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Crazy times
Entry 5 of 12 | show all | print this entry |
Right- where to start!?!? I guess I'll go in chronological order since my last entry...
On Sunday 17th, all of the partnerships went to our respective villages - mine is called Ukumbi, in the Kilolo District around 2 hours by bus South-West of Iringa. We took a bus there, with all of our luggage, mattresses, stoves, fuel, buckets and lamps. When we got off the bus I thought that we'd stopped in our village, but oh no, it's a one and a half hour trek away from the bus stop through farms and rivers over dirt tracks with dodgy log bridges. We'd never have made it alone, but thankfully one of the village leaders had arranged for a guy with a bicycle to help us, so he took a ridiculous load on the back of his bike and pushed it the whole way while we walked behind. The village is on one side of a shallow valley and is in very beautiful surroundings, with crops (mostly maize) everywhere. Sorry I can't upload photos again because the gadget that connects the memory card to the computer has been lost. Anyway, the village is pleasant enough, I think around 1500 people live there, and the majority of the ones I've seen have been drunk at any given time of day on Ulanzi (The local brew made from bamboo juice). There are some good helpful people we've met so far in our week of situational analysis. Our accomodation for the week was in a small room at a local teacher's house, which has its advantages and disadvantages. It's convenient and good to have the teacher to help and guide us, but once we start working and advising the children, they'll be afraid to come to our house to ask questions because a proper academic teacher lives there. Village life is great, very laid back but busy at the same time if that makes sense, because the most simple Western tasks take so much longer here, like having to boil all water for drinking and cooking, cooking itself and washing for example. We have to go to the standpipe a few times daily if it doesn't rain, but that's all fine, and it's what I expected from village life. There's no electricity in the village either, although there are a couple of people with solar power who charge the equivalent of around 15p to charge phones etc.
The relationship with my partner Godson was good to begin with, but towards the end of the week it became more difficult because he'd often try to test me by playing mind games like pretending to be angry with me so that he could gauge my reaction. The difficulties with him increased massively when one day in village he bragged to me about his sexual conquests in the two weeks of training at the Baptist Training Centre. The man just can't keep it in his pants - in the two weeks he slept with a young schoolgirl (a girls secondary school shares the complex) and also had relationships with the centre's receptionist and another Tanzanian volunteer. So the next couple of days in village were very difficult, trying to keep up the facade our partnership had become.
On Friday 22nd, we returned to Iringa early in the morning - had to wake at 4.30am to make the only bus of the day that left the main road at 6am. So we had all our stuff ready and were supposed to walk with another teacher who was also travelling, but she left earlier, leaving us to try to find our way in the dark! Neither of us had much of an idea how to get back to the bus stop, so had to wake someone up at a local house to help show us the way! He was great, but only took us to what he called 'the main path', but of course this being Tanzania, nothing is as simple as it sounds, and there were many turnings and it was not straight at all so we had to shine the torches around to look for other people that might be travelling. Eventually we made it just before 7, and were just in time for the bus that had shown up an hour late! Massive relief, but it was without doubt the worst bus I've ever travelled on - like something out of The Last King of Scotland! There were holes in the floor and I could see the road underneath from my seat. Sure enough, the bus broke down halfway back to Iringa, blocking the road for the forty or so minutes it took for the driver and conductor to fix the gearbox (When you run buses as terrible as these, the people on them must have to be mechanics too!).
It was great to get back to town, have a little time away from Godson and see the other international volunteers. We spent the night exchanging village stories and it felt so good to be back with the group, even after knowing them for only six weeks we're all so close now and it's great therapy to relieve village and partner frustrations with them.
We're now back in the Baptist Centre and started more training on Monday, firstly going over our weeks in village again. After training I went to the office because I and everyone I'd spoken to about it felt that I had to tell SPW about Godson's behaviour. In my mind he had to be expelled because a guy like that is a liability in village - say if he starts to mess around with village schoolgirls and the fathers or elders find out, violence could well ensue, putting everyone involved at risk. So I told Hamim (our programme manager) about all of my concerns and he agreed that Godson must go.
Back at the Baptist Centre that night, after dinner Leo noticed something dodgy going on in our room because the lights were going on and off but it was locked and no-one was answering. He called me, suspecting that Godson was up to no good again, so I came back and found him outside the room, telling us to go away and return later. But the room was still locked and we were going to wait as long as it took to find out what was going on. Eventually he told us that another Tanzanian volunteer was in there with a girl (who we immediately suspected to be another schoolgirl). It quickly turned into an argument and we got Godson to tell Becka (the guy inside) to finish up and come out. The worst moment of my stay here so far was to see that small schoolgirl come out of the room and being told by Godson to run away into the dark. Becka soon followed very sheepishly and after Leo and I were done shouting at him still begged us to help him by keeping it to ourselves. But the situation was no different to Godson's and we had no choice but to tell SPW because all of the volunteers must realise that sex with schoolgirls is totally unacceptable and goes completely against SPW's ethics.
The two of them had to pack their bags that night, and are now back home in Dar-es-Salaam. Everyone was down that night, because of the incidents but happy in a way because they'd gone. We all spent a few hours trying to cheer each other up by singing songs and acting silly - the other international volunteers are such a great support group at times!
So now I have to stay back an extra week in Iringa because I need to be re-partnered with one of the Tanzanian volunteers who have just arrived, and they need to take crash training for a week before going out to village. But I'm glad that things are calmer now and hopefully will get better from here.
Only three minutes left in the cafe, so I'd better save and go.
Love you all loads,
dipak
Where I stayed:
Baptist Conference Centre / Ukumbi Village
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