Back again, after another week that has gone INSANELY quickly!

Well, the start of the week was pretty slow, we were sitting out on the veranda (i.e large step) at home on Sunday afternoon when the Director for New Life Academy, Joseph, pulled up in his jeep. After observing local custom (asking him how he is in about 5 different ways, then offering him a drink) he finally told us the news, we had Monday off thanks to George Bush! Unexpected three-day weekends go down very well in our house. For those of you not obsessively following East African news right now (and i'm going to guess that's pretty much everyone who reads this haha), George W Bush was in Arusha as part of his African tour to inspect how US anti-malarial funding was being spent. Which basically meant a totally unnecessary tour of the mosquito-net factory on the edge of town by the US Commander in Chief (who the locals call Mr Bully), and resulted in total chaos for the little town of Arusha.

The US Military had been in Arusha for about the same amount of time I had readying the place for Bush's visit. Which translates to a total ban on public transport, the mobile phone networks being shut down all day, major roads being shut off, and a swarm of helicopters in constant motion over Arusha. This also meant that the entirely harmless school buses which carry the children to New Life couldn't get past the American road blocks, so school was cancelled. Obviously I was annoyed that the kids were missing school for such a ridiculous reason, but if i'm being honest, giving me the day off is the first thing i'm grateful to Bush for.

We hiked to a Safari lodge about an hour further up Mt Meru from our house to use the pool. I know I talk about using the pool alot, but it's SO HOT right now, it's pretty much all we think about in our free time. The views on the hike were fantastic, I took a few pictures which I'll put up on this site the minute I work out how to! Some other volunteers we don't see much were also at the pool (great minds think alike) so we spent the afternoon pretty nicely.

The rest of the week was basically routine. Catriona and I have moved on to pronunciation lessons at the government school, which has led to some pretty hilarious moments. Guiding the kids slowly through 'She sells sea shells on the sea shore' and 'Red lorry, yellow lorry' and other such sayings has been more than a challenge, especially when we discovered that Catriona can't actually say 'Red lorry, yellow lorry' properly. The kids were in hysterics, but I think they realised the importance of pronunciation by the end of the day. Now all I need to do is differentiate between 'Chicks' and 'Cheeks' and I will officially have performed a miracle. We ended the lesson by teaching them a poem, 'A poor life this, if full of care....' which just ended in giggles when the kids reached the word 'squirrels'. Impossible, I fear. One little girl did manage 'SKWERRLS', so we gave her a sticker.

We're in town just for the afternoon to stock up on basics, use the internet and have dinner with some of the other volunteers. Then we're back home for an early-ish night, Sunday is dedicated to beginning our mural project on the classroom walls at New Life. The headmaster is calling for increasingly obscure things to be drawn on the walls (Shield of Tanzania anyone?) so we'll have to see how that turns out.

Lots of love to everyone, and I'll talk to you soon!

- Ruby xxx

p.s - I've written a few letters to my family and friends, I wrote them weeks ago. Sadly, the Post Office in town is a government institution through and through, so finding a day when it's open and functioning properly is a bit of a challenge. I'll keep trying though!