Africa 2010: First Day at School

Monday, 19th July 2010

My suitcase is missing a wheel, but I don’t mind ’cause the weather is beautiful and I’m just so darn excited to be stepping on African soil for the first time.

The first of us volunteers are picked up at the airport at 6am by Haji Saab, the man behind the school we will be teaching at. He takes us to his house, where we have breakfast, talk to some Iranian folk, have lunch and fall asleep on insanely comfortable beds. Later, we go to the beach and tour Dar-as-Salaam, returning to find the rest of the volunteers have arrived. Together, we go to Kibaha, which is about an hour from Dar and where we will volunteer.

The complex is 87 acres and, so far, only four acres have been built upon. The scope for development is immense. The girls are dropped of to their room, then us boys head to ours. The people here are so nice and always willing to help. A boy our age named Frankie helps carry our luggage up four flights of stairs to our rooms, which are nicer than the girls’, so we’re pretty smug. I’m sharing the smaller room with Rahim, whilst Jagani and Kanani (that’s their surnames – you’ll get to know them pretty soon) are sharing the larger one.

We rest, have dinner, then rest some more. Since it’s dark now, the organisers say that they will run the proper campus tour tomorrow. We pray with the secondary boys and are introduced to them in assembly, which is kinda embarrassing. After all that eating, praying and resting, we’re really tired, so we decide to rest some more. Night all.

Monday, 19th July 2010 continued...

OK, so I thought Monday was over, but it isn’t. Whilst the ‘proper’ tour will run tomorrow, there is a quick one tonight. The other boys aren’t up for it, but (being the insomniac that I am) I decide to go.

We meet Bashir Uncle, the school's unofficial headmaster, in the middle of a field with two working torches between twelve of us. He is aided by Hanna, his niece from America, who provides the vocals to his tour of the school buildings, football pitches, cow sheds, water tank and farming area. She seems really passionate about eggplants and the size of the Jack fruit and cows and the school in general. Her enthusiasm is pretty infectious. The school is self-sufficient, using internally-grown produce to feed the campus. They save a hell of a lot of money and the food tastes amazing.

We head back across the cow manure to our rooms after the tour ends, looking forward to tomorrow’s torch-free tour and to, hopefully, making some kind of difference :)

aj saul

Africa 2010: All Aboard AJ's Amazing, Astounding And Alliterative African Adventure ... Awesome!

Sunday, 18th July 2010

Both my parents are from East Africa, but I’ve never had a chance to visit. This will change as from today.

The morning is a mega rush. I don’t know why I always pack my bags at the last minute, because I always manage to forget/lose something. This time it’s my USB, which is definitely not good. I do, however, make it to the airport on time and met the rest of the volunteers. They’re a great bunch of people, which makes me happy. I’m looking forward to spending the next three weeks with them.

We say farewell to our families, board the plane and fly off to Tanzania. Half of us are on one flight, the other half on another and I’m in charge of looking after the girls (and Rahim) on the earlier one. Lucky them.

Rahim is one of my best friends. He is the one person I would choose to sit next to on a long-ass flight, just because he’s hilarious. We make the mistake of watching Twilight: New Moon. Not only is it a bad film, but now he and I have been dubbed Jacob and Edward, respectively, by the female contingent. Using the onboard phones, we prank call the other volunteers, realising more and more that these nicknames are of the permanent variety…

aj saul

Sunday Scrawl #1