another long need post (without photos im afaid)

Boys big day out...

As my time here is soon coming to an end. It was time to take my “faviourts” out for a treat, what could be better than the water park??

Only problem was that it was outside of Dar, so me plus 12 lads travelled up in style on the dala dala (local mini buses, always an adventure) then we swapped into a taxi for the final leg, typically enough the driver said he knew where he was going, we agreed on a price 5000TZS (2quid) and then typically enough he didn’t know where he was going- this is why i really hate these taxi drivers.

We ended up at the hotel with the water park, the drivers got out demanding their money, i was (and kids too) pretty angry with the drivers at this point, my driver kept asking me what time i wanted him to pick us up, i said no then he asked again and again till the point i shouted some English swear words in anger- it did the trick. But no we were having another argument about the bill in the hotel lobby! They wanted a ridicous 40,000 each, the kids were shouting thief in Swahili at them and i was arguing millions of reasons why im not paying them at all, gave them 10,000 each (i have payed less for longer journeys) and walked away. But the hotel manager came to find me as they had not left the premisis of the hotel and were demanding more money, after yet more arguing and the odd shove (i didn’t start it) the boys came back and started shoving abusing the drivers on my behalf, not that i encourage this behaviour but i would have been very happy to see more! The manager got my message that i wasn’t paying any extra and sense the drivers anger, she decided to pay the drivers much to my protest , guess she had to confort the clients.

We then went swimming, within a minute of the first boy jumping in, we had one lad choking in the water and another who had dived head first into the shallow end. Time for lunch which was chicken and chips, beats ugali everyday and the smile on their faces was great to see. After explaining a few things such as keeping your mouth shut underwater and the no diving sign we went back in. This is something these kids only get to do once in their lifetime (apart from john who has been spolit by Hamish!) so they really do make the most of it.

The only injury suffered was Kelvin who had dived head first into the shallow end and ended up with a rather big dash on his forehead, he received the his faviout punishment of 10 press ups by the pool side and some kids plasters. Looks like a trip to the local hospital, from previous expierence i reckon the stiching job will only be 3000 (just over a quid).

As i haven’t done a blog for a very long time, i should fill you in on some other stuffs...

General juju (mother Hamish, calls herself after her son- kinda tells you how proud she is!) has come and gone, and during that time it has been peddle to the metal. No rest for the wicked or something like that.

One of the jobs was the de-worming program, yes its the same as de-worming your dog at home. The water here isn’t great and many kids are falling ill thanks to worms developing in their lungs etc. So each kid received a tablet, some of them even prayed before we gave them their tablets, did they really think we were going to kill them>!

Bags for Buguruni mission is almost done, everyone in the school apart from the many teachers who had a day off! Received a nice little drawstring bag with several items including loveheart sweets imported from the UK. The kids have nothing or very little so the bags were godsend for them, even today nearly all the kids and many teachers are wearing the bags to school J. look on the Tanzanear page on facebook for photos.

Child sponsorship, we have like 50ish kids that are in need of sponsoring, and i tell you there is no better run charity on the planet than tanzanear, they are a small charity indeed but the money is well spent and really does go towards the pupils benefit. So £10 a month can go along way esp with general juju in charge. So i decided to sponsour ally, at first he was a really shy kid who didn’t really talk to me unless i approached him. He occasionally fights with teachers when he really struggles to follow the lesson, now he has a special friend me! (dad i may need some extra pocket money!!) and mama Hamish was saying that simply the fact they have a special friend their work and confidence improves so much. Its great to say that this is the case with Ally, as he is a day pupil he had invited me home for lunch. So we caught a dala dala to his place where himself, mother and father share one single room, he has a matteress on the floor and im not sure if he had a mossie net. But one thing was quite clear and that is his parents hardly know any sign language- which kinda backs up why he finds lessons hard to understand. Im really keen for his parents to know some more sign, imagine been at home and not been able to talk to your parents? I guess this is the case with many of these kids, a teacher at the school does classes for this thing- so hopefully il get Ally’s parents to tag along.

