From friendly to frightening in 3.5 seconds, and when power cuts turn magical.

From friendly to frighting in 3.5 seconds,

I had been warned about the tricks locals use to scam money from "Mzungus", but physically experiencing it was completely different, and if I'm being honest, a bit scary. A group of 7 of us girls were walking towards the Maasai Markets when a group of local men started being friendly. This isn't unusual, but my gut instinct started flashing red when 5 minutes later I saw they were still following us. Like clock work they surrounded the group. One in front, two behind, three walking on our left caging us in next to the fence. "You want Masai markets? We take you there." "No thank you, no thank you" we replied in perfect Swahili. but that just made them push even harder. "Yes we take you there. What you want to find? We find it for you." When we stopped with the formalities and said "No, go away and leave us alone," they started yelling and swearing, saying they hated us and threatening to hit us. They followed us all the way to the market and kept watching us as we shopped. The game is to trick people into into listening to their advice, then push them into paying a "guide" fee at the end. Our saviour came in the form of a bloke, a couple who we ran into who are friends with some girls in out group. As soon as there was a guy with us, they vanished. The bastards.

That aside, the Maasai markets were magical, intimidating, amazing, pushy, exhausting, overpriced and oh so cheap all at the same time. There is just so much stuff, and all of it is quite incredible but there's too much. Most stalls sell the same things, wooden hand crafted sculptures, jewellery, clothes, bowls, amazing hand made shoes, and paintings galore. Everything is so gorgeous, so local and so African, but most shops I couldn't even go into because the workers were too pushy. As I walked through the narrow overcrowded aisles, shop keepers would grab my arms and try to drag me into their stores. Personal space here doesn't exist like it does at home. In one shop I showed interest in some of the hand carved salad servers, decided against, and tried to leave. But the woman physically blocked me in and wouldn't let me go. She begged me to keep looking, keep looking, and I eventually had to use my whole body to push her out of the way so I could get out.

In one shop the worker was heavily pregnant and exhausted so she just sat in the corner and chatted. It was a huge relief so I spent most of my time in that stall, free to have a look without being forced to buy something.

I ended up buying two paintings, both different sizes but talked the prices down to 20 000 TSH each, about $15. A bit different to the 90 000 TSH they originally asked for. We've been advised that about a quarter of the original asking price is what we should pay, but bartering is just too exhausting. There were two amazing pairs of hand made shoes which in hindsight I should have bought, but the lady wouldn't go down past 45 000 for two pairs, while I knew other stores were selling them for 18 000 each. I eventually left not wanting to be "ripped off", only to later realise I'd walked out on an amazing purchase for the sake of about $3. It's easy to get caught up in the process, she needed that $3 more than me, and no amount of time in a third world country will take away my love for cool shoes. I might just have to go back. With a bloke.

I had a very entertaining conversation with the teachers on Monday, on the subject of dogs. Somehow it came up that we had dogs at home as pets. "So you keep dogs for security?" Lucy asked. No I explained, we keep dogs as pets, as part of the family. This seemed a bit confusing so she pressed on. "So what do they do for you?" She asked. I explained they keep us company and are good at cuddles, something she found hilarious. "So you buy dogs just to feed them and spend more money?" She asked. Do they have a room in the house? Are they allowed to use electricity? What happens when they sick, do you take them to the doctor? The concept just seemed completely insane to her. "Why don't you keep chickens and they give you eggs? Or why don't you keep goats and they give you milk?" She definitely had a point.

My dog (which I adore) lives in the comfort of heating and air conditioning, their school doesn't have electricity or water.

At around 11AM we have break and tea time. The kids have porridge (cornflour, sugar and water) and when the shops on our route to school are stocked we buy them bananas. The teachers have bread and butter and tea. Almost every tea time there are a few kids who come into the staff room / supply room where we eat. One of them chants this strange song in what I assumed was Swahili over and over again, constantly. Initially I thought it was cute until I noticed he didn't ever say anything else. When I asked the teachers about it they explained that it's good progress for him. When he started school 2 years ago he couldn't say a single word, not even mum or dad in the local language Swahili. He's now 4 and he's trying to talk, and making progress, but still can't communicate properly. The teachers say his chant doesn't mean anything in Swahili.

