Wedding pics.....

Gifts for the bride:

Haya dancers:

Wedding and planning New Years

 So yesterday I arrived back from Bukoba to a huge gathering right next door to where I live. The family next door were celebrating their daughters wedding and half the community had come to join in. My host mum was texting me to meet her there, which initially was quite difficult as the house girl had locked the interior gate with me inside, so for 2 hours I was stuck at home listening to the music and shouting coming from next door. After I was freed I made my way toward the music and found my host mummy had saved me a chair. 

These weddings are much more interesting live than the 3 hour long DVD id been subjected to last week of my host brothers recent wedding in Dar!

There were group dances and professional dancing and local Haya dancing and all the guests and bridal party moved around only by dancing. Such a great vibe and atmosphere and at one point my host mummy dragged me to the front (literally) where I had to shake my tail feather and give some money to the performers. At one point the bride was given her gifts and all the guest danced up to and around her showering her with new kitchen wears and bedding and more materials and patterned sheets than I could imagine one woman could make use of. It was interesting watching the faces of the young girls who were staring wide eyes at the array of gifts being bestowed upon the bride. It made me to realise why getting married is such a big deal here and nearly every young Tanzanian girls future aim.

Unfortunately the screaming and blaring music was not as much fun later that night when I was trying to get to sleep, and my whole bedroom was rattling and shaking with the bass till 5am this morning! These Tanzanians certainly know how to party!

Gifts for the bride:

Haya dancers:

So tomorrow is New Year's Eve and I've a friend from a village about an hour away coming to stay over. We've been invited to a party of Philipino VSO volunteers but haven't fully committed as to whether we want to go....

Then New Year's Day I've two other friends coming to join us and we've arranged to pay for someone to cook for us and the whole family (as our house girl Anita finished today and has returned home). Its sad because she was lovely and her baby was just about getting used to me, but she had always intended to leave at the end of this month so at lease I was prepared.  Also my host brother will be here from Dar es Salaam from tomorrow so the plan is to eat and dance and drink all together on New Years Day. I've also bought some more material and have the tailor making me a New Year's Day outfit which my host mum is super pleased about.

Outside of all this fun I am still working hard and have opted to help the team organise the next Community Action Day. Our plan is to hire a drama group, recruit a choir to draw attention to our event then once the crowds gather run various workshops and activities on HIV / nutrition/ women's rights and agriculture. I'm also going to run a mini sports day with three legged races, relays and tug of war...... I've been continuing with my supervisions as well and I've managed to complete 7 so far so happy days.......

Nearly got washed away and had to tackle a biblical plague of lake flies...

Today's workshops took a while to get off the ground due to a massive down pour washing away our conference area (we'd opted to work from outside) and then a plague of lake flies taking over the air we were using to breathe! No exaggeration there have been billions of tiny lake flies occupying every inch of air that's available for the whole of today. Luckily they don't bite but that doesn't make it any less disgusting when they are in your hair and your ears and your mouth and up your nose and worst of all turning your cuppa tea into a lake fly broth!! I tried to take a picture but my crappy iPhone camera couldn't pick it up. 

Anyway fly attack averted and 3 big brollies later the vols relocated to a more hospitable area and work resumed.

I've managed to find time for a spot of shopping today and have picked up a few essentials, soap, peanut butter, crackers and biscuits! Exciting times.

Now I'm relaxing watching Man U and building my appetite ready for some delicious food (or at least I hope so). 

Tomorrow were retuning to the community and I've 11 supervisions to complete and type up (joe lomas let me hear you complain about doing 6 supervisions! - ha!).  

I've been contemplating getting my own place in time for the next cycle rather than living from my host home. I love my host family and I'm happy with my place but its just not practical to live with a host family and do this job, as often I'm arriving late for lunch and dinner due to dealing with work and emergencies and also it's difficult to find any time to relax and have time to myself. My family are really lovely but sometimes I just wish I could come home from work, make myself dinner and then relax watching telly or something alone. However my normal routine is get home from work, drink chai with the family, be subject to bbc Swahili for around 2 hours then have dinner around 9.30-10pm then go straight to bed ready to wake up at 6-7am to start all over again. The difficulty is how to approach this with my host family as I'm sure that especially my host mummy will be very upset and offended if I move out before the end of the program.

