Finishing the mud house, a trip to the sandbank and 4 important lessons

COUNTRY: Tanzania
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Building, renovation & construction
WRITTEN BY: Sybilla Galvin

The past two weeks have been so busy for us here at Camp Tanzania! We've had our first African clubbing experience, handed over our finished house, been sea-weeding with the local mummas and said goodbye to a couple of team members (down to 12 at the moment and will be 10 by Wednesday). We are loving every minute of our placement and sometimes have to remind ourselves that being here is real.

The Friday just past was a rewarding and humbling day for everyone involved in the construction of our mud house. Although we weren't the ones to start the project, we are filled with a great sense of achievement that we were the ones to finish it. Sticking to our goal, we managed to get our mudding, paving, flooring and painting complete within three weeks. The bulk of our time was spent paving the walls, which everyone had an equal part in doing. While Lauren, Ella, Sarah B and myself stayed to make the floors level with mud and string, the rest of the crew began working on a toilet block for a member of the village who recently became paraplegic in a soccer incident (work on the structure will still be underway this week).

By midweek most of the team were back in our mud house coating the walls with lime. On Friday we were handed buckets of bright coloured paints & brushes and were granted creative liberty for the day. Eliphas, our leader, was quite keen on the idea of flowers, so that's the theme we went with and I must say I'm pretty stoked with the result. At the end of the day we met the family who would be moving into our house- their gratitude and loss for words made it all worth the effort, and that alone has made me all the more excited to get started on our next project.

One day this week, we put work at the mud house aside to give a hand at seaweed harvesting with one of the local mummas, which turned out to be a really interesting process. The seaweed is sold and used here in the village as a source of protein for children (made into a powder and added to meals). We spent the morning in the water breaking off small branches of weed and tying them to a long row of strings, which we fastened into the mud in neat rows with stakes. The afternoon was not what anyone would describe as riveting work. We sat in the shade around the biggest tangle of smelly, rotten strings I'd ever seen and attempted to free each line. Our efforts looked pretty dismal but I suppose it was one less thing the mummas had to worry about.

This past Saturday was a great day for everyone as we planned a well-deserved excursion to the 'sandbank' for Hannah's birthday, travelling by bus and boat. In not what I would describe as the most seaworthy vessel, we departed from Tanga town (into quite calm waters- to the relief of the few motion sickness prone passengers on-board). The first stop was a kilometre or so away from the sandbank shore, where we stayed for an hour for a spot of snorkelling- there really wasn't too much to see beside a school of fish and 2 or so starfish but in all it was a lot of fun for those of us who did go in. The sandbank was exactly what comes to mind when one mentions a deserted island; the sand was white and the water a brilliant blue. We couldn't believe how beautiful and secluded it was, not to mention how refreshing a proper swim was.

We were supplied with a packed lunch of chapati, salad and food things of an unknown variety. By 3:30pm the island was beginning to disappear so we packed up and headed back to camp, all feeling a little sun kissed (some much much more than others) and exhausted from being in the sun all day. In the evening we got into embarrassingly matching NFL jerseys (purchased from the markets) and got a maxicab to a club in Tanga, which I'm really not sure how to describe in text. I'll leave the description at… different.

3 weeks has been enough to learn some valuable lessons when it comes to life here. These 4, however, seem to resonate with everyone in the group the most:

Lesson 1: never ask what you're eating
Lesson 2: don't expect anything to happen on time- if the taxi is booked for 9, don't bother getting ready until 9:15
Lesson 3: vague answers are about as good as it gets- don't expect a full explanation of what exactly it is you will be doing in advance of it actually happening; 1 minute crash courses are given for each new trade when we get to site.
Lesson 4: do NOT leave the zip of the tent open (even the slightest) at night as it makes guests including the camp dog, frogs and lizards feel welcome.

On a final note, we heard word this week from Bronwyn and Nathan (the Melbourne couple who were at camp with us for 2 weeks) about their Kilimanjaro success. The lack of training they did in the lead up has made us all feel ready and led me to believe that we will make it- no sweat.

Sybilla x