Mambo!
I have been is Aberdeen for a week now and i am loving it. My counterpart is called Zaituni and I am going to be working four days a week at corner stone, which is a charity which helps 16 -25 year olds with learning difficulties, I will be working with solutions to helping the clients to move from school to work and I spoke to the lady today who will be running my placement and she has a great programme sketched out for us. My work counterpart is called David, he is very funny, so I am looking forward to working with him!
To rewind to my arrival, I got the train up from York which took a good 6 hours. I sat down on the train and found Harriet a fellow UK volenteer in the same carriage and then Charlotte came and sat next to us completely by chance. By the time we changed at Edinburgh five of the UK volenteers we travelling together and it has been non- stop ever since!
For the first few nights we were staying in a hotel in Stonehaven just outside Aberdeen, it was 3 people to a 2 person room with horrible food but I think the lack of space helped us to bond as a team! On wednesday we moved into our host homes, I am living with a mother and son, but the son, Grant (who is late twenties/early thirties) is the only person in the house because Diane his mum is walking in Spain until Sunday! We are in the house for a couple of weeks then we will be moving to our actual host home because the couple we are staying with are on holiday too! (It's tattie holidays in scotland!)
The Tanzanian's arrived on Sunday night and are all really lovely. We have a real mix of people, but we are all getting on very well, lots of laughing and dancing! They Tanzanian's taught us all some dances and we returned the favour by teaching them Saturday night and the Hokey Kokey! For the first few days I was very daunted at the cultural differences and the challenges of the programme, but now I just can't wait to get stuck in!
In the last week we have been doing loads of training, learning about each other, each others cultures and also about issues that are important to us. I have learnt that it is rude to smell food in Tanzania and I am having lots fo fun practising eating with my right hand as a leftie, because in Tanzania they all eat with the right hand.
I could write for a very long time, I am full of stories already, but I have to go because we are heading out into Aberdeen (which is lovely).
My love to you all! I will write again when I can, it is all very busy and I am not supposed to use the internet in my host home because of insurance, but I will try to keep in touch.
Oh i almost forgot! I have been learning swahili! it is a really nice language, I am a fan!
Also we had our launch today and we will be in the local press so I will post a link to their websites if I find them!
Hattie
xxxx