If anyone is looking for saddled donkeys .....

.....   I know where to find them!  Woohoo.  Donkeys used to be a common sight around and in Arusha.  They were mostly used to bring in the charcoal.  However I believe that the authorities are now clamping down - but to be honest, I'm not 100% sure if they are clamping down on the charcoal or the donkeys, or both.  Never mind, on the way to Usa Campus this morning I saw some around the Impala roundabout and so I promised myself to get back this afternoon to photograph them. 

Our servers were down this morning, so my printout of this week's schedule didn't happen.  Instead I caught one of the school buses over to the Usa Campus.  Third form were in for a treat.  Their usual PE teacher is away for a week, and Carmel had volunteered to teach the classes Yoga.

This is the first time any of the kids have had anything to do with Yoga.  It's my second time - so I wasn't far behind the kids! - but having had a class yesterday, at least I did know what to expect and was ready for them.  The good part was that some of the girls recognised me from Saturday morning's outing to the Leprocy centre and so it helped knowing some of them in each PE class.  Classes were just over an hour, and there was much laughter all round with the exercises they were given. 

After lunch on Mondays is the Lower Primary assembly.  At school assemblies, they start with a prayer, and then the National Anthem is sung with much gusto.  There are a couple of kids on stage with recorders, and some more with drums and at times like this I wished I had a video camera.  Then they sing the school song, and this is accompanied by hand and arm movements.  I thought the National Anthem was loud - the school song outdid it.  It reminded me of our group in Myra, "singing" YMCA (in capitals!!!) with the hand movements.  The assembly takes a while - there are prizes given out for things like being helpful in class, having your homework done correctly, helping others in the playground - all the wonderful stuff in primary school.  The kids line up with their certificates and prizes (usually a few pens or coloured pencils, or a ruler, or an exercise book).  Then there are performances from the dance group, a class debate (this week it was 'Education is better than Money'), a prize for the best behaved class in the entire Lower Primary and then the big finale, which all the kids are waiting for - which coloured house was the winner this week.  We used to have house names for the colours, but they just have the colours - red, yellow, blue and green.  The kids have their house colours as piping in their collars of their tunics and jumpers.  There is even more noise when the winner is announced each week, it's bedlam and enormous fun.

I loved the fact that this girl's feet wouldn't touch the floor for a while - she was in Class 2 something - even though the benches were really low.  Her tunic when she stood would give her a few years growth, and it looked really cute.

 And don't you just love the hair do's?  Talk about easy maintenance, although I think it would take a bit of getting used to sleeping on it all.  As kids, they keep these styles for months on end.

Now a couple of photos from the Usa Campus' PE Yoga lessons - this time with 3rd form.  I am so used to the lower primary kids, that it felt strange to be with older school kids at first.  They can do the 'lotus' stand very easily of course, but this proved a bit more difficult and provided much laughter all round.

With these poses, the girls could do it far easier than the boys, which was quite surprising. 

And just to show that I do talk to adults as well, this is Agnes and her fiance Emmanuel.  Agnes is the dressmaker and the camera proved a wonderful ice breaker.

and finally,  ta da ......   a saddled donkey!!!

Since I still don't have a schedule, I managed to leave school with the kids on one of the school buses - I really did need a photo of the donkey (for one of their book projects) but I also needed to see Agnes, so this worked out perfectly.  I thought I might also get a photo of a veggie mamma but no luck this afternoon with that.  I did get to the fruit stall though before catching a dalla dalla back to school.  I called in to say a brief hi to Gemma and two hours later we were still talking and we didn't realise the time.  She had to cook dinner, and I was due at the Bondi kitchen as well so we'll catch up soon for more exciting possibilities ......

I notice from the comments that I seem to be talking to myself a lot with this blog.  I know 2 people are reading it, so that's good I guess. 

Another weekend, another country

It's hard for me to believe that last weekend I was in Nairobi - it seems like I've lived several lifetimes all in a week.  And it's whizzed by so quickly, and yet it feels like I've been here longer than 6 days.

On Thursday afternoon/evening, we had a really good storm.  We also lost our internet connection - apparently two of the 'batteries' (huge things) powering it all just melted.  So on Friday there was no internet, and no clocks in any of the offices or classrooms.  And it was surprising just how much ground to a halt. 

