Moving in for Christmas

Once again, It’s been a long while since I wrote anything down. I will write briefly about my first week and weekend back, and then try and go into more detail about the progress of the house.

When I arrived back, and I’m fairly sure this was on a Thursday, I was exhausted. Delighted to be back though, and greeted warmly by the staff and volunteers, I hung out with them in the house for a few hours. That evening it was social night. A lot of people were surprised to see me, so I caught up with them, and introduced myself to new volunteers, too. I was happy to be back though!

Remember when I wrote about Jen going on Safari and becoming ill on her first day? If not, go back a few posts and catch up! Anyway, since Jen’s first attempt at Safari hadn’t gone so well, she’d been dying to do another one ever since. It was her last chance to go that weekend, so I decided to go with her. I wasn’t completely sure on whether to go or not, as I wasn’t comfortable spending $500+ on something which I had done the previous year. Oh well, it worked out great, and we had a fantastic time. Aside from our Safari truck being a bit worn down, it worked out great. A mixed group, with characters from the states, Brazil, Russia and the UK made for an enjoyable and extremely interesting weekend. My personal highlight of the Safari was coming face to face with a huge elephant after using the toilet in the Ngorongoro campsite. You can ask me about that when you next see me!

Before leaving for Safari on the weekend, I popped into the school on Friday morning. None of the teachers had a clue that I was coming back. I quickly walked past the baby classrooms, hoping that none of the kids would call my name out. I entered the gate, crouched down and snuck past the office and another classroom, before jumping in the door of my class and shouting ‘BOO!’ Teacher Samson and Assa jumped out of their skin, and so did the children. But once they realised it was me, they all bounced out of their seats and ran towards me, shouting ‘Teacher Zaci!’ It was a lovely feeling, I’d been waiting for it for a couple of weeks at least! It’s also got to be the most amount of children I’ve ever had hugging me at once. I told them to sit down, and then went and did similar things in the other classrooms. I didn’t get as big as a response in the others, but everybody was still happy to see me. I was more than happy to see them, too. I forgot to mention, that before all of this happened I bumped into Mama Mary on the way to school. As I walked through the village, and weaved through the new buildings, I saw three ladies walking with buckets on their heads. I wondered if one of them could be Mama Mary. It turns out that it was. I don’t think she noticed me at first, but one of the ladies that she was with, notified her that I was there. She turned, dropped her bucket and ran towards me, gave me a message hug and said ‘Karibu sana manangu’ which means, ‘you’re welcome my son’. She followed up with, ‘Pole Sana’ ‘I’m so sorry’, in a deep and sorrowful tone. She was referring to the loss of my Grandmother, and I appreciated that she had remembered. Everybody said that to me that day actually, even the children at the school. It still saddens me so much that now I don’t even want to carry on writing. I will though.

A lot has happened since then, so I’m going to have to breeze through most of it. The following Saturday, Jen left Arusha to go back to Canada. It was a rough day, as she really didn’t want to go, and was worrying a lot if she was making a mistake about it. I comforted her for most of it, but saying good bye at the airport was hard. I went out that night to try and chill out a bit, I can’t remember exactly what I did.

The next week was a busy one regarding the house. I paid out a lot of money, probably around one million Tanzanian shillings across the whole week. This allowed the builders to buy the majority of the materials needed to finish off the inside of the house. I visited most days, and checked up on everything. It was amazing how quickly it all came together. After the walls had been plastered and the floor cemented, it really started to look like a home. Seeing the children run around in their new house gave me real joy! When this was all going on, I was trying to avoid going to school and teaching, as I was feeling pretty run down and didn’t have the energy to deal with it. There’s still a lot of politics going on too involving the sponsorship program and I really don’t want to be involved in it, although the past few days it has been pretty hard to get away from.

