Simon
" April 8 2004 - Survived up to Easter
It's now the week before the Easter break,
and I'm long over-due to write
this newsletter!
Earlier in March I ran in the Kilimanjaro
marathon and managed to complete
it, which I was happy enough about, never mind the placing.
The marathon started from a town called Moshi, at the base of
Mt.
Kilimanjaro. The last stage of it was running up a gradual slope
directly
towards Mt. Kili, then a turn-around point where cans of local
beer were
being handed out to runners, before the last stretch back downhill
into Moshi.
The atmosphere was great. Most of the way the road-side was filled
with
local families and kids cheering on Tanzanians and Wazungu (white
people)
alike.
As it turns out I was placed in the first 100 runners, and got
a time of
3:45 hours which was about what I expected given the heat and
altitude.
The other weekend I went on a trip to a
range of mountains called the
Usambaras, up to an old german colonial village called Lushoto.
I joined of multicultural troupe of 7 other people: an aussie,
scot, dutch,
2 germans, and 2 poms. We spent the Saturday walking up into the
mountains, ending up at a breath-taking lookout where we had lunch.
(Some
photos are on my website - see end of newsletter for website address.)
On the Sunday morning most of us tottered along to a local pentecostal
church that was all in Swahili. We had such a warm welcome from
the
congregation. We all had to stand up and introduce ourselves,
and later we
were asked to lead the church in singing a song. It was a bit
tricky to
find a song that everyone in the group knew, but eventually we
settled on
an old children's song "God is so good, He's so good to me."
We got
singing and after a few times through, most of the congregation
were
joining in with gusto. The Tanzanians are great singers, and they
go hard
out during the singing sessions at church. There were people dancing
all
around the church, clapping, waving scarves, yahooing big-time.
It really
was quite an eye-opener to see the enthusiasm with which they
worship God.
This coming weekend I will join a few people
for 2-day walking & camping
safari, around a lake called Eyasi, close to Ngorongoro national
park.
There is no school the following week, and no definite plans as
yet, but
quite likely I'll take off somewhere else for a safari.
Let me describe how life goes on from day to day at Sakila...
A usual day starts at 7:30am (with the kids
yelling out their eagerness to
start school). First thing to check is whether the electricity
is working.
If not I need to switch the fridge onto gas.
I brave a cold shower, and then have breakfast, which usually
involves
bananas and either muesli or porridge.
Around 8:30 I trek to the computer room, about 50m from my cottage.
Because I only teach in the afternoons, the morning is usually
spent
studying Kiswahili, preparing the lesson for the day, and setting
up
software on the computers.
Morning tea is about 10:15am and involves a suger drink with a
little tea
added. All drinks seem to get plenty of suger added to them, even
a plain
glass of milk. If we're lucky one of the teachers will provide
some food
in the way of boiled eggs, bananas, or for a treat, plain bread.
After morning tea I often go back to my
cottage to wash and clean. The
simple house-keeping tasks seem to occupy half of my day. There
is
constant dust sneaking around, and I have to sweep once or twice
a day, and
dust a few times every week, otherwise things get very grimy.
The dust
gets everywhere (which turns to mud if it's been raining) and
despite my
dislike of doing it, I'm compelled to wash clothes a couple of
times every
week. You can even see my sweeping my cottage once or twice a
day. (Mum,
you'll have to see it to believe it right?!)
Lunch is often bread and fried eggs, and
I treat myself to fantastic fresh
Tanzanian ground coffee, NZ$2.50 per kilo from the local market!
Interestingly, only older people drink coffee here. Teenagers
and
middle-aged people drink tea. Kind of opposite to western
tea/coffee-drinking habits.
At an undefined time between 2 and 3pm teachers
will turn up in the
computer room and we have a lesson until about 4pm or until the
electricity
decides to go away.
I've spent 8 weeks training the teachers in computer skills, and
they are
now fairly confident with opening and saving documents, typing
and
formatting documents, and drawing pictures.
This week we have started to learn about spread-sheets. After
Easter the
teachers and I will start to run classes for the school pupils.
There are
over 100 pupils in the grade that we will teach, so this will
mean running
the same session up to 10 times, so that they can all learn.
After the afternoon computer training I
often relax a bit, either play with
the little kids who live next door (which isn't so relaxing!),
sit outside
and play guitar, or go for a walk to get milk or food supplies.
I've made
friends with a few local families who supply me regularly with
fruit and
milk freshly squeezed from the cow. I've had a go at making yogurt
a few
times, and was surprisingly successful.
For anyone game to try making your own yogurt
(perhaps you are like me,
stuck in the wopwops somewhere), here's the recipe (thanks to
Loralee in
Arusha!)
- Boil 1L of milk (add 1/4cup of milk powder for thicker yogurt).
- Leave to cool until warm, then add 2 tablespoons of live yogurt
culture
(usually any plain yogurt will be ok).
- Put in a pre-warmed thermos. Wrap the thermos up and leave in
a warm
place for 6-12 hours.
I don't have a thermos so I use a plastic bottle and I leave it
behind the
gas fridge that gives out a bit of heat. Leaving overnight is
heaps of
time. The yogurt turns out great! Anyone have an easy recipe to
make
cheese ?
Around 7pm I cook dinner, then, subject
to availability of electricity,
either spend the evening reading and listening to music, or playing
guitar
by candlelight and retiring to bed early.
Kiswahili language is slowly getting there.
I can still see progress, and
it's getting more and more easier and enjoyable to speak with
people.
There are always fascinating (and often
amusing) things you find while
learning another language.
You have to be careful not to repeat the same word too quickly.
Sometimes
it will have a totally different meaning if repeated quickly.
For example, "pole" means sorry, but "polepole"
means slowly, "pili" means
"next", but "pilipili" means "chilli-pepper",
"hoi" means "very drunk", but
"hoihoi" means "shouts of joy"!
Here are translations of some interesting
Kiswahili words.
banana - to be squeezed together
babe - a gigantic person
china - to be late
dada - sister
endesha - to drive, but also to have diahoerrea
haha - to get upset
kaka - older brother, but also the shell of an egg
macho - eyes
maziwa - milk, but also a word for breasts
nyanya - tomato, but also a word for a grandmother (!?)
panda - to climb, but also to plant, and also a crossroad
papa - shark
paua - to put a roof on a house
pea - to be ripe
pipi - lolly
I'd better wrap up this mickey-mouse newsletter!
Hope everyone has a great
Easter break.
Si "