I think a lot of people really believe the myth of "deepest, darkest Africa".  Yes, it's great for marketing purposes in the tourism industry.  Yes, in parts of this huge continent it probably is true, to a lesser extent than it used to be.  But to realise that so much can ground to a halt because there is no internet or server connection is amazing.  There are a lot of people who would be surprised that "Africans have the internet" and schools in Africa rely on their servers and computers!  Or that primary school kids have homework questions on Microsoft Word.

My schedule was so crammed full that I still had a full day's work on Friday and couldn't take it easy like some of the others in the office could (justifiably).  I spent the morning tracking down some of the teachers and Department Heads for portrait shots.  Then I had a great time in the music class.  Again the same music teacher - Juma - as Thursday but this time he was teaching class 2B the Msewe traditional dance from the Tumbutu tribe in Pemba, Zanzibar.  I was to take photos of him teaching, and after that class I had to take portrait shots.  So I asked him to play the drums because a portrait shot of a music teacher marking exercise books just wouldn't be logical I thought.  Also, he's great on the drums and I love his drumming.  There are about a dozen drums in the classroom - wood and tin bases covered with animal skins and all various sizes.  I could have listened for ages but in the end I had to admit I had the shot!

After lunch I joined the Business Chicks visitors again.  They were over at the Upper Primary school and were helping classes with reading.  It was interesting visiting each of the classes and seeing how the visitors approached the kids differently, and also the different books the kids were reading and being able to be helping with them as well as photographing them.  There was another storm, which started with a heavy hailstorm.  The kids were fascinated with the hail - I gather they are used to rain, but not to hail. 

Upper Primary assembly is held last thing on Friday afternoons.  I was asked to photograph the visitors in front of the assembly and I wasn't surprised when early in the assembly the visitors were going to be asked to go on stage and the mike would be handed around so they could tell the school where they were from etc.  I was surprised to find out that I had to do the same, but to add why I was at the school etc etc etc.  There's nothing quite like standing on a stage in front of about 800 wide eyed kids all glued to you.

Friday nights aren't the same 'live it up' nights because the office staff all work on Saturday mornings (well, they get a Saturday off a month).  I had to be up earlier on Saturday to catch one of the school buses - its first "round" was to collect various local staff members from their scattered homes, and this loop took about an hour, and naturally was quite interesting with all the odd things that happened.  It may also give me a chance to get some of the shots that are on my "list" - a saddled donkey, the winding dirt road, a veggie mum with fruit & vege on her head, goats with a Masai shepherd and a colourful shuka draped across a timber window to name a few.  Just the usual things I'm asked to photograph... Then the bus went to Usa Campus, which is the St. Jude's High School, about a 45 minute drive away from Moshono here.

I was to accompany a busload of the 3rd form girls (the highest grade in the school, so next year will be the first 4th form because the school adds a new grade each year) to help out at the leprocy centre.  I've never been invited to spend a Saturday morning at a leprocy centre before, and I wasn't sure what to expect.  The Upendo Leprocy Home was opened by the local Rotay club in 1997 and about 5 years ago, since the Rotarians couldn't keep it up, the Sisters took over the running of it.  There are only 42 people living there now - a mixture of those with leprocy, some of the families of some of the lepers and some old people.  A young German nun welcomed the group, and immediately assumed that I was the teacher because I was the only white person.  I did look a bit blank when she came up to me and was trying to explain something in halting swahili, and then she was quite surprised to learn that I too was a volunteer at the school, since she was a volunteer at the centre!  So we swapped stories of how we each came to be volunteering.  The girls were split into groups - some cleaning the dispensary, some in the resident's rooms mopping, cleaning and making beds, some in the kitchen annexe sifting through rice and then beans, and some with a fluid group of residents just spending time talking to them.  Even though some are cured of the leprocy, they are still outcasts from their communities, so each of the residents were thrilled that a group of schoolgirls had the time to come to talk with them.  The morning went quickly, and by 2pm I was back at the Moshono school and "home".

