España

Madrid- Zaragoza- The Pyrenees

I have been in Spain for just over a week now nearing the end of the second week :o (a combo of my memory and uk:eu adapter plugs has made this blog malarkey a bit tricky), it's gone by so quickly, hence no related blog posts.

Vogue fashion nights and house parties in Madrid. Successful completion of my first week at school with a unexpected dose of public speaking to parents! The week ended with a peaceful weekend in The Pyrenees. Oh and lots of yummy tapas! I couldn't really dream for a better beginning to my year in Spain!

View from my hostel in Madrid, which was fantastic!

Chapters

This is a note to say that this is the end of my Tanzanian chapter and now the beginning of my Spanish chapter.

Sere na, kwaheri, badaye (Swahili and Masai words for good bye) 

&

Hola! 

Outside the classroom and other happenings

This post is basically a stream of photos that I love. Taken throughout my trip which I think are beautiful and say a lot about the country, a mixture of nature, wildlife, humanity and culture.

Children

The Maasai of Lake Natron

Lake Natron is a place in Northern Tanzania, populated by the Maasai tribe. The area is one of outstanding natural beauty: The Great Rift Valley passes through the area and the sodium lake is home to flocks of the magnificent flamingo.It's also home to the active volcano Oldonyo Langai. The land is very arid and vast, what one may envision the Tanzanian planes to look like.

African Safari

I was lucky enough to have my mumma and her partner come to visit me for a few weeks in August, I got to experience all the wonders of Tanzania which people regularly travel to see. It was strange acting as a 'tourist' and being treated like one in the fancy safari camps, viewing the spectacular and infamous African wildlife, sunning on the beaches of Zanzibar and getting lost in the maze of the streets of Stone Town. Of course, it had to be done!

These photographs don't do the awesome African safari justice, mainly because a photo cannot relay the atmosphere of the plains but second to that my compact camera couldn;t quite capotuyre the magnificent scenes. None the less here are some of the best of my three day safari across Ngorongoro National Park, Tarangire National Park and Lake Manyana, I was luckily enough to experience this side of Tanzania with my mum :)

Elephants!

Coastal Tanzania

I got the chance to visit the beautiful island of Zanzibar. 

In order to show my mum and her partner the 'real Tanzania' I suggested that we travel to the island by bus and then ferry. The experience was interesting, let's say! The bus journey began in Arusha in a relatively empty bus station, after 12 long hot, bumpy and noisy hours on the bus I think my parents had had enough! Taking a long distance bus jouney in Tanzania is not for the faint hearted but it's definitely worth it if you want to experience the local way of life and see organised chaos in action! We arrived in Dar Es Salaam at night, which wasn't the most pleasant experience, dark, busy, potentially dangerous and no idea of where we were going! However we managed to find a hotel and stay the night before we caught the ferry the next morning. The ferry was a calm and enjoyable ride and we arrived to this paradise...

Loved ones...and learning Maa language

Those who are still on my desktop background, still come into my dreams and still cross my my mind every single day. 

One little boy called Lemboris and his family

Recycling/Upcycling African style

Making the most out of a little.

Tanzania is such a contrasting and a varied place. This post is about the amazing ways people create and invent things hear, whether it be for fun, practicality, emergencies, it happens in Africa!

The handmade bike.

Hand crafted bicycle
Made from cardboard, rope, wood and a lot of vision. 

When I witnessed this I was so impressed, gob smacked and humbled and heart melty all at once.

The wheel theme continued...

Good old fashioned fun

Local Boy

Quinn got the bug and made a pretty successful baseball bat

Surgical implements

At first glance you will not know what this stick, my limbs and a few pairs of hands has to do with inventivity. Well fear not, another post will show you the delightful medical procedure that took place in my foot using this twig.  

The boys weekend project

The final product

NB. The antenna is a monkey head, formally on a skipping rope given by me. :/ I was pleased to see it being recycled however!

What I often witnessed and felt saddened by was how quickly this could change, the scenes above can, could and would be heavily contrasted to alternative aspects to this country. The inequality I encountered at different levels and institutions in Tanzania is staggering. The most visible illustration of this to the passing eye, being the huge dominance of  4x4 guzzling safari jeep and toyotas that speed the roads of Tanzania, or the huge commercial developments that are dotted all over Arusha and even in some rural areas. Yes, both of these examples are for the purpose of tourism (don't get me wrong, I do believe tourism has it's positives and should happen, it's just the way it goes about I have the issue with!) and the argument, I know, is that this boosts the economy. The tourism in Tanzania and in Africa in general is BIG big business, but as history and consumerism illustrates and prevails there's only a few who actually feel any of these benefits. 

I know this isn't the best articulation of such issues, this could be a fifth of a badly written blurb on the topic! However I wanted to highlight the contrasts there are in the society here and offer a realistic viewpoint of this. 

These photos alone could suggest something of a stereotyped, media driven view of Africa... of people being poor, having nothing... which to an extent is the case for these kids BUT my point is what they're doing is much better than what their money obsessed seniors are doing to the country! They may be poor because they don't have money but they are happy and rich in life's ingenuity and offerings!

The point is, Tanzania is a beautiful land, blessed with wonderful wildlife and natural resources and the people themselves are clever, inventive and these cases above give us in the western world a lesson to take home, yet sadly all to often, the glamour and bright lights of 'our' western world dominates, creates further divisions and what I am afraid will happen in Tanzania is the gradual erosion of the very aspects of humanity that have been lost in other parts of the world, due to the mass onslaught of so called 'development' and, technology..all things which have created stressed, depressed, money obsessed corrupt nations.

Please Tanzania, don't loose your humanity and fight corruption!