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Well, I did not expect to be able to post a second blog post quite so fast but I am back in Arusha today to meet with a lawyer about getting my resident's visa. He does however seem to be running on African time and so I've been in town waiting for about an hour so far. I've just had to get passport photos taken which I was not prepared for. It does however mean that the extreme amount of dust that has gathered on my skin makes me look like I have a tan rather than just live with a limited amount of water!
Sunday, I went to Arusha Community Church, which was in English. The congregation was a mixture of Tanzanians and expats. The service lasted an hour (which apparently is a much shorter service than usual!) as there was an auction after the service to raise money for a local hospital. It was a fairly full service and people were very friendly and welcoming. In the afternoon I returned to Monduli (the town I live in) and went to the Sunday weekly market. This was much bigger than the Thursday market and lots of Masai attended. I got some tomatoes, potatoes and something which slightly resembles a nail brush and so has now become one! The Masai at the market wear cloth that looks a bit like tartan. They all wear a sort of 'kilt' type thing and then another one wrapped round them like a shawl. Many of the men also carried sticks and swords. Both men and women had lots of earings, with their ears stretched and many also had markings on their faces a bit like tattoos. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos but many believe that if you take their photo then you also take their spirit.
Yesterday was my first full day at school. It is fairly chaotic and so nobody really had time to tell me what to do. As a result I helped out in an English class which gave me a chance to meet some pupils, organised a volleyball match, looked at resources available and made a list of possible ideas to start up. I had a meeting after a while with one teacher who managed to go over my role as Activities and Athletics Coordinator, which has given me a much clearer idea. It looks like I will have quite a large level of responsibility with it. He also asked that I have lunch with students if I can as apparently teachers used to but for some reason this has not happened for a while and there has become a bigger divide between the Western and Tanzanians, not just among the students but also the staff. As a result I had lunch with some of the students. We were served with something called macondya. It is maize, chickpeas and lentils all mixed together and served with spinach. We also got bread and very, very sweet tea in the morning at about ten. The school day lasts from 7.30am to 5.30 so is very long and so the sugar certainly helps with the energy levels! It was a slightly surreal day as there was a donkey wandering around school. It kept being chased off by the guards and students but just repeatedly returned to eat the school pitch. I saw it wander past-in the course of my day- the classroom I was in, the school office, the volleyball game and it was in the middle of the school grounds when I left to go home.
As I wasn't needed in school after 4.10pm however, I could leave early. I walked with another volunteer Emily (who is from Belguim) the 8km back to the house we live in. There are two buses for staff members so this is a possibility when it is not raining but I thought it would be nice to see what the area around the school looks like. Many of the students also walk much further than this everyday. Some students walked with us and so they were able to teach me some Swahili, Masai and also had a debate amongst themselves as to whether boys or girls was better. This was interesting as many of the arguments were definitely culturally based.
Today, I won't make school at all as I try to get my residency permit sorted but hopefully tomorrow I can start to get into a bit of a routine and work out a bit better how everything works!
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