curiouser and curiouser...

[Email - To: All - THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS EMAIL AND THE ONE THAT FOLLOWED SHOULD BE TAKEN WITH A PINCH OF SALT - I WAS VERY ANNOYED AT THE TIME OF WRITING AND AFTER THESE INCIDENTS GOT ALONG WITH VENDE MUCH BETTER]

Interesting "developments" in the last couple of weeks.

Spent much of my time in Ihowanza reading (three books, several magazines), and planning the August holiday. Decided not to climb Kili - too time-consuming, too expensive and too reliant on health/fitness. Pretty much resigned to being "a bit dodgy" for the whole of the time here. Not too bad, though.

Instead, doing the Usambara Mountains, which offers spectacular views (of Kili too on a clear day), and then island hopping. Going to Zanzibar's less touristy little brother first, and doing a scuba-diving course, then onto Zanzibar for a three or four days, and then Mafia Island, where there is more good scuba diving and they also have a procession on full moon (30th August), so looking forward to that now. So much more I want to see, but it's not worth trying to cram everything in, and end up seeing nothing much and travelling half the time.

Anyway, got back to Ihalimba on Monday - found that Vende wasn't back yet, so went to chat to the teachers up at the school, about the teachers' workshop and school event. Cue forty students on their hands and knees being punished by one of the teachers. I asked what it was about, and was told they hadn't done some work they were supposed to do, or brought something into school they were supposed to bring. "Time and place, Phil," I thought. We're going to bring up corporal punishment in the teachers' workshop, and the school event is going to be on child rights, so I decided this discussion might be best left 'til later. Then I went to talk to Mwenda, another of the teachers, and she was getting the standard 7 pupils to sign the form for the exams. Several of them signed it wrong, so they got a whack too.

On Tuesday morning I ran to Nundwe, because I couldn't do much without Vende there, and then I found out that Vende's matriculation had been postponed from Sat 8, to Tue 11, so I knew he wouldn't be back for a couple of days. So, I stayed there on Tuesday night and found out all about how their house is haunted. I thought I saw a ghostly figure out of the corner of my eye on Tuesday evening, and when I looked back, it had gone. I didn't think much of it, until the next morning, Emma (Tanzanian volunteer) said she had felt like she was being strangled when she woke up, and it was probably the ghost of a witch. Then we found out something similar had happened to Oswin a couple of days before, and that Hannah had also seen a ghostly figure at night. Makes for conversation over breakfast, doesn't it?

Walked back to Ihalimba on Wednesday afternoon, with Hannah, who had decided to go to Ihowanza on Thursday and wanted to get our bus because, well, it doesn't break down and it takes just over an hour as opposed to three. Vende wasn't back, so it was just me an her in the house. Fortunately, I don't think this caused a scandal, though it was a risky move all the same.

Didn't have much else to do on Thursday, and couldn't teach properly because of the lack of fluent Swahili, so just took all our magazines for our Youth Developmetn Centre (YDC) into the school for the kids to read in lessons. Seemed right because we're miles behind so I thought I should do something.

Then on Thursday evening Vende got back...

...and that's a whole other story (that I'll continue later)

Phil :)