a typical day in Africa(not quite!!)

Jumbo to all again,

Now that I'm back in the Uk I can't help reminisce of my days in Africa. I must say I went through all sorts from high to lows literally, metaphorically and emotionally. However, over all I can't help but smile to myself when I think about it.


During my voluntary month there was nothing like a boring, uneventful day. I lived with about 8 other volunteers (I say about cause it wasn't always the same people). It was mainly women, with the exception of 2 guys throughout my stay. I think volunteering especially with kids seems to be synonymus with women, anyway. Other than us, there were 3 other local females who helped in the house as well as lived with us, upstairs. They cleaned and cooked for us. Then there were the men of the house; Corneille - Arts in Tanzania Manager for Arusha - and his right hand man, Patrick. Corneille was seldom around, always out and about visiting project sites. But Patrick was our translator, chaperon, guardian, project facilitor...the lot! Then there were at least about three Maasai men who occupied an open-door garage and spent their time playing drafts in the garden. Their mission was to guard the house, btw! Oh, then there were two puppies who just couldn't have enough of messing up the garden.

Life at the house was just like Big Brother live! And like Big Brother I'll give you the highlights of days of our lives :)


One day I woke up, dressed and was about to wear my shoes when my big toe hit something really hard. Ouch! Must be a stone. As I was about to look into my shoe, there jumped the biggest black toad I'd ever seen ...oh yuck! I backed away and screamed my lungs out causing all sleepy heads to wake up in a second and come to my rescue. In between catching it and throwing it out, and looking at it in awe, Lisa just dashed for her camera and started to take photos, while I was still freaking out... 'get it out! get it out!!'

Apart from this minor incident, we had other quite more serious ones, unfortunately. One night the electricity went out when Regina and Lema were coming down the stairs. Regina lost her balance and flew over the remaining banisterless stairs. Luckily enough she only twisted her ankle.

On a another note...one day Jenny and Sally came back with a little boy, who they found all alone at his parent's house. His mum had been dead for about two weeks while his dad who's an alchoholic, was found drunk somewhere days later. The little boy had not eaten for days. The girls practically adopted him; bathed, fed and clothed him, took him to hospital for check-ups and even found him a place in an orphanage leaving him with a stock of food to last him a whole month.

The opening of Joanna's school was all celebrations. We were also invited for a Mass service one Sunday. In the photo; me wearing a traditional kanga (wrapover skirt) infront of our house. After an hour and a half crammed in the back seat of a taxi we finally found the little wooden chapel. Mass service that Sunday was beyond our belief. I later described it as a roller-coaster ride of emotions which, by the way, lasted for four hours. The congregation started by shouting their prayers out so loud and so desperately almost as if it were Judgement day. This was then followed by a healing cermony with lots of weeping and crying. We couldn't help tears trinkle down our faces. Suddenly, all this sadness was elevated by songs of praise and joy, which turned into dance and clapping. We soon joined in the party celebration. Our spirits were dampened once again however, by a two hour homile! Oh, I couldn't help thinking about my bladder which was about to burst !!!!

One day or well, on quite a few days actually, I think it was about five, we were hit by a mild earthquake. I remember being shaken in my bunk bed in the middle of the night. The worst one being one late afternoon when most of us were relaxing in the sitting room. We felt ourselves being shaken. It was a strange sensation. No one said anything. I looked out of the window to see the stone column holding the porch swing rapidly to and fro. I was spellbound. None of us moved. Then Patrick rushed in yelling at us to get out. So we did. The next day the local news announced a tremor of 6 on the rector scale just a few hundred kilometres away from Arusha. Well, at least there were no casualties or catastrophies in nor out of the house!

Apart from all tragedies we did have typical days which were out of our ordinary lives.


On our way to work......