I caught the dalla dalla with Sandy (another volunteer) in towards town, because she was going to show me where Agnes' "shop" is.  Agnes is a dressmaker, and some of the fabrics here are wonderful.  As it turned out, Agnes was out of town for the week, so I will endeavour to go back after school one day this week.  I had time for a quick shop for my week's supply of goodies and then had to head back.  We live a relatively short walk after the last dalla dalla Moshono stop, and on the walk back to school/home I wanted to call in to a shop called 'Rafiki Stationery', obviously because of it's name.  I ended up buying a lovely khanga (a 4 metre piece of good quality 100% cotton) - as you do in a stationery shop!

Saturday night we were all going out - the excuse was to celebrate one of the volunteer's x0th birthday.  You know how long it takes to get dressed for a night out?  I'd got back from my outing with about 20 minutes spare.  Then I had to decide just what to wear, and this took ages.  I have 2 skirts.  So would I wear the one I'd been in all day, or would I wear the other one?  Decisions like this can't be made in an instant .....   ditto for the choice of 4 tops.  It nearly did my head in.

We were all meeting at the Waterhole at 6pm were going to head down to Masai Camp for the evening.  Masai Camp is a real mix - it is a campground where some of the overland trucks stay while they are in Arusha, it is also a bar cum restaurant cum pool room cum nightclub (the nightclub part doesn't get going until around midnight).  News went around that the drinks there would be expensive, and when I bought my soda water, I was quite shocked that it cost 1,000/=.  I nearly gave it back, but then thought I'd just have the one.  We are charged 300/= at the Waterhole for the same bottle, so it really was expensive.  Then I had to laugh when I realised that I was in shock at an expensive drink costing 65 cents!!!

A few of us (more 'mature' ones) had only planned to go to be polite really, as we didn't want a late night and we weren't interested in the nightclub part of the evening.  By this stage I was exhausted from my week.  However, we managed to get sidetracked playing pool.  Gemma (the girl who started the school and who I had originally seen on Australian Story on TV when she was on it the first time) had - unusually - come out with us.  She paired up with me to play pool (and yes, for those of you who are sniggering or wondering if I have ever played it - my memories of pool go back to the times we used to visit my Uncle, as he had a pool table).  I tried to look nonchalant rather than surprised each time I pocketed a ball - except for the last shot of our last game when I'd pocketed two balls in succession and then ruined it by pocketing the black ball .....  I'll keep my day job!  (which one?)  We left before the nightclubbers got underway, and back at base Gemma and I continued chatting, so I will be taking her up on the invitation to call in and continue the chats.

And today.  Originally I'd planned on heading into town and checking it out, but most of it is closed on a Sunday and I was bushed.  So we've all had a really relaxing day and so far I haven't even had time to do a few hours photo work and it's really late now so I won't.  I didn't get time during the week.  We've had low cloud cover most of the day - we can see Mt. Meru from our rooms and it has a cover of snow on the top, so I'm hoping for a shot of it clear one day, without its head in the clouds like it usually is.

I think this coming week will be full on as well and I'll find out tomorrow morning what the first draft of my schedule looks like.  Whatever it holds, it will be enormous fun.  This afternoon I also went to my first yoga class.  One of the ladies holds these, apparently a few times each week so I took the opportunity of going.  I should get up earlier during the week and go with one of the walking groups too, but so far I've managed to roll over and be asleep in seconds.

Let's see what this coming week holds ...

Business Chicks on St. Patrick's Day

Now we have our internet again, here's last Thursday's post I had written .....

My rearranged schedule for today revolved around a group of visitors to the school.  This was a group of ‘Business Chicks’ – Australian women who belonged to this organization and there were apparently 12 of them coming, and my “job” was to “photograph the visitors enjoying their time at the school”.   I joked with Emma that I would probably know one of them, and we had a good laugh.  I had no idea where they came from in Australia, I’d never heard of ‘Business Chicks’ and I had assumed that they were all high flying business-women (although I had no idea how I’d know a high flying business-woman!!!).

So off I went to the Visitors Room, to meet them once they arrived.  I scanned the faces but didn’t recognise anyone BUT I was surprised to see a guy in amongst the women.  Kyle is Californian, but currently living in Sydney, and it turned out he was the group co-ordinator.  I won’t go into details of how the group got here, but they had returned to Arusha yesterday after climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and they were still feeling the effects of it all, some more than others.  After various staff members of the school had completed all the introductions, and some of the kids had come in to welcome them with a song and a dance (very cute and they can sing awfully well) we all moved outside.  One of the women came up to me and said she recognised me from somewhere, but couldn’t place where she knew me from.  So much for my joke with Emma!  One of the other girls works for DoCS and is transferring to the Parramatta office …  so late this afternoon the discussion was briefly about Bizlink!

