On Monday we found that our class had Ishmael, for the first time. We had a good lesson, dealing with some leftover grammar bits and pieces, and conjunctions. In the afternoon we went into town to go and have an official Tanzanian sight test prior to getting the Tanzanian drivers license. The sight test took about 10 seconds (no joke): cover up one eye after another and read the same line of letters – I mean, if you could read them the first time, then you would be able to remember them for the second time!! Still, we paid 5,000 for the privilege of the stamped bit of paper, and it greatly reduced waiting times the next day. At first we were worried we wouldn’t get the test, as one man said we could but then the receptionist flatly told us to come back tomorrow.
Before our trip into town, I managed to miss a bit of excitement in the centre of the camp, as a snake dropped out of a tree right in front of baby Daniel and one of the kids. Thankfully, it wasn’t in a bad mood, even though it had just fallen out of a tree.
On Tuesday, some of us went into town again, this time with Ishmael, to go to the Tanzanian Revenue Authority to get a driver’s license. I went along, since I realised that it would be a good idea, and would keep my options open for driving other people’s cars. We had no real problems at the TRA, though they were at first unwilling to even think about it, but after we handed over the documents, we soon walked out with provisional licenses. Since we only had provisional licenses, we were required to go then to the police station and get the full licenses approved. When we got there, we found our plans foiled, as in typical African style, they had run out of the fancy official paper they needed to use for the licenses, so we got turned away at the last step – grrrr!
We had the fun task of ordering 140ish jars of jam this week. This is to keep us missionaries happy when we travel to our specific locations. This is apparently the best jam we will get in Tanzania, and I agree, it is pretty tasty! I have never had pineapple or grape jam before, but they are very nice.
Other events of the week include the very rude attack on me by a stick which somehow I managed to upset. It came and attacked my foot as I was innocently walking back from the toilet, and gave me a rather nasty cut right where my flip-flops go. Rude, I tell you.
We had the joyous task of each doing a 30 minute presentation on Friday also. This was to be chosen from a variety of topics, and in the end, despairing of thinking of anything interesting, I chose to do a piece about the lesser well known animals of Tanzania. Obviously, it was in Swahili, and managed to go reasonably well, but I did fumble more than I would have liked. Thankfully it was only in front of half the class.
Plans are progressing for our safari to Ruaha National Park next week, so we look set to go from next Thursday to Friday.
Saturday, 26 April 2008
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Museums and Orphanages
This week started by being pretty uneventful, though very funny at times. We have Tunku as teacher this week, which is a first for me. He has started making us pray in the morning (in Swahili) before the lesson, so when my turn came, I had my prayer all planned out in the shower, but when it came to pray it went completely out of my head, and I started to talk in English at one point! We have also been studying some Bible stories. One day we had a hilarious moment when Julia was relating the story of the woman with an evil spirit to us (evil spirit = pepo mbaya), and ended up talking about the woman with bad wind (upepo mbaya).
We also had our usual cultural trip on Friday, this time to the museum commemorating Mtwa Mkwawa - Chief Mkwawa of the Hehe tribe (who originate from Iringa area). In the museum, we got to see artifacts from his life, but although they were behind glass to start with, the guide got them out to pass them round for us to handle – very definitely not something that would happen in a Western museum! Mkwawa was chief from 1878 until 1898, and was famous for being very warrior-like, and for a victory against the Germans in which 500 of them were killed. This was during German colonisation when the Germans had refused to cooperate with Mkwawa and had just established themselves at Iringa town. Later, he built a fort to defend himself from their retribution, but 3 years later the fort was overtaken and Mkwawa had to flee. He lived in a cave for a long time, but was betrayed by some of his men who had been bribed. He killed his bodyguard then himself, to deny the Germans the satisfaction of capturing him. His skull was taken to Germany until it was returned to Tanzania in 1954.
Anyway, on Saturday, I also had an eventful day. During the afternoon I went with some of the other students to Ilula Orphanage to play volleyball and football with them. I have to say I went with rather a bad attitude, not wanting to be there, but the girls were great and we had a great laugh as we tried to teach them the basics of volleyball. Needless to say it was rather chaotic, and balls went flying everywhere, but they seemed to have fun. Halfway through, we had a soda break, and everyone went round toasting each other with their bottle, wishing each other "maisha marefu" - long life. After playing some more, with different girls this time (we had to go through the teaching again), they treated us to two songs, one of which was about AIDs being dangerous - a bit random as entertainment, but understandable if you consider that this is how most of them lost their parents. After, they started dancing in a circle, with a few in the middle. During that dance, we each had a turn being pulled into the middle to dance, much to the amusement of the girls. It certainly helped me get over my selfishness of not having wanted to go in the first place, when faced with such gratitude that we came at all.