Everyday we walked and got a daladala to work. We walked along the dusty, bumpy, tiny streets and on the way saw all sorts; makeshift shops which looked more like huts brimful of stuff from fruit to topup voucher cards, a local cinema made of dung, soil and branches, cement-built rooms which served as houses and shops, hens pecking away at rubbish and whatever they found at the sides of the streets, children rushing to us and yelling 'muzungu' or "'goomonin' 'ow you?", mums carrying their babies in kangas across their backs and women grilling corn-on-the-hob over small charcoal stoves to sell them to passers-by...eh, like Patrick & I! :)

In the main roads every daladala that passed by would hoot its horn at us. There was no such thing as tickets. You would just clumber into the little mini-van, which would be choke-a-block with people most of the times, find a tiny seat or just stand up and crank your neck all the way, until you recognise where you want to stop and yell "shusha"! In the photos; volunteers waiting for a daladala and me crammed in one!!!


After work.....

The shortcut back to the house wound through grazing fields. So, we walked amongst cows and goats, or should I say hopped our way through as we tried to avoid all the dung then jumped over two little streams to get to the other side too! Once Laura also assisted the birth of a goat, right in the middle of the field. Oh, so cute!!! When the weather was nice and clear we did get a view of Mount Meru though :)


Back at the house, until tea was ready we would laze about in the sun on the roof terrace, play drafts and chat with our Maasai guards or washed our clothes in the garden. Oh, how I missed the bloody automatic washing mashine!!! Our clothes were literally soiled with dirt. Every time I did my laborious hand-washing, I had to change the water at least 3 times before it turned cafelatte from chocolate brown. Anyways, once done we would hang then on a line in the garden or against the wall as Patrick did with his socks!!!


A cold shower was our aperitif afterwhich we gulfed tea. This generally consisted of plain rice with a veggie cassarole of carrots, peas and beans, fried bananas & chicken and fruit salad topped with raw carrots, cuccumber and tomatoes, to finish. Yummy!

Like all good school children we went to bed at about 8.30. I think it was a combination of being tired, waking up early next morning and nothing to watch on TV, unless someone would have bought a pirated DVD. Anyways, I would climb onto my top bunk bed, secure the mosquito net around the edges of my 5inch high foam mattress, find a comfy spot over the stiff wooden boards and drift into dreamland.

At times we went out for a drink. We also danced to a live African band at a popular restaurant / open-air club called Via Via which was in the centre of Arusha. Oh, that was fun and surely made us human again for a while. Oh yes, let's party people!!!



more pics.... Mama Sada cooking ugali (stiff poridge


Original Maasai shoes - sandals made out of car tyres, cool!!! The trench dug for the toilet drain by one of the tombstones within the new school's garden. Story behind this pic; one day I was out in the garden sitting on the adjacent tomb together with the two Mamas. One of workers was digging this very trench at the time. Suddenly, I felt sick with the dreadful stench that filled the air. I wondered what it was. It then occured to me that it could have been the fumes of the dead buried there being released from all the digging!!!

oh what fun!! :)

watch out....next time I'll take you to the animals' kingdom !

A tearful farewell

Jumbo!
Monday morning I took a detour on my way to Wema Centre and headed to Moses' office. He wasn't surprised to see me at the same time, I think he resented that hourly visit. But hey, there was I due to no fault of mine! He was in distress not having managed to get any money from his friends, thus his failure to get the remaining cement bag and staying away from the ever-complaining and threatening (I later learnt) workers. I showed him the receipts of my latest expenditure and he wrote me another receipt, so that I now had the house until February 2008. I didn't want to leave it at that and asked him what were his future intentions, re the school project? Especially now that I wasn't going to be around to save the day or days again?!?! He told me about a proposal he submitted to the Arusha Secondary school with the intention to get a loan of TZS100,000 which he'll spend on the new school. What guarantee is there that he'd be given the money? I asked. Well, the chances are good, he replied especially, cause the School believed in his new Community organisation. Well, I hope so. At that point, I remembered that Corneille, our Art in Tanzania project manager had recently been recognised as a public non-profit organisation by the (Arusha) Ministry of Education. So, as I was telling Moses, perhaps he needs to get in touch and create good relations with and through Corneille to substantiate the proposal. Having advised Corneille too, I hoped things would work out in the end.

