Lets Go Exploring

Due to popular demand I have decided to write about my weekend adventures around Sri Lanka, which means that I don’t have to update everyone individually too!

After our first weekend in the jungle we thought it was best to spend our time enjoying the beautiful coastlines of Sri Lanka, so we decided to visit Unawatuna and Hikkaduwa for the next two trips away from Maharagama.

Our bus arrived in Unawatuna just in time for the most amazing sunset, the perfect start to our weekend! It was nice to finally relax and soak up the sun, away from the intensity of our week-life. After dinner next to the stilt fisherman we had a night out in Happy Bananas, it was a treat for me to hear Western music again! Saturday was spent on the sand under the palm trees, swimming in the clear water of the natural sea bath, and sea food on the beach for dinner – paradise!

The next day we were lucky to have a private tour of Koggala Lake, where our homestay family are building a holiday villa. We were paddled across the water by two fisherman, with some planks of wood in between their boats as our seat! We saw jumping fish, bats, birds of prey and also some boats fishing prawns on the edges. The lake is huge and comprises of different sized islands - Bird Island, Temple Island and Cinnamon Island. Afterwards the fisherman took us to the tiny Cinnamon ‘factory’ nearby where the leaves are burned and used to make oil. It was really beautiful, apparently the director of Harry Potter lives next door, alongside other celebrities!

The following weekend was spent in Hikkaduwa, again arriving to see the sunset on the beach. That night we went out to a bar called Vibrations where there were Kandyan dancers, fire eaters and traditional drums, it was incredible! On the beach the following day we were delighted to find they had beds, with some mattresses in huts shaded by palm leaves. What more could you want? The waves are a bit bigger in Hikka so it wasn’t ideal for swimming, but a few of the others hired a board and tried out surfing! On the Sunday we stopped off in Galle on our way home and demolished some chocolate rotti’s at our favourite Dutch Café in the Colonial Fort.

After chilling out for two weekends we decided it was time to venture further into the island. We caught a bus from Colombo to head to Uda Walawe National Park, so we were up before the sun rose for our safari. There were hundreds of species of birds, lizards and crocodiles chilling in the lake. At one point our jeep became surrounded by a heard of mother and baby elephants grazing, they were absolutely fascinating to watch so close up in the wild! Unfortunately we didn’t spot any leopards, there are only around ten in the entire park so they are very rare to see. We also visited the Elephant Transition Home nearby, which cares for orphaned elephants and aims to rehabilitate them in order to release them back into the wild.

 Then for the six hour bus journey from Embilipatiya to Deniyaya, which was surprisingly enjoyable! I sat right next to the windscreen and loved the scenic route through the tea plantations on the narrow winding roads, watching the ladies plucking the tea. Another early start at 5.30am the next day to climb up to a rock temple, with a beautiful view of the sunrise over the hills on the way up. The view from the dagoba at the top was worth the steep trek up, on a clear day apparently you would be able to see Galle lighthouse too. We observed the chief on his morning meditation, pacing alongside the temple one hundred times; it seems a bizarre concept doesn’t it!

For the following weekend I was excited to stay with my Sri Lankan family again, three years after my first trip here. The Friday was Poya Day, so every full moon is a bank holiday (I think Sri Lanka has the most public holidays in the world!). In the evening we visited Panadura Temple for their traditional offerings and prayers; I was the only white person in sight so I got quite a few stares! Then we headed to the beach with all the locals to enjoy the atmosphere and the stars. The rest of the weekend was spent catching up with the family, walking along the beach, playing with their cute nine-month-old neighbour and getting a good night’s sleep! On Sunday we also visited Bambalapitiya Hindu Temple in Colombo, it is so ornately decorated and it was really interesting to watch their prayer routines!

I will leave it at that for now and update you on the remaining weekends soon!

My Psychology Projects

Where does time disappear to? With only five weeks left with SLV I thought it was about time I lock myself in an internet cafe booth and write!

I will just give a brief update on my projects for now, I'm sorry for the lack of photos!

