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 !