24/8 and 25/8: Maasai village and hot springs

Today we went to Robert from PA’s very own Maasai village. I had kind of decided not to go because I had already seen one, but everyone kept saying that this one was very nice, and we would be there longer so I thought maybe I would get a better look into their lives. On the way there I saw Kilimanjaro, and I kept thinking: challenge accepted. Just two weeks more, then I am almost there! The village wasn’t really all that I had expected, but I think it was because almost no one was at home. Robert had also expected more people. We walked around and saw the village, the empty village, and we saw some dancing and things like that, but nothing really that I haven’t seen before. Other than Robert’s house, it is not a Maasai hut which is round and has a straw roof. His is square with one wing, a tin roof and two rooms inside. He hasn’t decided if he wants to come back here and live one day, but judging by that house – he isn’t really fit to live like the Maasai anymore, he needs a city. We also had lunch there and then we went back later in the afternoon and then we really needed a shower/a bucket bath. It is kind of weird but everybody is always saying that it feels like the best shower they ever had, because they are so dirty, but at the same time the thing that people complain most about and look most forward to when they get back is a real, warm shower. On Sunday we also had a day trip planned, this time to the hot springs. I wasn’t able to go the last time because of the influenza thing that I had. I also think this was a nicer group to go with, though we had to pay more. I was really nice there with the trees and water and just relaxing. Maybe not worth all that money, but I went for the social aspects than the actual hot springs anyway. All the people I went with a staying for two month or more except one, so most are going to be here until I go to Kenya so that is really good to have people I know here for the rest of my time. The person who is leaving is Marscha from my induction; it is kind of weird how I haven’t really seen her so much, but the others from my induction a lot, even though she is really nice. She will have her goodbye dinner on Monday; I think that Grace doesn’t really approve of us having eating out so much the last couple of days, since I didn’t really do it a lot in the beginning. But it is good I think to go when it is for something other than just to eat out, but also to say goodbye. My second cousin from Iceland and some of his friends might also be coming to Arusha on Monday, as they have to take their flight out of Kilimanjaro airport on Tuesday, but I don’t really know when and things like that, but they are all invited. I am sure that it could be really fun to be many as well. In the evening Laura and I made play dough for the children for tomorrow and it was surprisingly good, since we hadn’t tried doing it before and we only had a cup to measure with. My first day doing micro finance is tomorrow, I am so excited!

23/8: Moshi

Today I had to go to Moshi to pay half of my Kilimajaro trip and their office is in Moshi. It was an hour and a half in a big dala-dala, not what I had expected but okay. I asked a lot of questions to make sure that everything is alright and it all seems to be in order so that is good, though I have to pay to stay in a hotel the night before we start climbing, because we start on the 8^th of September. The other people I am going with a two men from Italy, I think one of them at least have tried once before but had to come down because of altitude sickness. This probably means that they are even more determined to make it this time. They might only be doing it in six days, but I will be doing it in seven no matter what and I will still have a guide and porters and all that. After I paid we went to see where Patrick is staying. He is staying with Grace’s sister in a nice, but small house, where I might have stayed but there is no room for me so I don’t understand why they thought of that. It is in the neighborhood where Grace and Patrick Sr. grew up, they meet in primary school. So that was really nice to see, I also got to see one of the abandoned train stations. Patrick said that there haven’t been running any trains since the 70s or 80s so it is a very long time and all the tracks are still everywhere. This is really a shame; I mean it could be so much easier to go by train in a country like Tanzania than by bus everywhere. It could be cheaper for everyone, there would be more room and better for the environment. I didn’t see Kilimanjaro all day! Which was a real shame, but I will see it someday. When I got back to town I bought some really expensive lunch in Africafe and then went home before we would meet for the goodbye dinner, so that I could go with Laura. The dinner was really nice Chinese food and it was not that expensive, which was nice. My lunch cost more. 

22/8: Second social

Today we Laura and I had the children together, we started out painting their hands on the wall because Grace wants to have something on them and that is the first step. We also played ‘stop dans’ and ‘stole dans’. In the first one you have to listen to music and freeze when it stops and if you move you are out. In the second you also listen to music but this time when the music stops you have to hurry and sit down. I think they really liked both, at least the seemed to be enjoying themselves and we only stopped when some of the parents came and lunch was ready. Afterwards we went into town. I had to get some money to pay for my Kilimanjaro trip first and then we went around clock tower and to the Mt. Meru market. We could be there longer because there was a social tonight. This time it was at Via Via, my guidebook said that it has the best soundtrack of any restaurant in town, but I am not so sure. We had traditional Tanzanian food so it was not everyone that was bothered to come, but we wanted to come for the social aspects and not the food. It was really nice because there was some people I was sitting with where we did not all know each other so well, so that made it easier to talk across the table and everybody joining in the conversation. We had to wait a long time for the food and we didn’t stay all that long but it was worth it. We agreed to meet again tomorrow night and have Chinese at the Chinese Dragon as a goodbye dinner for Michael, a German who has been here from May and will stay in East Africa until January. He is also going to Kenya with PA so I will meet him there again. Which reminds me: I haven’t actually made it official yet, but I will only be staying in Kenya for one month as I have decided that I will not need any more time there than that and that I would like to be home earlier in December.

21/8: Dirty Day!

