Good things come to those who wait.

For the benefit of those who are not regular followers, I am now meant to be settling in to African family life at a home-stay just outside of Arusha after the premature departure from my last family home was necessitated by unfortunate personal circumstances. However, for a number of reasons, this has not occurred....

Firstly the location of my potential new home was not ideal, being on the opposite side of the town from the village I have been working in, making for a lengthy commute every day. Secondly, the condition of the roads around the latest proposed home-stay dictates that a boat is required to access the place during *rainy season and thirdly, the name of the matriarch in the home-stay is Mama Minge.

Because of a mass gathering of teachers from all over Northern Tanzania, every cheap hotel in town is full this week, and I have been forced into a more upmarket existence. I am currently residing in a very European looking place that charges the exorbitant sum of US$30 per night which is roughly three times as much as I will pay, in the slightly more down-market place only 200 yards up the road, once the teachers have left. It's not all bad though, I have an executive suite with two bathrooms (still not sure why they thought the room needed two bathrooms) and a **reception room to receive guests. There is also a reasonably good restaurant on the ground floor with a fully stocked bar which I have, of course, taken advantage of. So my long wait to meet my new family is over and instead I have to settle with hot water and beer on tap. Life's a bitch sometimes.

My life of Western pleasures comes to an abrupt end tomorrow when the teachers leave town and the rest of my stay will be lived-out in the less salubrious surrounding of Monjes C which more than qualifies for the category of "down-market".

Most of the small businesses in Ngaramtoni that I have been overseeing are beginning to commence trading using the administered grants. I am pleased to say that there has only been one worrying development that has come to light thus far. It appears that one of the grant recipients may have done a runner with the money I provided but, if this is the only hiccup of this nature that I encounter with my little group of budding entrepreneurs then I will be more than happy.

The big news in Ngaramtoni this week was a murder. One of the locals fell out with his neighbour and decided the best way to resolve the dispute was to bury a knife in him and jump on the first bus out of there. It was the talk of the town all week but, I am sad to say it made very little impression on me and I maintain it is probably safer in Ngaramtoni than in most areas of London. Coming form a city where it is impossible to pick up a newspaper without reading about a shooting, stabbing or violent mugging I actually feel relatively safe around here!

I am now roughly half way through my time in Tanzania and the place is growing on me. I am even contemplating writing a glowing reference for Arusha on the Lonely Planet/Rough Guide web sites which will be a in stark contrast to most of the comments about the place. It really is a fairly nice town and I fail to understand why everybody gives Arusha such a hard time.

Must dash now my G&T has arrived.

*It is currently rainy season.
**Completely devoid of any furniture but spacious enough to throw a good party in.

P.s. Here's a picture of a smiling orphan for you at one of the partner projects I visited this week.