Here Comes The Planet 45 – Tanzania 02

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Our group, which has now taken to calling itself “Team Toto”, moves on to the main part of our African adventure when we meet up with the Dragoman tour that will be taking us around east Africa. We’ll be spending over a month with most of these people and our tour guide, Steve. The beginning of a new adventure!

In this episode we check out the Forodhani Night Market and the Darajani spice market in Stone Town before heading to a spice and fruit plantation tour where we get to sample lots of exotic fruits and see some impressive tree climbing. We stay in northern Zanzibar on Nungwi Beach where we get the chance to visit the Mnarani turtle sanctuary and tick something off Nicolette’s bucket list – swimming with turtles!

Also, people are rightfully worried about being bitten by turtles. Because it frickkin’ hurts.

Also, cute kitten!! 😀 😀

A New Mission!

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Here Comes The Planet is being repurposed like an old milk bottle. But instead of cutting it into a funnel or a mini greenhouse for my tomatoes, I’m going to use it to promote my People Projects. There’s going to be a new project every so often (I’ve been doing lots of thinking on my drives to and from work) and the first one is my campaign to help my brother and his fiancee get married! For FREE! They are finalists in a radio competition and to win they need to get the most votes. People vote by sending an sms (only one per number) to 191300 reading ‘Wedding Michael Nikki’.

My goal is 1000 votes (apparently 713 won last year) and I’m going to do it by harrassing everyone I know – and lots of people I don’t know. Tonight is White Night, a festival in Melbourne where all kinds of things happen all over the city all through the night. I’m figuring the crowd will be in the mood for interacting with strangers and that stranger should be me. I’ve made a cardboard sign and I’m ready to roll. If you can help by sending a text please do so (and get every phone in your house busy!) and leave a note here so I can keep count!

My brother, years ago, helped me out when I was low on cash and got me started with enough money to buy my first sewing machine and so this is how I can help him out and do something he’ll hugely appreciate. He and his fiancee Nikki are raising a family, building a house and running their own business. They are wonderful people who deserve to win!

 

Photos to come tomorrow of me humiliating myself in the city!

Back To the Grind

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I shouldn’t say that, I love my work. Well, meetings aren’t my favourite – fortunately we haven’t had many yet. And playground duty in 36 degree heat isn’t super happy fun times. But my students are pretty amazing and, of course, my workmates are the best, possibly in the whole world. And I’m not just saying that because I sent them the address for this blog.  Several times.

We had our ‘back to work’ drinks at the principal’s house and had a karoke machine as a surprise. Pretty much everyone but me sings amazingly, so the karoke was super popular and Steve made the men get up and sing ‘I’m Too Sexy’, which had us all in tears of laughter. My school is the only place I’ve ever been where a bunch of people singing ‘Happy Birthday’ actually sounds nice.

People keep asking me if I’m happy to be back and how it feels. Well, anyone who has been away from home for a long time will understand when I say that travel is like stepping through the wardrobe into Narnia. You leave and things seem to last forever. You have life changing experiences, learn new things, and when you come home nothing much has changed and people are all doing the same things as when you left. Very quickly the whole thing fades like a dream and it’s just lucky you’ve written a very detailed blog to help you remember that anything happened at all.

Changing Times

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Yesterday I threw a ‘welcome back’ bbq for myself and Luke. A chance to catch up with people we hadn’t seen yet and hear what everyone has been up to while we’ve been away.

The answer was fairly plain – breeding.

I’m used to kids age 5 and up, I find small children both hilarious and confusing. After I put my dog in the bedroom for a nap, telling the boys (who had been throwing the ball and chasing her for ages) that she needed a rest, I found them climbing on the stairs calling out ‘Doggy! Doggy!’  and looking for her between boxes nowhere near the bedroom. Then later the boys were digging through the esky like little hobos searching for food in a dumpster, stuffing ice cubes into their mouths like it was chocolate.

People ask ‘how was your trip?’ and we say ‘good’. How do you describe nine months of experience in a passing conversation? Really, I just want to catch up on what’s been happening since left and now it’s *almost* getting back to feeling like we’ve barely been gone. It’s funny how some people say ‘you’re back already!’ and others feel like we’ve been gone an age. Somehow it manages to feel like both. Despite social currents altering somewhat since we left I feel just as close to all my beloved friends. It’s like relaxing back into a giant beanbag, being home. Secure and comfortable and warm. Lovely!

Here Comes The Planet 44 – Tanzania 01

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The first of our Africa videos! After completing a long to-do list before arriving, we finally get to Tanzania. Our friends Leigh, Nicolette, Lucas and Kat are along for the ride, sharing the African leg of our trip with us. First order of the day is some relaxing on the island of Zanzibar before we start our safari tour. Amanda and Lucas get their hair braided at a local village after learning how to weave palm leaf baskets and make coconut rope and we all eat at The Rock restaurant – which sits on a rock just off the coast.

Also, surprise adoptions!