I haven’t written for nearly a whole day, it’s
been hectic around here. Last night me Megan and Tom watch fight club on the
broken laptop, and then ended up staying up until way past midnight even though
we were shattered.
The next morning we had to get up and ready to
go to Arusha today. We headed in, in the minibus with Kanali to the shop right
complex where the internet café is, we went straight there where I managed to
blog a bit and then I had a wander around the area, my first lone experience.
It wasn’t too bad, I felt odd being there alone, but it was nice to see some of
the other stores, The complex is very Western, so there were more Europeans and
Americans than Tanzanians, I found a lovely book store and managed to find 5 or
6 children’s books written in Swahili; they have lots of books, but very few
translated, so I bought those.
When we all met up again we headed for the solar
lamp shop. A lot of the students’, who don’t live a Peace Matunda, live in mud
shacks made of sticks and cow shit for walls. They have very little room, no
light and a big family. Solar lamps are very good here dues to all the sun,
they charge quickly and the children can use the light to do independent study;
they are very conscientious students here.
We spoke to a Canadian woman in the shop who
gave me a good discount for buying 10 lamps and for the good work I was doing
at Peace Matunda (she seemed to know the project.) I hope to hand out most of
my donated gifts and solar lamps tomorrow.
We all loaded out purchases into the mini bus
(which is falling apart; the clutch is going, the breaks affect the steering
and the seats are tied down with rope) and then went to shop right. I bought
some cheap drinks and snacks (Smirnoff vodka for 3000 shillings = £1.10) and
then a few of us chipped in for lots of stuff for the party for Halloween!
From the complex we went to dinner at a place
called Via Via’s an absolutely lovely restaurant. When I looked out of the
windows of the canopy style dining area it looked just like ‘I’m a Celebrity
Get Me Out of Here.’ The trees and the way we felt so high up in the wooden
shelters. I got a chicken fillet burger because they never eat much meat at the
orphanage; it’s too expensive to cook for everyone. It was yummy.
After dinner we went to the Massia market, it
was overwhelming because everyone wants you in their shop, so once you go in;
they block your way out. It’s safe but disconcerting. I found a lot of people
wanted you to ‘look in their shop’ then I felt obliged to buy something just to
leave. The market is just tiny alley ways that you can barely walk through. As
I was walking down everyone was going crazy over my shoes, I had my walking
boots on because it was so dusty and muddy, One guy asked if I was a soldier,
and this woman gasped and asked to trade shoes, she was shouting and jumping up
and down. I guess my muddy old duke of Edinburgh shoes are like glass slippers
to them.
I bought some presents to say thank you to
people who helped make my trip possible. There was a lot on offer but I tried
to find things I though people could use but now I’m not so sure! Whenever you
buy something, you ask the price, then offer a third of it. That way when you
haggle, you can go up to half of the price, so you aren’t over charged. I think
for some, I probably paid too much, however here; it’s the difference between
20p and £1.10 for something I would pay £14 for back home.
I had a slight mishap with my haggling in one
store, (for some background information 10,000 shillings is £4.) I saw some
book ends that I wanted to get for the books in the orphanage, so they were out
being used rather than in storage. His first price was 65000sh for 1 then I
said I wanted 2, so he brought it down. After I said I wanted 3 sets, I managed
to get him down to 100,000sh and paid him, and the Megan came and told me how
much that actually is (apparently my A level maths skills only work in the
classroom- about £40) which was way too
much for something that wasn’t desperately needed. She managed to get him to
give me it back by saying that I wouldn’t be able to get home without it
(obviously not true).
Kanali took me to a shop on the way out of
Arusha, to get some blackboard paint. All the blackboards in the school are
very damaged. They are hardly able to write on some of them, so this weekend,
before I leave I plan on repainting as many blackboards as I can. This shop,
however, didn’t sell blackboard paint; it did sell lots of school books
thought. Corefield Kaaya’s son told me how standard 4 only has 1 vocational
skills textbook to share between a class of 30 and their teacher. So in this
shop I asked and they had it, so I bought 10 books 1 for each desk, and gave
them to the teacher Christopher.
On the way to Tengeru, Kanali stopped at a few
shops to get blackboard paint which was successful. The roadside shops are like
shacks, one place had wood chopping’s and shavings everywhere which we had to
wade through. Kanali is such a gentleman; he carried all my bags for me and
translated things for me.
Once we finally got to Tengeru market it was a
relief to get out of the boiling hot minibus. We left our bags in there, and
put money in our pockets and stuck our hands in there since there are loads and
loads of pick pockets in such a busy place.
I went with Tom to get him some flip flops, but
he has quite big feet (size 11 I think) so none of them understood that he
needed a bigger size. Eventually we found someone to translate and he drew
around his foot so the guy could make them for him.
After that success we headed for the fruit section
and I bought five bunches of bananas to put in the porridge tomorrow.
On the way home we gave a lift to this random
guard Kanali knew, so I moved to the back of the minibus to make room for him
and all our shopping I was being thrown about so much I felt sick, so when I
got in I felt awful, I went and sat with Tom and he made me feel better with
paracetamol and messing about being a div.
I went to get a shower after a long day in
Arusha, which was so refreshing the cold water running over my hair cleaning
all the dust and grit out.
I attempted to eat tea, but could only stomach a
small portion of white rice and then i went to bed to hopefully feel better.
