Upendo means love, so I upendo Chipsi Mayai

Today was a pretty nothing day to be honest. “Just another day at the office” or so they say hahaha. Woke up, went about my morning routine like normal, and settled into the breakfast table. Samosas! That was pretty much the surprise of the day! They were pretty nice, although my stance that samosas are not a breakfast food (an opinion I did not even know I had until today) remains unchanged hahaha. So, after a quick brekky, George and I grabbed our bags and headed out the back door to start our day. After taking the shortcut route out to the main road through the back streets (I’m not sure if you can call them streets to be honest…more like dirt areas where houses haven’t been built hahaha), we were running a little late, so we tried to jump on a Dala Dala, but all of them were pretty full…by pretty full I mean all of the 16 seats were taken…but the driver’s assistants’ were still trying to shepherd us into the tiny gaps remaining in the van…like on top of people. We decided against it and settled on walking. We got to the office at 8:58, phew, just on time! (I’m joking...I’d say at least one hour out of every day is spent waiting for people in Tanzania, just because of the chilled-out culture and the relaxed nature towards schedules. I never thought I’d actually miss the hustle and bustle of a jam-packed schedule in Australia).

We worked on some various things for the day, then headed out to the first group, Upendo A (The Upendo group became so big that they had to split it in half, so Upendo B is tomorrow morning). They were nice; very cheery. We had to take our shoes off to enter the group meeting room, which was not very big at all. Probably about a 3 metre square, with 13 people in it. I’m sensing a pattern in Tanzania about fitting many people into tiny spaces…although I probably should have expected that. Australia has an average of 3.1 people per square kilometre, while Tanzania has 62.74 people per sq km…Yeah that translates to the Dala Dala about right I’d say…hahahahha. Anyway! Back to Upendo A! They were nice. George did his presentation on Business Planning and why it’s important, while Cleo and I did some checks of the group’s bookkeeping.

After that we came back to the office and went next door to Leana to get some lunch. I got Chipsi Mayai (which means “chips and eggs” in Swahili…it’s basically just chips cooked inside a fried egg, about the size of a plate. It’s a veeeery common food here in Tanzania, and apparently only in Tanzania hahaha). It was so good. I suspect I’m gonna miss Chipsi Mayai when I get home.

Oh, that’s the other thing that happened today! There’s a new volunteer in the microfinance project! Maryolen (spelling TBC). She’s 63 I think…or maybe 67. She was scheduled to stay with Cleo and Madeline, but due to some complications she's having to spend the first few nights in a hotel instead. She's been to Arusha 2 or 3 times before with her husband, mainly to go on safaris and hikes. She’s from somewhere in Europe…she’s dutch soooo…Netherlands springs to mind but it could it be somewhere else. I'm not 100% sure...She had her first field visit this afternoon to the Ikusura group, though! They’re a wonderful group of women! Some of them speak English fairly well! Well, at least well enough to fluently introduce themselves to us and tell us what their business does, but other than that they often switched back into Swahili. Yuta did his presentation on the Break-even point. The women got tripped up on his explanation of Contribution Margin again. There must be something in the way he explains it (I don’t know because I’m always focussing on other bookkeeping stuff haha) because he’s a pretty smart guy and really good teacher. Almost all the women in the group were on loans of 900,000Tsh or 1,000,000Tsh, which is the largest and final loan given by the microfinance project. It was a joy to see one of the women’s businesses that she’d set up at the meeting. She makes jewellery like bracelets and necklaces all made out of recycled materials, as well as some scarves (souvenirs anyone? hahahah). But yeah, I assume all of their businesses were flourishing. I bought a bracelet from her for 4,000Tsh. It’s made out of magazines, which is really quite amazing. Here you go.

After that we came home, and that was about it for the day. I’m sitting on the couch writing today…the music choice is Childish Gambino and Chet Faker today hahah. Dinner isn’t ready yet. I just realised I’ve either had a really good run with food over the last few days, or I’ve just grown accustomed to the food a bit more. Thursday night we’re going to a place called Picasso, which apparently has really good wood-fired pizzas. So, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to show Cleo that she’s so totally wrong, and that pineapple DOES belong on pizza. You know how I know she’s wrong? Because my argument is that pineapple belongs on pizza…and I’m objectively right…HAHAHAHA. But yeah that should be good. Anyway, I’m gonna head off for the night. George is going out to watch football later tonight, and I’ve got my negative numbers presentation tomorrow morning! Should be good!

Wish me luck! And as always, I’ll see you in the next one hahaha!