Nicole does Africa

How crazy that it is nearly Christmas! Doesn’t feel like it here except the odd occasion a bar in Singida or the sisters at the social centre decide to put on the odd carol in Swahili. 11,500+ photo’s and 197 days in. I can’t believe its 4 months since my tour finished!!!

Have enjoyed the past couple of weeks, it has just been L and I and we have really been trying to get out and about and put our Swahili into practise. Some days I go really well, then others I can barely string an English sentence together, let alone Swahili.

The wedding was a good opportunity for this, though the day mostly consisted of “HALLELUJAH!” and “LILILILILILI”. It was really fun. Especially for a dry wedding. We were ushered to our seats of course down the very front, I was next to mother of the bride. Then the wedding party went outside to enter with the bride and groom, and we were included in the wedding party, dancing down the aisle behind the happy couple. Our gifts were perfect apparently and luckily we had been informed of the tradition of dancing up on stage with your gift to present to the couple. The flower girls looked very cute and had amazing wigs (among many on the day, but still not as good as our old man we see who wears a dyed mop head under his hat) they looked like extra members of The Supremes. Witnessed some funny traditions including ladies throwing themselves on the ground in front of the couple, more handfeeding each other cake, lots of dancing similar to conga lines – fun – and of course we were made to join in with the Maasai jumping. I’m sure we were only encouraged for everyones amusement but that’s ok, we were probably laughing just as much at other things. Still can’t help getting the giggles with the loud & proud belching during meals, mid-sentence. I am still trying to slip the perfect one in. The wedding went for 8 hours and that was even cut short as the power went off and the generator for the music ran out of petrol so we didn’t even get to the after party, where the Sprite would have been flowing. But there was some form of dancing for most of the day and I was exhausted! It was a great day.

G has been here a couple more times to visit and both times we have bombarded her with questions and things are now finally falling into place. Also the hostel is moving along for opening in the new year, woohooo. We handed out applications and had a meeting with students and guardians last week about how it will be run (community) etc. We are continuing to paint the hostel this week if it stops raining long enough for the walls to dry. I was pretty keen to do some cleaning there too until today when Maria showed us a room students have been using as it wasn’t locked…..there are a few suspicious looking ‘chokito bars’ on the floor and they have been DRAWING ON THE WALLS WITH POO! I got the giggles so bad when everyone was so disgraced by it but I couldn’t stop laughing, so grose it was ridiculous! Laughing again now.

Our house has been fitted with plugs and points for electricity, so now we are just waiting for the electricity company to wire it up. Thanks to the fundi, we have found the infamous rat! Though when I emailed the photo of it to Ben and Jess, they were sure it is a different colour to their visitor.

The sewing group are going really well and have kind of assigned me as embroiderer for the Upendo label that they sew on. So I am not completely useless. We had a girl my age, E, visit last week who is currently working over near the Burundi border for an organisation focusing on crafts. She is coming to focus on the sewing group to develop further craft skills, which is exciting. We all went into Singida on Friday for Tanzania’a 50th Anniversary of Independence celebration. Not many people seemed to be all that bothered about the occasion. I must be great company as a guy trying some chatting up at the bar fell asleep talking to me then vomited on himself haha. We saw him at the end of the night on the floor as the cleaners had nudged him off the chair and table to pack up. And Celine Dion is so hot right now in Singida. Must be because of that new movie ‘Titanic’. I found a section in a shop in Singida with a bunch of Titanic merchandise.

I have now written 2 police statements in Tanzania, something I never expected to have to do in another language. One for the camera, for which I was noted down as being a ‘pagan’ then another for an incident involving a man beating his wife, as she came to the house for advice.

A took L and I to the rocks (probably featured in many of my photos) just out of the village for a day to walk around and the views are amazing! Especially as the purple clouds and lightening roll in in the afternoon. It looks like the set of The Lion King. She showed us rock art from the Stone Age, to be honest, as with most of my other ‘rock art experiences’ over here I didn’t know what I was looking at but just aimed my camera in the general direction. Why does every tree and bush in Tanzania have to have thorns!

Yesterday we felt the lowest of low when we actually hid under the kitchen table from kids who were Hodi’ing outside. (to enter someones house or yard you say “Hodi” and the resident will say karibu, unless that resident is me). Some days I don’t mind taking a bunch of pictures for them or showing them some pictures and books or whatever but some days…..no.

