Give me 21 days...
on Kev in Tanzania (Tanzania), 19/Jun/2009 05:22, 34 days ago
Here is the update from the last 2 weeks - things are pretty quiet...I have been a little sad since coming back from Dodoma, partly because of Saskia and partly because I miss Liz and want to spend more time with her. We chat and txt lots and our feeling are getting stronger.Work is quiet, there are no students (who are on block practice or holiday) and hardly any staff (who are on holiday or doing open university exams)I busy myself by editing and uploading photos, practicing my ICT skills and next week I am going to make some more posters for the classrooms. I did hope the ones I made would inspire the others to make them but while I am here I think they are more than happy for me to do it... I was a bit worried about some of my ICT skills fading but if anything since being here I have learnt more and using Open Office and Solaris is great for broadening my experience.At home I have been experimenting in the kitchen making my own sauces and will be trying to cook lentils and make Daal next week. My frying pan from home is awesome for making omelettes (much better than my old pan made from recycled car parts!). Tanzania rice is rubbish though, I am not very good at cooking using the absorption method. Give me basmati rice any day!Chickens are great! I have 2 batches of eggs that 3 hens are taking turns sitting on, I am hoping to get some chicks! They are healthy and well fed but do fight now and then. At one point last week before deciding to try for chicks I had 7 eggs in 2 days! I told my guard who cleans them out that I would like chicks and not take any eggs. So far so good and they take 21 days between laying and hatching.Around the house I decided to put up some photos of friends and family to make the place more homely. Still no water (doubt I will have any until I leave in October to be honest) but neighbours teenage kids fetch it for me for pocket money and I gave them a football from Ray as a treat.VSO have been contacting me about my replacement and I am going to make a Mpwapwa guide and map for her as she will probably be alone here in Mpwapwa. I will make sure she meets Matayo though as he is the best person to know in Mpwapwa!Up to series 3 now on 'Prison break' it is really is entertaining and I recommend it!I read 'Random acts of heroic love' (its not as mushy as it sounds!) its a fantastic book, very moving especially the end. It is inspiring to read about someone who walked 3000 miles across Siberia to Poland for someone. I am currently reading a spoof of Pride and Prejudice.The local NMB bank is still pretty rubbish. I still don't have a PIN which means I have to queue up in the bank to get cash but at least it was quite on Tuesday when I went in.Climate is so dry (very very dry!) there are more scorpions around but people squash them pretty quick so its normally only the dead ones you see. Been reading some extracts from the exploring (murderer) Stanley who travelled through Mpwapwa on his search for Livingstone. He comments that Mpwapwa is very lush and fertile - what has happened. Locals tell me the droughts in the 80s meant all the rivers dried up....Ben stayed over Wednesday night, he is going finishing with Peace Corp in August and life in his village is starting to get him. He had trouble last week with one of the many drunk men in the village telling him that unless Ben buys him a saw he will beat his own wife up! (Violence against women is very common in rural Tanzania and the men in his village show off about it!) Ben snapped and grabbed the man and threatened him! The village head man took Bens side and told the drunk man to go away which is nice because if the police got involved it would have been awkward for Ben.While he stayed at mine we played some monopoly and talked about what he is going to do after Peace Corp. In the morning we went for breakfast at Hafuns, got some money from the bank to pay VSO back, bought my bus ticket for the weekend and I met Matayo for lunch.So this weekend I am visiting Dar again, I will see Peter, Liz and some of guys from Dodoma too.Take care