Two weeks until the climb! - week 4 in Tanzania

Writing the title of this blog post has made me somewhat emotional - I've realised that I've only got 2 weeks left with the kids, and 3 weeks left in Tanzania before going back to my life of mediocrity! (Well, that's soon about to change, the average life I led back then). It's been wonderful so far and I know it will get even better before I leave.

This previous week, the students were on holiday for their Easter Break. I spent most of the time making materials for them (when I wasn't watching Vampire Diaries or exploring Arusha, that is), and I'm quite pleased with what I've produced for them so far. They're so eager to learn and I'm here to help them in any way I can, providing them with extra material to learn from and improve; be it their grammar, speech, mathematical skills or just confidence in general. Being a former student who has absolutely no teaching background, sometimes it is daunting to take up this responsibility. It requires patience, compassion, hard work and friendliness because children respond so well to smiling faces and gentle voices. They're all so lovely it makes it so exciting to wake up each morning, looking forward to seeing their big smiles and toothless grins!

My skin was peeling (still is) from the sunburn and I felt very tempted to just scrape it all off! I did scrub it extra hard but sadly, nature takes its time and if it's not time for the peeling to stop yet, the peeling won't stop! I also tried to do some maths revision and I managed to do Chapter 1 exercise 1 and that was it!

I know it's not too bad

On Thursday, for the first time in my life, I went to a yoga class, accompanied by Samina who is a regular. It was located at this beautiful lodge in the quietest area with green grass and tall trees everywhere, accommodating melodious song birds that were chirping away, with the crickets backing them up to compose a beautiful, peaceful sound that made me feel in touch with nature. It was the best setting for something like this, as we did meditation afterwards with not a sound disturbing us. We got there on a piki-piki (motorbike), after a dala-dala ride from near the Impala Hotel. The session kicked off with a series of stretches with deep-breathing techniques incorporated in-between each stretch. It was very difficult for me to keep my balance and I was scared I'd be that girl who falls over doing the weirdest stretches ever, knocking down the person next to me like a domino effect. The meditation was called "The Arch Angels meditation" or something like that. My mind wandered off after the first 5 minutes because my attention span isn't that great. Clearly I need to discipline my mind and body. It was really nice though.

Saturday I spent the afternoon at a cafe near Shoprite shopping centre, using the free WiFi and enjoying a slice of chocolate cake. Later I went back to Sekei before going with Dani to Samina's house for dinner. First we took her dog Kichichi, named after avocados (Parachichi) for a walk. She is a very energetic dog that loves running around and jumping about (to be frank that sounds like the typical dog). I held her on her leash once just to get over my fear of dogs. It was quite fun although passers-by got scared thinking she was on a leash because she's dangerous! After the nice walk, Samina prepared us a delicious vegetarian meal with kidney beans (my favourite) and also some salad. It was a nice, relaxed evening with music and soft drinks, after which Dani and I went back to Sekei.

Yesterday, I went hiking again as the weather was lovely and it hadn't rained for a while. We went near Moshi where we could actually see Uhuru Peak! (the top of Mt Kilimanjaro). 

I covered myself in sun screen, not wanting a repeat of the last time I went hiking when I got sun burnt. Every once in a while I reapplied because the sun was just too strong! We trekked for a bit and got to a hill which seemed easy and small from afar, but rather draining once on it. I was starting to get a headache even though I must have drank like 1.5 litres of water within 3 hours. We had a couple of breaks to have a bite and rest a bit, then carried on to another hill which had these massive rocks that we were somehow meant to go over. I was terrified! The guides just walked up effortlessly, like it was nothing and I was quite impressed. 