After the builders finishing plastering the walls, then applied jepsam. I’m not sure about the translation into English but the texture is really similar to filler. They apply it onto the walls because the way they plaster isn’t good enough to paint over afterwards. When it was ready to start painting, I gathered a couple of people who were willing to come and help me do some work on the house. A couple of girls from Switzerland, Melina and Sarah, were happy to help, and we had a good day working on the house. First, we sanded down the jepsam to make sure the walls were all smooth, and then applied a base coat, and then applied the first layer of colour on to the two main rooms. Before we got there, I had to go and buy the paint, which turned out to be much more hassle than I had expected, and also way more expensive. I went for good quality paint, and the colour is described as ice green. It’s a lovely colour, and it makes the house feel very cool when it’s hot. But, when the children are running around, and touching the walls all of the time, it’s really noticeable when it gets dirty. Another small issue is that I think it attracts the flies, there’s so many in there at the moment and they are always on the walls, I’m not sure if it’s the colour, or just the new paint. Hopefully it’s the paint because I don’t want them to stick around. It was a lovely day though, and Mama Mary was happy to have us around, and to cook for us too. We had rice with spices, she’s a very good cook!

The swiss girls weren’t available again, as they went off to Zanzibar for Christmas, so on Saturday, I asked a couple of the TVE volunteers if they would like to help me come and do some work. Melissa, one of the girls who came along, is interested in doing a similar project herself, so she was more than happy to come along and get a feel for how things work, and how much it all costs, too! That day, we finished off the second coat of the two main rooms, sanded down the third room, and applied a base coat, then a first coat of colour. I couldn’t have asked for much more from the girls, they both worked hard, and we finished all the things I had wanted to that day. Once again, Mama Mary cooked for us. This time, it was rice, beans and spices. It was lovely, but I’ve been passing quite a lot of wind since! I tried to explain to Mama Mary today, that when I give her money for food, she isn’t to buy and eat it all at once, but better to cook little bits at a time. So that the food lasts for longer, and the kids don’t get completely full and then are starving the next day without any food. It’s hard getting through sometimes, she’s very passive, and to be honest, not the brightest spark, but still a lovely lady. Something that’s also caught my attention recently is that Mary (Mama Mary’s eldest daughter) really doesn’t help out much around the house, and is hardly ever there to look after her own daughter. Instead, she leaves Brightness with Mama Mary or the other daughters to look after. It’s very unfair, Mama Mary has enough on her plate let alone having to look after another child most of the time. I’m going to meet with Elius soon and talk to Mary about it. I’m not sure how well it will go down but she really needs to accept the fact that she has a child and that she needs to be there all of the time to look after it.

The day before painting the house with Melissa and Antonia, it was the children’s Christmas party. The plan was for them all to have a big meal, and then go to the snake park, where they can look at all of the snakes found in Africa, and ride a camel too! Elius asked me for a donation towards the food budget about a week prior to this, but after finding out that he had already had a $1000 donation from the states, towards the food and the trip, I backed out. I was pissed off that he had tried to scam me, but I didn’t let it get to me too much. What really upset me though, was when I turned up to the school on Friday morning, and he hadn’t even bought enough food for all of the kids to eat well. Instead of 42kg’s of rice, there were only 15, and instead of 20kg’s of meat, there were only seven. No fruit, no soda’s and about half of everything else on the budget meant the children weren’t going to get a decent meal. After meeting with Elius, and trying to rack his brains about where this $1000 had gone, I gave up. I was sick of listening to him go on and on and on about other subjects, so I ended up walking out. I’m not going to go into that stuff too much, it’s not very pleasant. One more thing that annoyed me, was that Elius’ children came to the school that day. When the food was being prepared in the kitchen, they were in there eating meat and potatoes, and then when the food was served to the teachers, they each helped themselves first to a massive portion, and took three seats. No respect for their elders, and despicable manners of tucking in first without offering to the teachers really pissed me off. The food was meant to be for the children! They are the ones who need to eat more than anybody else there. Argh.  Anyway, after that was all over, we headed to the snake park. Poor organisation and dodgy transport made what should have been a relatively short trip turn into a really long one. The kids loved it though, and they were going crazy when the guide brought a snake out for them each to put around their necks. I loved it too, I really like snakes, and I rarely get to hold one. I asked the guy about where to go if I wanted one for a pet here, and he told me. I might go and check it out soon!