I have surprised myself that I am enjoying youth teaching the most and really look forward to each session. I teach a class of 17-22 year old boys studying a Refrigeration and Air Conditioning vocational course in the Youth Centre. We have been doing topics like careers and hobbies as well as grammar e.g. distinguishing abstract nouns, adjectives and adverbs. They are all a bit giggly and shy but it's such good fun, they just need practice to improve their confidence in English! My morning at the Primary School is probably the most challenging, with a very cheeky Grade 2 class! They are only 6 years old, so their English and attention span is very limited. We've tried our best using songs and games to teach numbers, animals and shapes; but for a two hour class of children running about it can get very tiring!

Some of the psychology projects aren't quite what I had expected, I thought we would be learning more about how they deal with mental health, services available, therapies they use etc. But the fact is they don't actually have anything; for instance there is only one drama therapist in Sri Lanka and one mental health institution in the entire country. Therefore at the moment we are part of a progressive movement to gain contacts and trust and to understand the current facilities, so that they can be worked with to continuously develop and improve. The SLV founders have noticed a huge change since they first arrived, even from the nurses interaction with the patients and the participation in activities. Yesterday was the first time I experienced a facility that was already developed and successful - in the Occupational Therapy Unit at the Mental Health Hospital. As we arrived there they were doing morning exercises and stretching for physical stimulation, participation and focus. Next they did a social interaction activity where they sat in a circle and had to work out what was inside a box through movement and sound, which encouraged them to communicate and problem solve together. Then they were individually assessed on their mood and progress and each allocated an activity - there was cooking, an anger management session, sewing, card making, drawing/painting and jewellery making. I sat in on the last two to learn about what they did there and how it is beneficial. These sorts of activities help with their concentration, following instructions and gaining skills for outside the institution. They sell the things they make at a market in Colombo and all the profits go back into the institution which was really positive to hear.

My favourite project so far is one of the Special Needs Centres, which I spoke a little about in my previous post. We spend time on each of the wards, which requires a varied range of activities. On one visit to the acute wards I spent time with a lady who was severely handicapped and couldn't speak. She was fascinated by my bracelets and I simply spent about twenty minutes showing her, guiding her hand to feel them and then taking hers on and off her wrists as she seemed to like the sensation. The lady opposite loved balloons so we just volleyed them to each other on her bed, practicing my Sinhala numbers! Some of the ladies just love it if you bring them music or give them a hand massage, as it is giving them stimulation rather than just lying in a bed unable to move or sense anything. At first I found it really sad to see the conditions they were in; I suppose I haven't got anything to compare it to though as I've never been anywhere like that in England either. I often speak to a lady who doesn't like to do most of the other activities, so I just go to have a conversation with her. I have shown them my photo albums from home and they have taught me some Sinhala so I have to practice for each time that I go! Most of the other ladies don't speak much English, but always invite you to go sit on their beds for company. A lot of the more-abled patients sew pillow case designs, knit clothes or make greeting cards, which are also sold at the market. One of the ladies in a wheelchair even competes in disabled racing which is amazing! I always really look forward to this project and interacting with the people living there as I know they fully appreciate our time with them.

At the Mental Health Hospital I have worked on a variety of wards - Women's Forensic, Occupational Therapy, Men's Intermediate, Learning Disabilities and Men's Forensic Rehabilitation. In the latter ward I was excited to be part of the first ever drama therapy workshop in the institute. There were about 100 men, either awaiting a court trial or diagnosis following a crime. The atmosphere was surprisingly calm though and they all seemed to really enjoy the session! It encouraged them to engage, interact with the staff and other patients, be creative and be more open in  private sessions and discussions. They are now planning on running it weekly, so it would be great to hear how it has benefited the patients in a few months time. In all the wards the main aim is social interaction, stimulation and improving their well-being. This supports the Holistic approach to psychology and treatment of the whole person rather than solely focusing on their mental health needs. Therefore through therapeutic engagement our activities aim to build social skills, emotional awareness and creativity in a variety of ways. Of course with this type of approach the results are often not immediately obvious, which can be quite demotivating, but it is important to keep in mind the long term goal and development of the projects here in Sri Lanka.

So that's it for now, I will be writing about my adventures exploring Sri Lanka next time!

..x

Ayubowan from Sri Lanka

It is now my third week with SLV in Sri Lanka already, I still don't think I'll ever fully get used to the heat, spices and exhaustion! Some days I have even daydreamed about being back in the cold of England again - that's how unbearable the heat can be!

