Saved from the Pit: Avocados, Broken Pixels, and Near Misses (Wed 7/15)

Like any normal morning here I woke up and snoozed my alarm, but actually turned it off! I subsequently fell back asleep and had a very vivid dream about playing the saxophone around Christmas time! In my mind I felt like the snooze was lasting way longer than it should have and I looked at the time to see 7:56am! I jumped out of bed, put on my shoes, grabbed my backpack, and headed straight to the office. Thankfully Andrew was also just leaving his house so it looked like I came in with him. I received no comments about showing up late so in my mind everything worked out just fine! In the office I got set up and blogged for the first hour before working on my Kolibri guide. In my opinion blogging is a good way to get my mind woken up and ready for the day!

When I started to work, Mboje asked me for the files from our singing last night so I worked on getting them onto a thumbdrive to put in his computer. It’s impossible to send anything over air so this is always the easiest option. When Mboje received the files I went back to my seat to once more squeeze into my chair. I haven’t mentioned this, but the gap in between the table and the chair is too small for legs. I either have to not put my legs fully under the table and lean forward to work (horrible posture) or squeeze my legs underneath the table and the entire thing up an inch or two. I find it funny and need to find if a different table fits me better. 

I worked up until tea time which happened to be around 10:30am today. Whenever I’m working into the break, Joseph always remarks that I don’t stop working! Eli, Miraclin, and I went to Roza’s to drink tea and eat a variety of baked goods. There was mandazi, half-cake, and another type of bread that I did not get the name of. The new bread we had was circle shaped and fit into the palm of your hand. It was very thick and tasted just like a doughnut! There were only three of them so we had to share. Everything was quite delicious but I find mandazi to be the best out of the three.

We walked back to the office and got straight back to work. There’s a lot for me to do so I just put my head down and work on my computer. I’m making sure that my guide has as much information as possible to help anyone guide themselves when creating Kolibri. The more I worked, the more obstacles I ran into. It’s hard to put effort into something that you think won’t work long term. Instead of brewing, I wrote down how I was feeling until it was a little past 2:00pm. Roza texted Eli that it was time to eat so we both went to go get Miraclin. We quietly opened the door to find her sleeping on her laptop! To my knowledge, her and Eli haven’t been getting the best sleep here. We gently woke her up and walked to Roza’s. Of course we had to give her a hard time about sleeping on the job!

On the way, Alvin came running all the way from his house to us! He’s always so energetic. 

Miraclin picked him up and walked a little ways forward until his mother wanted him to come back home and not with us to lunch. The water works began flowing and he began to bawl. We left the crying Alvin at his home and went inside to Roza’s house to eat ugali, eggs, greens, avocado (with salt) and oranges! It was quite the feast! All of the food was quite delicious and therefore we have to keep tabs on each other’s consumption. This means tracking how many avocado pieces someone’s eaten, how many times someone has gone for the eggs, and so on. When it comes to eating we don’t mess around and want to make sure everyone gets their fair share! Eli makes sure to be extremely theatric when he doesn’t get his equal portion. Don’t mess with another man’s avocado otherwise things get messy.

When we were finished, it was time for me to go teach! I set up everything needed for Kolibri and went to wrangle everyone together. I’m not sure why, but even though my teaching is at around the same time everyday, it’s quite the struggle to get people to come participate! When everyone was finally present, I instructed them that they had one hour to set up Kolibri from scratch. There was an assessment at 4:00pm and therefore a hard cutoff to get it finished. In total, it only went okay. I stood on top of a chair to oversee the group as I didn’t want to get in the way of them figuring things out (I also wanted to make sure nothing stupid was being done to the parts. Not that the adults would break anything, but it’s to try and force something with a computer and end up breaking it). I also know that if I didn’t separate myself from the group, I would just end up doing everything for them. I ended up having to help guide some things here and there until the micro SD card we use to operate the Raspberry Pi Computer completely malfunctioned with Andrew’s computer. Since we were close to running out of time and it was unclear what happened to the micro SD card, I dismissed the class early. I’m supposed to have additional micro SD cards from Alfred, yet every time I ask him he gives me some vague response and leaves me. I don’t know where it is and I know he’s leaving for Malawi tomorrow!

I cleaned up the materials and checked if I could fix the card. Unsurprisingly, I was able to get it working again. I’m sort of baffled that Andrew’s laptop messed things up, but I’ll make sure to give it another go tomorrow to see if something is actually wrong with his computer. As I finished cleaning, two teachers attempted to teach the education department and both only did okay from my perspective. I was once more very disruptive, but here that’s wanted! With everything put away, I worked on my guide a little longer before it was time to go to volleyball. When I packed up my things, I went outside to find Miraclin eating what looked like some delicious strawberry crackers. I’m curious to see what they taste like and will need to buy some! Eli, Miraclin, and Godfrey were having a conversation about birthdays so I jumped in. The question was, “Are there only 365 birthdays or are there 8 billion birthdays?”. I can see both arguments, but I’d like to argue that every person is unique and therefore at the most basic level has a completely unique birthday. Eli saw it the opposite way and we argued about it was walked to the shop. 

At the shop I bought us water, glucose crackers, and a new drink called Tam Tam tropical. The drink tasted like perfume and I will not be buying it again. It was made by Azam who also makes my favorite Embe drink, so I expected something delicious. In total I spent 4000 shillings (1000 each for the water, 250 each for the crackers, and 500 each for the perfume drink). I received a 5000 shilling bill as my change and finally completed my Tanzanian currency collection! Having all of the denominations seemed like a fun souvenir to bring back home even though it’s technically illegal.

