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!