A Mzungu in Africa

My life in St Judes School,Tanzania from January 2006

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Dinner at St Judes

Tonight, I sat down for dinner with nine (9) of my housemates. We are all "Westerns"/ Volunteers living and working at the school - we form one of two "kitties" at the school - this means that we cook and eat together every night, and at weekends do a chore (food shopping, washing the dishes, taking out the bins etc).

Sitting around the table were:
Sherryn, who cooked lasagne - she's a Kiwi who has lived in the UK and Thailand and in her 30's. She teaches science at the school.

Suzanne, an Australian Art teacher, and she runs the Art dept at the school like it were a perfectly oiled engine. Suzanne, as the oldest in our "kitty" is in her 50's and she is more like a mother to us.

Dan, the lone male, is an Aussie country bloke in his twenties who teaches English (his students love reading Roald Dahl books and using words like "disgusting"). Dan will eave in December after two years at the school and head off to Canada to see a lovely girl who he met at the school.

Maria and I - we're cousins from Ireland and we both work in the office looking after visitors and volunteers. Maria also teachers PE and Drama while I teach English and Drama. I'm a reluctant 31 year old while Maria is clinging to her 20's...

Janet who is a New Yorker with corkscrew auburn hair - she's around my age. From a publishing background, and an "information specialist" (I'm still working it out) she worked in the library but then became a full-time tutor at the school. Janet arrived in January, just before me and will stay for at least another six months.

Taryn is a 20 something year old Aussie country girl (I can't even spell the name of her town but it's something like Galangbone) and she's our head librarian. She's been at the school for almost two years now and will stay for at least another year though probably longer

Karin - German girl heads our Sponsorship Dept. and is the epitome of efficiency and organisation. She has been here for a year and a half and intends to leave but somehow can't quite do it. She speaks beautiful English, German (duh), Swahili, French, Italian and Spanish!

Joanne from Sydney, has just arrived at the school. She works with Karin in the Sponsorship Dept and will stay at the school for a year, if not longer.

And finally, Maxine who is a visiting travel writer from Ireland (originally English), in her early 50's and is staying at the school for three weeks. She will be a part of our kitty while she lives at the school and help in a variety of areas; the art room, music room; library; office and whatever else comes up - all while she soaks up the flavour of St Judes!

We all sat together over lasagne and salad and ate happily (who said anything about starving in Africa though I'll freely admit that lasagne sheets stretch our budget, as does cheese - it's around AU$5 for a block of cheese and $4 for a box of lasagne sheets). I realised then that this group has become my family. We are all from very diverse backgrounds, have different experiences, hopes and dreams. Our personalities are wide and varied, as are our beliefs. In any other circumstances we might never have met and if we did, we may not have become friends.

Living with a group of random strangers is a peculiar thing. We all have our own expectations, boundaries and idiosyncracies. We have all come looking for something - whether it be realistic or unrealistic. Some are running away from problems, others are simply looking for the right place to be or to help out a community which has so much less than own.

The first few months of living together was tinged with frustration, confusion and sometimes hostility. As everyone tested boundaries, we were all equally challenged to find ways to live harmoniously. But somehow, you learn how to modify your behaviour without losing yourself. You learn to consider others and to give a little leeway where you would normally refuse to. Because if you don't, life can be draining and that affects everyone.

Maxine came bearing a bag of mini mars bars and Suzanne had a packet of peanut M&Ms. We all sat like children on Christmas morning, dying to tear open the wrappers of the goodies. Suzanne counted and then shared out the Mars Bars and M&Ms in a way that only Suzanne could - by sorting, dividing and checking again. And then we all tucked into our mini-feast. We got either 3 M&M's and a mini Mars Bar or one M&M and two mini Mars Bars. I went for the latter option.

At the end, a solitary M&M rolled around in the wrapper, and we all stared it, satiated. It was a funny moment and yet there are so many like this in Africa. It's a funny old place and at times challenging, but I've find a lovely for this place and the people that I didn't expect. I don't know how long I'll be here. Some days I just want to go home to the comfort of my own place, to a safe world where life is complicated but predictable. But most of the time, I love the newness of the experiences here and the genuine appreciation that we have for small things. It's not often that ten people could derive so much pleasure from a bag of chocolate.

And for that I'm very grateful.

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