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!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
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!
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!
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