Back in every-day life

So now we're back in the civilization. Wearing our watches on our wrists and  always looking at them. Rushing from one date to another. How nice it was in Tanzania. The motto there is: "Punctuality is the skill to guess how late the other one is going to be". Accordingly a concert can start up to 3 hours late. We also experienced the Tanzanian puncutality during trips and our journeys to concerts. The interesting aspect about it ist that all the others are late as well and so nobody has to really wait. Unfortunately we never found out how this really works, but it works - we can confirm that!

On the other hand it is good to have bathroom again with a toilet, shower and sink , all of them with running water, yes even warm water:-)

Our German students can go to school with their minds at rest for German school desks are definitely more comfortable and cleaner than the beds in the African boarding school. In Germany not even prisoners would put up with a bedroom like the ones we saw in the boarding school. The students would however surely like to give their exercise books and school books to the African children as they have far too few of them and we have far too many.  Some of our spare book shelves could also be well used in Tanzania where they are put together somehow by the most simple means; unfortunately we can not confirm that they are very hardwearing. When we entered the library one of the book shelves tipped over. Of course this could have also been caused by the large amount of people enterening the library at once, which is not usual there.

This brings us to yet another topic:  the African peoples' gratefulness. German children would hardly jump with joy when  given a simple balloon. It would at least have to be filled with water or gas. And European children would hardly chase after a laser pointer trying to catch the laser point. All of us realized that it is doesn't always take very much to be happy.

Although we don't really want to swap our way of living with that of the African people - yes, we do enjoy the luxury of having fresh water, regular days (even if it they are hectic sometimes) and the daily nuissance of having to decide what we want to eat - we have learned a lot to keep in mind during our journey.

Here are some answers to the question: "what impressed/touched you most of all?"

• Martin Kuttler: to realize how little it takes for the peole to be satisfied.
• Miriam Schumacher: the cordial, uncomplicated and open way of the people.
• Daniel Schumacher: the .- in our eyes - apparently undiscerning and carefree way of living of the natives.
• Simon Schmidt: I'm impressed that they use things until they no longer work and I find it strange, that on the other hand they are obviously not willing to look after and maintain them.

Of course it is not possible to tell you all the details here. Those who would like to know more about our experiences can ask us any time! There are a lot more photographs as well.