Life in Mwanza

 Another week has passed and I have been working hard teaching children but there has been some fun too. Most of the funny moments seem to happen at meal times when Tanzanians seem to think that life should carry on as normal even though you are in the middle of enjoying your meal. Here is a meal time that from start to finish made me smile and realise I really wasn't in England any more. 

Working hard swatting Cockroaches!

As we were walking into the centre of town to do our shopping for the week we bumped into another teacher from school who said we had to go to the Syrian Market in a hotel in the centre of town for amazing chicken wraps. We have learnt never to refuse recommended food so off we all went. The Hotel is quite a posh one (for Tanzanian standards) and I was looking forward to a lovely lunch in their restaurant. As she led us up the ramp for the multi-storey car park for the hotel I was beginning to wonder where she was taking us. We got to the 3rd floor and in middle of the car park was a guy making chipati and chicken cooking on a spit. We sat down at a table in the middle of the car park. As we watched the man tossing our chipati in the air ready to be cooked and the delicious smell of chicken wafted over to our tables we were all looking forward to our chicken wraps. The realisation that we were in a car park came back when a car decided it needed to park on the top floor of the multi-storey but a car was also coming down the slope. I swiftly moved my chair in towards the table as the cars narrowly squeezed through the gap. It was a good job the chicken wraps were worth the wait! The fun did not stop there. As we were enjoying our food (and I did only have one wrap, I was only holding 2 for the photo!) a very polite young man came, pointed to the car that was behind us and said 'needs to move'. We all just chuckled as there was only about a metre between the back of the car and our table but he wasn't joking! It was all hands on deck (and some giggling as you can imagine!). Not just our tables but 2 other tables around us had to move, food, tables, chairs so this car could reverse into the middle of the 'cafe' and get out of the car park. Like it was a normal occurrence the men all put our tables and chairs back and invited us to sit back down. We were rewarded with the 'cafe' owners performing a Syrian dance for us that we narrowly managed to avoid joining in with! Sorry that turned into a long story but as you can imagine it amused me lots and thought it would help you to appreciate the service in Nandos!

This was our table!

'Just move the table back a bit further so he can swing round' 

Just to prove that life is not always weird and crazy, here are a few photos of 'normal' life. It is quite hard to get photos of everyday life as it is not really appropriate to take them in the streets but here are a few of my flat (before it had the Emma makeover) and what the middle of Mwanza town is like.

These are the teacher flats. My flat is seconded up left of the balcony (the one with the washing out!)

My lounge.

My bedroom the day we arrived.

This is a view from the random lunch hotel down onto the centre of Mwanza.

The other side of Mwanza looking on to Lake Victoria.

I feel like I have supplied you with lots of very strange information about my life in Mwanza but I hope this will give you a better idea of where I am living and the weird and wonderfulness of life here. I am loving it though and it has become very normal very quickly.

I'm actually here!

Well, it was 3 weeks ago since I left the rainy shores of England and arrived in Mwanza. I still can't quite believe that my dream of teaching in Africa is finally coming true.

After waiting for 3 hours to check in for my transfer flight from Dar to Mwanza I was certainly thrown into the African speed of life, especially when they decided to change our flight from 11am to 1pm just because they felt like it. It made me realise I had arrived. When we were finally greeted by a view of lake Victoria, our luggage was piled into the back of a pick up van and the adventures in Mwanza had begun.

The first week seemed like a holiday as we were welcomed by fun day trips and delicious meals out. By the end of the week I had, enjoyed a beautiful red sunset from a boat on Lake Victoria, climbed to the top of  the 'Dancing rocks' on the hills surrounding Mwanza and tasted the local speciality of 'Chips mayai' (an omelette containing chips). These were just a few of the highlights from a jam packed week getting to know the sights, sounds and smells of Mwanza as well as lots of lovely people who made us feel very welcome. It was hard to imagine that after a week of fun I would have a class of 20, hopefully smiling, children looking at me that I had to impart some knowledge to and a very bare room that need to be transformed into a classroom very soon!

One of the lasting memories of my first week were the delightful noises that greeted me as I settled into the new flat. We arrived at the block of flats to hear the chanting from the local football stadium and the megaphone from the local church blasting out. What had I done! I was so excited about looking round the flats and discover where I was going to be living that I forgot about the noises, especially when we saw the view of the lake from our roof terrace. It was only when the sun went down and I settled under my mosquito net for the first time that it felt like I was inside a club. The humming of the crickets was being drown out by the thumping of the African chanting and the preacher was sharing his views with the whole of Mwanza. I really thought I was never going to get to sleep. Luckily the 20 hours of travelling took it's toll, until I was woken at 5am by a bird who imitated a car alarm, the call to prayer from the local mosque and 20 dogs barking from the house next door.... it made a great alarm! Don't worry even after just 3 weeks, it is amazing what you can sleep through!