I am living in the town of Maharagama, which is inland from Colombo. It is probably the noisiest place I have ever been, hundreds of tuk tuks and buses race past with engines roaring and horns blaring and streams of pedestrians chattering through the chaos. The air here is quite thick and humid from the traffic, so it has been nice to get away at the weekends for fresher air.


There are nine girls in my homestay; Hannah and Chloe our coordinators, Chrissie and Seona my room mates, then Rachel, Annie, Anastasia and Ieva in the other two rooms. I love that we've got a great mix of nationalities - English, Swiss, Australian, Lithuanian and Scottish! We live in a separate part of the house to our host family, so it is nice to have some privacy but also get to spend the evenings and breakfast with the family. Amma and Thaththa (Mother and Father) are lovely, cook amazing curries and love to make us dance! They have three sons Kavinda, Deminda and Melinda, who have all studied in England.

I am adjusting back to life under a mosquito net, never having clean feet and wearing insect repellent as perfume. A new thing for me in Sri Lanka though is eating with my hands, it's a tradition here that requires lots of practice and napkins! The trick is to roll the rice up with the curry and only use two fingers and your thumb. Next time you have curry at home stick your hand in and give it a try!

For the first week with SLV we had our introductory orientation, which included seminars on teaching English to youth groups, working with special needs and lesson planning. It geared us up for what we should expect, ideas for lessons and how to engage and stimulate those at the special needs centres. For the rest of the week we visited some of the projects we'd be working with and attempted to learn the maze of bus routes and tuk tuk journeys. The projects are completely spread out so each morning and afternoon we have to battle our way onto the bus, cling on for our lives, surrounded by a sea of sweaty bodies. All for a fee of about 10p!

Our first weekend was spent in the jungle, where SLV had organised team building activities, white water rafting and a jungle trek. It was a great way to get to know all the other volunteers whilst settling into the country, adjusting to the heat and doing something active and fun! I loved rafting, although our boat decided to capsize on one of the rapids which was slightly scary! The jungle trek included a confidence jump from a high rock into a natural pool (cannot believe I did it!), rock sliding, getting lost and a few unwanted leeches!

After our introductory week we dived straight in with our projects. First of all on Monday morning the homestays meet up at the Youth Centre nearby and plan all the lessons for the week, which has proven to be harder work than expected. Then for the rest of the week we have a timetable that varies each morning and afternoon. I have three special needs projects, three teaching projects and two psychology projects. It was a little shocking at first to see some of the places we would be working, so it has been eye-opening. There was one special needs centre that struck me the most, particularly the acute wards for those with the most severe disabilities and illnesses. As with many places in Sri Lanka there are no doors or windows in the wards, but it gives the centre a great feel of openness, freedom and a connection to outside. Each ward has around ten to twenty beds, and it was great to see each had it's own mosquito net and the patients often have bright artwork decorating their space. Some other projects aren't quite so well-equipped, with only bare beds filling the room.

For the special needs projects our role is to provide sensory stimulation and a variety of therapeutic activities to engage the patients and enhance the quality of life being institutionalised. Some patients have really good English so enjoy simply having a conversation or teaching Sinhala, I've been told I am getting tested every Friday morning by one lady!

I am teaching a Grade 2 class in a Primary School, youth teaching for a vocational course and teaching English in a temple to community members. It's been quite a challenge to construct appropriate lesson plans and most of the time they completely go out the window! But it is teaching me to improvise and hopefully the students will still learn a lot!

I will update you on the projects and my progress in a few weeks time. For now I am ready to migrate to the beach for the weekend to relax and possibly have a lay in until 8.30am!

..x

And So The Next Adventure Begins

Here I am once again at the start of a very exciting new adventure! I have just read back my first blog post and chuckled as I am in the same situation... My departure has come around far too quickly it's 14 hours until I will be on the plane and I've had an absolute 'mare trying to squeeze eight months worth of stuff into my good old rucksack!

 

So at 5.30am tomorrow morning I will be leaving for Heathrow for the rest of my placement year. I will be spending the first three months in Sri Lanka on a clinical psychology placement in the South-East. This will involve running therapeutic activities at a psychiatric hospital in the Acute, Learning Disability and Occupational Therapy units. I will also be volunteering at a residential centre that provides long-term care for approximately 525 women who have a mental illness.

