Mombo Vipi (How are things)

I have Changed my Blog Address

I changed my blog host as I was having issues with tumblr and blogger has some better functions like being able to comment etc.

So the new address is:

http://gumbygeckosimon.blogspot.com/

All are welcome….

Snow Capped Meru

After a two a two week dry spell which I am told is a long time, it has been raining for 48hrs. Solid spurts at a time anyway. The kind where you find your self up to your knees in water one minute then twenty minutes later it has all disappeared. The great part of the rain was that it gave Meru a snow cap which has looked ‘Alp’ like for the last couple of days.

The president dissolved Tanzanian government a few days ago. As I hear very little local news I only learned that this morning. I understand he was funneling money out of the country in the Billions and now the government owe an NGO a large sum of money. A few of the vollies are worried that it might turn into Kenya but given that the ruling party has an approval rate of 98% I think we should be ok.

I had my first Tanzanian engagement party on the weekend. An American guy who works at St Jude is marrying a local massai girl. The ceremony was at her house where they put on goat and of course coke cola. The ceremony it’s self was quite funy. He had to stand up in front of everybody and state his ‘business’ to her father. Then he played a game of African modified hide and seek where he had to find Mary (Bride) who was hiding. The highlight for me was when the MC was telling Rob (Groom) that ‘You have been like a cheetah or a lion on a kill and now you have got your fresh meat’. It was completely wrong on so many levels. Good fun and that was just the engagement party.

I visited an orphanage which is located right next to the Arusha tip about 30min drive from the school. There are 31 kids there with two sisters looking after them. 9 of the kids come to st judes the rest attend local schools. They range in age from 4 – 17. The st judes kids who live out there are so happy in and out of school and really enjoyed showing us around explaining how they cook and clean them selves etc. They are all from varying circumstances from being abandoned by their parents to both parents dying form what ever illness or disease they obtained. There are many kids from orphanages at the school but I would never be able to pick which ones.

I went to my first rugby training on Thursday and then again last night. The field is almost on the exact opposite side of Arusha from me.  I got a Dulla Dulla in to town where a Dutch guy who plays picks me up to go out there. The field is part of this sporting country club complex owned by an American which is amazing. Good bunch of blokes of a varying back ground. A few Tanzanians, a lot of long term expats, some 2^nd generation Tanzanians and some blow in’s like my self. Is good fun to go out and have some male company and get out of st judes. Moshi have pulled out this year so there is only two teams in Tanzania Dar es Salam and Arusha. That is a bigger bus trip than Moree to Qurindi or Bathurst to Naramine.

The African Cup of Nations Semis have been played and it is an Egypt Cameroon Final which was disappointing as I would have like it to be Ghana Ivory Coast. I don’t think any wants to see Egypt win again.

Only have half a day today and then we are sending kids home at lunch to write exams. Then they are taking all of the Moshono (my campus) staff over to the brand new campus at Usa River for drinks and a meal. I am looking forward to the staff football game which apparently always gets very competitive, not to unlike the kids really.

Until next time.

Almost a month…

It is hard to believe that I have been here for almost a month now. Am well into the routine of school now. The kids are great! They are all very engaging and keen to participate at all times which is certainly a refreshing change. They are extremely competitive which regularly results in arguments no matter the game. They turn out in what ever sought of PE uniform they can throw together which is often no shoes and for many of the younger girls I think what is probably their underwear. It is so dusty that anything so they do not get their treasured uniform dirty is fine. I finish the day with an inch of dust all over me, and a fair bit in the lungs. Australia day was celebrated with a BBQ (coal fired) and picnic in the ‘vollie’ house which was attended by all not just the Australians. The festivities moved to the Waterhole (the bar just out of the school gates) and a good messy night endured. Have also been getting in to the African Cup of Nations (Soccer) which is almost into the quarter final stages. The waterhole which is no more than a shack has now got pay tv so they are showing all of the matches. I sit and watch the games with the locals with whom all bar one or two our only common language is sport. Is great fun though. Unfortunately Tanzania failed to qualify so I have adopted Mali as my team. Everyone is football mad which always makes for an easy conversation, “Who do you follow?’. I have that phrase in Swahili down pat. Weekends have revolved around getting into town to stock up for the week as it is a bit of an effort to go in during the week after school. We have a kitty for dinners which means I only have to cook once a week and it covers bread for the morning and snacks. Costs around $10 a week. You only need to buy cereal milk etc. Lunches at the school are pretty basic like rice and beans, rice and meat, rice and veges, ugalli (maze and water, looks deceivingly like mash potato) and beans, but is all very eatable. Once you have done a shop it has been good to chill out for a bit and usually go out for a meal on Saturday and Friday night somewhere in town. Some places you can walk to and have walked all the way into Arusha once which takes about an hour, but you would not walk anywhere at night (except to the Waterhole). Anyways I will try to make another blog entry soon as there is so much to tell but will save you all a bit of time today.

Tanzanian Phone Number…. This one actually works

So it turns out the number on a sim card does not actually mean it is the real number for your sim card. So here is the real number…

+255753885588

 Should work

Tanzanian Number

Had to buy a new phone as my Aussie one would not accept Tanz sims. My old number still works but if anyone so needed to call me then this is your cheaper bet.

+255783371794

First Week

Well have been here a week and half now and it certainly feels a lot longer than that.The first week of teaching went really well. Still feeling my way through the younger age group, what they have done in the past and how much English they understand (50% Standard 1 class’s understand none which is certainly a challenge). The school seems to be in full swing this week with all class’s running as usual. The highlight of the week was teaching a standard 7 class which is like year 6. There is one boy who towers of all others. When enquiring into the age of certain class members most were either 10, 11 with a few 12 year olds. Pues (the bowheimouths name) responded a few decibels lower than the rest and said 17, soon to be 18.Went out for a good meal on Friday night with all of the ‘volunteer’s’ and a few of the executives from the teaching side of things which was good.