We did the regular walk-to-each-other’s-house-and-change routine while we ate our crackers and tried to stomach the juice. On the way to the grounds, we stopped by Peter's house to grab the ball, pump and net for him to get it set up. At the grounds the two guys who always come in on a motorcycle were already there. I think I have the names down now! The player who’s really good is named Joseph and the driver of the motorcycle is nicknamed Doctor. I’ll reference them appropriately now and tag VB to the end of Joseph to indicate that it’s not my host Joseph. Joseph VB and Doctor set up the net while Eli and I did our laps. Some kids joined us for a little bit while we ran which was quite fun. It was like I was back in cross country! When we were finished warming up, we started our volleyball warm ups. 1 v 1 to 2 v 2 then our full 3 v 4!

The games went well and my team ended up winning with a set score of 5-3. Eli’s team was funny as they would play good for a while before immediately disintegrating! Joseph and Mboje weren’t there as they were at church. They spend so much time there at the church and back home preparing music for the church. It’s so cool to see the two so dedicated and interested in the craft of music! In total I played well and had a great time! When the game finished, we had our quick debrief, and I went back to my house where I picked up hot water on the way. I wasn’t hot like yesterday so I decided a warm bucket bath would be nice.

I happened to meet Joseph at the front door who was on his way out to go to Eli’s house. Joseph spends more time over there than at our house as that’s where all of the food and friends are! I went inside to take my bucket bath and got all of my things ready. In general volleyball gets me incredibly dirty. Since the court is a mix of dirt and fine dust, the ball is essentially a small dust bomb that explodes on you every time you hit it. At the end of a match my hands and arms are filthy and my white shirt and socks get browner by the day. 

With all of my stuff I needed to shower, I went into Joseph’s room to bathe. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but the bathroom is quite large compared to the bathroom at Paul’s house (and smells a lot nicer too). While the space to bathe is nice, there is no light in there! Therefore, I’ve been using my phone’s flashlight to dimly light up the space. Since I don’t want to put my phone on the ground where the light wouldn’t shine well (and get wet), I’ve been perching it in the mostly blocked up window sill. Up until this day I’ve been very careful to place it at an angle that keeps it from falling. When I set down all of my things and closed the door, the vibration of the door was just enough to knock the phone down.

I watch as my phone falls from over six feet onto its screen and bounces right into the pit toilet. Thankfully my reflexes were quick enough to catch my phone before it fell into the pit toilet hole. I literally grabbed it right before it hit the water. If I was even a moment slower, my phone would’ve been lost in the poopy pit toilet abyss. I decided that even though the bench at the back of the room provided less light, it would be a much safer place to put my phone.

I proceeded to bathe and went back to my room to change. When I checked my phone for the time I noticed that a bundle of pixels on the middle left hand side of my phone were smashed white! The tall fall must’ve concentrated all of its energy on that small part of my screen and destroyed the pixels even though I had a screen protector. Even though it’s small and out of the way, in the moment I felt incredibly upset. Something I struggle with is to not feel horrible when something expensive I own isn’t perfect anymore. From my laptop screen in Madisi (which hopefully will be covered by warranty) to now my phone screen to even my busted motorcycle back home, it’s hard to not idolize material things and care about them so much! I don’t know how to not feel a pit in my stomach when something I worked hard for or is expensive, isn’t perfect anymore. In other words, I try hard to take care of things and hate it when I fail. I realize here that even having a phone is such a privilege and it doesn’t matter if half the screen doesn’t work. I need to live more like a Tanzanian and simply be grateful for what I have and learn from the mistakes!

Funny enough I did recently ask God to help give me something to remind me of this trip and seeing shining white bright pixels every time I open my phone screen will definitely do that! After getting ready and lamenting my phone, I cleaned my room and then went to Eli’s house. When I got there I hung out in his room for a while while we talked about a ton of things and he cleaned. Since Eli has data, I check to see how expensive it would be for me to replace the screen myself and it was a 50 step process I’d only ever want a pro doing! I think in the meantime I’ll just focus and try to shift my attitude about the accident. When Eli was finished cleaning, we went through his camera roll and looked at more of his Spain trip.

Eventually it was time for us to go to Roza’s house for dinner! When we got there it wasn’t quite ready yet so I worked on shucking corn kernels while Eli danced around. The massive corn piles in the main room have been slowly dwindling as more and more corn gets shucked. It’s cool that an individual’s harvest is worked on by the whole community, and to my knowledge, expect nothing in return besides helping them when they need it. Roza plans on selling most of the corn and keeping some for herself as well! 

When it was time for dinner, Miraclin came out of her room from resting and joined us for a fantastic meal. Eli brought avocados to add to our fried sweet potatoes and tea. Adding salt to the avocados and sweet potatoes was amazing, but gets you quite thirsty! I never realized how much salt us American’s eat until I came here and added copious amounts of it to everything. During the meal we talked about all sorts of things. Miraclin has been staying in touch with Henry, Michael, and the new volunteer Sam and learned that Henry and Sam are headed to Malawi at 3:00am tomorrow! We also learned from Miraclin that the DoDo bird apparently became extinct in 2008 causing Eli and I to BURST out laughing. We felt bad but Miraclin’s confidence in something so wrong was hilarious to us. We also talked about some of our memories so far on the trip and listened to music on Roza’s speaker.

By the end of the night we were all exhausted and were ready to sleep! I went home, got ready for bed, was sad about my phone, blogged, and went to sleep!