Had another fun trip home from Singida Saturday evening. Waiting in the rain for over an hour being told yes a car is coming. Then found out the only one still running was across the road being repaired, so we snuck over there to see if we could get a lift. A little unnerving seeing your lift having the pole the wheels are on (sorry I have no knowledge of cars at all) being welded together, and seeing a lot of flames around petrol, I was torn between backing away from a possible explosion and losing a seat therefore spending another night in Singida, or getting to the front of that line of men trying to push on. I chose SEAT!

Ly and I are going to a Taarab concert in Singida on Saturday night and Sunday L is cooking us an early Xmas dinner. The big market is on again today so might head down and see what’s going.

Have had a busy few weeks here in Ilongero. The rains have started early and the landscape is already changing and becoming very green…and the roads slowly washing away with it.
So, back in Singida for the big choir performance…..sad to say this did not work out. I don’t understand what happened exactly but NOONE turned up so they instead did some speeches (Tanzanians seem to looooove speeches) and performed a few songs especially for J, B and I as we sat at the VIP table on stage. But it wasn’t all bad, we got a delicious meal out of it! I felt so sorry for them. Well as sorry as I could in my state after a night out in Singida upon my discovery of a bar serving somewhat drinkable wine.

Did NOT feel as sorry for them the following week at the Choir album launch party. It was all going well until the bishop who attended from another area announced he would pay 220,000 Tanzanian Shillings (well over $100) for the cd…..then welcomed us to bid. We all refused, while sitting up on the VIP table on stage in front of a room full of people. Then everyone was ‘encouraged’ to come up and on the microphone and announce what they would buy it for. We had to try to explain that this is not how we feel comfortable doing thing, it was so awkward and I’m sure you could see our smiles disappear pretty quickly. Before the whole choir thing we went to the mission as the kids were all about to go home for the holidays. It’s so quiet and lonely there now. They were having a bit of a dance party which was so great and hard to be dragged away from. We met the man who started the centre, he is based at another centre a couple of hours away and has invited me to visit next year, which I will definitely try to do.

With work, the classes we were running at school have kind of fallen apart. School ends next week and with this, the exams going on, rain and the big market one day all being given as excuses for lack of attendance, there is not much hope for getting anything done right now.

We were in Singida last Friday to shop for vitenge – beeeeeautiful material – for the yoga mat bags they will begin to produce for the UK next week. That’s exciting….shopping for them was AWWWWESOME! It was a bit like “one for Upendo, one for me”. The ladies have tried to teach me to sew on the old pedal machines they use but I was soon downgraded from practise material to scrap paper. Shopping for paint was not so fun, going into each shop selling any paint and being told the same price over and over…..but the paint arrived today so when it stops raining we can start painting the hostel which may actually be open for the new school term woot woot. Now L and I are to start looking into organising some community appraisal meetings to find out from the women what they want to learn about (i.e. health and sanitation, family planning, assertiveness etc) so that we can arrange some free training seminars next year.

Still torn whether to be friendly with kids at the house or not, now that we get them peering through the windows each afternoon. Once they asked for ‘peepee’ which we thought meant the toilet, so opened the door to the outside toilet and received some very disapproving faces….peepee means lolly in Swahili.

A couple of weeks ago J, B, M and I went to the next village, Mtinko. They have a World Vision project site there so wanted to go talk to them and form a connection. The man running it was really nice, but I would like to make a proper appointment next time before showing up so that we can have a look around the projects. Interesting to hear that World Vision originally offered Ilongero the chance but the committee turned it down as Ilongero is mostly Muslim and WV a Christian Organisation.

I went to Singida for the day to meet L at the bus stop and fetch her back to Ilongero. She has had a very interesting first 2 weeks, starting with that very day. By the time we got to the Singida stand, there were no more dalladallas or buses running so we rounded up some other villagers to share a taxi. Right away off the main road were stopped by police looking for money, trying to smooth talk the 2 of us to draw away from the fact that they were being a little intimidating to the poor driver who was made to get out of the car. Usually police stops only take a couple of minutes, take their money and wave you off, but this time it took about 20minutes. (When Lily asked how long the journey takes, I said generally 45mins). It was getting dark and further up the road we came across ‘Paradiso’, the crazy dalladalla. They had broken down so we pulled over to help. 20minutes later I noticed that our hood was also up on the taxi….we had also broken down. Then it was dark, started raining, but luckily a semi-trailer pulled up so the group of us jumped in the back of the cab. It’s no smooth ride that high up. 2 hours later we were home. Day 2 was the Album launch fiasco….then that first week the bus that we had taken to Mtinko crashed just out of the town square –apparently the driver jumped out and ran into the hills.

