Long time, no write

Hi all, hope you didn't pine ni my absence! Last week Singida had no internet, possibly because we watched a truck back into a telephone pole, we're not sure!

So a two week update... My memory sucks so I've brought my diary in to get more details!

So Monday we had our fundis (builders) over for a meal which was really really great. It's a nice way to thank people for their friendship. The fundis are mostly nice, but there's a real thing about asking for gifts. There's only one funi who hasn't asked for anything from us, Salimu, so we bought him and his family some gifts for being such a good friend. He's the friendliest guy you'll ever meet and his wife is so beautiful! Their children have excellent genes! Anyway, so with 7 fundis and Mr Brown (the head fundi and our everything) there were 13 of us, luckily since we only have 13 spoons and Jen made an amazing soup! Afterwards we had a bow and arrow shooting competition which they all loved, we're all still kids really. It was dark out so we cracked out our head torches and they did quite well. However, no one can beat my average that night! I had one go, in the dark, and hit the tree dead centre straight on. I quit right away to maintain my 100% rating!

Tuesday was our last day at school so we made up a quiz with 30 questions and had 30 prizes, and exercise book, pen and ruler for each kid who got a right answer and then lollies for the rest. It went down a treat and then they sang the national anthem for us! It was incredibly moving and I'll probably force you all to watch the video!

Wednesday we went to Helima's, she's one of our chai ladies, and got served pasta!!! It was exciting because it wasn't rice and beans! The excitement for the day was when she was showing us their bee hives and disturbed the bees somehow so they went completely mental and chased us all back to the house. I got stung on the back of my neck when the poor bee got stuck in my hair, but Jane got stung on the cheek and had a really extreme reaction! She swelled up so badly! Looked like she'd gained weight on one side of her face only. Lots of "Pole sana" from the locals for days!

Thursday was very eventful! First Mike and I managed to break Jane's bike on the way to the kioski for sodas, the back wheel bent as we went over a bump so we (by which I mean Mike) had to carry the bike back to camp, luckily not far away. So he went off with Issa (our adopted 15 year old) and Mr Brown to find the repairman, who was at the pub! He said it would be a very expensive fix... 2000 shilingi. Can't do the maths? That NZ$2.50. Very expensive. It's kind of impossible to spend a lot of money here!

Thursday night was cheza cheza, which is impossible to explain really. We get called out of camp by the older women who dance for us and then dance with us, they give us their kangas to wear and the instruments and we have a good old jig! It's amazing, so much more amazing than I can describe here!

Then there's a party at camp, which is cool but also strange. Lots of people come that we don't know and some people we know only get let in because we say they were invited. It's fun, but the dancing can be dangerous, some of the local guys are a bit aggressive. Like visiting a night club but without bouncers :P Still there are some great guys who look out for us! Salimu (mentioned abave as the awesomest fundi ever) and Issa are both protective of us and there is an absolutely beautiful deaf boy here who saved me from one particularly insistent dancer. He's lovely, just so sweet!

Friday we headed to Singida for Jane and Anne Marie's last day in town. We went out for dinner with HAPA and the new volunteers. Anne Marie, who was determined not to be hung over for the bus ride, got rather drunk and decided we were all going dancing at the dodgy club here. We obediently did so, danced crazy for a good part of the night. I was sober (I had rather a big Thursday night and thought my head might not agree with more alcohol) but when everyone else is drunk you still get to dance crazy :) We taxied home around 1, a good decision it turned out. There was a peace corp group there too and one of the girls got mugged. A group of locals caught the thief and beat him up, possibly killed him. So we probably won't be going back there again.

So home to Singida with our new volunteers, Alex from England and Jordi from Holland. Both very nice, fitting in well. They got tested right away when we got a flat tire on our way in to Mvae! Very quickly fixed by our driver David and finally home for a quiet night in.

Sunday was mass and then chicken killing time! I killed me a rooster named Alex (named before we knew the volunteer, it was purely coincidental). Unfortunately for Alex I was a bit hesitant and it took me about 15 second to kill him, Jordi took about 5 with Harvey so it was a drawn out death for my poor victim. Still, they tasted really good fried with chips! And soup the next day... it's nice to have some meat :)

Tuesday was sadly eventful for the village. A child died in the morning, some kind of illness but we don't know what. He was four and they took him to Singida hospital but he didn't recover. Then that night we were sitting playing cards and we heard whistles blowing but thought nothing of it. It turned out to be the form of alarm they use in Mvae. A man killed himself not far from our camp, we don't know why. That was bad enough, but it turned out they had to leave him until the next day for the police to come from Singida so the poor man was left hanging all night. Not a good day for us or the villagers.

The next day was very subdued, most fundis had gone to visit the family of the man who killed himself so we just worked on our own. That night we had the teachers, Aedhan and Justin, the Chairman and the two vice-chairmen, Emmanuel and Rama over for dinner. The chairmen's english isn't good so we had a quiet meal but it was nice to be able to thank them. This week we'll invite the chai ladies for dinner and consider all our debts paid.

Thursday we installed ceilings in the house which was hard work but worth it, hammering above one's head is a complicated business but I'm starting to get the hang of it! That evening we went to a football match between our local primary and the nearby town of Ghata. It was a good game, although we lost 4-2. But it wasn't really fair - all our boys were 12, 13 and about half their team was 15 or older! Very tall boys! Still, our lads kept up well and fought hard! It was a really exciting game to watch, I got very involved.

Friday we painted our ceilings and finished installing the rest of the house. The really interesting thing Friday was visiting the Mosque! Our guard, Mr Jumanne, is Islamic and he said we could attend the Friday service. So Mike, Alex and I went, rather nervously! I have some lovely photos of me in a headscark and kanga - other than skin colour I looked like a proper Mvae Muslim girl! We were worried they wouldn't appreciate our visit or that we'd embarrass ourselves but it all went very well. Mr Jumanne's sister took me into the women's room and nudged me when to stand etc. It was actually quite relaxing and interesting, although I killed my foot sitting on it and almost fell over when it came time to stand!

So that's it. Two weeks news. If you made it to the end in one go then either you're a true friend our you have no life... possibly both. Love you anyway :)