Week 1

So, there is a place. It is far, faaaaaarr away from the home i call Brighton. It's name: Aberdeen. aka the Granite city (it was also once called the Silver city due to the shimmer the granite gave off under the sunlight. i think i prefer this slightly, less depressing-sounding nickname. and so it shall be silver.) It is indeed very grey. filled with many old churches. all grey. and great big town buildings. grey too. colour does appear here and there in the form of parks, shopping centers and pubs. did i tell you the churches are now pubs and clubs too? well if i didnt then here it is: they are. well not all of them, but a fair few. i've also seen churches transform into flats! i first noticed this when i saw several sky dished poking out the side of one of them. SO that is aberdeen so far. it also has a sea front which i havent figured an easy way to yet, an old fair ground and many many council estates. Also pretty much all the city is some how or the other funded by it's off-shore oil industry.
The HQ for all the community based projects we have been delegated is a rather impressive organisation called Foyer. Foyer is located in several buildings across aberdeen and is the center for all those who are unemployed and down on their luck. The organisation provides facilities and resources in the form of motivation groups, job-seeking aids, band rooms, sports facilities, and other sorts of clubs which i am yet to discover.
The two men from foyer who are guiding us through the ins and outs of the local charities and support groups are two jolly scotts called Dave and Larry (or Tweedledum and Tweedledee as our project supervisor, Jenny, calls them due to similarities in their physiques.) You can tell that these two are in the know when it comes to social work. Though they are always cheerful, always winding us and each other up, they are deadly seriouse about, and steadfastly commited to their line of work. Larry confessed that he barely had a home life due to the emount of time he dedicates to his job. Dave had spent about twelve years working for the oil companies before deciding to change his line of work to social work and has never been happy. They dont lie about the hardships of their jobs but both are incredibly inspiring characters.
The GX Project supervisors (PSs) are Jenny (25) and Julius. Jenny is the UK PS. She did the GX exchange herself only two years ago (she went to malawi where, she claims, the only thing she could buy with her weekly allowance was ice cream). having just completed her masters in international development at soas, she only just got offered the job position this july. She is incredibly sweet and i can see that she really wants this to work. The PS's carry so much responsibility (us) and they have so many people to please (VSO, GX, the british council, the woodland trust ...) and they have so much to do (make sure we get our jabs, find the volunteer placements, make sure we are housed and fed and happy, and basically everything else under the sun). Julius is our Tanzanian PS and we still dont know what he has in store for us when we go to dar es salaam. Julius has spent a lot of time working for other international community based work exchanges in Tanzania. i'm not sure if this is his first GX.
My GX peers: everyone on the exchange is friendly and really excited about the project. the uk people i had already met but we are still getting to know each other. The tanzanians are extremely friendly and playful. They have already taught us a series of dances and songs (which we performed to a room full of people at the launch. we also did the hokey kokey and "saturday night and i like the way you move" because none of us knew how to morris dance or do a kaley.) We dont start our work placements till next week as the first two weeks are dedicated to the likes of team building, health and safety, project, placement and city orientation. We spend most our time at the foyer listening to the seminars, engaging in group talks, discussing our fears and our hopes, and running around the room like mad things, playing what they call "energizers" (or what i call "games.") We are all nervous about the next six months. how our are relationships going to unravel? the PSs hope that there will be no group splits. how are our placements going to be? Aparrently one of mine is in one of the most depraved areas of aberdeen, Fairsands, and, being from an extremely priviledged and protected background, i am anxious to see how i deal with it.
So that is pretty much all of it so far, oh wait i am also living with a lovely elderly lady called agnes whose house is all cushions, lace curtains and freshly baked puddings. Apart from that i am going to live for the next six months with Maria who is one of the tanzanian girls, and will be working with a cheeky guy called Nashir.
I will try to update my blog as often as possible and mayhaps will try to slip in the odd joke or fun trivia fact to pep things up .
miss you all lots and lots and will pobably see you in six months as it looks like i will be christmassing in france. BON SOIREE!!!! XXXXXXXXXXXX hazzamungus


So far so enjoyable