The big monthly market was also on during the week, which is a very pretty site from a distance with all the bright colours.

One positive thing that is happening at the school is that the Life Skills Program – a programme that a former RWDA volunteer started and now students she taught teach other students to become peer educators – has started again. We all went to one this week, the topic of the day was ‘Love’….after discussing what is love, types of love, the question was about what you expect from a partnership. After all the basic answers, J finally yelled out SEX! To many giggles. Luckily the student running the class is very outgoing and handled the topic so well. It went really well and was nice just to encourage openness instead of the beat around the bush way it may have otherwise been discussed.

J’s birthday was on Thursday night so M brought around his home made mango wine. M made a nice cake which we decorated with paper, and it is customary to feed chunks of the cake to each other. We went to Mama Shayo’s shop for this occasion expecting to be sat out the back as usual, but were invited into her house and she had cooked us chicken and chipsi and refused to let us pay for the beers…..and she in turn loved the mango wine also.

The birthday celebrations continued the next night in Singida – a stolen camera at the beginning of the night calls for extra konyagi. It was a really fun night and knowing it would be the last night out in Singida with B and J, we had more to celebrate.

Back in Ilongero we found that Penny, the cat we have somewhat bribed into loving us more than her owners, had given birth to 2 kittens, one of which has since sadly died.

L and I met the sponsored girls and tried to get some letters going to their sponsors….big language difficulties and currently in the process of translating.

One not so good thing about the rains are the extra visitors we have at night. Cue RATE-GATE. It had been a crawly night anyway, several cockroaches on the ceiling and walls and corners….now have to do a 360 degree inspection of all rooms before entering. In the past I had blamed the noises at night to the bats. Apologies bats. At 2am I woke to hear furniture being moved around. I came out to find J and B’s door open and a corridor created out of boxes leading from their room to the front door. They had woken to find a rat climbing on their mosquito net! Then when they knocked it off it went missing in the room and ended up emptying the room and they tried to sleep in the lounge room. Later on they decided to try and just go back to bed and hope it was too scared to emerge again……J picked up a pillow to find the rat UNDER THE PILLOW! Have since found its home in the kitchen cupboard which has been chucked, so now it has made a hole in the wall in the kitchen and dragged some kanga material in there for a bed. Bought some rat trap but apparently need tomatoes to set that up (?????) which we didn’t have, so now it is another housemate until M helps us with that. She told us a story of waking in the night to having a rat nibbling her toes!!!!!!!!!!!!! B constructed a make-do fence to keep it IN the kitchen, oddly enough. As well as rats, now getting plenty of centipedes and a few toads have also appeared. Saw my first Ilongero snake last week, when we stopped to look closer suddenly a rock was pummelled onto its head.

We have arranged another debate for Monday at the school and chosen the topic ‘Women are the Future of Tanzania’, knowing mostly the boys will be attending. I am first speaker on the proposing side and J on the opposing. Have some good stats to throw at them. Also have 3 of the Form 5 & 6 boys on my side, and L has the vuvuzela as time keeper to drown out anyone who tries to speak overtime. Kind of looking forward to that, then painting on Sunday and the wedding tomorrow is exciting.

Hello Hello!
I won’t bother starting with ‘just a short post’ …. Cos we ALL know it won’t be. I am in Singida as we have been invited to attend some meeting of bishops and religious people at which the Ilongero church choir will be performing on Sunday. They are actually really good, have little actions to the songs as well, and have even recorded an album…we have been invited to the party to celebrate the launch of the album next weekend too – should be some party! I am getting used to African time ie. showing up half an hour late to most things and still being early. The only person we have noticed is always on time is the school headmaster...and we always seem to be late for him.

So our last trip to Singida was a little frustrating as we came to see the lady from the council about the hostel and when we asked about making an appointment it was shrugged off. So after walking nearly an hour through stinking hot Singida – noone seems to understand that our skin will roast in this sun here – to the government area it was realised that she would not be there as some torch which starts at Kilimanjaro was coming through town that day (Tanzania’s version of Olympic Torch run I think). So that was a little annoying….then the trip home even more so after waiting a couple of hours for a bus we finally managed to get in a van which straight away we could feel had a flat tyre but hey, a lift is a lift and for them a full car a full car, so they continued to FLY along the bumpy road (we could feel every bump!) until about half way through they thought “hey the tyre is flat” and so we had to pull over in the dark and as they had no spare tyre had to wait for someone with one to pass by. EXHAUSTED by the time I arrived home. Singida never seems to be a relaxing experience. It’s funny, waiting for the bus everyone is so friendly and chats to each other and we were befriended by some sweet ladies with babies strapped to their backs, then as soon as a bus pulls up they won’t hesitate to elbow you out the way and run to it.

