Photo fun.

I’m in Saudi Arabia now for 2 weeks. We left TZ on Wednesday. It was really hard. I have met some wonderful people in Moshi and I love, love, love the town with a vengeance.

So I’ve been meaning to update this blog for ages. But in Moshi time was running away from me, now that I do have the time I’m going to do a bit of a backtrack and write all the posts that I was going to do in TZ.

Rewind a week and a half ago.

As I’ve said before the TEACH website is well underway. We desperately needed some good professional pictures for it. I put ads up all over the place but to no avail. I got a couple bogus phone calls and it really seemed that we were just gonna have to us our little digitals and do our best.

So the awesome foursome (Me, Hawwa, Lizzie and Mel) are in the café having lunch. We are talking about our predicament. Mel says that we need to literally just go up to people and ask them if they have a decent SLR and if they would be willing to help us. We really didn’t want to do this, but we were desperate. So we start looking around for potential candidates. Mel points out a guy sitting in the corner and there is a general consensus from the table that he looks like the good camera type. So it is agreed that Mel and I will go and ask him (Lizzie and Hawwa would have to do the next person if this fails.) Up to random person we go, we explain to him about TEACH and all the things we are doing at the school. We then ask him if he has a good camera and if he could possibly help us.

Doug: Sure, I actually have a really good camera.

Boom first time lucky. Lizzie and Hawwa were relieved that their turn wouldn’t come.

Our view. Lol at Hawwa's finger poking Madagascar!

To cut a few long and winding stories short (one is quite funny) it took us 3 days to get all the pictures we needed. Doug was great he came to the school and he did a wonderful job at getting some of the trickier shots done. It took longer than anticipated and we didn’t finish that day so Doug LENT us his camera for the next day, as he couldn’t make it. It was tiring it was long but everyone had fun doing it. In the end we got loads of pictures, I’m excited to see them up on the website.

You know that saying fortune favours the bold, it couldn’t be truer.

7ikmat el post:Go out on a limb that is where the fruit is - Jimmy Carter.

Memorial.

I have always hated bartering with a vengeance. However, since coming here it has become one of my favorite hobbies.

Our little group has now expanded. Lizzie and Mel, Hawwa’s uni friends are finally here and have joined in with everything we are doing at the school and our African adventures

We went to Memorial market on Saturday. After five minutes of walking around I realised that I was gonna have a massive problem. Why do they have a market that sells amazing things like brand new or excellent condition old navy and true religion jeans that cost about 2.50 here? English price for a pair of true religion jeans is over 130 pounds. I was in shopping heaven that was made up of loads of dirt and people trying to get my money. So Aya’s Tanzanian bartering tips are:

1. 1. The first price they give you is never the actual price. So when I am told a price no matter how reasonable I think it is, I either looked massively shocked or start laughing to show the stall owner how ridiculous I think it is. The way I see it is that I am laughing cuz I will never pay the first given price. The owners are usually good humored about cuz they know they are trying to rip you off.

2. 2. Go way below the price you actually want to pay and work your way up until you meet a common ground.

3. 3. Show other store owners stuff you have bought at other stalls and tell them how much you paid. I do this A LOT!

4. 4. If you really,really want something and the owner won’t go down to your price just buy it. You kinda loose face if you feign a walk out and they actually let you go. You then kick yourself cuz you’ve missed out on something really good (I did this, then got my friend to go back and get this AMAZING vintage jacket for me as I couldn’t let it go.)

Lizzie and Mel were kinda ruining Hawwa and I’s poker faces. They were not used to our bartering techniques and thought it was hilarious and so kept on laughing at the stalls.

All in all its good fun for both parties, the clothes owners will always make sure that they make a good profit and you get awesome clothing at a fraction of a fraction of the price you would pay back home. Defiantly one of my top 5 things to do in Moshi.

7ikmat el-post: Keeping a straight, serious,even sometimes outraged face is key during the bartering process. When you leave the stall and round the corner you can then burst into hysterics all you want :D

St Judes.

Since before we arrived in Tanzania I have wanted to visit St Judes School. TEACH’s is currently raising the funds and sorting out the logistics needed to build a school similar to this in Ghana next summer. So when Hawwa called them up on Monday and they said that their term ended on Wednesday we booked tickets to travel to Arusha the next day.

St Judes is an English medium boarding school that was started by an Australian lady 9 years ago. The school has since expanded to two campuses, secondary and primary. They have a rigorous selection procedure to make sure that they are only accepting children from very impoverished backgrounds. They live on a stunning campus and are taught the Cambridge curriculum. Each child is sponsored by outside donors who help with their school and lodge fees. Amazing? Wait till you see the place!

We decided to try and find a goodish bus company for the almost 2 hour drive from Moshi to Arusha (did want a repeat of the horrendous bus journey from Dar). We found an official office that read:

‘Akamba bus services the most experienced bus company connecting east Africa’.

It looked good we bought our tickets in advance, optimistic we looked forward to our trip. At 7am the next morning we realised that our best laid plans had gone to absolute pots as the rickety bus rounded the corner looking the worst for wear. The interior of the bus looked like someone had shaken a massive can of coke and opened it EVERYWHERE. The floor was sticky and with resigned looks we sat down and started our journey. The scenery was the saving grace of our journey and after two hours of bumping around we arrived in Arusha.

We got off the bus to a massive drop in temperature. After checking into a hotel we got something to eat walked around exploring town for a while. To me Arusha is like a mini Dar, its noisy, bustly, the traffic is crazy and the fly catchers there are SO intense. After a few hours there I was beginning to miss my dear Moshi, I couldn’t get back soon enough. Moshi at first glance seems quite big, but after being here for a couple weeks you realise that nothing is that far away. If you think you are lost walk in whatever direction for about 5 minutes and you are sure to bump into somewhere or someone that you know.

Keen beans that we are, we got to St Judes an hour early. Walking into that campus was breathtaking, it was so perfect in every way possible. The lady there told us that she would give us our tour early, despite the fact that she had another group coming an hour later (the group we were supposed to be with). So we walked around their campus in absolute awe of what had been accomplished. They have computer labs, a library, art studios, sports facilities, separate science labs for bio, physics and chem and so much more. It was incredible, mind boggling to think that this had all been achieved in 9 years. By the time we finished our tour the other group had arrived, we decided to take our leave but our tour guide had taken a massive shine to us and convinced us to come and meet the second group. I’m so glad we did.

The second group were an American couple who have been living inTanzania for a couple years now, they run an orphanage in Arusha and they had come to the school to find out the procedure of getting places for their kids or munchkins (as they called them). They were so amazing, the love and dedication they had for these orphaned kids was amazing. It is true in life that you should surround yourself by inspiring people and places, it lifts you higher.

We went back to town to find somewhere to eat, by this time the temperature was still not great so I bought a Massai shawl and walked around Arusha snug as a bug. I wasn’t wearing it properly and I defos looked ridiculous, but I was too affronted by the cold to care. The next morning we got on the bus and returned to Moshi, inspired and so focused on exactly what we are trying to achieve.

7ikmat el-post: Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.
Brian Tracy