Hello!

It's blog time again! You'd think 14 days up a mountain would pass quite slowly but apparently not….as the saying goes, 'time flies when you're having fun!'

Teacher, can you eat a chimpanzee?

Who knew school could be so much fun?! I've had another great 2 weeks and I've made lots of progress with my classes. I've been doing can/cannot with Standard 5 which has been revealing and hilarious. I've been asked many odd questions- such as, can you eat a chimpanzee? Also questions to which they could not believe my answers, for instance, the fact that I can drive a car or that I can't carry things on my head! I've also learned that most of the boys can't cook and that only boys can play football and only girls can play netball. Silly games and odd questions have been the basis for my lessons and the kids have loved it! Even better, I know they've been learning….one of my students casually asked Efi on our walk home 'Can you eat a dog?!'. Lesson learned J

My little Standard 2's have also been working their little socks off! In only 2 weeks, we've learned about alphabetical order and how to spell 6 new words! They're very pleased with themselves…one little boy has been saying 'sun' and 'cup' to me on random occasions! Explaining the difference between the letter name and the phonic has been challenging but by incorporating a running game-with highly sought after stickers as prizes-we're getting there J We've been doing some drawing too for our new words-resulting in some very questionable(but adorable) cats and dogs. Even if I do still have to battle with them a little for them to be quiet, they must be enjoying my classes….3 little faces appeared at the staffroom window the other day saying 'Teacher, now, Standardi 2, come!'. Each day I go through a cycle of being challenged and having lots of fun….but it's great and I've really relaxed into being Teacher Linsey!

Making friends-not hats (yet!)- at Yamba knitting club

When the school day is finished and my planning is done, the time is mine to do whatever. And while I spend much of this time reading stories, playing dominoes and generally being silly with the kids outside the house, I've decided to sacrifice some playtime to be useful. And my way of being useful is to be crafty. So now I'm spending an hour or so on Mondays and Thursdays with the ladies from the knitting club and teaching them some jewellery type things. The aim is to give the ladies some ideas and skills to enable them to be more enterprising and have things which they wcould sell at market. As ever, resources are limited and so I'm having to be quite creative. The first thing we've been doing is string friendship bracelets (thank-you Fernwood for this valuable skill!) which seem to be going well. The technique is easy and fun to teach….because of the language barrier teaching involves lots of over the top gestures and hilarity on their part! Even so, they seemed to have grasped it and so now that I've received a crafty parcel from Mamma McGregor I ca introduce some beads to the process, exciting! I'm also hoping we can combine skills and can do some crochet-wire work. I'm really enjoying this different sort of teaching and the women are brilliant. I love listening to them chatter as they work and love their enthusiasm for what is essentially tying some knots. With practical skills like this, the language barrier isn't a huge issue-comical more than anything else- and so I've decided it's a good opportunity for me to learn something too. And so it has come to be that my newest hobby is knitting-as taught my Mamma Ade (knitter-extraordinaire). My progress is slow so don't all be expecting Christmas jumpers but it's really fun learning from the locals and I'm enjoying the skill exchange we've got going on. Even if I have to unravel my knitting after trying for an hour, I still leave with a smile on my face…even more so last week when I managed to finish a bookmark! Next is a hat to keep me warm on my return….

A Tanzanian Wedding

Last week, we were lucky enough to attend the wedding of a local man. I hadn't really known what to expect from a Tanzanian wedding but it was a brilliant day. Well….except for the 5am start; the 'do' was in Mombo, near Lushoto, the grooms hometown and it's 3 or so hours from Yamba. We reached Mombo before 10 after a hot journey in our gladrags. (Well I say gladrags…not actually very fancy but in comparison to our everyday mountain clothes, we all looked rather swish in my eyes! I guess it's all relative.) A while after us, the bride arrived (late;not because it's tradition but because we're on Tanzania-time) and she was met by the music of a fantastic brass band and all of her guests. The bride was wearing a beautiful white dress with a veil (which I'm told is posh by Tanzanian standards). Once she got our the car, her guests began a truly African dancing procession to lead the bride into the church which was great to see and be part of. The service itself was Roman catholic and although in Kiswahili it seemed to follow the format of weddings back home…except there was more cheering and the choir not only sang but also did some highly entertaining dancing! The service was a -very hot- couple of hours; the bridesmaid and best man had the added duty of wiping sweat from the bride's and groom's faces with tissues, lovely. After the service, the newly-weds were lead out of church with more dancing, this time with brass band accompaniment (AMAZING!) and the ladies were laying down their Kanga's for the bride to walk on. Everyone was so happy and so it seemed odd that the bride and groom weren't smiling but apparently it's a cultural tradition and they aren't meant to smile on their wedding day-you could see not smiling wasn't an easy task though! Next we all went to the neighboring hall for what I guess would be the same as a reception. The way the reception began, I think, may have been my favourite part of the day. The MC (a man with a very crackly mic) introduced all of the guests, for instance saying 'the groom's friends from Yamba!' and we had to stand up and do a dancing wave as the brass band played a tune. It was hilarious to watch-it felt a little bit like something from an episode of scrubs! After the intros, there was the cutting of the cake and the champagne was popped (again, all done with brass band accompaniment) . Unfortunately, we had to leave at about 2 so that we'd get back to Yamba before dark so we didn't see the whole thing. Before we left though, they kindly offered us some food; a buffet Tanzanian style….no sausage rolls in sight but a LOT of rice! We also got the chance to give the couple our gift-something that's done in front of an audience so we were relieved our present was good (a lovely leather bound bible!). And that's where my experience of a Tanzanian wedding ends-and I'm so glad it's something I've had the chance to see. In many ways it was very like a British wedding, if only with more (and better) dancing. I now also think everyday life would be much more interesting and fun if it were to be accompanied by the sounds of drum, trumpet and sax played by smiley men in matching lime-green shirts.

