One day when I am floating towards those Pearly Gates, I can look back and say my life was never boring. There was always something, some little drama to keep me entertained. But stay out of it Hollywood because this is my soap opera. I have earned the copyright.
When I headed back to Cape Town in November 2014, after many years of working overseas, I thought I knew exactly what my future held. I was going to open a Remedial Centre for children with learning difficulties. It was going to be a business. I was going to make money and have a life.
But, like the books I write, there had to be a twist. And a good twist is one even the characters don't see coming.
Parents approached me to homeschool their children. The Remedial Centre was only in the afternoons, so there was time in my day to start a a learning/tutor centre in the mornings. But with word of mouth my learning/tutor centre grew until all my available time was spent teaching and getting resources together. There was no time left for my writing. No time to market the Remedial Centre. No time for family.
It began to feel like I was on a hamster wheel, treading for my life.
My business quickly evolved into a charity with all available funding going back into the learning centre. I started feeding the children. During this time I became aware of a huge need for a Family Crisis Centre in Table View, the suburb in which I lived. Women with children who fell on hard times, had nowhere to go when they got divorced, were being abused...there was no place for them in our area. Nowhere they could go until they got their lives back on track. Getting this Family Crisis Centre off the ground and up and running is my current project. I have applied to register an NGO but our government works at a different pace. With an excellent team and supportive parents, my learning centre has gone from strength to strength. We thrive on Ubunthu.
So from wanting to start a business and generate an income to make a living, I have moved onto wanting to make a difference in people's lives.
At night I go to bed tired but excited that I am making a difference.
The late great Nelson Mandela said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
This of course does mean that I have to sell my house as without an income I cannot afford to keep it.
A year ago I was working in an international school with privileged children, earning a fat salary. But I was unhappy and heading towards depression. Who would have thought that a year later I would be loving what I am doing, but too broke to pay attention?
But that doesn't stop me, I am about to change the world, one child at a time.
My life has changed direction and I never saw it coming.
My business evolved into a charity.
Teaching children who don't fit into the one-size-fits-all mold of the South African education system.
Helping children get the specialised education they need when their parents can't afford to pay for it.
Working to get a Family Crisis Centre off the ground.
Meeting other caring people in the community who are also committed to making a difference.
Now that there's an offer on my house, friends and family ask where I'll stay when my house is sold. I smile and shrug. "I'll let you know when I find out."
So many twists and turns in this current chapter of my life, I am getting a little dizzy.
If you can help fund our learning centre or Family Crisis Centre in any way, we have a Go Fund Me page. Every $5 helps. Food and resources are expensive. Every month is a struggle. Please click on the link. http://www.gofundme.com/vawqc8
Cindy Vine is the author of The Case of Billy B, Not Telling, Defective, C U @ 8 and Hush Baby. All her books are available on Amazon in kindle and paperback format.
http://www.amazon.com/Ms-Cindy-Vine/e/B002C1D9G2/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Saturday, December 14, 2013
When life rushes by...
It's hard to believe I last posted on my blog over a month ago. Sometimes life is just a little too hectic and we don't make time for the important things in life like blogging.
The last month and a half has been hectic to say the least. There was NaNoWriMo which for the first time in 5 years I did not reach my word target. However, it doesn't make me a failure. I still managed to get 30 000 words done and that is an accomplishment. Especially with all I've had going on. Besides working on Diary of a Dancer for NaNoWriMo, I was completing the last revisions for Hush Baby. Hush Baby is now finished and available on Amazon.com as both a paperback and on kindle.
And then of course there are end of term reports and our school's application for authorisation form which was immense. Add in some birthday parties, a big staff Christmas do and the protests in Maidan Square, life is all go living in the Ukraine. Oh and I forgot to mention the snow. It arrived.
The following photos of the protests in Maidan were taken by my good friend Soizick Vossart.
The last month and a half has been hectic to say the least. There was NaNoWriMo which for the first time in 5 years I did not reach my word target. However, it doesn't make me a failure. I still managed to get 30 000 words done and that is an accomplishment. Especially with all I've had going on. Besides working on Diary of a Dancer for NaNoWriMo, I was completing the last revisions for Hush Baby. Hush Baby is now finished and available on Amazon.com as both a paperback and on kindle.
And then of course there are end of term reports and our school's application for authorisation form which was immense. Add in some birthday parties, a big staff Christmas do and the protests in Maidan Square, life is all go living in the Ukraine. Oh and I forgot to mention the snow. It arrived.
The following photos of the protests in Maidan were taken by my good friend Soizick Vossart.
And then of course Nelson Mandela died. A great man, an icon, can't believe he has finally passed on. But then, the only two things one is sure of in life is death and taxes.
Really can't believe that next week this time I'll be winging my way to the USA. This will by first visit and I am excited. My knowledge about the USA is based on watching TV shows and movies. It will be good to see what it is really like. Maybe there isn't a bunch of serial killers active in every city!
One week to go...then it all starts again in January. A hectic mad rush to get everything done, work, work, work. Maybe it's good I accidentally booked myself a flight to Venice in March...but that is another story!
Have a good one!
Cindy
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Walking with crossed legs
I have discovered if I play music loudly, I drown out the barking, yapping, whining dog across the road. I find it hard to focus with that dog working overtime to give me a headache.
Why is it that we always have to pee at the most inopportune time? My bladder never quite survived being used as a trampoline during my three pregnancies. In the middle of this huge swimming gala, I suddenly realised that I had to pee. Unfortunately, I had to try and rediscover my pelvic floor muscles and practice those exercises that the urologist gave me last June which I hadn't yet gotten around to practising yet. Somehow, I managed to walk to my classroom after the gala to sort the medals. However, it was in leaving the classroom that I hit problems. Major problems. Everytime I stood up, I could feel gravity take over and because I had to squeeze my pelvic muscles so hard, I couldn't move my legs at all. So there I was, standing in the middle of my classroom, unable to proceed or retreat. Eventually, with sweat pouring down my brow from the concerted effort of not overflowing, I managed to lean forward and pull a chair towards me. I hurriedly sat down and focused on once again gaining control of the leaky bladder. When I thought I had got it together again, I once again attempted standing up and walking to my classroom door. I got a few steps and knew I couldn't do it. Unfortunately, the chair was now to far away for me to reach. I was stuck, stranded. A kid came in to tell me that they were waiting for me on the field for the start of the football tournament. I smiled, or rather grimaced, and pretending to be studying something in the folder I had in my hands, all the while wondering how I was going to manage to escape this predicament. I have to confess, as disgusting as this might sound, I did momentarily contemplate the sink next to the classroom window, but with no curtains in my classroom and many kids wandering around, I quickly discarded that dsturbing thought. Eventually, I gritted my teeth and managed to speed walk with crossed legs to the bathroom. The moral of the story is, when you get to be an old woman like me, don't leave relieving your bladder if you feel the urge, because it doesn't much to take you beyond the beyond. I was seriously beyond the beyond.
Have a great weekend!
love
Cindy
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Why do bananas all ripen at the same time?
, I hauled out my best banana bread recipes
, but the bananas remained too green to use. We had to wait for them to ripen. My housekeeper placed them in a big dark box last Thursday. When I peeped into the box today, they were all ripe, ready to be eaten immediately. It was an enormous hand of bananas, there have to be close on 100 bananas there. At home it's only Siobhan and I and seriously, there are so many banana bread loafs you can bake and banana milkshakes you can drink. Why did they all have to ripen at the same time? Couldn't some of them be original and creative, and ripen later on in the week?
Anyway, there's nothing I can do about all my bananas ripening at the same time, and there are some problems you can solve, and others you just have to learn to live with, and cope as best you can. Those banana problems are out of your control.
This week, first week back at school, and the week has just flown. It doesn't matter if you have three children and they all live in different countries, when one gets a problem, the others will all present you with their problems. It's Murphy's Law. Worrying about them does make time fly, and everything else which would normally be stressful, seem minor in comparison. That's the positive I guess.
I've had a few good reviews of The Case of Billy B
on Amazon.com and that makes me feel great. My new book, Not Telling, is chugging along nicely and is starting to get very exciting. I literally can't wait to see what's going to happen next. My protagonist has taken control of the keyboard and I'm struggling to keep up with her. She's gone off in directions I wouldn't have envisioned in the beginning, but it's all good. I'm having fun and honestly, it does take my mind off all those bananas ripening at once.Siobhan went hiking this weekend up to Mandara Hut on Kilimanjaro
and is now all fired up to do a level two climb in November. She's arrived home exhausted and fallen asleep on the couch. I have to wake her up soon as I know she has Geography homework and she'll want to eat dinner.We've managed to get a rowing machine
and it's changed our lives. We row 100 rows before walking into the kitchen and on and off all day when we think of it. Hopefully, we'll be slimmer and trimmer for our big overland trip to Cape Town 
in June, which reminds me. I need to start planning that.My roast lamb with lemon and rosemary smells divine, so I better check up on it. Have a great week ahead!
love
Cindy
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Long Weekend
It seems like only yesterday I was sitting here typing up last week’s blog. Tuesday, meeting day, and we had a pre-meeting meeting and the expected bomb was dropped. Our PYP Co-ordinator has resigned. Then the real staff meeting. I’m now the chair of the Staff Association, which means I have to try and make sense of all the issues raised. It was only Tuesday and I was already wishing the week was over. Wednesday I was in more meetings and out the classroom, working on the school’s new humanities curriculum. Thursday passed in a flash. Have we even had Thursday already? All I can remember about Thursday, was that we went to the Kili Club for some ice cold cider and steak and chips. The club is so cheap, drinks and food for Siobhan and I comes to under $10! One of the few cheap things here. Friday was no school. Some Muslim holiday that is connected to the moon. The school had to try and estimate if the moon would be doing it’s thing on the Thursday or Friday night, some weeks before. They guessed wrongly, but had already declared the Friday a school holiday. You take what you can get.
