the basics

So far I've talked mostly about volunteering, this post I thought I'd say a bit about the rest of life in Tanzania.

There are ten volunteers at the orphanage (more arrive on Friday) - we come from the UK, US, Canada and Australia, soon there will be some New Zealanders as well. We are staying in an area we call the volunteer village, it is a fenced in compound with four houses that are still in various stages of completion. By the standards of Buswelo, we are very, very well off. We have electricity and running water. Compared to life in the West, things are primitive. Our electricity works in fits and starts - while cooking dinner the other night we had to stop half way through because the electrical socket caught on fire. Lights tend to have a strobe effects, if they work at all. Toilets are holes in the ground that sometimes flush and sometimes don't. I think the biggest thing I had to get used to was freezing cold showers. Hot water is unheard of in Buswelo. I've been here less than a week and learned that I can't face the cold water first thing in the morning (when the air is still chilly) so I wash my hair around noon when the sun is out in full force and it's quite refreshing then.

None of us expected there to be so many volunteers, so we are all adjusting to sharing rooms and group outings. Some have a much greater affinity to ice-breakers than others and there is an interesting dynamic between the extroverts and introverts in the group. It is really nice to have other people around to talk to and do things with, but coordination can be difficult.