute.. oh and i almost forgot to mention. they had SEX!!!!!!!!! the silverback and a female!! it was kinda gross to watch.. but i took a video.. show you when i get home! haha... the hour was just long enough.. for me.. Meg didnt think so... you couldnt sit down and my feet hurt a bit... it was a good experience.. but i still think it was a lot of money, when i get home i will watch Gorrilas in the Mist again... maybe i will understand how special they are a bit more...
We spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing, not doing much.. we were tired!
Sunday we were planning to go to the Memorial centre ( for the genocide) but we met an Australian lady.. Kim, she was pretty hippie.. again older (3rd australian in 2 days) but we went and had lunch as she was able to tell us some pretty cool things about Rwanda.. like the last Saturday of every month everyone gets together and cleans their town, they discuss issues of buildings or things that are needed (our driver briefly explained this on Saturday) and you can tell.. Kigali is soooooo clean!!!!! nothing like Tanzania.. especially nothing like Dar!!! Their government is 52% women, the highest in the world ( dont quote me on this.. just what Kim says) but her next 2 stories are the ones that got us really listening.. she wasnt afraid to ask people about the Genocide.. whereas Meg and i felt intrusive to ask.. but here is what she told us.. Hutu and Tutsis were decided on appearance and how many cows you owned, if you had alot of cows, you were a Tutsi, if you were tall and had a thinner nose again, Tutsi... but if you had less cows and a wider nows and shorter you were a Hutu. (belguims did this i think) so apparently Tutsis were superior and this is how it was seen for a while, until the Tutsis wanted independence, then some how the belguims changed their mind and the hutus were better and Tutsis needed to be destroyed, well a radio station was made and on this they started off quite suttle in the need to murder Tutsis, then it became a way to target them and they would name people and say it was in the Hutus duty to destroy them, no one did anything to stop this radio station.. and well the whole genocide really. Kim had talked to 2 girls who worked at our hotel.. the girl who took our orders everynight, she was so beautiful, just had a nice friendliness to her! anyway... her story! she was 12 when the genocide occured and her family and herself were all tied up in their living room, she watched as the Hutus decapitated her family, one by one... when it got to her they tried, and thought they must have just killed her without fully decapitating her.. well she later woke up covered in blood, took each member of her family outside and buried them, afterwards she ran into the hills and hid, drinking the water from the leaves... another waitress walked in on her mother being held by Hutus, her mother told her to run, she was 5... she ran... and went back a few days later, and sat with her dead mother and waited for help!
We walked to the Kigali Memorial Centre that afternoon, 45mins.... and just in the last 100m it started to rain, i was walking faster than Meg because for some weird reason she likes to be caught in the rain, but a guy was telling me to run, so i did, and we both went into a guards tower thing and waited... wow it was stuffy in there!! anyway we were pretty much at the Memorial centre, but the rain was so heavy and apparently it was closed. so we had no choice but to wait out til the rain eased then head back home... so that was a waste of time!
Monday!!! we made it to the memorial centre. it was moving, and im glad i went.. but seriously it left you questioning everything!!! people were killing their neighbours and their friends just because they were Tutsis!!! in the mueum they had skulls on display and some of them had been bashed in horribly!!! there was a video of a guy on trial.. he was smirking like a high school boy getting yelled at by the teacher while his friends were around, but he was talking about murdering people.. and calling them by name!!! there was just so much their! so much to read!! rooms full of photos as a memorial to people who had died.. the last section was the worst!!!!
I thought it had ended.. but i was ahead of Meg and i just kept going.. into a section dedicated to children who were murdered... there was a boy who was tortured to death.. these were like kids 12 and under alot around 5yrs.. one was 17.. a 9 month old baby was macheted to death in her mothers arms, alot were shot, one was simply pushed up to a wall.. in this section, it had their name, their favourite food or drink or something, their charactertics and how they were murdered, they had photos larger than real size.. and there was one little girl Ariane, in her photo she had big beautiful brown eyes! and she was murdered by having her eyes stabbed out, then she was stabbed in the head, ugh that was the worst moment for me!
there was also mass graves outside, you could look in one and see the coffins,
but yes its safe to say neither Meg or I were in the mood for much after that.
Also after hearing how they were defined, Hutus and Tutsis, i found myself looking at everyones noses and their height, because half the people we walked by, or even the taxi drivers were probably murderers or had family murdered, and you can just imagine people hiding out in the hills! it was horrible but yet i found it more interesting than the gorillas.
Well thats all about Rwanda really, we flew home in a small plane, and it was nice it only took an hour not 30.. and stangly being back in Tanzania, felt like home.. it was familiar, i was very suprised by that!!!

oh yes, in my last entry i made a mistake the Big 5 is, elephant, leopard, lion, buffalo and black rhino... but still saw them all.
oh and yes the president of Tanzania wants to build a major highway through the serengeti (not good) will probably happen though!
thats about it i think...
i'll try and write again sooner!!