Finally, after getting all of the kids on a camel ride for cheap, we managed to head back to the school. Lucy Cottee, the wonderful girl she is, raised enough money for all of the kids to have a backpack each with stationary inside as a Christmas present. Aubree, who runs Walk in love Tanzania had a lot to do with this, and I thank her for it too! The aim was to hand the bags out that same day, and get pictures of the kids with their new school bags, but by the time we got back from the snake park, it was already dark. I handed out as many as I could, whilst Elius freaked out about the children’s parents wondering where they were, before I was stopped and told that I would have to give the rest out on Monday morning. It was a shame really, because it was the teachers and managers fault that this happened. I asked earlier on in the day if I should give them out before lunch but they all refused and said it would be a good idea. Nothing makes sense in Tanzania, everything is backwards. Honestly, having common sense here is a rarity. On the way home, the Dalla broke down in the middle of the slum in the pitch black. We waited for a while, whilst the driver poured water into the radiator which had overheated. I was worried about the children walking home from the road on their own whilst it was dark, but they all know the score, and got themselves home safe! Adam (a friend who I’ll talk more about in a moment) and I, waited with Neepa (one of the teachers) in town for her Dalla, as she was afraid to wait alone in the dark. It was the first time that I’ve ever walked anywhere in the city centre when it’s been dark. It’s notoriously dangerous at times, but it doesn’t half give you an adrenaline kick walking through there. The chaos, noise and energy of the city adds to the experience! I didn’t do anything that night, I was so tired, and I knew I had a busy day on Saturday so I just went straight to bed.

About a week and a half ago, I left TVE and the volunteer house and moved into my own place. I spoke to Aubree, and asked her if she might know anywhere which is vacant. She told me about the compound she lives in, and that there’s an apartment which was becoming vacant soon. I grabbed a number from her for a guy called Michael, who owns the apartment and the compound! I met Michael in a bar a few days later, and we got along very well. We agreed on $200 for a month, which for here is quite expensive, but compared to home it’s an absolute bargain. I’m living in a place called Moshono now, which is a little way out of town, but I love it. My apartment is great too, small and cosy with a double bed, seating area, kitchen and bathroom. With a HOT shower might I add, quite the thing to have around these parts. The people who I’m living with are great too. Aubree and Jason her husband live just across from my place, so I go over quite often and chat to them about how things are going on, have dinner and beers etc. Michael, the owner of the compound, also has his own safari company called Access2Tanzania, and runs an NGO called Project Zawadi. Project Zawadi started quite some years ago now in a village which I don’t remember the name of, all the way over near the Mwanza region. It started with just a few street kids, but has now grown and sponsors over five hundred children to go to school. It’s an amazing organisation. Adam, who I mentioned earlier is the first child from Project Zawadi to have gone to university and graduated. He’s extremely bright, and his story is amazing. Being around those sort of people is a real honour. If you think your lives have been hard so far, you should listen to theirs! They all play football too, but unfortunately at 6am every morning. I find it really hard to get up that early at the moment, especially with not being so well for the past week or so. I’m not really sure what’s up, just had a dodgy stomach and generally feeling very tired. Maybe it’s a worm, I should probably go and get a tablet. The football isn’t the highest level I’ve ever played, but it’s still football and I enjoy it!

Today, I played football in the morning, and then went down to Mama Mary’s to meet the builders. I needed to pay some money out, and explain to them what I needed doing before tomorrow. I wanted the third room to have its final coat, and for them to start painting the black paint around the bottom of the walls. Kiara agreed, and cracked on. I was meant to be going to Mwanza region for Christmas with Stanley, but due to Mama Mary being my main priority, I decided to stay in Arusha so that I could make sure she and the children are in their new house before Christmas on Tuesday. I’m going down tomorrow morning, to help hand out backpacks, and then will be doing some work on the house, and hopefully moving Mama Mary and the kids across. It’s going to be a big day, but I’m up for it. When I went to the house today, I saw a familiar face peeking through the sheet metal used to cover the area which they cook in. It looked to me as if it were the father, who you all know that I’m not very fond of. I asked Agripina, and she told me that it was her grandfather and that he lived nearby. I wasn’t convinced, and when I heard her talking about it to her Mum, I knew something was up. I played ignorant though, as I don’t want to cause any trouble. If he is there tomorrow, then something will have to be done about it. A drunk father who abandons his wife and children doesn’t deserve the home that they have.