Little 2 and a half year old Calvin is another staff room regular, realistically he shouldn't be at school. He wants to be carried every second of every day, which I guess is quite normal for a toddler! For about a week I was really worried about him, he seemed sad all the time and cried whenever I'd put him down. When his brother came to pick him up one afternoon he clung onto me for dear life and bawled as soon as he was pulled away by his brother, who looks about 8. I thought he must have been sick so I spoke to the other teachers about it, they said he was acting. I was highly doubtful, those tears were so sad and so real. But then I started watching him when he couldn't see me. He was happy as Larry, playing, running and laughing with the other kids. As soon as I'd come into view he'd drop to the ground, stick out his bottom lip, pull on the tears and cry until I picked him up. Pretty funny actually, I'm just relieved he's not unwell! And who can blame a 2 and a half year old for wanting to be held.

Our teachers / school founders rent the 4 rooms that make up the Shining Star pre-primary school, but most of the children come from such poor families that they can't even buy them the basic exercise books and pencils, let alone school fees. So they rely on volunteers and donations to cover the rent. At the end of September, if the teachers couldn't come up with 100 000TSH ($65) the rooms would be rented to someone else and the school would no longer have a building. When I showed up to work this morning with 3 months rent in an envelope and the promise to contribute more when I leave next month, one of the teachers looked like she was on the edge of tears. Initially I decided I wouldn't donate anything in the form of cash because you never really know where it goes and it rarely ends up where you think it will but I'm a fairly sceptical person and yet I've learnt to trust my teachers 100%. I see how they stay back after school to teach older children who's parents don't let them go to school because they have to work, and I see them break up their bread at morning tea time and share it between the children so they don't go hungry. Plug: the more money I can raise, the more I can help them out and the more opportunities the children will have. We have new desks being picked up this week, a cupboard full of basic supplies they previously lacked and plans to take the kids on an excursion so they can experience something other than the class room, and it's all thanks to wonderful donations. I hope to cover 12 months rent and set up regular contributions. Here's the link to my fundraising page if anyone would like to help out.

http://www.gofundme.com/d5ttvc

The juxtapositions here are insane. Currently I'm sitting writing this in the dark because there's a power outage, something that is quite common here. Our showers are cold (most here don't have showers at all) our school has no electricity or water, and yet the taxis have in-built televisions pumping out modern pop film clips. While visiting the Maasai village, there was no toilets, not even holes in the ground, hydration came in the form of goats blood, and yet I had internet access though my local SIM card. Most people have mobile phones, even those begging on the streets for food.

There's such simple solutions for things here. When sharpeners go missing, you find something sharp and turn it into a sharpener. When the power goes out and the town is plunged into darkness as it is as I write this, you go outside, lay down and take in a magical sky filled with stars. Or you get out the battery powered speakers and turn the backyard into a starry dance party as we did tonight. You dance like you've never danced before because you know no one can see you. When you can't charge your phone you actually start getting to know people better. And when your hair is dirty and you can't wash it, you just cover it with a scarf and it feels clean again. You get to know yourself when you take out a torch and start writing a diary, or a blog, and realise how you actually feel about things, without being bombarded with hoards of other peoples opinions. How I feel is lucky. Lucky to have the opportunity to come here and lucky to meet so many incredible people; welcoming locals with new perspectives and ideas, children with a passion for learning and so much love to give, and volunteers with hearts of gold. I feel grateful to have grown up in with so many opportunities and grateful to my parents for working so hard for us. I'm grateful to the people here for letting me learn from them and grateful that I'm in a position of comparative wealth, so I can buy things for them. That may sound shallow but love is not enough when you can't buy food and shelter. I feel in love with this amazing country and culture and in love with a man back home who's supported me in every crazy decision I've made.

Hiking Kilimanjaro and meeting the Maasai tribe

Today marks a full week since I arrived in Tanzania, and it's been nothing short of incredible.

I guess I should start with updates from my last post: all housemates are now comparatively healthy again after a few trips to the hospital and one Ameba diagnosis, and our school cupboard is now looking beautifully full. I arrived at school on Wednesday to find teacher Rose proudly re-arranging the new supplies and beaming as she found space for everything. 15 new desks are currently under construction and should be ready to pick up sometime this week.

