Aye, Teacher's

Happy St Andrew’s Day! What I’d give for a plate of stovies and a copy of “Sunshine On Leith” right now…

Anyway, since coming down off Meru, there has been a lull in my blogging activities, for various reasons, which I am finally getting the opportunity to address. My second month with RISE Africa has been a busy one; I have been writing extensively for a range of local organisations, including two schools, Ngarenanyuki and Nkoaranga, and a home-based care project, Msamaria.

To recap, the purpose of my work is to ultimately help these organisations improve their business activities, and try to connect them with donors who may be able to help them. I feel like I am partly achieving this objective – the proposals I have written are well-received by the organisations I am working with, yet I am quickly discovering that trying to entice donors is a lengthy, frustrating process. Welcome to the world of international development…

It doesn’t help that my laptop is ridden with viruses, plus I have very limited, slow internet access, which makes hunting for the relevant people even more difficult. It’s something I will perhaps be able to do better when I return to Scotland next year. But explaining that to people like the head of the home-based care project, who is absolutely desperate (a word I hate, but appropriate here) for cash now for the HIV-affected families she supports, isn’t easy.

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Anyway, my stint with RISE officially ends on Friday, but I am ready to assist them in anyway I can while I am in Tanzania and beyond. Moshono has been a brilliant place to live and work, not least because of my host family who have made me more than welcome.

There have been a few highlights of my time under Mama Anna’s roof, but my favourite came a couple of weeks ago. One afternoon, the father of the house, Kazzy, asked me a question:

“Ross, what is a Facebook?”

I explained, gave him the whole social networking spiel, and found out why he was asking. It turned out he has a daughter in Canada, who he has not seen since she was a baby 24 years ago. During one of their calls, the daughter explained she used Facebook, and urged him to check it out so he could see some up-to-date pics of her, as the latest ones he has are from 1997. Natch, I suggested to Kazzy that I escort him down to the local internet café where we could hunt for his daughter together through my Facebook account.

This was a piece of piss; we quickly found the girl we were looking for, and sent her an email to introduce ourselves. The next day when we returned to the internet café, both Kazzy and I were delighted to find a cheery email from her, which gave us access to dozens of pictures – not just of the daughter but of her own gorgeous baby daughter, who Kazzy had never seen a picture of.

Prints were made, which Kazzy has since taken great pride in regularly examining. We celebrated afterwards with a few bottles of Kilimanjaro, which we will do again when I join him and other members of the family for Christmas.

Finally, something Facebook is good for, other than skiving!

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After three months (and Bixler, you will be delighted to hear this), my attitude to the local music is softening. I am finally embracing Bongo Flava, Congolese and other variants of African music popular in Tanzania. My favourite song, which is never off the radio, is called “Piip Piip” by a guy called Marlow.

It’s all in Swahili, but according to my mate, it’s all about a fella who is in the car, and late en route to meeting his missus (the “Piip Piip” is the toot of his car horn).

Anyway, that’s not to say “Sunshine On Leith” wouldn’t sound REALLY terrific today…

Home later for a nip of Teacher’s. Off to Eldoret in Kenya on Friday to do something super-exciting that I can’t wait to tell you all about later…

Bye for now,
Ross

PS Princes Street now open to traffic??

Mountain People

On Friday morning at sunrise, I was on top of Tanzania’s second highest mountain, Mount Meru. Rather than tell you all about Meru or recount blow-by-blow the rather uneventful three days I spent on it (two days ascending, one day down), I will summarise by saying it was bloody wonderful, and hugely enjoyable to do alongside two fellow Mondo volunteers, Caroline and Kirsten, and a team of guides and porters who patiently conducted their Sisyphean task of leading us to the top and back.

What is far more important to tell you is that when I get home, I am going to burn a CD entitled ‘Mount Meru’, consisting of songs that popped into my head over the three days. In no particular order, I remember humming:

“Bangs” They Might Be Giants
“I Can’t Remember” The Thorns
“Reject” Green Day
“Don’t Turn Around” Aswad
“All That She Wants” Ace of Base
“Jungle Love” Steve Miller Band
“Tax Loss” Mansun
“Standing On The Top” The Temptations featuring Rick James
“Big Tears” Elvis Costello & The Attractions
“It’s My Life” No Doubt
“Love Machine” Girls Aloud
“Forever In Blue Jeans” Neil Diamond
“My Way” Frank Sinatra
“Steppin’ Down The Glory Road” Runrig
“What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” R.E.M.
“Dope Nose” Weezer
“99 Problems” Jay-Z
“Closer To The Heart (Live)” by Rush
“Summer People” Webb Brothers

Some of these (Rush, R.E.M.) are old favourites, others came out of absolutely nowhere (Mansun, where HAVE you been?). As we breached the 4,000m mark and approached the summit, my memory capacity was obliterated as such that the only song I could remember the words to was “Flower of Scotland”. This was perhaps appropriate, as upon reaching the summit, out came the Lion Rampant and a miniature of Glenlivet that I have been keeping for a special occasion, before staring the nine-hour walk back:



After walking through day and night, this was as arduous as it sounds. But we all made it and, apart from some chapped lips and stiffness in the knees, all got back in one piece to collect a certificate and hobble to the bar. Here I am at the top with Caroline (left) and Kirsten:



After a restful Friday evening in Arusha, I returned home to Moshono on Saturday, only to face a cockroach the size of a Kit-Kat who wanted to share my bed. Thankfully, I had just about enough energy left to dispatch him with the heel of my hiking boot; an act which I have done almost every day since arriving in Tanzania two months ago, and which no longer seems strange.

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My weekend got even better this morning when BBC World Service brought me the news that David Haye had beaten Nikolay Valuev and was Britain’s first boxing heavyweight world champion since Lennox Lewis.

Despite that being his only fight this year, I’d say that should make him favourite for BBC Sports Personality of the Year. His abrasive attitude might lose him a few votes – even by boxing’s standards, he’s too mouthy – but he delivered in the ring and to be a heavyweight champ, and an exciting one at that, should be enough to get the nod.

I predict, however, he will pushed close by Jessica Ennis, and to a lesser extent, Jenson Button. The also-rans will be Phillips Idowu, Amir Khan, Tom Daley, Andrew Strauss, Keri-Anne Payne, Beth Tweddle and Mark Cavendish.

Carl Froch probably deserves a nomination this year as much as Khan, but is about as exciting to watch as a bollard, and just as mobile. However, he will be impossible to overlook next year if he defeats Kessler and holds three belts.

New dad (always a votewinner) Wayne Rooney should probably be in there too for being consistently outstanding all year for club and country, but with 2010 being a World Cup year, the stage is set for him next year instead. And maybe Andy Murray will finally win a Grand Slam tournament to get his name in there too.

For now though, the Hayemaker is the man to beat. Bring on the Klitschkos.