Sunday, 13 April 2008
Birthdays and car accidents
Last Saturday I went for another extended trip to town for girly outing to do internet and have lunch at Neema. The girls were lovely and treated me to my lunch as a birthday present, which was very nice! I sampled another of the wonderful sandwiches that they serve there, and was enjoying some passionfruit juice until a fly decided to die in it – oh the joys of Africa!
Sunday was another international church service day. The sermon was about loving each other, something which we had to put into practice not 2 hours later, travelling back to the campsite, all getting on each others’ nerves – communal living can be tough sometimes!
This week our class had Khadija again, which was good because we like her. We were very happy to learn that we didn’t have any homework on Monday, and I was able to spend some of the afternoon teaching some of the Tanzanian women to ride a bike. This was pretty hilarious, since we didn’t really remember well how we learnt, and we had to teach with mime and limited Swahili. I discovered that there are still lots of things I don’t know how to say. In the end, one of the girls picked it up pretty fast, another was well on the way to getting the hang of it, and another ran away after the first try. That evening we had a bit of a shock, as Amanda and Will got us all together to tell us that one of the teachers’ cars had had an accident – their car had lost a wheel or something, and spun a few times off the road. Thankfully the teachers were not badly hurt, but it meant that some would be off for a while, recovering.
Tuesday; my birthday! I woke up at my usual time, and opened my cards before going to breakfast and class as normal. Today, due to the lack of teachers, I joined with another class. I was very surprised to learn that two of the teachers shared my birthday! We learnt about the hypothetical conditional tense “If I had... then I would have...” and had many good laughs. At chai-time, I found a birthday sign hanging in the dining room, which looked like it was made by the kids, which was really lovely of them. The rest of the morning passed as usual, but seemed to slow down in the last hour as I got fed up of working on my birthday, and wanted lunch. I think that is the first birthday I have had to work on!
The rest of the week passed much as usual, but after that first day I moved back into my usual class, feeling much more comfortable practising speaking with people I am used to learning with. On Friday we had a cultural trip into town, which involved two Maasai coming to talk to us about their way of life. This was fascinating, and we learnt many cool things, then were able to ask questions. Some of us tried to ask in Swahili, and mostly succeeded in getting the idea across, with a little help from the teachers.
On Saturday, I went back to the farm for the first time in ages. This time I decided to take some cake along, as we always forgot before, then felt guilty for not sharing. I therefore spent some time in the morning making some brownies, and they were much enjoyed! In the evening we had an exciting time when the hippo made loud noises by the TV banda, but sadly we couldn’t see him either of the times we went to look.
Church was fun on Sunday, as it started raining partway through, and we had to move our chairs to avoid being dripped on as the roof leaked in random places.
Sunday was another international church service day. The sermon was about loving each other, something which we had to put into practice not 2 hours later, travelling back to the campsite, all getting on each others’ nerves – communal living can be tough sometimes!
This week our class had Khadija again, which was good because we like her. We were very happy to learn that we didn’t have any homework on Monday, and I was able to spend some of the afternoon teaching some of the Tanzanian women to ride a bike. This was pretty hilarious, since we didn’t really remember well how we learnt, and we had to teach with mime and limited Swahili. I discovered that there are still lots of things I don’t know how to say. In the end, one of the girls picked it up pretty fast, another was well on the way to getting the hang of it, and another ran away after the first try. That evening we had a bit of a shock, as Amanda and Will got us all together to tell us that one of the teachers’ cars had had an accident – their car had lost a wheel or something, and spun a few times off the road. Thankfully the teachers were not badly hurt, but it meant that some would be off for a while, recovering.
Tuesday; my birthday! I woke up at my usual time, and opened my cards before going to breakfast and class as normal. Today, due to the lack of teachers, I joined with another class. I was very surprised to learn that two of the teachers shared my birthday! We learnt about the hypothetical conditional tense “If I had... then I would have...” and had many good laughs. At chai-time, I found a birthday sign hanging in the dining room, which looked like it was made by the kids, which was really lovely of them. The rest of the morning passed as usual, but seemed to slow down in the last hour as I got fed up of working on my birthday, and wanted lunch. I think that is the first birthday I have had to work on!
The rest of the week passed much as usual, but after that first day I moved back into my usual class, feeling much more comfortable practising speaking with people I am used to learning with. On Friday we had a cultural trip into town, which involved two Maasai coming to talk to us about their way of life. This was fascinating, and we learnt many cool things, then were able to ask questions. Some of us tried to ask in Swahili, and mostly succeeded in getting the idea across, with a little help from the teachers.
On Saturday, I went back to the farm for the first time in ages. This time I decided to take some cake along, as we always forgot before, then felt guilty for not sharing. I therefore spent some time in the morning making some brownies, and they were much enjoyed! In the evening we had an exciting time when the hippo made loud noises by the TV banda, but sadly we couldn’t see him either of the times we went to look.
Church was fun on Sunday, as it started raining partway through, and we had to move our chairs to avoid being dripped on as the roof leaked in random places.
