Cultural Differences

I'm coming to the end of my second week in Bagamoyo!

Life here is so relaxed, it's crazy! I took all my kids to the beach today, also took them on Monday! I ended up with 20 kids somehow - I think word spread, but luckily Laura was around and able to help me supervise!!! There was an abandoned, half-sunk boat just moored off the beach so the kids were climbing on it, jumping off - it kept them amused! The Banana Song is also a hit in Tanzania too. Thank goodness for the universal language of song!

I've started using some of the money you guys helped me raise! As you know, I gave a cheque for half the money to the Book Bus. I asked them to use it on supplies and books for the bus. But the other half, I am free to spend here as I like. So far, I have made an art corner in our house, so that when the kids come over they can be creative and I also take the stuff with me for my lessons. They don't often get the chance to be creative so they're really happy when they do!

I also bought some footballs for the local children and they were really happy too! I'm going to buy some medicine for a few of my kids as they have ringworm! There is a little boy called Juma who lives next door to us. He's a lovely little 10-year-old, really loves painting, drawing (and is very good at it) and playing football. He gets really badly beaten by his uncle and grandparents who he lives with so he spends a lot of time at our house hangoing out with us girls. I'm going to buy him some shoes with the money too as his are completely falling apart! I still have quite a bit of money left after that so am going to speak to Terri about how best to use it!

I'm going to meet Mwana Arafa next Friday, I'm very excited!!!! She lives about 22km north of here so I've not been to see her yet (just hoping it doesn't fall through). I'm hoping to leave here Saturday 10th July and make my way up to Moshi to get prepared for Kilimanjaro. I will need to go to Dar es Salaam first which takes about an hour and a half, then get the bus to Moshi so may stay the night in Dar as I heard the bus takes 11 hours!!

Bagamoyo, however nice is getting me down a little at times. We do sometimes get racist comments 'white people have bad souls' and 'mzungus don't belong here' etc, as well as 'charge them mzungu prices' etc. A couple of the girls are fluent in Kiswahili and people don't realise that they can understand them. It'a shame as it isn't really a touristy place so the only white people here are all teachers at the college or volunteers! So it kind of makes me feel sad that people think like that!

The other day my friend dropped a painting that she had done herself (she'd done a class with Rasti) and this guy picked it up and wanted money to give it back to her. So she offered him a little and he said it wasn't enough. So she said he could have the painting if he was going to be like that. I gave him a piece of my mind and he ended up just giving her the painting! I know that people are poor, but it's so disappointing. They thing we have endless amounts of money!

I'm actually also missing my tent! Despite the bad back I got on occasions, the tent was great as there were no bugs (except for the spider)! The other night, I hadn't tucked my mosquito net in and there on my bed were 2 cockroaches running around having a whale of a time - nice!!! We also have all these weird little creatures coming out of our shower drain!

I went to the opening of the new AIDS wing at the local hospital the other day. It was all in Swahili but it was really sad when this little boy who has AIDS came up to talk about his life. Terri, translated for us. The little boy started crying and half the audience were in tears! Two of the little boys I teach are ill, one with HIV and one with AIDS and it's really sad. I just want to hug them and tell them it will be alright even though I know it won't. But they are lucky that they have someone as good as Terri looking out for them as many children don't have that.

I am SOOOOO sick of rice and beans!!! I am actually starting to npot be able to eat rice and beans as it's making me feel nauseous. I am losing weight. We did make an odd meal the other night of boiled curried cabbage, jam and peanut butter sandwiches and olives. It wasn't that great but at least it wan't rice and beans!!

Went to watch Miss Tanzania the other night! It was pretty bad! Was meant to start at 8pm (when we got there) but actually didn't start til 11pm (African time). They were playing a few power ballads and we were singing along (best part of the evening) and we were drawing some strange looks - oddly enough from the woman sat next to us who had a tampon stuck up her nose!