So this morning I joined them for their tour of the school.  I was supposed to have had this on Tuesday morning, but events overtook that part of my schedule.  At least I got a tour in my first week.  I had a couple of other jobs to do while they were on part of the tour, and then this afternoon they went to Class 2B’s music lesson.  The teacher, a burly male, was teaching the kids a traditional dance from Zanzibar.  At school, the kids must speak English (except of course in Kiswahili lessons) and the teacher explained that as well as covering singing and dancing that is popular and current, they still teach them the traditional dances and songs from the various tribes, otherwise it will only take a generation or two to lose them.  And they don’t want these traditions to be lost.  So the teacher was on the drums, after we helped to dress the kids with the right clothing for this dance and the teacher explaining and showing them all the various parts of the dance.  Two of the visitors joined in, which amused the kids no end (and the teacher) and all up it was a wonderful lesson!

We then moved out to help the PE lesson in progress – this time learning how to hit a tennis ball with a racquet and then we all completed a stocktake of all the school clothing – girls tunics, boys shorts and trousers, shirts, jumpers, hats, ties, scarves, shoes, socks and library & washing bags.  This was definitely a case of ‘many hands make light work’.

School finishes at 3:15 and the kids leave on the buses at 3:30.  The visitors had ‘home visits’ organised.  One of the girls had just started to sponsor a child, so she met Naomi and her home visit was to Naomi’s home, so I went with her and another of the visitors.  The rest of the group split up and had other home visits.  The volunteers working in the office said they never get to go on a home visit, so I felt really lucky that it was part of “my job” to cover things like this.

It was really interesting.  Naomi’s mum met her off the bus, along with her 15 month old sister, and we walked through the village and into the compound where Naomi lives.  Imagine a door at the end of a dirt lane, leading into a large cemented common area.  This has washing lines criss-crossing it, and when we arrived there was a lot of washing hanging up.  There were doorways all around, opening up into this common area.  Naomi and her family lived through one of the doorways, which opened straight into one room and a 2nd room led off this.  The rooms were about the size of a small bedroom in Australia.  The first of these rooms is the family room – any furniture like lounges, shelves, chairs, coffee tables are there.  Naomi’s family is obviously well off because they also had a small TV.  The walls are painted all different colours, and they have pictures stuck to the walls.  The next room is the bedroom – this had a wardrobe and a double bed.  The double bed was for her mum & dad and little sister.  Naomi sleeps on a mattress which during the day is propped up against the wall.

Cooking is done out in the common area, over open fires.  Washing the clothes and dishes is also done out here.  I am assuming they must have a communal loo but washing yourself is either done out there also or they bring a bucket of water into the bedroom and wash in there.

We spent a long time there.  Felix came with us to act as translator.  I found it very interesting.  They rent the rooms, and are charged 20,000/= per month per room.  They also buy water, and when it rains they naturally fill every bucket and bowl they can find.  Joyce, Naomi’s mum, wanted to give us ‘tea’.  I was expecting a strong undrinkable sweet brew in plastic cups.  I was taken aback when she opened the cabinet in the first room and out came some beautiful crockery – cup, saucer and bread & butter plate all round, milk jug and sugar bowl.  Another large bowl full of peanuts, and another one filled with small sweet biscuits.  The tea had been brewed and was in a large plastic container.  She came around with a bowl and another jug of warm water so we could wash our hands, and then she poured the tea.  It was delicious, and the aroma and taste triggered a memory which I just couldn’t put a name to (quite frustrating) but I drank it all and ate the nuts that were spooned out for me.  We learnt that Naomi used to go to another state school, but she really wanted to go to St. Jude’s because it is the best school.  Kids have to pass a string of tests to be accepted, and Naomi had to sit for the tests 6 times before she was accepted.  Her mother had given up, but apparently Naomi kept bugging her mum to take her for the tests.  She seems a bright kid, and with such determination I’m sure she’ll go far.  Her parents are very proud of her too.