Talking about taking what you can get, Monday they announced that all cars in Tanzania had to carry fire extinguishers. I had heard this before and remembered that I did have a can of fire extinguisher foam languishing somewhere in the boot of my car. However, the latest news was not only did you have to have a fire extinguisher, but you had to have a special disc on your windscreen stating that you had a fire extinguisher. It had to be displayed next to your third party insurance and licence discs. Obviously, this is just another rip-off scam from a corrupt government to further empty our pockets. God, at the moment I'm so broke I can't even pay attention. The disc to say you have a fire extinguisher in your car costs $20. Cursing under my breath, I handed over the amount to our school transport manager who was taking all our money and collecting the discs from the fire department. It goes without saying that the fire department was just taking the money and handing over the discs, nobody was actually checking to see if we really had a fire extinguisher in the car. I mean, that would be too efficient, wouldn't it?
My daughter who annoys me no end, was playing the same cd over and over again. I had reached the point, where if I heard the Jonas Bothers whiny nasal voices trying to hit the notes one more time, I would scream. And throw the cd out of the window. We had just reached the half-way point to Arusha, a small town called Boma Ngombe, when a uniformed soldier type with an AK47 slung casually over his shoulder stepped into the road and waved me down.
"Jambo," I said pleasantly, smiling into the glare of the sun.
"Hmpf," he sort of snarled and then muttered something in Swahili.
"Sorry, I don't speak Swahili. Can you speak English?"
He shifted the gun so it sat in his hands. "Fire extinguisher. I want to see your fire extinguisher."
I smiled with relief, happy I'd forked out the $20 for a sticker to put on my windscreen saying I had a fire extinguisher. I hadn't quite gotten round to putting it on the window, but it was lying on my back seat. "Hold on," I reached behind for the sticker, "Here's my sticker saying I have a fire extinguisher."
He stroked his gun lovingly. He didn't even look at my $20 sticker. "I want to see your fire extinguisher. Now."
"It's in the boot," I said as I opened the door and hit him in the stomach. He glared and pointed his AK47 at me. "Pole sana," I laughed, which means 'very sorry.' I was starting to feel a little nervous and wondered whether or not to offer him a bribe as that is the way cops and government officials do business here. Triumphantly, I found my fire extinguisher which had rolled behind my tools, and noticed that the can did look a little rusty. I handed it to the soldier, hoping he'd sling his gun over his shoulder again.
"This is no good," he snarled, "You need to buy a new one. Now." He pointed his gun across the road and I saw a cute little red fire engine parked there. "$45, you buy now."
I took a deep breath and gave what I hoped was an authoratitive convincing, charming kind of a smile. "I have a sticker and a fire extinguisher. I don't need another one. I'm not buying it."
The soldier smiled for the first time. "If you don't buy a new fire extinguisher, you are not allowed to drive your car on the road, so park it over there, next to the fire truck."
How can you argue with a man holding an AK47, even if he works for the government? Meekly, I followed him across the road to the red fire truck which had lost some of its cuteness. I paid the $45 and got a spanking new fire extinguisher with another sticker on it, a different one.
I felt compelled to give my two cents worth, even if the man was holding a gun. "This is just a rip-off, another example of the government stealing money from the people."
The soldier laughed out loudly and nodded his head in agreement. "But you see Madam, your fire extinguisher was a foam one. Foam is now illegal. You have to have a dry powder extinguisher. I can show you the regulations, but they're all in Swahili, so I'll have to translate."
"Don't bother," I snarled through my teeth, my friendly demeanour having evaporated like spilled diesel at a gas station.
By the time I got to my car on the other side of the road, the armed soldier had let two Tanzanian drivers go past without checking their fire extinguishers and pulled over another expat driver with a pale skin. I wonder, if some government minister managed to get a job lot of these dry foam fire extinguishers at a cheap price, and is making some money on the side with this new 'regulation.' It seems that only expats are required to have these fire extinguishers. And I have to wonder, if my fire extinguisher is in the boot and my car explodes in ball of flame, will I have time to jump out the car, open my boot and get my fire extinguisher? And if I'm in a head on collision, will I be able to get out of my car to get it? What is the point? In my eight months here I have never seen a burnt out car wreck, so fires are not common. Seriously, this is a crock of shit. But when a guy tells you to do something with an AK pointed at you, you do it.
Saturday, we took a drive with some friends to the Sanya Juu area, to the Light of Africa orphanage. Amazing place, lovely houses for the orphans all built by different universities in the UK. The playground was designed by the architecture students at Bristol University. The kids were pleased to see us, we took some rice as a gift, balloons and bubbles. Some of the kids are so tiny for their age, many have AIDS, are AIDS orphans or have just been abandoned by their parents. Quite a few kids with severe cerebral palsy there. Definitely a worthwhile cause to support. After that we went bundu bashing, illegally entered a game reserve through some dirt track so we didn’t have to pay the $20 per person entry fee, and had a picnic in the middle of nowhere. We’d forgotten to bring picnic blankets and chairs, so we stood around in the heat drinking and eating, decadent things like quiche and banoffee pie. Several Maasai with their herds of cattle passed us. Guess they were also doing a spot of illegal traffic through the park. On the way out we saw a couple of wildebeest and a herd of zebra. Rain looked imminent, Mount Kili was hidden behind very black angry looking clouds, and as the first drops of rain fell to steady the dust, Mount Kili popped out of the clouds showing a fresh fall of snow reaching three quarters of the way down her slopes. I don’t know if it was all the banoffee pie she ate, or a virus, but Siobhan started running from both ends after dinner. Cannot be the delicious mutton curry I made in a potjie, as I didn’t feel ill!
Sunday and the famous Kili Marathon. Why people feel the need to run in the heat is beyond me. It’s very hot at the moment. For the last month or so you see people jogging down our road, training for the marathon, faces etched with pain and exhaustion. Why the hell do they do it? They don’t look like they are enjoying it at all and frankly, seeing them just makes me feel guilty. Someone asked me if I was running. You gotta be kidding me. I have a car, I drive. Jeez! My friend Debbie and I were supposed to be helping with a water point, but in typical Tanzanian fashion, nobody gives us a time or where we are supposed to be. So, we rocked up at 9, the fun run and half marathon was already over, the last remnants of the full marathon were trickling or rather, hobbling in, grimacing with pain. Yeah, obviously having fun. We hung around, borrowed some medals and posed for photos and then left. Oh, Debbie and I took a short cut to the school’s hospitality tent, not really realising that we were walking across the finishing line and were amongst the suffering runners. Well, we did but we didn’t really care. And one of the officials held out a medal for me. I was wearing my Hash t-shirt, so I guess I sort of looked the part as I was hot and sweaty, and although I reached out to accept the medal for completing the half-marathon, in the end I withdrew my hand. It didn’t seem right to accept the medal. Like, I might be thought to have cheated. Although, I did run quite a bit earlier on. Somehow, a big white hen found itself onto my property, and Smokey my dog was having a whale of a time chasing the clucking flapping hen. Of course, it must have looked a sight, with me chasing the dog, the dog chasing the hen, like one of those kid’s stories. Eventually, the dog cornered the hen and they had a stand-off, both standing still staring at each other, and at that point I decided I better leave to fetch Debbie. On my return, no sign of the chicken except a white feather stuck on a bush, so either it escaped or went to heaven in the belly of my dog.
On that note, happy birthday to Jules and Barry in the week ahead and I wish you all a fantastic week. Only 4 weeks left to the Easter holidays!
Love
Cindy xxx
My daughter who annoys me no end, was playing the same cd over and over again. I had reached the point, where if I heard the Jonas Bothers whiny nasal voices trying to hit the notes one more time, I would scream. And throw the cd out of the window. We had just reached the half-way point to Arusha, a small town called Boma Ngombe, when a uniformed soldier type with an AK47 slung casually over his shoulder stepped into the road and waved me down.
"Jambo," I said pleasantly, smiling into the glare of the sun.
"Hmpf," he sort of snarled and then muttered something in Swahili.
"Sorry, I don't speak Swahili. Can you speak English?"
He shifted the gun so it sat in his hands. "Fire extinguisher. I want to see your fire extinguisher."
I smiled with relief, happy I'd forked out the $20 for a sticker to put on my windscreen saying I had a fire extinguisher. I hadn't quite gotten round to putting it on the window, but it was lying on my back seat. "Hold on," I reached behind for the sticker, "Here's my sticker saying I have a fire extinguisher."
He stroked his gun lovingly. He didn't even look at my $20 sticker. "I want to see your fire extinguisher. Now."
"It's in the boot," I said as I opened the door and hit him in the stomach. He glared and pointed his AK47 at me. "Pole sana," I laughed, which means 'very sorry.' I was starting to feel a little nervous and wondered whether or not to offer him a bribe as that is the way cops and government officials do business here. Triumphantly, I found my fire extinguisher which had rolled behind my tools, and noticed that the can did look a little rusty. I handed it to the soldier, hoping he'd sling his gun over his shoulder again.
"This is no good," he snarled, "You need to buy a new one. Now." He pointed his gun across the road and I saw a cute little red fire engine parked there. "$45, you buy now."
I took a deep breath and gave what I hoped was an authoratitive convincing, charming kind of a smile. "I have a sticker and a fire extinguisher. I don't need another one. I'm not buying it."
The soldier smiled for the first time. "If you don't buy a new fire extinguisher, you are not allowed to drive your car on the road, so park it over there, next to the fire truck."
How can you argue with a man holding an AK47, even if he works for the government? Meekly, I followed him across the road to the red fire truck which had lost some of its cuteness. I paid the $45 and got a spanking new fire extinguisher with another sticker on it, a different one.
I felt compelled to give my two cents worth, even if the man was holding a gun. "This is just a rip-off, another example of the government stealing money from the people."
The soldier laughed out loudly and nodded his head in agreement. "But you see Madam, your fire extinguisher was a foam one. Foam is now illegal. You have to have a dry powder extinguisher. I can show you the regulations, but they're all in Swahili, so I'll have to translate."
"Don't bother," I snarled through my teeth, my friendly demeanour having evaporated like spilled diesel at a gas station.
