News

Where to start... all is going well in Longido :) School is great, I love the kids and am making progress,albeit slow progress, with my adult class. It is frustrating as some cannot write even in their own language so I have started extra literacy classes to teach them how to read and write. I can't remember what life was like before I came here, I am so settled and don't want to think about leaving (although I still have 2 months before I have to think about saying goodbye).

Last week my friend Bec came up from Arusha and together with my friend Rogarte (a Maasai / Rasta guide) we climbed Mount Longido which was very hard but rewarding. Had a brilliant night camping, singing round the campfire and trying not to worry about the elephants, lions, buffalos and who knows what else that were nearby!

The next day I watched my friends' football match - Longido Warriors -vs- Namanga. Was such an amazing atmosphere, the whole village turned out for the game and it went down to penalties... 2 of my students scored, was a great afternoon. And a beautiful setting for a football match - sunset over the plain was incredible and I had one of those moments when I realise how lucky I am to be here.

The only thing that I would change is the food... those of you who know me well will know that I am not fussy when it comes to food and will eat pretty much anything that is put in front of me. However, after a month of eating ugali, rice, beans, chapatti and goat, the club sandwich I have juts eaten in town never tasted so good!

Another thing is the personal grooming side of things...not normally one for being a girly girl, I am getting a bit sick of wearing same clothes day in day out - and never feeling clean no matter how many bucket showers I take! The dust is just everywhere... but it is all worth it. I have never been a meaterialistic person but here it is taken to new extremes. Most people have less than nothing. To give you an ide, today at school i gave out some little erasers to one of my classes. They were so excited and grateful, it would do children in the UK the world of good to see how lucky they are! Anyway, enough preaching... I am off to the hotel for a well-earned rest and hot shower.

Life in Longido

Firstly I apologise for being slack with the blogging lately - reason being I am really settled in Longido now - very busy and happy with school, friends and adult classes so haven't had time to get on the internet. There are so many things that were alien to me when I arrived three weeks ago, but which are now normal, so I thought i would share some of them with you...

Longido is a really beautiful village overlooked by the imposing Mount Londgido, which I plan to climb when time allows and I have plucked up a sufficient amount of courage! It is extremely dry here, the region is experiencing a drought and it is having a devastating effect on the cows which are so important to the Maasai people.

The village is filled with the most incredible abundance of animals... donkeys, cows, goats, chickens, dogs and cats and geese. There are beautiful birds which I couldn't even begin to identify but the most amazing animals of all are the giraffes which roam the plains surrounding the village. I saw 3 whilst walking home the other day - there are also herds of elephants and buffalos on the mountain - you have to take a warrior guide with you when you go walking in case there are any dangerous animals, including king cobras. Luckily for me i have lots of friends who are maasai warriors so am safe :)

The homestay is great... a western style house but without all the mod con we're used to such as a kitchen, water, electricity, shower or toilet. Yesterday I spent 3 hours down at the 'bomba' -watering hole handwashing my clothes!

My kiswahili is coming along, and I am picking up some kimaasai too to enable me to communicate with many of the villagers (and of course little Issiah). I showed him my i-pod the other day and he was listening to the Beatles 'She loves you' so has been singing it non-stop ever since!

I have started a lunch club at school for the kids to have some fun - singing/drawing/drama and story-telling. They are enjoying doing something a bit different. I want them to use their imaginations, soemthing which isn't really a priority for children here. Children are meant to work, not play...fetch water, firewood, look after goats and cattle, cook, wash etc so I am keen for them to be creative.

This is Africa

The last few days have been a learning experience - welcome to the african way! I am meant to be assisting for the time being in english classes every morning at primary school, and teaching 2 classes for adults every afternoon. However, despite my very professional advertising (posters I made with some of the guys from class), attendance at the afternoon classes hasn't been great so far. I had one man on monday, a maasai family (complete with breastfeeding baby) on tuesday, so hopefully more today! I am finding it quite frustrating the way things are organised here - yesterday at school the teachers told me the school might be shut today for exams - but they wouldn't know until today!?