We eventually left, and the bus dropped the visitors back at the Arusha Hotel in town.  They said this was a very plush hotel, and just looking into the lobby area I’d have to agree.  It costs a couple of hundred dollars per night to stay there!  Definitely a 5 star hotel.  We dropped them off and the traffic back to the school was solid, so it was a long trip back.  Another interesting dinner in the Bondi kitchen rounded off a great day.

How much fun can one have?

Seriously, how much fun is it when all I have to do is take photos all day?  Apart from keeping updated on the schedule's updates of course.

Today I was taking photos of the Lower Primary PE classes and quite a few staff photos - the teachers in their staff rooms.  Apparently they already had photos taken of the staff, but the photos looked either boring or too staged, so I was asked to provide some "human" nice looking staff portraits.  I was also told that generally it is really hard to get photos where the teacher is actually smiling, so when I returned with photos of teachers not only smiling, but laughing, and not all in the same pose everyone was well pleased - me included!

I was also taking photos in two classes - my brief was for photos of the teacher actually teaching, and also the teacher helping the pupils.  I had a ball!  The first class was 5 & 6 year olds and it was a reading class and then they had to draw pictures to represent the emotion 'sad'.  The teacher had drawn a basic face on the board - an oval, with two lines for eyes and an upturned mouth.  Some of the kids just copied this, some stared into space but one little boy had a full person, with shoes on, and another person next to him shooting him - complete with a gun and a heavy line for the bullets.  One of the girls had the face copied from the blackboard but then she continued down with the whole person, with a lovely dress & details and shoes, and then she started to add hair and make-up.  My next class (photo brief) was Kiswahili.  Again I had a ball, and it was great to be involved with the class.

After lunch (more photos and great food) I was to meet with the main girl from the Marketing Department.  She said she had only done a very brief outline of the photos and projects she wanted me to do ....   so we started.  The first project was for images for a children's book that is planned.  I had the outline for the book, page by page, with the story line and then the list of photos required.  They needed good photos because a team of illustrators was going to be using them to illustrate the book.  Some of them were quite easy to organise, but when it came to scenes like 'children walking away in opposite directions looking back & waving, with a dog, a saddled donkey and some goats with a Masai shepherd in the background and all this set with baobab trees along a winding dirt road', I didn't know whether to get really excited or wonder if perhaps the illustration may overshadow the story rather than just illustrate it!  And this was just the first project they wanted me to work on!!!

There were another 15 projects on their list - from this one Department - and so I'd like to know what their full briefing is going to be.  Don't get me wrong - the idea of doing all these photos is wonderful and I'm on a steep learning curve which is great.  Being out and about with a camera all day, with brief periods at my desk to download them before labelling them all and then clearing my SD card and heading out again to do more photos isn't my idea of a hard day.

At the end of the day, some of the volunteers head to the Waterhole, which is just outside the school gates.  Some head to the gym, or to yoga, or Swahili classes - depending on what day it is.  Meal time is generally 7pm for the volunteers - we are grouped into kitchens (hence I'm in the Bondi kitchen) and someone is rostered on to cook each evening for the group in that kitchen.  So you can head up earlier to give them a hand, and then after dinner & cleaning up, everyone disperses.

As well as photographing the PE class on one of the "ovals" today, I also made sure to photograph the wall.  This is the oval for the Lower Primary, and along the entire wall, each section has 2 paintings on it depicting things like the brain, male & female reproductive organs, geographic terms, parts of a computer, kidneys, flowers, human skin, the digestive system, mathematical signs and areas, the human skeleton and so on.  I thought this was amazing - not only the quality of the painting, but the subjects.  The kids see this every day, and even if they don't memorise each painting, they must subconsciously absorb the information.  A very smart idea and I think one well worth copying!

And that was my day.  Tomorrow's schedule has been completely changed.  My first period is now completely free (at the moment anyway) but the rest of the day is packed.  Stay tooned ....   and of course I'll finish up with a few shots from today.



Day 1 ... and 3rd schedule update already

My phone has spat the dummy and died, so waking up to an alarm this morning didn't happen.  As it turned out, I woke too early and then thought I'd just doze.  Ooops, woke at 8:25 and since this is my first morning and I was due in the office at 8:30, it was a haphazard start to the morning.