On Monday morning, and just in time for Christmas, I moved Mama Mary and her family into their new home. I had a very stressful morning, but in the end it turned out great. Trying to get cash to pay the builders that morning was a nightmare. A jam packed Arusha city centre and about a queue of five people minimum and each and every ATM turned my morning into a bit of a nightmare. I managed though, and eventually I was on my way down to Swahilini with the cash I needed to pay the builder for the last time. The day before, I’d popped down to the house and to meet Kiara, so I could explain what I wanted and what needed doing before the next day so I could move them in. I arranged to give him the cash that I owed him for the finishing’s on Monday. When I arrived on Monday, Kiara and Elius were already there at the house. Kiara was finishing little things off, and Elius was just having a look around.

Moving all of the furniture over from the old house was quite interesting. After taking the beds and couches out, I really got to see how bad the old house was. Light poured through big holes of the walls in the bedroom, and the floor was covered in garbage. Cockroaches ran around everywhere, it all just became pretty gross. The foam used as mattresses was covered in mould, and I couldn’t quite believe what the children had been sleeping on. Underneath the second bed, where the four elder children sleep, were breeze blocks and little scraps of foam. I knew that they were poor, but I didn’t realise that the children were sleeping in such poor conditions, it made me very sad. It won’t be a problem for too much longer though, as I’m going to buy them a new bunk bed, so that they will be much more comfortable! By the time we’d sorted all of that out, and moved Mama Mary and the children into the new house, everybody was ecstatic. Mama Mary and Kiara, who is also a preacher, sang and danced for a good fifteen minutes. First they sang and made their own music, and then Mama Mary put the radio on and the children, Mama and I danced around the house for a while. I haven’t been particularly happy since my Grandma passed away, but this was a moment which really made me feel good. To see right in front of me what I’d achieved was unbelievable. Until now, I’ve never set my mind to something and finished it. There are still things to do at the house, but the main thing is that they are moved in, and they are happy. I’m so proud. I think it's the best Christmas present which any family could ever wish for. 

I’ve since had a relatively eventual Christmas break, which has involved drinking a lot of alcohol, and I’m only just about recovering. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be travelling to Mombassa to meet some close friends and celebrate the New Year. Then, my mother and her husband Terry will be arriving in Arusha on the 4^th of January for a couple of weeks, to have their honeymoon. It’s going to be a great two weeks or so, and I will be quite busy. But I will try to post once I’m back from Mombassa! 

A journey cut short.

I think the last time I blogged, I ended with me returning home from my trip to Uganda. If I remember correctly that was on a Wednesday. The following day, I decided to go into placement for a little while. Every day at school, and after the children’s ten o’clock playtime, the teachers and volunteers sit down together to drink tea and eat mandazi. Mandazi is a local food often eaten in the mornings for breakfast or for a mid-morning snack. It’s essentially fried dough. It’s really good, but very sweet, and hardly ever agrees with my indigestion problems. I get over it though, and eat it anyway, it would be rude not to. And I like it. That day, after tea and mandazi, I was asked into the office by Stevie the manager, and Vicky, the director’s wife. I knew exactly why I had been pulled in. It was something to do with the meeting/confrontation that I had arranged the week before. Remember about the sponsored children being sent home from school? Anyway, it was like being back at school for me. I was told off for supposedly gathering wrong information from untrustworthy sources (ironic coming from them don’t you think!), for not realising that the simple solution to what happened was a confusion with language and a difference between cultures, for not taking my teaching seriously enough, and for not spending enough time at the school. The point about teaching was fair enough to be honest, I really hadn’t been doing enough. But I still didn’t like hearing it. I managed to bite my tongue though, and just take it all on the chin. After the meeting I cracked on with some teaching. Amanda and I spent a good hour or so trying to teach the students how to do fractions. We used practical things such as paper, which we made into the shape of pizza’s or ciapati. Ciapati is another African food commonly eaten alongside lentils and vegetables. It’s thinly fried bread, and looks like a pancake but it’s got a different taste and they are much more filling. We tried to use these to help the kids to understand, but we didn’t really get anywhere. A few of the children, the brightest ones in the class I guess, picked it up pretty quickly. I stayed until about 2pm that day and then headed home for some lunch and a needed lie down.

A few other volunteers, including Harriet, a lovely girl from the UK, and Jennica left for Safari on Friday morning. I said goodbye to them and wished them a good trip. Lauren, Matt and I had planned that weekend to visit the Pare Mountains, but due to the weather being so bad, we decided not to go. In November, it’s the light rainy season in Tanzania. It was strange how they started exactly on the 1^st, and the rain didn’t stop for a good four days or so. The Pare Mountains would have been lovely. It was a trip that I did last year, but I felt like I hadn’t stayed there long enough, and that I would prefer to do some other activities which are available there. However, with the rains being so heavy during the night, and unpredictable in the day time, it just wasn’t worth it, it would have been miserable, and dangerous, too.

