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What a long strange trip it's been. Sometime next week i'm exactly half-way through my time here. Scary stuff.
I haven't been able to blog for quite some time now, (powercuts have been really bad recently) but there's a lot to catch up on.
First up, my housemates and I have left New Life Academy. The school is going through some adminstrative changes, and is closed for all of April, so we've decided to stay full-time at our government school, JK Nyerere. It was difficult saying goodbye, even though it made all the sense in the world, but we're all cheered up by the fact that the two schools are next-door to each other, so i'll still see all my favourite pupils round and about.
With this big change came another, as we'd been living in New Life's orphanage before, when we left the school we had to find a new home! We went house-hunting with our rep Helena which was quite fun, and eventually settle on a tiny but quite sweet little house a short way from JK Nyerere. We had Ben, Tom and Andy, some volunteers from another AV school over at the weekend to help us paint the house as it hadnt been used in quite some time, but all our good intentions basically ended up in a massive paint fight which provideed a bit of entertainment for our new neighbours.
We had one day in our new house to re-arrange the furniture and unpack before we were off on our half-term holiday. My house, and 5 girls from other volunteer houses all set off towards the coast. After a fairly calm coac-ride to Mombo from Arusha, we emerged to the real, rural and basically insane part of Tanzania. We got a Dala-Dala (dilapidated Toyata minivans used as local transport) to the mountain town of Lushoto, made all the more fun by the roaming poultry, crates of flipflops, leaking vat of superglue, bag of rotting fish and 30 or 40 extra people crammed on top of us. The real fun came as the the floor started coming away from the rest of the vehicle, giving us a cheeky glimpse of the engine boiling over as the driver chose 80mph round harepin mountain roads as the best method to get there. Good times.
We arrived in Lushoto and made our way to the lodge we'd booked, only to find the charming English couple who used to run the place had moved on, leaving the new management to turn the lodge into an African Faulty Towels. Interesting to say the least. Still, a hike up to Irente Viewpoint the next morning made it all worthwhile, the view was amazing! We stayed the next morning for the sunday morning market, and after a few quick purchases we were away, heading towards Tanga, a coastal town and the last stop before our final destination, Pangani.
Tanga was definitely another amusing experience, especially since our hotel saw mirrors and toilet paper as 'extras' (though the 5cm shard of glass left on one of the beds did serve quite nicely as a reflective surface) and the restaurant we picked for dinner was run by a crazy man. Everything we tried to order from the menu was met with 'no, no my dear, no time, no time' and he ended up deciding for us. Then we had to wait FOREVER for food, as there'd been some kind of mixup and all the crockery had been locked in the store cupboard, and the key had been lost etc etc etc...
Safe to say it wasn't difficult saying goodbye to Tanga. However, after another interesting Dala-Dala ride, we arrived at the Peponi resort outside of Pangani on the coast. Beautiful! Sandy white beaches and snorkelling galore, this has proved a perfect break from the dusty business of Arusha and it's going to be strange being back in the classroom on Monday with my new and improved tan, facing 78 kids instead of a hammock under some palm trees! Still, I'm actually missing the teaching quite badly, so it won't be the worst in the world.
I think i've safely made up for the lack of blogging recently, and if you're sharpeyed you'll have noticed i'm starting to upload pictures. I've literally taken hundreds, but since it took me 1.5 hours to upload 4 yesterday, you'll understand that it's going to take a while for you to really see what I see!
Missing you all heaps and hope you had a good easter!
- Ruby xxx
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