{"id":553,"date":"2002-11-27T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-11-27T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/2002\/11\/27\/firstimpressions-of-mikindani-by-richard-densham\/"},"modified":"2023-12-10T11:34:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T11:34:36","slug":"firstimpressions-of-mikindani-by-richard-densham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/firstimpressions-of-mikindani-by-richard-densham.html","title":{"rendered":"First\nImpressions of Mikindani by Richard Densham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Richard was a volunteer working in Mikindani, Tanzania for a charity, Trade<br \/>\naid.<\/p>\n<p>My first impressions of Mikindani were what an improvement it was on my<br \/>\ninitial reaction to Dar-es-Salaam, [probably influenced by jet lag and the<br \/>\nuncomfortable heat]. After the long journey it was a relief to get into<br \/>\nMikindani, and all I really wanted to do was sleep, however we had to prepare<br \/>\nfor the long awaited home stay. It was initially a shock, and various words<br \/>\nwere running through my head, which I shall not repeat. I found my home stay<br \/>\nfamily to be extremely helpful and tolerant towards my bad Swahili, and<br \/>\nrepeatedly getting the wrong end of the stick.<\/p>\n<p>Home stay was initially difficult, but once you have settled in you learn to<br \/>\nignore the screaming kids &ldquo;watoto&rdquo;, and you get on with things.<br \/>\nHowever there is one thing I never got used to, Ugali (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ugali\">Cornmeal<br \/>\nPorridge<\/a>). It&rsquo;s foul, and each meal was a bit of a trial, with Mama<br \/>\nAsha encouraging me to eat more, and me desperately and as politely as possible<br \/>\ntrying to convey the message that &ldquo;as much as a like Ugali I&rsquo;m<br \/>\nreally actually very ill&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<p>So it was with some relief that I left my home stay and settled into the<br \/>\nbase house. I do still go back to my home stay family, just never at meal<br \/>\ntimes.<\/p>\n<p>It was now time to start on the project [bee keeping], and things seemed to<br \/>\nget rolling pretty quickly with the help of Mr Thomas and Fabian, the<br \/>\nex-government beekeeper from Mtwara. It took some time to actually get the hive<br \/>\nbuilt and it is only now complete, all we need now are the bees. The bees will<br \/>\neither come from a feral colony behind the Boma [a natural colony], or they<br \/>\nwill come from Mtwara. If we get them from behind the Boma we will wait for the<br \/>\nbees to naturally colonise the hive, which is baited with bees wax [very much<br \/>\nthe lazy mans option]. If we use the bait hive then we are going to use some<br \/>\nstrange and mysterious Tanzanian method of catching bees, which Fabian has yet<br \/>\nto reveal to me, should be interesting.<\/p>\n<p>Teaching is something else that I have started since home stay. Teaching the<br \/>\nstaff has been particularly successful and enjoyable. Computer lessons,<br \/>\nswimming lessons and English lessons seem to be the order of the day, and<br \/>\nseveral of the staff seem to be making good ground in some of these areas.<br \/>\nHowever, different things can be said about teaching at the schools. I have<br \/>\ncome to the conclusion that to get yourself, a head teacher, children, a<br \/>\nclassroom together at the same time requires an act of divine intervention, to<br \/>\nbe fair there are usually good excuses, however it is still infuriating.<\/p>\n<p>I have found that a laid back attitude is required when working out here,<br \/>\nand that flexitime is essential i.e. &ldquo;so what time tomorrow<br \/>\nmorning?&rdquo; &ldquo;In the morning&rdquo; &ldquo;yes but when?&rdquo;<br \/>\n&ldquo;Sometime&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<p>I know that when I get back to the England it is going to be difficult not<br \/>\nbeing famous anymore, it&rsquo;s quite strange when you walk around Mikindani<br \/>\nand several thousand people all know your name. It really would be too easy to<br \/>\nget delusions of grandeur.<\/p>\n<p>It has been quite entertaining to watch some of the guests who have never<br \/>\nbeen to Africa before, let alone Mikindani. In a place that feels, not exactly<br \/>\nlike home, but somewhere that I have got used to, the sight of a large group of<br \/>\nEuropeans clustered together and meekly discussing how different everything is,<br \/>\nseems quite odd. But then I think back to my first reaction to Tanzania and<br \/>\nMikindani, and I realise I was the same.<\/p>\n<p>It has been strange in the way that Africa seems to bend time, the pace of<br \/>\nlife is extremely slow, and for some reason it doesn&rsquo;t seem like<br \/>\nI&rsquo;ve been here six weeks.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about Trade Aid, volunteers and their work, please<br \/>\nvisit their website <a href=\"https:\/\/mikindani.com\/\">www.mikindani.com<\/a> or<br \/>\ne-mail Sherie on <a href=\"m&#97;&#x69;&#x6c;&#x74;o&#58;&#116;&#x72;&#x61;d&#101;&#97;&#x69;&#x64;&#64;n&#101;&#x74;&#x63;&#x6f;m&#117;&#x6b;&#x2e;&#x63;o&#46;&#117;&#x6b;\">&#116;&#x72;a&#100;&#x65;a&#105;&#x64;&#64;&#x6e;&#x65;&#116;&#x63;o&#109;&#x75;k&#46;&#x63;o&#x2e;&#x75;&#107;<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2010\/12\/santa_line2.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"60%\" height=\"36\" border=\"0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2010\/12\/santa_line.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"221\" height=\"36\" border=\"0\"><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard was a volunteer working in Mikindani, Tanzania for a charity, Trade aid. My first impressions of Mikindani were what an improvement it was on my initial reaction to Dar-es-Salaam,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"css_class_manager_body_classes":"","css_class_manager_use_in_post_loop":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-main-article","tag-november-2002"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>First Impressions of Mikindani by Richard Densham - eNewsletter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/firstimpressions-of-mikindani-by-richard-densham.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Impressions of Mikindani by Richard Densham - eNewsletter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Richard was a volunteer working in Mikindani, Tanzania for a charity, Trade aid. My first impressions of Mikindani were what an improvement it was on my initial reaction to Dar-es-Salaam,...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/firstimpressions-of-mikindani-by-richard-densham.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"eNewsletter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2002-11-27T23:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-10T11:34:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2010\/12\/santa_line2.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Beetle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Beetle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/globetrotters.co.uk\\\/newsletter\\\/firstimpressions-of-mikindani-by-richard-densham.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/globetrotters.co.uk\\\/newsletter\\\/firstimpressions-of-mikindani-by-richard-densham.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Beetle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/globetrotters.co.uk\\\/newsletter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d88d8d26b7a5eee19d4a82efb44decf5\"},\"headline\":\"First Impressions of Mikindani by Richard Densham\",\"datePublished\":\"2002-11-27T23:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-10T11:34:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/globetrotters.co.uk\\\/newsletter\\\/firstimpressions-of-mikindani-by-richard-densham.html\"},\"wordCount\":715,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/globetrotters.co.uk\\\/newsletter\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/globetrotters.co.uk\\\/newsletter\\\/firstimpressions-of-mikindani-by-richard-densham.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/globetrotters.co.uk\\\/newsletter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2010\\\/12\\\/santa_line2.gif\",\"keywords\":[\"November 2002\"],\"articleSection\":[\"archive\",\"Main article\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/globetrotters.co.uk\\\/newsletter\\\/firstimpressions-of-mikindani-by-richard-densham.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/globetrotters.co.uk\\\/newsletter\\\/firstimpressions-of-mikindani-by-richard-densham.html\",\"name\":\"First Impressions of Mikindani by Richard Densham - 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