On Friday night I got a text from Harriet telling me that Jennica hadn’t been very well throughout their first day of Safari, and that it had continued through the night. I was worried of course, but Harriet assured be that she would be fine. The next morning, before heading out to do some things in town, I got a call from Nancy (our house manager) saying that Jen was so ill that she had been taken into hospital. I got stuff together, and headed straight there. I won’t go into detail of this weekend. One because it was pretty boring, and two because I’m sure Jen wouldn’t want me to expose some of those details online. I spent most of the weekend in hospital with her, and she was home again on Sunday afternoon. Still not feeling very well, she needed a good week at least to recover.

The next week was fairly unproductive regarding the building of the house. I hadn’t put any money into the project since I got back from Uganda, and had spent most of my time trying to figure out if I had been getting ripped off or not. One afternoon I met a lady called Aubree, who is from the states, and has her own NGO in Arusha, which aims to get local mothers into starting their own businesses, to make them self-sustainable. I told her how much I had spent on the house so far, and she was a little surprised at how much I had been paying. So it got me thinking, which got me looking into things a little more. My best option to try and sus out if they were ripping me off or not, was talking to the ladies who run the volunteer organisation in Tanzania, who are called Nelly and Angella. I trust them both, and they both are well connected in the area. Nelly’s husband’s work is closely linked to the building. It’s on a larger scale than the house I’m doing, but his knowledge was useful when trying to find out if I had been paying more than I should for building materials. Surprisingly, it turns out that the builders estimations were spot on, regarding the prices of materials, but he was adding on quite a bit each time to the labour charge. Nelly asked me if I would like her to call the builder for me, so she could try to bargain with him, and persuade him to knock off some of the labour charge. Thankfully, she was successful and managed to save me about £100! Very happy with myself, I headed down to the school to pay what else I owed to the builder.

That Friday, it was Shelley and Christina’s last day at the school. Last days are always fun, but they can be a bit emotional for people too! Shelley and Christina were well organised. It was very kind of them to buy each child some chocolate, and some of the kids even got special presents too. That same day, Shelley and I had arranged to take two of the kids to a boxing class after school. Edward, who is in class two is a big fan of having little pretend boxing matches, and Pius in class three is just as into it! We thought that it would be a nice idea to take them to go and do something special before Shelley left. They were both pretty excited when we were leaving, not many of them get to leave the village very often and see the city. Before we left, we asked one of the teachers to ask if they had brought any shorts or trainers like they were told to, but neither of them owned a pair. It’s seeing things like that first hand that really make you think about how we take everything for granted. Remember when we used to get in trouble for not bringing PE shorts? These poor kids’ families can’t even provide anything of the sort. It’s unfair. Because of this, Shelley and I took Edward and Pius to the market beforehand, so that we could buy them a pair of trainers each and some shorts. It took a while to get a decent price on the trainers, and I got pretty pissed off when they were still trying to rip us off even though they could clearly see that we were buying these things for their own people. So after getting a good price on the trainers, and then having to pay a little more expected on the shorts, we headed to Sakina, which is where the boxing gym is, and also very close to where I live too. The kids were so excited to be there. It makes you feel good seeing the joy in their faces, especially the fact that it’s down to you! Edwardi was a little hesitant to put his new shorts on when we arrived, which was because he didn’t have any underwear on. He was so embarrassed, but I gave him a hand with it and we got there in the end. The boxing trainer was twenty minutes late or so, which was a little annoying as we had to keep Edward and Pius distracted. It was also hard to stop them from climbing on, and trying to use the weights. They were enjoying themselves though. The trainer turned up eventually, and did an hour or so of practice with them. They were both great, and thrived on every minute of it. Pius was especially good, his left hook was surprisingly strong and consistent, a little concerning for a child of his age. I think I’m going to take them again soon, Pius could actually turn out to be a good boxer, and maybe one day he could have his own gym too! That’s certainly a project that I’d love to get involved in. It definitely wouldn’t be for a few years though.