It’s been good going off and doing our own thing now that a bit of a schedule has formed. Mon-Thurs around 2 we usually try to get to the sewing project and stay there for a bit. The ladies there have been hard at work practising to make these yoga mat bags.

We had one night during the week when we had the house to ourselves! It was like being kids and having the parents go away, so out came the wine, though I was still in bed around 10. Last week while out at one of the duka’s we had some interesting conversations on contraception and the birth complications believed to be caused by the pill, as well as some side effects, but I am not sure if these are old wives tales or something else. We also spoke about the sex education offered at the school, which appears to be very basic if anything, and views on school girls getting pregnant and what support is offered. It was great to have a very open conversation where we felt comfortable to express our views and how it is different in our countries and they seemed genuinely interested in providing more education on the issues, if the resources were available.

Had some good news yesterday about the hostel for girls at the school - we are getting sign off today to continue working to repair it and hopefully have it ready for the new school term in January. It is community land so apparently it was unnecessary to get permission from the Singida council. Then the sewing project as I mentioned is going great and the chicken project FINALLY had the extra batteries for the incubator delivered and so far that is working so after a trial period this can get moving again. This week we started after school lessons – Monday is Homework & English Conversation Club for the girls followed by Netball, Tuesday Boys & Girls Life Skills and then girls soccer. Monday went really well and we had over 30 girls turn up. We will put a few more signs up but this number is a good start. Netball was good, nice to run off some of the ugali, potatoes and rice. Tuesday’s life skills started slow – school finishes at 2 and the students go home and come back but not until around 4. We asked them to write down secret questions and as a bribe for being on time next week said we will answer them at 3 on Monday, no later. The girls are quite shy but it’s obvious they have questions for us, personal or not. Some that we got were “why do white people like dogs so much” , “what do you eat in your country”, “what is the agriculture and farming like in your country” and then harder ones such as “why do people in Tanzania with HIV not get medicine”. Life skills was good too, this week was about us finding out their views on Ilongero. Interesting answers coming from 14-17 year olds, and issues that most young people at home do not have to think about. Soccer was fun and ended up with a bit of an audience. The girls are just as rough at this as netball, wearing kanga’s and bare feet doesn’t get in their way at all. During the warm up exercises J and I both noticed when lining up we would have a couple of girls behind stroking our hair. A fair bit of hair patting goes on when the opportunity arises.

The yard has also become a bit of a Mzungu viewing centre. “come see Wazungus in their natural habitat’”. There is a path over the back thorn fence that lots of primary school students take in the afternoon - I was reading outside and a couple walked past, I could hear them saying “mzungu” to each other…then when they walked on and their view was obviously obstructed by bushes they walked back to stare some more. They then called out to their friends about it and walked on. I thought that was that but next thing a whole gang were in the yard demanding a photoshoot. Now in the afternoons some just come and stand around the side and stare. A bit weird, especially when you are sitting inside and look up to see faces peering in the window.

There was a bit of a freak out about an apparent rabied dog down the road earlier in the week, but after seeing it later on, I think it is just sick. Nevertheless, a good reminder for me to maybe not be so friendly with the strays. But good news – the cat we have sort of hijacked from the neighbour and fed it enough for it to call our yard home is pregnant! The chickens are no longer friends as they are destroying our banana trees when they try to shoot out new leaves. Then the GIANT bee’s in the yard, they are getting too comfortable with us and get a bit close. Also have started to hear the ceiling bats at night, so it’s a real animal house.

M taught us to make chapati’s so all is good!

Yesterday we were invited by one of the high school boys to attend the after school debate. All organised and run by the students, one week Swahili, One week English. There were about 80 students there and they elect a chairman, security etc etc. Maybe by the end of my stay I can take part in the Kiswahili debate.

