Corruption, extortion, discrimination and the MZUNGU!

Mzungu - Slang for "white person/man". Its what the locals here call us white people. To put it mildly, its the African equivalent of the term "Nigger" in western society.

So we've been living for a month exactly in Tanzania and over that period of time we've come accustomed to the various cultural differences and nuances that has come our way. We've adjusted well and we both love it here.

However we've made some observations over the past few weeks relating to the way the local people view Mzungu's! The main one been their blatant use of the word Mzungu at any given chance around you and when they see you coming. Could you imagine what would happen if we went around calling black people the "N" word when you meet them on the street? There would be a revolt. Well its the equivalent here...but without the prospect of a revolt. Its viewed as no big deal and its the only way to describe a white person apparently!
Initially, when we found out what this word that everyone was calling us meant we felt really offended and shocked that even grown adults shout it from across the road and start laughing among themselves. It did cause a few incidents of increased blood pressure but I had to bite the tongue more times than I care to remember. The one thing we did realize from the off is that getting aggressive towards locals could spark alot of trouble. Gangs are prevalent in these parts of the world more than I ever thought....hell even the dogs walk around in gangs!! Speaking of dogs...I'm convinced that they're racist as well as they always seem to want to attack us when we walk by :)

So after getting used to the label Mzungu, we were faced with another harsh reality! The reality that there is one price for African's and another price for "non-residents" aka Mzungu's!! Now we know that tourist's are the main income for most people here...but then why try and rip us off?! A simple example would be the taxi fares. A short taxi ride costs TSH 2000(which is about 1euro) and a longer one costs TSH 4000(2euro). But thats the African price! The Mzungu price can start from anywhere from TSH 5000 for short rides and TSH 10000 for the longer ones. It's beyond a joke though what they think they can get away with. As soon and you walk away from their initial quote and refuse to listen to them...you'll get the proper price. So if we are getting a taxi we just say we don't want the Mzungu price. Extortion is'nt the word though.
Another example of the rampant discrimination that goes on in this country is bus fares. Ok so we want to go to Moshi for a day trip. The sign reads "residents - TSH 5000, non-residents $10"!! Thats the polite way of saying "African's TSH 5000 and Mzungu's $10! I can assure you that if a Nigerian person walked into the bus station and asked for a ticket he would'nt have to produce his passport to verify that he was Tanzanian. It's a case of the colour of your skin and that's it...end of story.

Its a sad fact though as there's so much in the media about racism in western society towards black people, but to be honest its equally as bad here towards white people.Its the only country I've been to where I've felt racially intimidated. I can just imagine how it must feel like to those who are subjected to worse conditions and situations of it.

Anyways, I just wanted to make an entry on this subject as it strikes us as both funny and intimidating. For some reason they think that because we are white we are very naive and easily fooled. But I can guarantee you that they misjudged the wrong two people :)

Apart from that we have no news. We're having trouble with our visa's....very long story and not our fault! That will get its own blog entry later on!

We've been making great progress with our project in the school and I'm proud to say that I taught my class how to multiply by using the visual aid of dots! A simple technique that I was shown, but a very effective one when there's the language barrier to overcome as well!

We've been basically just going to and from school, eating and then hitting the sack around 9pm every night. The heat makes us so tired and with a 6:30am start every morning you definitely need the rest.

Ciao!

More photos!

Here are a few more photo's from our volunteer project in Arusha.

A few photo's from our trip so far!

Serengeti report!

The Serengeti is Africa’s most famous game reserve, renowned for its dense predator population and annual wildebeest migration. The Serengeti is so vast and barren that it covers an area of over 15,000km2.…which is the approx size of Northern Ireland! To put it mildly, its huge!!

Ok so we set off at 8am Saturday morning for our four day safari. In the end there were only three of us on the trip, along with our driver/guide and our cook. The other person was another volunteer who is also staying in the same hostel as us. There were meant to be four of us going but the safari company couldn’t find us a fourth member to join us….happy days! More food for us J

Our first night was spent in a camp site at a lake called Manyara. Its also a national park and we had our first game drive here. We saw loads of blue monkeys(they star in the film “outbrake”), elephants, lions, giraffes, rhinos, hippos and all the rest of the classic gang.

