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

Preparing to go

Welcome to my Blog!
This is where I will be letting everyone know about my six months in Aberdeen and Dar es Salaam. I will send you an email when I have updated my blog so you don't have to keep checking it, this is just a nice format for long pieces of writing and I can put up pictures and video's far more painlessly without my laptop!
I am getting very excited to be off on my travels, I leave on the 4th October for a six hour train journey to Aberdeen where I will do my initial training, meet the Tanzanian's and decide on my placement and who will be my counterpart. We will then all move into our host families and the trip will be well and truely underway!
I have to organise a ten minute presentation on Women's role in buisness in Aberdeen and Tanzania and how they are similar or different. Everyone in the group has chosen a different topic to explore and we will all be giving our presentations in our introductory few days.
Anyway! This is just me saying hello and that this will be where to find me!
Thank you again to everyone who supported me financially, I couldn't be doing this without you.
I will be posting again once I am on my way!
Hattie