We arrived after midnight in the dark on Saturday night and most of the housemates were out, so sleep came easily after our day of travelling. The next morning the excited chatter of adventures of the housemates echoed down the corridor and the bright African sunshine drenched the room. The house lies in an affluent area of Arusha, with the majority of our neighbours being UN diplomats with big fancy cars and big houses to match. The work the world house, or “home” lies about 1km along a rough, dusty track off the main road. Because of the affluence, and the larger percentage of Muzungu (white people) this estate is peppered with guards with guns. We catch the dala dala at the main road and we are fortunate to be escorted by a charming and endearing Tanzanian called Emanuel (he was born on Christmas day!). Emanuel takes great pride in his job as “porter” escorting the work the world students from the house to the road and waits for us coming home from placement in his office – the shade of a big old acacia tree.
The bedrooms have two spacious bunk beds adorned with mosquito nets and a bathroom for each bedroom. The showers are genuinely shocking. I mean this quite literally, you get an electric shock when you try to touch the taps! Many techniques have been adopted to overcome this, some flick the tap with a shampoo bottle, some paddle out of the bathroom, turn the switch off with their towel and then turn off the taps, risking the slippy floor on the way back. I think the most effective way so far is to yell for Lizzie to turn the switch on or off, while being very aware that I should keep on her good side!
The laundry is still a great novelty, which the housemates assure me will wear off. A long bench outdoors at the back of the house, with large washing bowls, and a couple of taps provides all the equipment necessary, and all that is required is detergent, elbow grease and sheer determination!
From Monday to Friday, breakfast and evening meal are lovingly prepared, cooked and served by Witness, the cook. Witness is only small in stature but her personality is larger than life, and she greets everyone every morning and evening with the cheeriest “Mambo!” and has enhanced our Kswahili with phrases like “bomba bomba” which is declared with a shake of her booty! Meals have been fairly traditional so far rice, beans and pulses, jazzed up with some meat, and delicious sauces. Thursday night, however, is when Witness excels herself at her weekly BBQ. Dressed in chef whites she cooks up a storm out in the garden, the highlight of which were her goat meat kebabs, it’s a first for me, but they were so tender and delicious! After the eating has finished and dishes are cleared an impromptu dancing session ensues, headlining with Witnesses’ version of Beyonce Single ladies!!
Today it is Sunday, and sadly some of the new friends we have made have left the house to continue their adventures, but new people have arrived and now we are the ones excitedly telling them of our tales and adventures in the work the world house.
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