By the time I got to my car on the other side of the road, the armed soldier had let two Tanzanian drivers go past without checking their fire extinguishers and pulled over another expat driver with a pale skin. I wonder, if some government minister managed to get a job lot of these dry foam fire extinguishers at a cheap price, and is making some money on the side with this new 'regulation.' It seems that only expats are required to have these fire extinguishers. And I have to wonder, if my fire extinguisher is in the boot and my car explodes in ball of flame, will I have time to jump out the car, open my boot and get my fire extinguisher? And if I'm in a head on collision, will I be able to get out of my car to get it? What is the point? In my eight months here I have never seen a burnt out car wreck, so fires are not common. Seriously, this is a crock of shit. But when a guy tells you to do something with an AK pointed at you, you do it.
Sunday and the famous Kili Marathon. Why people feel the need to run in the heat is beyond me. It’s very hot at the moment. For the last month or so you see people jogging down our road, training for the marathon, faces etched with pain and exhaustion. Why the hell do they do it? They don’t look like they are enjoying it at all and frankly, seeing them just makes me feel guilty. Someone asked me if I was running. You gotta be kidding me. I have a car, I drive. Jeez! My friend Debbie and I were supposed to be helping with a water point, but in typical Tanzanian fashion, nobody gives us a time or where we are supposed to be. So, we rocked up at 9, the fun run and half marathon was already over, the last remnants of the full marathon were trickling or rather, hobbling in, grimacing with pain. Yeah, obviously having fun. We hung around, borrowed some medals and posed for photos and then left. Oh, Debbie and I took a short cut to the school’s hospitality tent, not really realising that we were walking across the finishing line and were amongst the suffering runners. Well, we did but we didn’t really care. And one of the officials held out a medal for me. I was wearing my Hash t-shirt, so I guess I sort of looked the part as I was hot and sweaty, and although I reached out to accept the medal for completing the half-marathon, in the end I withdrew my hand. It didn’t seem right to accept the medal. Like, I might be thought to have cheated. Although, I did run quite a bit earlier on. Somehow, a big white hen found itself onto my property, and Smokey my dog was having a whale of a time chasing the clucking flapping hen. Of course, it must have looked a sight, with me chasing the dog, the dog chasing the hen, like one of those kid’s stories. Eventually, the dog cornered the hen and they had a stand-off, both standing still staring at each other, and at that point I decided I better leave to fetch Debbie. On my return, no sign of the chicken except a white feather stuck on a bush, so either it escaped or went to heaven in the belly of my dog.
On that note, happy birthday to Jules and Barry in the week ahead and I wish you all a fantastic week. Only 4 weeks left to the Easter holidays!
Love
Cindy xxx
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Working makes me grey
I do love my job, honest I do. But if I was absolutely honest, I'd rather write. My dream life, would be to stay in one place for 3 months and write, write, write and read all day long. Take a few days off to explore and have a couple more adventures, read a bit, write some more. Wallow around in the ocean somewhere warm like a hippo that moved from its mud puddle. Sigh, doesn't that sound like the ideal life? Unfortunately, a life like that costs money, and as there is no rich millionaire on the horizon, that kind of a life is a fantasy. Oh well, guess I just have to stick to teaching and keep my writing as a hobby somewhere.
School started this week and it is actually great being back. I love the school, the kids, and the school grounds are one of the most beautiful I've ever worked out. The verdant greenery because of all the unseasonal rain inspires creativity. One feels relaxed, at peace and highly creative and what more does a writer really need? Seriously. Okay, money would be good.
It seems like I'm now getting my books Kindle-ized. Previously, this was an impossibility because I am not from the USA, I don't have a USA bank account or tax number. Now, they seem to be prepared to post you a cheque. My last royalty cheque went missing in the post, and when I queried it, it had already been cashed by whomever had intercepted my post. Bastards! So cheques are a little dicey. I might still get that non-resident tax number thingie, because without it I pay 30% witholding tax on my royalties. Yet again, bastards! Bastards, must be my word of the day!
Tony returns to South Africa next Friday and we'll miss him. He goes straight into a 10 week prac block at The President Hotel. Hopefully, he'll earn lots of tips as this time he'll be waiting and working behind the bar. No tips when he was in the kitchen! He's started driving my car. Not yet in traffic! One of the parents at school was a driving instructor for the South African Army and she's been taking him for lessons. A couple of hedges and a ditch later, but luckily he seems to have got the hang of it. I'm still going to let him have proper lessons anyway when he gets back to Cape Town. Riding down dirt roads with hardly any traffic and going slowly to avoid cows is a bit different to driving in a bustling city!
Siobhan is happy to be back at her school with her friends and is busy practising songs for the Variety Show in March. She's been writing her own song as well, so we'll see.
We finally managed to get a copy of Singh is King, the Bollywood movie that we acted in as extras when we were in Mumbai a few years ago. Of course, they had edited me completely out of the movie, but Siobhan and Tony were very visible during their scene and both appeared numerous times. Siobhan was so excited the first time she saw herself in the movie, that she jumped up screaming with excitement and ran straight into the door, nearly taking her eye out. The screams of excitement quickly turned to screams of pain as Siobhan has never been one to handle pain. We just ignored her and continued with what we were doing, as there was no blood so she wasn't dying, even though it did sound like she was. She now sports an awesome bruise below her eyebrow which you can see in this photo.
Friday I saw a solar eclipse for the first time. I know that they happen, but this is the first time I've actually seen it. It was quite amazing and spooky at the same time. We had these special glasses that you use to look at the sun, and could clearly see the moon in front of the sun!
Well, am busy researching my new book, while I wait for the proof copy of The Case of Billy B to arrive. My preliminary title for the new book is Not Telling, but I am not sure whether or not that will be the final title. I'll have to see where the story takes me. I think once The Case of Billy B is out and published, I'll do a book launch, probably in Arusha at The Blue Heron. I might visit them and discuss the details when I take Tony through for his testing on Tuesday. I'm just hoping that my proof copy arrives soon. I hate waiting! Okay, note to self, be more patient.
Had a major hassle last week as my website was down. I eventually found out that the person who was hosting it, ran into some difficulties, so I spent the whole week figuring out how to get my old website up in the meantime. That made me grey! Anyway, I had to change the nameserver and IP address and then it worked. Thank God! But it took me close on a week to find out that that was what I had to do. So the old website is pretty basic, but I'll start working on a more up to date one now and within a month or so will have that one up instead. Hey, if you type in Fear, Phobias and Frozen Feet on Youtube, you'll find my little podcast video thingamebob I made.
Have a super duper weekend!
love
Cindy
School started this week and it is actually great being back. I love the school, the kids, and the school grounds are one of the most beautiful I've ever worked out. The verdant greenery because of all the unseasonal rain inspires creativity. One feels relaxed, at peace and highly creative and what more does a writer really need? Seriously. Okay, money would be good.
It seems like I'm now getting my books Kindle-ized. Previously, this was an impossibility because I am not from the USA, I don't have a USA bank account or tax number. Now, they seem to be prepared to post you a cheque. My last royalty cheque went missing in the post, and when I queried it, it had already been cashed by whomever had intercepted my post. Bastards! So cheques are a little dicey. I might still get that non-resident tax number thingie, because without it I pay 30% witholding tax on my royalties. Yet again, bastards! Bastards, must be my word of the day!
Tony returns to South Africa next Friday and we'll miss him. He goes straight into a 10 week prac block at The President Hotel. Hopefully, he'll earn lots of tips as this time he'll be waiting and working behind the bar. No tips when he was in the kitchen! He's started driving my car. Not yet in traffic! One of the parents at school was a driving instructor for the South African Army and she's been taking him for lessons. A couple of hedges and a ditch later, but luckily he seems to have got the hang of it. I'm still going to let him have proper lessons anyway when he gets back to Cape Town. Riding down dirt roads with hardly any traffic and going slowly to avoid cows is a bit different to driving in a bustling city!
Siobhan is happy to be back at her school with her friends and is busy practising songs for the Variety Show in March. She's been writing her own song as well, so we'll see.
We finally managed to get a copy of Singh is King, the Bollywood movie that we acted in as extras when we were in Mumbai a few years ago. Of course, they had edited me completely out of the movie, but Siobhan and Tony were very visible during their scene and both appeared numerous times. Siobhan was so excited the first time she saw herself in the movie, that she jumped up screaming with excitement and ran straight into the door, nearly taking her eye out. The screams of excitement quickly turned to screams of pain as Siobhan has never been one to handle pain. We just ignored her and continued with what we were doing, as there was no blood so she wasn't dying, even though it did sound like she was. She now sports an awesome bruise below her eyebrow which you can see in this photo.
Well, am busy researching my new book, while I wait for the proof copy of The Case of Billy B to arrive. My preliminary title for the new book is Not Telling, but I am not sure whether or not that will be the final title. I'll have to see where the story takes me. I think once The Case of Billy B is out and published, I'll do a book launch, probably in Arusha at The Blue Heron. I might visit them and discuss the details when I take Tony through for his testing on Tuesday. I'm just hoping that my proof copy arrives soon. I hate waiting! Okay, note to self, be more patient.
Had a major hassle last week as my website was down. I eventually found out that the person who was hosting it, ran into some difficulties, so I spent the whole week figuring out how to get my old website up in the meantime. That made me grey! Anyway, I had to change the nameserver and IP address and then it worked. Thank God! But it took me close on a week to find out that that was what I had to do. So the old website is pretty basic, but I'll start working on a more up to date one now and within a month or so will have that one up instead. Hey, if you type in Fear, Phobias and Frozen Feet on Youtube, you'll find my little podcast video thingamebob I made.
Have a super duper weekend!
love
Cindy
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
As the holidaze approach
Hard to believe but true, just over a week and we have our December break here! I can't wait! Arden and Andrei and their twin boys, friends from China, are coming to visit the holiday. And with Tony here, I've got a full house. Arden's a vegetarian and I'm trying to think what I can cook for her on her first night here next Monday. As an avid carnivore, it's hard for me to be creative and think veggie. Any ideas, comments and suggestions on what I can cook for here would be welcome!
Public holiday here today! Independence day, so am enjoying not going into work. Need to make another cup of coffee and some breakfast though!
Tony has already settled in, Siobhan did well in her report, so bring on the holidays! Next week Thursday, the day before school closes, I'm off to Arusha for the day to plan our class camp at West Kilimanjaro with my colleagues in Arusha. We'll be going to 3rd and 4th Feb. I'm hoping there won't be too much hiking, I don't own suitable hiking attire! Well, that's my excuse anyway!