Everyday at a school became a little easier as I began to understand the processes and got a grasp on everyone's level of understanding. Every one of my little treasures has their own personality and I almost have the 15 names in my class memorised. Little Victor is just the most charming kid on the planet, his smile could melt an ice berg. He's a bit behind with maths and English but likes to sit on my lap and work on the exercises with me, waiting for praise and reassurance after every letter he writes down. Luis was originally very shy but has now warmed up, he's incredible at drawing! Queen needs special exercises and has a lower understanding than the other kids but has a gigantic heart and one of the cheesiest smiles I've ever seen, and Joseph is a 20 year old trapped in a 6 year old's body. He doesn't beg for cuddles like the other kids and is the first to get into a fist fight (yep, I'm talking about 6 year olds here...) but I've noticed that he has started responding to a bit of TLC and positive reinforcement, I think I saw him smile for the first time on Thursday and on Friday he held my hand all the way home. Glady is like a big sister to the other kids, very intelligent, respectful and graceful, and the first to put up her hand to answer a question on the black board. You can see her beaming with pride when she gets it right, which she always does!

After school we walk some of the kids home who are on a similar route to us. Sometimes it's just Rachel or Brian, other days like on Friday we had 4 kids. This was tricky because everyone HAS to hold our hands, and both of our hands ideally, which causes a fair bit of fighting. At one point on Friday we walked for 10 minutes joined in a complete circle. Rachel walked backwards, anything to avoid letting go. Two of them were tagging along for the first time and we had no idea where they lived, language barriers meant they couldn't tell us. The youngest was just two, but totally self sufficient. He too wouldn't let go of our hands and we were slightly concerned we were leading him in the wrong direction, but about half way home he let go and ran off into a house.

The kids here are far more street wise than any child at home and know all the short cuts. 6 year old Brian hears a car coming from a mile off and will herd us off the dusty bumpy road and into a safe place before we even realise there's a car approaching. To be honest I'm not sure who's walking who home.

I swear I've also seen the street dogs stop and look both ways before choosing a safe time to cross the road.

The trips home are such a colourful experience. If I opt for the Dala Dala it saves me a half hour walk but often requires standing in an overcrowded van hanging out the side or sitting on the lap of a local. Almost every time I pay I'm short changed, but the workers collecting money see it as a game - which Mzungu (White man) is silly enough not to notice. I can't help but laugh at the sheepish grins I receive when I count my change and put my hand out a second time, 200 more TSH please!

Walking down the streets there are people everywhere, many of them carrying water buckets, bananas, clothes baskets, crops, and everything else you can think of on their heads. Every second person waves or says "Mambo!" - white people are fairly uncommon around here so I stand out like a sore thumb. The typical response to Mambo is "Poa" - direct translation "how are you?" "Cool!" - but the latest phrase I've learnt is "Poa kichizi kama ndizi" which means "Crazy cool like a banana." It's guaranteed to get a laugh or a smile every time. It also tricks people into thinking I know Swahili, which can become a problem because then I have no idea what they're saying in response.

On Thursday we had our first "social night" where all the volunteers from the different houses have dinner together. I had no idea there was so many of us! There must be fifty all up. That night I had my first taste of the Arusha night life, we hit up "Via via", this great outdoor club with a live African music section, a huge DJ dance floor and a karaoke section. I planned to check it out then head home after an hour but there was no chance of that happening, the place was amazing and so much fun. The locals are incredible dancers and always seem keen to teach! Beers cost around $1.80AU and the was a 7000TSH entry fee, around $4.50. Unlike the rest of the town, around 50 per cent of the crowd were Mzungus. It's safe inside as long as we keep our bags and phones very close but were warned never walk or catch public taxis at night. Luckily IVHQ has around 4 incredibly loyal and trustworthy drivers who we can call up at any day or night, for about 10000TSK or $7.

They seem to never sleep. Jimmy and Valence are the two I've come to know so far, and they are so incredibly dedicated and proud of their work. They often work all day, take volunteers out at night and then hang out at that location until everyone is ready to go home, I don't know when they sleep. Jimmy has 4 children and he said he doesn't see them very often, but he loves his job and feels very lucky.