Suggestions on a postcard guys....would love to know what you think. 

A very TZ Christmas.....

Our efforts at making Christmas decs 

Christmas Day breakfast, chipati and ginger tea:

Christmas cats:

Getting made up into an African lady:

Fitting in!!

Christmas dinner:

We found a Christmas tree!!!

Christmas Eve TZ style.....

It's Christmas Eve and now it's really starting to hit that for the first time in 29 years I won't be with my family on Christmas Day. That said I've planned with the volunteer team to all meet for a party in KAVIPE in the afternoon and we're planning to have Christmas music and dancing and games like pictionary and charades and such like. I've also got my 2 friends Clare and Annelies (both who are VSO long term volunteers) coming to stay with me at my host home from today till Boxing Day so that's going to be nice as think I've already mentioned that my host family are Muslim sodon't  celebrate Christmas. 

This morning I've had a 4 hour cleaning spree, sorting my room and the one next door ready for my guests arrival. It's been good fun as when my family and Mkiale saw my efforts they all joined in and we had a good 'spring clean'. Now I'm just relaxing waiting for them to get here.

Animal update: unfortunately we've had no luck sourcing a sheep so it's looking unlikely that I will be posting any pics of a sheep wearing a bow on Christmas Day. Also my family are planning on giving one of our chickens the chop tomorrow so that we can eat it for Christmas dinner! I really hope in not around to witness that. 

Shopping for sheep / news toys and a health session in a rickety old house

 So me and my host daddy are due to go shopping either today or tomorrow. My family are made up at the offer and it's going to be nice to give them something to say thank you for taking such good care of me.

Also I bought our house girl (Anita's) baby daughter some teddies (wells friend from Bukoba kindly picked them up for me) then I took them home to give them a good wash. The baby hasn't put the pumpkin teddy down since I gave it her and this morning she had it tied to her back like a real baby!

Yesterday our health team ran a HIV and malaria session with a local women's group - the building where it was held looked just about ready to fall down, but the session went really well.

Today me and one of the vols are going to make some Christmas decorations in prep for our Christmas party. It doesn't feel like Christmas though as its about 100 degrees!!!!

A sheep is for life, not just for Christmas

Animal update: Last night when Mkiale went to collect our families sheep from a nearby field she found the mother sheep dead, the baby was missing and the Dad sheep was injured. My host Daddy went to check it out and has said he and the local livestock officer and Police believe a dog is responsible. Here in TZ it's very rare to see dogs out in the day as here dogs are kept for security and are locked in kennels during the day and only let out at night, so my family are suggesting that this dog maybe out in the day because it is sick with rabies.  Also 2 people (1 child 1 adult) have been bitten by a random dog in the past week around this area. It's all a bit worrying but the local police are trying to find this dog to put it down. 

My host mum was really upset as the sheep were a source of income for the family (selling the lambs) so to cheer her up i agreed to do some dancing round the living room with her! She loves dancing. We were rocking out to P-Squared, google them. Their huge out here but they are REALLY crap!

Anyway I'm thinking I might buy my family a new lady sheep as they have had such bad luck with their animals lately, first the cow died which was carrying a calf and now their sheep and lamb. Going to see how the daddy sheep does before making a decision but maybe I could get them a new sheep for Christmas (even though they are Muslim they still celebrate Christmas). If I do I hope I can find some ribbon big enough so I can tie a big bow on the sheep. How cool to even just see a sheep wearing a big bow, never mind owning a sheep that's got a big bow!! Watch this space. 

Road safety and youth volunteer recruitment

Today has been busy busy busy! Lots of really good stuff taking place.

In the morning our youth team held an awareness raising session with local Piki (motorbike taxi) drivers. They talked with the Piki drivers about road safety and reducing their speed. The pictures below are from the event. It went really well and even the Kamachumu police attended and gave information to the Piki drivers. The Piki drivers were really engaged with the session and asked lots of questions and gave good feedback.