 

 

From here I am going straight to Hanoi in the north of Vietnam to work in special needs centres for children with a range of physical and mental disabilities. One of the centres provides support to young people who suffer from the effects of Agent Orange and Japanese Encephalitis too. My role here will mainly involve assisting academic teaching, general care, vocational classes to teach life-skills and improving their confidence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not really sure how I feel right now, everything has been so rush rush rush as usual, especially with working stupid hours to be able to pay for it all! But I know it will be worth it, and I think it will hit me when I arrive! This placement year has been my dream since the idea grew in Thailand in 2012, here I am now about to live it.

 

Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me, I couldn't have done it without you. I'm certainly going to miss a lot of people!

 

I will try and update you in a few weeks once I've settled in and got stuck in with my placements. So for now, goodbye!

 

Emma ..x

Challenge Yourself to Change Your World

For the second half of my placement in Africa, Charlie 2 focused their efforts on construction, teaching and a HIV/AIDS awareness campaign.

My team were hoping to make a lot of progress in the construction phase with the help of our project partner. Due to the horrific state and number of primary school toilets we planned to build three new latrine blocks for the children at Mgongo Primary. At the start we thought five weeks of hard graft and the assistance of local fundi (builders) would be enough to help us achieve our goal. However ‘This Is Africa’! The man delivering the water was ill for a few days, there wasn’t enough water for the next few days, then someone’s uncle died, our project partner never turned up, then the fundi were going to a wedding for the following two days, we had to wait for them to turn up each morning in ‘Tanzanian Time’, the fundi got too tired to work past 11 o’clock, and of course everyone celebrates the end of Ramadan for two more days… It seemed to never end and our goal went from completing three toilet blocks to finishing one, to just being able to get the bricks made!

So early each morning we lugged our tools, wheelbarrows, supply of drinking water and medical box to the school feeling motivated to do our best. We started by helping to dig the latrine pits, which were eventually around 10ft deep. Next we learnt how to make the simple mud bricks that the locals use for their houses. This involved hoeing up the ground into a pile, pouring water over, shovelling it into a wooden cast, punching out the trapped air, smoothing it over and then lifting off the cast whilst keeping it in shape! After a few days of drying in the sun we had to move and place the mud bricks into a complex stack ready to be burnt, which would increase their stability. The bricks were fairly large and heavy so it was harder work than we originally thought! But it was really good when we all got into it and worked together as a team. We danced and sang along to the radio which the locals loved, especially when we played a great Tanzanian tune ‘Dar es Salaam Stand Up’!

Due to the inconsistent schedule for the latrine construction we decided to go ahead with our secondary project instead.

Our secondary project in Charlie 2 was a HIV and AIDS awareness campaign. We were very lucky to have a HIV/AIDS volunteer working with our project partner, who helped us launch our campaign in the local area. Together we composed a presentation that included definitions, symptoms, stages, spread, prevention, stigma and discrimination. Over our last few weeks in Mgongo we held our awareness campaign at multiple community meetings, to secondary school students and teachers, then to teachers and elder students at four primary schools. I learnt a lot about HIV and AIDS from this project and it has inspired me to get involved with other similar projects in the future. By far the most interesting part of the campaign was the question time at the end – it really showed us how false or little knowledge most members of the community had on HIV/AIDS. We heard some weird and wonderful things, but the most important thing we realised about preventing HIV was that we couldn’t just tell people to wear condoms – They had no idea how or why. So after lots of persuading, Thabani and Catherine made use of our bananas and box of condoms to demonstrate this novel idea!

 

Black African magic, a.k.a. juju, seemed to be the biggest culprit for a negative attitude towards condoms and HIV. Many people believed that condoms themselves contain diseases and if you leave them out in the sun then you can see the viruses and also maggots start growing inside. We attempted to try this but they all burst after a few minutes in the heat! They also believed that AIDS is caused by someone cursing you; hence most people would seek advice from a witch doctor and not a medical professional. One teacher was even fiercely accusing condoms of shortening the distance that people can pee, as ‘back in the day they could pee for metres’…

All in all our awareness sessions were extremely successful and we received some great feedback from those who attended. It has certainly taught me a lot and I hope that it has made an impact on the community in Mgongo. 

