After resolving some personnel issues, at 10am I collected two of our volunteers: Amanda, a Physiotherapist from Oz and Mark, a ceramicist from New York and took them to meet the Bishop of Ruaha. As we went I explained appropriate etiquette for greeting a Tanzanian of senior position. On my return I had a chance to view Mark's intermediate technology potter's wheel in action. Made from an old off-road tire filled with concrete, a couple of bearings and a wooden frame. The weight and diameter of the wheel means it has enough circular momentum to keep going for a while once you have given it a kick. Mark swiftly demonstrated how easy it was to make a pot on his homespun machine...well, easy that is if you're Mark.
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| Mark at his newly made wheel |
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| a minute later... |
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| Voila! |
Mark is looking forward to training Ahazi one of our deaf collegues in using this with locally sourced clay and then firing it in our 'Bottles to Beads' kiln.
I returned to conduct my first Tanzanian interview for the post of Guest House Manageress and Office Assistant. We were interrupted once, when I had to add a dimension to an ergonomic table I had drawn up for Josphat in the paper-making workshop (as strictly instructed by Mim, an Occupational Therapist volunteer). As this was conducted next to the cafe I soon found myself fixing the coffee machine - before ordering one of course!. Back downstairs I was able to continue my 'QuickBooks' training with Destory (yes that is his name) our invaluable accountant. By the time I had replied to a few emails from volunteers from various countries across Europe, it was time to help Katy and Susie pack up their order for the Green Room on which they had been slaving away all day along with our tailoring staff. We raced down to the bus station with with just one minute to spare and narrowly managed to get our three large boxes stuffed with bespoke cushions etc onto the next Sumry bus headed for Dar. This was not without Susie making a scene by literally throwing the large boxes up and down in the cramped bookings office (to prove how light they were), so we could get a haggled down price of 10,000Tsh!
By the time we pushed off for home Katy and I were cycling back in the dark (again) with only one headlight between us. This is not a good idea on potholed roads as you tend not to see the larger crevices. I soon found this out when rolled my bike over into one! Pulling myself off the dusty road I thought how different the evening had been from the previous night when we were in the sanitised studio of a local radio station talking about the work of Neema in perfect, unbroken Swahili- well Susie was. My contribution was 'Habari za jioni, ninaitwa Benjamin' Good evening, my name is Benjamin' and at the end of the half hour interview, 'Kwaheri', 'Goodbye'.