I cannae waffle on too much, but hope this will fill you in. There is ofc many more stories of this place but your have to wait till im back in april!

simonx

kili

Kilimanjuro!

yes i did make it to the top of the worlds most under estimated mountain! It’s certainly harder than it sounds

a long (10hr) bus journey from Dar to Arusha proved uneventful despite hearing many stories. Although the bus had some scary under/over taking manoeuvre’s, it becomes obversous the driviers were playing a game of chicken during their head on moments, not to worry only 55 lives per bus were at risk!

The team met at the macheme gate, there was 14 of us, 9porters 2guides and 3 “climbers”. The other two climbers were guys from South Africa, Jean (aka grandma jean from Blackpool!) and Wayne. They were great company during the trip they explained in great depth the fundermentals of a SA brai (its serious bussienes!) and tiger was the mascot..

Despite being so disorganised and last minute i somehow managed to find everything needed for the climb. The last 2 nights in dar we had powercuts (48hrs yes) so packing was done in the dark, much needed water purification tablets, water bottle, suncream, snackts etc had to borrowed at the last min. And yet on the journey up my bag was on the roof which expierneced a little bit of rainfall so everything was mildely damp, a beautiful start!

The porters and guides were all really great company, typically we started to get to know each other with the usual English preimer league football club conversation. I apparitly looked very much like ronney! is that offensive?!!! Am i losing lots of hair and acting like a typical man u idiot??!! (i’d much prefere people thinking i look more like prince harry, beating bolt in the 100m i can’t be so bad)

It took us 6 days to get up the mountain and only 2 to get down again. But the altitude is a killer, the oxygen in the air gets so thin, eventually half the amount of oxygen compared to the sea floor level. So you have to take it so slowly to get up. So many days were actually half day of climbing with detours to explore other “secrects” of the mountain.

One day we were trecking up to the lava tower roughly 4800m, so this day i took one of the altitude sickness pills. Wow, it created the biggest- i mean THE biggest ever headache i have ever had, also felt so sleeply, in our mess tent where we stopped for lunch bang just feel asleep. I really felt horrible, that night i checked the bottle with the pills. It wasn’t the diamox(thingy) i asked for but something else (probably dads “academic” recommendation) but worse the name of the prescribed person was Mr S Thurely, now thats a pretty bad attempt of the family name or someone else’s pills, eveidence of having parents as doctors has more disadvantages then advantages!

The summit night (we got rid of the summit attempt as it was physiological disadvantage) we all got up at 11pm, got on enough clothing to make us look like zombies and climbed the finale 1200 vertical meters to the top. The first bit was a cool scramble in the dark, with only a head tourch and a little sunshine from our full moon we climbed the hill in the dark. 8hours of climbing uphill, we went pole-pole= slow slow (Swahili) literlay half a foot at a time all the way. I had my ipod for company but zinc air operated implant batteries died- with little oxygen the impland didn’t have the power to hear a thing. The future lets you down eh?

We got to the summit at about sunrise, a what a beautiful sight, some people belive that you could see all of Africa from the “roof of Africa!” nope, but you could see allot of the mountain, sunslight bounching of the glacier etc it was all so beautiful. We posed for our photo next to the infamous new sign. I was angry that the old cool battered sign had being replaced by a modern plastic ugly thing.

Now the decent, i was still wearing all my clothes from the cold weather (6ish layers) coming down a scree run, not much fun. The sun had come out and i was boiling up getting reidicoulsy hot and yet the water was still frozen from the summit so a heatstroke started. I wasn’t the only one, but at  least me and wayne managed to get escorted (unfortuantly we still had to walk!) down the mountain. A total of 14 hours climbing in one day- splendid.

3 weeks today before i fly back- unfortunately after mums big birthday!

Happy birthday sis#!

Simonx  

food!

the vegetarians diet

at long last, an blog about the food here in Dar es salaam. So many of you have being asking what the food was like in both places. Grabouw, being in south Africa which could be described as Britain in Africa to some extent, we ate the same as we would in England.

But now in Dar im eating whatever the locals eat. I normaly have to skip breakfast in order to get to the school on time-7, i wasn’t going to be late for school buy eating “cardboard” bread. So for snack at the school (the kids don’t have breakfast either despite being up since 5) i normal have the equivalent of an English hash brown,  this is an triangular shaped fryied outer coating thingy which as potateo in the middle- i canne describe it any better, nor remember the real name- sorry!