We were hoping to do quite a bit of teaching in our second phase, but due to the messed up construction timetable and on-going success of our HIV campaigns we only managed to fit it in a couple of times. The classrooms are simple mud structures packed with rows of battered wooden benches and a painted on chalk board. When you walk into the classroom you can’t help but smile as the children stand up with a chorus of good mornings and giggles! It was a little daunting when I was presented with my first class, who were the youngest in the school. Where the hell was I going to start?! My Swahili was certainly put to the test, especially when my Tanzanian translator Kenny decided to disappear for half an hour! Luckily I managed to wangle my way through shapes, numbers, the alphabet and body parts, ready for heads shoulders knees and toes! My chalk animal drawings went down well too and they decided to teach me them all in Swahili before acting out the noises! I ended up teaching for three hours I was having so much fun! My other class was with Frank for Standard 7 doing maths in preparation for their upcoming exams, so a bit more serious! After some Pythagoras and division I decided to liven up the lesson in true Raleigh style - with an energiser! We selected some students to come up to the front to act as ninjas and try not to get karate chopped; it was highly amusing and hopefully brightened up their maths lesson! I really enjoyed teaching in Mgongo and it has given me the confidence and motivation to do more teaching in my future projects. I’m now considering doing a TEFL after university (teaching English as a foreign language qualification), so we’ll see what happens!

 In between our busy project timetable we managed to fit in some cultural experiences and a little bit of chilled time! Faudhia taught the girls how to make sweet and savoury chapattis, which were amazing! Kenny was assigned as our language teacher, testing us on basic Swahili words and phrases. So in return we decided to challenge the Tanzanians with some old fashioned English tongue-twisters! I learnt  a hell of a lot about the African culture too, through observing behaviours and asking billions of questions! The most intriguing things revolved around juju, for instance the Tanzanians believed that certain people can fly on rice sieves as midnight. You have to be naked of course…

A great experience was visiting the travelling market that passed through Mgongo once a month. We haggled our way into some weird and wonderful souvenirs, including machetes, cow bells and arrow heads! Freya, Kitty and I were in awe of the hundreds of beautiful kitenge fabrics on offer, with every print, pattern and colour imaginable! The second market fell on Eid, which celebrates the end Ramadan. Faudhia from my team had been fasting so in honour we all dressed up and sacrificed a goat for a thoroughly enjoyable feast!

On our last weekend in Mgongo we decided to hike to the mountains in the distance (more of a long stretch of steep hill). We arranged for a local to be our guide, who insisted it would only take around six hours. But obviously this was in Tanzanian time… The walk there was really beautiful and the view from the top was worth every panting breath and aching muscle!  The moment we reached the peak I realised how far I had come and everything Team Majanga had achieved. We could see for miles across the flat plains and also a waterfall nearby, so we decided to head over for a swim! After lots of clambering and climbing we got to the base of the waterfall. The pool beneath was sacred to the local Pagan community, so we were only able to have a refreshing dip further downstream! After a long, sweaty day in the relentless heat we eventually hauled our feet back to camp… Ten hours later! It was definitely worth every second though and summed up our journey in Tanzania.

To celebrate our achievements we held an Awards Ceremony on our last night in Mgongo, complete with champagne! (Non-alcoholic unfortunately…) It was great to think about how far our team had come and everything we had done in the village. I had an incredible time living and working alongside such interesting people and have learnt so much from it. I knew it would be sad saying goodbye to Mgongo and I will really miss everyone I met, but I was glad to finally be leaving that bloody tent!

Our Projects in Tanzania

For the first four weeks at our village the main focuses of our project were integrating with the community, action research and awareness raising. 

To integrate with the local community we introduced ourselves in a number of ways. Firstly we visited the market every day to familiarise ourselves with the stall owners and explained our role with Raleigh ICS and SEMA. At first we got lots of unwelcoming looks as they thought we would just be there for the goldmine that was on the outskirts of the village. I don’t know if I was expecting them to welcome us with open arms, but I was a bit thrown off by this and couldn’t understand why they were being so unfriendly and would just stare or demand money. However when people started listening to our reasons for staying in the area and what we planned to do they gradually became more accepting, making us feel at ease. The villagers began to learn our names and faces and would try their best attempt at speaking basic English to please us. We met some very kind people in the village, especially the village leaders who welcomed us back to visit whenever possible!

