So… my Christmas holiday. My father came at the beginning of December and we went to Dar es Salaam city centre to explore a bit. We wondered round not completely aimlessly and I must say my Dad knew the layout of the city better than I did and I’ve been living here for 3 months (well 4 now). My excuse is that I’ve been led around the city whenever I’ve been there and my Dad had a map that he could memorise. However after that day I know the city of Dar much better (probably better even than I know London).

Two days after my dad’s arrival we met parents' friend Ela who came to Tanzania from Poland to join us in our travels for ten days. The next day we went to the North of Tanzania to a town called Arusha, I city though really it was comparable in size to Hatfield. We went up from Dar es Salaam by coach  - it took maybe ten hours and we only got one fifteen minute toilet stop. HA! The toilet stop is a story in itself, if you are eating stop reading now or slip to the next paragraph! I went to take advantage of the toilet stop only to find that half the world was there also. However, some people felt that it was completely unnecessary to wait in such a long queue and so just helped themselves ( the Swahili way of saying relieved themselves) in the corner. Never again shall I make myself relive the experience of Tanzanian public toilets!!!!!

Other than the above experience the bus journey was perfectly pleasant and it gave a really good chance of seeing the African landscape. We drove through Moshi on our way to Arusha, the town at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro on the way to Arusha, I’ve got a rather cool snap of Kili hiding in the clouds.

When we finally reached Arusha the three of us wadded through a sea of flycatchers trying to advertise hotels and coaches that would have given them commission to drag us along to their hotels – we fought through and in the end reached the hotel we wanted without the help of the pestering fiends! The next day we started a three day hike to a little Wa-Arusha village called Ilkindinga. The Wa-Arusha tribe are settled Maasai that live in Arusha. For the three days we went to villages and rainforests and met Maasai – how cool is that? REALL MAASAI!!

After a week in Arusha we went to a place called Lushoto in the Usambara mountains. They are between Arusha and Dar (by this time Ela had left for Zanzibar). Dad and I went to an organisation called Tayodea that organises tours and from those tours uses profits to help disadvantaged youths. This is where the real adventure starts!

We started on another three day hike and we were meant to pass through a rainforest but the ranger didn’t let us in. Instead we got on a coach planning to go to the top of a mountain to a village called Mtae and then start walking back down the next day. However these plans were scrapped when our coach turned over. Yes it turned over, onto its side, and if it hadn’t been for  couple trees then we would have gone tumbling down into the valley below. We had been driving up twisty turny windy mountain roads that are built (I think) right on the edge of the mountain. The coach was packed like sardines and of course not in great condition so when it wrong footed or rather wrong wheeled it toppled over onto its side and the load of us had to climb out of the front windscreen. I was severely wounded – well not severely, and if I’m being honest not even wounded – because I sat next to the window on the side that the bus fell on so I got a few scratches on my left arm. Two days later I had to get back onto a similar coach to get back down the mountain. I was not happy!

The hike itself was really great fun though some may have thought I thought otherwise because by the end of each day I was complaining about anything I could because my feet were in severe pain. I’m mighty glad I went, now I can say I have been in a rainforest (however small it may have been) which is something I’ve always really wanted to do.

When Dad and I came back to Dar we collected Mumsie wumsie from the airport. Mum was as fascinated by the palm trees when she arrived as I was fascinated by the lizards when I did. We spent Christmas with the sisters. I must say though that it did not feel like Christmas though it was really enjoyable. I think the fact that it was around 30 degrees Celsius had something to do with that.

After Christmas we went all together, Mum, Dad and myself, to Zanzibar, an island off the coast. The town there, called Stone Town, is a labyrinth but with no dead ends, tiz a wonder we reached our hotel at all – though we did thanks to Dads map and his amazing ability to memorize it. We spent five days on Zanzibar, one of those days was spent  on a spice tour, another reading 'Atonement' while my parents went to a jungle and another on a supposedly uninhabited island that in actual fact has a hotel. The rest of the days were spent losing our way in the maze that is Stone Town. Absolutely fantastic fun, the whole week.

When we got back to the sisters’ house it was new years eve, I spent it watching the news and then going to bed at half nine – man I’m a party animal someone stop me! Then it was January 2008. My Dad went to the south to see some ruins called the Kilwa ruins from the thirteenth century (I think) while Mum and I relaxed in the sisters house. My feet were still swollen from the six days walking in the mountains!

On my parents penultimate day we went to Bagamoyo, another town with ruins from the thirteenth century (for sure). The ruins were impressively well preserved though there weren’t many of them (maybe that’s why they so well preserved). I was full of cold and would have enjoyed it twice as much if I hadn’t been and if I wasn’t thinking about the next day when Mummy and Daddy would be leaving me L.

Well leave the next day they did and now I’m all by my lonesome and preparing to go back to school to teach. We have just collected new signs for the new school so that students can find their way there.

So I’ve moved out. I’m flying solo. Okay, not quite solo but I have moved out of the convent. After Sr. Annette suggested I move out into the teacher’s accommodation at the school I’m teaching at I jumped at the idea. I wanted the independence and to experience the culture more. I’m living in a small two bed roomed bungalow with a fellow teacher called Grace and all is going well.

I live in a small room out of a suitcase, but it’s nicely organised so it’s no different from a drawer really. My housemate and I share the chores of sweeping, washing the dishes, cooking and carrying water from the pump. We get along very well and she has a great opportunity to practice English and I’m picking up Swahili, the situation’s great.

