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.