Tales of Tanzania!

Kachezi kama ndezi (Crazy like a banana)

christine_mckenna — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:24:00 GMT

Jambo everyone!

As you probably already know, I got home on Wednesday (16th of June - meant to post this a while back but in true Christine style I left it for AGES) so this will be my last blog :( Hope you all enjoyed reading about my crazy stories...trying to adjust back into the real world now it's all over. Even though I've been back around 5 days, I'm still getting used to having hot showers, constant internet access (been hooked on facebook!) and clean clothes! Somehow though, I miss my cold bucket showers and doing my washing outside and the chickens having fun dressing up in my clean (well relatively clean) clothes. Literally all I can think about is Tanzania and how laid back and friendly it is over there...will miss it so much - especially all the people we've met and kids running up to you in the street or waving as you go past in the car :) I'll even miss being woken up at 5am every morning by the cockerel! I won't miss being woken up by the phantom bug though that was in our bedroom in Dar, underneath the lino. It liked to start screeching in the middle of the night and we wouldn't have a clue where it was coming from! 5 sleepless nights later we found it and Jimmy, in real Maasai warrior style, wacked it with a shoe for us :)

Back to my last few weeks now. After Don Bosco, we went to Bethsaida Girls School where we were making new window frames to replace those that weren't strong enough to hold the glass. To make the frames we went to a wood workshop (known to us as the shack) down the road from our house, where Esther and me had great fun pretending to be real carpenters, much to the amusement of the actual experts (one of whom liked to wear a rather dashing pair of Donald Duck shorts...very manly). Worst 3 days of my life, not helped by Esther constantly referring to me as Malaria girl - I couldn't help that my nose was dripping everywhere and that I looked like someone had thrown a bucket of water over me from the amount I was sweating! After Bethsaida we visited St Felisters Primary School and planted around 400 trees so the kids can have a bit more shade from the heat. Hoeing in 35 degree heat is really not fun! And I'm yet to be convinced that the trees will survive either with no rain and constant sun! The kids at St Felisters were so cute! When we arrived they were all chanting "Mzungu, mzungu, mzungu!" from their classrooms and after lessons finished they would all run out in swarms to come and see us. At one point I had around 20 kids on top of me trying to play with my hair! They were also all queueing up to have me spin them round and round until they were verrrrrry dizzy :D

I seem to have managed to get myself a new nickname - Mama Maasai or Mama Baraka. The security guard for Mama Helen's house is a Maasai warrior called Baraka and we've all taken quite a liking to him - he is the first good looking Maasai we've seen! Though I have voiced it more than others and Lucas seems to think I want to be his wife. I think in Tanzania there isn't much of a difference between just liking someone and actually getting married. Oh I wish I had never said anything...he has 2 wives already anyway and I'm not so sure about sharing!

Bad news...Baraka had to leave and go back to Tanga because of some family problems :( We now have a new Maasai warrior called Moses who doesn't know how old he is (he claims to be 15) and already has a wife and is looking to have 10 in total and 50 kids! Not asking much...

Moses doesn't know much Swahili or English because he's never been to school so conversation is quite limited...mostly it consists of him blabbering away in Maasai and me speaking a strange mixture of Swahili and English - Swenglish. He seems to be happy doing that though so I just go along with it :) Most nights we just sit outside the kitchen - me, Kira, Moses, Lucas and Fidel - drinking Savannah (cider) and dressing up as Maasai warriors, trying to jump as high as Moses. Probably shouldn't be sitting outside in case I get bitten by mosquitos (84 bites on your legs = very itchy) and get malaria again but hey - hakuna matata.

Recently we have taken to having regular trips to our local pub - Stazia - owned by a crazy man called Steve...better known as Mr Steven. At 25p a bottle, we've been drinking far too many sodas...though not enough to rival the amount that Tanzanians drink. Lucas drinks probably around 5 a day followed by a couple of Tuskers (beer) and he wonders why he always has a sore head! He found the concept of drinking water rather odd and was surprised to find that it made his headaches go away. Only took 28 years for him to realise this....