Road safety event: 

In the afternoon the youth team held a training sessions for the community youth volunteers to inform them of the various projects and activities which are being carried out by ICS and KAVIPE in the community and then gave the opportunity for the community youth volunteers to sit with the group of their choice (agriculture, health etc) to discuss further how they can become involved. Unfortunately our health and environment teams did not manage to recruit any volunteers but there's still time!

Community youth volunteering orientation: 

A priest, an African choir and a huge welcome home.....

After a 3 hour delay in Mwanza I made it back to Bukoba where I managed to locate Abdul, the infamous computer guru of Bukoba. After having a look at my computer the bad news was I needed a new hard drive, the good news was that Abdul could fix it and even said I can collect it tomorrow. It's going to cost me 80,000 shillings but that's only about £30  so if it is a success I'm going to be very happy.

 I've just had the most interesting last leg of my journey. My friend Kasozi was in Bukoba so he drove me home in his truck, on the way we picked up a famous local choir and they all piled onto the back of his pic up truck and the priest got in the front next to me. The roads were so sloppy and muddy from the rain but every time we got stuck the choir sang and we made it through the mud! At one point the road was so bad half the people had to climb out of the truck and make a run for it through the mud, it was really funny as most of them had been drinking alcohol during the days celebration they'd been to and the priest was laughing at them drukenly wobbling around and slipping and sliding through the mud!

Squash:

The priest: 

Peep-po:

It felt really nice seeing the familiar road on the route to Kamachumu and it actually felt like i was travelling home. 

Then I got home and my host mum and the house girls were so excited to see me they nearly knocked me to the floor hugging me! A very nice welcome..... Now I'm finally back in my own bed and I can't wait to sleep. That bloody cuckoo best be quiet in the morning! I've been in transit for more than 9 hrs and I NEEEED a Sunday lie in for once.......

Earlier than planned departure from Dar.

Conference finished yesterday and although my plan was to remain in Dar for a few days I was unable to change my flights and therefore had to fly back today. I had considered coming back by car with some VSO vols I met at conference, the trip would have taken two days of driving 10 hours a day, however last night was so hot and the power cut in the night meaning no fan and no AC so sleeping was a no go. At 2am I decided to just cut my loses, ditch the road trip and just catch my taxi to the airport. 

We've just arrived at Mwanza and the weather here is a whole different story.....from 33 degree heat we've stepped off the plane into torrential rain and the temperature here is nothing like in Dar. Im soaked and cold : ( I'd prefer this weather tho as the heat in Dar was unbearable. 

I feel disappointed as I was excited for a few days relaxing and also planned to go shopping in Dar and get my computer fixed and I had no time to do these things during conference. That said I've just managed to get a number for a computer guy in Bukoba and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll be able to help me.

I met my host families son last night in Dar and gave him the senaynay, he was very happy and made a quick exit to go home to eat them! We've arranged that next time I'm in Dar we'll meet and he'll show me round and take me to all the best places. I'm going to get planning for a trip away somewhere between now and new year as I still have 7 days leave to use between now and 7th feb.....any ideas and suggestions are welcome!

Lightbulb!!!!

Just received a brilliant text from one of me UK vols who's back in community, he's working on the environment team and they've been coming up against a few challenges. The main one at the minute is that they had an idea to build community rubbish pits so that rubbish could be collected in one place and then dealt with in the correct way as apposed to being dumped everywhere a d anywhere. However yesterday they learnt that the communities intention was to burn the rubbish in these pits, which isn't very environmental friendly! However we gave some alternative ideas a d asked the team to look i to alternatives such as composting, recycling and decomposing of the the waste. 

This is just one example but overall they have been feeling a little overwhelmed as although they have an interest in environment, none of them are environment experts. Anyway I called and spoke with one of the group last night and reassured them that they should use what they know to the best of their ability and try to focus away from things they're not so sure about (as with no access to Internet it very difficult to research any new information) then this morning I receive this text:

Why didn't I think of this sooner? How did I learn everything I know about environment? Captain f***ing planet! That's how these kids will learn. Do you think vso would read a budget report that included the words "awesome blue mullet wig" and "red unitard with earth logo"? 

I can't wait to see how this is going to take off!! 

