The first two weeks at placement have both flown and crawled by, somehow. Our time is mainly spent teaching kids first aid in a haze of English, Swahili and sign language, cooking up a storm over a kerosene stove, and creating Grammy-worthy songs both to use in class and to entertain ourselves in the evenings. Latrines are always a fun experience as well, our thighs have never been stronger from all this squatting. Chickens stroll into classrooms, bats fly into our bedroom and our bread got invaded by ants. C'est la vie, there are more reasons to laugh than to cry and we're all having such an amazing experience. It gets so dark so quickly here, and with the two hours of time difference, it's always funny to think we're in bed by 9pm GMT.
Things at Kifaru Sekondari Schule have been eventful, but we're powering through, working hard and enjoying ourselves. The school day is intense to say the least; the students are up by 6am, assembly at 7.15am, lessons 7.30am - 10.10am and then a chai break. Lessons continue at 10.40am - 2.10pm when they stop for lunch - usually ugali, an odd African porridge made from maize flour that is really satisfying as long as you eat it with something tasty. Then they have private study 3pm - 5pm, another assembly at 6pm, preparation or religion on Fridays from 7.30pm after their dinner and more studying until around 10pm. Sometimes they fit a few football matches in as well. Their stamina is remarkable; if ugali produces this kind of energy, I'm definitely taking up an offer I've had for African cooking lessons.
Our students are fiercely intelligent, always asking questions (on every subject under the sun as well as all things first aid). On two occasions, they've seen members of FAA in action when a pupil was taken ill. It really made a difference to the atmosphere in our classrooms - everyone suddenly seemed so much more keen to learn after understanding the importance of what we can do and what they can do if they try hard in our lessons.
Coming back to Moshi at the weekends is almost like coming home to a family, it's always so good to see the rest of the group and find out the happenings of all the different placements throughout the week. Most of TG3 are heading out on safari this weekend, early tomorrow morning until Sunday night. We'll be visiting the Ngorongoro National Park and Lake Manyara, and everyone's very excited about seeing some kind of real life lived out version of 'The Lion King'. Or maybe that's just me - we might see elephants and rhinos and giraffes, but personally, I won't be satisfied until I see a monkey hold a lion cub up over all the animals of the plains.
More next week, when we have a bit more time to plan the post-placement trip to Zanzibar. I'll be seeing in my twenties on 31st, hopefully on a beach with a cocktail after saying goodbye to Kifaru. Two more weeks to teach them all we can. And to find somewhere safer to keep the bread....