There's been a bit of romance in the air recently - Fidel has taken a fancy to Felista who owns the shop across the road where we get our laundry soap from and other random things. Most days we find him sitting outside her shop drinking soda and then later, he denies he was ever there, not knowing we saw him! Mama Helen has already planned his wedding for him and we've all been invited to come back in September for it. Poor Fidel - it's all got a bit out of control! What was just a joke has gone perhaps a little too far. Now for another romance. Esther has taken a liking to the carpenter who we've been working with to make the windows for Bethsaida. He's called Leonard, though we all call him by his nickname - expert (because he's our expert carpenter). There's always a lot of excitement when he comes to the house on Mama Expert's (Esther's) part...it's all a bit of a joke though and nothing serious. The other day when we were coming back from town we wanted to get a photo of Leonard's workshop just for Esther so we got Jimmy to pull over. There was a stupid motorcyclist though who decided to undertake us just at that moment and he was knocked off the road, much to Jimmy's shock. He was okay but we all felt so bad because if we hadn't wanted to take that photo it wouldn't have happened :S What can I say, Tanzanian drivers are a bit reckless.

Now that isn't the end of the romances...Mr Steven from Stazia has taken a liking for Esther. I mean who couldn't love a man who is vertically challenged, drowned by a yellow tshirt and has a fetish for wearing caps?! I think he's been telling the whole neighbourhood that we go to his pub and they all flock in to see the "wazungu"...we're used to it now though and I'm sure it does a lot for his business!

There's so much else that's happened but I just don't have enough time to write it all down. Just one thing though - we decided to go to the internet one day so Lucas walked us into Mbezi to find an internet cafe. Now this was a Sunday so we didn't think it was going to be open, but Lucas was adamant. Also, that may get a bit tedious so I'll just skip to our Graduation Party. I'm writing this 3 weeks after I got back so my recollection may not be great...

All of us had dresses made for us by a tailor when we got to Dar so they'd be ready by our graduation. We all got a go of trying to sew Tanzanian style, pretty much like home, and Beth had great fun getting herself tied in nots. The material we were using is this horrible mossy green colour with a strange pattern on it made up of little pictures of keys (I think) - bit like the curtains used for the kids clothes in the Sound of Music. Very tribal indeed. When our dresses came and we all tried them on we looked like the Von Trapp family singers...gave us a good laugh and at least we all looked as stupid as each other! One thing that was good though was that the dresses were quite roomy so we could eat as much food as we liked in the evening, which was just as well because Lucas and Fidel had been cooking all day in the kitchen. We helped out a bit by sorting out the rice and getting rid of all the bad bits...that's one thing that is good about home - pre-packaged, sorted through rice! Being my messy self, I'm not sure if more rice ended up in the pan or on the floor :S

After dinner, we all got our Graduation certificates (like being back at school!) and had lots of speeches and photos and such. Theeeeeen...we had some Konyagi time :) As usual, we ended up at Stazia with Mr Steven, who later tried to get off with Esther and decided to recruit Nat as a barmaid. All in all, a good night!

On Tuesday, Kira and Beth went home...it was rather weird only having 4 of us in the car on the way home :( As much as I tried to keep my composure, the old water works came out too leaving me looking even redder than I normally do in the heat. On a funnier note, we got stuck in a gigantic traffic jam so instead of wasting time waiting in the car, Fidel and Lucas decided to jump out and do a bit of shopping at the market by the side of the road. You can get anything you need at one of these markets - underwear, belts, shoes, chairs etc. You don't even have to get out of the car in Dar to go shopping because salesmen walk in between the cars trying to sell anything from tea towels to electric mosquito swatters. Just normal behaviour in your average day in Tanzania....

