More weekend catch up

October 20, 2008 8:42 PM

After my group the weekend before last I was fairly quick to pack up and gather my bag from home. I needed to get William back his key and couldn't find Amani to pass it off to right after the group so I had to walk back to the centre with my bags for the weekend, but its not far so I didn't mind. After dropping off the key I walked my old route toward town and got a taxi from Majengo to the bus station. I could have walked but it was hot and I was carrying my bag so I figured splurging $2 wasn't being extravagant. I managed to find a bus fairly full, although it meant taking the seat of a little boy and he was forced to stand most of the ride. I tried to say it was ok and I could stand but no one seemed to care. I saw them force another boy to stand for a man, so I guess that is normal practice. It didn’t make me feel better though.

Once in Arusha I went straight to Backpackers and found that Katrijn and I had a dorm room to ourselves. I met her up in the bar and before we had time to order drinks or lunch Corey called to say he was downstairs ready to take us to eat. Great timing, especially because I was starving. We went to McMoody's because Corey had brought a friend of his who is a Maasai boy. He had never been into the city before and Corey wanted to ease him in with some Chicken and chips, which is a normal meal up in Longido. I ordered a burger thinking it would be good (McMoody's claims to be similar to the company it copied the name from). It was ok, but at least the fries were good.

After lunch Corey was heading to the market so Katrijn and I decided swimming would be our activity for the afternoon. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the pool it was nearing 3pm and there were no chairs or loungers left. Not wanting to pay to lie on the grass we decided to try some other options. Katrijn needed new shoes so we wandered down to the Maasai market which happens to be close by the pool. I didn't even know it existed but it’s a little craft/souvenir market tucked down one of the streets. Even though, or maybe perhaps because it was Saturday, there were very few people around and it was nice and quiet. No one harassed us, just the normal 'come into my shop' type stuff.

I saw many beautiful things I don’t need and many things that I bought when I was in South Africa. I did buy Freya a cute dress because I couldn't resist and the lady in the stall was so sweet. I'm sure I'll head back there before I leave, can't hurt to buy a few pairs of earrings for less than a dollar and maybe a wooden table? We'll see.

Left with nothing to do and a beautiful day we walked up to Via Via in search of some ice cream. I suppose it was not our day because they were out of ice cream but we settled for fruit salads and warm banana milkshakes, which would have been great if they were cold. Taking advantage of the waitress ignoring us for over an hour after we finished our snacks we sat in the restaurant and chatted while avoiding a way too hungry gecko. I think I saw him eat 4 flies the size of his head in a very short time period. He had a few friends around but he wasn't into sharing.

After dragging out the afternoon we figured it was close enough to dinner time and wandered down to Jambo's coffee shop which is also a bar and a restaurant. The restaurant part was empty but the menu looked good and since it had gotten dark we figured staying in the area would save some cab money. I had some pretty good pasta but I doubt I finished half of it because the bowl was so big. We caught a taxi back to the hostel and hung out at the bar for a bit, catching up with some volunteers we knew, but not much was going on and the Backpackers bar appreciates power ballads way too much. I am definitely sick of Celine Dion in a way I never thought I could be.

Sunday breakfast at the hostel involved more fruit salad. Everyone's timing must have been great because Katrijn and I were joined by Emma, Emily and Phillipa and we all dragged out the morning talking about what we could be doing and catching up on each others projects. In typical Sunday Arusha fashion we all walked down to Shoprite, then the coffee shop, then Katrijn and I went for sushi. These are Sunday rituals I don't think I could get sick of.

Interestingly, Corey called during my hot chocolate at the coffee shop and wanted to know if I could meet in the afternoon to go over my midterm. I was glad when he agreed we could exchange some emails and meet next week. I was prepared, but not prepared enough to sit down and be evaluated!

After some yummy super filling sushi it was time to hit the pool. Unfortunately it was super busy again and I had to sit on a chair instead of a lounger but it was only for a few hours so I didn't mind.

On the way home, I had some company because Emma was heading back to Boma the same time as me and it is very close to Moshi so we take the same bus. We ended up having to stand almost the whole way, but I figured it was a way to make up for kicking the boy out of his seat on the way into town. Just when I thought I was leaving the city of the power ballad, I discovered that Phil Collins would be following us all the way to Kilimanjaro. With the speaker right above my head. Perhaps I should go buy some tapes and carry them around with me just in case this happens again.

Jumping forward to this past weekend……….

Saturday morning I arrived at the centre to find that the classroom we were going to use was being cleaned so I had to wait for one of the other rooms to be opened by Ezekiel then for the boys to gather. Somehow we wound up with 9 boys this week and one who I knew had been there before did not attend. We tried some different activities which I think went well, although for part of the session I felt that everyone was a bit tired.

