Week 5 at School

Some questions I (Peter) have been asked

What are the best/worst bits so far?

Best: the people.

Worst: not knowing Swahili. I am learning slowly, and Denise & I have even started lessons with some others at the school.  The most frustrating thing is being in town to get the shopping done as quickly as possible and work out where you are going next and somebody says something in Swahili.  I am not thinking Swahili, so it takes me a while to get into Swahili mode.

How is your work going?

Work is very basic.  You receive all the orders for the day, get some TZS (Tanzanian money) from the school Bursar, get driven to town on a school bus, find the right shops, buy whatever it is you need, bring it all back to the correct campus, write up what was purchased and balance money (the hardest part), return excess cash, then start all over again for the next day.

There are plenty of opportunities for improvement.

For those reading the online blog, there is more if you click on the Read more>> button below.

My day usually begins by listening to the 2pm (7am here) 4QR news. Then it's time to get up, have breakfast and off to work (30 second walk).

DANGER!!

Just outside our room and right above the laundry is a very big avocado tree.  Now is the time when avocados ripen and you guessed it, drop off the tree.  It is quite a regular occurrence to hear an avocado hitting the ground with a thud or even better hitting the tin roof of the laundry with an almighty crash.  It is even more exciting in the middle of the night when one hits the tin roof.  Everybody is waiting to see who will be the first person to get hit by one.  I can imagine it will hurt and probably cause some damage.

Relaxation

We spent the long weekend (Thursday to Monday) in Zanzibar.  It was nice, but the place we chose was away from other places, so we were stuck there with not too much to do apart from eat, drink, swim, walk along the beach and sleep.  We did go to Stone Town and a spice farm which were both interesting in their own ways, even to me (Peter).  If we go back to Zanzibar again we will stay closer to Stone Town.

Looking from one side of the dining room to the other

No it's not a waterfall, it was raining.

 Looking from the bar beside the pool (behind me)

 Freddie Mercury was born here - Stone Town, Zanzibar.

 This was our bed, and the girls who decorated it.

 Looking at the pool bar, from the main bar.

The view to the left of the previous pic

Request

For all those thinking of coming over, give us your dates as we are trying to plan our own trips.  Things like safari, Kilimanjaro, Gorillas.  The Christmas / New Year period is high on our agenda as we are thinking of Istanbul and surrounds, but if we were to go we need to start looking at flights and accommodation.  If you want ground content in Tanzania, let us know as we are starting to make some contacts here.

Until next week.