An African Update

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Hujambo

Well, where to start, coming to live here along with motherhood are two of the biggest things I have ever done in my life and both seemed to just happened to me; I therefore conclude that both were just meant to be. So I have woken up from the whirlwind of both and find myself a mother of a gorgeous 7 month old and living in the foothills of Mt Meru in a village called Ngaramtoni close to Arusha in Northern Tanzania.

I miss friends, family and the UK terribly and thank God for skype and the internet but people here could not have been friendlier.

My week is much like that of any mother across the globe I imagine- I operate to a 3 hour rule- if Ben has not been fed, changed or had a nap in the previous 3 hours he is likely to need one- not quite Gina Ford I am afriad but it works for me. He is now almost crawling and eats 3 meals a day, I seem to spend my life pureeing and chopping fruit and veg and now cheese, pasta egg and in the comng weeks meat and fish- I highly recommend Annabel Karmel, although she is the baby equivalent of Nigela Lawson- irritatingly perfect and a bit of a domestic goddess- something most of you can vouch- I most certainly am not!

Fortunately Ben (at the moment) is sleeping through the night and I am so very fortunate to have both a houskeeper and an ayha to help in the house and with babysitting which also makes life a lot less lonely day to day despite my limited swahili. Expats tend to live fairly far apart from one another here so if you go out for dinner you usual stay the night.

I have mananged through contacts to find a crazy chap in Australia (who quit his job in the UK to live in Oz and to donate his life to water, hygiene and sanitation education) who I am now working unpaid for 1 day a week writing for his website- I am feeling very rusty as it has been almost a year since I worked and about 3 since I did any WASH work other than present at a conference! But I am looking forward to it as it will rebuild my confidence following the step from the career rat race (swine flu I still curse you- put simply what idiot and her colleagues and organisation trys to fight flu? Still must put it down to experience) into motherhood and out to Africa.
I have not managed to see much of the country yet, but we have got out to some of the local NPs on safari, Tarangire and Arusha- plenty of game- saw lions, elephants, giraffes, zebra, osterich, warthogs, buffalo, wildebeest etc. We have plans to get to the coast so I can perhaps get a cylinder on my back once more and swim with the fish but it is getting hotter there so we will need to go soon if we are going to take Ben. It is likely we will take our nanny with us on this trip so I can leave Benjamin safely ashore. It sounds so grand having a nanny but I have to say without her I would long for grandparents, formal childcare and tescos' child and parent parking (infact I long for them anyway) as trying to shop in Arusha with a sleeping baby is like an extreme sport- need to lock the car, turn down a date with a policeman, remove car seat and baby, avoid the on street vegetable sellers unless you actually want some of course all at the same time and hope you don't get clamped or get the car broken in to whilst you are in the shop or melt on your return if you have parked the car in the sun! Still mustn't moan it really is an adventure.

I attend 3 baby groups a week, one at the international school and 2 others at different people's homes to do music etc. this involves driving across the bush, through stunning coffee estates and up dirt tracks into the forests of Mt Meru's slopes- trying to recognise trees as landmarks and longing for an English pub landmark to assist you. I long for the emailed directions to say 'right at the Blue Boar' or 'left at the hare and hounds'. I am trying to avoid driving in the dark as quite frankly I can't see and with no white lines and plenty of white teeth at the edge of the road it can be interesting but the thought of hitting someone is terrifying.

We have had a few rainstorms lately which is early for the rains as they unusually don't come until early November but it has been grately received as the dust has been building.

I am trying to get fit and yesterday played squash and then went for a run to pick up a car I had left at a coffee lodge. I decided to take a short cut and found myself completely lost in the coffee, I had no credit on my mobile phone and no water with me and only my driving licence and car keys shoved down my sports bra. I had to jump a barbed wire fence (and cut my legs to pieces), use my basic swahili to direct me to the road and guess what I ended up back where I had started about an hour and a half later but I have to admit I loved the adrenalin rush and spending nearly 2 hours completely by myself, if Ben had been with me I obviously would not have had so ill prepared- it reminded me of whena friend and I embarked on a walk in Scotland and got lost in the cold and dark- so much for learning my lesson despite all the well prepared hiking and Mountain Leader training I have done- doh!!! It is always those quick walks and runs that turn in to the scenes from Michael Burke's 999!

I am hoping to get up Mt Meru and run in either the kilimanjaro half or 10k races in the coming months but I can't imagine a night away from Benjamin yet and the trek is 4 days but already friends have been up and looking up at it most days is very enticing and becoming increasingly unbearable, so get your arses out here and come and climb it with me - far less touristy than Kilimarjaro (about 1 hours drive away). I am doing yoga and pilates too- it is amazing how you cherish those hours of exercise and peace when you are a mum and how frustrated you get with yourself for taking it all for granted when you were single.

Anyway, the little man is awake, the generator needs turning on and another Annabel Karmel delight awaits him.

Karibu if you would ever like to come out and visit

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