Then lunch- this is Buguruni’s infamous ugali and beans. Ugali is a tradditonal African staple deirt and is best described as mash potateo in flour, it is tasteless i mean really tasteless but after a while a have got used for it. (for those of you that think its nice it’s because you’ve had “posh” ugali in a restaurant of special occasion!) the beans are godsend as they add taste to the ugali J, at the school we always eat with our hands and their is a special method for eating the ugali, another time perhaps.

Supper- its always rice, whether i eat it at the school (rice and beans, rather nice) or at the convent. The convent do actually cook some rather nice nosh. But the bottom line for everymeal is rice and spinach, normally combined with some other tings such as cabbage- my favourite or this pea soup thingy which is rather nice. Then we always have some fruit for pudding, the pineapple and the mangos are the freshest on the planet J

On occasions the nuns have invited to little nun gatherings/partys where they cook stuff out of the ordinary! Omelette with chips- actually surprisingly nice. Yes they do drink acholol, but its normaly some horrible Tanzanian made red wine mixed with coke, i’ve yet to decide whether coke or Pepsi taste better!?

Now the meat- its horrible, Tanzanian livestock don’t get fed very well (compared to Jame’s  cows on Robert berry farm) so its just disgusting. Whether its beef, chicken or even something unregonisable (maybe roadkill dog!) its just so skinny, the fat always out ratios the meat and thats if there is any meat! So i actually dread eating meat here L makes me gag.

So its normal for me to go for days or weeks without eating meat- argh! But some weekends i escape bugurni to Nevil and Alisons house (the most wonderful people in the world) and eat like royals. Nevil is such an amazing chef, why he didn’t make a career out of it i dunno. But my favourite dish is just to consume a packet of sausages (10 by myself yes).

That’s the food in a bombshell! Hopefully il add another blog before of to summit kilimanjuro.

For those of you already collecting football gear- a huge thank you J

Simonx

football

Football J

Every afternoon some form of sport has to be played to entertain the children of Buguruni, often football, but they now know how to play touch rugby, netball, rounder’s (ultimate Frisbee is slowly getting there!)

Back in January i asked the lads if they were ready for a football match and they were well up for it. So i went around asking the other local schools if they were willing for a match but they all turned it down when they found out it was the “deaf school”.

Mama Hamish (boss) kindly explained to me that in Tanzania its illegal for “normal” people to play against “diasbleled/deaf people” this made me so soo angry (a head butting the computer screen moment). What kind of law is that? I thought the Nazis made those kind of laws?, nevertheless rules are meant to be broken.

A team of Indian guys who train nearby were keen for the challenge when i explained them the situation- so we got our self’s a match J

Many of the lads had no football boots, most even played in bare feet, forget about uniforms and shin pads. It was bibs Vs no bibs. The opposing team turned up in nice shiny kit, football boots and shin pads all looking very smug.

Buguruni boys gave them a run for their money, by the end of the first half we had scored 3 goals (2 of which were hat tricks by Kelvin) and the pros were losing, 3-0 to Buguruni. This made their manager very angry, D)

However during the second half the lads were exhausted, no matter how many subistutes we did, we didn’t have a huge amount of energy. The pros however were slightly embrassed and were keen to get the score up whatever the cost. There were injuries to bare feet- result  of studs meeting unprotected skin (often on purpose) elbowing, shoving. This typically enough made all of us at the sidelines very angry, our ref (who has being blessed with deafness) fortunately didn’t hear the abuse for not sending the pros off.

We ended in a 4-4 draw, i seriously couldn’t ask for more. It was the best football match i have ever seen and the boys loved playing every second of it. It’s just a real shame that the politicians who wear suits and just simply sit in their office without seeing the real world don’t understand the real potential deaf/diasbleled people could have for sports. But hey this is TIT= This Is Tanzania. (TITS is another alternative, let me know when you have worked it out!)

I WILL be coming back to Buguruni again, hopefully bringing out some deaf friends to expirence this awesome place. When I do come out, i would love to bring some presents for the lads here. The thing they keep asking me for is football boots, if you have any old/unloved football boots (or trainers, socks, shinpads) that you need to get rid of, please give them to the boys of Buguruni!

Simonx

launguge barriers

The language barrier...

