BETINA IN AFRICA

… is the mantra of the Big Beyond Foundation and it really resonated with me! It’s the whole ‘give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish’ thing and it’s easy to see how it is brought to life in the projects which are run here.

For example, today I was collecting seedlings in the forest – seedlings which  will take 20-40 years to ‘grow up’. They are then planted and grow in the Big Beyond garden until they are big enough to give to farmers to plant on their lands to try and restore the Bwindi forest to its former glory…talk about long term goals!

The high level project areas are Health, Enterprise & Tourism, Conservation & Environment and Culture. And education in all these areas is what pulls it all together to benefit the local community. People are very poor here, the majority are farmers and job opportunities are few and far between and totally dependent on the gorillas and tourism in general!

Since the volunteer experience is tailored to my skills and interests I have been able to give some input into what I will be spending my next few weeks doing…here some highlights:

• Design and deliver service training programme for the local lodges (should just about be able to manage that!)
• Create plot design and project plan for the new Big Beyond ‘Community Centre’ – this is a really exciting project!
• Help create and organise a bird catalogue (not really my forte but will get to look at many beautiful bird pics!)
• English lessons
• Work with the Big Beyond hospitality team to improve the running of the volunteer house and the overall volunteer experience
• Help set up a mother & baby group (think this may be lowest priority)
• Create a project and event plan for the annual Trail Run that Big Beyond organises each year

So lots to do…and it’s exciting to be able to produce some tangible deliverables that volunteers coming after me can use to engage and educate the community.

Will write separately about the people and where I’m staying – it’s difficult to get enough internet to upload photos to the blog, so…

Oh and if you want to read more about the organisation, here you go: http://www.bigbeyond.org

Hope I’m not jinxing anything, but health wise I have been really well so far on my travels (touching wood, just in case).

Sure, there was a slightly upset stomach in week 2, but nothing serious.

Then there was week 3, the week of a thousand mosquito bites – fine, maybe not a thousand but definitely 30 on my legs – itchy!! 😬

Had a few dizzy spells in Tanzania but think it was my body getting used to a different diet and also not drinking enough water, because it’s all gone now.

The only irritant that I have all the time is actually a blocked nose!?! Thought it was a dust thing in Tanzania but it has not cleared after coming to Uganda…so will keep up with the nasal sprays and get over the occasional nosebleed.

So yes, very positive and all good here in terms of health. Actually feeling really great! And the permanent stress frown I had on my face is gone – people even think I am much younger than I am – have had guesses ranging from 28 to 35 – woohoo!

But when they hear I am 40 they immediately start asking why I am not married and why I don’t have children. Difficult to explain And for them to understand when the culture around this is so different from Europe to Africa…have failed a few times explaining what it means to be ‘in love’…

Anyway, so far I have had plenty of offers of impregnation and 3 marriage proposals in the past five weeks! Will keep you posted if I accept any of the offers! 😀

Sunday started bright and early with the first of many vehicle journeys! Private car to the bus station in Kigali, which was a very busy place with people travelling, people trying to sell you everything from samosas, soft drinks, headphones (they looked a bit dodgy) and socks!

For the next two hours I just enjoyed the views from my fantastic window seat. Rwanda is a beautiful country!

Close to the border with Uganda, we got off the bus, then into another private car that took us to the border. Three different checkpoints later, I had another stamp in my passport 😊

Then another private car took us to the bank where I withdrew half a million Ugandan Shillings. Felt very rich, but it’s only around £115 /  dkr 1,000. And at the final vehicle change in Kisoro we met with a few other Big Beyond team members (will write about Big Beyond as an organisation a little later) and went for lunch before the last stretch to the final destination of Rubugeri on the outskirts of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

The natural beauty continues into Uganda, it’s so fantastically green here and there’s lots of hills and mountains.

My two first official volunteering days were taken up by orientation. A really great introduction as well, consisting of:

• Vision and purpose for Big Beyond and the work they do here
• A local community challenge
• Cultural orientation

It was really well done and prepared…in particular I enjoyed the challenge even though it was scary being sent into the community with a few instructions a list of questions to answer over the next 5 hours! But what a great way to get forced into integrating with the local community…and as I was sitting in the local pub with my new ‘family’ I was reflecting on a day of great conversations, a couple of marriage proposals(!), planting a tree called Omumba, which apparently cures a few illnesses but mainly testicular cancer (how do they know that?)  and some great hiking.

