So here ends or first week in Lindi, the project is firmly underway, distribution has begun and we have been introduced to the joys of Tanzanian bureaucracy.
After arriving on Thursday 6th August, we had to go around on Friday meeting the officials that were going to help us because READ operates with the assistance of the Tanzanian Ministry of Education. We meet the Regional Education Officer in the morning after having texted the night before (apparently this is an accepted practice for officials in Tanzania) though he claimed he never received it.
It is quite clear that the REO does not want us in his region and is only helping us very grudgingly because his boss told him too. Miraculously our books arrived in the truck two days after we did and the REO therefore used it as his opportunity to ship us out of his region as fast as humanly possible. He created a timetable where we were being ferried from region to region, staying the night in all sorts of strange places (including over the weekend ) and basically not coming back to Lindi town where the Emilys are working on a library renovation project. We had to explain to him that the group couldn't be separated for that long and although he was obstinate at first as soon as Ali mentioned that we immediately backed down and created a new plan where we would distribute books over the course of three weeks and always return to Lindi town for the weekend. We are going to Liwale tomorrow and we have to stay the night as well as next week we'll have to visit two districts at once and be away for 4 days and 3 nights.
However, considering that Lindi is the size of the Republic of Ireland this is probably understandable.
The REO is a strange character though. The way he talks, stands and his whole demeanour is almost...lethargic in a way and the way he responds to everything in a very slow, controlled sort of way that you know if he was angry he wouldn't yell but he would still be terrifying. He also wears a massive ring on the knuckle of his little finger so it sometimes looks like he's wearing a knuckle duster.
This of course, has lead me to the conclusion that he is in fact the head of the Lindi mafia and that the reason he wants us out of Lindi so quickly is because he's secretly running an organised crime syndicate through the DEOs (District Education Officers) and wants us out of the way so he can't be exposed.
If it wasn't for us pesky kids...
But that is probably just my imagination running away with me.
We had a little bit of drama with the books though because READ sent them off in the van midday on Friday and then we had to ring the REO to tell him the books were arriving on a Saturday and then they didn't arrive till Saturday evening so we had to call the REO again to come to where the books were going to be stored on a Sunday.
We then had to shift 247 heavy boxes of textbooks in at least 25C heat. What was worse was that there were a group of about 7 or 8 men sitting around watching the five pathetic little white girls carry boxes. Eventually after about an hour, we had to give in and pay 20,000 shillings for four men to help us. After that we got them out of the lorry pretty quickly but then had to sort them into each district so we had to lug boxes across the room.
I would also like to point I couldn't lift the boxes because I'm just weak; not because I'm a girl and I will not take any sexist allusions to the contrary.
For the rest of this week we have been doing predistribution round the schools in Lindi town and the surrondings rural area without incident. Some of the schools were so grateful; one school showed his four physics books and a couple of magazines and said that was all the books they had. It was so extraordinary when I think about how I was given textbooks at school to take home for the year. I guess they weren't kidding during training about being shocked at sparse resources in these schools really are.
In other news, we have settled pretty well into Lindi and have taken up residence at the Adela Guest House which is very....basic,shall we say with bucket showers, communal long drop toilets and the odd spider or rat about the place but for the equivalent of $1 a night I don't care.
We have also found an amazing restaurant around the corner called Jafferty's which serves African and Indian food with an actual menu so they can't double the prices of everything as soon as they see us. The owner and his daughter are very friendly and speak excellent english; we have tried going to other places but we either get overcharged for everything or can't get served food because they either laugh at our Swahili or have no food left.
I have also discovered a lizard that has taken up residence in my room and called him Rodolpho, which despite what people say, I think is a very good name for a lizard.
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