Most hearing people on planet earth think sign language is universal wheresle most deaf people know its actually unique to each country! Were telling you hearing people that sign language is not universal!

Simon only speaks English (he cannot write very good English, all blogs are done in a word document to help him overcome his errors in grammar and spelling- he blames the XY chromosome he has inherted from his father (which came with a dyslexixa mutation). He also sign’s pretty good BSL, but many deaf peers think outherwise.

At Buguruni all of the lessons are taught in Swahili sign language (theres no mary hare “oral” status to boost about!) and all of the teachers communicate with each other by speaking Swahili, a few speak English- but its work in progress.

For the kids their first language is Swahili sign language, then actual Swahili itself and then their third language is English. I literally find it amazing that im able to have a proper conversation with them at all! But thanks to previous volunteers who have given the kids a bit of background BSL, they seem to have a pretty good idea what im trying to say.

A typical converstion would be in Swahili sign language, if you didn’t get the message they would fingerspell it in Swahili (the American single handed alpherbet), if you still don’t understand then they would fingerspell it in BSL- which is actually just fingerspelling Swahili words- no luck. Then finaly they would perform actions, write/draw on the sandy floor- pretty efficient J

Its weird at first as “how are you?” is the same as thank you in BSL. “im fine” is nothing. Women means oil, and more/hurry up is actually something quite rude!- just so so weird at first but you get used to it. Geuss it will be reverse when i go home.

But i love using the language barrier to my advantage! Some time i end up with two lunches (not bad at all!) the head winfredia doesn’t speak much English, so any conversation between me and her is a one way conversation with winfredia just nodding her head smiling, so i could ask if i could do this and that and get a nod as the go ahead J.

The cultural barrier is also useful, during the week i cooked the nuns toad in the hole as a treat. When it came to bring it out of the oven it looked beautifully crispy and golden on top. However the base was heavily burnt (how do you avoide this? I burn latterly everything including myself when cooking grr) but i told the nuns that this is normal of English cooking, its how we get the taste were after and then explained we scrape off the good bits with a fork and eat it J they loved it!

I have uploaded some photos onto facebook, if your young enough please enjoy. If your of the later generation perhaps its time you think about setting up a fb account!

Simonx

the result...

The result...!

Im pleased to say my malaria espodie is over! At the weekend I brought a (pricey) self testing kit which involves stabbing your finger many times till you get blood ozoning out- you then aim the stream of blood into a tiny little hole in this plastic thingy and wait. Pleased to say its come back negative for malaria. However I have brought more antibiotics etc ready for next time. On dads recomandation i’ve been forced to pour out my savings on the most expensive anti malaria drug- Marolone, whether it works or not (unlike doxycylonine) we shall wait and see!

To celebrate the end of the malaria episode, me and Neviel (mama Alison’s husband) went kayaking J,  a beautiful paddle of coco beach where we watched many Dows- local fishing boats (i think that the name) going out into the open sea, they were nothing but a few tree trunks stuck together by a few strings of rope, Neveil also did his window shopping deciding which motor “yatch” was going to be his next toy..

After kayaking I went for a swim (without the boat!), but swimming back in I reached the rocks where you had no option but to wade. You feel something very painful in your foot- yes you guessed it- sea urchin! These are not the beautiful spike-less shells many people decorate their bathrooms with, these are the evils of the reefs, the huge spikes would go through anything and break in half in your foot. Despite our efforts to lure the spikes out with pliers, sewing needles, tweezers, boiling water, flame torches it was time for another visit to the doctor. Local anaesthetic was injected, the actual injecting is quite painful! But gives you some relive as two nurses and a doctor are busy prodding your foot with needles and scalpels, 40mins later we got them all out. The deepest being a painful half 15mm below the skin, unfortunately the local anasetic didn’t reach this far deep, the sky certainly changed colour, I’m now on another course of antibiotics- a successful weekend.

Not everything i have done at Buguruni has involved me self harming myself. Being the only voulenteer means theres plenty to do. One of which was make an electronic regeister! Remember the school term has only just started, people have settleled in etc, forget about all that nonsense in the UK where the teachers come in before the term starts to make registers etc, Buguruni- we improvise- full stop. With no records of all the students names kept anywhere (forget the headmasters office) i go round class to class asking for names, the occasional teacher would have made a register (often last years!)- a blessing if it was 2012’s, but many don’t. So I now have to ask 240pupils their names, spelt out in the American signing alperbet, confusing enough. Some classes had no teachers, some teachers had two classes, so and so is sick typically this took forever. Then Mama Hamish told me via skype to go round again and check all the hearing aids- this took even longer!

