EdUKaid

This entry in the EdUKaid blog marks the end of an era - if a one-year period can be termed as an era? - as Sally, project manager in Tanzania 2007/2008, has safely returned to the UK. However, with one era ending another begins and this time it is with yours truly Kennet Christensen at the wheel for the year 2008/2009. Before diving into this my very first EdUKaid blog I just wish to thank Sally for her efforts here in Mikindani and for making sure that I am all set to take over. I hope the best for you.

I have now been in Tanzania for a month. It may not seem that long but I can assure each and everyone of you, my dear readers, that time can pass immensely slow if you for half a month do not do much else than sitting on the trunk of a palm tree in front of a mud-house in Mikindani. Oh yes I am talking of my homestay which all new arrivals here at EdUKaid Tanzania undertake to help them settle in and learn Swahili.

Of the more exciting experiences during homestay were my many and highly varied encounters with animals, some domesticated and some not so domesticated. I had chicken sleeping under my bed, I had lizards and geckos running on walls and on the ceiling. The chicken left me with flees and like a hundred red bites all over my body while a gecko nearly tore my mosquito net when it fell from the ceiling or maybe it simply could not resist and decided to jump, gecko parachuting without a parachute.

The funniest experience during the two weeks happened one late night. Everybody had gone to bed and were sleeping. All at a sudden I woke myself and the entire household and maybe even the neighbours with a scream. I thought that I had had a really bad dream but I could not remember anything of the dream. The following morning I tried to explain to the family what and why I had screamed. Not an easy thing to explain when you don’t speak Swahili but we all just laughed at it anyways. The next night I woke up again but this time without screaming. I felt something moving on my left shoulder. I decided to hit myself or what ever was moving around so I hammered my right hand as hard as possible onto my left shoulder. As quick as I hit my shoulder as quick did I take my hand back again as I was really surprises to feel the soft fur of a mouse/rat. I did not sleep much for the rest of that night but the mouse came back every night, though now just staying under the bed in a corner of the room. I named him Edvard Munch after Norwegian painter whose most famous painting is titled Skriget - the Scream.