Today we had a Dirty Day at the Naserian School that nobody seems to have heard about, but it was very nice. We painted the outside on one side of the building, the side facing visitors and not the forest in the back. We were almost there all day and it was a lot of work and a lot of waiting and a lot of sun. I don’t get brown in the sun; I get red or pink, so now I have a very nice t-shirt line on my arm and my neck. Had another Kiswahili lesson after that, not quite as easy anymore, but I did expect that. I learned about how to negate a sentence. So if I take the example from last time: “I am eating now” and negate it, it would be: “I am not eating now”, the positive in Kiswahili is “mimi ninakula sasa”, the negative is “mimi sili sasa”. Because they take the time thing out completely because the add stuff for the past, I didn’t learn the future tense yet for this. But “I was not eating yesterday”, would be “mimi sikula jana”. Before when it was positive the double pronoun was in this order: ni/u/a/tu/m/wa, in negative present it would be: si/hu/ha/hatu/ham/hawa, then you would add the verb but put and ‘I’ in the back instead of the last vowel. Because in the negative past it would be siku/huku/haku/hatuku/hawaku and then adding the verb it the same form. Also learn other stuff as well, but I’m sure this will do for now. So that was two more hours, 57 left to go. I won’t have more classes this week as she is fully booked tomorrow and I am doing something else on Friday. It will also be easier to do it when I am doing microfinance as I will be at the office a lot. On Friday I will be going with Patrick Jr. to Moshi to pay half of my Kilimanjaro trip so that they can book everything for me, though I have many questions for them before they will see my money. Maybe we will also go to the waterfalls, but I would have to pay around 35,000 tsh, which is not bad for something like that, I am already going to a Maasai village on Saturday for around 30,000 tsh and they are planning another hot springs thing on Sunday, but I think I will pass on that one as well and just relax or do some more apartment hunting in Sweden with my sister. I am going to Robert’s Maasai village, which I have heard should be really good. I would probably prefer to bring lunch though instead of drinking goats’ blood and things like that.

20/8: Tampen brænder

Yesterday I got the children to paint their hands on a piece of paper and I think they had a lot of fun doing it. Today I just had a game, we call it ‘tampen brænder’ in Danish and it is where you have to hide something and then another person has to find it, but the only help is that he or she is told if he is getting warmer or colder, warmer meaning closer and colder meaning further away. Suzan didn’t really understand that concept at first, but at the end they had a lot of fun. Laura had her induction today, so it was a good day for me to stay home and take care of a few, or a lot of, university details because my diploma has arrived in Iceland. So my coordinator had to know precisely what to put in the envelope with it, my grandmother had to know to pick it up and send it to my brother, my brother had to know that it was here and what he would be receiving and furthermore I want to apply to a second school in Sweden so I have to figure out if they need something more than the first one. 

19/8: Newcomer

This morning another volunteer had arrived in the house. She’s only one because the other one has some problems with her kidney that the doctors need to figure out what is, before she can come here. For now she has moved her ticket until the 1^st of September. So Laura came here alone. She’s really sweet and it’s nice to have someone to talk to and be able to really speak Danish again. She’ll be here for some three months, two of them in the day care and the last one doing some medical volunteering and then she/they has/have planned three weeks of travel time at the end. I have actually planned a bit of travel myself. Because for every ten weeks that we work we can get two weeks of, I already have a Kilimanjaro week, but that doesn’t really count. Then I want to go to Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar and up along the coast for twelve days before going to Kenya. It actually wouldn’t have to cost very much, maybe half of what the Kilimanjaro trip will cost, if you live and eat cheaply. But of course it is still a lot of money to spent, but I still think it will all be worth it. Laura got here the same time of day that I did and the women who picked her up had said that they would get her at nine to do the induction, only four hours after she got here, so she did not get a lot of sleep. And then they didn’t even come for her! An hour and a half after they called to say that they would come the day after instead, she could have used that time to sleep. Laura had so much planned and so much stuff with her to give them all, I hardly had anything, so I’m sure she will be very popular amongst the children. She had even called Lego to ask for something to bring, we will only work together for two who days because there is also a dirty day this week so we won’t work in the day care then. Today I had Kiswahili again! I only had it for an hour, but I learned some 15 verbs and how to use them in the present, past and future time. Also the different between the pronouns, they have six: ‘mimi’ which means I/my/me, ‘wewe’ which means you in singular, ‘yeye’ which means him/he/she/her, ‘sisi’ which means we/us, ‘ninyi’ which is you in plural, ‘wao’ which is they/them. In Kiswahili they use double pronoun so before the verb they add two things, the second pronoun and the time, the second pronoun is in this order: ni/u/a/tu/m/wa. The present is ‘na’, past is ‘li’ and future is ‘ta’. So if you want to say “I am eating now”, eating being ‘kula’ and now being ‘sasa’, you would say: “mimi ninakula sasa”. Or if you want to say “we were eating yesterday”, yesterday being jana, you’d say: “sisi tulikula jana”.  Easy, right? Just imagine how much I could learn in my last 59 hours. Another lesson on Wednesday!

17/8 and 18/8: Wedding!