So, have to start seriously thinking about our holiday and doing some finer planning. I've booked our school house at Pangani on the coast, for only $15 a night. Problem is, I have to figure out how to get Andrei and Arden there as we won't all fit in my car, and how to get them back to catch their flight on the 1st January, as I plan on staying at the beach for another week! Gotta soak up that sun. Mind you, been raining every afternoon. It's our mini rainy season which is good, as it's provided water for the hydro-electric scheme here which means the last couple of weeks we've hardly had any power cuts.
Have sausage orders so need to get onto that now, and finish proofing my second draft of The Case of Billy B. I have an agent interested in taking me on. Hold thumbs that it works out!
A big sports weekend coming up, with schools from Dar-es-Salaam and Arusha coming this weekend, so I'll be a little flat out helping!
Have a great weekend, well, it's almost here!
love
Cindy
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Writing until the cows come home
Why NaNoWriMo where the challenge is to write 50 000 words in a month is in the same month as report writing, I'll never know. I think the gods must be angry or something. But, I'm giving it a go and trying to write a minimum of 1000 words a day on The Case of Billy B. The report writing, I've done a little bit here and there, came up with a great bank of comments that I can cut and paste from, but it still takes time, time I'd rather be spending on getting The Case of Billy B completed. Writing this book has been a challenge, and I've had to dig really deep to be able to do it. Luckily, Charlies Campbell in the US has been helping me to Americanize everything. (Note my use of a z instead of a s) The book is set in America, and it is really difficult setting a story in a place you've never visited. So, if you're feeling generous, send me a ticket to the US!
Procrastination. My first draft of my reports are due tomorrow. I'd promised myself that I'd spend all day Saturday doing them. Saturday has come and gone. However, I did manage 1700 more words on The Case of Billy B, and I did go into school and prepare some worksheets, homework sheets etc, for the relief teacher when I'm in India. I fly to India on Wednesday for a workshop on The Exhibition. So, this morning when I woke, I told myself, at 9am sharp I start on my reports. And here I am, blogging. Mind you, it is only 8.05am! I still have 55 minutes left to do my blogs and hubs and whatever else I can think of, to delay the start of my report writing. The sad thing, is that once I start I'll fly through it. I know that, so why don't I just do it, why do I keep putting it off? Sometimes, there is no logic in our actions.
The heat is increasing and I love it. I feel sorry for all my friends in China who are getting ready for an icy winter. I'm definitely a sunshine person. The hotter, the better. I've booked for us to stay in the school house at Pangani for Christmas, only costs $15 a night and is right on the beach. 4 Weeks holiday, what bliss! Tony is coming for Christmas and I'm looking forward to seeing him. I'm hoping that by that time, I'll be on revising and editing The Case of Billy B, and getting it ready to go off to the publishers. As I finish each couple of chapters, I send them off to Charlie Campbell in the States, and to Rob Stark in London. Both give me suggestions which I haven't looked at yet. When I come to the editing, I'll look through their corrections and suggestions and revise, revise, revise. Goodness, I must be besotted with writing. How did I move from having a blissful holiday on the beach to talk about editing? It's the reports. They've screwed with my brain.
Last weekend, the MYP Coordinator here got married to her long-time Canadian friend. They secretly did the church thing, but the Geography teacher decided to let out the secret and organised a surprise traditional Tanzanian wedding for them. We all met at her house which is next door to Jaimala's, the MYP Coordinator, and waited for the special wedding band to arrive. They were late, which is typical in Tanzania, everything works at African time. Their vehicle broke down at the entrance to the school campus. Eventually, they sorted it out and they arrived, their wind instruments blaring, playing the same jazzy number over and over again. They don't appear to have a large repertoire of tunes to play. Traditionally here, the musicians sit on the back of a modified pick up truck, and lead the wedding procession through the town. After dancing around to the same tune over and over again, we all climbed into our vehicles and made a convoy behind the musicians. The tradition is, that you drive round each roundabout in the town three times, which we did. The music teacher had gotten a lift in my car, and decided to jump out every time we slowed down, sprint to the car in front and jump in there, and repeat that until he got to the front car where the wine was kept. He'd fill his paper cup, and sprint back from car to car until he eventually worked his way back to mine. By that stage, most of his wine was already finished. I'm not sure if he drank it or spilt it in his mad dashes!
8.25am, getting closer to my 9am report start. Internet has just been lost, hopefully I'll be able to reconnect otherwise I won't be able to focus on the reports. I know myself, I'll be wondering about the internet and cursing it all the time, instead of coming up with good comments about the kids in my class.
Talking about cute comments, on Friday, one kid told me his brother had got his 'independix' out. But still, after 23 years of teaching, I'm tired of it. I feel a bit washed out, brain dead. I think I'd like to become a child psychologist and work with abused children. But then, I'm too old to change careers. Maybe, after a 4 week holiday I'll feel a bit more refreshed.
Well, let's drink a toast to next weekend in India! I have one day of shopping and have to try and find stage make-up and costumes for the school's production of Cats. Siobhan's in it! It's on the 3rd and 4th of December. Tony will just miss it, as he arrives on the 5th!
Have a wonderful week ahead! Hmmm, awesome view of Kilimanjaro as I look out my window. Looks like it snowed up there last night. The glaciers seem wider. By the way, I have updated my website www.cindyvine.com. There's now a page where you can buy my books directly from Amazon. Fear, Phobias and Frozen Feet has been revised and reprinted and is now available on Amazon, together with Stop the world, I need to pee! So, if you're looking to buy gifts for the holidays or stock up on reading matter for yourself, buy my books!
love
Cindy xxx
The heat is increasing and I love it. I feel sorry for all my friends in China who are getting ready for an icy winter. I'm definitely a sunshine person. The hotter, the better. I've booked for us to stay in the school house at Pangani for Christmas, only costs $15 a night and is right on the beach. 4 Weeks holiday, what bliss! Tony is coming for Christmas and I'm looking forward to seeing him. I'm hoping that by that time, I'll be on revising and editing The Case of Billy B, and getting it ready to go off to the publishers. As I finish each couple of chapters, I send them off to Charlie Campbell in the States, and to Rob Stark in London. Both give me suggestions which I haven't looked at yet. When I come to the editing, I'll look through their corrections and suggestions and revise, revise, revise. Goodness, I must be besotted with writing. How did I move from having a blissful holiday on the beach to talk about editing? It's the reports. They've screwed with my brain.
Last weekend, the MYP Coordinator here got married to her long-time Canadian friend. They secretly did the church thing, but the Geography teacher decided to let out the secret and organised a surprise traditional Tanzanian wedding for them. We all met at her house which is next door to Jaimala's, the MYP Coordinator, and waited for the special wedding band to arrive. They were late, which is typical in Tanzania, everything works at African time. Their vehicle broke down at the entrance to the school campus. Eventually, they sorted it out and they arrived, their wind instruments blaring, playing the same jazzy number over and over again. They don't appear to have a large repertoire of tunes to play. Traditionally here, the musicians sit on the back of a modified pick up truck, and lead the wedding procession through the town. After dancing around to the same tune over and over again, we all climbed into our vehicles and made a convoy behind the musicians. The tradition is, that you drive round each roundabout in the town three times, which we did. The music teacher had gotten a lift in my car, and decided to jump out every time we slowed down, sprint to the car in front and jump in there, and repeat that until he got to the front car where the wine was kept. He'd fill his paper cup, and sprint back from car to car until he eventually worked his way back to mine. By that stage, most of his wine was already finished. I'm not sure if he drank it or spilt it in his mad dashes!
8.25am, getting closer to my 9am report start. Internet has just been lost, hopefully I'll be able to reconnect otherwise I won't be able to focus on the reports. I know myself, I'll be wondering about the internet and cursing it all the time, instead of coming up with good comments about the kids in my class.
Talking about cute comments, on Friday, one kid told me his brother had got his 'independix' out. But still, after 23 years of teaching, I'm tired of it. I feel a bit washed out, brain dead. I think I'd like to become a child psychologist and work with abused children. But then, I'm too old to change careers. Maybe, after a 4 week holiday I'll feel a bit more refreshed.
Well, let's drink a toast to next weekend in India! I have one day of shopping and have to try and find stage make-up and costumes for the school's production of Cats. Siobhan's in it! It's on the 3rd and 4th of December. Tony will just miss it, as he arrives on the 5th!
Have a wonderful week ahead! Hmmm, awesome view of Kilimanjaro as I look out my window. Looks like it snowed up there last night. The glaciers seem wider. By the way, I have updated my website www.cindyvine.com. There's now a page where you can buy my books directly from Amazon. Fear, Phobias and Frozen Feet has been revised and reprinted and is now available on Amazon, together with Stop the world, I need to pee! So, if you're looking to buy gifts for the holidays or stock up on reading matter for yourself, buy my books!
love
Cindy xxx
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Life in the slow lane
Life meanders along slowly. Another day, another dollar. A little frustration, a big frustration. All punctuated by your interactions with fellow humans. The commas are the humorous interludes that join everything together and keeps you sane. Well, sort of. I mean really, how sane is sane? Is it not just a matter of somebody’s perception?