We got up really early (4am!) the next morning to avoid the traffic jams so we'd get to our ferry to Zanzibar on time. We ended up arriving around half 5 which was an hour and a half before our ferry left! At least we arrived though seeing as our taxi driver took us to the fishing port instead of the ferry port to begin with :S I don't think any of us were in a terribly good mood that morning having been dumped on the doorstep of a closed ferry port in the dark, with all our possessions and loads of scary men trying to talk to us. Looking back now though, the men were probably just being friendly and the whole experience was actually quite funny! All worth it to get to Zanzibar though :)

Our rooms at the hostel in Zanzibar were quite basic, though nothing we weren't used to. I was actually quite upset about having a shower with running water - I had my heart set on one last bucket shower! It was amaaaazing being able to just walk about 20 seconds and find yourself at the sea already. Our end of the beach was really cute as well because all the big hotels were further along, more near Nungwi beach where there's been a lot of development. All the locals hung out down at our end, making fishing boats during the day and in the evening, sitting outside on our veranda. In the morning, at low tide, you'd see loads of people out on the sand flats where the water would normally be really deep...not exactly sure what they were doing, but I think it may have been seaweed farming.

We managed to make quite a few friends within a few hours of arriving, including this hilarious Maasai warrior who rushed away to change into his surfer shorts (yes, you hear right) when he saw we were swimming. He seemed to develop a habit of speaking in a really high pitched voice over the time we were there! Within a few hours, we had also learnt some Zanzibari phrases like "kachezi kama ndezi" which means "crazy like a banana" and a little rhyme (like Rafiki in the Lion King...I was so happy to hear they actually say this!) which went "Asante sana, squashed banana, don't say hapana!".

One day we decided to go on a snorkelling trip to Mnemba Island and met this reallllly arrogant guy called "Tiger" who thought he was the most hilarious person in the world and made some awful attempts at poetry. The snorkelling was amazing though and I saw a Dory fish like in Finding Nemo! It took around 2 hours to get to the reef and it was really rocky so I felt very sick and just lay on the deck sunbathing (or rather burning to a crisp). The island that the reef was next to is apparently $1200 to stay on a night and there's a $300 fine if you dare step on the beach...EEK. The place is so beautiful though and the water couldn't be any bluer or clearer than it was. Another friend of ours, Jimmy-hukuhuku-dukuduku-something or other (otherwise known as Mohammed), told us that Will Smith, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Gates have all stayed there at some point.

Most days we just lazed around on the beach and ate lots of yummy seafood - funnily enough, I thought I was fed up of rice but ended up having it nearly every day because I've found I actually do really like it. There were 2 really nice restaurants up in the village that did cheaper food than on the beach (though the beach restaurants were cheap in comparison to the UK). One restaurant, which didn't have a name, did a full main course of fish and rice for 3000Tsh which is only £2! Down on the beach, the water was soooo warm and clear and there was even hardly any jellyfish! Even if you do come across one they're not that big compared to ones here and thankfully, there's also no sharks either which is always a good thing. Apparently in 2002 or something there were a series of shark attacks off the coast of Dar, which I'd rather I hadn't known!

Best part of the few days we were there was the beach party at Kendwa Rocks - not full moon annoyingly but it was still a crazy night. Basically, by the end of the night it was just us and all the locals dancing to lots of obscure Tanzanian music! Then when we went back to the hostel there were some guys following us so I ran into Esther's and my room and locked the door really quickly, forgetting that Esther was still outside. I then fell asleep so Esther just slept in Libby and Nat's room until she got fed up and started banging our door down. She was there for like 30 mins until I finally woke up! Being my stupid self, I forgot where I put the room key so had to start winding up my headtorch to find it, not realising we actually had a light I could have turned on!

After 5 days at Kendwa, we went off to Stone Town to do all our souvenir shopping. Typical me leaving it till the last day to get all my presents! Shopping in Stone Town is soooo stressful because of all the people trying to sell you things. Also, it's so much more expensive than the mainland and people tried to rip us off a lot, not realising that we knew better. Generally if you go to the shops in the lesser known streets and make an effort with your Swahili, you can get everything pretty cheap. That evening we went down to Forodhani gardens on the seafront where there's a food market held every night and stuffed ourselves silly with lobster, naan bread stuff, lots of different types of fish, samosas...you name it. There was also a man making sugar cane and ginger juice which was so yummy. To make it he squeezed the juice out of the sugar cane using a big mangle type thing, like you use to wring out clothes. The best thing we had though was this amazing chocolate nutella and mango pancake, which is not like a pancake as you know it. It was all crispy and gooey and so cheap as well at less than a pound.

