Lindi

It was a horrible 4am wake up on the 1^st August to catch our 6am bus to Lindi. The bus took 7 hours on mostly asphalt road (although we took some crazy dust-strip detours!) with two stops – one for three minutes where all the men and only three of us women, jumped off to pee behind a tree. The next stop was for 10 mins, and had proper toilets, although very dirty and smelly. Sleeping wasn’t really an option as the seats were very small. One side had two, the other three seats, separated by a small aisle not even big enough for a person to walk down. You end up getting cramp in your legs and back from sitting at a funny angle, but apart from that it was a fairly comfortable trip.

We were met in Lindi by the Headmaster from Mchinga school, the other Lindi group. He told us that the accommodation we had ‘booked’ for our first night was gone, and half of the group spent the best part of an hour looking for rooms for the 13 of us in the two groups.

Steff, Eseelle, Viki, Grace, Emanuela, Hana (from the other group) and myself stayed in a bright blue guesthouse called New Fadilah Guest House, with shared toilets and cold showers accessed through a large courtyard. It was very comfortable but our first taste of a more basic Tanzanian life.

Lindi town itself is very chilled out and peaceful. The shops are little huts where the goods sprawl out onto the street, and the people were very friendly. Instead of the cries of “Mazungu! Buy my <insert item here>” that can be heard in Zanzibar and Dar, we just had curious stares from the locals at our arrival. They have all the usual – post office, lots of banks, dala dala stand, but also a great beach and some nice food places.

We ate a dinner of rice, chicken, with a red tomato sauce and beans. And it was delicious! I had a cup of lemon-flavoured water with a nice tea bag, but declined the milk. Not sure how nice lemon and milk would go together! We had an early night, sharing the double bed with our chums to save money.

We took a bajaj up to the Regional Educational Office to meet the REO for Lindi, and then to the District Educational Office to meet the DEO. Here we also met our lovely Headmistress and arranged to meet her the next morning (Sat) for a meeting.

The dala dala to Mtama Secondary School was not as bad as we were expecting. We had heard about dala dalas being mini buses that seat 16 but that are crammed with 30 people, so we were a little concerned about this long 2 hour journey with all of our bags! But it was okay. We all got seats as we were getting on in the bus station, and they managed to fit our bags into a small space in the back, and tie the back door shut. It only took about an hour and it dropped us right outside the school, where we were met by the school kids who ran towards us and carried our bags.

Our guesthouse is lovely as well. Some of us are sharing rooms, but I have one to myself. They are all ensuite long-drop bathrooms with cold showers, and double beds. It is so clean and the owners, although not speaking a word of English, are super friendly. It’s a nice place to be staying for 3 weeks!