That evening Shelley was having a meal at the Blue Herrin for her leaving do. After getting the kids Samosa’s from the shop, and then heading back to Swahilini to drop them both off, I got home pretty late. I showered quickly, and then was picked up in a taxi with some volunteers from the other house. The meal was lovely, and not too badly priced either. I ate too much though, and was so full by the end of it. I chatted with Colin for most of the night, and another guy called Chris. But I occasionally spoke to Shelley too. Emily, a girl from Birmingham was on good form that night, and alongside Shelley, neither of them stopped taking the piss out of me. The ripped on the shirt I was wearing, which I admit was a bit obnoxious and weird, (I think it’s wicked), they ripped on my accent and they also made fun of my hair cut. I don’t mind it though really, I can take the piss out of myself so it never bothers me too much. I decided not to go out and headed home early that night.

I booked my ticket for the bus to Dar es Salaam a few couple of days before Shelley’s last night. I booked it for Saturday morning, planned to spend two nights in Dar es Salaam with my good friend Stanley, and then head to Zanzibar on Monday morning. The bus left at 5.45 am, so I was a bit all over the place when I left. I slept for the start of the trip, then something dawned on me. I had forgotten my passport, and driving license. When I left in the morning, I thought about taking them, but didn’t think that I would need them. That’s how tired I must have been. You need your passport to get into Zanzibar so you can show your Visa, and I needed my licence because I wanted to rent a vespa once I got to the island. I panicked a little, and at the stop for lunch, I nearly paid money to jump back on a bus to Arusha. I decided not to though, and carried on towards Dar. We arrived in good time, I think it was about 3pm. I was speaking to people from Arusha on the phone, and trying to work out the best way of getting my details over. Aaron had a smart idea of photocopying everything, and using that to get across. I wasn’t too sure, but it was the best option I had. Turns out it worked fine!

Stanley picked me up from the bus station, and then we drove in his father’s car, but with another driver, back to his home which is about an hour outside of the city. First, we drove straight to where his football team had just finished training. I was welcomed warmly by his team, who referred to me as ‘jembe langu’, which means ‘my friend’ or ‘dude’. Stanley asked me to introduce myself. I was a bit nervous of standing in front of the whole team and talking to them in English whilst Stanley translated. I told them how I’d met Stanley last year playing football, and how we had remained close friends. The team were playing in their first final the following day, and were organising where they would meet beforehand to eat, and relax to get themselves prepared. I decided that I would donate 30,000tsh, which is about fifteen pounds  towards the food, so that they could all eat well before the game. They went a bit crazy, applauded me and then all headed off home to rest.

After that we went Stanley’s home, and I was greeted warmly by his father, who told me that this was my home whenever I needed it. It was an absolute honour to be welcomed in to a Tanzanian’s house like this. Stanley had told him about me, and about the work I was doing too. His father was much appreciative. Stanley did a tour of the house for me, which is pretty big for a Tanzanian family. Stanley’s father owns his own tour company which runs tours abroad in Egypt, Israel and other predominantly Islamic countries. Pretty much what I’m saying is that he does alright for himself! Stanley showed me his room, and then showed me to my room. It’s hard to describe how I was feeling. For the first time really since I’d visited Tanzania, I felt like I was living like a real local. I didn’t really want to leave, I was loving it. I had a cold bucket shower, which added to the experience, and then joined Stanley and his family for dinner. Previously, Stan had introduced me to his elder brother, who was incredibly quiet, and also his cook. I’ve forgotten both of their names which is really bad! We sat in his lounge, and watched the news. When dinner was ready, Stanley’s father got up first and served himself food. Next, I was invited to eat, then Stanley’s elder brother, followed by Stanley, and then the cook and a young boy who I believe was Stanley’s nephew. We are very well. There was rice, stewed beef, beans, cabbage, avocado and tomatoes. Stanley and I had gone to the shop an hour before or something to get some fizzy drinks to go with dinner, so I washed my food down with a Fanta. After dinner I was exhausted, it had been a very long day. I went to bed at around nine, and passed out pretty much straight away. It’s much hotter in Dar than in Arusha, so I was surprised that I slept so easily.