Next morning, we desperately ran around the shops looking for last minute souvenirs...I even did a bit of shopping on my way to the ferry port with my big backpack on my back! I think I nearly died having to carry my heavy bag through the narrow winding streets in over 30 degree heat with too many clothes on (you have to cover up because Zanzibar is primarily Muslim).

Now for the fun we had a Dar airport! I don't think the guy who checked us in had a clue what he was doing because he put Esther's bag through on the conveyor belt before it had even been tagged. If we hadn't noticed, her bag could have ended up in Timbuktu or something for all we knew! I took great pleasure in being able to join the resident queue (because of our permits) to have our passports checked, even if no one else was there!

All in all the journey home was AWFUL because we had to get the ferry to Dar, a taxi to Dar airport, a flight to Nairobi (waited there a few hours), a flight to Heathrow and then I had to wait 8 hours for a flight back to Glasgow. I think if I had been in a competition to see how many modes of transport you can use in a day, I would have won first prize. Luckily Kira met me at Heathrow and we went to Hyde Park and ate cake...as you do. London couldn't have been more different than Tanzania with all the fancy stone buildings, people riding on horseback through the park and the deafening silence on the tube...it was sooooo weird...not forgetting the contrasting freezing temperatures! I knew you could get culture shock, but not in reverse! When we were landing in London, everything looked so grey and regimented, with all the houses neatly laid out and such. All I wanted was to go back to Tanzania at that point! It was really funny being nervous about going back to the UK, I hate to think what it would have been like if we had been away for a year or more.

Well, I have no more to tell now and even if this entry was rather late (a month and a half to be exact...OOPS) I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures and I didn't bore you too much! Off to the French Riviera tomorrow to start work with Canvas Holidays on a campsite...time to work on that tan.

For the last time, Kwaheri xxxxxxx

"It's Kili time...make the most of it!"

christine_mckenna — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:34:00 GMT

Sorry I haven’t been on here in aaaaaages…I’ve become a bit lazy of late and really can’t be bothered when it’s a 35 degrees inferno outside :(

From the title of the blog, you can guess it’s about Kili. That slogan is EVERYWHERE and is an advertisement for Kili beer…they’re obsessed with it! We started climbing to the roof of Africa (Kili if you don’t know!) on the 5^th May I think…6 days of absolute hell in which many of us wondered what the hell we were doing up there – but totally worth it for those immense views at the top. There were loads of glaciers everywhere and you could see right into the big crater as well as across to Mawenzi peak which looks much scarier and more jagged than Uhuru peak. Our guide, Jerry, tried to climb it when he was 18 with NO climbing equipment – made it 3 quarters of the way up but had to abandon it because it was too dangerous…he’s absolutely crazaaaay. Most of the days we climbed it didn’t really feel like we were climbing Kili, just a jaunt in the park really (well I say that now). Then on summit night we had to get up at 11pm and leave at midnight in the pitch black to go up a gigantic, massively steep scree slope which I thought we were certain to fall to our death on. Because there was hardly any light around us the sky was really clear and you could see all the stars properly, shooting stars being really quite frequent – totally out of this world. The path was quite zigzagged so at each corner we all thought – this must be the last one! But of course, there were about 200 other turns after that. It took us 5 and a half hours to get to Gilmans Point which is at the top of the steep slope – after that it’s much less steep but a bit more scary because of the sheer cliff face to your right which plummets into the crater. Nerve racking much?! At this point, my torch ran out of charge (makes a really annoying mosquito like noise when you charge it up and it may have cause a bit of annoyance!) so I kept falling over and had to be hauled up by Whitey and Joseph, our porters. We all felt dead at this point too and extremely sick from the altitude and making yourself walk up higher is just so mentally and physically exhausting. Enough of the bad stuff though…we made it to the top at 6.40am which was about 10 minutes after sunrise. Only spent like 10 minutes at the top because it was so cold and we just wanted to get down…did the obligatory photo and all that – I leaned against the sigh and one of the posts fell down. Oops! Was pretty awesome being able to say you were at the highest point in Africa (5895m), though I was too tired to appreciate it fully at the time.