Safari - The Journey

Well after a few days rest after Zanzibar... rest being lying on a beach! we set off again, Meg and i have a luxurious 10 hour trip to look forward too on DAR Express (it actually was quite luxurious) We were meeting Ross, Phoebe and Marie there... so once we arrived we got talking to 2 other travellers they were German, and were heading to the same place as they were.. Arusha Backpackers.. thank god we spoke to them because i dont think Meg and I would ever have found it.. the accomodation was quite good, it had luke warm showers and nice comfy beds... the traffic noise was terrible and the hostel was above a petrol station so that did not help! We supposedly got "free" internet which actually turned out to be quite expensive due to false advertisement... i argued we should get it free because we didnt no... doesnt work like that in Tanzania.. (Mum you should be proud the way you got both my shampoo and conditioner free.. thats still going by the way) anyyway the others finally arrived and we were able to eat dinner altogether, quite nice, then we had a few drinks, i got a bit tipsy.. and there was guys from a Safari company trying to get some business they heard we were wanting a Safari.. and it so turns out thats the one we went for (Shidoyla if anyones thinking of doing safari) it was the 2nd cheapest we found and it just sounded good..(the cheapest had no availabilities) so they were very nice, picked us up and took us to an ATM so we could pay out deposit. although they were like an hour late or something.. but hey.. this in Tanzania.. and time and Tanzania DO NOT mix! anyywayy i'll skip all the crap and get into it...
The first day we travelled to Tarangire National Park, we camped just outside the park and when we got there we dropped off all our stuff and Joseph ( our cook) then the 5 of us and Moses (the guide... dont you just love their names) went into the park.. first thing we saw was Vultures eating a Zebra... it was amazing!! watching them fight and losing their whole head inside the skin.. you could actually hear them tearing the flesh apart.. there was so many vultures.. alot just waiting for a decent bit of skin to be broken before going in for a feast.. Moses said it probably died naturally because there was no signs of an attack.. We were able to see alot of Wildebeast and Zebra.. wow wildebeast are so ugly.. cross between horse, cow and i dont even no what else...moses said they're made from spare parts.. we saw them drinking from a waterhole.. that was cool, they just fully walked into the water, but didnt stay in for long. well to be honest by the end of the first day i was quite over Zebra and Wildebeast.. eh just another zebra.. haha no.. if they were doing something cool then it was good again!
We also saw a dead Giraffe, it had been dead a few months and it was just alot of bones lying around and some skin/fur left... quite interesting and we actually looked at it for quite a while there were ALOT of bones..
We also got to look over a huge valley type thing, although my camera wasnt good enough to pick it all up it was amazing being able to see the monkeys, warthogs, giraffes, zebras and whatever else all just going about their business while we were looking from a distance.
We saw lots of elephants and got quite close to them.. we were able to see where they had ripped off the bark from a boaboab tree... and saw baby elephants.. we got so close to one... he was right beside the road eating from a bush and he trumpeted at us. i practically shit myself.. i thought he was going to charge! haha
We also got our first glimpse of a lion.. well a lioness.. she was just lying in the shade half hidden by a bush.. she was watching the zebra at a watering hole.. there were loottss of cars but no action.. so we kept going, we heard from other people how she had got up and attempted to catch a zebra, but failed.
The next day we travelled to the Serengeti, such a loongg drive!!!!!! we past through the Olduvai gorge, a lot of discoveries have been made there like evolution of humans and everything, quite interesting but diffucult to follow when they were talking all homo sapiens and that kind of terminology. Well we passed through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to get to the Serengeti, and got out first glimpse of the crater, it was enormous!!! but difficult to make out much standing at the rim of it. so we had a few photos and kept going.. we saw a Masai Village.... from a distance but it looked interesting, we were so excited to do our cultural tour when we got back to Arusha.. anyway.. once we got into the actual Serengeti.. it literally was just endless plains... i heard it was exactly like that.. but still the sight of it was unbeleivable, i would love to see an aerial view... since we had taken so long to get to our destination.. we made our way to the campsite... IN the Serengeti... no fences... purely in the wild... and i elected to sleep alone...? why i dont no!? anyway Moses said if we saw anything interesting on the way we would definately stop... well lets talk intersting.... perhaps seeing a lioness stalking and killing her prey? or then the lioness fighting over the dead giselle... oh and when we were leaving to get a better position... so Moses had to get out of the car and look at the motor.. when there was what... at least 5 lioness' around.. crazy man! haha i was the one that spotted the lioness chase the giselle, it was short and sweet and absolutely amazing, we all had the biggest rush ever! eventually we had to get to the campsite because it was getting darker and we still needed to set up... so we were driving along all talking and just so happy at what we'd seen, when Moses breaks and reverses, Joseph had spotted lions (lioness and a young male lion) lying at the side of the road.. we were soooooooooo close, we were able to get the most amazing photos! ones with us and the lions!!! i just wanted to get out and pat them.. they looked so soft!! but that would have been quite stupid, they didnt seem too be too fussed by our presence!
So eventually we kept going again and saw HIPPOS!!!! they werent doing much just half submerged in the water, but after un uneventful first half of the day, it certainly was one of the best days of Safari.. well they wer all amazing really! We helped set up.. well help or hindered? either one.. haha with 4 girls and ross... i dont think we were too much help, but we were staying put for 2 nights so that wasnt too bad, the first night there was people everywhere, then the second night they had all disappeared, its funny we were probably the youngest in the campsites everything perhaps expect the last night, and we were always first back into the tents ready to bed... i would wake up to go to the toilet, and people would still be up chatting? weird. haha.. well the food was amazing, lunch was usually a packed lunch, except one day we went back to the campsite and had a warm meal, and dinner was amazing!!! so good! but sleeping the first night.. we had buffalo near our tents and they were sooo noisey i swear they were walking right beside my tent and mooing.. if thats what they do? so annoying, i thought i may have dreamt it to begin with but the others said they heard it too.
Day 2 in the Serengeti, we were on the hunt for male lions... real male lions not teenagey ones!!! and who would have thought Moses new exactly where to go.. but he did... we were able to see 2 male lions who were "bachelors" without a pride, and 1 male lion on honeymoon with a lioness, and yes... we saw them having sex... multiple times.. and yes i got photos and videos.. and yes we were extremely immature about it. haha but how often do you see lions going at it? haha the lion would like give a little roar and it was all over.. hilarious!
We also saw a leopard!!! HUNTING!!! extremely rare apparently. it was awesome, we saw it in the tree, then go down.. we lost it for a while then we saw it drag an impala up the tree and put it high up in a fork of the tree then it left it there while it relaxed, we counted i think at least 16 cars... when theres something good.. everyones there, just so happened we always had a pretty good position!
We saw hyenas, wow if they aren't the mangiest looking things i dont no what is.. haha but i dont no.. i like them.. they are scavengers, but they are strong!!
If you want a sexy animal (apart from impalla and giselles) the cheetah, the way it walks, i dont no its so smooth, unfortuantly we didnt see a cheetah hunting but we did see one walking beside the road before going of into the plains! we went back to camp for our warm lunch and a rest, sitting in a car for so long even if it is amazing senery can get tiring. haha. (im not sure if we had the break before the cheetah or not? oh well) anyway then on our evening drive we went to see some mongoose and jackals, absolutely hilarious the mongoose was scaring off the jackals, haha so funny!!! but that got old quick... not much compared to lions hunting or going at it.. so we kept on our merry way.. and we happened to bump into a hugggeee pride of lions with like i dont no 6 or 7 cubs?! we watched them playing and stalking eachother, they wereee soo adorable!!!!!!! saw them drinking water. they were all different ages, some were bigger than others, but oh so cute! i could have stayed there for ages, but the cars did start to build up and we decided to leave... or Moses decided. haha
The last day in the Serengeti we took a different route and went to see lots of hippos in watering holes, we saw one hippo out of the water, just standing there for ages, then it eventually made its way into the water, there was heaps of hippos in the water, no idea how many, but the males were fighting over their territorys, and there was babies playing.. we stayed there for quite a while, then went to a different watering whole where we were able to get out of the car, that was cool, there was also crocodiles in the water.... oh and here is where i realised i had my period ( sorry guys) well that wasnt nice considering everyone left their sanitary items in Arusha, and we were in the middle of the god damn Serengeti, but luckily we were leaving that day, and a minor mirracle occured at the gift shop. Well after the hippos we were off again to the Ngorongoro crater, took a while again, but didnt see much along the way, we got to the campsite, LOADS of people there, ate and went to bed, the early morning sure were making me tired!!!
We decended the crater floor on our final day.. and really we had seen 4 out of the 5 BIG 5.. all i cared about was the Black Rhino! and sure enough after a few lions and an elephant, Moses, good old Moses had spotted one.. yes in the distance, and we had to use binoculars and you have to zoom in on my already zoomed in photo to realise it was anything but a grey dot but we had done it.. seen the BIG 5! Cheetah, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Rhino. done and dusted.... but unfortuantly i was half asleep for the rest of the time in thee crater, the only other thing we saw were flamingoes, oh and a zebra that had been attacked by something but was still alive for the moment... quite sad, the food chain can be cruel..
But im almost out of time.... next i'll talk about the "cultural" tour.
-Laura