As most of our projects would involve the schools we thought it was essential to get to know the students and teachers to build trust and respect. To do this my team held sports days at Mgongo Primary and Kibululu Primary Schools, with sack races, relays, three-legged and traditional running races. The children had never done anything like this before so were very excited yet nervous! The team were feeling a bit anxious about controlling hundreds of kids speaking a different language, especially as order and organisation doesn’t really exist in Africa! But with their co-operation and the help of the prefects we somehow managed to run it all smoothly and it was a really fun day. The highlight for me was being surrounded by all the children at the end of the day, fascinated by our hair and skin, then singing us a song in unison. It really was special to hear and is one of my favourite memories with the children in Mgongo.

 

To engage with the secondary school students we joined in with netball and football tournaments on a Friday afternoon for a few weeks. At secondary school they get taught all their lessons in English so it was slightly easier to attempt speaking to them, although they all got very shy! They loved that the British volunteers joined in with the sports too and liked to laugh at us getting tired in the heat!

As mentioned in my post ‘Welcome to Mgongo – Karibu Sana’ we conducted household surveys for our action research about water and sanitation. The results of this subsequently guided our awareness raising, infrastructure construction and secondary project.

For our awareness raising we decided to do a hand hygiene campaign with five schools in the area. In order to make it effective and sustainable we knew we had to plan it thoroughly. The team gathered for hours of meetings to discuss and plan everything we were to do in detail. As we were the first Raleigh ICS group in Tanzania there were no resources available from any previous teams or from the project partner either, so it took a while to prepare every campaign, session and meeting. This was still within our first few weeks so to begin with we had some slight language barrier difficulties, as the Tanzanian volunteers were having trouble keeping up with the fast incoherent discussions of the British. Hence part of our challenge was to continuously consider this and to make sure everyone understood every detail. After all, we were part of a team and each individual needed time to get involved. So after hours of discussions and decisions we had a plan of action to help the water, health and sanitation in Mgongo.

Once the planning and organising were complete we were finally able to begin the health awareness lessons. Our aim was to teach the schools about hand hygiene in order to help prevent diseases and illnesses. For the knowledge to be relevant we had to first provide the schools with hand washing facilities, i.e. a ‘Tippy-Tap’. A tippy-tap is a very basic but effective invention that has minimal surface contact and water wastage. It is simply three long wooden sticks, a jerry can with a hole cut in the side, string and a stick for the pedal. So to access the water you push your foot down on the pedal, which tips the jerry can via the attached string, and the water will come out like a tap – voila! We built two tippy-taps by the latrines at each school to encourage the children to use it after going to the toilet. We then conducted the health awareness sessions in four parts. First of all in introduction into why you should wash your hands, secondly a play about protecting your friends and family from illness, thirdly an explanation and demonstration of the tippy-tap and finally a germ game using flour to represent how thoroughly you must wash your hands! It was only basic information, but the children were completely unaware of why it is essential for them to wash their hands. It was such a great moment to first see a young boy running straight to the tippy tap after the toilet to try it out – I really hope we educated the teachers enough too for it to continue.

Another on-going project throughout our time in Mgongo was the Women’s Group. It was the first female social group to be set up in the area, so we found that it was a bit slow to get going and we began to doubt any success! However after a few meetings we all started to really enjoy it and have a really good time, despite the huge language barrier! We all spoke about our lives, families and ambitions, which helped us to understand each other a lot more. They also shared music and crafts that they had made and we showed them our photos and art work. Mama Musa showed us a bowl she had weaved using dried grass, and because we had said we loved it she presented all the girls with one as a leaving gift! With the whole women’s group we also made a doormat and netball bibs together; the netball bibs were an on-going project for the girls at the Secondary School to encourage them to be active and enjoy sports. In our last week in Mgongo Mama Musa invited us to her house for tea and to build her a Tippy-Tap outside her latrine. It was a simple mud house, yet she had made it feel very friendly and cosy! It was very sad to say goodbye to all the women from the group, but they generously welcomed us back to stay with them whenever we could J

So that’s what we got up to in our first five weeks in Tanzania. I will update you again on the second phase soon!

