Moshi, Tanzania. One Month On.

So, Petch and I have been living at Hostel Hoff for a month now and are enjoying it very much.

After returning from Kili, we spent the weekend doing nothing.  I went to Honey Badger (a local resort with a pool) with a few girls from the Hostel.  Rich nursed a hangover after staying out with the porters and guides for a little longer on the Saturday night after our return.

We both had pretty nasty colds on the mountain that continued to bother us for a few days.  Rich took the Monday off work.  I went school, but felt pretty rubbish.  By the Wednesday, I had a slight fever so spent the day sleeping.  By Thursday, we were both right as rain again.

In Rich’s absence, the 11 houses in Shimbwe were finished.  All except the doors and the windows, and we really would like to thank those who donated to this cause.  We are still in need of a little more money for the windows and doors, and fundraising is continuing.  We will visit Shimbwe next weekend to see the finished houses and visit the local waterfall.

Rich was offered a place at Kili Kids orphanage for his next project, where he would have been helping in the garden and with some of the children.  However, I asked him to come with me for a day and help me out at Jipe Moyo.  He did and 2 weeks later we are still working together with the help of another volunteer, Michelle from Canada.

We walk to school, approximately 30 mins, and occasionally we have the amazing view of the mountain, when the clouds are not around it:

The Nursery School is pretty full on for one person.  There are about 15 children in total – when they all show up – a very small classroom, and no desks.  The children are ages 3 – 14.  This means that we have approximately 6 children that cannot write, 4 or 5 that can, but they are all at different levels.  And then Brenda and Happy who are 12 and 14.  Happy failed her entrance to secondary school exam and therefore cannot go to school, as her family cannot afford private school fees for her.  With a Tanzanian volunteer, Dennis, to help us with some translation, and he can teach them Kiswahili and some Maths, and the 3 of us, we are able to split up the abilities and teach them for the 2 hours.  Nelson is another volunteer teacher, however, he decides to appear when he wants to , if at all.  Both of their English is not that good, but better than none at all I suppose.

With help of Dianne, a retired primary head teacher from Canada, we have learnt about Jolly Phonics for English and learning to read.  She's also has helped us with teaching counting.  She has given us tips on how to work our environment and things have been working out well.  We begin all together and do some sounds and repetition.  Then Rich takes the older children away and they work on English and Maths.

Michelle takes the younger children who cannot write a letter away and they do colouring or trying to draw circles etc.  I work with the middle range children in reading, sounds, maths with number lines and simple addition.  On Fridays, I take my computer and pull up some youtube learning songs.  The younger children love it as they've never probably seen a laptop.  Here they are watching and singing a long to 'The Wheel's on the Bus"

Monday's and Thursday's we make house visits to the sick.  It's as if we are doctors and they expect us to be able to help them out.  These visits are a little annoying, but we understand that it also helps with their social and emotional wellbeing.  We take a bag of Maize Flour so they can have Ugali and some food if they are struggling to feed their family.

Tuesday's and Friday's the women's care group meet.  We have been continuing to work on ideas for their small businesses.  This week they have made some more soap.

I have taught them how to create coconut bangle pieces (as I learnt in Fiji many years ago) and also shown them my friend Jo Robert's Futsies (anklets that go over the foot and hook on the toe).  They are inspired by them and Jo is kindly sending some elastic and beads from Perth for us and we will continue to create coconut shapes and aim to use local products for their jewellery making.  Everything has been an experiment, but they seem happy with whatever I have shown them so far and taught them so far.  I hope that when we leave, they are able to sustain these ideas. Find a local place to sell their products to tourists and other volunteers.  They are unfortunately relying on the volunteers at Hostel Hoff only to sell their products and this is not sustainable.  We have explained that many volunteers - like us - don't actually have a lot of money to buy much and they should focus on the tourists coming in.

Rich, Michelle and I have also spent the last week visiting schools to try and get Happy into an affordable school as we are willing to sponsor her.  This has been very difficult.  She is not allowed to re-sir primary school and the only secondary schools that will take her are private - as she failed the government tests.  In primary school, students learn everything in Swahili.  They then take a test in Maths and English and have to get a certain percentage.  In Secondary school EVERYTHING is taught in english.  So if you are bad at it, you really struggle.  There would be 1000's of young 13/14 year olds in Tanzania who are not at school because they failed their tests.  Volunteer projects like Jipe Moyo at least give them an opportunity to learn.. Occasionally, volunteers will come a long and offer to sponsor a child. But it is not easy.

We have found an English Medium Primary School who is about to start an afternoon program for children who aren't in high school and they are going to allow Happy to go there and stay in the Hostel there.  She currently lives with Grandma and aunt, and her parents aren't in the picture.  So we are glad that there seems to be some plan that we can put in place, and between the 3 of us, it's been made affordable too.

After work, usually around 1pm we may walk back to the hostel or into town for lunch.  Sometimes, we may stop at the local hotel for a beer and a swim.  Though, now it's rainy season, the storms roll in late afternoon:

        

              

All in all though, the last month has been very enjoyable.  We have both learnt a lot and there is so much we take for granted in our lives.

Here's a list of things that Tanzanian life gives us:

• Children shouting 'Mzungu' as you pass.  This means 'Caucasian'. Imagine us shouting 'African' whenever we passed one in the street!
• Power cuts during storms or just at random = cold showers too
• Hand washing our undies
• Dalla Dalla's = 16 seated minibus's that pack in 30 people (the only way of public transport)
• Pint of beer for $2
• Filthy Dirty feet with a nice sandal mark after a day at work due to dust or mud.
• Passing a little shack and buying a banana for 6 cents, or an avocado for 40 cents.
• Not wearing make up - ever! (ok maybe some mascara on a friday night out!)
• No desks in the classroom
• Using dirt to get kids to draw/write
• Chicken and Rice at most meals (or chewy beef with lots of bone or chewy fish) 
• Buying a round at the local club of Konyagi (gin) and tonic for 6 people = $4
• Lots of new friends at the Hostel
• Learning Swahili very quickly - particularly classroom instructions.
• Eating lunch in a fill your plate buffet place for $2.50 (depending on how much meat you get! Yes even Petch can get his plate for under $3!)
• Finishing work at 1pm (ish).
• Bloody nursery rhymes or songs getting stuck in our heads for hours.

I will have to add more when I think of it, but it's pretty refreshing keeping life simple, slow and carefree at the moment!