Hiding under the bed so I don't have to leave...

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So here we are, the day before leaving. I have to say I really don’t want to - I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone back in England, but I also don’t want to leave here at all. The people, the weather, the location of our house, it’s all amazing. I don’t even mind that we never ever have running water any more! Also I feel like my projects are only just starting to kick off properly - the kids are making headway on the things I’ve been teaching, and we’re right in the middle of filming the HIV documentary. Ideally I would love to stay here until at least 8th September to make some real progress. I’ve made some wonderful friends here as well and I very much hope we all manage to stay in touch.

It’s been pretty hectic since last week when I wrote. I’ve been on the projects every day, and managed to get on Tanzanian TV! We went on Friday Night Live last week to discuss HIV awareness, but actually it turned into “let’s all laugh at the Mizungus and make them dance!” Still it was an experience. On Saturday I went to the Kanga market in Dar es Salaam and bought some material for the tailor - I just picked up my new bag, which I’m very pleased with! Spent the rest of the afternoon at White Sands for Simon’s birthday. In the evening we were going to brave the local club but couldn’t quite be bothered; instead we stayed up all night at the house and watched the sunrise from the roof. On Sunday we went to Mbudya island, recommended to me by my friend Carl at DFID. He was right to suggest it - it was absolutely gorgeous, despite the weather being a little cloudy. Unfortunately Sam didn’t make it to Mbudya - she had to go to hospital because she was being really sick and had the most horrific stomach problems. Turns out she has dysentery and malaria! Talk about getting ill in style! She’s on antibiotics now and is already much better, so I’m hoping she’ll be OK for our flight home tomorrow.

This week has been a bit odd so far as everyone bar 6 of us has gone to Zanzibar (typical, we won’t get a proper send off  ). We filmed for the HIV documentary in Kondo yesterday - Kondo is a local village where 650 people live on less than a dollar a day, and they have no local water supply. HIV is still pretty stigmatized there, despite all the local people knowing about safe sex and having condoms available. People still believe that if you use a condom, you’re having sex with the condom and not the person. Many also believe that the west contaminates condoms with HIV on purpose, and that they deliberately put holes in condoms so HIV can get through. If they can get condoms for free, they think that they won’t be as effective as expensive ones. There are a lot of difficult beliefs and misconceptions to overcome, so boldly walking up to the locals and talking about HIV was a challenge, but a rewarding one. This afternoon we’re visiting the local hospital to interview the doctors and a few pregnant women with HIV for the documentary. I’m gutted that I won’t be here for its completion, but Jordan, our translator, has promised to send me a copy.

I also had my last morning at the nursery this morning and it was so sad; the kids were hyper because I took in balloons, bubbles and sweets. When I left the kids asked the headteacher Grace if they could come to England with me! Grace made me a card and hugged me about a hundred times, and Teacher Mary made me promise to go to her house in the morning for tea and ugali (which I haven’t actually tried yet - it’s the local dish made from maize flour and cassava, and it’s eaten dipped in sauce). I’m really going to miss the kids running up to me everywhere shouting “Teacher Teacher!” and jumping on you - even if you don’t teach them, that’s how all the kids around here greet Mizungus (I love that I’ve actually started referring to myself as a Mizungu!). It’s sort of a term of respect as well as descriptive. Nursery was pretty good this morning - they’ve actually started to understand subtraction, and in English we worked on words with double vowels in. i.e. “ee” and “oo”.

One last point - conversation at the house has recently turned to the Tanzanian work ethic and whether it hinders development. Around Bahari Beach people work on average 3 hours a day, everything moves pretty slowly and is often not completed thoroughly first time around, which means it requires further work later. It’s not always a case of resources - even when things are funded or available, work is incredibly slow. What we’d like to know is why that is the case, and whether if the working day was the equivalent of an English one more progress would be made with schools, healthcare etc. So far I’ve not heard an explanation or opinion that satisfies me, so if anyone can shed any light (Owen, Helen, Declan?) I’d be grateful!

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