Zanzibar Archipelago

woah, its been a while since i wrote, and i have kind of been putting it off because there is just too much to mention!!! i will cut it into sections otherwise i will be spending hours in the internet cafe..
So to start of my month of travels we hit up Zanzibar, with a 2 hour boat ride sitting indoors for so long, without windows was suffocating, but there was a good old documentary to keep us entertained!! Fortuantly i dont think anyone was sea sick... so as we got nearer to the coast line of Zanzibar, and we had no idea if it was actually Zanzibar or not, we saw a whale, it was waving to us!! quite a distance away but it was still really cool, i tried to take a photo, but since i didnt bring my good camera (stupidly.. very stupid) i didnt really get a decent photo! Then there was the view as we were getting closer and closer, the buildings on the coastline... i have no idea what style of building they were... Meg thinks maybe arabic, along with the crystal clear blue waters it was amazing! and was our first look into the fabulous Stone Town!

We were prepared for a bit of hassling once we got off the Dock, there was the 5 of us, all Mzungu... but i guess over half the boat was Mzungu.. So for our month of travels it was mainly Meg, Ross, Marie, Phoebe and I. We had a plan just to keep walking and go into the nearest "cafe" we could find.. which wasnt hard because we werent paid as much attention as we had been told we would, maybe its because we had already been in Tanzania for 2 months and we had gotten used to it, ( I remember going to the tuk tuk stand to begin with, that was hectic enough!) So after having a soda and agreeing on a plan of attack, that we probably should have discussed earlier but didnt, we got in a taxi... a 5 seater when there was 6 all up.. not very comfortable, and we set of for the Northern Beaches!

Kendwa Beach,
ok so pretty much i just walked into a postcard and spent a few days there!! The beach was beautiful, the whitest sand and the bluest waters! no seawead and NO RUBBISH!!! Zanzibar was actually a really clean place! Although i dont recall ever seeing a bin! We stayed at a resort-like place called Le Tois De Palme, French name obviously... they were able to organise for us to go snorkelling!!!

The first night we started drinking mid afternoon and met a few beach boys ( guys that sell things on the beach) i cant remeber his name at the moment, but he promised to give us cheap "fair" prices if we bought paintings from him... i didnt, i think the others may have, then we walked up a few resorts and went to a beach party!!! it was awesome!! Marie and I hired a shisha... like a bong but with flavoured stuff, and you dont get high... i dont think you do anyway? haha so Marie and I entertained ourselves for a good while with that, taking photos blowing smoke at eachother... the photos are ridiculous! haha that was upstairs.. then we went down and their was some ladies there playing music with dancing, there was a huge crowd... they were dancing around in a circle, shaking their bootys and there was 2 white girls in there... i dont no why but they just looked like try hards... anyway i thought it would be funny so i joined in.. i was really just taking the piss out of the other 2 girls, and i said Shikamoo to the old ladies playing the music... and one of them was realllllyyy old! then the guy with the microphone was like say that again,.. so i did (into the microphone) and they all replied marahaba... it was so funny, the others couldnt even see me... but once they heard my voice, they new it was me!
There was also heaps of Maasai (traditional africans) i asked how many cows im worth... they said 5... Meg got 20.. personally i think 20 is a bit ridiculous ;) haha So i think Meg Ross and i went back at around 3am...
Not sure what time we woke.. would have been at least 7am because we had a day of snorkelling!!! we ate breakfast then waited for The Captain to pick us up, well we were all a bit hung over and the boat ride went for ages!!! We were able to sit on the upper l;evel of the boat, it was just a little wooden boat, with an extra storey attatched, so we soaked up the sun and sat on top... when we finally got to Mnemba Island, after dropping our chef and lunch stuff off at a nearby beach we were able to start snorkelling... i dont remember ever snorkelling so i took in a few breaths of water, but eventually got the hang of it, the little jellyfish or whatever they were stinging us was uncomfortable! but i could look at star fish and chase around the pretty fish, and Phoebe had an underwater camera so i'll be stealing her photos! I'm not sure how long we snorkelled for.. probably not as long as we should have considering how long it took to get there, but we were all tired, and everyone ended up getting back on the boat at a similar time. We werent allowed to go onto Mnemba Island itself because it is privately owned and we would get a huge fine if we did! Lunch consisted of Rice, fish, a sauce, fruit and warm soda! yum! haha no i really like the rice here, it tastes different to rice back home, and suprisingly i look forward to the rice and beans we get for lunch twice a week... but i guess when you compare it to Ugali, anything would be good!
Oh yeah... im sure everyone has seen The Lion King, but my god, the phrases Hakuna Matata and Asante sana, squashed banana dont say hapana got old verrrryyy quick! definately overused by everyone! ourselves included!
Not much else happened at Kendwa, just chilled out and eventually headed back to Stone Town.