First on the agenda was a trip into town - for supplies and now a new phone.  We caught one of the school buses part of the way (it was going to Usa Campus) and then a dalla dalla for the rest of the way.  These are the local mini buses, so an interesting ride is always guaranteed.

I bought the cheapest phone I could find - a Nokia 1280 which cost 39,900/= and then 10,000/= for credit.  It sounds expensive, but now I'm going to be using my 15 times table a lot  :-)
We nipped into the bakery to see if they had any bread, and it turned out to be an internet cafe cum bakery.  There were a few people, including whites, there with their laptops.  Then a masai guy came in, wearing his African reboks (for those who don't know, these are sandals made out of old car & truck tyres).  I noticed that he wasn't wearing any ear decorations, although he did have his ear lobe hole large enough to fit an old Kodak film canister in.  The bit that made me smile though was when he pulled his laptop out from under his blanket and sat down to open it up.  How times have changed.

A quick trip to two supermarkets - and I came out with two packets of local sao type biscuits, and 2 cartons of fruit juice.  I nearly laughed when I saw packets of McVities PLAIN chocolate digestives!  I bought some fruit at a roadside stall and that was my stock up on 'goodies'.  There is plenty of coke and fanta, but no diet drinks so I'm going to be splurging at the waterhole and other drinking spots on soda water!

Back to school - and it was already lunch time.  Emma gave me my schedule, and this has already changed again, but it looks like I'll be kept very busy.  Office staff work a 5.5 day week, and on Saturday morning I was scheduled for editing time for the photos.  Them Emma asked if I wanted to go with Form 3 to a Leprocy Centre, since they were going to help out.  So naturally I said yes.  It will be an interesting morning methinks.  There goes the editing time, but there is always nights.

This afternoon my schedule said I would be meeting with the marketing department, but they were out somewhere.  Then I was supposed to join a Visitors group who were being shown around the school (well, the 2 parts of this Moshono Campus) but I ended up photographing the activities out in one of the large playgrounds.  Combined prep classes had afternoon activities - a mixture of ball games, "tennis" but just with tennis balls, skipping and ten pin bowls.  This was played with 10 large water bottles, filled with water (the pins) and a soccer ball (the bowling ball) and I went from group to group, photographing and helping out.

The school tour for me didn't happen, and then at 3:30 I went with one of the school buses on their afternoon run to drop the kids off.  This seemed to go quickly, but the return trip took 1.5 hours.  Interesting to see the rural areas and the kids would have an awfully long walk if they didn't have the luxury of school buses.  As it is, the bus collects the ones who live furthest away at 7am in the mornings (on this particular run), and they get home at 5pm so its a long day for such young kids.  They had their homework papers out and today's homework was
1.  List the 4 steps to opening Microsoft Word program
2.  Explain the functions of the following keys - shift, delete etc etc
3.  How do you shut down a computer
and the other question was something to do about fonts.  And these kids are in 3rd class in primary school - in Tanzania!!!

I'll just put a couple of photos from this afternoon, to keep up the habit and to make up for not taking a single photo yesterday .....





Arriving at school

I'm now at The School of St. Jude, just out of Arusha, in Tanzania.  For those who are not familiar with it, their website (in need of updating apparently) is
http://www.schoolofstjude.co.tz/

The Riverside shuttle bus - a Toyota mini bus, quite comfortable, left on time at 8am this morning from across the road to the hotel I was staying in.  I was expecting what I remember to be a "typical African journey", ie, a very long, hot & dusty trip with a bus full of people, luggage, chickens, boxes etc etc etc.

How wrong I was.  The bus wasn't full, my seat was comfortable - and I was sitting right up the front, so my view was perfect.  We had a bit of traffic getting out of Nairobi since it was peak hour traffic and then we carried on along a road that was tarred.  In places though, they were still building the road (it won't be too long before there is a continuous road, in great condition, between Nairobi and Arusha at least) so there were detours along dirt roads.  One stretch was along seriously rutted road which was busy in both directions.  It was dusty and there were a mix of people pulling platforms of jerry cans, pushbikes, motorbikes (the pillion seat had 5 crates piled high, all held on by a single cord), cars, vans, mini buses and trucks.  Some of the mini buses and buses have "names" on the destination panel above the windscreen, and I just had to smile when one called "Terror Surprise" tried to overtake a truck&trailer and then realised there was a heap of traffic and he just couldn't squeeze through.