I left his office leaving him stunned when I told him that that was my last day in Tanzania. He thought I was there for another few days and couldn't stop praising me for having done so much in very little time and that he felt he should give a show of appreciation. No worries I replied, I did what I could and well, thanks to you we found a good house at a very reasonable price. Which was true.

Next thing I was at WEMA, blowing my lungs out on balloons which Jenny (one of the volunteers back at the house) had generously given me. I was lucky to find 2 other volunteers from the Arusha Project and the Hapi (the school helper) to split that dizzy exercise! I must say I created mayhem with those balloons. The children just went nuts; yelling, screaming, begging for more and more of those multi-coloured bubbles. At one point one burst and the kids went dead quiet for a minute. They seemed to have been shocked by the noise. However, for the next hour or so they just shrieked and cheered everytime they heard one pop. Oh, it was so sweet to see them all smiles and playing about. It was fun taking pictures and them handing me bits of coloured rubber from the ones that burst.

It was getting a bit late so I decided to call it a day and go to town for the last important errands. But Mama Asteria had other plans in mind. I saw her making little balls out of a huge dough in the outside kitchenette. I asked what that was as she replied, "Confectionery, for the function." Ok, so we're having a little function. To which she smiled and grunted. It was obvious it was in my honour, being my last day. How sweet! thank you, can I help? I then spent the next half hour rolling tiny balls and she frying them so we made 'andasi', kind of baby doughnuts. We made loads of them for the children to enjoy, of course. In the meantime, Hapi stirred instant orange powder sachets in a big pale to create the drink.
When I went back downstairs in the yard, I found four chairs and a coffee table with cloth and plastic flowers laid out. Wow! this is getting quite something. ... Us volunteers and Hapi helped to distribute the doughnuts and drinks to the children who were all seated down on the ground. Next Mama Asteria called for everyone's attention. Then I started to get small butterflies in my stomach!!! She asked me, as the guest of honour to sit on the middle chair. The next minute the children were singing a typical song of praise in Swahili, this time adding in some words and phrases around the new 'Nicoletti Schule'! Then, Gifti, an albino boy sang his favourite tune...karibu karibu... ohhh...
Now we have a presentation, announced Mama Asteria. And from the back of the tiny crowd she took out the most wonderful kanga I'd ever seen! She gave it to the kids, who hand it over to me over the top of their heads, handing it from one to another. I was taken aback. I felt my heart melt into my shoes. Then she passed on an envelope which contained typical African ornaments and jewellery, including, an 'I love you' (!) card. Her and Sada draped me with the kanga and asked me to sit and listen to a letter the teacher had written on behalf of 'one of my students'.

My lips were already trembling by that time and my eyes watering but the letter, read by the teacher herself just opened the dam!!! Sweet words of gratitude and praise and 'continuous support', (which couldn't be missed out, of course) were uttered. I felt so honoured. I never thought or least expected all of this. Gosh, I wanted to run and hide, it was so much. My heart, or well, what was left of it wanted to crumble. The children each came to kiss and hug me in turn. Oh, how I wish the could see their new school. They obviously knew about it but I so wanted them to be there just then. Next a parent gave a short thankyou speech on behalf of the parents who were assisting from the corner of the yard. Oh, hugged everybody and cried my eyes out.

Celebration over, I dashed to town. It was me with my business hat on again the next minute. I had to make copies of receipts and papers for the Doc and myself and most importantly get the remaining TZS70,000 owing the fundi. I couldn't feel I could trust Moses in settling his debt with them and none the less have them shove off to some other work without having completed the school in my absence.

I met Joanna (another volunteer) and walked to the house were I found Musa and his workmen at work being supervised by the Mamas. I gave Jo a quick tour and took some last photos. Then I grabbed Doc at one side and gave her the cash. I told her to keep TZS10,000 for herself as I Sada had told me she had to allure the fundi to come to work that day the night before by paying them another part. I told her to give them the remaining balance only once they finish the work and in case Moses never pays them. She pocketed the money in her bra and with tears in her eyes nodded and said 'ok.' Split second latter, Moses greeted us in the pom pious manner he liked to display when in tie & jacket! He held a certificate in his hand. And as promised, he said, here it it! Oh yes, if only he could keep other promises I thought, I'd be much happier. But hey, we took pictures of course although Doc didn't want him in any of the photos.