Yesterday I had about 20 kids ‘trying on’ my hair. I would flop it over their head from behind to see what they look like blonde, then it got crazy and there were little hands pulling all strands of my hair. When we walk home from school Monday and Tuesday, we start just the 3 of us, then look behind and there are a few students, then look behind a few minutes later and we have about 20 friends walking us home. When B went to take a photo of J and I and the group, we both had hands patting our hair and in the photo you can see a hand on each head. Same with lining up for the exercises in sport, anyone lining up behind us will just start stroking our pony tails.

Yesterday we were talking about how we haven’t had meat since the 4kg of pork, and M got excited and said she’d go to the market. Dinner was Dagaa…..my LEAST favourite food. Not sure if its called the same at home, but pretty much dried sardines eaten whole. Really foul, really smelly and super fishy.

Just listening to the choir practice now as I am staying at the social centre where Sunday’s ‘Big Event’ is being held. I got a room upgrade yeehah! Luxury.

I think that is all the news from here. When in Singida I realise how much at home I feel in Ilongero as I always end up saying “I can’t wait to get home!”. It is encouraging to see some positive developments with some of the projects and I hope the good news continues.

I’m back in Singida for the main reason of internet, electricity and a warm shower, though the shower hasn’t worked out as I budgeted on the room and so got a share bathroom where the water and electricity don’t work. And there were a fair few power failures….Kerosene and candles never let you down like this. I spent most of yesterday in my room watching ‘E Entertainment’ TV. I did meet up with J & B for a bit to watch a Manchester game at the pub but it seems its VERY much for the boys so J and I were out of there pretty quickly.

This past week has been great, I feel very comfortable in Ilongero. The three of us did some brainstorming on Saturday (and celebrated with an afternoon wine) and put forward some suggestions on what we can start working on while we are waiting for the long awaited batteries for the incubator at the chicken project and also waiting on the approval to continue work on the hostel. Another reason we are in Singida – for our meeting with the authorities today. One of the ideas was to start a monthly Ilongero newsletter to be distributed at the school, organisations centre, town community centre and shops. From what we have heard there are no newspapers based in the Singida region and big newspapers in Dar es Salaam aren’t going to care what’s happening eg. With a little hostel for girls in central Tanzania so this is a way to at least keep the community up to date with local news and also promote the org's centre more and hopefully utilize it more. I am excited about this as it is something I think achievable. And I like to write, surprised?

Last Tuesday in Singida turned out not to be the quick stop off we had planned. One of the shops caught fire and it seemed like the entire region turned up in town, the streets we PACKED. The fire truck sped down the road and I am not kidding people were running out of the way as it was not slowing down even on these small streets. It had to keep doing runs to the lake about 10min drive away to get water. We were introduced to a Tanzanian ‘Godfather’ type character who owns a wholesale shop in town and after sitting with him for a while he gave us boxes and boxes full of biscuits and lollies and ‘Chemi-Cola’ – the cordial mixture which proudly states on the bottle ‘Contains no Natural Fruit Concentrate’. We have been using all these as thank you gifts. By the time we managed to get on a bus back to Ilongero it was 7 and due to the dark and lack of headlights got home at 8. Just a quick stop in town. Obama-mania continues – anyone wanting ‘Obama for Men’ aftershave for Christmas, let me know. I don’t know how authorised it is.

I spoke too soon last time also about how easy it was turning out to be to get into town – today we got to the bus stop at 11:30 and didn’t get a bus until almost 2. The only guaranteed bus time is 7am, other than that the buses and mini buses come at any time…or don’t. I was shoved in the back of a van smeared against the back window, good view though.

Wednesday we went to the market with M which was probably the most relaxed market experience in all of Africa – even when the 3 of us went back on the weekend by ourselves. There is no one shouting at you, no ripping off as most people are aware of us by now, and a good chance to practice our Swahili. We still get laughed at a lot, as I don’t think there has been more than one volunteer at a time here before so to have THREE together is just too much to handle, especially for some kids. After the market, Maria popped by with a chicken for dinner. No, not a Coles BBQ chicken. We all had a nurse of it before the knife came out……..

After we disposed of the feathers and dried our tears we went down to the centre/org's site just outside the village. It seems to be hard getting women involved at the moment so we are hoping the incubator will get things going again.