The monkeys were really interesting to sit and watch. Their behaviour and mannerisms are hilarious. I took at least 150 photo’s of just monkeys there.

We had our dinner at 7pm that evening at our camp, before retiring to bed at 9pm. We had a very early start the next morning…with a 7 hour trek on dirt roads into the heart of the Serengeti. This drive was combined with a game drive when we entered the Serengeti. Seeing the vast amount of animals on entering the Serengeti is hard to describe. Wildebeests and zebra’s dot the scenery for miles and miles, with Thompson and grant Gazelles running about like rabbits. To be honest, I’m not big into the wild life scene and only really had eyes for the “big game 5”, but after seeing the different species that the Serengeti had to offer really made me appreciate wild life a little bit more.

We got up close and personal with three female lions who must have just have eaten their dinner as they had blood stains around there mouths! The three of them came right up to the jeep and sat down panting on the edge of the grass….literally 4 feet away from us. Got some very cool photo’s. Even the guide was quite anxious for the lions not to come any closer as they could easily have torn the jeep to bits if they felt like it. Luckily I had my “bear grylls” knife on stand by….just in case. That would’ve been to slice my own neck rather than get mauled to bits!

Anyways we returned to our campsite which we had set up on arrival in the Serengeti and had a beautifully prepared western style dinner in the middle of the biggest craziest thunder and lightening storm I’ve ever witnessed. It rained constantly for an hour while the fork lightening lit up the evening sky.

Before we hit the sack we were gently informed by our guide, that due to the camp been unguarded and its location that we should expect some company around the camp during the night! So that night about 10pm we were suddenly awakened by some animal sniffing my head through the tent canvas. It was pitch black inside the tent and we were both terrified due to been suddenly awakened and also because there was some wild animal roaming around our tent making growling noises that can only be described as something you’d hear off a horror movie. Luckily enough I managed to get some audio of it wit my camcorder.
So anyways, we didn’t know what the animal was at the time and we probably didn’t want to know. Needless to say we didn’t sleep a wink for the rest of the night. And we had to be up at 5.30am for our game drive!

We found out in the morning that the noises were those of a herd of Buffaloes that had come into the camp to inspect what was going on. Also hyena’s were heard around our guides tent and a Lion’s roar was heard around the camp as well….which we def heard but again didn’t know what it was. Good job as well to be honest!!

So our game drive in the Serengeti last a good few hours both in the morning and the evening time. We saw almost all there was to see except for leopards or cheetahs.

We spent the third night in the Ngorongoro crater which is a huge flat plain that has every animal imaginable in it. The views from the top of this crater were savage and it was definitely a great end to the safari.

All in all, four days was enough for us. Unless you’re really big into the wildlife then a few weeks would be the only job. For me the highlight was seeing the migration of wildebeests and Zebra’s just as we were heading out of the Serengeti. As far as the eye could see it was just saturated with animals. Really amazing sight, and worth the trip alone just to witness it.

I would do another safari but next time I’d have a better lens for my SLR as some of the animals were that bit too far away to get really great photo’s. Plus the weather was very overcast so a lot of colour was mission from the photo’s.

But I would definitely recommend a safari into the Serengeti. If you came all the way to Tanzania and didn’t go on one then it would be a shame in my opinion.

Ciao

Long weekend = Serengiti!!

Well we've been informed that we don't have to teach monday or tuesday next week due some local tribe celebrations so we decided that instead of scratching ourselves for four days, that we'd go ahead and book a four day safari into the serengiti! So we will be sleeping under that stars along with all the wild africa has to offer come Saturday.

Our teaching project has been coming along nicely. We have our own separate makeshift classrooms and teach math and english to the different groups, based on their ability level. Nothing fancy, just simple addition, substraction and this week I started multiplication! Not as difficult as I thought it would be, as they seemed to get the hang of it very quickly indeed. We both love it there and the kids are really great.

