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