..x

A Day in The Life of Team Majanga

Charlie 2 Before a Hike

After three weeks at home I’ve finally started to get used to the reality of life away from Africa. I have found it quite difficult to adjust back to life in the UK, from attitudes to surroundings to our own issues. The bizarre lifestyle we had living in Tanzania became normal after ten weeks and it was difficult at first to see it from an outsider’s point of view. I learnt a lot from my time away with Raleigh ICS about the reality of life in rural villages such as Mgongo, how international development can benefit such communities but also challenging myself to live in basic conditions in the middle of Africa with a team of thirteen diverse people.

So to explain a little better here’s a day in the life of Team Majanga…

After a luxurious night on a thin roll matt under a suffocating mosquito net in a tent full of eight people with walls constantly flapping violently in the wind, it was time to wake up feeling fresh for the busy day ahead. Breakfast calls varied between 5am and 8am, depending on the plans for the day. This would be served by the pair on camp duty – one British and one Tanzanian. This was one of four daily duties, which involved cooking each meal and staying guard at the camp all day.

Our Home for Ten Weeks

 

The daily food at the camp was carbs, carbs, and some more carbs. For breakfast we had porridge every single morning, which I thought was really nice to start with. But after weeks and weeks of the stuff and when the sugar, chocolate and milk powder rations ran out, it wasn’t quite so appetising. But still, eating out of a mess-tin watching the sun rise over the mountains is something quite amazing!

Depending on our schedule, the team would have to be promptly ready after breakfast to begin surveys, hold meetings all morning, head to the schools or practice their campaign role. We tried to throw in some Raleigh energisers to liven us all up a bit too! One of my favourites was Last Man Standing… everyone had to fill their mouths up with as much water as possible, with the aim to make everyone else laugh. The trick was to avoid them spitting it out over you!

Those on camp duty would then have the opportunity to use their ration of water to wash their clothes for the week in a bucket, which would usually be taken over by the Tanzanians tutting at our inability to clean them by hand! I took full advantage of my camp duties to be my ‘pamper day’ of fresh laundry, clean hair and scrubbed feet! All with less than just one bucket of water.

It’s shocking to think how much water we use a day back in the UK. Old style toilets use around 15 litres just for one flush, but newer ones still use 4-6 litres. A washing machine uses up approximately 50 litres for one spin and a dishwasher can use 20 litres of water. Obviously this is better than a few decades ago due to advanced technology and design, yet I find it shocking to realise how much we water we waste and completely take it for granted. In the UK we use 150 litres of water on average per day. For one person. In the scorching heat of Mgongo where we were constantly sweating and drinking a great deal more than at home we used 200 litres per day. For thirteen people. That’s only 15 litres each per day for cooking, cleaning, drinking, washing clothes hands and showering. It has made me think a lot about the water usage in my household and I would definitely encourage others to consider their own habits to try and save water.

The Village Water Source

The people of Mgongo begged us for a water tap in their village. A tap would mean they have many more hours spare each day to focus on the important things – farming their crops, looking after their livestock and educating their children. Every morning the students would have to leave school for a couple of hours to fill their jerry cans up from the bore holes in the dry river bed to have some more unclean water to drink. For them, it affects so much more than just their water though. It’s their education, livelihood and health. Unfortunately we did not have the time or resources to begin construction of a pump for them, but we informed our project partner SEMA and hopefully the next Raleigh ICS group will be able to build one for the village, which is great news!

So back to life at camp… After a busy morning the heat tends to exceed 40 degrees to make the rest of the day even more tiring! We attempted to get a decent tan for ten weeks in Africa, but simply gave up due to the unbearable heat. “Sunbathing? Too busy saving the world!”