Before I moved in I had to go shopping (of course) and as I was buying a pot and pan a man that worked at the supermarket came up to me and asked if I wanted to marry in Tanzania, almost proposing on the spot! No worries, he did get to know me first, after all he asked my name. So naturally we will be getting married a week from Friday and all readers are invited.

I have been to the renewal of a sisters vows. Sr. Dostea, a Tanzanian Sister, came back from a far away town for a weekend to renew her vows. The mass was a mixture of Swahili and English. The Gospel was in English and the sermon in Swahili. It was a nice little service with few people but well put together.

Two weeks ago was the first ever school day with students for Debrabant Secondary school. This school has been set up by the Sisters that I’m staying with (the Holy Union Sisters). Some of the students are older than me!!! Well, only one, but still that’s bad enough. Plus there are several that are my age. I have to teach them all.

My first lesson was four hours long; I hadn’t expected to have such a long lesson ever let alone my first one. I certainly felt that I had been made to bite off more than I could chew (made to because I had no choice in whether I taught the class or not). I panicked dreadfully before the lesson but it turned out to be panic for nothing because the lesson went as smoothly as a hot knife through butter. I had been worried that there would bee too much time but in fact there was not enough!

I’ve found that with all my lessons actually, I only get an hour to teach and I always run out of time. Now I know how Mr. Baker must have felt when teaching my class because he always ran out of time in the lesson.

On Saturday 13^th October Ramadan ended, lots of people were out and about in new clothes being very sociable and celebrating. All the children (and most of the adults) get new clothes and come out onto the streets to show off to their friends. Some of the girls’ dresses are ridiculously gaudy. For example, I saw one bright green one with frills around the collar and on the bottom of it, with puffy sleeves and glittery sequins sown in wherever possible.

Tomorrow I’m moving back into the teachers housing and I’m looking forward to it. Last week I went for walks in the afternoon and at night. It’s so great to be able to leave the house after 6:30 at night (that’s when the sisters close the gate of the convent).

Another thing that’s happening tomorrow is that I will be wearing a skirt. This is worth mentioning because I rarely wear skirts. I have decided to wear more feminine clothes because when I was walking back from school one day with Grace she overheard two ladies arguing over whether I was a boy or not! I’m also learning to wear a kanga – a piece of cloth wrapped around the waist that stays up simply because it is tucked in to itsaelf.

Toodles

-         Two dusty feet

N.B. Anyone who likes to each cashew nuts (chequew nuts Wookie) from the supermarket should learn to really appreciate them. Cashew nuts grow on trees and have a fantastic protection against monkeys. A sort of corrosive juice in their shell. I bit into one and it burned my tongue and lips. The preparation of them is a very fiddly job and when the locals prepare than they’re not always very nice. So if you buy these nuts from the supermarket – APPRETIATE THEM!

Current Mood: chipper

I’ve started to miss England a bit, not that it isn’t fantastic here, but home is home after all. Also, over the past few weeks my friends have been going off to uni and I’m ever so slightly jealous.

However I’m still having a great time here. The Saturday before last (22^nd Sept.) I went to see the Tunapenda ladies to teach them how to make a beaded bracelet. The Tunapenda ladies have physical disabilities so they make their living through sowing and handcrafts such as embroidery. One of the ladies has a six-month-old son called Bakari; he’s a very happy little boy and fortunately has no disabilities.

The next day I was tired for some unknown reason, I went to church tired, came back tired, Then the Sisters and I went to an Irish do to welcome the new Irish Ambassador and was tired. I checked my emails and was tired, I ate my dinner and was tired, I forced myself to do my Swahili homework tired and then when I finished, what happened? I was wide-awake >:-( Grrrrrrrr!

A new sister arrived in the past 2 weeks, Sr. Marion, and she will be staying for three months. On the first evening she came we were looking at ‘Hello’ magazine and making fun of the clothes and the models. I hadn’t laughed that much since my arrival, hooha!

I have in fact finished my Swahili lessons because I will be working as an English teacher in a new school from now on so I won’t have time to go to lessons. I’ll be teaching English grammar, which suits me fine because I enjoy learning it so I suppose I will enjoy teaching it.

I went to the Tunapenda ladies this last Saturday also and taught them a second pattern. Then I went to town to meet a girl who is also a teacher here. She moved from Zimbabwe to get a better job but she does not like it here. We went to a second hand clothes market just to look around and I saw a pair of converses (trampki) that I REALLY wish I’d bought now (they had the world outlined on them). I saw a few people eyeing my bag there so I was not subtle in holding it firmly closed under my hand :D

Yesterday it was suggested that I move into the teacher’s accommodation down by the school. I think this is a great idea; I’ll get more independence, a better feel for the culture and learn Swahili much quicker because I will not be with English speakers. I will be sharing a bungalow with a lady called Grace, it has 2 bedrooms and a living area / front room. The kitchen and bathroom are outside the house and the loo is a crouching toilet so the less said about the better!!!

I will have to learn to cook my own food either on a kerosene stove or on a coal fire like they often do here. It’ll be a great experience and if that doesn’t prepare me for uni digs then I don’t know what will! If I don’t like it I can always move back into the convent, I’ll be coming back for the weekends anyway.

I’m looking forward to the end of Ramadan. Not that I begrudge then Muslims their festival but I’m looking forward to nights without being woken up by their prayers that carry a long way at silly o’clock in the morning.

Till next time (which should be two weeks but may be more)

           -two dusty feet (jf)

Current Mood: content

Current Location: Dar es Salaam,Tanzania
Current Mood: annoyed