Shaking Houses, IT Work, and A New Update on Bukimau! (Friday 7/3)

Last night Paul told me that he was leaving to get his national identity card that was in a region very far away from the region we’re in (Iringa). I know that travelling any distance here takes a decent chunk of time so I figured he would get up early to leave. However, I did not expect him to wake up at 5:00am (could’ve been earlier) and proceed to blast his music as loud as possible! I’m not sure if it was to wake himself up or get excited for the journey but I felt as if it was a little inconsiderate. I understand the love for music, but I see absolutely no reason to play music that loud that early in the morning. 

selfie with Paul from another day

An hour later into the music playing, he came by to my room to finalize his plans with me. It takes me a moment to get out of bed so when I get to my door, Paul had already left. I go and find him in the main room and he attempts to start a conversation with me. Mind you the speakers are playing as loud as they can in this room and I cannot hear him at all. I’m bewildered that he wouldn’t turn down the music or leave to go outside to have the conversation until I was almost screaming to ask to go outside. We finally go out and he makes sure I’m okay with him leaving and that I know how to take care of myself while he’s gone. I assured him I would be okay and that I am not upset that he’s leaving (he felt very bad). To take one good thing from this experience is that the sun was rising and created a beautiful gradient across the sky that I otherwise would not have seen! I went back inside to rest for another hour as it’s impossible to sleep when the house is shaking. 

Eventually it was time for him and his girlfriend to leave around 7:15am. I got up to say goodbye where Paul let me know that breakfast was waiting for me, gave me a padlock to lock up the house, and gave a heart-felt goodbye to both of them. It was so sad to see the girlfriend leave as she had such a positive demeanor and made wonderful food; she will be missed! I also noticed that the girlfriend prepared a lot of water for me to take a bucket bath, another incredibly kind gesture.

I was still tired so I went back to bed for another hour with no music blasting this time! I got up around 8:15am to a quiet house for once. It’s official, no one is home but me! According to Paul’s estimate, I should see him tomorrow in the afternoon. I figured it was time to get ready for the day and I took the still piping hot water for a bucket bath. The bar of soap I’m using is coming closer and closer to the end of its life and I had originally packed an extra for this situation. However, Eli came quite unprepared for this entire trip and I gave him my extra soap bar! If I run out I’ll just use the soap I buy from the shop for my laundry (Paul uses it for body soap so I figure it’d be fine). After getting ready for the day, I went to the main room to find a small bowl thermos that held still warm potatoes for me and a cup of tea on the side! I ate and got my stuff to go up.

As I was leaving the house, Hosea happened to be right outside of my door to get me and told me that I would be eating all meals with him today (I will not go hungry without Paul, even though I sometimes do even when he’s around)! We walk up to the office together and have a brief conversation about how much school I have left and what I plan on using my degree for. At the office I set up my stuff and got to work. I had downloaded what I needed for Mr. Chesco’s laptop last night and got started on the operating system refresh (it would progress in the background while I worked on other things). Mr. Chesco also brought out a Chromebook that would not turn on, and interestingly enough, it needed the exact same thing done to it as Mr. Checo’s laptop; a USB OS recovery! I proceeded to do research for the Chromebook and work on Math Club until it was time for tea at Hosea’s house.

I walked down with Miraclin and when we arrived, Josea was dancing with his son Dan in the main room! Dan loves to dance and is quite the energetic little fellow (he’s two and a half years old). The last time I was at this house was many weeks ago with Paul! We sat down to eat mandazi and drink tea and Dan was very fun to watch. There was groovy gospel music playing in the background and Miraclin and I bounced our heads to the beat. Dan tried to imitate us but honestly looked like a chicken cocking his head back and forth! It was also cute to watch him delicately hold his cup and dip his mandazi into the tea as if he were an old man!

We stayed a little longer before going up to work on Math Club once more. The work was very tedious today as we’re almost done with Form 4 which made it hard to stay focused. We’re almost at the finish line but we’re so sick of the race! I continued to review documents and check on Mr. Chesco’s laptop until Henry wanted to go outside to enjoy the sun. Eli, Henry (after a little convincing), and I played some hacky sack and enjoyed ourselves quite a lot. 

During our sack session, Michael finally showed up for the day! He sleeps poorly and sleeps in late to make up for the lost sleep. His hosts don’t interfere with anything he does as well which further perpetuates the tardiness. He said hi, dropped his stuff off, and went to the shop to buy some stuff. Before we knew it, Michael was back up asking us if we could finish his 10,000 shilling bill as the shop had no more change to give. Free drinks and snacks? Who could say no?! We walked down to the shop and picked out all of the drinks and snacks we wanted. There was still some left over but it was a small enough amount that the shop was able to give a little bit of change. While Michael was sorting out his payment, there was a small boy kicking his soccer ball around that we played with (same boy that Henry and I were launching at the end of football the previous day). 