Thursday we went to the school in the morning as principal was meant to have met with the teachers about what they need us doing. We met a couple of girls to take photos of for the sponsorship program, then one of the head teachers took us around to every class to introduce us and we welcomed any questions. One of the questions was whether we were married, when I said no the teacher said as a joke “but she is looking” and a few hands went up so he quickly had to backtrack and follow up with “but she wants to become a nun”. Whoopie Goldberg look out. He told them all we would be teaching at the school but I want to have a meeting about that as #1 – not teachers #2 – I am mortified of public speaking #3 – would take a lot of time and not what we are here for plus when we leave they will be left with the same issue of not enough teachers for the subjects. It would be good to do some sort of class, such as life skills or something to have more contact with the students and that will be a way to have them feel more comfortable around us for some of the other projects we have ideas for such as questionnaires and a mentoring project where we can get women from the Singida region who are now doing all sorts of work or study to come talk to the classes about how they got through school and to where they are now. This is because we noticed a huge drop in numbers of girls in the classes as the years go up. Also there is no High School in Ilongero (Form 5 & 6) for girls so having to travel from home to study is obviously a problem as we have been informed girls tend to have lower grades and higher drop out rates due to home chores. There are also lots of school kids (14 y/o – 23 y/o) around Ilongero in ‘rent a room’ houses living by themselves as they live too far from the school to travel each day. This is one of the reasons the girls hostel was built as it becomes unsafe for the girls.

B & J brought a proper Manchester United soccer ball and gave to the school and eventually this was fetched to go with our introduction. We went to the assembly where again the holy soccer ball was paraded and we had to get up in front of the entire school and luckily B made the speech. We had a late lunch at one of the teachers’ houses with his family. The teachers live on the school grounds as they are assigned here from different regions. Then of course was the highly anticipated teachers and students football game with the new ball. J and I went along expecting to sit on the sideline and read, but on the way to the field saw a few girls on the netball ‘court’ so went to say hi. We asked if they wanted to play a game and told them a couple of very basic rules to start with but as soon as we went to play the girls all got into proper positions and everything. During the day the teacher had said to the classes that we would be happy to teach them some sports……well, when we got a game going we were USELESS in comparison. Soon we had enough for 2 full teams, team Manchester United and team Lion/Simba. When I sub’d off to hoot the vuvuzela at goals, the court was in hysterics. We soon had a line of official vuvuzela hooters and even some of the boys watching. It was good to see some of the girls take leadership roles and when things got silly they demanded the others ‘be serious!’. We got a bit stuck when they stopped the game and started asking us to show them ‘physical exercise’, I was about to show them some aerobics moves then we realised they wanted some sort of netball skills exercises….we did what we could remember from school. I think all they needed was a non student to be there and get things going.

On Friday M took J and I to a town meeting. Was great to see about 10 men to 40 or so women. There was a man and a woman in the middle of the room conducting the meeting. Ladies, if you never want to worry about removing facial hair again, come to Tanzania. After enquiring about the trend, we have been told it is considered attractive in some regions. This lady had a fantastic beard!!!! But other than facial hair observations, the meeting was interesting based on some translating. A speech was made about the hostel and from what I could gather from facial expressions and an older man who stood up and made a big speech I thought we were facing a bit of hostility. Apparently not. He had just told them about the hostel and how the current one was actually meant for girls not boys and no one was aware – no information service! They were quite outraged and this man had made a very supportive speech to a lot of “NDIYO (YES!)” from the rest of the people. We introduced ourselves and he interpreted J’s speech about what we are doing here. All you have to do is throw in a few Swahili words and you have some fans. “Ninajifunza Kiswahili kidogo kidogo, pole pole” always gets a lot of laughs. “We learn Swahili little by little, slowly slowly”. At the end of the meeting, we were made to stand up, and then the women all started singing and clapping and dancing around us and throwing their kanga’s around us. We danced in the middle of the circle a bit and then a path was made through the crowd as we exited outside the hall for hand shaking and lots of cuddles. Therefore the welcome feeling I have in the village.

Also I was offered a plot of land to work by the principal for when he divides some up for the teachers, but given the short lifespan of my herb garden I may have to decline. On the way home from the meeting we were admiring the sound of the church choir practicing outside, so M dragged us over to interrupt, take photos and sit with them through rehearsals. We then saw a pig being walked through town for slaughter (pigs are one animal we haven’t seen around) on Saturday. M only lives a couple of minutes away so is always around cooking amazing meals. Not surprisingly Saturday she turned up with 4kg of pork!