So...this morning i got a text saying school was on. I went in as usual, and the class i was meant to help in had no teacher and no-one was looking after the children or could tell me where the teacher was. So I improvised and taught them something which I thought might be relevant. The teacher showed up half way through - no apology - and then asked me to prepare a class for tomorrow! So the next period I had my favourite class (standard 5) and yet again there was no teacher. Luckily I had been in their class yesterday so knew what they were learning and was able to make up an exercise based around it. Then onto class 3... yet again no teacher! I am happy to take the classes but it would be nice (and coutesous) to let me know in advance so I could prepare a lesson, not just be thrown in at the deep end! But as the saying goes, 'TIA' - this is Africa!

However, despite the frustrations I am really enjoying being in Longido. As I said before, the family is great and I feel very at home here. The kids at school are great, they sing a song at the beginning of every lesson and every time I am walking down the road I have a trail of kids behind me like to pied piper ! I have also had some clothes made in the local style...pics soon I promise! I went into Arusha last weekend and met some of my extended african family and met up with some of the other volunteers at a mzungu cafe where the prices are sky high but you can imagine that you are back home again for a couple of hours!

I have a confession...

I am in love! Sorry Neil. His name is Issiah and he is an 8 year old maasai cattle herder. He mysteriously turned up at our house last night in only the clothes he was wearing - nothing else! He is a friend of the family's son and I understand is now 'ours' - which means we will feed, clothe and look after him in return for him taking the cattle out to graze every day.

He is so funny, he speaks only maasai and i can speak only a little swahili so our conversation is limited to say the least - he thinks my name is hello! I don't think he has seen white people before, so is fascinated by me and sits as close to me as possible, touching my hair and wanting to hold my hand and hug me. When I returned from having a shower, he asked if he washed enough would he be clean like me... he doens't understand that there can be different skin colours. It is really hard to get my head around how sheletered his life is - I gave him a toy car and he asked me to make it bigger so he could get in... and to make the lights work! He has had no education whatsoever - I showed him how to use a pen for the first time and when the family were singing hymns in the evening he was joining in using the only word he recognised...'hallelujah' over and over again! Was very very funny. I wonder if I can put him in my suitcase when I leave....?

School is good, I am teaching standards 3,4 and 5 (roughly ages 8 - 13) and is going well so far... not too many hours but from monday will be teaching adults in the afternoons so will be very busy! This weekend I am going to town with Mama Judith to visit her newly married son, and may have chance to meet up with some other volunteers too.

Longido...finally!

After months of planning (not to mention years of dreaming), I am finally in Longido where I will spend the next 3 months teaching english. The homestay family are great - really welcoming, and they remind me a little bit of my parents - Alais, the father is kind but slightly eccentric. He has all sorts of wires and contraptions around the house, much like my dad, and plays the keyboard too! And Judith is very kind - she gave me a big hug when I arrived and has told me they will treat me as one of their own while I am here. They are a Christian family (Lutheran) and every evening after dinner they pray and sing hymns. Last night Alais did a special reading in english for me (as well as the usual ones in kiswahili), welcoming me to their home and Africa. I was very moved, in fact it brought a tear to my eye; I feel very lucky to have been welcomed into such a loving family.

The house is nice (and not made of mud!) although understandably much more basic than houses at home in the UK. The kitchen is in an outhouse, and the washing up isn't done in a sink but in a plastic bowl on the ground. The shower is ok, the water is heated and poured into a small tank so I think I will manage to keep clean while I am here. The one part I think I will struggle with is the toilet - a stinking longdrop in an outhouse with cockroaches. Last night I went with my headtorch but I think I will do it in the dark in future!

I have a free day today as the stern headmistress told me to come in on weds to find out what classes i will be helping with, and i will start teaching on thursday. So this morning i am going to spend some time on the internet (at a centre run by another NGO but which has mondo connections), possibly see a tailor about getting a dress made, and exploring the village. This afternoon i am going to the boma school, which is my second project where i will teach english to anyone who wants to learn. I have said i will begin the classs on monday,and i was very impressed at the keenness of the people wo were hanging out there - they want to help me make some posters this afternoon to advertise - apparently the classes have been missed and they are very keen for them to recommence!

