Art in Tanzania internship program
It has been brought to my attention that the people who know me best are unaware of my daily life with Art in Tanzania. I wouldn’t say that’s an accident, because trying to describe the amazing experiences as they happen is particularly challenging. But what’s especially difficult is trying to sum up all the fantastic people that you meet, or how incredibly hot the weather is, or just how extremely wonderful life is in Africa.
However, today, I’m going to try. I’m going to try, in the best way I can, what a typical day is like in the place I now call home – A typical day in Madale Village.
If you are not woken by our onsite (not so scary) guard dogs, Marski or Big Mama, doing the twilight bark, then the neighbour’s cows might do the job, and if not, a morning cockerel will do the trick. At about 7.30 am, most of the house is awake. You will hear the morning buckets of water filling, the pitta patter of feet, and the bamboo doors creaking open. As we awake from our hot, sweaty night’s sleep – and my gosh, are they hot.
By the time we make it down the rickety stairs…(did I tell you that our Bamboo huts are up on the roof? Well they are, and we have the most spectacular view over Dar and it’s extraordinary at sunrise and sunset!)…Our surrogate mother, Mama Neema, and her fellow Dadas (sisters) have prepared breakfast. With a hot water flask waiting, coffee is always the first thing on my mind! It’s safe to say that I love coffee whilst being here – my English tea days are officially over! Omelette, fruit, and toast are next to my plate and tummy. As a group, we all slowly awaken from our zombie states with the help of one of the ‘Three Musketeers’ (our resident kittens) and begin planning our day.
By about 8.30 am, John or George, one of our lovely bartenders, will open up shop and be ready to feed us cold water or my favourite mango juice. But more often than not – we all quickly approach them to pay off our beer tabs from the night before!!
9.00 am. Well, realistically, it’s about 9:30 am, because we now all run on the laid-back African time and disperse to our various projects. Whether heading to the
nursery or secondary school to teach, going to help in the hospital or orphanage, or working here in the office, we all begin our day’s work! We must remember to say good morning to our tiniest of neighbours who can be heard shouting in the distance with their little voices, ‘HELLO, MZUNGU HELLO!!
9.30 am-1.00 pm (ish): From here, I usually begin working out on the balcony. Note to self: Always wear sunscreen. Remember what happened on day one—the words red and tomato spring to mind.
I count myself very lucky when I sit up here. The slight sea breeze somewhat mitigates the 40-degree heat, and I have an extraordinary view. Between the rainbow of different coloured roofs and the surprisingly green vegetation, we can see the Twiga cement factory on the horizon. This might sound ugly…and don’t get me wrong, it is; until you learn Madale’s exciting fact! This factory is where Willy Wonka lives!! Okay, I know he is inaccurate, but the factory-inspired ‘little unknown author’ (cough cough, 200 million copies sold worldwide), Roald Dahl’s novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Once you know that, it’s hard not to be creative here, and screenwriting becomes more manageable.
1.00 pm: The thought of lunch quickly creeps into my mind, especially with the heat. I wander down to the bar and grab myself a soda with the rest of the office crew. It’s safe to say that I think I might have to go to ‘Soda Anonymous’ when I return home. I think we might all have to, as we have developed a slight soda addiction while we have been here!
We then have a few options for lunch. We can stay at the house where Mama Neema can prepare lunch for you for 3,000 TSH. Or we can take the long trek into town and act like youths hanging around the local shopping mall, having lunch there. But more often than not, we venture across the road and for 1,000 TSH, equivalent to about 40p, we can have a giant local lunch of Ugali and beans. You roll this cornflower mix into a ball and dip it! It’s so good! But be sure to wash your hands afterwards, as half of it will be stuck to every crevice and under every nail by the time you’re done.
2.00 pm. High ho, high ho, back to work we go! Fingers crossed, the power hasn’t died or heavy rain hasn’t engulfed our room. ‘Bless the rains down in Africa ‘ is now on repeat since we have entered the rainy season.
In the afternoon, we usually continue with something different from what we did in the morning. Here, I spend some time organising the two projects I have set up. The first is the Brian Project, which you have probably already heard about, but if not, check out this short video:
The second is something we have just started working towards: helping our friend Johnny (a gardener at AIT) begin his university education. As I write this, I can hear the faint whooshing of his blade as he cuts away at the grass below! (Ah, that reminds me, we could do with some more grass for our dry toilet. Yes, our bamboo rooms are eco-lodges, so there are no flushing toilets here!)