Wazima?
I can’t believe I am finally here. I think this is how my first email in Africa started off.
It is such a nice feeling to have unpacked, set up my room and know I am settled here for the next 5 months.
In Dar es Salaam I met Ben and Jess (the other 2 volunteers) and the founder of the organisation at the immigration office to sort our work permits which was surprisingly unpainful, and later on met her and another volunteer who lives in Dar, for dinner.
The founder is a teacher as well as running the org. We dropped her off at school and as we drove in the car was surrounded by the students and their smiling faces all peering in the windows. We got out to say hi and as we got back in had hands reaching in all the windows to shake hands. Then driving out had several running alongside the car down the street.

She helped us on to the bus to Dodoma in the morning, thank god as the big bus stations are so hectic we would for sure have been ushered on a bus to Kenya or something. It is funny seeing the smaller city buses all named after European league football players. The trip was 6 hours and the roads good. The coach was comfortable besides the blaring music nearly the entire trip!
We had a night in Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania. A ‘city’ of huge contrast. Firstly, it is stuck in the middle of nowhere, sprawling semi arid land. And the streets are a mixture of sealed (but very dusty) main roads and dirt side streets. The buildings are just as mixed also. It was really nice to walk around in the morning though in a place I wasn’t hassled to buy anything and felt completely safe. And our hostel was guarded by a man with a pretty serious looking rifle! Then on the bus to Singida. Everyone at the bus station remembered us from the day before and knew where we were going so as soon as we arrived it was “SINGIDA, HERE HERE SINGIDA MZUNGU”. The Dar volunteer had arranged for us to get on his bus as he came though from Dar. It was great sitting at the bus station watching as buses came in all the people selling things throw their buckets or other goods on their heads and run up to the windows. You could buy anything from walking sticks, grapes, sunglasses, shoes, baskets, watches or cooking utensils. As we took all of our luggage onto this coach with us, I got a little stuck trying to get in the door and had to be shoved in from behind (therefore why I am so happy to be settled). I JUST made it down the aisle!

It only took a few hours to Singida, also on a good road. I expected 6-7 hours as my travel guide states but obviously a lot of work has been done in the last couple of years. He took us on a bit of an orientation of Singida town, the main town of the Singida region, the poorest in the country. It is pretty small but has all we would need by the looks of it. We were introduced to all the right people, from the post office owners, hostel owners, a youth project RWDA volunteers sometimes help out, and of course the internet café owners.

After one marriage proposal from an older man at the shops I have told Ben I may claim to be his wife from time to time. He has already been given the thumbs up from a group of guys who then hand signalled that they thought Jess and I were both his wives. Ben also constantly has guys yelling out soccer stars names they think he looks like, I don’t know if my Swahili lessons are as important as learning about football. We went on a bit of a mission for a bottle of wine but all we could find was fortified church wine. The mission continues….

At the turn off the main road towards Ilongero, the sealed road cuts off and the African bum massage sets in. It only took about 30mins though, so is going to be easier to get to and from town than expected.The trip to Singida today took a little longer as we were in the open tray of a truck so it was going a little slower than thr dallas. The only good thing about gender inequality is that women are more likely to be let on to sit first. Ilongero is a large village/small town. There are little shops scattered about, my favourite is Mama Shayos. She is sweet and has the greatest laugh!

Another thing I have been pleasantly surprised by is the volunteer house. It has 3 bedrooms, an office, a lounge room and dining area and INDOOR bathroom. We have no electricity or running water, but are lucky enough to have a tap in the backyard (with treated water) so it is easy to fill up our washing buckets. The toilet is a squat loo though, so I am thinking about making one of those chairs I saw in An Idiot Abroad and just cut a hole in the seat as first thing in the mornings it’s a bit of an effort on the thighs. We have outside loo’s as well which I’m sure will go unused as they are foul, maybe for guests haha. The roof has recently been boarded up so bats are no longer a problem, though on night 2 we did have a ‘situation’ where I felt like I was in the movie Arachnophobia as I think after the house being unoccupied for so long our bug spray awoke all the spiders and cockroaches and they came to visit us. I was a mess and trapped in the bathroom by a giant cockroach, I forgot how scared of them I am. Ben and Jess are just as scared of spiders as I am of roaches so between the 3 of us we were a pretty pathetic sight. We have a plantation of Moringa Tree seedlings in the yard, which is looked after by a local lady. The Moringa Trees are one of the latest projects here, they are considered an African Miracle Tree as they grow in semi arid areas such as Ilongero where most crops cannot and are used in many medicines and other uses. They will soon be moved to a large plot of land (which we have a view of from our yard) and new seeds planted. Also looking forward to giving our banana and lemon trees some TLC to get them going. I am in love with the calf next door, who has a bit of a personality like a dog, and we are getting to know the chickens who wander through the yard regularly. There is Bill (Clinton) who loves the ladies, Burlesconi is further down the road and was an absolute FIEND and most of his ladies have bare backs from his advances, Julia (Gillard) is the ranga hen, Hilary (Clinton) also stops by with the kids, as do the Spice Girls. We have to find one to call Obama as Tanzania is Obama crazy. Today we found Obama Magic lollies.