An old train track that's going to be reconstructed in the near future

Uhuru Peak (top of Mt Kilimanjaro) zoomed in

Uhuru Peak (top of Mt Kilimanjaro)

Descending was even worse as the hill was covered in pebbles and I constantly slipped, almost sliding all the way down, through the thorny acacia trees and that. We walked some more and finally we got back to the car. I still had a headache and I tried to sleep on the way back, but the speed bumps woke me with a start all the time! I had to drag my feet across the ground to go home with a serious face on as I couldn't be bothered to smile or anything. People occasionally called out "Mambo!" (like "What's up?") and I'd just mumble "Poa" (like "nothing much" or something like that). They probably thought I was being rude. When I got home, I couldn't wait for a nice cold shower, shampooed my hair and then tried to take a nap. Unfortunately the church next door decided to blare out music, just for bants. It wasn't even a service, just randomly playing CDs. How lovely!

Later in the evening, Amanda and her son, the new volunteers, finally arrived from Nairobi. Unfortunately for them, there'd been a power-cut literally minutes before they arrived. Dinner was already made so that wasn't a problem, but they had to use a candle for a bit. After almost 2 hours, the power came back on and we were all happy again! I went to bed quite early (11pm) so I'd be up for school in the morning to see my lovely kids again! Overall, it's been a great week!

Waterfalls and Bare-foot walks

Samina wanted to find something nice for me to do during the Easter break to take my mind off work for a while. She recommended the Arusha Water falls. At 10am sharp, Jordan, a part-time FutureSense employee who was to be my guide, turned up and we left. I took sun screen with me today because last time I went hiking I got sunburnt and only felt it in the shower! *gasp*

Jordan

It was only 10am but it was already boiling hot in Arusha! The cool breeze that made hiking bearable last weekend was nowhere to be found in these parts of Arusha and within 10 minutes of walking uphill I was sweating like a pig. The climb upwards was even more challenging due to the heat, and at this stage I have decided Kilimanjaro is going to absolutely MURDER me! Nonetheless, I took it easy and we walked steady, engaging in conversation (which probably slowed me down more than anything as I was quickly out of breath). This is definitely great practice for Kilimanjaro because I need to train my breathing when going uphill, and obviously talk less to save energy. Also, I’m going to need loads of water because my throat tends to dry really quickly here especially when I start breathing through my mouth because my nose is just too small (you’re lucky, Samantha Mudimu and Joseph Butawo :P)

teeny-tiny waterfall

We got to the edge and I realised we were meant to go down muddy “steps” into a valley-like place. It was absolutely beautiful beyond words! The whole place, the clean air, the birds chirping, not a single bug in sight (or so I thought)… this was like HEAVEN to me. We started to descend and I was terrified of sliding, but Jordan made a joke about it saying that’s the whole point of an adventure! Yeah, walking around with mud all over my body sounded like a great adventure indeed! About 10 minutes later we made it to the bottom and I was mesmerised. I took my shoes off quickly because I just couldn’t wait to get my feet into the cool, rushing water and feel the pebbles with my toes and just absolutely go ape. It was awesome.

keen much?!

We walked barefoot all the way to the actual waterfall, and Jordan helped me up slippery boulders and stuff. There was one point where I stopped and asked how on earth we were going to get to the other side. It looked so dangerous! But Jordan, all 5ft4 and tiny body, literally lifted me up between two massive boulders! Poor thing, I thought I was going to break him lol (Ok, maybe not… I’m not that heavy, I know). We carried on, with me chattering away as usual, and then I felt a tiny little thing in my mouth and I flipping swallowed it! I swallowed a bug!!! Highlight of my day I’d say. Just great!

We had to miraculously make our way up these boulders... Jordan lifted me somehow from the top

Anyway, the waterfall was so noisy and there was vapour everywhere! It was the coolest thing ever! Where the water reached the ground, there was some sort of “rainbow” effect because of the sun. It looked really cool. I entered the water and tried to get to the waterfall but the water was raging and it looked so dangerous but I was relentless. Within seconds I was soaking wet and fell onto my bum in the water as I lost balance. I decided not to go any further then but I was like a meter away from the waterfall! Would have been so cool to just get hit by the water on my back, I reckon it’s therapeutic.  Free massage you know… 

THE waterfall

yeah... that's as far as I could go!

all soaked!

