The Pain Train and Cooking with Paul (Thursday 6/25)

A wisely set alarm woke me up today as I wanted to make sure the snafu from yesterday would not happen again. I got up, spoke with Paul, and waited for him to finish boiling his water so I could boil mine. Since I’m used to only using a small amount of water for my bucket bath thanks to the small pots on the propane stove, I only boiled one kettle full of water this time around. It’s plenty for a bucket bath and I’m not sure why I needed so much at the beginning of my stay! I also find it’s so much faster to boil only one kettle of water so that helps during mornings where I might be rushing. After my bucket bath, I got ready and went up to the office. Paul had to go to a meeting so he left before me so I locked the house per his instructions. I put the keys in an obvious hiding spot and hoped that he would look there! 

I got there at 9:08am which is way better than it was yesterday! I settled in and began work with Eli. There was absolutely no monkey business today as the deadline for Math Club is coming up and we’re very behind. To keep our minds engaged and things fresh, we listen to music and talk about anything and everything as we work. Miraclin comes in to tell us it’s tea time and we notice there is still no Michael. We meet up with Henry and Mr. Chesco at the kitchen and have our regular tea and mandazi! I hope to maybe recreate this breakfast back in America!

Following tea time, we all go back to the office to prepare for teaching. However this time around Eli and I convinced Mr. Chesco to not have us teach today so we can solely focus on Math Club. He agreed as all of the forms have been through one typing class making the teaching for my class very easy. All he needed to do was give the students the laptops and they would get straight to work! In exchange for not teaching today, I promised to show the students Kolibri tomorrow.

Eli and I continue to work very hard and are extremely productive the entire time. Being productive means that Eli doesn’t get on Wikipedia to read up on random things and I don’t play Clash of Clans on my phone! We manage to get some great progress done and are proud of ourselves! In the middle of our work, Michael finally shows up! It was a little after 12:00pm and explained that he slept in super late for two reasons. The first being that he’s been getting horrible sleep and the second being the fact that his hosts do not wake him at all. He told us that they won’t even get him when a meal is ready! Now that he was connected to WiFi he could see what he got on his most recent exam and he scored the highest in the class; a 101! This solidifies me as a lucky charm when taking exams.

Henry and Miraclin eventually got back from teaching and worked with us as well. We determined that the most efficient way of reviewing is having pairs work together instead of a four person team. As Henry puts it, there are too many cooks in the kitchen when all four of us are on one single document. Work continues until lunch where we have beans, rice, spicy sauce, and cabbage! During our meal, the truck’s tail gate worked fantastically as a see saw and was a ton of fun. We got talking about some of our favorite American food which made us even hungrier even though we were eating. As we ate, Peter came by and invited all of us to come play soccer at 5:00pm!

After lunch, we walked back to the office where Mr. Chesco invited us to work. No, WALK! The two words sound very similar coming out of his mouth and we had to ask for clarification several times. Seeing as we could all enjoy an adventure and not sit for five more hours, we of course tagged along. He brought us past the soccer field we play at and down a steep hill before going up another steep hill that led us to the top of a hill that leveled out. The views from up here were amazing! The fields of tea popped out against the blue backdrop of the sky and left us all in awe. We made sure to take lots of pictures.

It was a gorgeous day outside and we were so grateful that Mr. Chesco had brought us here. His original intention was to show us the tea fields being worked, but all of the workers had already left (although we did see one walking back with a pack on his back completely full of leaves). I can’t imagine how back breaking tea picking is as the tea plants are hard to walk through, you’re constantly bending down, and have to pick thousands upon thousands of leaves to get paid a measly amount.

Miraclin wanted a place to sit down and admire the view so Mr. Chesco brought us to a small clearing where a small covering housed drying tea leaves. Mr. Chesco brought the very bouncy volleyball (the one we tried to kick around from a couple of days ago) to play some volleyball! It was a blast, but since volleyballs can be hard to control, we were often retrieving it from the tea plants around us, or running down the hill to grab it. For some reason whenever someone doesn’t try hard enough for the ball, we make sure to comment on their energy and passion so they can get into the game! We played for a good long while before heading back. On the way back, Henry and Michael would often stride ahead leaving Mr. Chesco yelling from the back “pole pole” which means slow down!

We got back near the office when Miraclin wanted to go to the shop to buy some snacks and drinks. She was very generous and purchased Eli and I some things as we did not bring our money! I was pleased to see that the shop was finally in stock of the Embe I love which meant I got a sweet treat after the walk. 

We went back to the office for one more hour of “slopping” as we call it. If you are unaware, AI is known for creating things that are generally low quality and/or are complete nonsense; therefore, the term “AI slop” encompasses all of the garbage it produces. