Happy Anniversary

We’ve been in Tanzania for a year. It’s hard to believe and yet it seems like a very long time since we said goodbye to our families at Dublin airport 12 months ago. While we never can claim being ‘from’ Tanzania, it has certainly begun to feel like home. Complaints and annoyances are frequent, but we’re still loving every minute.

Just like at home, every week has its ups and downs, frustrations and delights. Tanzania is one of the most materially poor countries in the world and we can’t escape that. At the moment, driving from Shinyanga to Mwanza, all of the rivers and most of the roadside dams are dry as we all wait expectantly for the impending rainy season. It’s also a country plagued by corruption at every level. That poses its own problems and has been the source of some of our most aggravating moments but you get used to that too.

The home of Serengeti, Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and Lake Victoria, Tanzania is one of the most beautiful countries in East Africa. Combine this with Tanzania’s famous hospitality and friendly culture and it’s not hard to love living here. People are always willing to help, the language barrier regularly proving to be no barrier at all. We are fortunate to have met some great people in Shinyanga and it has become our new ‘home town’

Every day brings more lessons and we are constantly learning new things. The importance of boiling eggs on a Friday night to eat during the Saturday ‘black-out’, how to sweet talk a policeman and call their bluff now and again, that you can sweat from places you never thought possible, to make the most out of a beer when it’s cold and that no matter how much you plead Villareal v Viktoria Plzen watched by one old man takes precedence over the rugby world cup.

A lot of the time, life here feels very normal. We have a house, go to work, pay bills, go shopping. Then there are the times when you have to pinch yourself and realise that we’re still far from home!

Swahili word of the day: Mwaka Moja (one year)