We stayed there for a good 20 minutes just looking at the waterfall, playing with water and taking pictures. Then I decided it was time to get home now as I was starting to feel the chill. We walked back safely and just as we were about to come out of the water, I fell over all the way into the water! The first thing I thought about was my camera and my phone which were in my bag! I quickly lifted it up to Jordan who was trying to save me and cried “My camera!” Ha-ha! It was hilarious. Thank goodness I wasn’t hurt and the water flowing beneath me wasn’t strong enough to wash me away.  

On our way back we passed by a group of guys eating ugali (sadza) and fresh kapenta and they gave us a dish to wash our hands. It tasted lush! I only had one bite and we left started walking back home. It was so hot that by the time I got back to the volunteer house, I was completely dry, with just patches of mud dried onto my jeans. Overall, it was an awesome day and now I’m going to finish watching Vampire Diaries season 1 before making plans for tomorrow! I have a feeling my feet are going to be so sore and hurt like crazy tomorrow; I can already feel it now. Until then,

Ciao

xx

No hurry in Africa... Week 3 in Tanzania

You've heard it all plenty of times and you've perhaps experienced it yourself first hand if you are or if you know Africans: we are never in a rush and we're proud of it... well, sometimes. This is usually fun when you're just exploring the beautiful, flawed cities in Africa, but when you're running late for school it's not even funny. As a teacher (albeit a non-experienced, degree-less one), leading by example is important. Showing up at work late is unacceptable. Oh, well. That's just an example...

Last Saturday saw me going hiking with the Twende Hiking Group in Maasai lands in Arusha, Tanzania. I packed my back packing bag with everything that I'm going to trek Kilimanjaro with (actually there's gonna be more but I didn't have it at that time). This was supposed to give me an idea of what climbing Kilimanjaro might be like, walking roughly 6 hours a day with a 7kg bag on my back (or more) on a much more consistently steep ground. I arrived at Mount Meru Hotel at exactly 8.30am and immediately bumped into another hiking enthusiast and we walked together towards the group. His name is Jakob and he’s here on an internship. There was also Alex, a Dutch guy who has lived in Tanzania for over 30 years, Nyuki a Tanzanian accountant who likes hiking and Leonard our guide. Apparently people weren’t too keen on hiking in such muddy conditions.

Nyuki decided she didn’t want to drive to the site, so Alex drove us instead. We were to pick up three more hikers on the way, but they took their time and we had to leave them behind. So instead of setting off for 8.30am and arriving at roughly 9am, we ended up leaving at about 9.50, arriving after 10. We started hiking around 10.30am and the other three managed to join us around 11 or so. (No hurry in Africa...) One was a Maasai man called Rasta (because he has dreadlocks. How very creative!), a lady called Zsuzsa, and the other lady is called Julie. It was extremely muddy that my boots became heavy and they were absolutely covered in mud. I had to kick the mud off my boots and they came off in huge chunks.

I observed a lot of soil erosion on the beautiful lands. At first I had no idea what this gulley-like thing going on here was. Alex told us it has been gradually happening over the past few years because of the rains and of course how animals and people pulled out plants by their roots. It totally makes sense but the damage done by the erosion is so intense that Alex believes people will eventually build houses in those ditches because they are taking up huge chunks of land as seen in the image below.

 Plenty of times we almost fell because of the slippery ground, and the weight of my bag wasn’t doing me any favours at all. It’s safe to say that Kilimanjaro if going to be more physically challenging than I initially assumed. I’m actually glad I took up hiking because Kili would have been a shock to my system. We walked through grasslands full of tiny millipedes literally EVERYWHERE. I squirmed each time I looked down, praying none of them would get onto my trousers or into my boots. I was ever so careful as well, lest I slipped in mud and fell onto those scary looking 1-inch monsters! *gulp*