Stone Town
well well well... where to begin... its a tiny area on Zanzibar with winding never ending streets lined with stalls and shops.. all selling pretty much the exact same thing.. after the 4 days we spent there i think i was only able to direct myself back to the hostel once (Manch Lodge DO NOT STAY THERE) the first day we spent just wandering around looking for an atm.. we found 3 or 4... but yep... they either had no money, or wouldnt accept our cards! we eventually found one and also found a tour operator where we were able to book our tours, that evening we went to Forodhani Gardens, which is an amazing sight really... during the day it is a plain gardens... like the botanical gardens.. but just grass and trees and not really any prime ministers heads floating around.. but at night a square is lined with tables and it becomes a food market, lots of different things to buy, seafood, chicken, beef, kebabs, simosas, chipatees, Zanzibar pizza (HEAVEN!!!) and Banana chocolate (HEAVEN) its supposed to be really cheap, but if you get a decent sized meal it just works out to the average cost. So we ate their every evening, except Marie and I skipped dinner one night.
So the following day we went back to the tour operator and we went to Jizani Forest and saw the Red Colobus Monkeys (i think they are only on Zanzibar) Mangrove swamps and we went on a nature walk, my god, the guide would point out tiny little brown frogs in the mud just as we were walking... i have no idea how he was able to spot them!!! The monkeys were crazy, it was kind of sad how comfortable they were around us, they werent afraid of us or anything, and we were able to get reallly close and get some amazing photos, but i couldnt help but feel intruding! the Mangrove Swamps were cool, we were able to climb on one of the trees, and the tide was out so we could see little crabs!... We spent the atfernoon shopping.
Next day.. Spice Tour, we were able to see all different fruits and spices in their natural state, it seemed like something that had to be done, everyone talked about the spices on Zanzibar.. but really... i didnt no what half the fruits or spices that i was looking at were... i think it was a bit too old for me.. but we met some cool English guys, Jamie and James. anyway we saw Vanilla, cinamon... haha uh? there was more... then we went to the beach (with the tour) ate some lunch cooked up by the locals... i ate wayyy too much, so we went for a swim.. but unfortuantly.. it felt like we were back in Dar Es Salaam... the water was gross... fishguts and heads and eugh... it was gross.. we didnt stay in for long, then went up and had a drink.. i got a gin and tonic.. no idea why.. i hate tonic!
So we got dropped back off near the hostel and we arranged to meet up with the English guys at Livingstones (a pub) for happy hour. so this is the night we skipped dinner, we couldnt really be bothered walking the 2 minute walk to forodhani... and werent really that hungry.. but we did keep drinking! didnt want to waste our precious drinking money on food haha. But really i dont think it was a very late night... we played this drinking game Spoof.... or fives or something.. i wish i could remember all the rules! i got jamie or james// not sure which is which to write it down but i think i lost it :(. I spent ages talking to 2 local girls, it was really good how much we used Swahili on Zanzibar, but now back on placement we hardly use it.. Then Marie, Phoebe and I decided it was time for bed and we started walking back to the hostel.. quite eerie walking through darkened alleyways that are so thin and uneven ground.
So Phoebe and I woke with quite a hangover!!! Marie (also in our room) seemed fine and decided to do some morning shopping before our Prison Island tour in the afternoon (we changed it to the afternoon because it was raining).. this was also the beginning of Ramadhan, where the muslims fast during the day for 30 days. anyway getting back to the point.. our door was broken and would not shut properly without it being locked... but since marie left when we were sleeping she couldnt lock us in... and we were asleep so we couldnt lock it after her.. Well Phoebe and i woke 3 times to the cleaner being just inside our room... using the broken door as an excuse.. but on the 3rd time Phoebe noticed he had my handbag... i searched the room to make sure, and i couldnt find it... so i went downstairs and started talking to the guy, he lead me back upstairs, where i just completely lost my tempor and Phoebe and I were just going nuts, we would have sounded like the biggest ghettos, we told him to get out of our room.. he eventually did... then came back in and tried to drop my bag on the floor without us noticing.... well phoebe was less than a meter away from him and saw him do it... so we went downstairs to reception so something could be done. but they all just thought it was a big joke, the lady who ran the place wasnt there so we waiting til she was in to talk to her.. i was so angry i just wanted to cry.. but i didnt. No one could really believe it happened.. with us in the room! We had lunch at the only place we could find, an Indian Restruant, all the street stalls were closed because of Ramadhan, im glad we only spent the 1 day of ramadhan there otherwise it would be very expensive lunches, dinner was okay because they broke fast every evening, and would feast again early morning 4amish. But we then spent the afternoon at Prison Island getting there in a teeny tiny boat, i think it was meant to be used for slaves or as a jail or something but ended up being used as a Yellow Fever quarantine. On Prison Island there was giant torteises, they were so cute! i want one :) and we were able to feed them! one of the tortieses was 185 years old!! and the ones that were 30 years old were still in a little caged area because they were too small to be around the big ones! We were meant to go snorkelling again but since it was so windy and just a shitty day in general we gave it a miss... but the boat ride back... against the wind was soooo scary, i really thought we were going to capsize, and i was just worried about my camera with all my photos!!! but we made it back to land safely!!!
Again we went to Forodhani for dinner, less food stalls there, but still alot to choose from, as we were leaving we bumped into Jamie and James, they were lawyors, told me i should get money from the guy who stole my bag, they thought since we went home.. obviously drunk.. we were easy targets and it was probably planned.
The shopping on Zanzibar was crazy, there was a forte full of stalls and the streets were lined with them, but you really had to be in the mood because you HAVE to bargain!!! they double the price if your white, or even more!!! it gets very frustrating because i assume some people are genuine with their prices but if you dont knock enough off the price you just assume your getting ripped off anyway! i bought alot of presents there, and i think i did pretty well with my bargaining.. i'm sure i got ripped off, but hopefully not too much!
The last day we wanted to leave early morning because we were told going back to Dar was best in the morning because the seas were calmer, something to do with the tide, and that it ws best to go earlier to avoid sea sickness, but i had to speak to the lady about my bag, the guy never even admitted to stealing it, and said he only came into our room once about the door, i said TSH 30,000 was taken from my bag, although i cant be certain because i dont no how much i spent the night before, anyway he paid up, and i used the money to pay for a taxi and bought some ice cream.. it probably equals to about $20 but it goes far if you use it well..
We got the 12:45 boat back and it started off fine, we were like cool lets sit right out the front, outside and work on our tan... well that lasted maybe half an hour, then the boat was rising and falling constantly, and i actually got air from the boat.. i didnt vomit, i think only 1 guy did, so we were all pretty proud that none of us did... i was laying down because i saw thats what the locals were doing, not sure if that makes it better or worse.. but when i tried to sit up to see the dolphins swimming in front of our boat, i couldnt hold myself up, and had to lay back down.. i think i ended up falling asleep towards the end..
well that was how i spend the first week of my holidays.. in paradise!
I will write again soon about Safari!!!
xo