First day of conference.....

Well what can I say?

 Our accommodation is incredible and I've learnt so much already from the presentations I've seen and the chats I've been having with all the long term VSO volunteers who've travelled from every corner of Tanzania to attend the conference. 

I feel awe inspired by the stories I've heard today and learning all about the different roles that VSO long term vols are implementing throughout the country. Had goose bumps today listening to a presentation by 2 doctors who are working in the south of TZ on a project which is working to reduce the number of deaths in new born babies. Couldn't believe what I was hearing about hospitals with no running water, no medication and more often than not not electricity. 

They explained how babies on life support can die simply because of power cuts resulting in the oxygen machines, which are keeping the babies alive, cutting off. It's so incredible to learn the strength and resilience of these doctors and how they can even function under such appalling conditions and circumstances. It has really put things into perspective for me and opened my eyes to how bleak the situation is here for so many people. On a very positive note hearing these stories has reminded me of the incredie selfless and committed people there are in the world!

Here's a few pics from the day:

Not a bad place to hold a meeting! (Certainly beats S3 at CCP!)

A few of the team feeling proud to be representing VSO

Group pic:

A beautiful view, what a way to wind down down after a packed day:

My personal escort.....

Have made my way to Bukoba ready to travel to Dar tomorrow morning. 

Feels really strange being out of the community and away from my volunteer group but I can't lie, it also feels quite nice to only be responsible for myself for a bit! 

Me and Aive   finally finished our team planning tool so we've been able to print it for the volunteers which should support then in knowing what they'll be doing for the next week and I'm every confidence in my fellow PS that she will be fine holding the fort whilst I'm gone.

I had a bunch of personal escorts today (my host mum, Mkiale and Anita) who insisted on carrying my bags for me all the way to the Dalla Dalla (mini bus) can't say I was complaining as its been blistering hot today and my bags are heavvvy! 

Mkiale showing off her strength:

Walking to the Dalla Dalla:

Aive's first advent calendar.....

Seems advent calendars haven't made it to TZ yet so Aive's going to take care of mine whilst I'm away in Dar.....

The cat returns.........

 After yesterdays tragedy look who 

showed up today....its Tumaini! 

A very sad day indeed.....

Animal update: when leaving the house today our house girl Anita called to me...."come look at this" she led me into the Banana trees and pointed behind one of the trees saying "look, modesta" Modesta is the name I gave to my favourite kitten. I was so excited and happy to think she had been found, then I looked and saw that she was dead. A sight I wish to erase from my memory. I fell into a complete state of shock, I started heaving and sobbing uncontrollably. The poor girls didn't know what to do as for them they were extremely shocked to see my reaction as they hadn't expected it. 

The treatment of animals in TZ is worlds away from how we are in the UK and this is in someways understandable, as here animals, for the most part, they need to serve a purpose - for meat, for milk or to help with the work. Also it is believed that animals don't feel things in the same way a human does. I've been speaking with Aive today about this (as she was there when it happened and was also shocked and unsure how to handle my reaction) - she told me that although my reaction seemed odd she understands why I feel the way I do and she respects my feelings. She also told me that even here in TZ some families keep cats not only for Rat control but as pets. 

I'm going to write a letter to the house girls to explain what happened I why I reacted that way and Aive is going to support me to translate the letter.

It's very sad but I'm trying to keep perspective and in the big scheme of things this situation pails into insignificance with the bigger issues which are taking place here. I just keep telling myself that Tumaini and Anna are both safe and happy and Modesta is in 'kitten heaven' with all the milk and meat she could ever imagine and a kitten god taking care of her ......

On a much lighter note I'm now withAive  watching the final of Africa's equivalent of  X factor and she's very happy that the power is back so she can see it! 

Group photo after today's community action day....

Nutrition talk

Some of our vols talking to kids in the community about nutrition and hygiene. They first held a football match then gave a presentation on good nutrition and how to properly wash hands and fruits. Then handed out mangos and asked the kids to demonstrate back:

Beans anyone.....?

Seems that Saturday is bean sorting day! It's actually quiet relaxing.....

Me and host mummy (aka mama baraka)

We've a fare few to get through:

The old has gone the new has come....