The internet woes continue. I have realised that there is no way that I’ll be able to market my books online. Not from here, at any rate. Not until the promised fibre optic cable arrives in Moshi. Apparently, it’s in Dar. However, knowing how things work in Africa, instead of getting cheaper and faster, I reckon it’ll probably get more expensive. Somebody will be wanting to make a mint out of the better service. Finally, after nearly seven weeks, we managed to get internet at home. That proved to be an uphill battle, as we had to rely on the school secretary to arrange everything. While she is a sweetheart, she is not the most efficient, and organised of people and has a tendency to see no rush in getting things done. For a start, she lost our application forms for the internet and neglected to communicate this to Patricia and myself. Patricia being my next door neighbour and the school’s Diploma Coordinator, who is also convinced I got the better house and garden. She is right though, although I keep telling her they are the same to make her feel better. Patricia is struggling to adapt to our African ways of doing things, having a sense of urgency that nobody understands here. As a result, she can be very negative at times which I have dubbed being in the ‘Patricia Zone.’ So, if ever we get frustrated, we say we are in the ‘Patricia Zone.’ She finds that highly amusing, but I digress. The secretary lost our forms. When we asked her why she never told us, she replied that she was waiting for when we next came to her office to tell us. Jeez, that could have been months! Finally, the fundi (Swahili for expert) arrived, but alas, he was unable to do anything, because for two weeks we had power cuts during the day. Well, we still have power cuts during the day, but at that time the power cuts just so happened to be every time he came to our houses to do the internet. Murphy’s Law. I tried to download an antivirus program, as the one I got with my laptop had expired. No such luck. Downloading anything chomps through your prepaid megabytes, so that you run out of money on your internet before you have downloaded anything. On the positive side, it is about four times faster than the school internet.
The school has open internet time on a Friday between 5 and 10pm, where you can plug in your laptop and upload upgrades for free. All week I waited for Friday, excited that finally I’ll be able to put Skype and an antivirus on my laptop. It’s amazing how such minor things can make you excited. It doesn’t take much, does it? Anyway, I started downloading AVG no problem. It took ages, as the school internet downloads stuff at about 7kb/s which is painfully slow. Two and a half hours later, and I’d downloaded 89% of the antivirus. Then there was a power cut. The three minutes for the school to turn on the generator, meant that I lost everything. There are no words for the anger and frustration I felt. It was like I had wasted two and a half hours of my life. Okay, I did get Skype, but still have no antivirus. Several bad words poured forth from my lips. However, I did get to have a good long chat with the principal, and his house is just off campus but he has the school internet. Unlimited of course, as you do when you are principal. He told me how he downloads all his movies and TV series using BitTorrent. He just sets it all up at 10pm and lets it download all night long. So, he’s promised to download season 5 of Grey’s Anatomy for me and Season 3 of The Tudors. When he’s done with that, I’ll get him to download Bones from series 3 on. It’s amazing, TV series one couldn’t be bothered with before, become the highlight of your life. Something to look forward to and chat excitedly about with anybody else who’s watched them. I’d brought Bones season 2, Grey’s Anatomy Seasons 1-4 and The Tudors Seasons 1 and 2 with me from China. I’d bought them awhile ago, but had never been bothered to watch them. With no TV, Siobhan and I quickly became addicted, racing through the episodes, as even if you have no power, you can watch until the battery goes dead on your laptop.
The power cuts and frequency of them are becoming a bit annoying. Although, there are times when it is exciting, and you feel like you’ve gone back in time and are living in the thirties, something like Out of Africa. It is often difficult for Siobhan to do her homework, because you can only work by candle light for a little while before your eyes start to take strain. I might have to invest in a little generator. I bought a small TV yesterday for Siobhan’s birthday. I’d bought her a Wii in China, and she hasn’t been able to play it since she’s been here. I’m going to wait awhile before getting cable. We’ve also added two puppies to our household, two little sisters, Labrador German Shepherd crosses. I don’t like male dogs because they pee against the car tires and the smell of their hormonal pee is nauseating.
I had my first visitor, Linda, who worked with me in Nanjing and is now working in Khartoum. It was great seeing her again. Poor thing though, she got up the Friday morning at 3am to fly here, only to find that her plane had been cancelled. So, she arrived a day late. Then when she was due to leave here again and fly to Zanzibar, we went to the airport and a gut feeling told me to go inside the airport with her and not just drop her off. A good gut feeling, because her flight did not even appear on the board. When I asked, I was told it would appear later, but I asked around some more and was directed to the Air Tanzania office, who told me that her flight was cancelled, and she should return the next day. Although friendly and apologetic, the Air Tanzania staff did not seem concerned in the slightest about the inconvenience they had caused to Linda and some of the other passengers who had been waiting inside the airport for over two hours. They had forgotten to put up the flight on the board with a cancelled message. Why am I not surprised? Anyway, it give Linda and I the chance to polish off the last remaining bottle of a South African Red.
Because of Eid, last weekend was a long one. We decided to head out to the Marangu Falls, which is on the side of Mount Kilimanjaro. Absolutely spectacular and breathtakingly beautiful. I’m taking my class back there on Thursday for a field trip. We’re doing a unit of inquiry on Explorers, and I’m going to drop them off in groups of 4 accompanied by an adult, with a compass and a grid, and they’re going to have to find their way down to the waterfall, map their route plotting landmarks and their coordinates. Basically, just practise being explorers. Tomorrow, we go on a teacher outing to the Arusha National Park to check out the wildlife. We probably haven’t explored as much as we should have. We have been out to the TPC Sugar Plantations twice for BBQ’s with some South Africans, and to watch some of the trinations rugby games. I’m so proud of my Springboks winning the Trinations! The outdoor life and BBQs with friends does make this an awesome lifestyle. Even with the internet woes and power cuts. I could never live in a place like China again. Mind you, who knows what lies in the future? I’m off to Mumbai in November for a workshop. I think all the humanity over there might be stressful, so many people everywhere, as life here is relatively carefree and unstressed. Like today my stress is, should I buy my meat first before going to the market? Should I have a second cup of coffee? This kind of life is addictive. Like Grey’s Anatomy, Bones and The Tudors. I hope the principal remembers to download the episodes for me!
Otherwise, all is well. Both Siobhan and I have been struck by a particularly virulent strain of flu which swept through the school, decimating numbers. I had 8 kids away from my class on Thursday, and 5 kids away yesterday. I have been soldiering on at school, but Siobhan has spent the last three days at home, sleeping, coughing, blowing her nose and making bead necklaces. Well, I guess that I had better get myself towards myself, feed the puppies, have that coffee, shower and get dressed. I’ll try and update my Facebook with my latest photos. Last time, it wouldn’t upload the photos, the internet is too slow. Mind you, it depends on how many people are using it at school, as that is what slows it down and why it is so much faster at home. Keep an eye out for my Facebook photos, I’ll post the link when I manage to get them on!
And the ants appeared to have left - until last night when they reappeared on my kitchen sink!
The internet woes continue. I have realised that there is no way that I’ll be able to market my books online. Not from here, at any rate. Not until the promised fibre optic cable arrives in Moshi. Apparently, it’s in Dar. However, knowing how things work in Africa, instead of getting cheaper and faster, I reckon it’ll probably get more expensive. Somebody will be wanting to make a mint out of the better service. Finally, after nearly seven weeks, we managed to get internet at home. That proved to be an uphill battle, as we had to rely on the school secretary to arrange everything. While she is a sweetheart, she is not the most efficient, and organised of people and has a tendency to see no rush in getting things done. For a start, she lost our application forms for the internet and neglected to communicate this to Patricia and myself. Patricia being my next door neighbour and the school’s Diploma Coordinator, who is also convinced I got the better house and garden. She is right though, although I keep telling her they are the same to make her feel better. Patricia is struggling to adapt to our African ways of doing things, having a sense of urgency that nobody understands here. As a result, she can be very negative at times which I have dubbed being in the ‘Patricia Zone.’ So, if ever we get frustrated, we say we are in the ‘Patricia Zone.’ She finds that highly amusing, but I digress. The secretary lost our forms. When we asked her why she never told us, she replied that she was waiting for when we next came to her office to tell us. Jeez, that could have been months! Finally, the fundi (Swahili for expert) arrived, but alas, he was unable to do anything, because for two weeks we had power cuts during the day. Well, we still have power cuts during the day, but at that time the power cuts just so happened to be every time he came to our houses to do the internet. Murphy’s Law. I tried to download an antivirus program, as the one I got with my laptop had expired. No such luck. Downloading anything chomps through your prepaid megabytes, so that you run out of money on your internet before you have downloaded anything. On the positive side, it is about four times faster than the school internet.
The school has open internet time on a Friday between 5 and 10pm, where you can plug in your laptop and upload upgrades for free. All week I waited for Friday, excited that finally I’ll be able to put Skype and an antivirus on my laptop. It’s amazing how such minor things can make you excited. It doesn’t take much, does it? Anyway, I started downloading AVG no problem. It took ages, as the school internet downloads stuff at about 7kb/s which is painfully slow. Two and a half hours later, and I’d downloaded 89% of the antivirus. Then there was a power cut. The three minutes for the school to turn on the generator, meant that I lost everything. There are no words for the anger and frustration I felt. It was like I had wasted two and a half hours of my life. Okay, I did get Skype, but still have no antivirus. Several bad words poured forth from my lips. However, I did get to have a good long chat with the principal, and his house is just off campus but he has the school internet. Unlimited of course, as you do when you are principal. He told me how he downloads all his movies and TV series using BitTorrent. He just sets it all up at 10pm and lets it download all night long. So, he’s promised to download season 5 of Grey’s Anatomy for me and Season 3 of The Tudors. When he’s done with that, I’ll get him to download Bones from series 3 on. It’s amazing, TV series one couldn’t be bothered with before, become the highlight of your life. Something to look forward to and chat excitedly about with anybody else who’s watched them. I’d brought Bones season 2, Grey’s Anatomy Seasons 1-4 and The Tudors Seasons 1 and 2 with me from China. I’d bought them awhile ago, but had never been bothered to watch them. With no TV, Siobhan and I quickly became addicted, racing through the episodes, as even if you have no power, you can watch until the battery goes dead on your laptop.
The power cuts and frequency of them are becoming a bit annoying. Although, there are times when it is exciting, and you feel like you’ve gone back in time and are living in the thirties, something like Out of Africa. It is often difficult for Siobhan to do her homework, because you can only work by candle light for a little while before your eyes start to take strain. I might have to invest in a little generator. I bought a small TV yesterday for Siobhan’s birthday. I’d bought her a Wii in China, and she hasn’t been able to play it since she’s been here. I’m going to wait awhile before getting cable. We’ve also added two puppies to our household, two little sisters, Labrador German Shepherd crosses. I don’t like male dogs because they pee against the car tires and the smell of their hormonal pee is nauseating.