Boona Baana

Well since i last wrote we have visited Alisha and Connie at their placement in Ikwiriri, it is about 4 hours from where i am living and is a nice rural village, those girls have it tough, they are teaching year 7 and 8s in a school with almost non existent english, and classes of around 60. There wasnt much to do in Ikwiriri so we mainly just spent the weekend talking and Alisha has convinced me to go to Rwanda in December to go see the mountain Gorillas!
When walking from the "main road" of Ikwiriri to the girls house you walk through lots of little mud brick houses and there are so many little kids called out MZUNGU SHIKAMOO and MAMBO it was so cute, and i was so jealous of Alisha and Connie, we even had about 5 or 6 village kids pop in to visit.
On the way home it was a rough ride, the first part was 3 hours, and meg and i were both in the fold out aisle seats with barely room to move, then for the last hour we swapped buses and spent the majority of the time standing because there was no spare seats! it was a relief to be home!
So the last few weeks at school have been really hectic!!! teaches not coming to classes or leaving early or coming late, so it was up to meg and myself to take alot of classes and pretty much always the grade 1's, it was also around the time of their exams which was really bad timing!
During one of the grade 2 PE lessons i had all the girls trying to hold my hand, they were comparing the colours of my palms and theirs, they thought they were the same... when really mine looked soo pink and theirs were really dark, but they seemed excited by the fact that they were the same.
So after a stressful week of taking on a more teaching role we had 2 volunteers from Lushoto come and visit, Chris and Anamieka. So on the Friday night one of the teachers Mr Mlyuka took us all out for a few drinks and to see a live band so that was really fun, but some of the African girls who we were dancing with wanted my number so they got my number from my phone, and the next day i had one of the guys from the band calling me!!! just contstantly, so one of the other boy volunteers answered and told them to stop calling, they have only called once since then. Anyway so that weekend there was quite a lot of volunteers in Dar, there was Chris and Ana, then the Morogoro people; Marie, Ross and Phoebe, the Waamuzi group; Angus, Candice and Alex and the Ikwiriri girls; Alisha and Connie so it was a good weekend, on the saturday we had planned to go to the beach... well all the others went but i didnt make it.. i went to get money out from the ATM which was in a little glass booth, as soon as i went in there it was soooo hot, and the ATM was so slow, anyway i was able to just get my money and stumble out of the ATM where Ana was able to help me sit down in the shade, i was pretty close to fainting, so i assume i was just dehydrated from the night before and i just took a Tuk Tuk home so i could rest. i didnt drink much at all, and wasnt even feeling hungover, so just dehydrated i think. So Saturday night when i was feeling better i met up with everyone and we all went out for tea which was really nice, but thats all we did, some of the others went out for drinks, but Meg, Ana, Chris and I had a pretty early night.
Sunday after Chris and Ana left (they left around 6am) Meg and i met up with Alisha, Candice and Alex and we went to a Kanga market, Kangas are just pieces of material that you can make into skirts, dresses, bags.. anything really. anyway so Alisha, Candice and I were walking through the verrrryyyy crowded market when i noticed a guy had grabbed onto my shoulder, i thought he must just be trying to sell me something... but a guy was holding onto Alisha aswell and Candice had to physically push him off her. but Alishas bag was open, nothing taken, but Candices phone was missing, so its kind of lucky thats all they got, especially since we have no idea how long they were following us for or anything.. but we were a bit shocked and didnt stay around too much longer.
Meg and i have also started "afternoon" classes where we take 5 or so people who really struggle with English and try and help them to improve, but since its been soo crazy with the teachers being pretty unreliable we havent had a chance to do it too much. but what we have been able to do its actually really challenging because these are the kids who struggle most in their class so really one on one time would be a lot more suitable, even reading a simple book is difficult because you need to help the one person who is reading, and they need you individed attention, but you still have 4 other kids to help as well, so i will need to think of a better way to handle that... any suggestions would be appreciated!! There is one girl named Hayrat who cannot read a single word, cannot even sound it out, she got 8% on her English exam, Meg was with her when she found out and she just burst into tears apparently, we knew she struggled, but not that much, so Meg and i really want to focus on her next term and help her as much as we can!
Since having Lushoto visit us, who are really isolated and have no electricity or running water, and Ikwiriri with no running water, i am so jealous of their placement and so pissed off with mine!!! its nothing what i wanted, i had requested rural and i got the one of the two placements that are in major cities, mine being in Dar Es Salaam, not the capital of Tanzania, but it may as well be! its like Melbourne in a comparison. I just keep thinking if i wanted a housekeeper and running water and electricity and all my meals cooked, my bed made for me, then why would i come to a developing country? obviously if i was given the chance to change placement i wouldnt... but if i could go back in time, i definately would request to be somewhere else! i think meg may also feel the same about this, but i have really been trying to focus on the positves of our placement, its easy to do.... until you speak with someone from the other placement about their experiences!
But we have finally been to Boona Baana, an orphanage closeby, its nothing like i expected (maybe i should stop having so many expectations??) but its a house, with 6 kids living in it, around 8-16 maybe, there are 3 younger children around 10 and then a few older ones. But they have women there who cook for them. Some of the kids also go to a school in Mikocheni, Hekima Waldorf School, so i would like to go have a look at the conditions they are in. We have only been their twice, but i plan to go back in September, reguarly. there is one girl, Eliza, who i think would be really willing to learn more, we looked at her exams and she needs help in basic areas, like when to use A and AN and spelling, so hopefully we can really help her with that.
During the week we had one particular misierable day, well the day was miserable, but it actually made me quite happy, haha it was raining to heavily, i have never seen rain like it, and it would just pour rain, then stop and be fine, then pour rain again! i took a video of it, but i dont think it really comes through on the camera. i have taken lots of photos of the kids! and vidoes of their assemblies which are always really fun, singing and dancing!
I have been meaning to try and upload photos but maybe when i get back from travelling. The Morogoro people should be arriving in Dar minute, then we will all go to Zanzibar tomorrow!!! i cannot wait! but thats all for now really, if you can think of anything i havent mentioned, just let me no and i will include it next time, but i probably wont write again until September.
Baadaye. xox

Living in Tanzania!

Well i havnt seem to have told you much about where im living, so... in short its pretty much a mansion... 2 story, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a sitting area, dining room, a very small indoor kitchen, there is another outdoor kitchen where all the food is prepared. Also all the washing up is done in at outdoor sink.

