Debra & Peter Martyn:

Most days we get up at about 7:00 am.  Until then we try to ignore the roosters.  We put a big pot of water on to heat for our showers.  Most people here have outdoor charcoal stoves so our propane gas stove is a luxury. 

When the water is boiling we carefully carry it into the bathroom using oven mitts because Tanzanian pots don't have handles.  This is just one of life's many mysteries.  We pour half the hot water into a plastic basin and cool it down with water from the tap.  Plastic buckets and basins are everywhere here - many thanks to the Chinese. We wash with this water and use the second half of the hot water to rinse off with.  Soap and shampoo are easy to get although they are expensive.

We have been brushing our teeth with the tap water!!  So far this hasn't caused any health problems.  The tap water is not suitable for drinking and so we try to remember not to swallow it.  Water must be boiled and then put through a water filter to make it safe for drinking. 

CUSO-VSO supplies all volunteers with survival kit containing an Indian made water filter.  The survival kit we were given also included a mosquito net to cover our bed and a year’s supply of condoms of both the male and female varieties so we are unlikely to run out.

Breakfast consists mostly of toast and marmalade which we make from the local oranges (green in colour).  Sometimes we can get peanut butter and honey is almost always available.  We have a reliable source of sliced white bread (knock on wood).  Bananas are easy to get and so we often have one for breakfast.  Cheese is completely out of the question.

We have powdered instant coffee with our breakfast.  Tanzanian ground coffee is excellent but very scarce and can only be bought in major cities.   We can get powdered whole milk and so I put a teaspoon of it into my coffee.  Teabags can easily be gotten as can sugar.  Tanzanians have sweet tooths, or is it teeth?

Over breakfast we often practice our Swahali.  We know the numbers and can make simple sentences in present, past and future.  We have advanced to the point where the locals laugh at our accents but they are beginning to understand us.

If we need food and supplies we walk down to the market after breakfast.  The market is made up of many small covered stalls selling fresh fruits and vegetables.  Since there is no refrigeration in the butcher stalls it is vital to buy meat in the morning just after it has been slaughtered and before the flies have taken their share.  Our house has a fridge. 

After returning from the market we work on making lesson plans for our training sessions with the local teachers.  These sessions take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Each session is two hours but many teachers arrive late.  Motivating them is a big challenge but we do have a small group of dedicated people who want to improve their English skills. 

Lunch is usually a salad with toast or a bowl of soup.  On our last trip to Dodoma we found some Knorr powdered soup so we bought 13 packages.  There are ten left but who's counting?  Today we are going to make cucumber and avocado sandwiches with some mayo we found in Arusha.  Five cats share our deck and for the last few days they have lunched with us opting for fresh and readily available birds.  After lunch we sweep the feathers off the deck and wash the dishes.

During the afternoons we read on our Kindles, email or work on lesson plans until supper unless we have the workshops with our teachers.  As soon as we get our transportation budget money from CUSO-VSO we'll start visiting the seven schools in our area to help out where we can. 

In the late afternoon our boss, the director of the Community Education Resource Centre, Mr. Ndee, often comes to visit us.  Over a Mountain Dew, Mr. Ndee's favourite tipple, we discuss the day's activities.

We eat supper around 7:00 pm.  We have been making beef stew in a very scary Indian made pressure cooker we bought in Arusha.  It came without operating instructions and often makes furious hissing noises.  Sometimes we eat vegetable stew.  Tonight we are going to branch out and try to make stuffed eggplant provinciale.

In the evenings we watch TV shows that we loaded onto an external hard-drive brought from Canada.  We are now watching old episodes of Cracker, starring Robbie Coltrane.  The computer that we got with our Air Mile points has a battery so we can use it to listen to music or watch films even during the sometimes very frequent and long power failures.  Not to worry, candles are available. 

I am listening to Frank Sinatra as I type this.  The chairman is telling us to take off into the blue and how very nice it is to go travelling and to be footloose with only a toothbrush and comb.

We usually hit the hay about 9:00 pm.

Our simple life is good.