Having been here a couple of weeks now, I must say I feel well intergrated into life here at Waamuzi school. I love my students. I must say they have very demanding days that can challenge that of any B.A student! The school have implemented a new English programme, which should work out to be pretty effective giving thestudents a chance to practice their English as well as public speaking.

I willl be helping them as much as i can as quite a few of them ( mainly the girls) speak barely any English!The first of the English presentation was by Nasra (17) who chose to talk about her tribe 'Haya' mainly hailing from Burundi, Lake Victoria and Uganda.

With the help of my Lonely Planet book featuring abit about my various Tanzanian tribes, it was a walk in the park....or so I thought.

Nasra asked one of the other students to help her do a 'Haya' dance but he refused as he was from the South African Ngozi tribe. Although I persuaded him it does not matter, he didnt want to and was probably more concerned with having to dance in front of the class.

The English presentation of Nasra's tribe then fuelled into a debate of as one girl challenged her by asking her 'why do people from Haya practice prostitution when they are so well educated?' O.k .....I wasn't that prepared for this part.....Guess thats what I get for asking any questions!

I was then asked by one of my students Michael what tribe I came from....'errrmmm...sorry Mike , don't have a clue'!

House Lady??

One of the things that I am usually against is having a house lady. I just feel like as black people have we not learnt from slavery?? However , having discussed this with some of my students they disagreed as said it was an opportunity for poorer people to work. I guess they have a point.

In England we manage to have families and still cook so why can;t everybody else??

Well, today we were introduced to Tegemea ( our new house lady) - which means to expect/reliable in Swahili.
She's only 19 , but it just makes me really just how lucky i was at that age, I didn't even have to think about preparing my own meal let alone anybody elses!!

She cooked us our favourite meal soo far...as we don't have gas, all cookings down outside. She made us chipsi mayai ( chips and eggs mixed together) I absolutely love it!! This kinda stuff is a treat!

As for the living conditions, so far, we have electricity 4 hours a day 7pm-11pm. the keys times we need it, me and Stacey rush to charge everything we have!! Phones, camcorder, mp3's u name it its in the socket!
We get water delivered from the water truck daily and collect it with a bucket and thats our shower for the day.
So there you go , no light switch to switch on or tap to run,but I quite like it this way.
The squatt toilet is a bit annoying but some things u just gotta deal with 'eh......this is what i signed up for..........

When we first arrived at the school, which is basically in the middle of nowhere just of Morogoro Road, 10km into a village. I felt like I was really in Africa, I was seeing mudhuts , people carrying buckets of water on their head, kids stopping and staring as they're seeing a new face.

Teaching is hard, I won't lie, thought it would be of a walk in the park, from the planning to the teaching itself, all abit stressful !! My lessons are 1.5 hours a time , just when I think the work I have prepared with suffice, I still have like 30 mins left...what to do ...?? Play hangman!!!! Plus kids love it. Some of the kids here in Tanzania, have really different names, one of my favourites so far is called Fortunatus, another is called Panicrass and another Godliving.

My first lesson was daunting, I walked in the class to see 40+ children , all with shaved heads staring back at me. Quite scary!! Got them to introduce themselves and write a paragraph about themselves to get a feel for their level of English. I can clearly see that they range from all different levels just in the first hour, as some can barely say their name. By the end of the lesson everything was cool and they even asked me to join them for lunch.

So far, food looks like this - ugali  ( maize floor and water - which just looks like a mass of cloud!!) with beans. This is all the kids eat every day also, not the most exciting, is it really!!!! If they wana switch it up we get makonde, which is again (maize and bean stew) -eeeek...but thats about as exciting as it gets!

Africa!!!

This is the one place I've been desperate to visit, since God knows when. My dream came true on January 25th 2010. Whilst travelling , I always believe in doing something productive rather than just backpacking. So I volunteered with Lattitude Global Voluntering to teach in Tanzania. My placement was in a boarding school not to far from Dar es Salaam. Judy, our in counttry rep met us out the airport.

I began to wonder whether coming to Africa was a mistake when we rocked up at the YMCA, where we would be staying and saw the state of it. OH MY WORD. And what was the one thing that I forgot - BED SHEETS. i wanted to scream. I was sharing a room with Rachael. A lovely girl from Birmingham , who was really chilled out and put me at ease, so it was cool.

We went on a mini orientation to Kariakoo market, which was absolutely hectic. Walking around by myself I probably would be able to fit in fairly well , but walking with 13 Caucasians I was just greeted with the sounds of ' MZUNGU' ( swahili for white person/foreigner).

During our orientation we were encouraged to buy kangas and kitenges ( materials of African print which usually read a message in Swahili). We were encouraged to wear these whilst teaching.

A few days after, our Host mother/Director of a school came to collect us from the YMCA. She greeted us with a lovely hug. For the next 5 months, I was going to be working alongside Stacey (21, Australia) and Simon (22,U.K) at Waamuzi Secondary school, Kongowe. May the journey begin....

