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Alice's Adventure
I've arrived back in Mwanza safe and well! Sorry it's taken me a while to update the journal but there've been power problems recently (we don't get power between 6.30am and 6.30pm) but hopefully iy'll start coming back as it's been raining and they rely on hydro power!
The new volunteers have arrived and are really lovely so there's now 6 girls (2 from Oz, 1 from Mexico, 1 from Canada, 1 from Denmark and me-it's like the United Nations or something!) Anyway we've all been getting on really well and enjoying ourselves lots! We've been sampling lots of different restaurants and have found Irish mature cheddar cheese at the supermarket so am very happy about that!
It's been so lovely to see the kids again they all came running up to me (they remembered me which was really cool!) and it feels like i was never gone now! This week I've been working with Marwa (a boy with polio in the mornings) doing exercises, playing lego and trying to teach him a, b, c. He's the sweetest boy but is mentally handicapped as well as physically - I'm not quite sure why this is but when his parents died he was left in the house for a year on his own with neighbours bringing him food so maybe this trauma has something to do with it? Recently he seems to be more alert and has more interaction with the other kids (apparently before he never really spoke to anyone in English or swahili) so it's amazing when you see a big grin on his face!
In the afternnons I've been teaching standard 5 ( about 12/13 years old) we've been doing some maths, writing letters to past volunteers and football players (they think I know wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard etc because I live in England so they ask me if I'll give the letters to them! So funny!) We've also been doing some Geography which they're pretty good at but they're even better at naming the football players from each country!
I've really been spoiling myself this week but it's been totally worth it! Having such a good time eating out and going out for drinks! We've found that the poshest hotel here (Talapia) is really great for having a meal and a few drinks at-the food's really good- Chinese, Thai, Indian, American, Italian... But is still so cheap! There's also loads of other people who are working in Mwanza or doing other volunteer stuff so it's been cool to get to know them too!
We went to a Catholic church on sunday which was incredible! The service was all in Swahili but the singing was so beautiful I was close to tears! we went with all the kids from the orphanage and they are so good they just sit there silently throughout the whole thing. It was really strange to see a church so full of young people I think there was only one old lady there.. so different to back home! All the paintings on the wall were of jesus and the disciples as Africans! How funny?! The priest was really lovely he thanked us all for coming and said we were welcome anythime. I think I'm going to go to the pentacostal church next Sunday as apparently they all sing, clap and dance the whole way through which would be cool to see!
On Friday night we went out for dinner at this gorgeous restaurant run by a South Africa lady! the food was really good and the South African wine too...! It was really expensive though (about 10 pounds including half a bottle of wine) That's expensive for here anyway! Then we went on to Talapia and had drinks there and met up with lots of people and they we all went to a club called 'The Rock' which was really good fun! lots of dancing and good music.. we didn't leave til 5am and it was all still going on then!
Then on saturday we got this little boat over to Saa nane Island which was so beautiful, all these wonderful flowers, birds and lizards and we were pretty much the only people on the island! But there was a hyena and a lion in the smallest cages, they looked so depressed and dehydrated (the island is also known as depressed animal island). When the guy that ran the place brought water for the lion it was going insane throwing itself at the bars... I don't understand why it can't have water in it's cage because it only seems to get a litre bottle of water a day and most of that goes on the floor. Anyway, I got to feed the lion water using a water bottle-i was so close to it and it was so beautiful! But I also felt really bad for encouraging the park keeper to treat the animals like that but I reckon it's the closest I'll ever get to a lion so I wasn't going to pass up the oppurtunity!
Today i slept in really late which was wicked (i've made my room really homely with pictures everywhere so I like spending time in there now!) We also have water so can shower whenever and we've cleaned the place really well so it's more relaxing to be in (although we did find a mouse last night-alive!)
After this we're going to Talapia for lunch and to swim in their pool-the hotel is beautiful it's right on the edge of lake victoria! Then we're going to have dinner there too and probably a few drinks after... what a life hey?!
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