You would think that coming back down would be a relief but I would say it was one of the worst parts. All we could think about was getting to the top but once that’s done, you realize you have to walk all that way again – quite soul destroying though we were all on quite a high. It was fun coming down the scree slop initially because you just kinda ski down it with your hiking poles, falling over quite a lot I must admit. Coming down we also met a woman we spoke to earlier, called Olga, who is the last person you’d expect to be climbing Kili. She had bleach blonde hair and great big long extensions, false nails and all that…but she was a complete daredevil. She was on business in Dar and just decided on the spur of the moment to do it all by herself…crazy I think and pretty admirable. She was quite a character and pops pills like nothing on earth – I think she kinda overdosed on the diamox (altitude pills) a bit too much, though she felt absolutely fine. All the way up on summit night though she was being sick and she was still going when we had got to the top and were coming back down. We never did find out if she made it L I reckon she may have, or perhaps just made it to Gilman’s Point which is pretty impressive in itself. It was rather nice coming back down and seeing people on their way up (not being mean or anything!)…just nice to be on the other side of the boat kinda. I feel really really sorry for those poor porters though climbing up with about 3 gigantic bags on there back and some of them with them on their heads! They are complete machines and utterly amazing. It’s a shame because they get paid hardly anything :(

Oh I forgot to say, our bus broke down on the way there and started emitting black smoke everywhere. We thought we were going to have to start the trek early but half an hour later, after it had cooled down, we got it started again. I was convinced it was going to blow up…luckily it didn’t. How many times have we broken down now? Like 5 or something!

When we got back down we had a biiig party for us Kili lot, Kira’s birthday and Dipesh’s graduation. In the afternoon we watched the goat we were eating being slaughtered and skinned and all that…not for the squeamish that’s all I can say. Believe it or not, they actually eat the goat’s balls and we tried some…revolting! Libs liked them..dunno how – they were all pasty and pretty tasteless. Not nice at all. Then, for some odd reason, we were each fed cake by a man and I got it all over my face, as did the others. Dunno why, but it was fun! Then we all had speeches and it was all a bit too emotional, never mind that we had climbed a mountain. Konyagi was much needed.

On to Dar es Salaam…..the journey took like 10 hours and gradually got hotter and smellier as we went. Dar is gigantic and the road is far to narrow for the traffic…it is like one gigantic traffic jam! There’s just people everywhere and it’s veeeeery dusty and like 35 degrees C. I have never sweated so much in my life. Lucas and Fidel (the cooks) seemed to have made their cooking much saltier…probably to make up for the buckets of sweat we have lost.

For the 1^st week we were painting at an orphanage called Don Bosco. The manager of the place seems to have a lot on his mind and far too little money to fund the place. There are a couple of permanent volunteers there though who teach English which is good. The kids there are amazing…there is a particularly cute girl called Asinati who always has a pretty dress on every day and is always smiling or laughing :) And then there’s Micky who knows he is like the cutest kid ever and milks it for all it’s worth. Oh I miss them :(

Caught a daladala for the 1st time in Dar the other day..was absolutely crazaaaaay! Had to cross a gigantic road and find the right bus in the middle of like 100 other buses, not helped by all the men following you around trying to sell you stuff. We made friends with John, the bus conductor, who sat down next to my smiled and raised his eyebrows – creepy! Then said, “Telephone number”. His English wasn’t up to much but he did try. We got off to early so got drenched in the rain then he picked us back up and dropped us off right next to the house…so sweet.

