Tanzanian Experience - Hakuna Matata

This week has had a few unexpected twists and turns. The English Lessons that were planned didn't happen because  as expected it took all week for the students to arrive back. They just come in dribs and drabs,have to register at the office and have their luggage searched before going to the dormitories to settle in, so formal lessons for many classes are a non event for a few days. This coming week doesn't hold a lot of promise of work for some as it is Form Four Graduation Day next Friday and that is a huge event which lasts all day. Despite the change to plans, I still had a very busy week trying to sort out dilemmas for students and covering and repairing heaps of books in the Library.  This week Evina, the young lady in charge of the Library was offered a place at a college near Dar Es Salaam to do a further two years study in Librarianship so she will be leaving in about ten days time. She was so excited and literally nearly swept me off my feet when she found out. ...

  The Engagement Party .     The names of most of the villages in the Kagera District   start with the letter K and as it turns out we had the wrong K village. No walking . The right one was accessible by car so with Kevin as chauffeur and a few teachers as guides, we set out at Midday for a short drive to the place. True to African style, the event supposedly started at midday but the teachers decided we would not leave the school before midday as we would be early. So   true.    The venue was a short walk from the road to a space in front of the parent’s house surrounded by banana trees. There we sat until 2.00pm until the meal was ready.   To accommodate all the guests the meal was in shifts. We were taken into the house and sat on the mat for our meal after which we exited outside to sit again while the next shift had their turn. When bored have a wrestle or simply curl up and sleep or have some fun on Kevin's knees This...

13th September, 2018 The Zebras (see earlier posts) were getting restless , so it was time to release them from idleness and  restraint, stuff them full and head them back to their homeland, Tanzania.  The flight over for us was smooth and rather uneventful until we reached Entebbe but they and the rest of  our luggage didn't fare so well.When we went to collect our luggage on arrival at Entebbe, we discovered one zebra had suffered a broken leg (one set of wheels missing ) and some fractures to his rib cage ( and may have to go into forced retirement) and  instead of four pieces of luggage we could only find three. I'm sure some of you may be able to relate to that sinking feeling as the baggage carousel keeps going round and round and your items just don't seem to be there. We reported it missing and waited for the next hour and a half while enquiries were made. That was okay except we had prearranged for a taxi to take us to the border and not having a phone whi...