By the time the weekend came around I was ready to get out and see more of this incredible country I've found myself in. Yesterday a group of us took a trip to Mount Kilimanjaro where we spent the day hiking through the most amazing rain forest. The whole mountain takes most people 6 days, taking it slowly to acclimatise, but given the lack of time we had we just squeezed as much as we could into one day, covering around 18kms. The views were beautiful but unfortunately not as beautiful as they usually are given the low cloud covering the top of the mountain. I also had my first taste of African wildlife - monkeys and a mongoose - certainly not the big five but exciting none the less, and there's plenty of time for wildlife on safari next weekend!

Today we went and visited a traditional Maasai village which was amazing, about 3 hours from Arusha. Our security guard Zack who's a Maasai came with us and we  learnt along the way that we were actually going to his village, to meet his extended family. The Maasai tribe live a very traditional life, they live in mud and straw huts and farm the land for food, sometimes heading into town to buy supplies. Both men and women are circumcised when they reach puberty and men can have as many wives as they like. When the boys reach a certain age they receive Maasai burns, circular burns on their face and arms, and they're not allowed to show any sign of pain. They're then sent out into the world on their own for a month to see if they can survive.

We were greeted by a line of men, women and children in incredible bright outfits, they were draped in Massai cloth and had incredible jewellery around their necks, heads and hanging from the huge holes in their ears. They sung, chanted and danced for us and encouraged us to join in, jumping high into the air as if they were on springs. The village is fenced off with a straw fence and contains around 15 huts.  Dogs, chickens and goats roam free, including a baby goat which was born this morning, it still had its umbilical cord attached! Very cute. There are no toilets or anywhere to wash, that all happens in the surrounding dessert. We brought corn flour and rice as a gift which was warmly welcomed and then bought some of the jewellery they had made, some of which I plan to hang on my wall.

The children were very different to the kids at my school, they were very shy and seemed initially frightened of us. One little boy had flies all over his face, I bent down to say hi and gently "swooshed" them away and he burst into tears. I felt terrible. Overall it was very humbling experience.

It's amazing how quickly you learn to appreciate food. Today I had boiled eggs for breakfast, boiled eggs and a snickers for lunch, and mashed potato for dinner. And I'm just grateful that a) I'm going to bed feeling full and b) I packed my vitamin tablets.

Back to school tomorrow for the start of the new week, looking forward to seeing the little rascals again.

Tanzania Begins!

After 2 amazing weeks travelling through Europe I have finally made it to Tanzania. 

I've learnt that in Tanzania nothing is as you would expect, and time doesn't exist. 8am may as well mean midday and vice versa.

Coming though the border required a strict Ebola related questionnaire, staff in rubber gloves asking if we have any kind of fever, and an electronic scan of each of our 10 fingerprints. 

I arrived at the IVHQ volunteer house late yesterday morning to around 20 volunteers, all about to embark on new adventures at different placements around Arusha; hospitals and pharmacies, maternity wards, schools and orphanages. We were the newbies, a further 40-ish were already here and have been here for up to 6 months, staying at a number of different volunteer houses and home stays.

My house is surprisingly really great. We have running water (non drinking), electricity, and even wifi! The house fits around 30 volunteers with 6 girls in my room and a team of "mamas" are here to cook meals and get us out of any trouble we may find ourselves in. They're gorgeous. We have showers which are cold and just a trickle but better than I was expecting! They make washing the hair a little challenging as I discovered last night but I eventually worked out that head-over-the-sink is much more productive approach! Three alarm "distress" buttons are positioned around the house in case of extreme sickness (common), home invasions (hopefully not common) and fire. In the last 24 hours about 6 living in our house have been violently ill with some kind of tummy bug, one of them tonight was taken to hospital as a result, fingers crossed she'll be much better once re-hydrated. 

This morning one of the Mamas escorted myself and my new teaching buddy Jack to our placement at Shining Star. Despite being told it was an orphanage we quickly learnt it wasn't, it's a tiny and wonderful pre-primary school for 3-6 year old kids, most who come from extremely poor families. 

The school was started by three local women a few years ago who started as volunteers to help the local kids learn.