After about 3 hours of hiking upwards, we finally got to the steep hills and started the hard part. My goodness, it was so steep but all I could think of was “Don’t drop the camera”. I could have fallen off and broken a limb but I cared more about saving my camera! Talk about flawed priorities. Nyuki couldn’t join us up the steep hill because she had a bad knee, and the others were well ahead of me. I tried to catch up but they were going so fast as if they’re used to it (which they probably are, they all looked so fit). I was on my own climbing up with nothing to support me except the occasional shrub which I held on to. When I finally got to the top, I was so relieved. The hill top was covered with tiny hill top trees which are actually shorter than me! We sat under the shade and looked out over the beautiful fields and hills below us. It was breath-taking. We had lunch and drank plenty of water before we descended. All in all we walked for about 4 hours, for roughly 18km. When we got back to the service station where we’d parked Alex’s car, we had drinks and snacks in a restaurant there, and then went back to Mount Meru Hotel. The whole hike only cost us Tsh10,000 which is equivalent to £4 or $6.

Julie, Leonard, Nyuki, Zsuzsa, moi, Rasta behind me, and Jakob

Monday I was joined by Kirsteen, a Future Sense employee who wanted to experience Tanzania in order to honestly recommend it to volunteers and gap-year students like me. We went to the Englang’eti school where I resumed lessons with my students and she stayed in kindergarten. I was almost brought to tears when I went to Year 5 class to collect their homework, and one of the pupils, Violet, came up to me with a folded piece of paper:

Apparently that's me

 I was so touched, I couldn’t help smiling. As I went about the rest of the day, I had a big smile on my face. When it was time to go home, Kirsteen took pictures of me with the kindergarten pupils who are such adorable 2, 3 and 4 year olds. They did the Hockey Cockey and some other rhymes and it was so cute! One of the teachers there, Anthony, took pictures of me with the year 5 and year 1 pupils with whom I’d spent the day. After school, we went into town to meet up with Samina and Robert as Kirsteen wanted to buy some fabric and get some clothes made by some local dressmakers. She chose some pretty amazing fabric and she seemed very pleased. I decided to come back some day to buy fabric to take home. One guy persuaded me to buy paintings off him and I'd initially agreed to a "reasonable price" but Samina told me I was being ripped off. In the end we settled for a lower and better price but those paintings were just amazing. Afterwards, we went to a rooftop bar and marvelled at Mt Meru which you can see from practically anywhere in Arusha! It's the second largest mountain in Tanzania at 4000 something km high, but it's more physically challenging than Kilimanjaro because it's so steep. We also saw this "house" at the top of a tall building, bu it didn't look lived-in. 

Wouldn't it be lovely to live in that "house" up there?!

Mount Meru at dusk, zoom 50X

Tuesday after school we were supposed to go for yoga but because that night there was a full moon and we had to do meditation afterwards, we decided to check out the Cultural Heritage instead.Unfortunately, when we got there it was already closed! I was so gutted! We decided to go back into town and we chilled at a bar near Shoprite shopping centre, where we had some cider and chilled til dusk. It turned out to be a nice, chilled evening.

Regai ndiseke, zvakaoma kunge Savannah Dry...

Wednesday after school we finally made it to the Cultural Heritage. It was absolutely beautiful and the artwork was breath-taking. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the displayed work indoors, but we could take pictures outside. I wish we were allowed though, because the work was beyond amazing! Later that evening we went out for dinner for the “leaving do” for Robert, one of the Future Sense managers who had previously volunteered in Tanzania a while back. He’d been working on a school building project for about 7 months now and it was time for him to go back home. We went to this really nice patio-style restaurant which is called Le Patio. The music was up-to-date and really relaxing, and the food was amazing. There were about 8 of us and we all had a whale of a time!

beaded elephant! looks like somebody had a lot of time on their hands... but then again, there's no hurry in Africa :)