Today I went out shopping as I wanted, not with Sheila or Susan as they weren’t home, but Patrick Jr. the one that is ‘in charge’ in a way in my Kilimanjaro climb and might be my guide. Because if I went alone, apparently, I would only get the Chinese jeans or not be able to find the real ones. I got two pairs of jeans and two shirts (who on later inspection might be a bit small). The feeling of wearing jeans again was worth it. I also spoiled myself a little because afterwards I went to Africafe and bought hot chocolate and a chocolate fudge cake, so now I won’t need more chocolate for a while, but it was really good! I went there because I had been told we needed to buy a gift for the wedding, as we had already paid quite a bit for the food I didn’t really want to, but felt I had to. So I had asked the others if they wanted to buy one with me, and I sat there waiting for their response. Some had bought something and others didn’t want to, so I ended up buying what everyone had told me to: a kanga! And it was way, way too expensive, though I got the price 15.000 tsh down it was still way too much and something best left in the past as it was probably unnecessary, but then again it was a really nice night so maybe it was worth it. Now I really want to tell about the Tanzanian wedding, though I think this precise wedding was very western inspired. It was at a hotel in a big ball room with round tables and chairs draped in white with the chairs having different color fabrics around different tables, all in the wedding colors: red, gold and black. Many of us didn’t really understand how they could use black as a wedding color. The middle of the table had a bouquet of flowers there was a kind of bar for drinks and when we came the food was being brought in. we were way underdressed, we had just been told to be in whatever we had, most of them were in the most fancy dresses I have ever seen and these were western style fancy with bare shoulder and everything. When the important people started to come we went to stand by the red carpet leading from the entrance into the ballroom. We had been given a kind of napkin and now everyone was waving it around in the air while dancing to the music. This continued for a long time, until the bridesmaids/flower girls and boys came. They had a special dance prepared so we had to get out of the way. Then at last the bride and groom arrived in an elaborate style. Then they had to introduce everyone and when they mentioned someone that person would stand up and wave. We got there around 6pm and the dinner started at 9pm, so this all took some time. There was a lot of food, but it appeared not to be enough for all, which is very bad at a Tanzanian wedding. Before we got any food the bride and groom had to do the cake thing giving it to each other and then came the Tanzanian ‘cake’ that means bad luck if not present. A goat. A very dead goat, with everything, the head was held up and it still had hair and everything. They then did the same with little pieces of the goat. Then we ate, and it was really good. After dinner the presents were presented by walking up the red carpet with the gift and all the givers while they were dancing of course. When this was all done it was around 11pm and it was still going strong, but as some of the other volunteers had to get up early the next day we decided to call a cab and get home. I didn’t have to get up early, but I still had much to do the next day, like trying to Skype with my sister. We ended up just chatting, but it was still very good to be able to just write and write. I also had emails to send and things to plan and that is basically how the day went, very uneventful, but that is needed sometimes too. And there are coming two people more to live in the house that I live very early tomorrow morning so I wanted to do some things before waking up to find them here. I am really looking forward to maybe finally getting some volunteer friends here, or just people to talk to and do things with, though I do feel bad for them, for arriving on a Monday instead of a Sunday like me. Because they won’t be here before 5am or 6am like me and the children in the day care start arriving before 8am so they probably won’t get a whole lot of sleep. 

16/8: Staying home

Today I played some games with the children ‘kluddermor’ and another one where you run in a circle and touch someone on the shoulder and then that someone has to run the other way than you to race to the now vacant spot. It was only the older kids playing as I knew it wouldn’t work with too many, but they seemed to have a lot of fun doing it. Today for lunch we had something porridge-like with bananas, tomatoes, onions, carrots and meat. It turned out that it was a good idea that I had decided to stay home as this apparently became too much for my stomach. It is a miracle I have lasted this long without stomach problems. I also needed to do my normal laundry today, that was a bit tough, but I made it through. Oh, and I hate my dentist back in Denmark. Why you might ask, two times this summer the braces I have facing inside my mouth, some of it fell lose. Two times within a week and you know what I felt at dinner tonight? That same feeling of it falling of the tooth in precisely the same place as the two last times. I don’t get it, why did my braces last for four or five years when the children’s dentist put it on, but break two times after the adult’s dentist tries to put it on? And what am I supposed to do now? It would probably be a good start to check if dentistry is included in my insurance. I am so getting a new dentist when I get back.

15/8: Kiswahili

Today almost everyone got their own pictures. As I think I mentioned before I developed two portrays of each child, one to be in the day care and another they could take home with them. The one here hangs on the wall of the day care on a piece of cardboard each with drawings they made on the side and their names. Now other volunteers will not have as much trouble with the names, though many of them will go to school in the spring. Today I went to the office for the language social thing and it was really fun, I really like the teacher as well so that is really good as I will spend some 60 hours with her during the next two months or so. The dinner social had been moved to the next week. I have decided to have a stay at home day tomorrow and to the shopping on Saturday as I will then be able to go earlier in the day and have more time and the wedding won’t be before 6pm anyway. Victoria the language teacher taught us that saying ‘jambo’ is wrong it is like her students coming to school and only saying ‘morning’ instead of ‘good morning.’ You have to say ‘hujambo?’, then you can answer ‘si jambo, na wewe?’ ‘Na’ means ‘and’ and ‘wewe’ means you, I hear this all the time in the day care. Then the first person answers ‘si jambo pia.’

I have also talked about ‘habari’ before and I think this is the most important because you can add everything! Like ‘habari za asubuhi’ literally what news of the morning or something like that or just how’s your morning. You can add afternoon, evening, day, work, children, family – anything. You alsways answer the same thing: ‘nzuri.’ You never answer negatively. Victoria said this was to give the other person hope, but it also means that if you ask this question you have to look at them because otherwise you can’t interpret to what extent they mean it. So this makes it easier as I won’t have to know if they are asking about my day or my family, it will always be ‘nzuri’ I answer anyway. She also told us about the kanga or khanga, they material it different colors that many women wear as a skirt or dress. Many of them have a quote or saying in the bottom, so you have to be careful about it as not every one of them are good. For example if two women are having a row one of the might buy a kanga then pass slowly in front of the other women while wearing it so she can see precisely what the first women though of her. Then the second women might buy a kanga and do the same to the first women and so it goes.

