[Email - To: All - Unfortunately Part One of this email was lost in the ether]
Where was I?
Or do I mean, where will I be? Well, as I was saying, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster the last couple of days, and I got very worried about being in a pair, and how effective/happy that would be. But we're only 6km from two other placements (which is extremely close) which are a female pair and a group of four. Because it's in the southern part of the Iringa region, it's a bit higher up, and the whole of the region is
part of the Southern Highlands, anyway, so that's pretty high.
So it will be a lot cooler and there will be hardly any mozzies (although there will probably be some). There's just under 2000 people in the village, of which 447 are primary school students. John (Tanzanian ex-volunteer) actually pointed out that a lot of people drink there, and then qualified that with, "Well, in most of the villages, a lot of people drink, but especially so here." Which is nice to know.
No sooner did I feel a bit buoyed up with this info, however, than a massive folder of resources was dumped on us and it all felt a bit daunting again! Tonight we're preparing a lesson plan for a bit of a
practice tomorrow, which will be interesting (and fun, of course!)
Talking of teaching, I've really enjoyed doing all the non-formal education stuff we've been going through the last couple of days, and I ressurrected the whole "Primary School PGCE idea" last night when we
were in Bottom's Up for Jenny's birthday last night (no, not that Jenny). Always a good occasion for such discussions, I find. I've got to the point where I really don't want to go back to Uingereza and then do
nothing for a year, so I just emailed Rolle College in Exmouth for info.
So, bathrooms...
...it all starts with the Tanzanian Prime Minister, you see. We were supposed to be staying at a place called Banker's, which is very nice and so the Prime Minister decided he was going to stay there with lots of people with guns, so we weren't going to be welcome anymore and so had to find somewhere else to stay.
As a result we're in this lovely place called Ruaha, which also happens to be the local nightclub on Friday and Saturday nights (boy, am I going to sleep well before the morrow?). We have better rooms than most of the girls (who are staying in the Lutheran Centre, 200m down the hill), and we also have all the privileges and benefits that go hand-in-hand with a Ruaha en-suite bathroom. It's the dingiest corridor-shaped room in the world, with (in the order that you encounter them) a knackered old door, a shower that works for about 30 seconds before dying, a sink, the most feeble light-bulb you have ever seen, a crouch-toilet into which everything drains and, sometimes, the odd lizard, or two.
Luckily, we're moving out tomorrow morning, and into Banker's, so we'll be packing up the mozzie nets and clothes lines first thing.
In contrast, it was a pleasant surprize last night in Bottom's Up, where they have "Gents" written on the toilet door, and inside, urinals (I know, but I haven't seen one in Tanzania before, alright?). They also have MTV, and two pool tables (one of which is L-shaped), so we really weren't sure what country we were in last night.
Went exploring yesterday, around the shops and market - tried some kind of dried berry in the food market, which was really nice, but as I ate it I realised I'd chipped a tooth/lost a filling at some point in the last few weeks. Oh well, it doesn't hurt, so it's probably a lost filling.
While exploring we also went to the Mzungu (white person) shop, as it is generally known (not sure what it's really called). It sells everything, including Wine and cheese (and Marmite, if you're into that kind of thing), although most things are imported and so much more expensive than most other things here.
Well, it looks like I've already used up my extra 40 minutes, so I'll fare thee well for now (kwaheri kwa sasa)
Phil :)
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