Did a bit of exploring through Arusha on Saturday with a couple of others, had a meal and a spot of grocery shopping. Back into a sports bar that night to watch some football (Soccer for you Australian’s) as everyone is completely mad about it hear. There is a bar no more than twenty meters from the front of the school and probably less as the crow flies from my bedroom (Nicole’s flying fox into the Salisbury comes to mind). Is no more than a shack but was set up as a retreat for the western staff by Gemma’s husband but locals use it too. Upon our return we discovered that the Waterhole (as the shack is called) now has pay TV. This is great as there is always football on the TV there now, but hopefully it means that we still get out of the St Jude’s vicinity. 

 Anyways this blogging thing is about trying to keep it short so will cut it off there and try to update regularly. There is a link to my photos above if you wish to see some. Not many yet but they are ever increasing.

From the cradle of Life

This was my first and hopefully now last generic email that i sent if you did not recieve it. 

Mombo,

Well has certainly been a whirl wind few days since leaving Sydney. Especially after finding out about the election problems in Kenya just before I left. So here is a brief run down.

I flew straight to Jo’berg where somehow Derrick (a South African I lived with in England) after a few sms’s as a line of communication met me at the airport. Stayed one night with him in Pretoria and then was back down to Jo’berg Int Airport to fly to Nairobi the next morning.

After many mixed reports on what the situation was like in Kenya some saying they are not targeting tourists while others asked why the f%*k are you going up there, do you want to die, I decided to go through Nairobi. The flight was maybe 1/3 full as most had decided not come and most on the flight were catching connectors to Kilimanjaro Airport rather than go into Nairobi which was not what I wanted to hear. A friend from Negs was on the flight also on her honeymoon which was good to be able to jokes about the situation but they were meeting a tour group to escort them into town.

The up side to the whole thing was I had three seats to my self and when we went through customs there was like two people in the line. I haggled for the taxi and jumped in with the name and address of the hotel and the knowledge there was a protest scheduled for today in the CBD. After hitting the third road block into the CBD and maybe the 4th smoldering car with locals smashing them with sticks the driver decided he was going back to the airport, some after some persuasion he took me on a long drive through the outskirts to attack the CBD from another angle which was a success and I got to my hotel. Nairobi was a ghost town at maybe 2pm when I arrived until the next morning. I did go for a tentative wander with two English guys where we saw a few riot squads breaking up groups, one with tear gas, many arrests and a press conference but I stayed in the bar for most of the day, watching it all unfold on TV.

The bus to Arusha (Tanzania) left from the across the road the next morning which was good, but as we drove out all seemed to be back to normal, and I think it has continued to improve since. The bus ride was great as I still had not seen much country side. The African boarder crossing was quite fun and as the bus got further into Tanzania the outlines of Kilimanjaro and Meru started to become more and more prominent. No wildlife on the way down with the exception of Massai’s herds of cattle, goats and donkey’s.

Two people for the school met me at the bus and took me out to the school. All of the stories and pictures I have seen can not do the place justice and that was just the first impression of the original Moshono campus. Over the next few days when I got out to Moshono’s boarding campus (1km from the academi9c and original) and the Usa River campus (30min drive) which both are still under construction despite school starting today at both, they just blew me away. These two campuses are phenomenal. There are huge for one, and rather than  doing the old Australian tradition of lets throw up some demountables and see how we go, these are both permanent campuses, in Usa Rivers case brand new ready to start with 300 k-6 on Tuesday and eventually maybe 800 k-12 in the future of which at least half will board.

My room is allot better than I expected, big bedroom with an ensuite and a decent sized sitting room all to me. Then there is a communal kitchen area. There is also a bur just out the front of the school gates (100m walk form my room) which Gemma’s husband owns and set up which is a good little hangout for a beer or just to watch some TV. There are range of people my age maybe 5 or 6 and then a range of people quite a bit older but all are friendly and mostly aussie.

 Have had a couple of nights out sampling a few bars which has been good fun, a couple of nice local hangouts around Moshono and then a few further in to Arusha. Last night we went to a place that is a mechanic garage by day and serves the most amazing chicken at night.

On Sunday we went out to some Massai markets out of Arusha and then
dropped into one of the guards villages on the way back. His family
still lives the traditional Massai life so we took a goat as a present
which we bought at the markets for like $25.

The guards, drivers and gardeners which are called fundi’s are all really friendly and fun although most speak little English so I have been going through crash courses in Kiswahili which has been fun, esp. when you test it on the guards.

Had a staff day yesterday which I spent organising PE equipment to go to the new campus and reorganising stuff here. I am teaching at the original campus, Moshono, and will have each class once a week for practical. There is no Syllabus for PE as Tanz do not usually run it. Which is great as I get to create my own program, but also bad as I have to create a program from scratch. Started school today which was weird after seeing the school without kids for a few days to suddenly have an invasion today. It was all over the place but I got to teach a couple of classes which was fun but spent most of the day writing names on the Standard 1 (Kindi) books which was funny. 50% of the standard 1 class’s did not come thought the pre school so most can’t speak English, have maybe seen whites a handful of times and have never had much structure so they are pretty wild.

Anyways I know I said brief and I hate writing these generic emails to everyone but I think I could keep writing for hours. I am going to start a blogg to avoid these emails. Once I get my laptop up and running you will not hear the end of me.

Hope all is well with every one.
Until next time

Simon or those any of those other names you may wish to refer to me as.