After a challenging week today has felt much more positive and with everyday the atmosphere within the team has been improving. One of the TZ vols had this t shirt on yesterday so we decided to adopt it as our slogan for this week. (I've also been listening to Tears for Fears, Everybody want to rule the world, on repeat! Seems I've found the musical equivalent for Prozac!) 

Today the vols had their 2nd GCD (global citizenship day) - it was focused on gender equality and raised some really interesting debates! At one point I was sure that there was going to be a brawl as 2 of the TZ lads had very strong opinions about men being clever, stronger and more able than women at everything. This is the general opinion of most of the males (and females) in TZ but its much more of a challenge when it's two of our vols who hold these options. I guess that's what this program is about though and hopefully by the end if the 12 weeks their options might have altered (fingers crossed).

Tomorrow we'll be holding our first Community Action Day. The volunteers have led in organising and planning it. They plan to host a five a side football tournament with the community and the winners will get some sodas. Their also going to talk about ICS and the activities they have planned for the coming weeks. Our Health team are also going to give a talk about Nutrition and provide mangos to the attendees. 

There's a wedding taking places right near my house and it sounds like a carnival! The drums have been going for days but guessing this is the big finale as there's music, singing, drums and general 'good time' sounds! Kinda wish I could check it out but I'm too sleepy and cosy in my bed.

Animal update: My host family gave away one of the kittens this week (I'd called her Anna), Mummy puss has seemed to take umbrage to this however and has subsequently taken the other two kittens (Tumaini and modesta) away and hidden them! I haven't seen them for 2 days and the weather has been so wet and cold I can't see how they will of survived. It's so sad. I just keep telling myself that they are somewhere safe and warm..... I hope so. 

Slip n slide......

The rain today has been crazy heavy, at one point before the storm hit the clouds came so low you could touch them, this is mainly to do with the fact that we're so high above sea level, but still today was the first day I've experienced this since arriving. It looked a bit like when you're in an airplane coming in to land and you pass through the clouds (almost like steam) anyway that's the best way I could describe it!

It rained for about 4 hours and subsequently the roads became like mud slides, even walking without falling has been a chore and everything is covered in red mud. It's been carnage watching the Piki pikis (motto bike taxis) trying to stay upright and I've seen a fair few go over today. Walking to work after lunch a Piki carrying an elderly woman and a child slide and all the passengers landed in a muddy puddle! I felt awful (mostly because my first reaction was to laugh as they were going really slowly and it looked like a comedy sketch!) but fortunately nobody was hurt and Mkaile was near by seeing to the goats and after me convincing her to help to wash the child off in a cleaner puddle and me helping the 'grandma' to change her Kanga (shawl), all got back on the bike and carried on as if nothing had happened! It's bizzare as here in TZ it seems that people falling off motorbikes is the height of free comedy as everyone I've told this story to today has been in stitches!

I'm still having major issues with my laptop : ( I'm praying that when I visit Dar next week I will find someone who can fix it..... If not I'm not sure what I'll do as I'm up to series 3 of peep show and need to see what happens.

In other news I've started my advent Calendar and it feels surreal and bizzare to be 3 weeks off Christmas and in 30 degree heat and not being subjected to a single sound of Marriah Carey, all I want for Christmas or Slade blasting in my ears! I'm really curious as to what we will eat Christmas Day as the diet is so same same here, beans, rice, banana etc

As I'm typing this a woman has just arrived with 3 hens which have just been carted through the house by Mkile making an awful noise I've never heard before, squawking and shrieking as if they were being strangled! At least I've just cleared up that they're not going to be killed for our dinner, they're just going to take up residence in our coop as their sisters have been stolen from where they have been living- so lucky me!! More animal noises to wake me up at 5-6am.

I think I forgot to mention that our new house helper has now arrived, seems Samia isn't going to come back which is sad cos I really liked her. Anyways the new girl is called Anita and she has a daughter who's around 15 months old called Diness. She's so cute but I'm sad because I can't go within 10 steps of her without her dreaming blue murder and bursting into tears. I'm hoping that in time shell become used to me and will let me take a picture of her so I can show you all how adorable she is....