We had a loo/drink stop where there were the usual assortment of items also for sale, and then a very quick border crossing at Namanga which took just over half an hour.  This was really quick.  Anne - there was a Guerba truck (!!) arriving at the border, and we'd been tagging a Dragoman truck heading south as well.

The tarred road continued on the Tanzanian side - and we arrived in Arusha just after 1pm.  I was expecting to arrive closer to 4pm.  The Arusha I remember was a small one horse town.  The Arusha of today has mushroomed, and I will be seeing the town centre tomorrow.  But with the road the way it was, the thought of riding a motorbike across Africa soon will be easy.

The only animals today were cattle, goats (with their Masai herdsmen), donkeys and a camel - not an elephant in sight.  And my cameras stayed tucked away all day.

This afternoon, I had a brief tour of both parts of the campus I'm at - Moshono Campus.  I met some of the volunteers and staff.  Tomorrow I'll be updated on my schedule, and will be meeting with the people from the Marketing Department as well.  I'll also be going into town, and maybe over to the Usa Campus to see what it's like over there.  It sounds like I'll be extremely busy for the time I'm working here.  I have a desk and computer in the office section!  There is wifi connection so they've organised my laptop to connect to that as well.

My room is far bigger than I thought it would be.  It has a double bed, lounge, huge open shelving area, coffee table, bedside table and an ensuite with loo, shower and handbasin.  And still lots of free space to walk around.  The block that it's in has been dubbed "Bondi".  I've had dinner upstairs in the Bondi kitchen with the other volunteers working here and who are in the Bondi block.

So, that's it for today.  It's full on from tomorrow .....

A Weekend in Nairobi

Whatever country we're in, I enjoy actually reading the menus in the cafes or restaurants (if there is a menu) and also visiting a local supermarket, just to see what's on offer, and how much it costs.  This of course is rather meaningless unless you know the scale of wages, but I find it interesting still.  And just talking to people.

So after the drive into town on Friday afternoon, I decided to try the restaurant in the hotel.  It's called Sokoni, which means marketplace in kiswahili (as some of you would know) and the smells coming from it were mouth-watering.  They have an open kitchen, which works really well.  Pictures and artefacts on walls and shelves, as well as 2 huge large-screen TVs and a normal size TV.

There are tables out on the balcony.  This in itself is not unusual.  But there is no doorway to the balcony, just a window opening, so to get to the tables you literally climb out the window!  No wonder the waitresses are not wearing skirts.  Last night it was quite comical to see a couple come in (they were white, I think Eastern European) and to watch their faces as it dawned on them how to get to their table ....

So, to the menu as by this time I was quite peckish, and the aromas were wonderful from the open kitchen.  They called entrees "Bitings".  Comical at first reading, but you can understand why.  They had the usual chips, chicken wings etc but I decided to give the "fried chicken gizzards or goat liver", at 200/= for a small serving (about $2-50) and 300/= for a large serving ($3-75).  The smells weren't tempting enough for me to try the Grilled mbuzi (goat ribs), delicately marinated either.  I was in a boring mood I guess.  The Chef's Salad was an interesting mix of lettuce, onion, tomato, spaghetti and croutons.  I ended up with a delicious spiced lamb stir fry, vegetables and chipati which was filling and delicious, and cost all of $4-35!

The wines for sale, bottles only, ranged from 800 - 1200/= and I thought that they're good on the marketing because the 1200/= bottles "include bottle with bead work - treasure as a momento of Kenya" (the same bottles are 720/= in the Nakumatt Supermarket).  No, I haven't tried the wine or bought a bottle.

So, yesterday morning after breakfast I headed off down to the Thorn Tree Cafe.  Anne, remember when we were here last together?  The New Stanley Hotel is now the Sarova Stanley, "THE" hotel in town by the look of it.  Plush to the n-th degree.  The Thorn Tree Cafe is still there, and I remembered the huge thorn tree where travellers used to pin notices up for fellow travellers, or asking for travelling companions or advice.  I was more than surprised to see a skinny, tall sapling there and the waitress said that since our visit, they're on to their third tree.  The good news is that they will ALWAYS have a tree there, but now the notices are on boards all around the tree.  I had to have a coffee there - in Kenya, you can't go past a good coffee and a pot of coffee, with refills if required, in this hotel was 300/= ($3-75).