I had my first visitor, Linda, who worked with me in Nanjing and is now working in Khartoum. It was great seeing her again. Poor thing though, she got up the Friday morning at 3am to fly here, only to find that her plane had been cancelled. So, she arrived a day late. Then when she was due to leave here again and fly to Zanzibar, we went to the airport and a gut feeling told me to go inside the airport with her and not just drop her off. A good gut feeling, because her flight did not even appear on the board. When I asked, I was told it would appear later, but I asked around some more and was directed to the Air Tanzania office, who told me that her flight was cancelled, and she should return the next day. Although friendly and apologetic, the Air Tanzania staff did not seem concerned in the slightest about the inconvenience they had caused to Linda and some of the other passengers who had been waiting inside the airport for over two hours. They had forgotten to put up the flight on the board with a cancelled message. Why am I not surprised? Anyway, it give Linda and I the chance to polish off the last remaining bottle of a South African Red.
Because of Eid, last weekend was a long one. We decided to head out to the Marangu Falls, which is on the side of Mount Kilimanjaro. Absolutely spectacular and breathtakingly beautiful. I’m taking my class back there on Thursday for a field trip. We’re doing a unit of inquiry on Explorers, and I’m going to drop them off in groups of 4 accompanied by an adult, with a compass and a grid, and they’re going to have to find their way down to the waterfall, map their route plotting landmarks and their coordinates. Basically, just practise being explorers. Tomorrow, we go on a teacher outing to the Arusha National Park to check out the wildlife. We probably haven’t explored as much as we should have. We have been out to the TPC Sugar Plantations twice for BBQ’s with some South Africans, and to watch some of the trinations rugby games. I’m so proud of my Springboks winning the Trinations! The outdoor life and BBQs with friends does make this an awesome lifestyle. Even with the internet woes and power cuts. I could never live in a place like China again. Mind you, who knows what lies in the future? I’m off to Mumbai in November for a workshop. I think all the humanity over there might be stressful, so many people everywhere, as life here is relatively carefree and unstressed. Like today my stress is, should I buy my meat first before going to the market? Should I have a second cup of coffee? This kind of life is addictive. Like Grey’s Anatomy, Bones and The Tudors. I hope the principal remembers to download the episodes for me!
Otherwise, all is well. Both Siobhan and I have been struck by a particularly virulent strain of flu which swept through the school, decimating numbers. I had 8 kids away from my class on Thursday, and 5 kids away yesterday. I have been soldiering on at school, but Siobhan has spent the last three days at home, sleeping, coughing, blowing her nose and making bead necklaces. Well, I guess that I had better get myself towards myself, feed the puppies, have that coffee, shower and get dressed. I’ll try and update my Facebook with my latest photos. Last time, it wouldn’t upload the photos, the internet is too slow. Mind you, it depends on how many people are using it at school, as that is what slows it down and why it is so much faster at home. Keep an eye out for my Facebook photos, I’ll post the link when I manage to get them on!
And the ants appeared to have left - until last night when they reappeared on my kitchen sink!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The march of the army ants
First week of school over, and it’s been great. Some of the new teachers are still struggling to adjust to life in Africa, and they will get there in time. I can already see how they are changing, and beginning to understand that time is not a factor in life here. When the curtain lady says she’ll come measure your curtains at 3pm tomorrow, it might be at 3pm 3 tomorrows away. When the internet man says he’ll be at your house at a certain time on a certain day, it might be that time, that day but the following week. It’s amazing, I’ve lived out of Africa for 10 years, but have quickly adjusted back into African time. If you wait for things to happen, you might have to wait a long time, better to just make them happen yourself.
Last week we went to Arusha which is only about 70km away, to the other campus to meet our counterparts and do some planning. The trucks on the road move at a snail’s pace, and they have all these speed bumps, some quite huge, that even with a 4x4 you have to slow down and crawl over, so it took us over 2 hours to get there. It was much faster coming back, as there weren’t so many trucks. Arusha has far more shops, lots of restaurants, a South African Shoprite supermarket, and I suppose is a little like Shanghai compared to Nanjing. It’s going to be great to go there for a weekend, but I’m pleased I don’t stay there as I’d probably spend a fortune. When one of the American teachers was commenting on how much better Arusha was, so much more civilised, I said that I’m pleased that I live in Moshi as I have something to look forward to each month – a weekend in Arusha. If you live in Arusha, then what do you have to look forward to? Actually, Moshi is not too bad. It’s much smaller, but you can basically get anything you need here, more so than in China. Especially the western foods. So for me in that respect, it’s not a hardship post, as everything is available.
What does make it tough, however, is the lack of internet at home. Yeah, yeah, I’m still waiting for them to come and sort it out. I have a landline but it’s not connected, so it just means someone coming and flicking a switch or something like that. The school has internet only in the staff workroom and it’s so slow, a carrier pigeon will probably reach its destination faster than an email. As most of us are still waiting for the internet at home, it’s not always possible to get on the internet at school as there’s often a queue. So, for those emailing me requesting for personal emails on top of my blog, unfortunately it’s not going to happen until I eventually get internet at home.
Then of course, I have the ants. Large army ant types. The ones that march up your stairs to find a new home in your bathroom. Last Friday afternoon, when I got back from Arusha, my gardener, Kabelo, was waiting for me. “Little dog, little dog,” he said frantically, pulling my arm to follow him behind the house. I immediately thought that someone’s dog had escaped and he’d tied it up in my back yard. Unfortunately, it was not a dog, but a writhing mass of black army ants. “Spray all gone, spray all gone,” Kabelo said waving his arms wildly, “In bathroom, in bathroom!” This was my welcome back from Arusha. Streams of ants, carrying their eggs, all marching up my stairs to make a new nest in my bathroom. I quickly nipped down to the local supermarket a 3 minute drive away, and bought some cans of insect spray, went home and indulged in a spray frenzy, which has given me hayfever. I thought I killed them all. However, Thursday I went to the toilet and happened to glance at the wash basin, which looked like it was covered in black fur. It was totally covered in heaving ants, so that you couldn’t even see the white of the basin. I pulled out a can of spray and completely annihilated the enemy. When I managed to wash most of their dead lifeless bodies down the plug-hole, I noticed that they had succeeded in making their nest in the hole above the plug in the porcelain, so they were actually living inside the washbasin! Persistent little blighters! I sprayed directly into the hole, and like the serial killer that I was, watched them come out of the hole to die. I thought that was that. Ant problem sorted. Last night, Siobhan went into the bathroom, to find the wash basin looking like it was covered in black fur. More ants, more spary. Hope this will be the last for a while. Murder is not really my thing. Although I have absolutely loved watching Bones second series every night. I think it’s better than CSI, and I was devastated when I finished the last episode last night.
Although you can find places selling the pirate Chinese dvds here, you can’t buy the whole series like I did. I think I’ll be starting on Women’s murder Club series next. We still don’t have a TV. I’m not in a rush to get one either. We brought so many movies and TV series over from China, ones I bought ages ago, wanted to watch and never got round to watching, that I first want to catch up on those movies. The PYP Coordinator is from Fiji and a rugby fanatic like myself, so we watch all the rugby together at her house, making bowls of popcorn, and chomping them nervously as we shout at the players on the screen. As if they can really hear us!
There’s a great restaurant in the street next to us called El Rancho. Although the name seems to suggest that they sell Mexican food, they don’t. Strictly Indian, but the most delicious Indian food ever. Siobhan had two girls staying over last night, so we went there. Our 4th visit in two weeks. She’s settled in so well here and appears to be loving it. Usually such a girl when it comes to insects and creepy crawlies, she’s not fussed by the ants, just picks up the can of spray and lets them have it. I have a feeling her American twang is soon going to change to a Princess Diana accent, as her best friend here, who’s mum is with the UN, sounds very Princess Dianaish. The school is putting on a whole school production – Early Childhood to Grade12 diploma, of the musical Cats. It’ll be in the beginning of December, so while I see heaps of work ahead, Siobhan is very excited. She’s practising a few songs for the audition on Wednesday.
Tried to make some sausages yesterday with some beef mince I bought with a little hand machine, but it was quite hard work. It really does need a little bit of pork mince to work properly. Whereas in China, beef was expensive and hard to come by, here it is pork. I still haven’t found pork. Beef is so cheap. 1 kg Beef fillet costs $9. I saw an electric sausage machine in Arusha which I think I’m going to buy. We get a good discount because the owner has kids in our school. I already have people asking me for sausages, and the butchery in Moshi, where I bought my fillet, asked me if I can bring in samples of my sausages as she’d read in my biography on the school website that I make sausages as a hobby. Of course, my scale, vacuum sealer and bags are all in the box sitting in storage that I didn’t send, as the shippers had covered up the M for Moshi with packing tape! I’m still trying to figure out what to do about that, as I am missing the boxes with our linen, summer clothes and kitchen stuff. Oh well, seeing as we’re only going back there next year December, will probably just have to start from scratch again.
I bought a barbecue grid in Arusha and am going to build myself a block barbecue in my back garden. Eventually, I want to build a lapa as well, as it’ll be lovely sitting outside in the garden. I can’t believe how fertile the soil is here. Spinach we planted two weeks ago is already so big! It’s hard to understand how people are starving here, when the soil is so fertile. I think though, that maybe it is just the area where we are. I’m not sure. But everywhere there is an abundance of avocado trees, and the locals don’t eat them! Gosh, if I think how much they charged for a puny little avocado in Nanjing! Here, they virtually give them away as they say it’s animal food. I think that avocado has far more nutritional value than corn, which is a staple here, but I don’t know if that’s true. Just my opinion.
The kids in my class are lovely, and come from the UK, US, Netherlands, India, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana. The team I’m working with are very collaborative and lots of fun. Despite internet and ant woes, this has been a good move for us, and I can see why people stay here for years. It’s such a pity Tony has already finished school, as he would have thrived in this sort of set-up. I get one sentence emails from him every few days. The last one saying, “Momsy, am officially out of money, think I did well lasting 2 and a half weeks on R500, so feel proud.” No love Tony or anything. He’s working at The Peninsula Hotel in Sea Point which is 4 or 5 star, and very busy. He’s in the kitchen, and has been doing a few 20 hour shifts, so that’s probably why his money lasted as long as it did. He was too busy working to spend any! He doesn’t get paid for his work though, it’s all part of his training. He just has a few more weeks to go, then he has a two week break, then he starts a ten week theory block. This is definitely making him grow up quickly. He’s met the US rugby team and Springboks, all who stayed at the hotel and he cooked their eggs for breakfast, and one of the Springboks gave him a rugby shirt which he was delighted about.