The afternoon would be a continuation of one of our many projects, with the fantastic translations from our Swahili speaking volunteers. We would not have been able to achieve half of what we did without a mixed team of British and Tanzanians, which is such a great and unique aspect of Raleigh. The Tanzanians helped us to integrate into our new community but also learn how much they were connected to the Western World. For instance we were quite surprised in our minibus journeys to Kizonzo School to have the delights of Westlife and Celine Dion tracks repeated each time! Our Tanzanian Frank was also very upset to hear that Westlife had split up and would no longer be releasing new songs… It’s odd what parts of British life they have taken on board!

For camp duty most of the day would consist of sitting on the floor chopping, peeling and cooking in true African style. Our gas stove decided to break one week too so we got used to tackling the wind and balancing the pan on rocks for hours on a camp fire! Lunch and dinners would revolve around even more carbs (rice, potatoes or spaghetti) with a sauce based on just onions and tomatoes. Now I honestly never want to see another potato in my life!

The basic food provoked the whole camp to crave certain luxuries, with a good old McDonald’s being the British favourite! The prospect of chocolate always excited the British girls too, so when our Deputy Project Leader visited on ‘the loop’ it was all we could think about for days! We also looked forward to the rare treat of fried chicken and chips, although the preparation time of slaughtering the chicken and peeling 10kg of potatoes deterred us from doing it often!

 

Another thing that was a million miles away from us in camp life was communication. It was slightly odd but very refreshing not to think about checking your phone or Facebook constantly and be brainwashed by all the mass crap that many people revolve their lives around. I lived without any phone or internet completely for ten weeks, until my last day when I called my mum to let her know I was still alive and checking for a lift home from the airport! Our only form of communication therefore was letters. This was really cool to start with, but after finding time to write what felt like a million letters it became a bit of a chore to repeat everything over and over! I would have very much appreciated a desk instead of the floor too! Living in camp made me miss having clean feet and a carpet too, especially when you’re showering standing in mud and can only expect your wet feet to collect the sand in the tent! As for wildlife, apart from hyenas and a few baboons we didn’t get to see much unfortunately. Well unless you count cows, goats, chickens, ants, flies, beetles, mosquitoes…

So after finishing our project work for the day it would be time to visit the local market, play with the children hanging around camp or join the queue for a showering with a bucket and jug. Despite the barren landscape and sand, the village was certainly full of colour. From the bright bold kitenges worn by the local women to the rows of fresh fruits and vegetables, it was what I’d always pictured African life to be like! Around our camp there were endless fields of dried sunflowers and maize, waiting for the first drop of rain from the wet season in November. At first we found it really odd to see a bunch of young children attending the fields or herding the cows and goats to graze. They couldn’t have been older than eight years old, yet they were left alone to help the family to maintain their land. This is Africa.

Raheli in the middle with her sisters and I

For me a really great thing about living in Mgongo for so long was hearing a little voice shouting ‘Emma!’ when walking around even the remotest part of the village! The children were always so inquisitive and excited to see people from outside their area, let alone country! Whether we were at the school, market or just walking we would hear our names being called, so we also got them shouting “Chapattis!” and “Sausages!” Another thing they absolutely loved was photographs. Normally they wouldn’t be able to recognise themselves but would always point out their friends and giggle a lot! One little girl in particular stole my heart, her name was Raheli. She was only in Standard 4 at school, but was really eager to learn. Raheli taught me Swahili with my phrase book by correcting my pronunciation and wanted to be able to read in English so borrowed my book to practice. It is really sad to know that opportunities in rural communities like Mgongo are limited, with so few children making it to secondary school. However with organisations like Raleigh and ICS it is possible to change that and I have been inspired to carry on helping children like Raheli to have more opportunities in life.

 

So at the end of a busy day when the sun had gone down and the stars were filling the sky, it was time for bed again. It did take a while to get used to sleeping on the hard floor, especially with someone else's feet kicking your head, the tent going mental in the wind and still around 28 degree heat! One night we even got the treat of a surprise visit from some hyenas. Their distinctive call was suddenly heard around our campsite, alarming quite a few of our team members! It was also a bit unnerving that our tent door was ripped down the seam and none of the zips worked so it was just a gaping hole… But in true Majanga fashion we worked as a team to make the most noise possible at 3am to scare the hyenas away from the camp, with cow bells, clanging mess tins and peculiar vocals – it appeared to work! Another eventful day at Camp Majanga done, the next exciting one about to begin J