Photo round up October- December 2007

Here's a round up of my Picasa Web Photo Albums so far:


In Country Training

Week 1 – Dar-es-Salaam 29 September -5 October 07

These pics were taken during the first week of being in Tanzania. Unfortunately, they are no longer in chronological order, but they do feature most of the lovely people that I met in that first, full and funny week. The first pic is of Corrie, the dutch Doctor, in her lovely mama-daktari outfit that she bought here. The other people shots are of us at various stages, most humorous I think are the ‘in transit’ shots. There are a couple of before – during and after shots of us going through our initiation to public transport in Dar-es-salaam either by taxi or the infamous dala-dala! There’s one shot taken from inside a particularly bad cab; we decided to get out again pretty quickly, for reasons that you can probably make out from the pic!

Other shots are of a lovely day trip to Kipepeo Beach and the VSO office (pics 031-034). There are a few of us at Sue’s house warming, which actually happened a month later.

Weeks 2-5- Language Training at Morogoro

These pics were taken on the way to, arriving at and staying in the lovely town of Morogoro. As you can see, the mountains there are stunning, pretty much surrounding the town, which nestles between them on a wide open plain. There are some pics of us washing, which was a novelty for a while and having to iron everything, as a safeguard against insect eggs.


There are lots of pics of the wonderful safari we went on to
Mikumi National Park

My personal favourites are the pics of us doing the language situational role plays; a real hoot! There are even a few pics of us singing some Tanzanian songs and preparing our Tanzanian lunch. As you can see we managed to cook for 20 people using 2 pots on 2 open fires. It took us from 8am til 1 o’clock. As you can imagine we were starving!

First Weeks on Zanzibar
Week 6 onwards

There are a couple of pics of some ladies; Katie, Caitlin, Christina and Mwnana Kombo, who were my first guests for dinner.

After this you have the arrival from Dar on the ferry; so these pics are my first glimpses of Unguja. There a couple of silly pics of me in my nice hotel, where I was put for my first few days here.

Then, there are some pics of my local beach, Mtoni at sunset, which is a real joy as you can see.

There are a few pics of my boss, Mr Vuai, looking happy with his presents from the UK and Mr Aboud. I will send some more pics later of my work colleagues!

The there are a few pics of a school I visited, Heile Selassie, which is a very well funded town school here in Zanzibar Town. It is mixed, although I think the pics just feature girls for some reason.

Then there are some pics of Forodani, just down through Stone Town at the waterfront, where you can go in the evening for bites and snacks. My personal fav is the Zanzibar Pizza! There are pics of the food sellers, us eating and of course the sunset.

There are some nice pics of the house that Helen has been living in, here on the campus. She is sitting with her aged day guard and his family, who are lovely.

Changuu- Prison Island

Then there are some very happy pics of myself and 2 Canadian friends, Adam and Caitlin on Prison Island, where we snorkeled and fed tortoises! I think I look particularly smug on the boat!

Next, there are some nice pics of Sabrina and her friends and family. Sabrina is the accountant here in the office and she is newly married to Mohammed. The pics show them, her younger sister, Helen, the beautiful food she cooked and their Kenyan friends. It was a lovely evening.

Finally there are one or 2 shots of Sue’s visit to the island, with her daughter.

First Dunga Safari

These select pics are of the first outing Katie organised to thank the people she works with. We went to a beautiful beach, swam in kangas and ate byriani.

Trip to Nungwi

These pics capture some of the happy moments we had when Katie and I drove up to the north on her piki. The ride itself was magic! There are some pics of us girls on the boat ..I think there were at least 8 of us and the hotel owner , Mike, who, as you can see, enjoyed every minute of it! Our friend Chris joined us later, but, for some reason he’s not in any pics.

Jambiani Safari

These pics feature the 70 people Katie took out to the eastern beach at Jambiani for Pilau. It was a mammoth task, We ate in the school there and then spent time on the beach. A lovely day, as you can see. It was lovely to be with so many women and children!

Sue’s Pics

I’ve added some of the pics that my friend Sue took during our first month in country. They are mostly silly pics of us all, but especially of me! I think you will enjoy some of them!

December 2007

I’ve just been able to add these, so these are my most recent pics. There are a range of things, people and events featured:

1. Helen’s goodbye lunch.

She was working here with me as a short term volunteer, working on evaluating the course curriculum here. She was great, and really welcomed me and made life here in the first 2 weeks easy. We all miss her in the office. But we had a lovely lunch at the place we are staying at Christmas and then she was presented with some lovely local gifts; a carving of the island and an ornamental coconut scraper!

2. Regional Volunteers meeting

Then there are some silly pics of Alice, a Ugandan vol, and Katie doing some salsa at our regional volunteer meeting. Alice cooked a wonderful lunch and we had a super time.

3. Dinner at Home

There are a couple of pics of Chris and Katie at my house; Chris is a great cook and he cooked a fabulous onion soup for us! Yum! And I’ve still got some in my freezer! Hooray!

4. Trip to Pemba

Then there are a couple of aerial shots of Zanizbar taken from the plane;

5. Mtemwe Beach

Then we have our lovely day yesterday, on the beach.. beautiful!

So, that’s about it. I hope these will put some faces and places to names (some files have been renamed with names). I’m pleased with the pics; they’ll be a wonderful record for me.