Crikey, hes going to have me

Its a hot Saturday here, just did the first mission into city centre to buy pots, change cash etc...got followed the whole way by a philosophising scammer trying to get money in return for safaris/language training/ AIDS care/youth work/beads anything...sigh. We rang the cell number he gave us as a 'volunteering' contact...they had never heard of him. For shame.

Still at hotel as our house has no sink at all (to be installed) and the toilet is leaking. We have our gas stove now, the gas bottle for it looks like a ex-WW2 bomb. I think a lot of Tanzanians use foam mattresses and ones with springs are a novelty. Our single bed matresses in the hotel (I have yet to use a double bed here) are so hard its like sleeping on the floor. Jumping on them, executing 'ram jam' wrestling moves has not loosened them up at all.

Friday, after watching 'Crocodile Hunter Diaries' in the clothes we have been wearing out of our suitcases, after a crude attempt to shave that sliced up my top lip, we both headed to our place of work for the year, the Mildmay International Office, Tanzania Branch. The people were really friendly to two awkward Petone-ites, I was writing down people's names and titles furiously in a notebook. We share two adjacent seperate offices, thank (insert Deity) that we are not sitting next to each other. She's already showing me up with her better Swahili!

We were briefed on our roles while I terrifiedly watched a monster wasp the size of a butterfly buzzing around the head of the presenter. The wasps here look like something from King Kong. I needed Steve Irwin to tame it. I'm still thinking about it. I'll try to take a photo of one by disturbing a hive and photographing what comes out. Just kidding. But not really.

Francoise is to find ways to bring individuals together into sustainable, productive community based enterprises. My role is a bit of a new thing. Introducing a new 'rights based' perspective into the HIV/AIDS support role of the organisation. Lots of planning to do. Stop laughing Adam.

We had a communal lunch (best Mango ever. Seen that Seinfeld episode about the Mango? Better than that) then spent the rest of the day reading, annoying Francoise in her office and talking a big game in front of my office mates.

Got a lift home from a kid who looked younger than Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Finished the day with a bomb in the pool over Francoise while Mount Doom..I mean Kili watched disaprovingly and a beer and a bananna split that tasted awesome but looked like a flamingo killed by a bannana.