Our second project that we had organized in Moshi through a local hostel has fallen through...due to lack of independent funding by the owners of the orphanage. So thats left us with the job of finding a suitable NGO(Non-governmental organization) that provides volunteer projects to guys like us. Yes we will stay where we are if we don't get another one sorted somewhere else...but we know that staying in the one place for 3 months would be very tough come the time to say goodbye arrives. You do get attached to these little kids knowing that they've got so little and yet have so much life in them. So a month will be fine, unless we don't get something else sorted before we leave....which is Feb 12th.

Ok so I'll update this wedensday or thursday next week with the Serengiti news and reviews :)

Ciao

Settling in!

Friday 23rd Jan. Well we have finished our first full week of volunteer work. We are positioned and a pre-primary school called Meru view. It got its name as its located at the foot of Mt Meru, which is the fifth largest mountain in Africa.
The school is very basic. It was set up by a local man called Ba Ba Juma four years ago, who decided that enough was enough. He wanted somewhere for the little orphans who were been looked after by various friends and relatives in the village to have somewhere to go to learn basic English and creative skills. So with this goal in mind he went about and built a basic three classroom school along side his house.
Funds for this project were limited for him since he way paying for it himself and the government didn’t want to hear from him. But at the moment he has three local women who act as teachers. They have good basic English grammer and they get the job done. Currently there are 26 kids at the school, ranging from 3 to 7 years of age.
Most of them are orphans with the exception of one or two.

So that’s where myself and Florence have and will be positioned for the month we’ll be in Arusha. We are in the process of teaching them simple English grammer. The classes are segregated according to their ability so as to allow each child the chance to learn at the correct level. Most of them however know a lot of grammer already, which shows that the system there, however basic, is in fact successful.

So with half of the money in which we raised before we left Ireland, we will be able to really make a big difference to this little school. We aim to buy them better materials for the school, learning aids, footballs, and maybe some new clothes for each child there.
The owner, Ba Ba Juma is a really good man. In a country where corruption is saturated everywhere, its good to see that there are men who like Ba Ba Juma are not money orientated. He has done everything there himself and has provided a safe heaven for hundreds of children over the past four years. We are delighted to be working alongside someone who has done so much for so little in return.


The other news during the week was the huge fatal accident on the outskirts of the town on wedensday afternoon. A four vehicle collision saw over 20, yes 20 people killed! It happened on the road in which we travel daily to the school. From what we heard, a bus full with passengers hit a truck in which the breaks had failed on a bridge. Another two cars were involved and resulted in all four vehicles smashing over the barriers on the bridge and down the 50+ foot drop onto the rocks beneath. It was horrific to see the bus after it had been lifted up by a crane. It was crushed to half its size. 20 were definitely confirmed dead as a result and many more critically injured.
As I already said, its mayhem on the roads in Tanzania. In the week and a half that we’ve been here, we’ve already come across three accidents! Seemingly they are so frequent that its become second nature around these parts.

We’ve started to pick up bits and pieces of Swahili!! Swahili is the first language in Tanzania, followed by English. So one of the teachers at the school has been giving us basis Swahili phrases which is a big help when trying to explain to the kids something we want them to learn in class. It would be nice after the three months to have the ability to converse in Swahili for a minute or two, but I’m not holding my breath!

We have the weekends to ourselves, so that will give us the chance to do a bit of sightseeing, tours etc.. We’ve nothing planned for this weekend as of yet so maybe tomorrow(Saturday) we’ll go into town and organize a tour for Sunday.

So until the next update folks….

Ciao

Tanzania at last

Its 7pm on Friday and I’m here writing this at our hostel in Arusha. We arrived yesterday from Nairobi after 8 hours of a pure and utter hell of a bus journey. The main road from Nairobi to Arusha is nothing more than a dirt road. Imagine 8 hours of constant jumping around, been thrown about in your seat while the seat your in stinks of sweat and is almost damp and you’ll get the picture. Apart from this slight inconvience the trip itself was very scenic with the Serengeti spanning out to our right as we entered Tanzania. Along the way we passed dozens of little towns which are home to the Maasai people.
The Maasai today remain the most familiar of African people to outsiders. Instantly identifiable, Maasai men drape themselves in toga-like red blankets, carry long wooden poles, and often dye their hair with a red pigment and style it in a manner that has been compared to a roman helmet. And while the women dress similarly to many other Tanzanian women, their extensive use of beaded jewellery is highly distinctive too.

