Happy New Year

Despite the passing of Christmas with fun and celebrations, I still found it hard to believe that it was the end of another year, and my first whole year in Tanzania (ok, well that doesn't finish until Jan 20th, but close enough). Was it the lack of freezing cold temperatures? The complete absence of Christmas hype and shopping? Or maybe just what I don't want to realise - that as predicted by all my elders and betters for years, I am starting to understand that time goes faster as you grow up. Not that I have grown up, at least I like to think I haven't. Still, I guess I have been doing some pretty independent things for a 23 year old kid, maybe I should recap some of the adventures of New Year for you.

Christmas day came and went (as explained in an earlier post), and on the 28th we found that we had to arise at the unearthly hour of 5am in order to get to a bus from Dodoma to Iringa. Thankfully we had booked tickets in advance, and the journey was quite uneventful. Our bus seemed to be the slowest on the road though, and many another bus overtook us on the way, but to be honest I am quite happy if we go 'slow' (this being the speed limit of 80km/hr). I was especially pleased that we didn't break down, a very frequent occurence for the poor overworked buses. Anyway, we arrived in Iringa, having been kindly dropped off at the top of the campsite road, and picked up by the manager, Will. Our days in Iringa were quite uneventful; spent relaxing in the evenings, and during the day mooching around Iringa and lunching at Neema crafts. I sneakily decided to reduce my baggage upon leaving Iringa, and posted some belated Christmas presents and 2 very early birthday presents - a relief to my overburdened suitcase! It was good to be back in Iringa and see the familiar sights, while not having to learn Swahili! Rachel and I shared a tent (something I am VERY glad we didn't have to do for the 4 months living at the campsite) this time, and we hung out with Amy and her sister Marcy for most of the time.

Moving on, we saw Marcy off to take the bus to Dar, and we travelled down to Mbeya. This was our shortest journey yet (by bus) at only 5 hours, and we were happy to be at the front of the bus with a decent amount of leg stretching room. We were greeted at the bus station by Matt and Olly, and escorted to the Catholic guest house close to town where we were staying. It was a pretty bare sort of place, but quite adequate for our time there. Sadly I did seem to have some sort of allergic reaction to my rug, and sneezed quite often when in my room! Since we had travelled to Mbeya on the 31st, we had only a few hours before we were to party the New Year in, which we did at Katherine's house along with other good friends from training in England/the Mbeya team. It was a surprisingly English crew, with only 2 of the 8 of us Canadians and the rest English. We saw the New Year in with a wonderful pork roast with apple sauce, crumble, chocolate and, of course, games. We heard a few fireworks, but couldn't see any, though the most prominent sound we could hear after 12pm was a siren of some sort (deliberately rung for the New Year, not because of any crime situation or fire).

The following few days were spent with our Mbeya friends, one of them at Utengule coffee lodge (where I went for my Easter break from language school). We had a very lovely time there, despite the rain that fell every day and occasionally feeling cold (!), and were sad to leave on the 3rd, not least because we were leaving on a 12 hour bus journey (which stretched into about 14 hours on the bus in the end). Still, we arrived safely in Dar, and again safely in Musoma (we flew back again), having had a very good time with lots of friends over the break. It wasn't always particularly relaxing, with all the travelling, but the times when we weren't travelling made up for it all!

During my time on holiday, I realised that you can't take a holiday from life and cultural expectations. Much as I wanted to pretend I was 'letting my hair down' for a bit, I was still in Tanzania, and still subject to the many requests for money, and the need to think in Swahili. Ah well, it is probably just as well that I didn't have a 3 week break from it all, or it would be all the more alarming to go back to! I did realise though, that I didn't get called 'mzungu' as often anywhere else I travelled as I do when I go around Musoma - maybe one day I'll learn to find it a compliment as many Tanzanians have told me it is supposed to be (the kids are proud to have seen a mzungu, so I guess it is not meant to be annoying as I seem to often take it!).

So, it's back to work now for a while, let's hope the Christmas break will keep me fired up until my next holiday in May!