Maasai warrior

Maasai woman

awesome carving

The following day we went to Mount Meru Hotel for happy hour and I ordered a cocktail called Pink Mpenzi (Pink Lover). It was a mixture of A-vant gin (a Tanzanian brand), Malibu rum, guava juice, litchi juice and grenadine syrup. It was so sweet but definitely strong. It was buy one get one free, and after the first two glasses I was already feeling a little bit tipsy. A lady approached me and started speaking to me in Swahili (I get this a lot, being the only brown-skinned person in the group). I just looked at her, blank, and thankfully, Samina explained to her I did not understand Swahili. She spoke to me in English then (why didn’t I just say I don’t understand, you may ask, but I had secretly hoped I’d work out what she was saying as part of my Swahili learning process. Ah, well.) She told me that she was a promoter of A-vant gin and was offering me a t-shirt or a pen as a freebie because I’d bought a Pink Mpenzi. I was like “Yeah, sure! A T-shirt will do!” She handed me the only t-shirt she had left and I said “Asante (thank you)” and she walked away. What a beautiful night, aye. Happy hour consisted of live music and bbq (nyama choma), and I couldn’t help ordering some. It was absolutely delicious, seasoned with some Tanzanian spices and bbq’d by a chef who knows what he’s doing. After 2 more cocktails and when everyone had slowly started to leave, we decided to call it a night and got a taxi back home (home is a 5 minute walk away but it’s never advised to walk home in the dark after 4 cocktails or even none at all.) As I stumbled out of  the taxi, I dropped my beautiful white T-shirt in a muddy puddle! *face-palm* Had to quickly dip it in water and "hand-wash" it before the mud dried on it.

 Yesterday, before we said goodbye to Robert and Kirsteen, we went to see another school where some volunteers usually go, which is in the most rural of all places. First we had lunch at a local restaurant in town before taking two more dala-dalas to Lengijave where the Olbak school is located. It was raining cats and dogs and the roads were awfully muddy but we made it. We were running out of time, but we didn’t want to be rude by rushing the teacher who was showing us around. On our way down we were faced by the biggest challenge of all, a muddy hill type of thing. It was easier when we were going up, but getting down was a bit of Kilimanjaro! There were deep ditches that looked like mini valleys and there was absolutely no way we could have gone back apart from the way we came. I nearly fell and Kirsteen found it so amusing she just had to take a picture!

it was such a nerve-wrecking experience! Mud-slides are fun when you're kids

We raced against time to make it back home in time before Robert went to the airport as Dani, the co-ordinator who had accompanied us to Olbak, had to say goodbye to his long-time friend. We managed to get Robert late by half an hour, but it was all well. I could tell it was going to be emotional as they had all spent the past 7 months living and working together pretty much every single day. I thanked Robert for teaching me to play “Cigarettes and Alcohol” on his guitar (which he left behind for the volunteers to use, how nice of him), and they set off for the airport. Soon after, Kirsteen also left for the airport with loads of stories to tell, I bet! The house felt very empty but Mama Sweet (our housekeeper) was around and we had conversation in broken Swahili, but thank God for the brains that created Google Translate! Dani also came, but there was a power cut and it was raining again so I went to bed at 7.30pm!

This morning, I woke up and it was still raining, there was another power cut and so I went back to sleep because hiking was out of the question. When I finally woke up, I undid my hair and sat with a jar of Nutella, watching The Wolf of Wall Street on DVD on my laptop. Officially a chilled Easter Saturday! Hope you’re all enjoying Easter! ‘Til next week, ciao

xx

Where the Sun shines... Week 1 & 2 in Tanzania

The time of my life that I'd been waiting for, working hard for and exercising for has finally arrived! I left England on the 1st of April via Qatar Airways (who delayed my flight resulting in me missing my connection flight, hence I stayed in transit for 5 sleepless hours!). I got to Doha around 1am, but had missed my flight to Kilimanjaro airport, therefore I was told to wait for another plane which was going to depart at 7.35am taking me to Dar es Salaam, where I'd wait again for another 3 hours or so to connect to Kilimanjaro airport. Qatar Airways, you're delightful!