As soon as we arrived this morning we were greeted by squeals of delight and kids running from all directions and jumping all over us. They've had a few volunteer teachers in the past but not for the last few months. 

Jack and I have a class of 20 each, I have the older kids, 5-6 year olds. The teacher introduced me briefly, gave me an example of maths exercises to work on and then left me to it for a while. There was as a broken black board and no chalk, tiny desks for some of the students and none for others, each of the kids had one exercise book and one pencil. Luckily I'd brought a pen with me and managed to find a piece of chalk but I hadn't brought much with me that day, thinking I'd wait to see what they needed before I got it. I had no idea they would have so little. Straight away I had around 7 kids saying " Teacher sharpen! Teacher Sharpen!" A sharpener was not something I had brought with me so I had no way of sharpening the incredibly blunt and stumpy pencils, there were no spares so without it they couldn't write. I eventually discovered one of the kids had a pencil case with (hooray!) a sharpener, so I spent the next 20 minutes sharpening pencils. I gave the pencil case boy (OK so I haven't learnt everyone's names yet but I'm working on it!) two stickers to say thank you and promote the sharing attitude. Of course then, it was "Teacher sticker! Teacher sticker!" and I caved and gave one to everyone, with the exception of three boys who got into a full on violent fight on the floor. I couldn't physically stop them but once stickers started being handed out they stopped and waited patiently for theirs, which I didn't give them until they apologised and promised not to fight again. Let's see how long that lasts haha. I'm also not entirely sure they understood me. Oh well, worth a shot, at least it stopped them fighting until the end of the day! So our lesson instead was spent practicing addition with our fingers and a writing with stumpy pencils in ratty exercise books. Some of the kids are great at maths and got everything right, others are unable to copy simple addition questions from the board and think 7 comes after 4. Hopefully with a little one on one time I can start to improve that. Their English is pretty poor (with the exception of numbers as their maths is learnt in English) despite it being one of their two national languages, so I've since learnt some key words in Swahili - sit down, stand up and stop should make tomorrow a lot a easier! I brought my camera out at play time and they went MENTAL. There is apparently nothing more exciting than having your photo taken! So cute. 

At around 11.30 the kids are fed "porridge", a mushy thick liquid made from cornflour, sugar and water. Delish.

School starts at 8 and finishes at 12.30, and despite sounding early, I was well and truly ready for a break by then! My arms were also red raw from kids pulling me from every direction begging for attention or wizzy-dizzys or work-marking or sharpening or stickers or whatever else they needed right now, urgently! 

As we were leaving a number of older students started arriving. Teacher Rose (one of the founders) walked us to the main road so we didn't get lost and explained that some of the kids wanted to learn but weren't allowed to go to school because their parents made them work, so they'd come after work and the teachers would teach them for free.

One of the girls in my class Rachael lives near us so we walked her home, she wouldn't let go of both our hands the whole way back to her place. A seriously sweet little girl who barely speaks a word of English.

Once home we dumped our valuables and headed to the stationary store. For around 160 000 Tanzanian Shillings we bought 100 exercise books, 50 maths books, 100 pencils, pens for the teachers, chalk, sharpeners, erasers, skipping ropes and a soccer ball. It felt like a lot but when I converted it it cost just over $100AU for everything. Many friends and colleagues have already kindly donated to a fundraising page I set up for causes I come across on this trip so this has just highlighted how valuable even a small amount can be. Plug: I'm still raising money so for anyone else keen to help, here's the link! Our next project is desks for all the kids, we are going to be introduced to one of the local carpenters tomorrow and teacher Rose has promised to get us get local prices. 

http://www.gofundme.com/d5ttvc

Walking home from the stationary store I attempted to carry one of the two boxes on my head like a local. Turns out it's harder than it looks! Needless to say we got a few good laughs on the way back and a few Mambos! Eventually we decided to heard into a Dala Dala which is somewhere between a bus and a car, stopping whenever it wants and crowding up to 20 people into a 7 seater vehicle. Good way to get chummy with the locals. 

Tomorrow should be fun, now to come up with a few lesson ideas for exercises! Tomorrow is writing and English day, feel free to shoot through any fun ideas!