Around this time, I can also do some editing, taking photographs, or filming, so it’s a pretty perfect way to spend an afternoon!
At 4:00 pm (this can be anytime from about 3.30 to 4.30), some small voices can be heard making their way upstairs—’ TEACHER, TEACHER!’ This is our afternoon alarm for the start of our English class for some of the little learners of Madale. Here, Emma and I teach basic English to a small and ever-changing number of children. We have been doing numbers, their ABCs, and even colours.
African proverb: knowledge is the only treasure you can give entirely without running short of it.
Trying to keep them all still and their attention focused is not easy, to say the least, and is very exhausting. But seeing them make a tiny amount of progress makes it all worth it!
Additionally, at this time, adult English lessons and debate classes are taking place, all of which are being run by our volunteers—such busy bees we are!
6.00 pm If we feel particularly active, I hasten to add this rare! We go for a walk, I mean run…round the village. At this point, the temperature is bearable
And I have officially stopped sweating. It’s here that you can’t help but feel part of the village. Everyone we pass says hello, and I mean everyone. The local kids come and lend a helping hand to the slightly slower (struggling!!) members of what we have now coined the running club; the smell of home cooking fills the air. The sun slowly drops, and if we are lucky, we might be treated to a lovely sunset!
But when we return, it isn’t a pretty sight. Our bodies now have a layer of dust on top of a layer of sweat on top of dust, so we all call dibs on the first shower!
However, this is not a simple activity in Madale. From here, we must perform the art of having a bucket shower. The Do’s and Don’ts of a bucket shower… DON’T tip the whole bucket of water over you in one go; it will not wash all the shampoo out, and
you will be left with an ice rink of water and the awkward situation of being soapy and needing more water. DO use the various inventions created to wash oneself. My particular favourite is recycling plastic bottles into a variety of pouring devices.
Note to self: Remember to apply mosquito repellent after showering. Your dinner time is their dinner time, too—do I need to take you back to day one again, miss mosquito-bitten-tomato?! 7.00 pm—dinner! Now, if it’s a Tuesday, then you have to be quick off the mark, as it’s CHAPATTI! The house’s favourite. Once our plates are complete (and covered in chilli sauce), it’s generally here that we have the biggest of laughs as our ever-growing family reminisces over our weekend of beach times, drinking far too much beer and partying later than we should have!
Dinner is usually followed by a house meeting—discussions that help me feel like a grown-up with responsibilities.
Again, if it’s a Tuesday, it’s a sound that has become so familiar and so annoying that we can’t help but love it. A horn! This horn comes from a computer, and behind the laptop is our DJ (in fact, just one of our team leaders). But this can only mean one thing – Konyagi Tuesday! (Konyagi is the local spirit here – the best way to describe it is like a sweeter gin!) We fill up our glasses and have a little party with all the team leaders and whoever else seems to turn up!
If lucky, we might get some moves from our little replacement brother, Kimi. Oh, and by the way, all Africans can dance – all of them! In comparison, our mzungu moves seem somewhat awkward (BAD!) – picture Beyoncé next to Hugh Grant!
Once 10 pm arrives, we might sneak up the road to Umoja Pub for some more beers and a game or two of pool before coming home to bed!
Not all evenings are alcohol-oriented (unless it’s the weekend). Other evening activities are movie night, game night, and sleep!
And there you have it, a typical day in Madale.
Of course, there are exceptions. You might be climbing Kilimanjaro, staying in Moshi, going on safari, or even in Zanzibar. But for most, Madale’s life is how we spend 90% of our time, and my god, do we love it. But sadly, my days in Madale are becoming numbered, and I am finding it hard to accept. It has been incredible, eye-opening, life-changing, challenging, and wonderfully exhausting. I keep asking myself, can I postpone my flight…again?
I never want to leave this village, I never want to leave the people here, and I never want to leave Tanzania! The other morning, I felt my eyes filling with tears (those who know me know this isn’t rare!) as I thought, I don’t want my days to be anything but this! I love the heat, the community and how alive this place always feels. I have found that I have rational hopes and fears here, like ‘can I cross this road without dying?’ ‘Or will I survive climbing Kili? Compared to back home, where I have stresses and worries about things I can’t name or point to, like whether I wasted this day? How little am I seeing? Am I doing the right thing?
I want to be woken up by Big Mama, eat chapatti and drink Konyagi on Tuesdays. I want to teach English and screenwriting while having the most incredible view! But damn it…too little money and the whole world left to see. There is just so much I am going to miss here, but all good things must come to an end, and to put it simply…This is my love letter to Tanzania.
