Unexpected Adventures in the Village (Thursday 6/11)

Once more Michael and I woke up late again to a very wet morning. To make a better sounding excuse, it’s because we didn’t want to interfere with everyone else getting ready. With tons of people in the house, there isn’t a moment where the bathroom isn’t occupied and since that’s all Michael and I would really be using we figured it’d just be better to sleep. The real reason of course is we wanted to sleep in because we stayed up late! 

When we did finally arise, we wanted to shower but we couldn’t find the kettle or anyone to help us find the kettle. The water here is cold so we both decided to pass on the morning bucket bath. We got ready and went up to work and did the usual up to tea time. It’s funny to see Michael and Eli’s reaction to having to go first as they are appalled (as am I)! We got our mandazi and eggs before everyone else. The eggs here are sizably smaller than the eggs back in the states; you could easily have a whole one in your mouth!

I planned on showing the students more videos about English nouns, but there was no electricity at the school! The area surrounding the school had electricity but for some reason or another there was none at the school. However, this did not mean my work was over, far from it actually. My original plan was to show the students some videos about irregular and abstract nouns and then a video of how to do the hokey pokey! Mr. Chesco had requested I download the video yesterday. Even though I couldn’t show the kids the educational videos, you bet I could teach them how to do the hokey pokey! I didn’t have a speaker to put on a song to back me up or any other visual than myself. I got in front of the classroom of about 40 students and did the hokey pokey. All those years of DI (Destination Imagination) led up to this moment! It was a blast, maybe a little embarrassing, but all in all a fun time. The students thought it was hilarious when I got to the “shake it all about” part in the song and flailed the corresponding limb around.

 Mr. Chesco thought the hokey pokey was not enough and so we also sang “If You’re Happy and You Know It”! Before I knew it, the fun was over and I was back working. Right now I’ve been putting together resources from the Tanzanian government for VST teachers. The goal is that the teachers can review them and hopefully understand how to be better at teaching their subject along with being more aligned with what the government is looking for. It’s not the most fun work, but I know that what I’m doing is going to help VST and the teachers for years to come!

During my work, Michael was finally informed that he could start working on the trucks by Immaneuli! Of course the heavy duty trucks that Michael is working on are 20+ years old and are in deep disrepair. To his dismay, due to all of the rain it is decently muddy and everything is wet; perfect weather conditions (not!)! It certainly doesn’t help that the mechanics he’s working with essentially speak no English and that the WiFi conveniently stopped working when he was trying to search something up. To my knowledge, he was trying to figure out how to get diagnostic codes from the truck to tell him what’s wrong with it. Observing all of this was quite entertaining, but led to no progress unfortunately. 

Lunch eventually came so we popped to the front of the line for rice, beans, beef, and cabbage. The beef was extremely tender until you got chomped on a bone fragment! I learned quickly that when eating beef you must chew it very slowly and carefully. I’m not sure what cut of meat it is, but it was good nonetheless. At this point I think you get the gist of what every meal looks like here and can see how important beans are to our diet. Interestingly enough, Henry is actually allergic to beans and subsequently has been losing a lot of weight here; I hope he can make it for a whole year! When a meal is just rice, beans, and cabbage he’s losing out on a lot of calories! Lunch was served with Embe as well which never fails to put a smile on my face. I hope that when I get back to the States I’m able to find a replacement for such a delicious beverage!

After lunch the whole bunch of us and Mr. Chesco walked to the nearby clinic so Michael would meet up with his new host. As a reminder, Michael was only supposed to stay up until Sunday or Monday night and here he was staying with me until Thursday! Michael’s new host, Musafiri (meaning travelling man), could not be found until today. His name is very accurate to say the least. Musafiri is the head of the clinic in the village and manages all of the treatment and medicine for everyone nearby. 

Right next to the clinic there was a playground! All of us adults of course ran to go play on the rickety equipment. Everything here was custom and in some way created from welded together vehicle parts! The playground had a wonderful view of the pristine rainforest as well. 

While walking around, we found these weird fruits that came from a vine. They had an orange, spiky fur, and smelt like cucumber; we did not eat them. Of course the next plausible idea was to enjoy America’s favorite pastime and play baseball with a stick and the fruit. I got a good slow-mo of Henry smashing the cucumber into pieces!

Back at the office we just hung around for a while. Most of our tasks right now are very monotonous which was never the plan. We’re supposed to be in Bukimau actively interacting with a whole team for our projects, but alas that is not the case and we are trying our best to make the most of it. To be honest, I don’t think I've ever spent this much time on my laptop and I’m glad I made the investment of a nice one!

I was invited to play a game called “Cambio” taught to me by Henry. Eli also joined, but had played the game yesterday. Henry knows a ton of card games and I was told that playing cards is apparently very popular on the East Coast! The game was very fun and I wasn’t too great at it at the start. To spare the details, if you have a good memory and are good at following rules, you’d be fantastic at this game. I lost every round we played. Hesitant to play another round, I was considering not playing, when suddenly Henry left abruptly and no longer wanted to play the game or really talk with us. I’m not sure if something happened or if Eli and I said something, but I hope he feels better. We tried to cheer him up, but I think it just made Henry more upset. Who knows, I hope he’s feeling better tomorrow!

I proceeded to spend a ton of time reading. I’m 75% of the way through 1984! I’m absolutely loving it so far and can’t wait to finish it. After reading for almost two hours, we all decided to play Cardi. For such a simple game, it’s so fun to play. It seems to be universally known by Tanzanians so people will just pop in and play a round or two and know all of the weird rules. The fun thing to brag about is becoming King (or Queen)! This happens when everyone else is knocked out and you’re the last one standing. If you don’t have any wins, you are a “pumpkin”! Every round, everyone is dealt five cards and the goal is to be the first one to place down all of them into the center pile. It’s similar to Uno. Once someone has finished, you count up your points. If you have more than 10, you’re out! The rules for how much cards are worth are wishy washy so if you want more details, you’ll just have to play it with me and see the fun! 

Eventually it was time for dinner where we had ugali, greens, and more beef (first in line as always). Of course the one time beans aren’t at the core of the meal, Henry was not there! When I got my meal I set it down to wash my hands before eating my ugali. It’s not only hygienic to wash your hands before you eat (duh) but having wet hands makes the ugali not stick to your fingers when you’re scooping up something! When I looked up to see my plate, Alfred, a member of VST, was just eating from my plate. I thought it was funny, but I understand that elders are always respected no matter what so if they want to eat something from your plate, you don’t question it. Here I found out that everyone was leaving tomorrow! We made sure to all say our goodbyes and play extra games of Cardi to send everyone off. Knowing that I’ll never see most of these wonderful people certainly made me sad!

When I walked back to the house, I was once again alone (the house was still packed, just my room was empty). It honestly made me sad to not have a roommate any longer. For one reason or another it was nice to have someone I could easily talk to about adjusting to the new life here and all of the interesting, hilarious, and weird things we see throughout the day. Maybe I’m sad because of Mines and having two roommates for two semesters! Regardless, I’m thankful that I even had a roommate and certainly enjoyed it.

I got situated in my bed, blogged, read my book (stayed up till 12am reading… it’s impossible to put down), and went to bed to the sound of crickets and bats chirping outside!