When we arrived in Arusha we were met a crowd of flycatchers who beg you to go on safari with their company. And since Arusha is the safari capital of Africa you could only expect this to happen. While initially intimidating, they left us alone once I informed them that we were not rich tourists but merely volunteers. They still chance their arm none the less.

Our hostel is basic enough and although we expected that, we didn’t expect the toilets to be build into the floor or for their to be a severe lack of water both hot and cold. I don’t know how they expect people to feel comfortable sitting on the ground while on the toilet with cockroaches the size of apples(no joke) frequently visiting your side. Not very hygienic to say the least but we’ll deal with it. Another discomfort that we expected is the lack of fresh air. With temperatures in the early 30’s the rooms can get very, very sticky and I know this will cause many sleepness nights until we adapt to the environment!
I unfortunately got very sick last night with classic food poisoning. We traced it back to the liver I eat(flor didn’t eat it!) while in Nairobi. Beatrice had got liver from the local Butchers that would make a dump look like heaven. Since she didn’t have a fridge, the liver was left out all night and served to us the next day as breakfast! Now, If I had any common sense about me I would have realised that the meat was not refrigerated during the night and I would have politely declined the poison. But no, me and my hungry mouth had to go and sample the dose.
Needless to say I paid for it dearly from 5am this morning and all today. Luckily enough we brought the required medicine and so finally after 12 hours of diarrhoea, stomach cramps and dizziness I’m coming around 
Although try sitting on one of those toilets with a bad dose of the runs and you’ll quickly understand the meaning of a quick evacuation!

Any who, I’m off to sleep and hopefully tomorrow will be a healthier day!

Ciao.

Nairobi, Kenya

So finally I get a chance to update this! Since I’ve brought my mini laptop for the trip I can type out my blog whenever and then transfer it here when I get the a café.

Well, where to start! We arrived in Nairobi at 8am Tuesday morning, where we were met by our contact or “fixer” if you like. We choose to get one of these fixers simply because of the fact that Nairobi is such a dangerous city. Beatrice was our guides name and she was going to put us up in her house for the two nights we were there. Her house was located about 1 hours drive from Nairobi so she arranged for a friend to come and drive us there.
Along the way, we saw shanty town after shanty town. Conditions for living that could only be described as below basic. These houses were made from bits of wood, metal and any other material that could make walls etc…

When we arrived at the community when Beatrice lived we discovered that not only were myself and Florence the only white people there, but that most of the people there never saw a white person before! So you can imagine the looks and stars we were getting.

Our accommodation was in the form of a flat, which had no fridge, shower, kettle or oven. “Welcome to Africa” I muttered to myself. At least she had a toilet, as no toilet would have been very tricky for Florence to work through.

Anyways, cutting to the chase, that evening we visited a christian apolostic mass, in which Beatrice was a prominent member of. The mass was one of those you see on films where from start to finish its preachers shouting the word of God, singing his praises etc. It lasted a full two hours and in that time we were standing up while there was not one break in the mass. People were running around the shed(church) waving their arms in babbling to themselves. It was hysterical to be honest. We enjoyed it something shocking. I was told that I could take photo’s and videos if I wanted to I immediately went into Christy Regan mood and snapped away happily for the next 30 minutes.

The next day, we went to visit the Nairobi slum, which is one of the largest slums in the world. Its also home to the “glue kids”of Nairobi, for any of ye that saw Ross Kemps documentary called Gangs.

Conditions in these slums is hard to imagine unless you actually witness it. Words couldn’t describe what it felt like to be there and seeing all this poverty and lack of basic hygiene. While the slum isn’t a safe place by any means, we had Beatrice at our side who told us what to do and not do. Again with not a single white person for miles and miles we felt very intimated by the constant verbal abuse and gibes that was thrown our way. But sure they know no better.