After the group Lyn invited me over for some tea which was nice. I was a bit hesitant to go back to Midlands since I had not been there since I moved out, but there were no problems. After tea we decided to walk into town. I really wanted to buy a broom and it was a nice day. I was also feeling tired and worn out, not really in the mood to trek to Usangi, where I hadn't been before, by myself when I wasn't feeling great. In town we went for lunch at Deli Chez, a fairly new place where I discovered "chicken lollipops" are really just chicken wings with a fancy name. On the hunt for a broom and candles, I found some tea lights in the grocery store but no broom. When we were heading back home I remembered seeing some at Mr. Price so we asked Peter, our taxi driver to stop in so I could buy one. Yeah! I have a broom! It is blue and pink and I tried it out and it definitely works. My mop will be much happier now.

After sweeping out the house, it was dinner time. I pretty much relaxed the rest of the evening enjoying the dvds that Lyn lent me. One has all of the Batman movies except the new one, so my new goal is to watch them all before finding the new movie on the street. I now also have many Tom Hanks movies, some quirky romance type movies, Evan Almighty and I Robot. This may result in a shortage of blog posts. If only I could write and watch movies at the same time!

Oh that reminds me. Sunday, after spending a few hours at the pool, I met up with Didas, an IT guy from work. He had bought me a new memory chip for my computer to speed it up. It seems he noticed how slow it was when he was updating the virus software and asked if I wanted him to fix it. Did I ever! It is much faster now at most things. I can use Word and Explorer without wanting to bang my head off the desk and it even starts up so fast that before the internet connection clicks in, the computer is asking for my msn password. This may not sound like much to the average person, but to me this is great!

Today at work we had a big meeting with almost all of the Mkombozi staff. Kate, the founder/director of the organization is here and so is Kate, from the Trustees. Kate (trustee) announced that William will be replacing Kate when she leaves her position as director the end of this month. It is very exciting news. William has been acting director since I arrived so I could not imagine anyone else doing the job. I'm also excited that he will be around for the rest of my placement since his contract with Community Engagement ends this month. We will have a new coordinator in our department starting November 3rd.

The morning went fast with the meeting taking up a lot of time. Many people said speeches, congratulating William and thanking Kate. One interesting observation I made was that Kate mentioned she would be receiving a lot of money since she was leaving the organization - I think because of social security, but I could be lost in translation. Anyway, so she tells the entire staff of Mkombozi that she is getting a whole bunch of money. Someone told her to remember her favourite children's charity and her reply was that she was going to spend all the money on herself. I don’t know Kate at all, but I found that an interesting response.

We all had some chai, samosas and chipates then there was discussion of some professional development meetings that will be happening this week. I'm not on the staff email list so this came as a surprise considering we have other things planned, but it turns out we were able to move a group and I will have a different person helping me on Wednesday. Somewhat annoying, but I really have no choice in the grand scheme of things.

After lunch the HR department asked everyone to join them and once almost everyone was there they handed out ice cream! Lyn said it was a Canadian tradition to celebrate with ice cream, which I thought was interesting but the more I thought about it, we do eat a lot of ice cream! Some more than others (you know who you are with your 4 flavours in the freezer right now I'm sure), but maybe ice cream is a Canadian thing?

The afternoon was soooo hot and it made me sleepy but we had another meeting at 4 so time moved fast enough. This time we were all meeting to congratulate the rugby team from the centre that went to the UK to play in a tournament. They were all so happy and there were many speeches and laughs. Most in Swahili, but it was fun to be there and see them get their participation medals. I think they came in 4th out of 10 teams from around the world. One of the boys also won another prize for placing near the top in a track and field race.

Ah 5 o'clock! Just before William ran out the door I asked him if it would be ok to take November 1st off to go to Nairobi to write an exam for the Canadian public service. He said it is no problem so I fired off an email to a B&B I found located right near the High Commission and UN offices in Nairobi. It looks like I"ll be spending Halloween in Kenya! One more stamp in the passport and maybe a job when I finish school. I am only writing the Written Comprehension Test because I already wrote the other tests and my scores were high enough not to make me want to write them again.

That wasn't the most exciting blog post was it? Hmmm what else can I add?

--I wore my new skirt and top from the market today and all the girls asked me where I got it! Consul said we have to go to the market together next time, I'm definitely up for it!
--I talked to my sister on skype and it seems to work well enough, if you don’t mind delays let me know and I will call you. I can call anywhere in North American for free, unlimited anytime, landline or cell phone. Its quite a good deal at $16 for 3 months service (maybe they will give me royalties for this post)
--I'm getting sick of Ugali, need to find a way to avoid lunch on Mondays and Tuesdays for a while
But I also discovered that melting cheese on top of pasta is not a guarantee for a good meal. Need to plan more ahead
--On my walk to the pool on Sunday many children came over to me and would say "good afternoon" or "good morning" then when I returned their greeting and said "habari" (how are you) they would respond with "give me money" or "give me gift" - bizarre and annoying. Where do they learn this from? These are nice looking kids on their way home from church I would guess.
--I had a boy notice my iPod while walking to work last week, out of no where he says "give me your iPod" not in a mugging scary sort of way, but in an entitled almost polite way which I found incredibly disturbing. If my Swahili was much better I would ask him if he talks to his parents like that. Seriously, going up to a stranger and telling them they should give you anything!