I have seen one lawn mower, not at our house, at the school, just a basic push along one for a huge oval and grass areas, they still use like machetes to cut grass here which is unusual.
As i have previously mentioned, no washing machine so its all done by hand, we do our washing about once a week, and i got sores on my hands from rubbing the clothes together! i think all my clothes will be veerrrryyy worn out after 6 months!!

Teaching has started to become more rewarding although the kids are still uncontrollable as soon their teacher leaves the room and its just me or meg with them. i was in a grade 2 class and the teacher asked me to sit with a boy named Abood, he is a verrryyy slow writer and struggles with the distractions by the other students, but when i was sitting with him i made sure he was doing his work, as it was getting closer to break time he still had a little bit to go, and i was getting all excited and i just wanted him to finish!!! the bell went for break, but i continued to sit with him until he had finished which was about 10 minutes into break, so i gave him a red star! he seemed pretty happy with that, he got a big grin! and when i went into that class again all the students were wanting stickers!!!

So the class room sizesl are around 20 - 25 students, mostly Tanzanian kids, some look like they may have a white parent or a middle eastern parent. The class rooms have windows with only bars and no glass so when a breeze comes through it is so refreshing, all rooms have lights and power and a black board, depending on the teacher some have more things hanging up than others... unfortuantly all the things hanging up are actually done by the teachers and not the students.

Meg and i have decided on doing to mural for our project, it will have lots of different cultures and customs on the one mural. We also think we are going to have an art competition and a short story competition.

Yesterday i went swimming with the year 4s, but i didnt get in a just watched, they had an exam in it, as they do in every subject as they are coming up to the end of their school year. You could see as they were doing their exam that some students still could not swim, in grade 4!! i'm not sure if that is how it is back home but its quite sad!

We had Esther and Stacey two english girls from another placement come to visit us, so we went to South Beach, it took a while to get there because the first Dalla Dalla was stuck in traffic for about 30 mins, and we were moving verry slow the whole way, it took us about 1 and a half hours for a journey very short in distance! then we had to get another Dalla Dalla and a boat, it was only about a 5 minute Ferry and then on the other side about half an hour in a tuk tuk to the beach, i forgot to get money out so we were struggling with paying for everything, then we realised we had to pay TSH 5000 to get onto the beach/resort because it was a saturday. The Beach was amazing!!! white sands, clear water NO RUBBISH!!! It was beautiful, except as always someone is trying to get you to buy something off them... so we had 2 different guys both trying to sell us kangas, sorrongs (material in other words) and for 1 we werent interested and for 2 none of us had enough money!!! we finally got one to leave us alone.... but not Emanuel.. he did not want to go anywhere, i got bored of it so i laid back on my towel, then as we thought he was leaving, then he pointed at me saying i want this one.. i sat up because i felt awkward just lying their now... he told me how he loved me... nependa i think it might be in Swahili, i had already told him i was married, but no he kissed my hand and started looking me up and down licking his lips, it was sick! it was like awkward and the other girls were just laughing!!! we decided to go up into the resort then.
We later went back onto the beach and there was this guy selling starfish and shells AND a puffer fish that was blown up!!! of course he came over to us to try and sell some stuff, i asked if i could take a photo of the puffer fish, he wanted TSH 2000, so i said not to worry about it, then he let me take one for free.
We got home in the dark that night and i think Esther was a bit worried, but we made it home safely so no harm done.
On sunday night Cine club had a band playing, so we went their at about 6pm and had a few drinks and danced to the african band, it was soooo much fun!!! i was trying to dance the same as the dancers on stage, very difficult since i have no rhythm at all and they can swing their hips, shake their booty and move their feet all at the same time. They had this Piki piki song (a piki piki is a motorbike) and they put they arms like they were riding a motorbike so we were doing it too. Then the guy with the microphone got me up stage and i was doing it with the dancers, it was so fun!!!! i got lots of videos and a picture of me on stage!!! it was great fun!!

Anyway the food here is amazing which i was suprised about... My favourite is green bananas, in like a stew Yummmmy, also chipatees are growing on me!!! but the food is only so good because Hidaya is an amazing cook!!!!

So we have had a few power outages, nothing major, once while we were eating tea, a few time during one night, and i havnt noticed any other times!

From where we live you can hear this prayer, it gets said multiple time a day and Meg and I love it, it sounds so beautiful! but weirdly Esther and Stacey hate it, they think it sounds so dull, where Meg and I think its like a nice song!

We are trying to improve out Swahili, especially in shopping and restruant scenarios but its so difficult trying to remember everything! the language is so happy here, like the greeting are Mambo(slang) you reply with Poa, then Habari (Nzuri) and sleep peacefully is Lala Salama, i love it! and a respectful greeting to your elders is Shikamoo, and they would reply Marahaba. so the language sounds really cool!

The teachers also talk Swahili to us, but its not very helpful because they dont really explain what they are saying, if they spoke in small sentences it would be much more helpful!
I have also seen alot more students get hit, well hit on the bum or hand with a ruler, some cry, some dont, but it can be for reasons such as not doing their homework, or forgetting to bring it in!

Meg and I went to the beach one sunday morning, so it was very peaceful, and we took it in turns of walking along the beach (so we didnt leave our stuff alone) also we wouldnt walk too far because our guide books always talk about muggings on long stretches on isolated beaches.
But yes it was very peaceful,the tide was out which was unfortunate because it had left a trail of rubbish where the water would normally be. i cant believe how much rubbish their is everything, they just put it in piles and burn it... the smell of burning rubbish is absolutely disgusting, you cant wait to be away from it, and you dont want to breathe in at all when there is a chance its still around! The kids will just throw their rubbish out the bus window without even giving it a second thought, the gutters are the worst thing about walking along the roads, still water, clogged with rubbish, the water in black!!!! or blue... is some places even green and it looks like you could walk on it! i cant help but look at it and be so shocked every time!

People were always saying how much i am going to change and how different i will be when i get back... i no i havnt seen much of Tanzania yet, and i have only been here a month... but im not sure there is going to be any long term changes, sure im going to love having a hot shower, and having your own seat on a bus not sharing 4 seats between 6 people, but i doubt that after a few months of being home i will still think about these things.. of course i could be completely wrong and be grateful for everything i have and can have for the rest of my life, i guess i will just have to wait and see.

As some of you saw on my Facebook, Meg had gotten sick, a bacterial infection, most likely she would have got it from being in Morogoro, but after a US$100 doctor and antibiotics bill she is on the road to recovery, and hopefully soon we will get to go visit an orphanage that is close by.