14/8: Big spender

Today I developed the pictures! Because of that I now know of to spell all of the children’s names, so here they will come for future reference. Only one person haven’t been here these three days; Ebeneza. Then we have in random order; Gosperi (not Gooseberry), Simon, Esther, Nasara junior, William, Janeth, Azra, Doreen, Noreen, Tamali, Johnson, Jackson, Nasara, Joving, Angela, Najma, Oscar, Julieth, Joyline, Betty, Daniel, Bryan, Andrew, Ibrahim, Dereck, Pruspa, Eunice, Cathbet, David, Salma, Elizabeth, Khadija and Gillian. I also bought a USB with a month worth of internet and a little memory card that can fit into the USB and that I can take home with me after so that I can keep all of the photos that I take here if I decide to leave my computer here which I think I will do. I also went shopping around clock tower and the Mt. Meru crafts and curios market (formerly known here as Maasai market). I spent so much money I still can’t quite believe it. I spent 321.500 Tanzanian shillings (tsh) one dollar is 1500 tsh and 4 danske kroner is 1000 tsh. So you can do the math and figure out I did spent a lot for just one day. A lot for even a week or month as to my usual spending, but I got a month’s worth of unlimited internet with 5 GB, 8 GB memory card, 99 developed pictures, two pairs of casual pants and four paintings. So the only thing that I feel like maybe I shouldn’t have bought was some of the paintings, but they are so nice all of them, and they were on my shopping list (though maybe four was a bit excessive). When I showed Grace and Patrick some of the pictures they kept repeating: “nzuri sana.” ‘Sana’ is a word that you add to another word to express that you mean it a lot or very much. Like ‘asante sana’, ‘asante’ means thanks, so ‘asante sana’ is thanks a lot. ‘Nzuri’ is something you can use to one of the very numerous ways of saying hallo which is ‘habari’, ‘habari’ also means news so it is like asking if there is any news, then you answer ‘nzuri’ meaning good news or good in general or something. So when they said ‘nzuri sana’ then they meant that it was very good or the pictures were very good. Today a lot of people said hallo to me there are two main easy ones used with people like me at least: ‘jambo’ and ‘mambo’. They are very similar so sometimes I am unsure which was said or I answer the wrong ones answer. If someone says ‘jambo’ you answer ‘si jambo’, if someone on the other hand says ‘mambo’ you have to answer ‘poa’. I finally did my very own hand washing laundry which I am sure I will get used to by the end of my time in east Africa, today was socks and underwear and Friday will be all the pants and shirts and so on. With regards to Kilimanjaro then it is on for the 6^th or 7^th of September and seven days onwards!

13/8: Just a normal day

Biggie’s real name is Andrew, there is also Cathbet who is one of the boys and also William who I think is new because he doesn’t know any of the songs that the children sing in the morning and he’s just standing in the middle of the circle. He also cries easily and all the time if he doesn’t get his way. Nazra the little one has been the same the last two days with me, but this morning as was in no way better than her mother, but I think I come in second. I also took the last pictures today and plan to check them all out and pick the good ones tonight and then develop them tomorrow. I think I have taken 300 of them in total in two days so I have to cut down because when I took the portrait I took at least five of each child and I need just two. I also took group photos and the like. Right now I am at the PA office and it has the worst internet connection that you could ever imagine, one minute on two minutes off and that’s how it goes for a long time, for this reason I usually prefer to go to town or something and check my emails, but as I was coming to the office I thought I might as well do it. I talked I Victoria the language teacher and I am going to really start on Monday, but there is a workshop on Thursday before the social so I will get something there as well.

12/8: Plans and projects

Today I worked again, now I have started this project where I take pictures of all the children and then I will see if I can print them out and give them two each, one to take home with them and the other to do something with at the day care. I was also on the internet today with many emails waiting one of my second cousins from Iceland came to Arusha this weekend, it’s a shame that I just missed him. There is so many things I need to do and that feels really good as there is always somewhere I can go after work and I don’t feel bad about going alone as I can just take my own time and go where I want to go. Tomorrow I have to wash clothes, buy tape and go to the office and finally figure out something with the language course. Wednesday I really want to go to the Maasai market, it is really incorrect to call it Maasai market but everybody does, and around clock tower and buy some things. I have my eyes on some paintings, but I didn’t have enough money when I saw them today so I will make sure that I have enough then. Thursday is the next social that I am also really looking forward to though it seems that there are two at once, but I will figure that out tomorrow. Not sure about Friday, but I am going to a wedding on Saturday, so maybe Friday will be clothes shopping day!

Next trip project is Kilimanjaro! 

8/8, 9/8, 10/8, 11/8: Safari!