I had a lovely moment this morning walking through the village - I passed the kindergarten and the children came running over to me wanting to hold my hands. I took a fews pictures of them and showed them the screen - they were amazed! I will upload the pics when I can but having trouble with the connection this morning.

Safari

Hi all, apologies i don't have time to write much but just wanted to explain the pic on the right... I have been on a 2 day safari in Ngorogoro Crater and Lake Manyara, was amazing to be in such a beautiful area and see so many animals up close in their own environment - very different experience to seeing them in a zoo. We saw a black rhino (from a distance), lions (very very close - so close that one of the guys in the group nearly lost his arm when he stuck it out of the truck window!), elephants, lots of zebras, hippos, wildebeest, monkeys and baboons and birds.

Tomorrow I am going to Longido to start work, which I am very excited about - I will meet the homestay family and some of the school children. My kiswahili is coming along nicely, so I will be able to greet everyone which is a good start! It is winter in Tanzania at the moment, but the weather is what we would expect in england in late spring, so still nice and warm. Haven't needed my thermals yet!

The african way

I have had an eventful few days since I last wrote in Zanzibar. I was in the beautiful north for a while but soon craved the excitement and buzz of Stone Town, so made my way back there and checked into a hostel for a few nights. St. Monica’s hostel was built on the site of the old slave market, so I was able to do a tour of the church, monument and the eerie slave chambers where 75 men, women and children were held for days on end to test their strength before being auctioned to rich Arab masters at the market. This was after having been forced to march for days on end without food or water – only one in five slaves taken from the villages of east africa made it to Zanzibar. So picture the scene: I am in the slave chamber with my guide, Elvis (?!) and he has just told me about the horrific plight of the slaves. Then he says ‘So, would you like to go for a drink with me tonight?’! I quickly said no and then asked a question to get him off the subject, but the Tanzanian men are nothing if not persistent and he asked me twice more before the tour was over! I don’t flatter myself, I think that every lone western woman gets asked the same but it happened with 2 other tour guides… cheeky beggars!

Anyway, my experience has been that the vast majority of people here are very friendly and just want to say hello and practice their English. Of course some are trying to sell you something but I have become adept at saying ‘hapana asante’ (no thanks in Swahili). Before leaving Zanzibar I also traveled down to the south coast where you can take a boat trip to see wild dolphins… (tissues at the ready linzi and rach). Unfortunately it was not the best experience of my life, as I love dolphins and didn’t like the fact that the boat chased them and everyone jumped in the water to try and get close to them even though they clearly weren’t in the mood to play. It was still a good day though as I got to go snorkeling again which is incredible. We also went inland to Jozani forest where the endemic red colobus monkeys, only found in Zanzibar, can be seen. Here we were able to get very close to a whole family which was a real privilege.

I spent the last couple of days exploring the atmospheric streets of Stone Town (which is a Unesco World Heritage Site) and had delicious cheap street food at the Forodhani gardens in the evening with a friend, Anna. I met some really great people in Zanzibar and had a fantastic time, but by yesterday was ready to move onto Arsuha, where I write from now.

I had a bit of a stressful day yesterday as I was meant to be at the airport for 10am, but had loads of missed calls from a Tanzanian number on my English mobile. I rang back and it was the travel agent telling me that I was now on a different flight to Arusha (via Dar es Salaam) and had to be at the airport by 9am – bearing in mind it was already 08.55 you can imagine my panic. To cut a long story short, I battled my way through the incomprehensible system that is Zanzibar airport and eventually arrived in Arusha at around 2pm. The hotel Mondo has arranged is very nice (and cheap which is a bonus)! Althgouh I now know why – it is right next to a mosque and the muezzin chants for about ½ hr every morning at about 4.30am, and ever afternoon. Good job I have ear plugs, but even they don’t do the trick!

