My first day in…THE OFFICE

So today, after arriving on Wednesday (PA devotes your arrival day to resting hahaha), and having orientation on Thursday (yesterday), I finally got started today! Despite my doubts over the last few days, I feel much better as of today; it was just a good day. I started by waking up at 5am…don’t worry I didn’t mean to…I’m still adjusting to the time zone difference, so I’m keeping my hours nice and early! I went back to sleep though, and when I woke up at about 7:10, George was already gone for his safari, duvet in tow and all (he didn’t bring a sleeping bag with him to Tanzania, and since it was required for the safari he’s going on, he’s using the duvet as a makeshift sleeping bag…yeah, we’ll see how that goes). I freshened up, got dressed, and overall got ready for my first day of what feels like kind of a real job…it’s a bit daunting actually…anywayyyy! When I wandered out of my room, breakfast was waiting! It was really interesting today; there were some avocados, some plum jam, tea and coffee (like every morning) and of course, bread. Man…the bread here is so sweet. It’s verging on sickening when you expect it to just be like home…it is SO sugary. Anyway, when I was about to dig in, Mama Chilala emerged from the kitchen and brought a plate of fried eggs! So this morning’s brekky was the first meal that I’ve really enjoyed since I got here. After getting a good (albeit very quick) feed, I grabbed my backpack, said my goodbyes to the family, and started on my way to the office!

Given that George is on safari, I had to get there all by myself, which meant catching the Dala Dala all by myself! When I got out to the Sakina supermarket (the landmark that the vans use as a bus-stop), I thought I was hallucinating for a few seconds. As I walked up to the van that was waiting for passengers (I’ll do a much more in-depth analysis of the Dala Dala service tomorrow because it really deserves its own post), I saw a boy who was about 10 to 12 years old sitting in the van…the reason I was so confused? He was white. (I know it sounds racist, but it really is a rarity here outside of Projects Abroad) As I got to the door though, I realised he was with a whole family! They started chatting to me about where I was going and why I was here, and it turns out that they were volunteering as a family in a school nearby! Anyway, we parted ways after a few minutes pressed against each other…the Dala Dala vans are really INCREDIBLY small.

When I got to the office, it was about 8:50. Elizabeth (the microfinance project coordinator) arrived about 5 minutes later. She gave me access to the microfinance dropbox and started my REAL microfinance orientation. She walked me through the specifics of the project, the groups of women that they work with (including one new group of people who are all elders, and are a mix of women and men, who have been growing their own vegetables for a while now, and want to start selling the excess!), and a rough guide as to my responsibilities while I’m here. It’s kind of my first real office job type thing…After a little while we headed out to the Friday AM group, named the Amani group. I had no idea what was in store for me!

It was fantastic. Yuta (he’s working on the microfinance project and he’s from Japan) gave a lesson on the advantages of bookkeeping in a business to the women, and then walked me through how PA keeps track of the women’s progress and collects loan repayments. It was the first moment that I was really excited to be here…I should remember to take some accounting stuff with me everywhere I go in future because it cheered me up by a weirdly large amount hahaha. It was amazing to see how involved and proactive these women were in asking questions and explaining their answers to Yuta’s questions. It was also interesting because none of them speak English particularly well apparently, so they all spoke in Swahili, and Elizabeth translated back and forth for us. It was a really wonderful morning, and before we left, Rose showed us her business that she’s running (since the group meeting took place at her property!) where she sells alcohol and meat from cows and pigs that she has in a makeshift farm next to her house, where all the pens are made of trees that she chopped down from her property. The funny thing about her alcohol selling area was that she had steel bars in all the windows…makes me wonder if that’s why bars are called bars…hahaha.

Then we went back to the office and I became the designated maths teacher! This means that next Wednesday morning and Friday morning (with the Amani group again!), I’ll be teaching the concept of negative numbers, which should be really interesting. So, I’ve got to plan that this weekend!

The rest of the day has been relatively “meh”. I got back to the house at about 1:40 and lunch was chips and some kind of casserole. It was actually surprisingly good! Although again…I try not to think about it too hard. I’ve read for like 2 or 3 hours and now it’s…well, now!

OH AND, the reason I got back here at about 1:40 and didn’t visit a group in the afternoon is because Friday is a half day for all of the projects in Arusha…do you want to know why? Because Thursday night is a “social night” for all the volunteers…which is code for about half of them are hung over every Friday and need to sleep…But yeah last night we went to this place called Taste of Mexico…I guess I could describe it as putting the “meh” in “Mexican”…I miss Taco Bill’s now…

We were there for about 4 hours and then at about 10pm we went to this club called Via Via. It’s an interesting place. It’s MASSIVE, and all outdoors pretty much, except for one small indoor area. There’s a karaoke area, a band, a DJ, and 4 different bars around the place HAHAHA. It’s honestly so big…anyway that is where all the white people go on a Thursday night HAHAHHA. So we got to meet some people who are in Arusha with other NGOs including another Australian! So yeah it was a good night.

We still haven’t had a power out yet today…but I’m hesitant to say it cos I feel like I’ll jinx it…

Oh well, I’m pretty happy. It looks like my stay here has taken a turn for the better! 

The pic below is the view from my bedroom of the driveway/courtyard out the front of the house...that's nowhere near all of it either...it's humungous...

ANYWAY gotta entertain myself for the weekend now!