Have a great week! I’m going to get dressed now, head off to school and hopefully get onto a computer to send this, after which I’m going out exploring with some fellow teachers, checking out some of the markets. Which reminds me. Had better study the town map. For a small town, it’s easy to get lost. As we discovered last weekend when my gas ran out and I had to try and find the gas shop. Thank goodness I have a 4x4, as the roads are well, not really roads! And the view of Mount Kili from Moshi – magical. That old mountain rises above the clouds so majestically, it’s breathtaking.
Luvya all!
Cindy xxx
Last week we went to Arusha which is only about 70km away, to the other campus to meet our counterparts and do some planning. The trucks on the road move at a snail’s pace, and they have all these speed bumps, some quite huge, that even with a 4x4 you have to slow down and crawl over, so it took us over 2 hours to get there. It was much faster coming back, as there weren’t so many trucks. Arusha has far more shops, lots of restaurants, a South African Shoprite supermarket, and I suppose is a little like Shanghai compared to Nanjing. It’s going to be great to go there for a weekend, but I’m pleased I don’t stay there as I’d probably spend a fortune. When one of the American teachers was commenting on how much better Arusha was, so much more civilised, I said that I’m pleased that I live in Moshi as I have something to look forward to each month – a weekend in Arusha. If you live in Arusha, then what do you have to look forward to? Actually, Moshi is not too bad. It’s much smaller, but you can basically get anything you need here, more so than in China. Especially the western foods. So for me in that respect, it’s not a hardship post, as everything is available.
What does make it tough, however, is the lack of internet at home. Yeah, yeah, I’m still waiting for them to come and sort it out. I have a landline but it’s not connected, so it just means someone coming and flicking a switch or something like that. The school has internet only in the staff workroom and it’s so slow, a carrier pigeon will probably reach its destination faster than an email. As most of us are still waiting for the internet at home, it’s not always possible to get on the internet at school as there’s often a queue. So, for those emailing me requesting for personal emails on top of my blog, unfortunately it’s not going to happen until I eventually get internet at home.
Then of course, I have the ants. Large army ant types. The ones that march up your stairs to find a new home in your bathroom. Last Friday afternoon, when I got back from Arusha, my gardener, Kabelo, was waiting for me. “Little dog, little dog,” he said frantically, pulling my arm to follow him behind the house. I immediately thought that someone’s dog had escaped and he’d tied it up in my back yard. Unfortunately, it was not a dog, but a writhing mass of black army ants. “Spray all gone, spray all gone,” Kabelo said waving his arms wildly, “In bathroom, in bathroom!” This was my welcome back from Arusha. Streams of ants, carrying their eggs, all marching up my stairs to make a new nest in my bathroom. I quickly nipped down to the local supermarket a 3 minute drive away, and bought some cans of insect spray, went home and indulged in a spray frenzy, which has given me hayfever. I thought I killed them all. However, Thursday I went to the toilet and happened to glance at the wash basin, which looked like it was covered in black fur. It was totally covered in heaving ants, so that you couldn’t even see the white of the basin. I pulled out a can of spray and completely annihilated the enemy. When I managed to wash most of their dead lifeless bodies down the plug-hole, I noticed that they had succeeded in making their nest in the hole above the plug in the porcelain, so they were actually living inside the washbasin! Persistent little blighters! I sprayed directly into the hole, and like the serial killer that I was, watched them come out of the hole to die. I thought that was that. Ant problem sorted. Last night, Siobhan went into the bathroom, to find the wash basin looking like it was covered in black fur. More ants, more spary. Hope this will be the last for a while. Murder is not really my thing. Although I have absolutely loved watching Bones second series every night. I think it’s better than CSI, and I was devastated when I finished the last episode last night.
Although you can find places selling the pirate Chinese dvds here, you can’t buy the whole series like I did. I think I’ll be starting on Women’s murder Club series next. We still don’t have a TV. I’m not in a rush to get one either. We brought so many movies and TV series over from China, ones I bought ages ago, wanted to watch and never got round to watching, that I first want to catch up on those movies. The PYP Coordinator is from Fiji and a rugby fanatic like myself, so we watch all the rugby together at her house, making bowls of popcorn, and chomping them nervously as we shout at the players on the screen. As if they can really hear us!
There’s a great restaurant in the street next to us called El Rancho. Although the name seems to suggest that they sell Mexican food, they don’t. Strictly Indian, but the most delicious Indian food ever. Siobhan had two girls staying over last night, so we went there. Our 4th visit in two weeks. She’s settled in so well here and appears to be loving it. Usually such a girl when it comes to insects and creepy crawlies, she’s not fussed by the ants, just picks up the can of spray and lets them have it. I have a feeling her American twang is soon going to change to a Princess Diana accent, as her best friend here, who’s mum is with the UN, sounds very Princess Dianaish. The school is putting on a whole school production – Early Childhood to Grade12 diploma, of the musical Cats. It’ll be in the beginning of December, so while I see heaps of work ahead, Siobhan is very excited. She’s practising a few songs for the audition on Wednesday.
Tried to make some sausages yesterday with some beef mince I bought with a little hand machine, but it was quite hard work. It really does need a little bit of pork mince to work properly. Whereas in China, beef was expensive and hard to come by, here it is pork. I still haven’t found pork. Beef is so cheap. 1 kg Beef fillet costs $9. I saw an electric sausage machine in Arusha which I think I’m going to buy. We get a good discount because the owner has kids in our school. I already have people asking me for sausages, and the butchery in Moshi, where I bought my fillet, asked me if I can bring in samples of my sausages as she’d read in my biography on the school website that I make sausages as a hobby. Of course, my scale, vacuum sealer and bags are all in the box sitting in storage that I didn’t send, as the shippers had covered up the M for Moshi with packing tape! I’m still trying to figure out what to do about that, as I am missing the boxes with our linen, summer clothes and kitchen stuff. Oh well, seeing as we’re only going back there next year December, will probably just have to start from scratch again.
I bought a barbecue grid in Arusha and am going to build myself a block barbecue in my back garden. Eventually, I want to build a lapa as well, as it’ll be lovely sitting outside in the garden. I can’t believe how fertile the soil is here. Spinach we planted two weeks ago is already so big! It’s hard to understand how people are starving here, when the soil is so fertile. I think though, that maybe it is just the area where we are. I’m not sure. But everywhere there is an abundance of avocado trees, and the locals don’t eat them! Gosh, if I think how much they charged for a puny little avocado in Nanjing! Here, they virtually give them away as they say it’s animal food. I think that avocado has far more nutritional value than corn, which is a staple here, but I don’t know if that’s true. Just my opinion.
The kids in my class are lovely, and come from the UK, US, Netherlands, India, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana. The team I’m working with are very collaborative and lots of fun. Despite internet and ant woes, this has been a good move for us, and I can see why people stay here for years. It’s such a pity Tony has already finished school, as he would have thrived in this sort of set-up. I get one sentence emails from him every few days. The last one saying, “Momsy, am officially out of money, think I did well lasting 2 and a half weeks on R500, so feel proud.” No love Tony or anything. He’s working at The Peninsula Hotel in Sea Point which is 4 or 5 star, and very busy. He’s in the kitchen, and has been doing a few 20 hour shifts, so that’s probably why his money lasted as long as it did. He was too busy working to spend any! He doesn’t get paid for his work though, it’s all part of his training. He just has a few more weeks to go, then he has a two week break, then he starts a ten week theory block. This is definitely making him grow up quickly. He’s met the US rugby team and Springboks, all who stayed at the hotel and he cooked their eggs for breakfast, and one of the Springboks gave him a rugby shirt which he was delighted about.
Have a great week! I’m going to get dressed now, head off to school and hopefully get onto a computer to send this, after which I’m going out exploring with some fellow teachers, checking out some of the markets. Which reminds me. Had better study the town map. For a small town, it’s easy to get lost. As we discovered last weekend when my gas ran out and I had to try and find the gas shop. Thank goodness I have a 4x4, as the roads are well, not really roads! And the view of Mount Kili from Moshi – magical. That old mountain rises above the clouds so majestically, it’s breathtaking.
Luvya all!
Cindy xxx
Monday, August 3, 2009
Lost luggage, again!
The last few days in South Africa were hectic! The awesome family lunch at Quay 4 on the Waterfront on the Sunday, then Monday and Tuesday trying to get the Hermanus Rainbow Trust website done on Siobhan's macbook. After all the time and effort put into creating the website in iweb, the host guy couldn't figure out how to upload a mac website onto a non-mac server. Of course, we couldn't help him either. And, to make matters worse, the silly man had deleted completely the existing website, so now there was nothing. A void, an empty space. A, "This page has permanently vanished" message. No possible bloody way could I leave my Mom without a website, so we managed to upoad Wordpress onto the server, and I started making her a Wordpress website, just so she has something there. Worked until late Tuesday night, then got up at 5am to continue on the Wednesday, as we were supposed to be leaving Hermanus at 10am the latest. I wanted to do a little shopping first, and hadn't even packed our bags yet. Well, only finished the website at about 10am and then had to pack. Trying to pack a lot into a little is something I have perfected over the years. I managed to pack one big suitcase, two big backpacks, two draggy carry on bags and one gym bag. For us, that was hardly anything. We were no sooner getting ready to go out the door, when my Mom's housekeeper came running out with a pile of freshly ironed washing that we'd forgotten to take. I had to try and stuff it into the hand luggage, which proved to be a big blessing.