The next morning I told Stanley that I’d like to play some football. We walked to the main road and rented bicycles, then cycled to the same pitch where his team were training the day before. Unfortunately we were a little late and the guys had already finished. Most of them were dripping with sweat and it looked like they’d had a pretty hard work out. I was a little bit relieved that I hadn’t joined in to be honest. Stanley and I took the bicycles back to the rental shop, and then walked back to his house. His father was heading into town, and had agreed to drop us at the main village closest to their house which I think was called Unga Unga. There was an internet café there where I could print off my passport and driving license photocopies. After all that was done, we went and got some food. Chips Mayai is my favourite Tanzanian dish, so we went to a place which served that. Chips Mayai is like an omelette with chips in it! It’s so good, and really cheap too. I’m always a bit sketched out about eating from small restaurants like that but my stomach had adjusted a lot more than last year, so I didn’t worry too much. After finishing, we took a Dalla back to Stanley’s house, dropped off my photocopies and then walked to meet his team. Once again I was greeted warmly by his team mates, and thanked by all of them for donating towards the food. I introduced myself to most of them, and then had a little kick around with a few of them too. It was nice to have a relaxed kick, it had been a while since I felt so chilled out. Soon after, the food was ready. I helped serve some of it, and then sat down on the football we were kicking around to eat. My donation had gone towards loads of rice, beef and tomatoes. Unfortunately, it hadn’t gone as far to buy some cutlery so I ate with my hands, like a real African. Very unsanitary I know, and I’m blaming this on my stomach being really bad for a couple of days after that. We waited around for a while. Lots of the guys would come up to me and speak to me in Swahili, and when I wasn’t able to understand so I had to turn to Stanley for help with translating. A lot of them had really good senses of humour, and although we didn’t really understand each other, we still had a laugh.  A couple of hours passed, and it was time for Stanley’s team to get ready and go to the game. Once they were ready, I took some pictures of the team in the tangerine kits. The bus arrived to take them, and there was a lot of fighting over who would get a seat. I didn’t get on in time, but somebody was pushed off a seat and I was told to go and sit down. The bus ride was fun, but quite uncomfortable.

Once we arrived, Stanley and his team took to warming up straight away, and I stayed on the side lines with some guys from his village. I remember one character really clearly, his name was Abdul, and was easily the least committed muslim I’ve ever met. I bought some cigarettes, took some pictures of Stan’s team, and then watched the game. The first half was a bit of a scrappy affair, but Stanley’s team still had the majority of the possession, and had created some good chances. Unfortunately though, they conceded about ten minutes before half time, and due to some poor defending, they left the field 1-0 down after forty five minutes. All of the players looked pretty unhappy during the team talk, and I was surprised not to hear much input of encouragement from other members of the side. Stanley was substituted about ten minutes into the second half, and I have no idea why. He was playing well, and was the one who was creating most of the opportunities. He was understandably unhappy about being subbed off, but who wouldn’t!? The game ended 1-0, and Stanley’s team were pretty devastated when they came off. They were pretty unfortunate, but the opponents number nine was a quality player and caused their defence a lot of trouble.

After the game there were some celebrations, and in this case the trophy was in the form of a goat. The winners received two goats, and the runners up, one goat. Seeing the celebrations was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. A large crowd of people gathered around and began to sing and dance, whilst holding up the goats to the sky in victory. I laughed a lot at the huge difference between cultures. Imagine seeing that in the UK? You’d probably get arrested. Remember I said about Abdul being the least committed muslim ever? As a joke he kept trying to put his penis into the goats mouth.

Stanley’s team, others from the village and I waited about half an hour on the street corner before we found a lift home. There were too many of us to take dalla dalla’s, so we waved down a big dump truck and all climbed in the back. I clung on for my life for most of the trip whilst this truck belted it down the road at what felt like about 140kph. Luckily, we got there safely. We ate dinner, which was the same food, organised what time we would leave in the morning, and then went to bed.

The next couple of days I spent on Zanzibar island, which was nice whilst it lasted. Unfortunately I got a call from my mother on Tuesday telling me that my Grandmother had deteriorated extremely quickly over the past few days and that it would be good for me to come home. I got home on Friday morning, and managed to say goodbye before she passed away on Saturday. The next week is a bit of a blur, and I don’t want to go into it.

Right now, I’m back in Arusha, where I want to be, and where my Grandmother would have wanted me to be. I will be continuing with The House that Zac Built project on Wednesday. I am thoroughly looking forward to the next month or so!