First weeks..

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 Dar es Salaam up into the hills: people scrabbling to sell you corn or nuts or omelette or their hand in marriage through the window at occasional pit-stops; amazing scenery; talking with an old lady, who knew no English and I no Swahili and laughing all the same

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 St Thomas’, Morogoro..oh yes, I said FERRETS!

And actually..all those challenges above; all remarkable in their own way..

So that’s my news...Habari safi sana! “Great news!” Wondering when the tide will turn though; things have been very protected here but that will soon change, no doubt, as I return to Dar es Salaam for more motorbike training and head out to Zanzibar to work in a couple of weeks time!

Hope all well with you. Thinking of you and sending you my love.