Straight from Annie's very own blog "The Curious and Sometimes Random Ramblings of a Wandering Soul" we have a fresh update from our Gappers first week in Tanzania.
There is so much to tell, even though it has only been a week, there is so much to tell, so much has been happening. I suppose I will begin to bore you with the tale from the beginning, if it becomes to much of a pain to read feel free to bow out at any time
ok, flights over were, how do you say it, excruciatingly long but (and no matter how much you dis it James - brother) Thai airways was very impressive, it was nice to fly with them - watched Sherlock Holmes, was fantastic, want to see it again!!!
We finally arrived in Kilimanjaro airport after flying between Mt Kili and Mt Meru (hoorah, I hiuked meru does the dance) and was the most amazing sight. I nearly cried, I was finally back in Tanzania, after wanting it for so long and after planning it for so long
Home is Mbokomu Camp, Camp Tanzania, located across from the Keys Hotel in Annex, along Mbokomu road. there is a small toilet block, 4 showers, a small mess building, campfire and three large tents in which we all live in blissful harmony (well, so far, there are a few english/aussie rivalries but never fear, with frequent renditions by the 7 australians in camp of Down Under and Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gumtree, True Blue and of course, the national anthem, Aussie pride is staying strong. They just think we're really weird :P)
We started working in the school on our project on Monday, and a typical work day goes a little something like this:
7-9 am brekkie
9 am - leave for work, walk 15 mintues (10 if you're eager) up the road to reach the school
9:15am-12 pm work on the building, either cementing windows mixing cement, plastering etc
12 pm - head home for lunch
2pm - back to the school for work
4pm - home for the afternoon
6pm (monday and friday) swahili lessons
7pm- Dinner
and then the afternoon is ours, to go into town or just chill in camp and sing true blue
Tuesday was an interesting day for me as after dinner, I started to feel a bit funny and later proceeded to break the world record, or at least tanzanian record on how many times one human can vomit in the space of 8 hours (record now standing at 9) needless to say it was a miserable night, and I wasn't the only one, there were 5 victims, though my record stands. Whether it was adjusting to the food or food poisoning no one quite knows, but all better know which is the main thing to be honest.
And the most random things have been happening in between, like on Sunday, a few of us just went out for a walk and cam across a Catholic church procession featuring practically the entire district that apparently only happens once a year, and were invited to join in, so we all sang (as best we could in broken kiswahili) and clapped and danced our way up the slippery clay road all the way to the church. It was an amazin experience, something so random and out of the blue but incredible.
And today, proud me, I got to cement two window frames into their slots and have been doing a lot of carpentry etc. Seriously, this should count as an apprentiship! I'm like Bob the builder without the cheesy theme song! And even better, is we get sooo grubby! (sorry mum!!) but see, now, instead of just being grubby at home, now I am grubby for charity, so it's all good. But seriously, there's no word int he dictionary to describe how filthy we get but moreso how much fun we have doing it.
Well, that's about me for now, we're in this camp for a month and then we will be heading off to our wildlife camp and camp kili where showers are buckets and soap and oh, how shocked the boy's looked :P ooh, I have been doing my own washing by hand as well, very proud!! (though I am not sure if some things will ever be quite clean again :P)
I hope everything Down Under is going swell, miss you all like crazy!!!
until my next trip into town or to an internet point
Annie
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