We are also planning our travels in August when we have our 4 weeks holidays, we want to do a 5-6 day Safari through the Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater and either Lake Manyara or Tarangire National park in august, along with a cultural tour visiting the Maasai tribes who still live in the traditional ways. Also their is a school their set up by a Western Australian women called St Judes apparently it is amazing (this is all around Arusha) then we will go to Zanzibar for probably around 7 days! so an expensive month, but it will mean i might be home for christmas.

Well i'm not sure if i will write again before August, so maybe in September!

Baadaye!

MZUNGU IN MIKOCHENI

ookaaayy so long since i last wrote, MIKOCHENI is the suburb where we are living. MZUNGU is white person, when we got back from the internet cafe last time Lealah and Robert had arrived at Mama's house, lealah is a past volunteer and robert is her boyfriend, it was good having them in the house, they gave us a few ideas and made it quite easy to settle in.

Meg and I are trying to think of a project/present to leave behind, all the volunteers do something, a few have done murals, some fixed up the library and someone created a sports day, so if anyone has ideas they would be greatly appreciated!

Sorry to say Sally, but you are going to have a fatty in your wedding!!! ahaha is constant eating of potatoes, rice, Ugali (which im sick of already) chipatees (sort of like pancakes) and you are guarenteed to have this at least twice a day! Lealah said she gained 3 stone, which is just under 20kgs!!!!

I havent done too much full on teaching just helping out, walking around... some teachers get you to do nothing, others tell you to do everything, which is daunting when you have not prepared anything!! i am focused on grade 1 and 2's at the moment, and go swimming with the grade 4's, as well as the grade 1's. both lessons i have been to i have worked with the kids who are really struggling... like scared of water struggling, so its a little frustrating how some dont try at all! but they are getting there!

I have had one moment of homesickness, just briefly, it was 2 days after getting to ESACS, and it was when Mrs Diana (Mama) left the room because she got a phone call, i had about 10 kids screaming "teacher. teacher." asking to go to the toilet, asking me to check their work, had about 10 others running around the room hitting eachother with rulers. Mr boolinyinyi, came in had a few words and hit 2 kids, that was confronting, it wasnt too hard, but still you wouldnt see that here, i was so overwhelmed i just had to focus on my breathing because i felt like i was going to burst out into tears!

Meg and i went to the UNICEF down the road, but not much was happening there.

We tried to go to this beach called Cine club, Mama gave us directions but said just to ask people and they would point us in the right direction.... well the first people we asked told us to turn left instead of right, so that was a bad start! so we kept walking the wrong way, eventually we gave up and went home, after a bit of a rest Vashti's friend (Vashti is Mamas daughter) said she would be able to drop us off, and Cine club is the same place we went to in orientation just the building that was next door, i wouldnt call it a building, but it was alot nicer at this place anyway.

Meg and i have also done 2 loads of washing..... by hand! haha we could have paid hadaya (housekeeper) to do it.. TSH 2000 a week which isnt much, but we would prefer to do it ourselves. But we arent very good at rinsing the clothes out. some have soap marks on them! haha.

Connie and Alisha, two volunteers from Ikwiriri came to stay for a night, we took them to Kunduchi Wet n Wild, it was pretty fun, they have huge slides, and as they were closing they brought out a huge python, Connie and i held it.... not the head though we let the proper guy do that! haha we got some photos but on Alishas camera so hopefully i can get hold of them somehow. after staying with us they then went on to Zanzibar. At Wet n Wild they like have a stage thing and a DJ, the stage has water showering over it, and there was so many people dancing! it looked so fun! so african! i thought how funny it would be if we got up there... but decided against it because we cant shake our bootys like they can!

Meg and i have started to do nightly exercises, but have been a bit slack lately.. we do crunches, push ups, wall sit, the plank and a few others, mainly just to tone! I DONT WANT TO GAIN 20 KGS!! haha

The constant tooting and traffic jams are part of the normal here, but still is so suprising, that is not how i pictured Africa, on the bus ride home, we sometimes have 6 people sitting across whats meant to be 4 seats, very squishy, very hot, and very uncomfortable!!!

We have the month of August off because that is when its the end of their school year, Meg and I definately want to go to Zanzibar in this time, among a few other places!

The kids are beautiful, its when you have 3 or 4 kids grabbing onto you trying to hold your hand that you can see the contrast in our skin, and also in their own, there is sooo many different shades of "black" the kids also have some fascination with sharpening their pencils, they purposfully break them... just to sharpen them again... i dont get it!

When Meg and i were sitting in the staffroom one day, there was 3 kids kneeling (on the concrete floor) in front of one of the teachers, he was yelling at them in Swahili and waving a ruler around in front of them, it was too much for me, i think you could tell by my face, but i did not want to be around if those kids were going to get hit, im not sure if they did, im not even sure what they had done, but i couldnt sit and watch it. Also at home i walked outside at the wrong time! Hadaya was hitting shakira with a stick, i didnt no how to react, Shakira ran up to me crying, i walked with her till we were alone and gave her a hug and tried to get her calm, but we just have to accept that its common here, and there is nothing that we ( Meg and myself) can do to change that.

Meg and i have been talking to a senior girl on the bus, her name is Suph, she is in form 3 (year 9) so a bit younger than us, but its still good to talk with someone who is closer to our age. she is a huge twilight fan so i leant her my book ( the sort second life of bree tanner) i think she really enjoyed it.

Mrs Agnes took meg and myself into the business managers office and gave us TSH 50,000 each, we felt a bit odd taking the money and were not sure what we were going to do with it, so we spoke to Lealah who said the money is ours anyway, from the fees we paid which made us feel alot better about taking it. Meg thinks it may be a monthly thing, but im not so sure, i guess we will just wait and see.

I have had sooo many dreams about Tubby i dont even know how many, but i like having those dreams, they feel so real, they are usually that he is here with me, or we are back home!!

