One month! Wow, one whole month living in
Tanzania. I can now say 5 Swahili words (I’m rather behind my fast learning
fellow teachers)
Pole-
sorry
Asante-
thank you
Karibu-
welcome
Jambo-
hello
Mambo
– I think it is some kind of greeting but just find myself saying it to fit in
ha.
Poa –
good
So as you can imagine communication between
the non-speaking Tanzanians and me is slightly limiting. I feel a big cheesy
smile speaks for itself.
Ooo so what have I been up to. Well we
travelled to a small village in which two of the scholorshipped children live
and went to their church service. It was all in Swahili but it just didn’t seem
to matter. It was such an amazing experience and seeing them worship couldn’t
help but bring you joy. As lovely as this was, knowing me, I needed the toilet.
I was taken by a lovely lady (no English) to what couldn’t have been more than
4 panels of wood each side jammed in the mud to stay up. Yes, unfortunately
this was the toilet. The rickety little door was opened for me and there was a
dark black hole in the middle. I wont go into to details of the smears of
substance around the hole, or the long tailed squeaky friends that were in the
hole. But as I stood there in my Sunday best holding my breath (and no I did
not go to the toilet) I was wondering how long it was before I could come out,
not allowing them to think that I didn’t actually go. I think the worst thing
was when I asked my friend why there is no toilet paper. Cough. So just to be
on the safe hand be careful when shaking hands to shake peoples right hands in Tanzania,
I will say no more.
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| Ryan leading worship at the village church |
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| Mercy my student with the african version of nail varnish. A plant you put on your nails that stains them a colour. |
Moving on, we were all invited to an art exhibition. Got to be honest this wouldn’t really be my first choice of ‘fun things to do’ but hey there’s a first time for everything. It was also a chance for a lot of the westerners in Moshi to get to know each other. Okay so if you haven’t been to an art exhibition, you must. Okay so yes the art was good etc. but the real treat is the array of glorious food. That in itself was art. The beautiful cut up fruit, bacon wrapped dates, dips of all varieties (I better stop as my mouth is now watering) So I signed up for the next art exhibition in October, whoop. The same day we also went over to Ruths house and cooled down and relaxed in her pool, not before we had a little game with the kids.
Most excitingly we had a new addition to
our little Tanzanian family yesterday and that is our lovely dog. We decided to
call him Hodari which means brave in Swahili he is a beautiful golden colour
but unsure of his breed? It is new to me having a dog that is not spoilt and
sleeps in bed with me. But I am being mature and what helps is thinking of him
as a pet fox that has to sleep and stay outside, it makes it easier on my
emotions (such a drama queen)
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| Bekah and Melissa giving him a wash |
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| Welcome to the family |