Since I hadn't travelled by plane in almost 2 years, it seems I had forgotten how hot non-British countries can be. When I got to Doha, I was sweating like a pig and could barely breathe! (Thank God for the brains that created air-con). By the time I landed in Tanzania, I felt overwhelmed! First off, let me say it's such a beautiful country. As soon as I got off the plane (we had to walk from the plane, on the parking space and into the building), it started to rain. My first reaction was to get my warm jacket but would you know it? the rain was WARM! How cool is that! I could have stood in the rain and not felt cold for a second, although once I got inside the heavily air conditioned airport, I'd have frozen my pants off. Anyway, I got there and it turned out that Qatar had arranged my connection flight with a different airline called Precision air. Now, this airline had different luggage limits and they wanted me to pay for the "excess" baggage. Like heck I'd pay that! I protested and had to speak to Qatar representatives in Dar es Salaam because in all honesty, I was tired, sleep-deprived, hungry and sticky with sweat, and it wasn't my fault! After about an hour of going up and down int he airport, I finally checked in. However, I checked in too late and subsequently missed my other connection flight! It's safe to say that it was quite a hectic journey! I finally boarded the Precision Air flight to Kilimanjaro airport and we were served a small packet of cashew nuts and a tumbler of fruit juice. How filling for someone who hadn't eaten for 7 hours.

When I got to Kilimanjaro aiport, I managed to take a picture or two and then collected my things and came out. I was welcomed by the lovely Samina, the project manager of Future Sense in Tanzania. She introduced me to Mr Thomas, our driver, who took my bags and put them into the car. It was such a warm welcome which didn't just end there. That night, we went to dinner with Rob, a former Future Sense volunteer who is helping out with a school building project, and Dan who is a coordinator (I think) for Future Sense in Tanzania. We went to this really lovely hotel called Impala, where we had Indian food. The meal was delicious and very filling, which I was happy about as I'd been so hungry!

The following morning I woke up bright and early, took a shower and packed some stuff into my back packing bag because it was SAFARI WEEK! Samina had decided to send me off to safari so I could experience Tanzanian wildlife first of all to fully appreciate the beauty of Tanzania. I saw the full cast of The Lion King, some crazy monkeys and baboons, met some amazing people and took loads of pictures!

I also had the opportunity to visit a Maasai village where an English-speaking Maasai boy introduced us to the people, gave us a tour of the houses and the whole place, and explained to us how Life as a Maasai is. He aspires to be a doctor so he can assist some of his people who have no access to medical attention due to their location on the plains of Serengeti. He informed us that their diet consists of milk, blood and meat, and sometimes fruit. I was surprised so I asked for more detail. He said this is because the women don't know how to cook *gasp* and because they own a LOT of livestock (literally hundreds of cattle, sheep and goats per small group). They had milk mixed with blood for breakfast, and then meat for dinner. I was quite appalled but they seemed healthy and fit. He also told us that it's the women who build the houses while men fight lions and other aggressive animals, and tend to other matters. The Maasai are nomadic so they migrate roughly every 6 months in search of better pastures or when the lions and other animals are edging too close to them. I really loved their simple way of life, but cannot see myself living that life for a prolonged period. It would have been great to experience life as a Maasai for a week or so (minus the blood), just so I can appreciate the diversity of the cultures of this world.

Simba

the Matriarch

Pumba and family

After safari, I returned to our volunteer house in Arusha and began my teaching yesterday at a school here in Arusha. This is perhaps the most exciting part of my trip as I also learn new things from the children (while learning KiSwahili), and in turn I teach them what I know. They're well behaved and so respectful that I'm contemplating teaching in the future. Today as I walked through the school gates, the kids were all standing outside their classes, about to begin lessons. A group of four kids started running and I thought they were playing a game but no, they were rushing towards me and they all hugged me and said "let's take your bags". Then they helped me carry my books and handbag to the classroom! It's so wonderful to be loved by such awesome, beautiful kids! I'm glad I made the decision to incorporate this experience in my trip. Definitely the best decision I've made in a while! Now, tomorrow I shall go hiking in preparation for the Kilimanjaro climb, and I hear it's another great way to meet new, like-minded people. Really looking forward to that! More updates next week. For now, enjoy your weekend!

Xox