Before we left for Tanzania, Beatrice had arranged a visit to a local orphanage where the kids were told about us and they were looking forward to seeing us. So when we entered the makeshift house, we were greeted with roars and screams from the little boys and girls there. There must have been about 40 of them ranging from 3 years to 11 or 12 years of age. Again, they had never seen a white man before so they were touching our skin and having a really good laugh at myself and Flor….but in a good way. So this was our first introduction to what we’ll be doing for the next three months. The kids were so full of life despite the conditions in which they find themselves subject to.

Before we left them, we had to take a load of photos of them. They never saw a camera before either so seeing themselves on camera was another first for them. Heartbreaking stuff to witness but we’ve somehow got to develop thick skin if we are to get through the 3 months here.

Anyway, I’m writing this as I lay on my bed here outside Nairobi. Its 7pm Wedensday evening and we’ve a very early start at 4.30am to get a local bus which will take us on the 8 hour trip across the border and into Arusha in Tanzania.

So until then,

Ciao

hi

I've already typed out two updates for this but I did so on my mini laptop so I'm just trying to find a internet cafe that has the facilities to allow me to hook up my memory stick to it and copy and paste it here! Simple you may think, but I can assure you that in Tanzania nothing is as simple as you may think! It just saves me emailing everyone individually and all that :)

Off on Monday!

Well the time has finally arrived for us to depart to East Africa! It only took a whole 11 months to get here!

First of all, I would like to thank everyone on behalf of Florence and myself for all the kind words of advice, donations, and general help with the planning of this trip. It means alot to us to be able to arrive at the orphanages with €2500(fundraised) to donate to those poor orphans who need aid fast.
I won't go naming this or that one as I don't want to leave anyone out, but THANK YOU for all the help and advice.

We start our journey Monday. We fly to Heathrow, then its a 10 hour flight to Nairobi in Kenya, where we'll stay for 2 days and get acquainted with the African culture before we cross the border into Tanzania by local bus(which we were advised is much safer...but longer....7 hours :(

I only hope that there's a decent internet connection in the internet cafes so that I can update this blog and do emails etc. I reckon I could live for three months without food, but not without the internet!!

I am also going to be shaving 30 years of hair growth tomorrow as part of a deal I made with myself about going volunteering. I said that I'll shave my head before I go, so no way of getting out of it now :)

Anyways, cherrio folks and next time I post we shall be in Tanzania and have received our welcome dance by the locals.....video here!

Ciao!

Vaccinations and anti malaria drugs!

Got our second lot of vaccinations yesterday in the TMB down in Sligo. Only one more sessions of needles and we're good to go :)!
For this trip we were advised to get the following vaccines:

• Yellow fever(which is compulsory with travel to most tropical countries nowadays)
• Polio
• Tetanus
• Typhoid
• Hep A
• Hep B
• Rabies

And obviously we need to take some form of anti-malaria drug. Its this decision that's causing me the most concern as there are three main types of anti-malaria drugs available each with their own advantages and disadvantages.
Maloron is the best drug because it has less side effects then the other two.
Doxycycline is the one used by most people and is the cheapest. But its not meant to be as effective as Maloron :0
And lastly there's LARIAM(mefloquine), which I've found out from a little research is also called the "demon drug, satan's tablet and the insane pill! I won't go into the details of its possible side effects or the dangers associated with taking Lariam, but you can have a look at this video to get an idea of how potentially dangerous taking it could be!!

Anyways, the funny thing is that our doc in the TMB where we're getting our jabs has recommended Larium as the best drug to use (apart from maloron). The only downside with maloron is its cost. Works out at about €500 for the 13 weeks protection that we'll need. If the doc does'nt recommend we take doxycycline then we'll have no choice but to take Maloron. I aint getting Malaria and getting the side effects from taking lariam has been described as worse then malaria itself...so thats a no go either! Now, I know friends who taking Larium while travelling and has no side effects whatsoever. But i've heard alot of stories as well where the person on it would start hallucinating and going demented.