Almost forgot! Drum roll please…..we saw Sean Kingston in Bilicanas Club the other night, at his after party after a gig. He stood eating a steakburger then proceeded to dance (or perhaps waddle) along to a few of his songs. He is like, the coolest man on this planet :P

We also went to a pub across the road where there was a Heineken beer promotion going on and there was a dance off between loads of women where they basically flaunted everything they had and had money thrown at them….slightly uncomfortable for us :S

Oh I cam down with Malaria on Sunday - was all quite exciting...not sure if that's the right word. We had a fun excursion to the hospital to have a blood test...it was quite basic but clean nonetheless. I didn't really feel that bad - just a fever. I kept my test paper to put in my diary haha! Just used it as an excuse to eat lots and lots of chocolate :) Can’t believe we only have 2 weeks left then Zanzibar then home! It’s gone so quickly but I suppose these things always do.

Miss you all,

Kwaheri xxxxx

How many Maasai men does it take to fix a flat tyre?

christine_mckenna — Mon, 3 May 2010 17:11:00 GMT

So our car has broken down on the way to Moshi and we have nothing else to do – dunno how long it will take to fix a car in Africa as they don’t seem to have much of a clue! On our way back from Serengeti, the car broke down as well so we had to push our gigantic four wheel drive UPHILL for about 400m to get it to start. Got it on the 6^th try but not until some African men stopped to help – they’re strong these Africans. At least we provided amusement for the onlookers at the side of the road – must admit, must have been pretty hilarious seeing a bunch of mzungu (white) girls failing miserably at pushing a car. Ach well, it was an experience. We also had 2 flat tyres during the same trip and had to get some Maasai men to help – now not many people could say that had happened to them.

Serengeti was AMAZING – we saw all of the big 5. Most impressive was seeing a lioness about 1m away from as just chilling beside the road. When she turned to look at us I swear she was going to jump into the car – obviously she didn’t because I’m still here. Also so a male and female lion mating twice – was absolutely hilarious…I’ll leave the sound effects to your own imaginations. Apparently, Vincent our guide said at this time of year they mate every half hour for 14 days.....pretty tiring I should think! Vincent was realllllly funny and told us some interesting (and very different) facts. Like hippos and elephants have their balls inside of them and male zebras can have 5 legs at time (think you can guess)!

We also got to see a proper African sunrise which was pretty magical as well as seeing the clear skies at night with the millions of stars. You could actually see the moon rising in the sky and it was so big and bright that it was light outside – realllly weird. The landscape was amazing too and in the middle of the plains it just went on forever and ever – the Serengeti is the size of England so pretty mahoosive. Also, the wildebeest migration is currently in the centre of the Serengeti so we got to see that. There were millions and millions (no joke) as far as the eye could see, so much so that it was basically black and you couldn’t see the ground.

Our campsite at Ngorongoro Crater was on the rim so you could see right into the crater below from our tent. It was indescribable and my photos just don’t do it justice. An elephant came into our campsite too and some stupid German people (I think) decided to go up really close - their guide had to get them to come away because it might have charged at them. I had my camera out ready to video it trampling them as well – would have been a good one (though not so good for them). In the crater it was reaaallly wet and cold and windy. I felt quite at home actually because the flowers looked a bit like Heather and the weather was very appropriate – it could have been Scotland if I hadn’t know. Though the elephants and rhinos and all the other animals might look a bit out of place at home I guess. We actually brought our sleeping bags with us in the safari van so we could keep warm - we must have looked ridiculous standing in our sleeping bags looking like caterpillars…at least we were warm!

Oh I forgot in my last blog entry – when we came back from the New Outlook centre the other week we saw a man attacking another guy in his car in the centre of the road. He opened the car door with a crow bar and then started whacking the other guy’s head against the door, much to the amusement of the people in the street. They were all laughing but we were quite alarmed…wish I had videoed it though I’m not sure Mum and Dad would appreciate seeing that. I know you’re worried about me anyway Mum but it doesn’t happen all the time!

Also, another thing not for you to read Mum, last night when we got back from a meal out we got on a really full daladala and had to stand on the step next to the door (the door was open naturally). We were actually hanging out the side and all the Africans inside found it hilarious…as did we.

Gotta go now so I guess the next time I’ll be on will be after Kili. We start the climb on Wednesday – all seems a bit unreal. Wish me luck!