The afternoons are my favourite part, each day I try to do a different sport session with the kids. Its hard to entertain all 120 boarders, so i either do football, netball touch rugby or just fun and games. The kids aboslutly love this, esp the boys who have now learnt how to play touch rugby (with every other pass been a forward pass- grr!) and they love their army style football fitness- it’s a joy to watch them sweat! 2-3 is way to hot for anyone to do anything, so an old classroom has been stolen and comverted into a playroom, its nothing much but i have managed to get my hands onto some board games, i’m despratly trying to find some plywood (so so rare) to make a table tennis table- watch this space....

Afraid thats all I can say, now I gotta get back to doing my spreadsheet for the hearing aids (took my 8hrs to check everyone rotten earmoulds)

Simon x

the result...

The result...!

Im pleased to say my malaria espodie is over! At the weekend I brought a (pricey) self testing kit which involves stabbing your finger many times till you get blood ozoning out- you then aim the stream of blood into a tiny little hole in this plastic thingy and wait. Pleased to say its come back negative for malaria. However I have brought more antibiotics etc ready for next time. On dads recomandation i’ve been forced to pour out my savings on the most expensive anti malaria drug- Marolone, whether it works or not (unlike doxycylonine) we shall wait and see!

To celebrate the end of the malaria episode, me and Neviel (mama Alison’s husband) went kayaking J,  a beautiful paddle of coco beach where we watched many Dows- local fishing boats (i think that the name) going out into the open sea, they were nothing but a few tree trunks stuck together by a few strings of rope, Neveil also did his window shopping deciding which motor “yatch” was going to be his next toy..

After kayaking I went for a swim (without the boat!), but swimming back in I reached the rocks where you had no option but to wade. You feel something very painful in your foot- yes you guessed it- sea urchin! These are not the beautiful spike-less shells many people decorate their bathrooms with, these are the evils of the reefs, the huge spikes would go through anything and break in half in your foot. Despite our efforts to lure the spikes out with pliers, sewing needles, tweezers, boiling water, flame torches it was time for another visit to the doctor. Local anaesthetic was injected, the actual injecting is quite painful! But gives you some relive as two nurses and a doctor are busy prodding your foot with needles and scalpels, 40mins later we got them all out. The deepest being a painful half 15mm below the skin, unfortunately the local anasetic didn’t reach this far deep, the sky certainly changed colour, I’m now on another course of antibiotics- a successful weekend.

Not everything i have done at Buguruni has involved me self harming myself. Being the only voulenteer means theres plenty to do. One of which was make an electronic regeister! Remember the school term has only just started, people have settleled in etc, forget about all that nonsense in the UK where the teachers come in before the term starts to make registers etc, Buguruni- we improvise- full stop. With no records of all the students names kept anywhere (forget the headmasters office) i go round class to class asking for names, the occasional teacher would have made a register (often last years!)- a blessing if it was 2012’s, but many don’t. So I now have to ask 240pupils their names, spelt out in the American signing alperbet, confusing enough. Some classes had no teachers, some teachers had two classes, so and so is sick typically this took forever. Then Mama Hamish told me via skype to go round again and check all the hearing aids- this took even longer!

The afternoons are my favourite part, each day I try to do a different sport session with the kids. Its hard to entertain all 120 boarders, so i either do football, netball touch rugby or just fun and games. The kids aboslutly love this, esp the boys who have now learnt how to play touch rugby (with every other pass been a forward pass- grr!) and they love their army style football fitness- it’s a joy to watch them sweat! 2-3 is way to hot for anyone to do anything, so an old classroom has been stolen and comverted into a playroom, its nothing much but i have managed to get my hands onto some board games, i’m despratly trying to find some plywood (so so rare) to make a table tennis table- watch this space....

Afraid thats all I can say, now I gotta get back to doing my spreadsheet for the hearing aids (took my 8hrs to check everyone rotten earmoulds)

Simon x