In the Indian Ocean
Our tent at camp in Mvae
The sunset from camp, taken by Richard
Liz, Kathrine and I with some school girls on Sunset Log
Getting Udongo for brick making
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Week one in the village
I can't believe I've already done week one of three. It's going by pretty quick although it still seems like it's taking forever to get back home. I know once I'm home I'll wish I was back here but I can't help but miss it. Camp is pretty great. We are about one hour outside of the main town where I am writing you from now. We are sleeping in a giant Army tent and the beds are crap but I'm still mananging to get plenty of good sleep, surprisingly enough. The food is alright, but it takes forever to cook anything. I'm also eating gross amounts of Mayo but that's the only dairy we have all week long and it makes things like salad and what-not a little less boring. I love all the other volunteers, they are a blast and I'm getting along well with everyone so far. I like my quiet time which you really don't get much of but it's still good.
The stars are the most amazing things you have ever seen from way out there. They are endless and it looks like they are falling from the sky the way they completely surround you. You can also see the milky way and it is so dark at night. I saw a sliver of the moon for the fisrt time last night, it's kind of wierd. The sunsets are also incredible. They don't last long but a lot of nights we will all run out to what we call "Sunset Log" ( a fallen log outside of camp in a feild) to watch it go down, and the colours are just amazing. I have some great pictures so far but this computer is very slow so I am going to go to a faster internet caffe tomorrow and try to post some.
I look like a gross bum about 90% of the time and I miss my shower stall like you wouldn't believe. I only wear about 2 pairs of cloths because everything you wear out there goes orange within a few hours and you can't escape it so I just wear the same stuff day after day and don't worry about it. I am one of the cleaner people out there too so I really don't even notice until we come back into town here. I have been writing in my Journal a lot so I don't forget any stories for when I get back home. I've only been gone 2 weeks and I have already used over 1/4 of the pages.
Work sucks and it's really hard, but I'll live. We have spent most of the time making brick which doesn't sound hard but it's nothing like the bricks we have at home. We first mix sand with concrete mix and water all by hand and then beat it into wooden forms with a giant caveman like bat which kills the body and you are so sore by the end of it you really don't want to move. We have to fetch all the water in buckets from a well about 200' away from the sit and the bricks are solid blocks that weigh about 40lbs when they are dry. We don't leave them in the forms to dry you pack it in and then take the form off right away so it really sucks when they break and you have to start over again. Three of us still manage to do about 150 in a morning. We only work for about 4 hours a day because after that it gets too hot and we can't keep going.
After work and cooking there really isn't a whole lot to do out there but we have been to the local school and to a few peoples houses which is interesting. We went to our camp guards house, his name is Jimani and he tries very hard to speak english which makes us all laugh every single day. He is 54 years old and have two wives, the youngest one being 23. He has 10 kids and his oldest is a girl who is 28 years old. Twisted huh? He calls us all, girls included, Mr. and Sir all the time but we are trying to teach him. He's a bit if a cheaky bugger but we love him and camp wouldn't be the same without him. Over here you have to buy 5 cows for your wife before you can marry her and once you are married that's it, the wife can't just leave if she wants. I'm so glad it's not like that at home.
Well that's all for now, hope everyone back home is doing well and I hope the weather gets better there, it doesn't sound to great so far. I haven't seen rain since I left! Love you all, talk to you next Friday.
The stars are the most amazing things you have ever seen from way out there. They are endless and it looks like they are falling from the sky the way they completely surround you. You can also see the milky way and it is so dark at night. I saw a sliver of the moon for the fisrt time last night, it's kind of wierd. The sunsets are also incredible. They don't last long but a lot of nights we will all run out to what we call "Sunset Log" ( a fallen log outside of camp in a feild) to watch it go down, and the colours are just amazing. I have some great pictures so far but this computer is very slow so I am going to go to a faster internet caffe tomorrow and try to post some.
I look like a gross bum about 90% of the time and I miss my shower stall like you wouldn't believe. I only wear about 2 pairs of cloths because everything you wear out there goes orange within a few hours and you can't escape it so I just wear the same stuff day after day and don't worry about it. I am one of the cleaner people out there too so I really don't even notice until we come back into town here. I have been writing in my Journal a lot so I don't forget any stories for when I get back home. I've only been gone 2 weeks and I have already used over 1/4 of the pages.
Work sucks and it's really hard, but I'll live. We have spent most of the time making brick which doesn't sound hard but it's nothing like the bricks we have at home. We first mix sand with concrete mix and water all by hand and then beat it into wooden forms with a giant caveman like bat which kills the body and you are so sore by the end of it you really don't want to move. We have to fetch all the water in buckets from a well about 200' away from the sit and the bricks are solid blocks that weigh about 40lbs when they are dry. We don't leave them in the forms to dry you pack it in and then take the form off right away so it really sucks when they break and you have to start over again. Three of us still manage to do about 150 in a morning. We only work for about 4 hours a day because after that it gets too hot and we can't keep going.
After work and cooking there really isn't a whole lot to do out there but we have been to the local school and to a few peoples houses which is interesting. We went to our camp guards house, his name is Jimani and he tries very hard to speak english which makes us all laugh every single day. He is 54 years old and have two wives, the youngest one being 23. He has 10 kids and his oldest is a girl who is 28 years old. Twisted huh? He calls us all, girls included, Mr. and Sir all the time but we are trying to teach him. He's a bit if a cheaky bugger but we love him and camp wouldn't be the same without him. Over here you have to buy 5 cows for your wife before you can marry her and once you are married that's it, the wife can't just leave if she wants. I'm so glad it's not like that at home.
Well that's all for now, hope everyone back home is doing well and I hope the weather gets better there, it doesn't sound to great so far. I haven't seen rain since I left! Love you all, talk to you next Friday.
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