So we started out early from Arusha and had about two and a half hours to go to our first stop: Lake Manyara! A national park known for its diversity, it has 11 or something like that different ecosystems, so that means many different animals. Here we got to see elephants walking really close to us, on the road in front of us and things like that it was really cool, and lots of monkey, the vervet monkey and baboon, also wildebeests, buffalos and zebras. So this was like a first taste of what a safari can be and we all agreed it was a good start though we didn’t see many of the things we really wanted to. That night we slept at a camp close to the national park. I got two minutes of hot water in a shower and it felt like I was in heaven, though I have almost gotten used to bathing out of a bucket. Today we had also visited a Maasai camp, which was a good experience to have and to know how the live in polygamy. The reason it works for them is that the wives all have different houses with their children so the husband just visits whatever house he feels like for the night, but I’m sure it reduces jealousy some. They have this dance where they hop up really high and that is basically all they do – while they are singing, but it was actually pretty cool. The next day we went to the Serengeti It was a really long drive and we drove through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area on the way so almost all the way was really bad roads. We were going to be in the Ngorongoro crater on Sunday, today we just looked down from the rim. On and on we went and at last we were at the gate Naabi Hill heading into the actual Serengeti. We still had three hours of daylight left, during that time we saw lions, leopards, hippos, more baboons, giraffes, ostriches, impalas and other deer like animals. It was amazing to see the sunset in the background at the end, but it was almost beaten by all the stars. The next day we had to get up really early in the morning so that we could see the sunrise, which was incredible. Today we added cheetahs and crocodile to our repertoire. Then we headed back to the Ngorongoro crater again where we would be sleeping at the rim, which we had been told would be really cold, which it was. We ended the night by sitting around a fire playing the story game where one story is told, but each person adds something new to it. There was one with a giraffe who had lost her spots and went everywhere to get them and asked everyone, the hippo for mud the leopard for its spots, and then it became a drunk because no one had any for her and all the other giraffes didn’t want to be friends with her. But miraculously someone else ended up loving her, but when they on their honeymoon in Hawaii the giraffe learned that it was only because he didn’t have any spots himself! That was the least crazy story another had pandahippos children with low self-esteem and a third a hippo that fell in love with a Danish mermaid from Italy that couldn’t swim. The next day we got up really early again but it was so cloudy we didn’t get to see the sunrise. I had really looked forward to this because the crater is known for its wide variety of animals and there was a chance of seeing the black rhino. Though unfortunately we only saw that very far away. But we also saw flamingos, jackals, hyenas, lions with their kill and another thing I had really wanted to see: herds of zebras and wildebeests, enormous herds. Descending into the crater it felt like we were going to Jurassic park or something like that only with savannah animals instead of dinosaurs. We still had a very long way ahead of us so after five hours we called it quits; you can only be in the crater for six hours at a time so it was close to that. The people in my jeep I have already told you about but I want to tell some more; Barbara or Babsi goes to a high school with tons of sport, so much in fact that she is getting really tired of it all and she’s got one year left. Her boyfriend is Julian he’s the one that arranged the safari, he pretended to be his father Jo, a travel agent, to get us a bit of a discount, but the charade didn’t last very long. He also has one year of high school left, but he’s in a business school because he wants to be an entrepreneur. His mother is from Singapore. Daniel is Barbara’s half-brother he’s a cleaning supervisor at a hotel, though he doesn’t do any cleaning himself he has to check all the rooms are clean, he used to do a lot of waitering as you can see when he picks up plates. He really wants to do something more important though or something more fun. He was a degree in hotel something that he needs to put to good use, he was the oldest by a few months on the trip with his 25 years. They are from Vienna, Austria and going back tonight/tomorrow early. Also German speaking is Theresa from Germany she’s wants to study medicine in the fall, she’ll be here for two months, I would be able to say more about her if she didn’t speak German all the time – I think I missed all the good stuff. From Italy we have Antonella and Mathilde, Antonella is a doctor of a few months and is about to specialize and Mathilde had two more years left before she can specialize. Antonella will be the kind of doctor who will be able to make a terminally ill believe he’ll live to a 120 years. Mathilde will be the supporting one that will really be able to make you come to terms with the facts the right way. Antonella though doesn’t want to come into contact with the living in a hospital, she wants to do post mortems and be like the ones in CSI. Antonella was also the one that came up with the phrase for our team: “wonderful!” It can be said about anything, even when it is not wonderful, maybe especially then, she’s from Rome, but studies in Sienna. She usually goes to hear and see the pope every Sunday as she lives close to the Vatican. Mathilde is from Milan and has what sounds like a really sweet boyfriend. Six hours later we were back in Arusha having a barbeque that had been an on off thing, but was now definitely on, though I must say the dinners on the safari were better than this. But it was a goodbye dinner so it was nice none the less. In the other jeep were Rachel and Jason from Canada, Sif from Denmark, though she didn’t want to speak Danish with me even when it was just the two of us she’d speak English which made it all kind of awkward, Maia from France, Eduardo and Valeria from Italy and Margaret from Ireland. The three first mentioned works with PA in Dar.  It was nice to sleep in my own bed that evening.