I had contacted South African Airways previously, to query why we had 20kg each from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and 30kg each from then on. The lady on the phone was very unobliging, and advised me to go on a wild shopping spree at the duty free in Johannesburg to make up our weight allowance. Fat lot of help that was. But, when we arrived at Cape Town International at 4.30am, the check-in man looked so tired and bored, he'd obviously pulled an all-nighter, and checked in our big suitcase and the biggest backpack. I had the one I usually carried on my back, and Siobhan hiding around the corner with the two carry on suitcases and sports bag. The check in man never asked about hand luggage or said how much our two big bags weighed, as I was worried they were over the 40kg we had between the two of us. The flight to Johannesburg was uneventful and we managed to get away with our heavily-laden hand luggage which was way over the 7kg we were each allowed. When we arrived in Joburg, we went to the baggage collection - our bags weren't there! I went to advise them at the lost luggage office, but then they looked at our baggage slips and said that they'd been put in to fly direct to Kilimanjaro with us. I did think that this was a bit strange as we were changing from the domestic to international terminal and still had to check in for our international flight, but stupidly, didn't take it further. When we checked in, the check in guy there asked us for our luggage and we checked in ALL our hand luggage with the exception of Siobhan's school backpack and our laptops! It was only 37kg! Which of course means, that we were very lucky to get away with carrying 37kg of hand luggage on the plane when we were only allowed 14kg! Never have we traveled with so little hand luggage. Both Siobhan and I had no idea what to do with our hands. The plane was delayed 45minutes, which meant that we didn't have much time to make our connecting flight in Nairobi.
The plane was so empty, Siobhan and I each had three seats to ourselves, so could really spread out, relax and watch the onboard movies. The Air Kenya plane was old and the fittings onboard really showed the age, but it was a pleasant enough flight, even though the pilot had problems with take-off and landing. His take-off was a little hair-raising and definitely reminded me of why I hate flying. It is such a long way to fall if something goes wrong. We arrived in Nairobi and it was all confusing, we weren't sure what we were supposed to do, or where we had to go. Eventually, we found that we had to head to the gate next to the gate we'd come in through. Twenty minutes after arriving, we were boarding Precision Air to Kilimanjaro. Siobhan was very concerned when she saw our little plane had propellers on the wings! They looked more like lawnmower blades! The plane was full and I wondered how they'd fit in our total of 77kg of luggage on such a small plane. There was no room on board for hand luggage and I was relieved that we didn't have any. I shouldn't have wasted my time worrying how they'd fit in all my luggage, as obviously they didn't. Our large suitcase and big backpack never arrived, and still hasn't. there is still no trace of it and at the moment, each airline seems to be blaming the other for losing it. As I like to travel braless for comfort purposes, all my bras were in my big suitcase. So, I have been braless ever since I arrived in Tanzania. What a good impression I've been making!
For such a small plane it was a great flight and flying past the top of Mount Kilimanjaro was one of the most spectacular sights I've ever seen. There's not that much snow at the moment, but still, seeing it at dusk sticking up above the clouds - simply mind-bogglingly awesome! Everything had gone so smoothly, I should have been prepared for what happened next. As we had to fill in swine flu forms and our arrival forms, they asked me for our yellow fever cards, which of course we didn't have. I had checked before with the Tanzanian Embassy in South Africa, and on their website, and as Cape Town was not in a yellow fever area, we didn't need them. we would need them when we left, but I thought I would get them later. Unfortunately, I didn't factor in the fact that we stopped in Nairobi for 20 minutes which IS a yellow fever area. Therefore we needed them otherwise they'd deport us. The school principal tried to bribe the official, but for once he was above bribery, and we had to pay $50 each to get a yellow fever injection. Siobhan started crying, and the guy then momentarily had second thoughts, but decided he wanted to make us safe. Yeah, right. He showed us that the vaccine bottle was unopened and the needles were new, and put on one glove to make it semi-hygienic. Luckily, we haven't felt any ill-effects. The rest went quite smoothly, we paid for our visas and then had to queue up for the immigration official to take our photos for the visa. I asked him to try and make me beautiful and he laughed. However, when he saw the photo he'd taken of me, he sent me to another immigration official to take another photo as he said the other guy's camera took more beautiful photos.
Then we went to collect our luggage from the baggage collection area, and only our luggage we'd checked in at Johannesburg was there! Most of our clothes, lost! Four days later and still no sign of our things! I should have been suspicious of everything having gone so smoothly with our luggage! I reported the missing baggage and the official demanded a communication fee. I told him I only had rands, so he said he wanted R200. I said I only had R100, which he took and gave me no receipt. Obviously a bribe. When I asked for a receipt, he said he'd have to walk to the control tower to get the receipt book, and that it was getting dark and I wouldn't want him to do that, would I? So, I then countered, okay, will give you the R100, but if you don't find my luggage I want R200 in return. Looks like I might have to drive to the airport to collect!
Otherwise, have settled in quickly! The management here are great, and we have the biggest garden ever! The house is basic but comfortable and I'll do it up a bit in time. We definitely have enough room for guests, so, book your visiting times! The school itself is well-organised and very laid-back. The best place ever to raise young kids. I wish I had come here when my children were younger! For those of you teaching, enjoy the start of your new school year or term! Keep well, and keep safe!
love
Cindy
xxx
I had contacted South African Airways previously, to query why we had 20kg each from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and 30kg each from then on. The lady on the phone was very unobliging, and advised me to go on a wild shopping spree at the duty free in Johannesburg to make up our weight allowance. Fat lot of help that was. But, when we arrived at Cape Town International at 4.30am, the check-in man looked so tired and bored, he'd obviously pulled an all-nighter, and checked in our big suitcase and the biggest backpack. I had the one I usually carried on my back, and Siobhan hiding around the corner with the two carry on suitcases and sports bag. The check in man never asked about hand luggage or said how much our two big bags weighed, as I was worried they were over the 40kg we had between the two of us. The flight to Johannesburg was uneventful and we managed to get away with our heavily-laden hand luggage which was way over the 7kg we were each allowed. When we arrived in Joburg, we went to the baggage collection - our bags weren't there! I went to advise them at the lost luggage office, but then they looked at our baggage slips and said that they'd been put in to fly direct to Kilimanjaro with us. I did think that this was a bit strange as we were changing from the domestic to international terminal and still had to check in for our international flight, but stupidly, didn't take it further. When we checked in, the check in guy there asked us for our luggage and we checked in ALL our hand luggage with the exception of Siobhan's school backpack and our laptops! It was only 37kg! Which of course means, that we were very lucky to get away with carrying 37kg of hand luggage on the plane when we were only allowed 14kg! Never have we traveled with so little hand luggage. Both Siobhan and I had no idea what to do with our hands. The plane was delayed 45minutes, which meant that we didn't have much time to make our connecting flight in Nairobi.
The plane was so empty, Siobhan and I each had three seats to ourselves, so could really spread out, relax and watch the onboard movies. The Air Kenya plane was old and the fittings onboard really showed the age, but it was a pleasant enough flight, even though the pilot had problems with take-off and landing. His take-off was a little hair-raising and definitely reminded me of why I hate flying. It is such a long way to fall if something goes wrong. We arrived in Nairobi and it was all confusing, we weren't sure what we were supposed to do, or where we had to go. Eventually, we found that we had to head to the gate next to the gate we'd come in through. Twenty minutes after arriving, we were boarding Precision Air to Kilimanjaro. Siobhan was very concerned when she saw our little plane had propellers on the wings! They looked more like lawnmower blades! The plane was full and I wondered how they'd fit in our total of 77kg of luggage on such a small plane. There was no room on board for hand luggage and I was relieved that we didn't have any. I shouldn't have wasted my time worrying how they'd fit in all my luggage, as obviously they didn't. Our large suitcase and big backpack never arrived, and still hasn't. there is still no trace of it and at the moment, each airline seems to be blaming the other for losing it. As I like to travel braless for comfort purposes, all my bras were in my big suitcase. So, I have been braless ever since I arrived in Tanzania. What a good impression I've been making!
For such a small plane it was a great flight and flying past the top of Mount Kilimanjaro was one of the most spectacular sights I've ever seen. There's not that much snow at the moment, but still, seeing it at dusk sticking up above the clouds - simply mind-bogglingly awesome! Everything had gone so smoothly, I should have been prepared for what happened next. As we had to fill in swine flu forms and our arrival forms, they asked me for our yellow fever cards, which of course we didn't have. I had checked before with the Tanzanian Embassy in South Africa, and on their website, and as Cape Town was not in a yellow fever area, we didn't need them. we would need them when we left, but I thought I would get them later. Unfortunately, I didn't factor in the fact that we stopped in Nairobi for 20 minutes which IS a yellow fever area. Therefore we needed them otherwise they'd deport us. The school principal tried to bribe the official, but for once he was above bribery, and we had to pay $50 each to get a yellow fever injection. Siobhan started crying, and the guy then momentarily had second thoughts, but decided he wanted to make us safe. Yeah, right. He showed us that the vaccine bottle was unopened and the needles were new, and put on one glove to make it semi-hygienic. Luckily, we haven't felt any ill-effects. The rest went quite smoothly, we paid for our visas and then had to queue up for the immigration official to take our photos for the visa. I asked him to try and make me beautiful and he laughed. However, when he saw the photo he'd taken of me, he sent me to another immigration official to take another photo as he said the other guy's camera took more beautiful photos.
Then we went to collect our luggage from the baggage collection area, and only our luggage we'd checked in at Johannesburg was there! Most of our clothes, lost! Four days later and still no sign of our things! I should have been suspicious of everything having gone so smoothly with our luggage! I reported the missing baggage and the official demanded a communication fee. I told him I only had rands, so he said he wanted R200. I said I only had R100, which he took and gave me no receipt. Obviously a bribe. When I asked for a receipt, he said he'd have to walk to the control tower to get the receipt book, and that it was getting dark and I wouldn't want him to do that, would I? So, I then countered, okay, will give you the R100, but if you don't find my luggage I want R200 in return. Looks like I might have to drive to the airport to collect!
Otherwise, have settled in quickly! The management here are great, and we have the biggest garden ever! The house is basic but comfortable and I'll do it up a bit in time. We definitely have enough room for guests, so, book your visiting times! The school itself is well-organised and very laid-back. The best place ever to raise young kids. I wish I had come here when my children were younger! For those of you teaching, enjoy the start of your new school year or term! Keep well, and keep safe!
love
Cindy
xxx
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