After we finished, we got back up to the office, sat down with our food, and all went to our respective homes as it was time for lunch (I finally got to go at the normal time)! Once more I walked down with Miraclin where he had scrambled eggs, avocado, and ugali! Only Miraclin and I ate and both found the meal to be absolutely delicious. Afterwards, we sat on the couch and talked about anything and everything while drinking the very delicious tea from this morning (clearly some fresh lemon in there) We talked about her home country India (caste system, issues she has with the country, ect), American opportunities, differences in culture, ect. My eyes were opened to how many opportunities we have in America that I take for granted or simply do not notice (the ability to have part-time jobs, workshop camps, and college opportunities). It was a great conversation and I enjoyed expanding my perspective. 

We also speculated how the rest of the month would play out and where we would go. We also guessed the timelines of our adventures and where we would be and when. In the middle of this conversation, Michael showed up at the house to eat lunch. Interestingly enough, even though he seems to have a very wealthy host, they don’t serve lunch at his place! He knew there would be food here and sure enough there was. He was served the same thing we ate and joined in our conversation about predictions for the next month. Not wanting the conversation to end, Michael grabbed some tea and came to sit on the couch and talk about the new volunteers coming, the work he’d do, and a whole host of different stories! We ended up talking until 4:00pm which meant we really needed to get back and work.

We walked back up to the office to find Henry and Eli playing sack! Michael and I jumped in and proceeded to play some of the best sack we've ever played in this group of four. Over the course of a month we’ve all improved a ton. Eventually we devised this new and weird hacky sack game. I’ll spare the details as it wasn’t that fun (it was like Spikeball and tennis combined). During the game, Michael tried to get the sack and absolutely launched himself onto his back! He was covered in dust and we all found it hilarious, including Michael! I never knew someone could lunge their body with that much force. While we were playing, Miraclin was taking a nap outside!

We go back and inside and begin our work again! Mr. Chesco wanted me to add some programs to his laptop so I began to work on that, Math Club, and fixing the Chromebook (lots of multitasking). The Chromebook could not be fixed (maybe with more direct attention it could be) and I was able to download some programs onto Mr. Chesco’s laptop that worked well. I downloaded all sorts of fun games, typing programs, art programs, and learning programs for his family (I also downloaded Microsoft Excel and Word knockoffs that didn’t really work… I ran out of time). I hope everyone enjoys them! 

To reward me for all of my hard work, Mr. Chesco got me a bottle of Azam Embe as he knows how much I love it! Math Club continued to be horrible and we worked from 4:45pm to around 8:45pm to finally finish it for good (at least for now). During this stint of work, Johnathan texted all of us to let us know that the Vinton squad were all landing into Dar safely and would be taking an overnight bus to arrive in Madisi sometime in the morning. Since it’s the 4th of July tomorrow, we’re invited to the house at 4:00pm (this is exciting as Mzee told us that it would be unlikely if we were even invited to his home. He wants us to spend all of our time with the locals here!). We were also informed that Eli, Miraclin, and I would finally be going back to Bukimau on Sunday in the afternoon (all of that speculation at lunch paid off). Seeing that we would be leaving on such short notice, I’m going to try to do all of my laundry early tomorrow morning so it can be somewhat dry by Sunday (Johnathan did extend the offer to use a half-broken dryer at their house if need be). 

The house of work on Math club was a fever dream: music was blasting, lots of talking, and progress marching at a snail’s pace. It was all hands on desk as all five of us were working together to get this done! Before we knew it, it was time for all of us to go and we essentially finished Form 4 (to my standard it was finished, to Henry’s it was not). I grabbed my stuff and the WiFi router and Miraclin, Hosea, and I went to dinner (Eli walked with us). Simple naked spaghetti noodles were served that made for a great filling dinner.

During the meal, we played with Dan who shot us funny looks, blew air kisses, and gave us an interesting fruit treat that was sweet and hard to chew. The meal ended quickly and I hung out on the couch and watched a TV show that had good English subtitles to follow! It was quite an odd drama show.

10:00pm came and it was time for Hosea to walk back with me to the house. On the way we talked about Paul’s journey. He’s not convinced that Paul will even make it back tomorrow as the region he is in is very far (however since Paul is young, Hosea is giving him the benefit of the doubt that he can get back quickly). I was also informed that there would be no more WiFi to bring home after this night as the router we were using was the Vinton’s and needed to go back to its rightful place before they got home!

I arrived at the house and no one was home (quite lonely)! In order to not have a night alone, during the Math Club frenzy, Michael offered to stay the night. I’m sure it was for the WiFi, but I know he’s kind enough and not connected to his host family enough to stay. In the middle of clearing the other bed off in my room, Michael arrived and set up everything he needed to go to bed! We talked a bit before I went and blogged for the rest of the night and he watched a TV show! I’m thankful to have someone stay over and keep my company! Sweet dreams from Tanzania!