First thoughts from Tanga

Amanda and me outside a mud hut in the local village where I might stay for a week

First thoughts from Tanga
The bus journey to Tanga was quite an adventure. Amanda and I invented our own little saftey on board and emergency evacuation procedures. We discussed the most effective ways of surviving if the bus tipped over to either side or crashed with a truck. We were amazed that we got safety belts on the bus, but we still thought it was a good idea to have the plan ready if something should happen. Everywhere we stopped
people were trying to sell us stuff through the windows, but we had mandazis enough with us from
Amandas aunt and didn't need any other snack.
After 6 hours of being in a very hot bus we arrived in Tanga. There we got a taxi to TICC - Tanga
International Competence Centre - where we are going to work for three months. We drove through some
very small villages with mud huts on our way to the centre. We were quite surprised by the luxury that met
us at TICC. Imediately I thought "oh no, we're gonna live in a hotel" cause I was getting quite excited when
I saw the mud huts nearby so I felt a bit disappointed when I saw the luxury where we're gonna live.

The TICC study hall

I will probably go and stay in the village for a week or two to get the full experience and only talk Swahili, but I will wait until I have settled a bit more here in Tanga. Also I think I need to be a bit better at Swahili first. The village is only a 20 minute walk from here, so I can come visit anytime when I live there, and I will still have my work, studying and swahili classes.

TICC is a centre for social development, but to get additional funding for their social projects they also run a hostel. They only employ young people from the village. Many of them dropped out of primary school and have received help from TICC to finish school, go on to univeristy or other kinds of professional training. Many come to work here in their summer holidays from university.
Amanda and I have rooms here, and get breakfast, lunch and dinner served in the restaurant.

The dining area

We are right by a little canal of the sea, so we have a very private beach area where we can swim. There are no dangerous things in the water (try telling that to the masais), part from the strong current when the tide goes in or out. At full moon the difference between high and low tide is 4 metres.

TICC sailboats by the TICC beach

The security guards here are Masais. They were red clothing and are not afraid of anything (part from fish and crabs). To prove their manhood they kill a lion by themselves when they're 18.

The fearless Masai guards.

There is a lot of wild life around. Not big animals, they are only in the national parks, but there are many different birds, lizards, frogs and insects, crabs and running fish. It brings back a lot of memories from being in the Amazon. Especially when weird animals and insects show up in unexpected places. For instance there was a little black frog with yellow stripes that climbed out of the drain while I had a shower, and I usually meet a bat when I go to the toilet after dark and there's another bat named Johnny who flies around in the restaurant. We think he's afraid of hights because he always flies near the floor. The stripy frogs can't jump, they just have a very lazy walk. There's a massive hermit crayfish who is friends with a huge snail. We think they believe they're the same species because they both have houses. There are a lot of crabs with one big claw. Apparently its something that the lady crabs really like.
And there are sunbathing fish who sit on sticks in the water and run on the surface of the water. Amanda and I think they have a serious identity problem. Maybe they have all heard that TICC is a place you can feel at home no matter how messed up your life might be. 

A fish who thinks sunbathing after a run is completely normal.

Even Masais fear the one claw crabs