The mzungo

They can't carry stuff on their heads, they don't speak Kiswahili and ugali is not their favourite food…meet my mzungo friends. Mzungo is the term for 'white people' (descriptive rather than derogatory) and there are 4 mzungo who are a big part of my experience here and so they deserve some blog space; Emily, Efi, Kath and Andy who is the volunteer liason for Village Africa. Efi, Emily, Kath and I all arrived at the same time and we're all teaching volunteers and if I do say so myself, we're an interesting bunch. Efi and I live together in Yamba (where Andy lives too) and so the 3 of us spend a fair amount of time together over meals etc. Kath and Emily live down the hill and teach in Milangano village. So we're only really altogether for Tanga weekends. More info…first there's Efi who's the baby of the group but with all the brains (she's off to Oxford next year!) and although I don't share her love of Batman or fantasy fiction we get on pretty well. Next is Andy who works his socks off for the charity and tries to keep us in check too. He fills our meal-times with sarcasm and our house with all his clutter! (Useful to have around too because he actually does speak Swahili!). Emily is a primary school teacher in the UK and has taken some time out. She's always smiling and even worse at making decisions than I am! Her anecdotes of proposals and serenades from the locals are very entertaining. Finally, there's Kath-the other half of the Mili pair and affectionately called 'wifey'. She's a secondary school teacher back home and has a quick wit to keep the teenagers in check. As for me, I've become known as Mamma Bear in the group because, as I'm sure you can guess, of my incessant need to be organized and look after people. In all of our various combinations, there is always lots of activity and chatter; brainstorming lessons plans or making cards with Efi, Efi and Andy having over-my-head discussions about geek-lit or one of Emily's scenario questions. Never before have I thought so intensely about what my last meal would be if I was on death row or about the 6 people I'd invite to a dinner party…so yes, lots of interesting conversations. There's always lots of debate and discussion about all sorts and anything that goes unanswered goes on the wiki-list….for instance, the linguistic origins of the phrase tea-jenny or exactly how the world's biggest cookie/pie etc gets cooked. I didn't really know what to expect about the other volunteers before I arrived but I feel pretty lucky that these are the guys I'm with and that we get on so well. There have been a few other short term volunteers too-like carpenter Jess, or builders Adam and LuLu or football Phil, and I guess it's just the nature of the project but everyone's been lovely. As much as I love village life, it's good to have these guys around to be able to chat about your day-in English- or even simply to have someone around to tell you that you've pen on your face (Efi) or that your hat is ridiculous (sorry Andy!)

Ps-my last meal would include a breakfast cereal cocktail

Pps- if anyone can explain the phrase tea-jenny, I will be eternally grateful.

Other blog-worthy chatter

Asante sana squashed banana: having now been here for 2 months, my Kiswahli is slowly improving…or I'd like to think so especially given that initially my only knowledge of Swahili vocab came from 'The Lion King' (Did you know that Rafiki means friend?!). So yes, I'd like to think I'm now passed Disney level J My new favourite word is tiki-tiki-maji which is watermelon, closely followed by 'mshini' because it means winner. And if I'm saying it, it usually means I've won a hotly contested connect 4 game!

Little baby Efi: news spread around the village this week that the newest addition has been named Efi (after my fellow volunteer) which is very exciting news! I can't deny a smidgen of jealousy! However, the fact locals used to chuckle when I told them my name because 'Linsey' sounds almost identical to the Kiswahili word for 'watchman' means that the chances of a baby Linsey are slim. As lovely as it'd be, I think little baby 'watchman' might have a tough time at school. Instead I'm going to share in Efi's excitement and am looking forward to meeting little African Efi next week!

One ticket to Zanzibar please?: you all know I love a good plan and so I'm very excited by my latest one. After I finish my time in Yamba, I have 2 weeks before my flight home and my plan is to spend the time on Zanzibar with the other volunteers. We booked our flights yesterday…a quick half hour flight from Tanga on what appears to be a tiny car with wings! A few weeks exploring, enjoying the sunshine and shouting Zanzi-baaaa loudly J I'm looking forward to it already….apologies dear reader for the pangs of jealousy that are building inside you now!

That's all folks! Again, I just want to say thanks for reading-although please realize I will still want to tell you all of the above in person when I touchdown in December.

I hope life is good back home; that it's not too cold, that X-factor isn't too awful and that you all have exciting plans for fireworks tonight.

Take care,

All my Tanzanian love,

Linsey

xxx