The Meeting

Jeffrey and dad had to leave early for Dar this morning, in order to go to an array of meetings - so again I was left to my own devices.

I went for a number of walks along the beach again and saw many brightly colored starfish and sea urchins. My lack of activity throughout the day was in prepartion for me to mentally prepare myself for my visit to Mbutu and my meeting with the village elders to discuss the project in the school.

The idea was that I would take a bike to the village. The bike eventually arrived, some hours after it was expected. At 3:30 I was able to cycle the few miles through the bush to Mbutu. There were kids along the whole route who stopped and shouted 'Mzungu, Mzungu!' (White. White.) When I eventually got to the the village there was no one at the school. I managed to stop two small kids who knew enough English to direct me to a teacher. I found one guy, who I recognized from the day before, and he saidthere was nobody around and that I should come back at 6 (which meant I would have to cycle in the night), or on Monday. I prepared  to leave, when, fortuitously,  I recognized Abraham, another man I had met the day before. He ushered me into the Community Center, where I saw photos of the president and a Tanzanian flag hung ceremoniously.  Abraham managed to find the rest of the village elders, as well as the teacher, who was also the translator.

I explained the purpose of my visit. They were all very interested in the example materials I had provided and seemed very keen on the idea. However, about 20 minutes into the meeting they had an argument. I was unable to understand what they were saying and so sat back for about 5 minutes. The teacher explained that the elders were worried that because my material was in English, no one would be able to understand it. Luckily I was able to persuade them that it only took one person to understand the material for the whole village to understand and teach from it because that one person could explain in Swahili.

The meeting was a great success and I was told that Mbutu warmly welcomed me. However, before I could go I had to answer one of the teacher's questions. He told me he had heard on the BBC about the high levels of knife crime in Britain and waited for my reply.

I cycled back to Ras Dege and immediately went fishing, the sea was huge and I was just about able to find a rock close enough to the sea to fish, but not at risk of getting waves crashing over it. Sadly i didn't catch anything, but all in all the day was great.

Hudson