Today was the cultural education day. I learnt a little Rukiga (pronounced rushiga), learnt about the local culture – but more on that later – until I went with one of the coordinators (Friday is his name, another of the coordinators is called Sunday but more about that another time too!) to a local house for lunch. The hosts, Simon & Josephine, were wonderful. She showed me the process of cooking the meal, he entertained by singing & playing a musical instrument called ‘enanga’ which was beautiful. And then it was story and riddle time – very enjoyable although the riddles were a little weird!

Weird being all on my own here in Rwanda… there was such a great network and so many fab people in Tanzania that being alone was a little bit of a shock to the system!

But this evening I met Joseph who is one of the coordinators at the project in Uganda and he is escorting me there tomorrow morning – and what a lovely man! He used to be a guide taking tourists up in the mountains to track gorillas – so lucky. Anyway feeling good about things after that!

Also had a great day here in Kigali. It’s like many other cities, but with a difference. It’s still very African but with a mixture of modern and traditional life…and many hills…

I walked into town this morning – it was market day, so quite hectic but interesting!! The smell of fresh onions and potatoes mixed with petrol fumes and lots of shouting and a fight over a bag of beans…interesting indeed!

Walking around town was fun though, not another Musungu (white person) in sight and you quickly get used to being stared at, talked to and asked if you want to have a ride on a motorbike. Lovely people – and I expected nothing less!

Also seems that WhatsApp are diversifying their business!! And that bars have a certain purpose!! 😀

After my stroll into town I visited the Rwanda Genocide Museum. Such horrible events and so awfully recent. If you haven’t watched the film Hotel Rwanda I encourage you to…it’s so incredibly sad, but so important.

I was however not aware that there had been such a long build up and that the separation of people within Rwanda was already initiated when colonised… and the devastating fact that the world just watched without doing anything was too much for me…wish my mascara had been waterproof! 😥

And not only did the museum show facts of the genocide here, but also of others around the world…how can there be so many evil people in the world?? I just don’t understand…

I have been delaying writing this post about our visit to the Maasai last weekend, because I have not been able to find the right words to describe such a special experience.

It wasn’t an organised tourist tour, instead it was hosted by Daudi, the Maasai boyfriend of Gill, manager of the African Impact project. We visited Kitenden, the village where Daudi grew up which is close to the Kenyan border… So close that we could see into Kenya!

We arrived Saturday mid afternoon. Put up our tents – for those of you who know my feelings about camping, it will not be a surprise to you that I was not great at putting up a tent – so good thing that I had help from my new, wonderful friend Carelynn…and when the tent was up all we had to do was wait for Mount Kilimanjaro to show herself – the view was nothing short of magnificent!

And the sunset wasn’t too shabby either! What a treat!

On the Sunday, we walked around the village, met up with a few of the local Maasai and they showed us how to make fire (needless to say, I made no fire, or even attempted to!) and we all enjoyed their Maasai jumping and gave it a go too. Not sure I impressed anyone!

 

I have come across quite a few Maasai during my few weeks in Tanzania – in class, at the volunteer house where our security guards were Maasai – had plenty of card games with them by the way – and of course during last weekend and they are just super intriguing. So many interesting traditions…

1. First off, the outfits are wonderful, have already got plans for buying one of the ‘blankets’ when I am back in Moshi in December.

2. Then there’s the wonderful woven hair – which isn’t hair at all and is just for young men, they keep it just for a short period before cutting it off…what a shame!

3. Oh and the shoes, I think they thought I was crazy when I kept taking photos of their feet 🙂

And then there are some of the things that might be more difficult to understand

4. They pull out the middle bottom tooth (twice) to make a gap for a couple of reasons, one to be able to pronounce some of the words in their language and the other to make sure if they get ill and are not able to eat, their families are able to feed them through the gap!

5. If there are just daughters in the family, none of them are allowed to marry because then they would all leave home and leave the parents alone…

6. The marks on their faces… They are burn marks, symbols of their tribe (see the guy on the left below) and are made when the children are only young, one of my students mentioned he was 4 years old when he was marked. 😦

7. A lot of the men harm themselves to prepare for circumcision…they are not allowed to flinch or show any emotion when they are circumcised so they practice by cutting in their legs..

But none of their traditions or beliefs change the fact that they are wonderful, friendly and fun people to be around. I feel so, so lucky!

Oh and last but not least from the weekend, we saw a calf being born. It was crazy!, the Maasai had just finished the ‘jumping session’ with us and then they rushed over to deliver the calf…think it made up for the buffalo incident …. My first ever birth of anything! Haha.