Arusha is at approx 1000m above sea level and is very green. My first impressions of the town are good – lucky as I will be spending a lot of time here over the next 3 months. Last night I met some fellow volunteers and went out for dinner and a few drinks at the local wuzungu (white persons’) bar. Today I have had an induction by Leonard, the friendly and helpful Mondo Challenge guy in Tanzania, and a Swahili lesson which I have been practicing with the locals a bit already. Tonight there is a volunteer meeting followed by dinner at a local place. And then an early night as I am going on a safari this weekend with some other volunteers – to Ngorogoro Crater and Lake Manyara. I am very excited, I had expected I would do a safari at some point but hadn’t planned on it being so soon – however, I thought I would take the opportunity to go with the others as it is a relatively cheap deal with a reputable company, and will be nice to get to know the other volunteers. On Monday I travel to Longido, the village where I will be based – I am looking forward to meeting the family I will be living with and also the children at the school. The boxes of books/pens etc I sent over have arrived safely so I will be able to give the children some presents which will be nice. So to sum up – all is going well so far…

Stone Town, Zanzibar

Well here i am - in Zanzibar - such an amazing and incredible place I don't know where to begin... I arrived into Dar Es Salaam airport after having slept for only an hour on the night flight, so was very dazed and confused trying to make my way to Zanzibar. I made it here in one piece and have had a great couple of days exploring the town and surrounding area. I did the traditional spice tour, where they show you how many spices are grown and let you taste local fruits - very exotic, although the only one I remember is jack fruit, which is like a cross between a banana and a pineapple... very nice but strange!

The town itself is made of tiny backstreets and alleys, with a market like how I imagine a Moroccan souk to be. It is very dark, with awnings blocking the sun and smells coming from offal on butchers' blocks, spice stalls and a million other things. The sellers see a white person and you see the $ sign light up their eyes - it is a strange feeling to be a novelty due to the colour of your skin, but the people here are very poor and whatever I have got is more than they will ever have (for some). I have met some great friendly people - my 'international family' from finland, canada, oz, uk and the states, and many many more. I am now in Kendwa on the north coast, a stunning beach resort where I plan to relax for a few days before heading down the coast either back to Stone Town or to Jambiani in the east. The volunteering will be hard work so am making to most of my time off before I start! Ele x

No going back

Well, 27th June has finally arrived and I am packed, checked in and ready to fly. Feeling excited, scared, nervous, all sorts of feelings in between but mostly very tired! This week has been great, catching up with friends and saying my goodbyes but it has left me in desperate need of a holiday (well that's handy).

Last night I had a fantastic evening with my friends and Henderson colleagues in London. I was completely overwhelmed by the kind words and presents from everyone, thank you.

My flight leaves this evening and this time tomorrow I should be in Zanzibar where I will spend a few days before heading up to Arusha and then Longido on 9th July to begin my teaching placement.

Will try and write soon and should have some good pics of stunning zanzibar (and maybe a door or two for neil)

Less than 2 weeks until I leave for Africa and my adventure begins - wow! I am very excited, although a small amount of apprehension at the enormity of the task I am about to undertake is starting to sink in. I cannot wait to meet the maasi people; everything I have heard and read about them says they are very welcoming and I am looking forward to learning about their fascinating culture.

I spent last weekend in Oxford on a TEFL training course, where I met some great like-minded people who are all undertaking similar life-changing experiences with Mondo Challenge. I learned a lot of fun ways to teach English to the children (and adults) in Tanzania and am itching to get in the classroom! I am under no illusions, it will be hard work – teaching children in the primary school all day (with classes from 70 – 140 kids) and adults in the afternoons in the boma school (see pic on right) I will be knackered, but hopefully happy and fulfilled too.

I am slightly worried about the food situation though… I have heard that the staple diet consists of rice and ugali (a starchy cornmeal substance which is apparently disgusting) – might have to take some cereal bars with me just in case! I have also been advised to take multivitamins as the diet will be a shock to the system. Everyone keeps saying I will lose weight while I’m away, but in the Maasi culture it is attractive to be bigger so I think mama Judith might try and feed me up – uh oh!