7/8: Learning

Today I felt a little better and I went to work, though it is in the same house so it sounds kind of weird that I went to work, I just kind of walked a few steps. I actually met some new kids today! There was a little girl, Nazra, who took to me instantly the complete opposite of Vanessa and every time I walked somewhere she would follow me which was really endearing and she was so sweet. Some of the others that wasn’t there last time is Tamali (or at least I think that’s it) and Betty I think they might be related or live close by each other because if one of them doesn’t come the other doesn’t either. They don’t look so much alike, but they are both really sweet which I know I say about a lot of them, but I always mean it. There is also Noreen, our beauty queen, every time I see her she has a new hairstyle and that is saying much for kids who are nearly all nearly bald. I think the one that I didn’t catch the name of last time, the one with the eyes that doesn’t fool me; his name is Biggie or something like that. Though I am not usually one to judge it is kind of an apt description. I mean you can see that he eats more than the rest and his dad owns a big white car and they probably live in a big house as well. There is also another little girl who came the other days, but not today, I think her name is Gooseberry though it can’t be spelled like that. There were still some of them that I didn’t catch the name of; it will take me forever to know them all. One thing I have learned about this is that in Kiswahili they put an ‘I’ after the name and calls them Jacksoni or Janeti and that really doesn’t help me much to remember. One of the boys, Johnson, is always wearing the same clothes. Many of them do that, but have changed a little in the days I have seen them. Many wear a school uniform or half of it, with blue trousers for boys or a skirt for girls and a shirt and a blue pullover. Johnson’s trousers are green but otherwise it is all the same and during the last three days he has also been wearing the same sock. You can hardly call it socks. We have a saying or a word in Denmark grownups would use with children with a hole in their socks: they’d say that there was a carrot sticking out or something with that. All his toes are sticking out, it’s like one of those gloves you have to have you can write on your cellphone on the same time. But he is one of the nice boys, he hardly ever gets in fights and he’s really cute. Today an old volunteer came visiting: Stephanie, she stayed here for six months last year, so she knows this place very well and she said it is one of the best host families that I’m in. she went with me to Shoprite a shopping center where there are also banks, internet cafes and the like nearby. I wanted both a bank and some internet, both for preparation for tomorrow as I didn’t bring so many dollars with me and we have to pay in dollars and I had to send some last emails. The only problem with getting the money was paying the 4% commission fee which could have seen me through a tour to Arusha National Park. Then Stephanie and I went to the clock tower and from there she went home, last she was here she got a boyfriend and she’s staying with him, though he doesn’t seem as serious as she is about the relationship. Then I paid everything for tomorrow and I have great faith in Julian and that he knows what he is doing as I would have liked to pay in an office, but I just gave him the money. First we are going to Lake Manyara then to Serengeti and then Ngorongoro crater, it’s going to be once in a lifetime! We’re leaving tomorrow at 8 am. Tonight I learned more about this family and the people who live here. Apparently they have been thinking that I am not very talkative and that I talk slow, though I am not sure what that is supposed to mean, but so I haven’t talked to you about the ‘orphans’ yet. When Aminiel was born his mother died because they didn’t have everything they needed to go to the hospital and then his mother fell sick and subsequently died. A Danish girl saw this one day old baby in what could be described as bushes with a father who had depended on his wife for means and was therefore now very poor. She then went to the place where Grace worked, MS, and people said that maybe Grace could give him shelter, because the Danish girl wanted to pay his way through school and for food and the like. Grace went home and talked to Patrick about it and they agreed that the very little boy could come and stay with them. A year later, somehow I didn’t understand, they found out that Aminiel has two sister who were still with their father, Grace and Patrick also took them in and the Danish girl found other supporters for them. They are Aika and Miriam (the smaller one). They have been living here since, Aminiel was born in 2000. Salim was found two and a half or three years old on the side of a street close to the Sakina supermarket, at 10:30 pm. He was brought by their son here and the next day Patrick went everywhere to ask if someone was missing a boy and the police promised to broadcast it every day. That was three or four years ago. 

4/8, 5/8 and 6/8: To be sick

On Sunday I did not do a whole lot as I wasn’t feeling very well so I stayed at the house all day. Monday wasn’t any better than the day before health wise, but I still went to work and to the office later in the day, though I just slept when I came back. Tuesday was even worse as I had to stay in bed all day, I tried to be with the children for some time, but it wasn’t working at all. So I got a lot of sleep. But I figurd out that the best kind of medicin can be bought at Sakina Supermarket (my dalla-dalla stop) in the form of snickers, pringles and sprite!

3/8: Coffee plantation

Today was Saturday so it was a day off as the entire weekend is off. The others from the first day and I plus Mathilde from Italy went to a coffee plantation. These are the people that I will go on the safari with from Thursday. It was nice to see the entire process from when it is planted in the ground until we have espresso, especially as we saw it from an organic coffee point of view with what they use instead of pesticides and so on. We met a girl from Sweden who has been staying on the farm for 6 months and are only halfway. Our guide was her boyfriend, they seemed happy. I figured out something today: on some of the dalla-dallas it says STAND on one side of the front dumper and USA on the other. I thought the just really liked America or something, I mean STAND USA? But as I had figured out yesterday Stand is the place that all the dalla-dallas go, kind of like an end station. And USA? The Usa river, stupid me, but it is always good to learn something new!

