Mar 2007

So, a lot of very little makes a lot of little sense, right?

No updates for a while because very little to tell that is exciting, and actually been pretty busy working.

So we left Arusha to our temporary residence at the 'Meserani Snake Park' (search google if you must) and pitched our tents in a good spot for the following few weeks. Not as established as our wooden bomas in Eluai, but the holes and mosquitoes made up for that.

It's a very nice place, full of green (not dusty like most of the country), it has a bar which is pretty cheap, the snake park is awesome, and feeding a Black Mamba or a rock Python is something worth doing. Although if you do have a Spitting Black Cobra rearing at you when you are about to ut in a few live chicks for lunch, don't be too alarmed, it'll only blind you given half a chance.

And how many people can say they play with Striped Hyenas? I'll tell you, exactly 24. No questions or arguements, that's it and always will be, unless I change my mind. Anyhoo, Fezzy is great fun, and reasonably tame, only leaving me with a few small cuts and grazes after our playful scraps.

Bird watching - I like it. Sad, I know, but it's true. I like birds. and here there are so many. We are doing a survey and already have over 35 species of bird, just at the camp! And no, mum, I doubt I will be as interested in England - british birds are crap in comparison. Sucky old england and it's sucky old birds. Rant over, Tanzania is much more inspiring than England as a natural wonder, a chameleon falling on you when you're eating dinner is a bit cooler than looking at the sheep from your bedroom window. Even the cows here are cooler - they've got humps. And there are camels here.

Back to what's going on now...

The main thing we are doing here is working at the nearby school. My job: Computer Fundi (Mechanic). Mikey and I have worked at rebuilding PCs, connecting the school to the interenet, and basically improving all aspects of the IT side at 'Kituo cha Elimu Meserani'. Others are teaching Maths, English, Art, and we have Conor teaching Spanish and Julius teaching French which are both new to the school's curriculum.

It's not as satisfying as Eluia would have been, but the impact we are making is very positive. I've just been working with a few others on a Environmental lecture for the locals.

Dave and Jinks have gone into Arusha to try and get a bit more of the next project arranged. We will be testing it in 2 weeks if all goes to plan, when we will leave Meserani to Manyara.

There are other silly stories, like the Konyagi attack on Saturday (Konyagi is basically te only spirit Tanzania makes). Long story short: drink, forget, sick, bed, hangover, hangover, hangover. Ah well. For £2.00 a litre you can't really complain.

Of course there are other things going on - a few of us a putting together a python skelington for the park, and we are still learning Maa from Nguvu and Isaya, but I do sometimes feel like I miss out things that go on and have been going on. I think I'll write them all down and go on a random blog rant in a few days or so.

Hope you aren't disappointed that little is going on. We all are a bit, I guess, as we miss Eluai etc, but I have had so many awesome experiences that I try not to be down for long about it.

Something else a bit random, I'm only 6 weeks into my travels, and I'm planning what else to do, like go to Spain for a week and stay with cousin Ed, get Josh to get me a Leeds ticket, see what Alex means when he emails asking when we are in Viet Nam and how he might 'drop in'??? Only time will tell...

I'm off now - lunch, and you've guessed it: rice and veg sauce. I like it, everyone else complains. Losers.

Good bye-tch!