Saturday, 5 April 2008
Back to studying
So, we went back to work last week. Friday was the official last day of the holidays, and I spent most of it in town enjoying taking time to do things slowly, without rushing. A friend and I therefore went over lunchtime and had lunch at Neema crafts, the place which employs handicapped Tanzanians to make crafts and great food. Since we had gone into town with the supply vehicle, which had left long since, Amy and I decided to take a daladala back to the campsite. We found the right one and got directed to seats at the back. The daladala kept filling up, until there was no aisle anymore (they have fold down seats in the “aisle”) and people were squashing around the door. When we set off, Amy and I worried about the fact that we were at the very back, as the bus was going a lot further than Riverside, to Ilula, so not enough people would get off to make space for us to exit. Our fears were borne out as the daladala continued to pick up people, to the point where they climbed in through the windows to reach minute spaces at the back. People were eventually hanging out of the door, getting splashed as the daladala drove through puddles at 40 miles an hour! When we reached our stop we were faintly worried by the thought that we would have to exit via the window, but were relieved when everyone obliged and moved out of our way.
The weekend was pretty relaxing, with only occasional guilty moments when I realised I should revise some Swahili. Sunday itself was a bizarre day for me, as having not enough spaces in the cars to take us to church, I opted to be the one to stay behind. I had an awesome time though, listening to some sermons I had recorded on a DVD.
Monday; we were back to our same classes, but this time we are in the classroom called mount Kilimanjaro, at the top of the hill overlooking the campsite. This means a little bit of a walk each day, but it is quite nice to have the exercise. Class has been with Vivien, and this week we have covered colours, weather vocab, mahali class (the noun class that deals with locations), stative verbs and causative verb endings. During class on Monday, we were required to do our usual chatting to Tanzanians about the campsite, and during that I managed to have some fun learning (and amusing the Tanzanians) how to walk with something on my head. I am amazed by their ability to carry heavy things, I have seen one carrying an OVEN on his head before! I managed ok with the basket of laundry, but only with one or two hands supporting it.
On April Fools day, we all got an email trying to convince us that they had moved conference to Switzerland, instead of Kenya due to the unrest – I am so gullible, it almost worked!
On Friday, we had a good cultural trip instead of class. We were taken to a school run by some Catholic sisters, and saw how they are taught to make really yummy food, like pasta (the nun who teaches the cooking classes is a diminutive but scary Italian lady who has been in Tanzania for 48 years!) and biscuits. That was a pretty short trip, and after it we went to spend longer at the Matumaini centre – a place which takes in single teenage mothers and teaches them crafts to support themselves with. They had an amazing range of crafts, and produced some beautiful things. We saw batik-dyeing (and tried our hand at tying the cloth ready for dyeing too), clay pot making, weaving (one of us had a go at this and took ages doing 2 rows – they are seriously speedy at it!), making little toys, computer classes, embroidery and knitting. We had a fun time, but were not able to understand everything that was said to us, sadly, so the teachers translated for us.
The weekend was pretty relaxing, with only occasional guilty moments when I realised I should revise some Swahili. Sunday itself was a bizarre day for me, as having not enough spaces in the cars to take us to church, I opted to be the one to stay behind. I had an awesome time though, listening to some sermons I had recorded on a DVD.
Monday; we were back to our same classes, but this time we are in the classroom called mount Kilimanjaro, at the top of the hill overlooking the campsite. This means a little bit of a walk each day, but it is quite nice to have the exercise. Class has been with Vivien, and this week we have covered colours, weather vocab, mahali class (the noun class that deals with locations), stative verbs and causative verb endings. During class on Monday, we were required to do our usual chatting to Tanzanians about the campsite, and during that I managed to have some fun learning (and amusing the Tanzanians) how to walk with something on my head. I am amazed by their ability to carry heavy things, I have seen one carrying an OVEN on his head before! I managed ok with the basket of laundry, but only with one or two hands supporting it.
On April Fools day, we all got an email trying to convince us that they had moved conference to Switzerland, instead of Kenya due to the unrest – I am so gullible, it almost worked!
On Friday, we had a good cultural trip instead of class. We were taken to a school run by some Catholic sisters, and saw how they are taught to make really yummy food, like pasta (the nun who teaches the cooking classes is a diminutive but scary Italian lady who has been in Tanzania for 48 years!) and biscuits. That was a pretty short trip, and after it we went to spend longer at the Matumaini centre – a place which takes in single teenage mothers and teaches them crafts to support themselves with. They had an amazing range of crafts, and produced some beautiful things. We saw batik-dyeing (and tried our hand at tying the cloth ready for dyeing too), clay pot making, weaving (one of us had a go at this and took ages doing 2 rows – they are seriously speedy at it!), making little toys, computer classes, embroidery and knitting. We had a fun time, but were not able to understand everything that was said to us, sadly, so the teachers translated for us.
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