Kwaheri xxxx

TIA (This is Africa)!

christine_mckenna — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 23:54:00 GMT

So....too much to tell and not enough time to say it all :S

Quite alot has happened since my last update so here it goes. On Monday we were continuing with doing up the boys dorms at CCF, putting skirting boards on the ceiling, puttying and painting the dormitory. It looks soooo much lighter now and all the boys are really happy with it. Aron, who is 17, is quite a character and let's just say, very very deep. He wrote us a 2 sided letter of his own life story and his thanks...I think we have Tanzania's next greates philosopher in our midst! It was sad leaving, but we will still being seeing them on Saturday for our party we're holding for them and the Maasai elders from Olkakola. There's an especially cute boy who is called Nuru - he can't speak any English so Kalinda who volunteers at CCF (from the January team) has sponsored him so he can go to school.

On Wednesday we went to a place called Hope Nursery next to the Usa River. Here we drew charts for the kids of different animals, a world map, weather etc. for them to put on their walls. The kids was SOOOO cute and there was one wee boy who had the cheesiest grin ever! When he was asked to sing for us though he went all shy. Literally every time you get your camera out, all the kids run towards you and you get squished onto the floor...it's crazzzy! I would quite like to go back to teach there sometime if I ever come back to Tanzania.

On Thursday and Friday, we visited the New Outlook Centre which is an orphanage in a small village outside of Arusha. There are 28 kids ( I think) and 4 of them have no parents because of HIV. The manager of the centre is looking to expand it so that the orphans can all live at the centre instead (they currently only come for day care). And that's why we were building beds today (putting Standard Grade Craft and Design to use!), sawing and smoothing down the wood - hard work! We then went to the orphanage to say goodbye and have some barbecued lamb, which was amazing seeing as we hardly EVER have meat. Felt a bit bad though, cos we brought the kids food yesterday as they are really really short on money :(

Last night was our last Via Via night :( It wasn't raining this time which is a complete miracle, though I think it somehow adds to the atmosphere. Yet again, lots of Konyagi was consumed and one too many shots...all finished with a WHOLE barbecued chicken between us! Only had 4 hours sleep.....oopsies.

Oooo forgot to say...went for a chinese on wednesday night at the Everest Inn (total culture class - chinese food in Tanzania at a place named after and Indian Mountain? Confused). It was soooo cheap and came to under 10 pounds a head....Oh how I'll miss the cheap prices when I get home. Had smoked duck with pancakes - mmmm...meat! Getting home was a complete laugh...got on a daladala which took us to a stop which we didn't even want to go to (was scary too because all the med were trying to talk to us then they tried to overcharge us :S). Then when we were walking back, a motorcycle came along the road and swerved at us so Libs fell down a hole into a river then Nats fell down with her and now has cuts all over. I then tried to reach for Libby's hand but nearly fell down with her....Mum and Dad and all relatives - hope you're not reading this! What can I say...TIA (this is Africa).

Have a hectic few weeks ahead of us.....gonna be exhausted by the end of it. We go to Lake Manyara on Sunday and on Mon and Tues, we will be making a chicken hut and plastering at a nearby orphanage. We're staying at a safari camp in tent (scarrrrry) for those nights which will be pretty awesome. On Wednesday we then have a game drive around Lake Manyara and in the evening, a BIG party where we're going to slaughter a goat and cook it together (not so sure about that part!). Thursday to Sunday, we're going on safari to the Serengeti and then Ngorongoro - can't wait! We'll be camping in the middle of the bush, and apparently you sometimes hear breathing next to your tent (AKA Lions :S) and you're meant to stay quiet...I mean - how on earth can you stay calm?! Anyway....will be an......experience shall I say. Can't wait to see some elephants.

After that we're going to Moshi and for the first part of the week we're working VERY long days at a deaf school, doing up their kitchen. Then...."it's Kili time! Make the most of it" (Kili beer slogan which is virtually EVERYWHERE). Feel sorry for me up on the cold roof of Africa, with crappy chocolate :( Will be amazing though when we get to the top - hopefully it will be full moon with clear skies so we can see below!

