Still Surviving!

---

Hello again,
After a week on mid-term break I am now back at school and doing some proper teaching - it feels like forever since I did any teaching and I think I actually missed it - how sad is that? The kids have been very welcoming and responsive and they are starting to understand my kiwi accent. Unfortunately they have been taught partly from the old syllabus and partly from the new one so things are a little confused. I am only teaching English for 9 periods a week, the rest of the time I am responsible for teaching computer literacy to the staff and students (I don’t remember this being in the job description, but am willing to have a go!) We have been given 3 computers by the PM (who comes from Monduli) and these are all the resources I have to teach 640 students and 32 staff! I’ve always enjoyed a challenge!
Mid-term break was pretty quiet. I had intended to head away for a few days but was asked to put some time into getting the computers ready so had to stick around. Of course, being Africa, they still haven’t got around to doing anything with the computers so I stuck around for nothing - lesson learned!
I spent a bit of time sorting out things around the house etc - very boring! I have included a couple of photos of the lounge for those of you who have asked - please pay particular attention to the lovely orange cushions (yes, they are rust coloured velvet!). The blokes from the office took it upon themselves to choose the covers because I was away at language training. I think they just picked out the riches looking material they could find, probably thinking that is what would appeal to a westerner! Just as well I have bought a few Maasai shuka so I can cover them up!
So on Friday Jane and I went for a drive out into the ‘wop-wops’ into part of the rift valley to see what we could see. The views were amazing (photos attached - although they don’t really do it justice) and we saw lots of locals going about their daily business. The road wasn’t too flash and at one stage things got a bit worrying as we ended up driving through deep piles of very fine dust (lucky I have 4-wheel drive!!)
On Saturday we went into Arusha again to do some shopping and have a look at the Maasai craft market - what an experience with people actually dragging you into their stalls and calling out to you every step - not somewhere I would want to go regularly!
The weather is starting to warm up a bit. Most days it is 25-30˚C around midday, but still a bit cool in the mornings and evenings (ie under 20!). I m not sure how I will cope when the real heat arrives, but hopefully I will be acclimatized by then! In saying that, things should cool down a bit when the short rains arrive (towards the end of October and into November). Might get a bit more humid though. However, it will be nice to get rid of some of the ever-present dust (although I’m not sure if trading it for sticky mud is exactly the ideal!).
Well, things are just ticking along nicely here, nothing new or major to report. I hope all is still good ‘down under’!
Take care of yourselves,
j

---

Photos

maasai bloke
pay particular attention to the shoes - they are made from old car tyres!

lounge 2
i put in 2 so it will look bigger!

Comments

[becs]

yay i found your blog!!!
finally found it woohoo, looks amazing