Meg and i went to Morogoro another placement on the weekend, it is about a 3 hr bus ride away, and Marie, Ross and Phoebe are there, there was also Jack an English guy there (not with lattitude) we left school early 11am, and the school bus dropped us off at Ubungo station and Mrs Agnes also organised for a teacher to help up buy our tickets and he walked us actually onto the bus, thank god other wise we would of had no idea! its so hectic, people trying to sell you everything and anything, you realise how desperate they must be when they run alongside the bus for 200 metres so you buy something thats worth TSH250 ( less than 25 cents) when we arrived we didnt do too much, Marie thought she had Malaria, but she did a self test and it came back negative, she would be very unlucky to have Malaria so early on! then on Saturday they had organised to climb a mountain, mount ulguru or something, no idea actually. we had 4 guides for 6 of us... unfortuantly much to Tubbys delite i didnt make it.... neither did Marie, so i guess kili is probably out of the question. haha. the mountain i think is the 3rd highest in Africa, but dont quote me on that! We met the head master Charlie (from morogoro international school) he was very young, we also met his girlfriend. we went out for tea and in true tanzanian style, ross meg and i rode in the back on the ute.... and Charlie definately did not take it easy because of that! on saturday i met Jen who is sort of the GAP co ordinator for Morogoro, she was lovely! and let Marie and i take a shower at hers..... IT WAS HOT WATER!!! i hadnt had a hot water shower since i left home, and i did not want to get out!!! Sorry Dad but i think my first shower at home is going to be at least 4 hours, and im going to use all the megalitres or whatever that i have missed!!!! it was heaven, even though i had no soap and the water pressure wasnt that great, it was amazing!

Oh about 3o mins into climbing the mountain i could already feel blisters forming, they are gross. started to heel now, but they were read raw!!! we walked down the mountain, and alllllll the way back into town because there was no Taxis, and you cant just call them like back home! might feet felt like skeletons and they had nothing there cushioning my walking at all!!!

Oh in Morogoro a Tanzanian guy came up and started talking to me, saying how he wanted to be my friend, i was like oh yeh... we're friends, then he asked where i was from and asked for my number..... i said i didnt have one... then he asked for my email... once again i said i didnt have one.. he asked if i had a boyfriend i said yes... he continued to say how he wanted a girlfriend from afar. a few volunteers had said how this is common as we are "exotic" with our white skin. ahhaha!!!!

Mama was asking me about religion and everything back home, it was awkward saying i wasnt religious, i think she found it difficult to grasp because she said" but your parents go on sunday" i replied no... she also asked when are me and tubby getting married... i was like uhh.....?

i think i have mentioned everything.... if you have any questions... feel free to ask!!!

Kwaheri.

It was Lealah and Roberts last night in Tanzania on sunday, we had an amazing feast! and i was so hunry because i hadnt eaten a proper meal since saturday lunch time!

Meg and i have been trying to use the internet for a few days but there was a network outage, that apparently affected the whole of Tanzania!

Safe arrival

i have now arrived in Tanzania, we had a stop over in Doha at around 6 am, it was 35 degrees celsius, the heat was unbearable, we walked off the plane and got onto a bus which took us to the transfer area, we then met up with another volunteer claire, who had been waiting there for hours! The first flight was 14 hours, and the second half of the flight was aroung 5 and a half, and we had to share T.V's, that flight felt longer than the first one!!! when we got to the airport in Dar we met with Judy who is our in country rep, she was really nice and then took us to a bus that had been hired for us volunteers while we had our 3 day orientation, when we were walking to the bus a young Tanzanian boy started speaking to me i assumed he was assosiated with the group, until he started putting his hand up to his mouth as if to ask for food and then pointed to his shoes that were broken, i was so shocked and didnt really no what to do, i sort of ignored that i had understood what he was wanting, i felt bad at the time, but its what we need to do.
I also had lessons in Swahili with out teacher benjamin, he was really funny and made the class enjoyable.
We went out for tea as a group and with Judy to a place called Kunduchi beach hotel which we also went swimming in, it looked really beautiful to begin with, white sand and palm trees, but when we were in the water there was rubbish bags and othe things in the water which wasnt very nice!
The staff at the hotel either purposely ripped us off or there was a huge miscommunication, a few of us were having a few drinks with tea and went to the bar to pay for these, but it seems that they charged us twice, once at the bar then again with our bill for our meals, Judy paid the difference for this.
I met a really nice English girl who was also staying at the YWCA (where our orienation was) it was good talking to her she gave me a few ideas on how to cope with being away from family, friends... and Tubby :) and she said she will email me some good places to visit.

We went shopping at Mwenge market, which has lots of arts and crafts, i bought a watch, which broke 2 days later! another girl meg got the same watch and hers broke the same day! so i wont be buying another one of those, i also brought a dress, that is sort of African style, i wore that yesterday it was realy comfortable.

Dar is not what i expected but it makes sense the way it is, it is more built up than i thought, but there is allooottt of tripping hazards! holes in the ground and uneven ground. We went for a walk around Dar and there was one street that was pretty much empty except for security guards with huge guns, that was a bit different!!!

We drove through the slums to Judys shop, which sells shoes and jewerly, it was unbelievable the conditions they lived in, i have heaps of photos so hopefully i can find a way to put them up for you!

We went to the school i will be teaching at yesterday, it has really great facilities and everyone is so nice!!! Meg and myself (the girl who i am on placement with) get a lot of strange looks and people call out Mzungu to us, meaning that we are white, but not in an offensive may, the head master Mrs Agnes told us our role in the school will be to help out with the pronunciation of English words, to read books to the children, and whatever else needs to be done, I'm not sure how i will go with pronounciations i dont really use proper English :) but i will try!

We spent some time in a prep class today, they were sooo tiny, i think Mrs Agnes said they were 3 years old!! they also learn English, I'm not sure if they would be able to speak sentences, but in a few years i think they will be quite good at it.

Meg and I would love to go to an orphanage, she has been told there is one in Dar, which we could catch a bus too, there is also a UNICEF down the road from where we are staying, which by the way the house is amazing!!!! it is two story has a huge balcony sort of thing, Meg and I share a room but the room is definately big enough for the both of us!

There is a housekeeper at our new home, she has a daughter Shakira that is 4 years old, she is absolutely adorable!! very energetic which is not good when you are tired!! haha

We went to a swimming lesson with the grade 4 students today, at a different part of the Kunduchi beach hotel, it had huge water slides and palm trees, i think Meg and I are going to try and go there one weekend!

We went in our first tuk tuk ride today, to get here to the internet cafe, it was different, scary, they are sort of like a little buggie style car.

No home sickness yet, but i am excited to get home in a way, i think i will be fine with staying for the whole placement, but i am not looking forward to homesickness, i am just going to try and stay as busy as i possibly can!

Miss you all and i'll try and write again soon!

xoxoxoxoxo

Hey guys,
less than a week to go now, just having a play around to get used to how it all works! 6 days to go!