All in all, one of the best experiences of my life!

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching was not my first choice for my volunteer experience, but I can honestly say that I have enjoyed every single moment of it. My students have been fantastic and I am sure I have learnt just as much from them as they from me – just different things!

Their curiosity and willingness to learn has been refreshing and wonderful to experience. And to hear about their lives, their culture and their ambitions have been so interesting.

Intriguing to hear their opinions on the fact that some of their fathers have several wives, the fact that some of them had to go live with their grandparents because their parents separate and the fact that girls can get married even before the reach their teens.

And those are just a few of the things that are hard to understand for me – there are over 120 tribes in Tanzania and they all have different traditions… But what I love about the people here is that they do not judge each other, they accept and respect the differences in traditions, in religion and in beliefs. We could all learn a lot from that!!

So it was sad to say goodbye to them last week – so sad that I just didn’t want to, so I offered conversation classes with them this week, and am so pleased that so many of them wanted to join me for that…my last one is today, so will be proper goodbye this time, although I hope to pop in and see them all in December when I’m back here…and I will stay in touch with those who have email addresses – am helping one of them with a business plan, another with creating a LinkedIn profile etc.

Will miss these guys…

30th October 2016

Today marks exactly three weeks since I left London. Three weeks of absolute unwinding, fantastic & interesting experiences and the most friendly & welcoming people….so many moments!

Even though I have been working, it has been such a pleasure and so rewarding that it has not felt like work at all.

On Friday I fly to Kigali, Rwanda for a quick stopover before I head to Uganda for 4 weeks of volunteering there.

Had been thinking about doing many different things this coming week – maybe another safari, maybe a quick beach holiday in Zanzibar, but because I have loved everything here so much I am staying put in Moshi and I will keep helping the projects here a little bit.

I will be doing some one on one sessions on Job application with the students who want it. Am also creating a marketing poster for the women’s group so they can advertise their local meal experience and of course anything else that the team think I might be able to help with – so hopefully a good week ahead.

Have some photos from my last official day of teaching to share and some great experiences from our trip to the Maasai this weekend to tell you about as well…

… but first a long shower (am so dirty after a weekend of camping) and then a relaxing Sunday evening with the rest of the gang – there will be some sad goodbyes and some hopeful see you laters over the next 24 hours.

 

Last weekend was safari weekend! I have never not enjoyed a safari and this was no exception. Two days of nature and animals, it was truly amazing…have hundreds of pics ☺️

I cannot really find adequate words to describe it, so have just included some of my favourite pictures below instead.

One slightly disturbing experience however was when we saw some lions eat a buffalo – we were too late for the actual kill, to the disappointment of a few of the guys in the jeep! As we were watching, suddenly one of the female lions pulled out a baby buffalo from the killed buffalo…she didn’t actually eat it, just played with it…to my relief we could see that the baby was dead already, and after a while the male lion came to take it off the female and ate it! I know it what happens in the ‘circle of life’ here (cue Elton John)  but it was still super sad. 😢 I did take some quite ‘nasty’ pics of the whole ordeal – will leave them out for now, though!

 

 

25th October 2016

A beautiful morning here in Moshi. My early morning walk quickly turned into just staring at the magnificent Mount Kilimanjaro… allowing myself a bit of time to reflect.

It has been so hectic – but in a good way – since I arrived, so many experiences and impressions and learning so much new stuff has kept my brain busy.

Around me, the normal life of Tanzania…people walking, running, cycling, driving past on the red dirt roads – going to work, going to school, getting water. What must they be thinking of me sat at the side of the road with a dreamy look on my face? I can only imagine…

Last night I finally booked my flight to the next stage of my trip (have updated the schedule page). Not leaving here until Friday next week, but booking it made me feel good (had been procrastinating about it since I arrived here) and sad at the same time…

After today I just have another two days with the community class. I have really enjoyed getting to know them and to support them with their learning and would have loved to stay a little longer to progress a bit further with them. All the projects I work on are rewarding, but this class is special to me – maybe because I’ve been able to spend more time with them through the career planning workshops.

Already after a couple of weeks I feel a sense of connection with and responsibility for the future of these young people but of course for them I am just another teacher for a few weeks. And because my brain is wired to be so results-driven it is frustrating in a way that I won’t be able to see them all graduate in December.

But! The enjoyment I feel every day here is luckily not lessened by this, so I’ll continue to enjoy and do as much as I can.

By the way – an amaaaaazing safari this weekend, will write about that later!