2/8: The children and Julius

Let me introduce you to the children that I know the names of: Vanessa a around one-year old girl who can walk and say a few things, though what she really likes is to repeat after you, she has taught me the Kiswahili equivalent of the Icelandic “Ha?” it’s “Eh?” which is really useful with the children though it doesn’t really make me understand them any better. Vanessa is always here from early morning until late. Then there is Eunice a girl who’s always calling me teacher and had an adorable smile, Julieth (I think it is with an H) who really likes to sit nearby me, but doesn’t say much, Joyline and Salma are the big girls who can do most of what they set out to do and are asked to go first by Susan when we are trying out something new. The boys I don’t know so much but they are as follows: Jackson, Johnson, Darrick, Joving, Bryan, David, Prosper, Simon, Abenezer and Ibrahim the last to like to sit by me, but the others are too old to play with girls I think, Prosper cries a lot and Ibrahim is really sweet, small and has the biggest smile you could ever imagine, Simon is really little, he rarely ever smiles and just likes to sit quietly, there is one more, but since he came later I didn’t catch his name, he’s rather a bully, his dad is a bit better off than the others, he’s got big eyes – but doesn’t fool me. Then there is Azra, Nadija and Nazra I don’t think that is how you spell it, but that is how it sounds, they are siblings and the ones forgotten on the first day. Then comes Hadija, the one who walked into a wall, Dorreen who’s rather quiet, Esther a little bully as well, there’s two Elizas both of whom I hadn’t seen before today one of them a bit older than the rest. There was one more little girl that I didn’t catch the name of and some that didn’t come today, so I’ll get back with their names on Monday. I forgot Angela, but she doesn’t say much though she seems really sweet – sometimes they just call her angel and Janet who’s like Angela just in a more smiling way. Later in the day I went to meet up with some of the others to plan something for our safari next weekend, but nothing much happened as to planning anything. On the way there, it was at clock tower (the supposed middle of Africa from Cairo to Cape town, though it really isn’t), a flycatcher caught me, though I am not really sure if he was a real flycatcher or what. I had taken the dalla-dalla to Stand which is the local bus terminal of sort – though it is really just were all the busses meet, and then I had to go to the clock tower. I had never been there before so I didn’t know where to go, though I had the map I didn’t want to let anyone know I was really lost because there were so many people. First I went down the road as I knew I was supposed to, I didn’t know when to turn left, bt I was quite sure it was left. Before I found a left turn a guy came over to me and said that I looked lost and I thought that I wasn’t fooling anyone, but I just turned away, he even said “undskyld” or something in Danish so he had me truly figured out. So I went left but then the road didn’t seem like the road I wanted to take so I was about to turn around and try another left, but there he was again! The first thing out of my mouth was: “are you following me?” he didn’t have a ready answer for that but he repeated that he though I looked lost, which I was at that point. Sheila and the others at home had told me not to ask for directions, but he asked me where I was going so I thought I might as well tell him so he could at least point me in the right direction. He said I was going in the right direction so that was good, the second thing that I asked him was: “are you going to steal my bag?” He was kind of annoyed by that questions and asked in return if he looked like he was going to steal my bag, he actually looked respectable in a Tanzanian sort of way. He followed that up by showing me his identity card and telling me his name: Julius, at that point I had started walking again and he was kind of following at the same time as leading the way. He asked me his name and I was reluctant to give it to him, so he wanted to know if I had forgotten, I hadn’t. He met one of his friends or something on the way and I hurried on walking, but he was not to be deterred, he just hurried on after me. We ended up talking the entire way the clock tower, though he did want to be my guide on a tour or something, he even showed me his grades from guide school (it is really called something really long about tourism and safari etc.) which were good a lot of A’s and B’s though he did get a C in ecology and plants. He is out of a job at the moment that’s why it could help him to get people like me to go on tours with him. When we arrived at clock tower he ended up giving me his number and homepage so that I could check it out and he asked me how much I trusted him. He had asked me this once already and we had agreed on 10%, I didn’t say any more than that, but I think I would trust him enough for him to take me and some of the others on a tour somewhere. I mean, he didn’t steal my bag.

1/8: Social

I had been looking forward to today because there was a social gathering in the evening of almost all of the volunteers. I had planned I another thing for today, something to fit into the handicraft thing in the schedule. It is something that you make out of paper and we used to play with it all the time when I was growing up in Denmark. You have four squares that you paint different colors and then you write numbers on the inside and under the numbers you write something that a person is supposed to do. I didn’t want them to do all that, just paint it and play with it; this went markedly better than the trust thing yesterday. After that it was television time, so the kids just watched television the rest of the time. Then came the gathering where I meet other people though I am still a bit of an outcast, but I guess that will never really change so I talked mostly with the people I meet last Monday. I also met a fellow Dane, though I didn’t speak so much with him as we had to hurry at first and he was speaking to other people while we were at the restaurant. The restaurant was Indian and expensive for Arusha. I didn’t really find it all that good, but then again I like what has been served for me so far. So let me tell you about the food I have been eating. Breakfast consists of a slice of white bread with peanut butter and tea, lunch and dinner is the same kind of arrangement though dinner is bigger with: rice, potatoes, French fries, pasta, ugali a Tanzanian specialty that doesn’t really taste of much and you have to eat with your fingers and on the side there will be meat with some kind of sauce. To get back to the social; after we had eaten in the Indian place we went somewhere called Mango Tree a hangout for tourists, a few Tanzanians and the occasional drug dealer. We stayed there for quite some time, some of the others wanted to go to a place called Via Via after Mango Tree because there is some kind of show that starts around midnight. I didn’t want to go there because I had caught a cold and I had to get up early tomorrow for work, and really, the plan is to stay here for three months so I’m sure I’ll have time to catch the show another Thursday. It can be really dangerous to go around outside in the dark, so we have to take a cab everywhere we go, so that is how we got home. Then I had to call Grace and she led me in, though I got out of the cab before then, which I am not supposed to do apparently – it’s that dangerous.

31/7: Trust

I wanted to be more prepared for class today than I was yesterday so I had spent some of last night thinking up some. One of them was about trust. You have two people who stand in different corners of a room, one of them is then blindfolded and you put up obstacles in between the two children, then the child without the blindfold has to direct the one with to his or hers corner. To say that this turned out to be a failure is a bit mild. The child without the blindfold didn’t really direct at all and when he or she did it was so quietly so that no one could hear, so we had to move the objects before something went completely wrong, which of course it did when one blindfolded girl walked straight into the wall when I wasn’t looking. So that did trust each other, they just didn’t trust themselves to direct the other. So if anyone has any ideas for simpler games or something else we could do, please say so! I got the simcard the other day and one of the people from Projects Abroad was supposed to put money on it for me, and there was money for a time, but not very much, so I went to the office today to figure that out, she ended up giving me all the money back so that I had to put it in myself, but that was okay since I got to speak to Sheila. Sheila also lives in the same house as me, she is now in a college and she’s going to work at a hotel when she’s done which she seems to really look forward to. Another reason I went to the office is because I have to start the language course and they had said that I should come to the office to plan it, but the teacher wasn’t there and she never came, so that is still a bit unclear.

