#ilula

10 songs by black artists that I love 

1. touch the floor by VanJess ft. Masego 

2. like you by Asiahn

3. water by Kehlani

4. feelings by Tinashe 

5. iLula by Thabsie 

6. got her own by Syd

7. when i come around by Dom Kennedy 

8. fkn around by Phony Ppl ft. Megan Thee Stallion

9. build by Justine Skye 

African Eyes are Watching

Young African school children peer through the open window of their classroom near Ilula, Tanzania. More on “African Eye” can be found here.

Download Thabsie – Ilula Mp3.

Thabsie – iLula Mp3 Download. Well known South African female vocalist, Thabsie pushes through with one more fresh out of the box new hit melody for the period of August and this one is titled iLula.

iLula by Thabsieis coming after the arrival of Finally which assumed control over the air plays in SA. Thabsie is one of the female artistes in South Africa you will…

This is how warmly we were welcomed when we entered Ilula Orphan Program Friday afternoon. This felt particularly good, seeing as we’d just spent 8 long hours in a hot, crowded bus from Dar-es-Salaam. Let’s just say that I will never, ever complain about sitting in a bus back home in Norway. Ilula Orphan Program (IOP), is where I’m going to spend the most of my time the next three months.

All four of us, Emilie, Leah, Penina, and I, share a room. It has two bunk beds, two closets and two desks. The room does feel crowded since we’re four, but we’re making it work. It felt good to unpack after being a little bit of everywhere the last few weeks.

We got to meet the children the first day, and they’re very, very sweet. It’s an all girls orphanage, and their ages range from 5 to 22 years. Some are of course more talkative than others, but they’re getting used to our presence very fast. Emilie and I had little kids hanging from our shoulders the minute we entered the room. They are so funny and absolutely adorable! They also think it's so funny every time we say something in Swahili..

I think it’s time for me to answer the questions people have been asking me since I arrived in Africa. I’ve been mainly asked about how whether I’m living comfortably and how the standards are. So far I’ve been a little bit of everywhere, so the standards have varied vastly. For instance, at Brackenhurst, which is just as much a hotel as a conference center, we had hot water and could choose between lamb and beef at dinner. At the YWCA hostel in Dar-es-Salaam, however, we had to share dirty washrooms with many strangers and got two slices of white bread for breakfast. Hence, the living standard depends on where we are.

Now that I’m at Ilula, my base, I can share how it is like here. Ilula is on the countryside, and it takes an 8 hour bus drive from Dar-es-Salaam to get here. A single paved road cuts through the area, and houses and shacks are scattered along it, some near, and some far from the road.

We’re served good food here at IOP. The diet mainly consists of rice, pasta, and ugali (cornstarch mixed with water), vegetables and sometimes we get some meat. Sometimes Emilie and I treat ourselves with mango juice, peanut butter and bananas from the market. 

There is a dress code here in the village. Women can’t expose much skin, and we can’t wear clothes that are transparent or tight. We must wear clothes that cover our shoulders and wear pants or skirts that cut at the knee at the shortest. Not the coolest thing in the world because of the heat, but we’re getting used to it.

The showers and toilets are shared, and yes, the toilets here are holes in the ground. We shower in cold water and wash our clothes by hand. Showering in cold water is more than fine for me, because it’s extremely refreshing after one has walked around in the heat here.

Most of the time we don’t have running water, and sometimes we don’t have electricity. Therefore we take care of all the bottles water we get and use our flashlights when we have to. If we need water to wash our clothes when there’s no water, we fetch some from the well with a bucket that has a rope tied to it.

While writing this, I realize how different it is to live here compared to Norway. I’ve been aware of this the whole time, of course, but it becomes so much clearer once I write it. I must add that adapting hasn’t been a problem. Many things are uncomfortable, but it doesn’t take much time before one gets used to them. In other words, I don’t walk around dwelling on how deprived we are of the luxuries we have in Norway. Everything here just feels normal now. For instance, I’m so incredibly used to washing my clothes and towel by hand that I just do it automatically. It’s certainly not my favorite thing to do in the world, but it’s OK! Although many things are uncomfortable, we have everything we need, and we’re safe :)

Oh, and the only reason I'm able to post this is because we have taken a 1 hour bus drive from Ilula to Iringa, where they have internet cafes.

YES, I am. And I'm in Dar-es-Salaam. I just haven't had access to the internet the past few days, so get ready for two consecutive posts. I'm writing from an internet cafe in Dar-es-Salaam, and I'm punching fiercely on this worn-out keyboard.

The preparatory course ended on Sunday, and on Monday we divided ourselves into our teams and flew to our host countries. My partner is Emilie, and our ''South partners'' are Leah and Penina from Tanzania, which is our host country.

We landed in Dar-es-Salaam on Monday, and we've lived at the YWCA Hostel since. We haven't had much program these days, as our posting hasn't officially started. We did spend a day sightseeing, and we visited the zoo and the beach.

Another thing we have done, is to spend much time fretting over visa issues. Leah and Penina are coming to Norway with us in January, and we had to apply for their visas at the Norwegian Embassy here in Dar. Apparently we lacked some of the documents that UDI requires, so we had some trouble. It didn't help that the guard avoided many of my questions, at the same time as he was trying to flirt with us. He got so close to my face at times that I found it difficult to keep my cool. What a jerk.

Today we returned to the embassy and finally sorted out the issue. Fortunately I got access to the office of the Norwegian lady who is responsible (something I'd been denied earlier). There I got to talk with her personally to clear things up, so now everything should be in order. She was very helpful and told me that we don't have to worry, and the girls finally got to relax their shoulders.

Now that the visa issue is sorted out, we can leave the city and be on our way to Iringa. We're going to Ilula Orphan Program, or IOP, which will be my base for the next few months.