We went outside and took more photos. I then said bye to Musa and the other workers, while the former was in another heated discussion with Moses. That was hard, trying to leave in the midst of that. I didn't butt in this time or say anything. Many reasons; as I wanted Moses to feel more of that pressure coming from the fundi whose trust he hadn't yet won, I was on my way out and I had played my last hidden hand by giving the money to Doc. So there, my job was done and over.

I hate goodbyes. I generally go through them in a very quick rushed manner to avoid the pain. People think I'm rough too at that but it's cause I can't handle them generally and so I do it quick'n'easy. I knew what could happen with the Mamas. They were just like my two big sisters. We obviously couldn't help not showing it and the three of us crying and hugging each other made quite a scene especially tough girls as we were. I'm glad Jo was with me that day. It would have been harder going through that all alone.

Later that evening, I got a call from Moses. He happily announced that he got TZS30,000 which he already gave to the fundi who promised to get the work at the house all done within 2 days. WOW!!! that just ended my last day :)

I still have my fingers crossed (yep, can't help it!!) that things are getting along ok back at my new school. It's going to be difficult to stay in touch with them however, even if it'll be just through our banks, as in transferring the donated money, I would be happy. Oh, before I forget. The new school's name is actually named after me. I know...it's so flattering. The Mamas insisted it to be called 'WEMA Centre Nicolette's School'! So, I can proudly say I'm the founder of a school in Tanzania :) Most of all, I'm even more proud to say that not only have I climbed to the roof of Africa but I've also given one to its people.

Cheers
Nicky
X X XX X

....next.... off to Zanzibar for a well-earned paradise holiday!!!!!

Another BIG shopping spree!!!

Jumbo!

Sunday morning saw me lousily reading a book on a tombstone in the garden of the house. Gosh, I was still sleepy and so wanted to linger in bed a little more, especially after a late night out the previous day .....time was slowly ticking away and yet no one was around. I called Sada at 9.30am then suddenly, everyone was there. Shoot! I keep forgetting, Africa time!!!
Anyways, we estimated the number of required ceiling boards, nails, wooden beams etc etc ... Mmmm getting pretty good in construction works, I thought .... then headed to Boharti - a little village between Sanawari and Arusha town. Paul (our neighbour) had told us about a good hardware store in those whereabouts. And glad he did cause we got better prices without the need to bargain to much.

Musa found a 'mago' - a one-man drawn cart on wheels - and loaded it with the new wooden beams we got from an open-air warehouse and the stuff we bought from the hardware store. At least I managed to stick to a TZS100,000 budget and not only got the necessities but managed another three cement bags, despite Moses' mystic extra one which never seemed to become real!!! By that time, I was overly done with him. I was too busy getting things done to find the nerve to reproach him again except to fetch him the next day for another receipt to cover off yet another month's worth of rent.


Work was still heavily underway, and there was no way that I'd see those kids attending their new school the next day or even over the coming couple of weeks. Oh, if only Moses had had started a week and a half before as agreed and planned......but hey, projects are not one-man (or should I say woman!) based, unfortunately!!!