30/7: First day of work

My first day of work was rather chaotic, meeting all of the children, an unclear schedule, though they do have a schedule, it looks like this:

09:00-09:15: Prayer and sing songs

09:15-09:45: teaching

09:45-10:30: handicraft

10:30-10:45: snack and drink

10:45-11:45: play

11:45: get ready to go home

But not everyone goes home at this time, which means that there is more to the schedule, but it is kind of hard to figure out exactly. And the children start arriving from 08:00 so there is also that to take into account. Their names are so difficult and there are so many of them! I got to use the internet today, though it was a complete failure, I mean the only thing I really did was send an email to my sister, I tried to post some blogs, but I needed to verify that I am me, that is extremely hard when I only have one email address and I no longer use my Icelandic phone number! I tried for so long, but they didn’t believe me, I even got an email saying that a stranger was trying to log into my account! In the evening I asked Aika about what she wants to do when she finishes school, she said that she wanted to cook. I thought about it and asked: “Here?” She was like: “yeah,” and pointed to the kitchen. Then I asked her if she didn’t want to be a doctor or a pilot. She said maybe a pilot. Maybe I had imagined that she would have bigger dreams, or have dreams, but she doesn’t really have that much of a reason to. But she gets to go to high school, Susan, who is taking care of the children with me, never got that chance. 

29/7: Induction

Today I had the induction to Arusha city and what to expect and not expect. I didn’t really see the city center, but there will be plenty of time for that later on. I meet a bunch of new people; Antonella from Italy, Marscha from the Netherlands, Theresa from Germany, Daniel, Barbara and Julian from Austria and other I don’t remember the names of. But these were the people that I got the induction with. In the morning I also meet some of the children, some hadn’t been picked up when I got back much later and Grace asked me if I could imagine someone just forgetting their child. In Arusha there are these dalla-dallas/dala-dalas, buses, that take you to many of the places you would want to go in Arusha. They are really full all the time though and really chaotic, so that will take a little to get used to. Apparently there was a political rally in Arusha last month where the police came and shoot at people, rather randomly it seems and Patrick, the grandfather, was also fit by some metal from a bomb or something. His party is called something like progress through development. I also got a Tanzanian simcard today!

28/7: Kykliky!

I got a whooping three to four hours of sleep this morning woken interchangeably by barking dogs and “kykliky” (as we would call it in Denmark, Word wanted to spell it like this), pots and pans being thrown around and best of all, laughter. It turns out that my host mother, though she is more of a grandmother, has lived in Aarhus, Denmark for six months one time! So she knows a bit of Danish. Today I really meet everyone in the family, or at least the ones that live in the same house as me or nearby. Grace, the grandmother, has eight children and 13 grandchildren so it is a busy house. This morning Grace went to take care of one of the newest members: 3 weeks old Brighton, he has a six years old big brother by the name of Brison, so they have been very original. Brison is a very sweet boy and we played a bit together and he came with us back, he didn’t want to leave so he ended up spending the night though it only takes two minutes or less to walk to his house. Aika, who lives at the same house as me, showed me a bit around, she’s really nice. Normally she attends a boarding school. Grace has a Day Care center or kindergarten where there are about 30 children in total; many of the children have single mothers. They are in the age group of one to five. The house is kind of fortress like with a big wall surrounding it on all sides, I have an ensuite toilet, though no sink, and a very big bed. There is coming another the 18^th or 19^th of August and she might be from Denmark whom I will share my room with.

Word of the day: chakula = food!

27/7: Airports and airplanes

My grandmother from Iceland had just arrived yesterday and had stayed with my brother in Copenhagen and we picked them up on the way to the airport. I got an hour with her and it was like no time had passed at all, other than the fact that she was a few shades more tanned than she had been in May. And then I was saying goodbye to everyone so that I could catch my airplane. My first plane was for Istanbul, that takes 3 hours and 15 minutes or is at least supposed to, we were about ten minutes early which I couldn’t have cared less for because there was still five hours until my next airplane would leave. The ride was very uneventful and I spend it on thinking and reading a book that I had just bought, it is rather odd how I can never seem to buy the first book in a series when I am at an airport, the last time I bought number two and four and this time I bought the last in a trilogy. When I arrived in Istanbul I found a Starbucks and bought myself something I drink so that I could sit there because I could not see my gate before an hour before it was supposed to takeoff so I had no idea where to go. When the next airplane finally left it took a further 6 hours and 55 minutes before I was in Kilimanjaro airport, which means that I wasn’t there before around 3 or 4 am. On the plane I got to watch two of my favorite movies: August Rush and Freedom Writers. When I got to the airport I had to fill in all the information so that I could get a visa and actually get the visa which wasn’t all that hard I was just very tired. Outside in the cold night air two strange men with a Projects Abroad sign were waiting for me to take me to my accommodation. It had completely slipped my mind that they would be driving in the other (by other I mean wrong) side of the road, so I have to get used to that. Though we drove around 60-70-80 km/h the entire way we still overtook so many other cars that I lost count and almost nobody took off the high lights, so my driver had a good time blinking at almost all of them, so it was fun though I could see nothing out of the windows because it was still so dark. By the time I arrived and in bed it was almost 6 am, the time where I have usually started working this summer.