Barry's African Adventure: November 2003 Archives

I think we'll call him shaun.

It has been ramadan for the past month, which has been rather a big deal in Tanzania. At the end of ramadan it is the eid celebration, and that means a public holiday. However, eid only comes when the new moon has been seen. So it is not a definite date. The whole country didn't know if the holiday was Tuesday and Wednesday or Wednesday and Thursday. I was outside peering at the sky for ages, wondering if I could have a drink or not.

As it happens eid began on Wednesday. A nice midweek weekend.

If only that had been the case last night.

Most days, it is absolutely cooking here. However, there have been some rains, so all the plants are growing like there is no tomorrow. Just look at all the plants at the front of my house.



I can see Mount Meru from the school grounds. In fact I can actually see it out of my classroom window. Lovely.

Comfortingly, it is an active volcano, which last erupted in 1910

On stage with Nine Group Band. It was great fun. The crowd didn't know what to make of the white guy playing the African songs.

For the last week there has been a rather large black beetle living in the dustbin of my classroom. Quite frankly, this has not been a problem. If it is happy with it's home, a sturdy metal bin, then I have absolutely no issues with it. However, on Friday I was in the middle of a maths lesson when I was cut short. A ridiculously loud noise was coming from the bin. Someone, or something had really got too much for the beetle. The lesson stopped, we studied the beetle for a while, and when the maths resumed the beetle didn't take further umbridge. Dave Attenborough never told me that beetles hate maths.