Yummy!!!!

Training complete, vols stressed but hopefully we're back on the right track from here on in......

This has just made me laugh. Aive brought me a huge bucket of peanut butter from Bukoba and Mkaile has just gone nuts when she saw it! Haha:

Mentally preparing for the day....

So after preparing the training yesterday on the project planning tool I woke this morning to an email from my manager and attached was a new, amended project planning tool - this therefore means that the docs and flip charts prepared last night are now incorrect..... Then on top of this we've just arrived at KAVIPE to discover that the hall we use for training has been hired out so we can't use it for our training today...... And breathe!!

All bets are off........

Following yesterday's visit from the uk global program manager, gaps were identified in our program in Kamachumu which have highlighted the fact that our volunteers haven't been fully aware of the program objectives and are subsequently unable to make a definitive link between the work they have been doing and how it fits into the program objectives. Me and Aive have therefore had to call a halt on all activities and are 'going back to the drawing board' and tomorrow will be running a training session on our team planning tool and program objectives. We also need to run a session on monitoring and evaluation, all of this is of course in addition to our day to day duties of supporting the volunteers. To add to the pressure of all this Aive has had to travel to Bukoba today to collect the next two weeks budget and allowances so I've been left holding the fort and doing all the session planning alone. All this said I'm confident that we'll get things back on track and the program is going to be a success, we just need to stay focused on what we're here to do and most importantly stay positive..... And that's starts with me and Aive I suppose!

I'm lucky in the fact that I have a good host family, lots of support from my family in the uk and me and Aive have a very good understanding of one another which has been crucial to us getting through the last few days.

Unfortunately one of our TZ vols has has to leave the program due to some issues in her host home. This has hit quite hard and I'm really upset to have lost someone so early in the program. She has however been given the option to reapply to ICS in the future and I really hope she takes the opportunity.

On a lighter note I'm still managing to take each day as it comes and not think too much to the future. This has helped me not to get toooo home sick although it is now starting to set in that I won't be with friends and family for Christmas : (

It's nice that I have Facebook and can see everyone's updates about the stress of Christmas shopping and everything else that comes at this time of year!

 It's 7.30pm now and I'm just waiting for Aive to arrive so we can finalise our plans for tomorrow and she's going to stay over. Will be nice to have some company and in looking forward to food tonight as I've eaten nothing substantial today due to being so busy.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my leave request will be accepted as then I'll have the chance to stay on in Dar es Salaam after the conference I'm going to be attending next week. I'm also excited to meet all the other long term VSO staff who are in TZ and get some ideas and advice of places in the country to visit! 

A hospital, a market, a stick fight, a Tailor and a visit from a VIP.....

Today has been an interesting day.... Unfortunately one of the UK vols is very poorly and needed to be checked out at the hospital. Fortunately the doctor has advised it is just a form of food poisoning and hopefully she'll be okay in a few days. I feel very sorry for her though and a bit at a loss as to what I can do. I went to visit her last night though and took her my popple (pic below) which I have had since I was really young and think that might of helped a little:

POPPLE-

I've also managed to do some shopping today and bought material from the market which my host mum took with me to the tailor to have an outfit (trousers and top) made from..... The material and tailoring in total has cost around £20 which I think is a bargain.... Will upload pics Weds when I collect it!

My family have a habit of whacking the cat with a stick when it mithers for food and today I took the plunge and challenged them not to hit the cat anymore..... This then turned into a conversation between me, my host Mum and host Dad which subsequently led to (a jokey) stick fight between the 3 of us..... Was slightly surreal (and of course there is a more serious under tone to this, which is that it's not only animals who are caned out here for bad behaviour) but that aside the stick flight was hilarious and very out of the ordinary for sure.

MIKKI DADDY AND HIS STICK:

Tomorrow our program manager from Dar es Salaam and a member of staff from VSO uk are going to visit, this has meant that at the last minute (8.30pm today) I was set the task to contact all volunteers to arrange for everyone to meet at 12 tomorrow.... Very last minute but now I can see why organisational skills, resilience and being completely out of your mind to want to take on this challenge,  were all included in the job description!!!