Anyone who's been travelling has probably been through this exact same procedure as me, so if you have and your reading this, then I'd appreciate your comments on which one you took and what effects if any you had.

I won't be getting the anti-malaria tablets for another three weeks so I've got time to do abit more digging.

ciao

Three month volunteer trip to Tanzania!

I've been asked by a few people to do a blog about my fortcoming trip to Tanzania. Since this is my first attempt at a blog, I can't say how readable it will be and also how often I'll be able to update it when I'm in Tanzania.

Basically myself and Florence decided a year ago that we wanted to go and do some volunteer work abroad in a devoloping country. Its something that I personally have always wanted to do and Florence feels the same. So we set about planning our trip just over 8 months ago way back in April. We both agreed from the start that if we are going to do this, then two conditions must be met;

1. It would have to be a period of time in which would allow us to actually make a difference to the lifes of those in which we'll be helping. Therefore we decided on 3 months been sufficient!

2. We would pay for the cost of the trip ourselves, therefore not going through any organisation as such.

We are raising funds though so that when we arrive, we can donate them directly to the orphanage. We hope to raise €1500. Been able to donate this sum of money to the orphanage will mean alot not only to us, but also to the orphanage itself. They don't expect us to arrive with a donation, so this will be a great addition to them we hope.

The first fundraising project is a raffle in which you can buy a line for €5 or five lines for €20! 1st prize: €400, 2nd prize: €100, 3rd prize: Digital photo frame, and 4th prize: Mp3 player. The draw will take place on Monday 22nd Dec at the Boyle Chamber of Commerce lotto draw!
All proceeds will be donated to the Hope for Children orphanage.

The Second Fundraiser is a poker one(Surprise!). It will take place on Tuesday 6th Jan(holy day) in the Moylurg Inn, Boyle at 7pm sharp!. Entry fee is €30 and there will be €10 rebuys for 90 mins. I'm guaranteeing €1,000 for 1st place. 30% of the prizepool will be withheld and donated to the other orphanages that we'll be working in. I'm hoping to raise a minimum of €700 on this night so please come and support. And don't worry if you don't know how to play Texas Hold'em poker, its very easy to learn...I'll teach you in 5 mins :)

Although most volunteers go through organisations, we feel that going independently will give us the freedom to move around different towns/villages volunteering. It also means that a hugh chunk of the money that "needs" to be raised in order to go with one of these organisations will not be lost to the middle man in the equation.

So what exactly will we be doing out there? Well, first off we both wanted to work in orphanages. We'll be looking after and caring for kids between the ages 3 - 14, who have lost their parents through AIDS and other common diseases that are prevalent in Africa. In alot of cases the orphans will themselves have the AIDS virus and therefore we were told to make sure we get the Rabies vaccine along with all the other required vaccinations before we go(which we've started getting today).
We will try and help the children develop intellectually and creatively as best we can, as well as care for their daily needs as required, such as washing, cooking and feeding etc..

For the first month we will be working in a small orphanage outside Arusha called "Hope for Children". This is a relatively small orphanage with about 12 kids. Its located about a 45 min bus ride away from the hostel where we'll be staying....which is abit of a nuance, but can't be helped.

For the second month we aim to move to Moshi which is a small little city at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro and work in another orphanage there. We got these work placements through local hostels who run projects for orphanages and in return you stay in the hostel for the duration of your placement.

The third month has no set itinery yet, but as soon as we get out there and get settled we'll sort out the details.

The road ahead will be a very tough challenge both mentally and physically for us and I hope that by the end, I'll have come home with an unforgetable experience and the knowledge that one person can really make a difference to the quality of life of those who are less fortunate in life than us.

I will also be uploading photo's of the trip both here and on my flickr account(hope that I can get a decent internet connection) which can be found here.

Feel free to post your comments both here and on my flickr site.

Anyways, thats just the bare bones of the trip. I'll be updating this as the days come closer to departure.

Oh and for those who reckon I won't shave my head.....its happening the day before I leave :)!!

Ciao!