This weekend was an awesome mix of Tanzanian and America.
About 15 volunteers gathered in Ndanda (near my old village) and we celebrated
Halloween. Besides the comfort of being around so many other Americans, there
were still constant reminders that we were in fact still in Tanzania.
Thursday it started to pour-our second rain of the season.
Consequently the power went out and I’d forgotten to charge my computer. So I
took two naps, ate some leftover curry, attempted to wash dishes holding my
phone (as a flashlight) in my mouth, sat in the dark, and then finally realized
I had candles and an extra computer battery. So, I watched Harry Potter and
listened to it storm outside. It rained all night and I didn’t sleep well
because of all the weird noises. Also my mouse that lives in my kitchen started
chewing on silverware and it sounded like someone was wiggling the deadbolt.
Thankfully it was just the mouse.
When I woke up Friday I found a dead chameleon in my yard
and some puddles inside my choo. I didn’t notice any leaks in my house so
that’s good. Tetsuko and I started walking to the bus stand in the pouring
rain. Not many people were on the streets so the people who were sitting under
stoops got a good laugh at us. We arrived 25 minutes later at the bus stand
just before the bus left. It was a larger bus than usual so there were still
seats at the back. The back is the worst place to be because you get more air
when you hit the potholes. I shrugged off my soaking wind-breaker (that does
NOT double as a rain jacket, in case you were wondering) and tried to dry off.
My window was broken and kept rattling open so I continued to be rained on as I
was being thrown out of my seat with every bump. Finally some people left so we
moved up a few rows…only to have the ceiling leak on me. The good news was that
we were driving super fast and stopping less because no one was waiting in the
rain, so it only took 2 hours to get to Masasi! We walked to a mgahawa (café)
to get chai. It was around ten o’clock, so chai time! However this mgahawa was
making dagaa (sardine-type fish) and spinach. They looked pissed off that they
had to walk in the rain to go buy us food from another mgahawa. While we were
waiting we huddled around her jiko to stay warm. When Steph finally met us there
they informed her that there was no more food anywhere. We made our way back
through the standi and one Tanzanian proclaimed “It’s raining today!” He was
pretty observant. I then forgot I was supposed to buy oatmeal for a friend so I
ran back to buy it and got a phone call saying the bus was leaving. So I
attempted to run through the mud and hopped on the bus again. The rain had
started to let up, but we were all still soaked. The dala we were on just
magically turned on their air conditioner! I have never been inside an air
conditioned bus in Tanzania and I wasn’t quite expecting it with the rain. So I
sat through an hour of shivering until we reached Ndanda. We were able to
change into dry clothes and I wrung out my hair. Tetsuko and I (in my silky purple
genie pants) then went to a fundi college which is near the mission. She wanted
to buy wine, so we asked around and stepped into a sketchy warehouse door. The
guy laughed at us when we asked to try the wine, but quickly brought over
fairly full “taster” glasses. So we tried all 4 types of wine and then bought
some bottles. We also went to the leather workshop, but it turned out that they
only make shoes. We walked back to the mission and made reservations for my
family for when they visit and we also made reservations for lunch the next
day. This is the only place I have ever made reservations in Tanzania. Next we
went to eat lunch, but once again they had “no food”. I ordered 3 things before
they were finally able to provide me plain chipsi. I had wanted rice and
chicken but there “was no chicken” even though there was chipsi and chicken.
The chipsi place is inside the same compound, but they didn’t understand the
concept of buying the chicken from the chipsi guy and then reselling it to me.
After an hour of waiting we finally ate. Steph and I started creating a Peace
Corps board game. For example, “You pooped you pants-move back 3 square”,
“Traveling to Dar in the dry season….but it still takes 15 hours. Move to ‘Flat
Tire’”. When it was finally time for dinner, we passed the ATM that has been
sitting there since I moved to site. It was open! I went inside and the entire
ground was littered with moths and I was getting dive-bombed the whole time.
Then we tried 2 places but they didn’t have food. So we finally waited 2 hours
for chipsi mayai. During that time the electricity went out and we also peed
off behind the tables because the bathroom had too many cockroaches. Also, a
crazy man came over to talk at us. We kindly asked some other customers to
remove him. On our way back home some of the others had asked us to pick up a
crate of beer. There are no 6 packs or anything like that-you buy one single
beer and then you return the glass bottle or you get charged a fee. Anyway, the
bartenders were wasted and we had a great time talking with them. One of them
was marketing the beer we were already going to buy by saying “This my beer. I
drinking Senator. Goooodd! My beer gooodd!”
Saturday we wandered into town to get chai. I greeted my
Makonde carver friends, a duka owner and this other guy at the standi. It was
nice to have people remember me and just ask how things were. During chai other
volunteers kept arriving so we had about 12 people smashed into this little
tiny “room” that has one table and 2 benches. After chai I went with two other
girls to look for Halloween costumes. We found some piles near the soko. Piles
are basically all the leftover clothes from thrift stores that no one buys, so
they donate them to Africans and they make a profit. I found some black PVC
snake skin pants, a crocheted weird top and a normal shirt. About 5 Tanzanians
came over to help us find things-shoving stained clothes, XXXL shirts and other
random things in our faces. We walked around the soko a lot and haggled with
the vendors. One of the piki drivers that I had gotten to know came over to say
hello and when he left he gave me the wiggly finger! I was so grossed out. Ew!
I returned to Mikey’s for a few minutes and then went with Drew to show him
around the soko. When we were walking back we decided to play bao. I’m so happy
we did! Drew had a great time and the Tanzanians loved that we were just
hanging out. I also got a tour of the back part of their carving shop. It is
incredible what they design! We then went to our lunch at the mission. There
was watermelon, pasta, soup, rice, meat stew, vegetables, salad, and rolls! It
was served buffet style and was very fancy. It was only 3,500 which is the
price of chipsi and a chicken leg. Afterward we wandered through the mission,
but it was all mostly just private rooms. We found a door up to the roof and
got a great view of the surrounding hills. Then we walked into the actual
church. It is very basic, but “modern” compared to the surrounding areas. Mikey
was at a graduation ceremony so we stopped by his school and climbed on
chairs/windows with the other Tanzanians who were not allowed inside. Then I
pretended to car-jack a kid’s homemade toy car. Everyone stared at us but were
kind of amused by the fact that we were amused. Then we went to Chem-Chem to
swim. The bajaj ride was super expensive because there is no gas, so prices
have doubled, but it was still worth it to swim. Three of the Fathers joined us
towards the end of our swim. Our bajaj driver kept taking pictures of
Charolette so we told him it was 500/= per picture. We went back to Mikey’s,
got changed (this time I wore my purple genie pants, a tank top, and a flowery
lacey sun hat) and went to town to eat. My favorite duka guy said “Umependeza”
and hugged me he was so happy about my outfit. The Halloween party started…we
had: Minnie Mouse, Creepy Gym Teacher, Soccer Players, a Genie, a Ceiling Fan,
two Tourists, a Sharobaro Masai, and some other costumes. I was Jasmine half
the night and then I was a rock star with my snakeskin pants. It was a good
time!
Traveling back was not nearly as bad because it wasn’t
raining, but it also took a lot longer. I took a nice long “shower” when I got
home. For the next 3 weeks I will only teach one class each day. I could tell
by today’s lesson that the Form 1’s are already losing concentration because
less than half the school is there.
I’ve been meaning to do a blog of prices and conversions. I
found this that David made in Masasi. Masasi is 2 hours West of me and the
closest place to buy “safi things” like oatmeal. Prices for things are fairly
similar to the soko in Newala. Remember 1,600/= equals $1
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