Then I went to the open air markets - as well as the city markets, they have a weekend market in the large carpark area of the Law Courts behind City Square.  I spent a few hours here as it was great to have the time, and just to be able to wander around, look at everything and talk to some of the people.  Leanne, some of the hand made items for sale reminded me of you when we were in Unity Square in Harare last.  And of course that led to thoughts of the customs guy at Sydey airport and "show and tell".

Yesterday I went to the supermarket to check it all out.  So a litre of milk is 78/= (almost a dollar), a loaf of sliced white bread the size we have in Australia is 52/=, a 17kg bucket of Vegetable Cooking fat is 2600/=.  I'm not sure which surprised me the most, the price of about $32-50 or the size of the bucket!

I learnt today that an average office worker (not a Manager) would earn about 30,000/= per month, and most young people and married couples can afford to rent an apartment on their own.  Rich people buy houses.

Today, being Sunday, the streets were largely deserted and in the morning, all of the shops were closed.  The exception to this is the Nakumatt Supermarket, which never closes.  Seriously.  I went down to the main Catholic church in town.  It's a large church, fantastic stained glass "wall" behind the pulpit area.  The church is so large inside that they have TV screens on either side so the people at the back of the congregation can see what's going on.  One service finished, and the next service was starting and I'm sure the church would be full again.  I don't know how many services they have on a Sunday morning, nor if one is in kiswahili and one in English.

Then I went out to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and elephant orphanage.  Fantastic.  I never get bored watching elephants - they were wonderful.  Then to the Giraffe Centre, to see the Rothschild Giraffes.  This is in Karen, an area of Nairobi most of you would know from the Karen Blixen books and it looks towards the Ngong Hills.  Some of the houses in the area were unbelievable - it would be great to see inside them and their grounds.

In keeping with seeing the outskirts of Nairobi, I got a taxi driver this afternoon to drive around some really different parts of Nairobi.  We went through the area where all the Embassies are and he showed me a boys school in Levington.  St. Marys School has 800 boys, and in the last few years they have girls in the top two years as well.  I'm sure the boys would love that!  The school is huge, the grounds amazing and the 2 swimming pools looked good enough to try out.  Then we drove to the other side of town, to Woodly Estate.  At first this sounded like it could be a really rich area, but entering the area it was like the most extreme contrast you could imagine from the school.  Rough dirt roads, real shanty town with people everywhere, "basic" shops and tin shacks which were both shop and housing.  If you haven't been to Africa, I don't think you could imagine it.  The front part of Woodly Estate was much better - the taxi driver seemed to think that the shanty part of this has sprung up in the last few years but I wasn't sure - as the front part was on a good main road, with service station and a shopping centre which looked really good.  Such a contrast to a block or two back.  Houses and apartments were around the shopping area.  Then we drove back into town and it only took a few kms to be back into a really rich area - the areas change so quickly.

I am still amazed at the way the city is so clean.  A couple of years ago the people running the city decided to really clean it up.  Smoking out on the streets is banned, and there is a fine of 50,000/= if you are caught smoking.  There are a couple of the Public Smoking Centres I mentioned and also some designated areas where you can smoke without being fined.

So that's my weekend.  Tomorrow is Monday, so I'm off to school ...  The bus is scheduled to leave here at 8am, and depending on how the border crossing goes, we should be in Arusha by 3pm and Emma from the school will be meeting me there.  Stay tooned!!!

So, from yesterday at the open air markets, some of the bangles made by Jenny - fascinating to watch her make them

and some bags

Some of the masai women stallholders, making items and then selling - or hoping to anyway

Kenyatta Avenue is Nairobi's main street, and some of the trees are wonderful

Playtime this morning

And a Rothschild called Karen.  Not after me, but after the suburb of Nairobi I'd say

The very low key 'entrance' to the school this afternoon.  This was at the back of the school, which seemed odd, but it was right next to the bus bay, so I guess it made sense.  From the school, I would have thought they'd have a really fancy entrance, but ...

and to remind me that I used to swim, I couldn't resist adding a photo of part of the pools at the school

And that's it.  If anyone is interested in more really 'cute' elephant photos, let me know!  They're still my favourite.