I couldn't believe I was about to leave, I mean not like that, bang in the middle of it all. It wasn't me to 'abandon' a project like that. But I was confined to dates, planes, and other places on my African itinerary. I still felt I should move on despite the Mama's daring questions of should I be staying? Anyways, I won't be here to see the children's first-day-at-school glee but I still wanted them to party on my last day with them :)
That Sunday afternoon, Sada invited me over to her place for lunch. And what a lunch!! I told her I was vegetarian to avoid eating any meat and she went and bought a whole chicken in my occasion! Oh, so sweet I thought. Yep, until I say the beak and the claws being stirred in with all the other parts in a massive pot!!!! I had had to explain that chicken being poultry, is also meat which I do not eat. Ok, I know I lied but my stomach churned and I forgot how hungry I was at that sight. Funnily enough, Mama Asteria still put a drumstick in my plate and when she saw I didn't touch it she replaced it with a big piece of liver, the end part which looked like the upper part of the inner beak!!! ok, maybe I was imagining things by that point but still managed to eat the cooking bananas, chopped tomatoes with cucumber and rice. After our late lunch, Sada cooked some ugali (stiff porridge, see photo above) with vegetables (!) for the fundi to take back to the house. I headed off home quite tired and looking forward to a quiet Sunday afternoon with tea & biscuits, oh no, chocolate!!!

...next....a tearful farewell !
luv
Nik
X X X
PS: re photo; everyone is welcome in Sada's little house including a kitten and a goose!! Here you see them playing 'cat & dog' over Mama's foot :) !!!

Our next door neighbour

Hi again...
I know, I know it's been a while. But I've been travelling and well, going around places. I spent a few relaxing days in Zanzibar and now in Cape Town! Mmmm, just got some time and bad weather to keep me glued to a seat in an internet cafe and continue my school story.....

One day I caught sight of a man in his late forties walking about the house. Wasn't sure who he was and guessed him to be another curious onlooker. But Sada quickly explained to me that he was Paul, our (well, the school's) next door neighbour. She further explained that he had kindly offered us to source electricity from his house' main supply and is so doing he saved us TZS200,000. I was flattered. Barosi (the electrician) already knew about this and was busily working out connections and things. I obviously, endeavoured to do my best in being courteous and grateful.

On another day, he came around to check up on things at about five in the afternoon. I asked him whether he could tell Musa that I wanted to leave for home and whether he could call it a day. He expression changed to a worried one and asked me whether I had been there all day. I nodded. Well, miss, he said I hope you had some lunch. Oh yes, of course, I replied. He spoke to Musa then in his most gentle and but firm way told me not to worry and to go home. He told me we can trust Musa to work till later and take the key. In any case, I know where he lives, he assured me. So, I left for home appeased.

Paul is an accountant and unfortunately his wife is an AiDS victim, deceased only about four months ago. I would describe him as a gentle giant with his soft-spoken voice, gentleman manners and eloquent English. I can't emphasise his generous nature enough. He wanted to give me a gift, a new-neighbour type of gift; a dozen eggs from his own pen! Now, how's sweet was that. I felt obliged to reciprocate and in any case had decided to buy something nice as in a thank-you type of gift. But what? I had two days to think and buy something as he told me he'd give me the eggs on Saturday. Great! what? what? what? Then Moses enlightened me (for once !!!). He told me that he had two boys, aged about nine and fourteen and it wouldn't be a bad idea to give them something like books to further their education - a subject matter very attuned to such a parent.
Saturday morning I dashed to town, picked up two books; a picture dictionary and an encyclopedia and also tucked in a rugby ball, an Australian volunteering couple had given me. Pleased with that went back to the house to meet the Mamas. Paul invited us in for some sodas. Sada (and later I) were chaffed when he told us he was also willing to lend us his water, as in let us connect to his main supply, once again. Oh yes, both mamas were pleasantly relieved!!! He gave me the eggs, of course, which I later gave to the Doc to cook them for the children on Monday during school. When I then gave him the books he never expected them and told me that whatever he'd done was out of kindness. Still, he couldn't resist flipping through the pages. I wished his boys were there so I'd see them and their faces especially seeing that white ball.

Back at the house work was progressing at a slow but steady pace. The two men setting up the ceiling were running out of boards. At the same time I noticed that cement was running low again, even though Musa didn't comment a thing. I can't afford this work to stop especially with 2 days before my 'project days' are over, I thought. Seems like we're heading for another shopping spree, I told Sada. She had sensed the need too and so we agreed to meet at nine on Sunday morning for yet another shopping spree.

So, off to get the 'mago' ready again...............
ta
Nic
X X X