Today has been interesting for several reasons. The first being that we had no school today as we were sent out on a series of challenges to see how we would be able to assimilate ourselves in to local society and the second being that in order to do this we were asked to do this as part of a game; split into teams and complete tasks etc. I think you get the picture but not the sort of thing I expected to do here and certainly not a thing I would have anticipated past my 48th birthday. But as with everything else on this trip I gave it my best shot. It is apparently a good way of learning how to deal with unexpected situations (like the ones we face in the classroom everyday) and practice our Swahili, even though I hardly know any.
To summarise we were dropped into the main market square outside Stone Town, were given a shopping list and left to get on with it. After acquiring the necessary goods we had to take a dala dala into the centre of town, I know what you thinking but it was ok this time, buy fish and meat from the main market and meet up at a named restaurant but with no address. I was partnered with Lnys and to be fair we did quite well, especially in the fish market where we purchased fresh tuna that we followed from initial auction to retail sale, without a trace of a fly getting anywhere near to the fish. A miracle if you know the conditions there.
I am not sure whether the exercise will help us in school but it was quite fun even if in a slightly school boyish kind of way. Sorry forgot to mention that we had to carry and egg with us, something about nurturing!
As this took up most of the day we didn't do much in the afternoon apart from get ready for our meal out at a local house. In our case at Supa's (the chef's) house, where we had a traditional meal eaten in the traditional manner; on the floor and with our hands. The hospitality and the food were great but I am not sure I can cope eating off the floor to often. Sorry for the Moroccan evenings in Twickenham there will be chairs next time.
Finally we all headed for the Sauinn Hotel to watch the inauguration of Barak, which was great until the poetry reading started, which I for one felt they were losing the plot a bit.
All in all though another good day, but it will be good to get back to the classroom and manual labour.
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