I have to go now - only 3 mins left so Kwaheri! Miss you all xxxxx

Hakuna Matata!

christine_mckenna — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:38:00 GMT

Jambo everyone from sunny Tanzania!

Sorry about the late blog entry...it's taken us quite while to find an Internet cafe that actually has a fast enough connection to load up a page in less than half an hour! Also, I just loast the whole of my blog entry cause the connection went for a second so this wwon't be as detailed as my last one.

Africa is AMAZING and everything you would expect it to be. Everywhere you go you round up a fanclub of streetvendors who always want to sell you something or you attract a group of little kids who all want to wave and say hello! I just love it :) Everyone is so friendly and the atmosphere is indescribable - you have to be here to understand.

Our 1st project was up in a Maasai village called Olkakola on the slopes of Mount Meru. It is absolutely stunning up there...so green and lush with little kids everywhere and people working in the fields. The 1st time we went we met the Maasai Chief who took us to his house for lunch and some coca cola and fanta - not exactly what you'd expect to do in a traditional round clay house with a thatched roof! We spent that week roofing the school and we also had a day teaching the kids. There are 1000 pupils and only 7 teachers - one calss has 120 pupils so the extra classroom is much needed. I was amazed how wel I coped with teaching a calss of 70/80 kids. I think they especially enjoyed my Geog lesson about Scotland in which I taught them the Highland Fling...they were in hysterics!

We've now moved on to working at CCF which is a street children centre 45 mins outside Arusha. It is extremely run down and lacks funding - the younger kids dorm is expecially upsetting because the mattresses are all ripped and there are holes in the roof and big damp patches. They also only have one mosquito net so we are going to leave our ones with the kids before we go home to the Uk :) We have already painted the lounge for the kids so it looks MUCH brighter and have started putting skirting boards up ont he ceiling of their rooms so no drafts come in. Hopefully we'll also get round to painting too.

Now for some news about all the free time stuff we've been doing. Last weekend it was Jacquina's (Mathius' daughter) christening so we had all the family round for a huge party. We had lots and lotsssss of food including 2 goats which they slaughtered especially :( It was the most random thing ever when we went to the goat market after one of our project days and took home 2 goats in the back of the van...only in Africa! As much as I felt bad about eating the goat...it was amazing! All washed down with far too much Konyagi (like gin but cheaper - only 4500 TSh which is like just over 2 pounds for a bottle)! We then went onto Masai camp ( a club) and drank even more - big mistake :( All good fun though. And yes, to those who are thinking it, they do have a nightlife in Tanzania too and there is such a thing as clubs!

Don't have much time now....AHHHH! Went to the market today which is so crazy because you have to haggle for everything and EVERYONE wants you to come to their shop! I got a nice African scarf though and Kiki got some material and went to a tailors to get it fitted into a dress. She's picking it up on Tues so hopefully she'll like it. If it's nice I'm going to get one too :)

We're going to a pool party tonight with a big barbecue too - can't wait! Oohhh it's a hard life here in Tanzania.

Must go now so Kwaheri (Goodbye)! xxxxxx

Tanzania here I comeeeeeee

christine_mckenna — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:30:00 GMT

AHHH there is a blizzard outside! Not exactly what you would expect at the end of March - even in Scotland! Let's just hope the whole of Scotland doesn't come to a standstill...missing my flight would be EEEEK :(

Anyway....I've officially finished my packathon which took like 8 hours! Typical me...I didn't start packing till today (yes, the day before I leave!) and also didn't buy all my things till a few days ago - whoooooops :S All packed now, though my bag is literally higher than my head and it's hard not to fall flat on my back with it on - not a cool look in the middle of London Heathrow!

I have a zillion things to be doing right now so don't know why I'm faffing around on the internet...suppose I'm just getting a last dose of facebook before I go cold turkey. Facebook will actually be my downfall one day!

Bye for now and keep following me!

P.S. Please remember I exist, even if I am at the other side of the world :P BYEEEEEEEE xxxxxx