Week 2
Mid October sometime
So hello! Hujambo! What’s my news?
Well, where can I start? I’ve been here just over 2 weeks and so much has happened. The first week was spent in Dar es Salaam being looked after and shown about by some brilliant volunteers; lots of info about living and working here in Tanzania as well as VSO’s role here in country. The week involved lots of dashing around by bus ‘dala-dala’ (see below), taxi (see below) and ferry. Then we headed out to the mountains to Morogoro, where we’ve been working on our Kiswahili..(see below!)
So it’s been mostly great stuff..with some little challenges.. Perhaps some bullet points might be a good starting point:
Challenges
Showering under cold cold water
Showering under a drip of cold cold water
Squeezing more humans that is imaginable into small buses or ‘dala-dalas’
Contorting oneself into advanced yoga postures to achieve the above
Trying to encourage the taxi driver to keep his eyes on the road / pot hole / people / chickens / ditch ahead rather than smiling and talking earnestly to you in the back
Negotiating traffic / chickens / potholes and ..suspiciously smelly bottomless pits in the dark with no torch
Mastering the complicated and time consuming greetings system
Trying to get anywhere in a hurry due to: 1.The point above; 2. The heat; 3. The state of the roads; 4. Chickens; 5. Every small but essential necessity (like buying water) taking careful planning, practice and of course..greetings...
Deciding which local fizzy beer is actually nicest
Not saying..”oh but that’s really cheap in ‘real terms’” (meaning UK prices), when in fact ‘real terms’ mean you’re on a local wage and probably can’t afford it regardless of how cheap you think it is. Boo!
Learning Kiswahili..oh my goodness...there are 7 noun classes..yes 7 which means there are loads of different ways of making plurals and negatives and arrgggghhhh it’s just too painful to write about..(hopefully see pic..)
Learning to live with the lingering scent of deet behind the ears and on pretty much every other available patch of skin. Boo..missing my pefume...
Wonderful things
Meeting and living with a whole bunch of fabulous people from all over the world..who sometimes even laugh at my jokes!
Tanzanians: laughing readily and joyfully from their heart beautiful; strong; dignified; warm
Learning and laughing more than I can ever remember
Walking along a white sandy beach with two lovely men discussing in earnest which fruit or vegetable we would rather be (ok, well I was...and you all know the answer is clearly a broad bean, for reasons that are just too obvious to mention now)
Sister Terisita, my room-mate, who is, by the way, very naughty!
Being helped to bargain in the market by helpful young Tanzanian soul, Johnson, and being introduced to his family..I am expecting a(nother) marriage proposal within the week
An amazing bus journey out of
The beautiful breeze whistling though the heat of the day
Seeing wild elephants and a glimpse of lions on safari and noticing the beautiful movements of giraffe, a stately swaying of the neck rippling through the pattern, and the wart hogs, a purposeful and tidy trot
Listening to the blowing of bubbles and the intermittent barking laugh of hippos across the lake
The spectacular mountain sky line rising up behind the street sellers, huts and dust
Spotting ferrets in the grounds here at
And actually..all those challenges above; all remarkable in their own way..
So that’s my news...Habari
Hope all well with you. Thinking of you and sending you my love.