The house is solid cement so pretty easy to keep clean, any spillages just sink in really and tin roof which sounds nice when it has rained at night. It was pretty overcast the first couple of days, but the past couple very sunny. The sun is strong on my mzungu skin but there is usually a nice breeze, especially in our yard in the afternoon.

Mornings here usually start with a cold bucket shower, then sweeping the dust out of the house and filling up the bathroom and kitchen buckets. Then the scent of kerosene fills the house from our ‘kitchen’ and its time for tea and coffee and brekky. It has been frustrating at times how long everything takes. Every task seems such a big ordeal so we have been trying to get away to do things by ourselves more. For instance, Jess and I wanted a bottle of water from the shop, by the time we all got going that was half an hour, then walking at village pace (literally makes my legs ache walking so slow), meeting people, stopping to see this or that, etc etc it took about 2 hours for what could have taken 20mins. Not to sound unappreciative though as it is great being shown around.

We have been having Swahili lessons out in the yard which is going really well and being so immersed is really helping. Maria, a lady who lives in Ilongero with her 18 year old son, has looked after us so well. She lives very close by. She doesn’t speak much English but has been with us most of the days and night and is feeding us very well. I know you all expected me to come back from Africa skinny but I am afraid with all the carbs I am eating, and the quantities we are firmly encouraged to eat I may be massive. Benedict calls us ‘Sister Nicole’ and ‘Sister Jessica’ and speaks some English so that helps also. On Saturday Maria asked if we would like to see her ice a cake. Local people pay her a couple of dollars to make cakes for special occasions, this one being a graduation….i thought we might just see how she makes the icing, but over 3 hours later at 10pm she was finished the intricate icing and we could start dinner! My heart broke for her after all the effort when there wasn’t enough room for ‘Congratulations’ so it ended up being ‘CONGRATULAT’. Benedict invited us to attend the Catholic church with him and Maria on Sunday. I can’t think of the last time I went to church that wasn’t for a wedding or on a city tour. The singing and dancing was fantastic and if I could have busted out dancing I would have been less fidgety throughout the rest of the service. Every now and then a lady would bust out a high pitched “AIYAIYAIYAIYAIY” which was great! It was great to see this kid we met at the disabled centre having a great time dancing along. I think it was appreciated that we attended and the older people were very quick to come meet us afterwards. We thought we had the greetings down, but now there is the local dialect thrown in as well and at this stage we can’t tell what is this and what is Swahili. A lot of smiling and nodding and “Sielewi Kiswahili pole”.

At night we can sometimes hear hyenas, and at 5 each morning the dogs go crazy with the call to prayer so that wakes me for about half an hour. I am happy its cool at night though, a very nice change from Zanzibar. The area is very dry but I have been told to take loads of photos now as when the wet season starts shortly, it will be near unrecognisable as everything becomes green.

Sunday night we had a beer and introduced a few people to Marshmallows. It was a mixed response. Yesterday we did the official meet and greet of the town. First was the Ilongero Executive Committee who were lovely. Then the head warden at his office and then on to the police station. They all wanted group photos which was great. We then saw the Sunflower factory where sunflower oil is produced as well as other products made from the seeds (again, excuse lack of agricultural knowledge). We then spent a couple of hours at the secondary school, meeting with one of the teachers and then the headmaster. We are meeting again tomorrow after they have had a meeting with the other teachers about where we can help.
We looked at some form 2 test results. ½ boys passed compared to only 1/5 girls! Anyway I will save the rant for my diary 
I have been having fun wearing some kangas I bought in Zanzibar, though yesterday I had a slight issue when I was talking to a lady and it came undone…..managed to grab it just in time before flashing all of Ilongero. Apparently you wear pants or a skirt underneath.
Today we are here to pick up a few bits & pieces in town then resume ‘class’ this afternoon. Tomorrow we will go to the main community centre at the organisations site to see whats going on there.
Hope everyone is going great.
I hear the kiwis beat us!