Maria la Gorda

For one of my last weeks in CUBA, my favourite place in the world. One of my friends suggested visiting Maria La Gorda (which translates as Maria the fat girl), in the far west of Cuba. When she said we'd have to hitchike to get there for some of it, I was a bit apprehensive. The LONELY PLANET described it as having loads of crabs on the beach and very secluded. We got a maquina ( taxi, used by locals) which costed arund 50 cuc ( as there were four us, we chipped in around 12/13 each), which took us near Vinales, and we had to hike around 40 mins on a bumpy road. Luckily, my friend Rosie had a contact for someone who was renting rooms on the beach, the sun was setting as we arrived and dead crabs were in sight! We were fortunate enough to findsome men who had just finished fishing and were kind enough to give us their fish, which the lady in our casa cooked for us. It was phenomenal, fresh fish straight the sea. I was attacked by mosquitos most of the time whch was absolutely horrid. Huge bumps covered my legs as I awoke the next morning. Lazing on the beach was the best part, quite daunting having to go back home where good weather and fresh food are not in abundance! Finding our way back home the next day was hard, we ended up in a random town as we got a truck to take us to the closest place to Havana. We ended up staying at a random casa. In Spanish, casa means house of course, however, as only some houses are allowed to hire out rooms, they are referred to as a casa particular. This is usually indicated on the doors of houses, orange triangles mean you can only rent to Cubans, blue triangles mean you can rent to foreigners.

Maria la Gorda

Maria la Gorda translates as MARIA THE FAT GIRL, and sits in the far east of Cuba. I was a little aprehensive about going to MLG as it involved hiking or pedir un raite as they say in Cuba. This is often encouraged within Cuba, as a communist society, it's a way of helping others out. I was rest assured by my friend Rosie, it'll be fine.



Lonely Planet says MLG is full of crabs, which it was , but they were mostly dead. On arrival, we were lucky enough to be befriended by locals who had caught some huge fish and gave us one. In our casa particular (which we hired on the beach) the owner of the casa cooked it for us! It was so nice to have fresh food!

The beach was stunning; sand so white and water so clear. The pic above was of a turtle head , which the locals mentioned they had to get rid off. The Cuban government get quite suspicious of certain possessions that Cubans have. They could be easily arrested for something like having a turtle head. As silly as it sounds! Cubans also shouldn't have beef in their homes as all the cows belong to Fidel. Lobster is also something fishermen should not have in their possession!

We ended up hitchhiking back to Havana. Here we are...Rosie and I in the back of a truck. Hitchhiking is common here in Socialist Cuba.

Whilst we were waiting on another ride, we saw these two women processing sugar cane. My fave!

Here we are in the back of another truck with some locals...heading over to Havana. I love the Cuban way of life. Communism has taught me so much. You really feel the comraderie here. Everyone is watching out for one another!

Cu'a!

One of the first experiences which triggered my love for travel was a study abroad trip to Cuba.  It sounds cliche but I really learnt so much in terms of the restrictions communism brings.  I had an arrangement at a homestay or casa particular, as they call it near Plaza de La Revolucion.  MY mum flew out with me and we stayed with my host mum for 25cuc ( about 25 USD) a night. It was a very basic room, and my mother and I had to share a bed. Most homestays provide breakfast and dinner, but not lunch. I found my host mum a little mean to be honest and there was no maternal instinct and she stated she didn't want children, which is fine, but you coulD tell she was all about the money. I remember her feeding her husband chicken and rice and feeding me mash and vegetables, for 25cuc that's a cheek.  I decid I had to get out and leave, so at the Universidad de La Habana, I decided to ask if they knew of a room elsewhere.  Luckily, I got somewhere else in Centro Hanana, which was much better. I lived with a lady called Delbis whose son worked in Venezuela and her niece and daughter in law lived there too; Yannis and Orquidea. They were quite happy to stay at home and cook, clean, etc. From the university, I walked to Infanta y San Lazaro and was greeted with open arms...these women were to become my family!  My first weekend there, we had some visitors around, I wasn't paying much attention....until someone said 'Viennen Los inspectadores'. Apparently, when it comes to casa particulares, landlords have a hard time as the government restricts most things. They cannot rent more than one room, and if they do, they need permission. I was not too sure of all the restrictions until I asked Delbis if I could use the Internet, two women were sat down and I thought they were visitors. Delbis, didn't answer and had a stern look which is not really like her. I was slightly confused. I left the house and decided to go to Hotel Nacional which is around 5cuc for half an hour. Pricey! When I got back to Delbis, that's when she explained it was the inspectors and that Internet is also prohibited in Cuban houses. She had to pay them 250cuc so that they wouldnt take away her license. I felt so bad,. Apparently they even checked her fridge for beef! Also, not allowed. It's all a bit of propaganda really if you think about it. Real shame. Fidel doesn't want them to be exposed to anything from the outside world which could corrupt their minds and dedication to the Cuban Revolution. Later, I spoke to my mum in England and told her what happened. She said she has a feeling the previous lady I lived with Mercadita set it up...which made absolute sense as she asked where I was staying next and asked for the address as she apparently had to inform immigration where I'd be moving to next. It made me think...think my mum was right!