This blog about my time at Kesho Leo is more than a
little overdue. This is partly due to the following reasons:
a) I can write about anything you like but am not
very good when it comes to writing about myself
b) I will therefore do almost anything to avoid it
and
c) Every time I thought about what I should write
about I was overwhelmed with ideas and didn't know where to start, so didn't
start!
Anyway to make this a little easier for myself I
decided to simplify things and share a little bit about some of my most
memorable/favourite moments and experiences volunteering for fws in a David
Letterman- style Top Ten sort of format, so here they are (in no particular
order though!):
1. Learning to sew: Part of my role at KL was to
help out the Kesho Leo Mama's Sewing Group. I'm not sure if they expected me to
show up and teach them things but I have to say before this I hadn't sewed
anything since about Year 10, and even then I think I broke a needle/got a
bobbin all tangled/just made the machine stop working every time I went near
it. This became apparent to the Mama's quite quickly and my role became that of
oversee-er/ideas person/sometimes cutter. Coming up to KL to help out with the
Sewing Group became an enjoyable part of my week as it generally involved a lot
of laughter with (and some brilliant singing from) Mama's Gladi & Oliva,
who always set to work with enthusiasm whenever I came up with a new
idea, like Christmas wreathes made form scrap, bunting, multicoloured aprons
and purses and the (dreaded) stuffed animals! I also eventually got over my
fear of the machine with the help of Helena, whose calming presence and
patience in teaching are incomparable to anyone I've ever met, or think I ever
will!
2. Mudi's morning office entry: I don't think anything
made me laugh more than seeing Kesho Leo Project Manager Mudi burn into
the volunteer village on his dirt bike in a blaze of glory, like some kind of
action hero, and then remove his helmet and greet us with a very polite 'Good
morning guys'. I also enjoyed his general morning greetings as he entered the
office, which usually went something along the lines of 'Good morning guys.
Mambo Bwanaaaaa Joshua, Mamboooooo... Mrs Nurse etc etc... Are we all feeling
happy, because it's a beautiful day and we're all alive? Fantastic, yeah ok
mate, that's cool mate.'
3. Salimu: While there's obviously no picking
favourites when it comes to all the brilliant KL kids, there's some sort of
infectious happiness that spreads to you whenever Salim is around, and luckily
for us Salim seemed to like hanging around, and took to dropping in to say
hello at the Volunteer Village on his way home from school every couple of days
(often walking, because as his teacher informed a very amused Mama Gladi, he
would often 'eat his bus money' ie-spend it on chocolate instead of the bus!).
From learning sign language together to watching his eyes light up with delight
as he discovered all the different tools and colours available in Microsoft
Paint, there was no better or more welcome interruption to an afternoon’s work
than a visit from Salim.
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4. Simon's (Volunteer Village Security Guard,
Translator, Veggie Salesman...) terrible sense of humour: Simon never failed to
get laugh out of us with his antics, from brining us messages from Maggie the
guard dog, to pretending he didn't recognize us through the peephole of the front
gate for several minutes, even putting on his 3D glasses to assist him, to
playing horrible children's songs at maximum volume for a whole day, and of
course making it his duty to write the name of his alter ego 'P-Diddy' across
the back window of the Land Cruiser as soon as it was coated in dust (much to
Mudi's annoyance...)
5. A simple one but... Cleaning my teeth and looking
up at the stars. It might sound a bit clichéd but there was something special
about gazing up at the sky each night at the thousands of stars in that very
clear Tanzanian night sky. The only thing that ruined this experience was
accidentally stepping on a frog while you were doing it...
6. Conversations with Bibi Franki: These were
another highlight of a visit to Kesho Leo, and almost always ended in a big fit
of laughter and a lot of leg slapping from Bibi. Despite my limited Kiswahili
(especially in the beginning) we managed to semi-understand each other and
think whatever the other one was saying must have been very funny. I think I
actually learned a good part of my Swahili from these conversations as she
never made me feel silly for trying to say something, and at the same time was
not afraid to correct my mistakes either!
7. Walking from the Volunteer Village to Kesho Leo
with Nurse June: This was always an entertaining experience as true to
Tanzanian form, but somehow even more so than anyone else, June would stop and
chat to almost everyone we passed on this walk, and took a real interest in
what they had to say too. A typical line of questioning would go something
along the lines of:
'Good morning Bwana, how are you? How is your
family? How is your crop? What is it that you are growing here? How old are you
Bwana? What year were you born? Oooooh, my goodness, you are very old, you
should go and take a rest inside.'
In between catching up with everyone June would
share her knowledge on all sorts of things from history and politics to medicine, farming
and local traditions with us, and asked just as many questions about how these
things work in our country. I don't think I'll ever learn so much on the
commute to work again...
8. Learning to drive a manual 4WD - I remember Mudi
saying something about it not taking long to get used to driving in town as we
turned into the hectic nightmare of an intersection that is 'Friend's Corner'
(false advertising...) on my second day in Arusha, and me laughing to myself
thinking 'As if I'll ever get behind the wheel HERE!'. But thanks to some very
patient and encouraging teachers in my fellow volunteers I eventually managed
to make it all the way to 4th gear without stalling, aaaand drive in town, and
kind of enjoyed it! I think Jacinta, Health Volunteer at the time, deserves a
medal for her patience in some of these situations... And wouldn't you know it,
the week before I left Arusha they installed what I believe to be the second
set of traffic lights in town at 'Friend's Corner'!
Well that did turn into a bit of an essay once I got
started so I'm stopping there at eight! Anyway the moral of the story is
while volunteering at Kesho Leo wasn't always a walk in the park like this may
make it sound, it is these little moments and memories that make it such a
brilliant experience, and to anyone considering it I would say just go -
you won’t regret it!
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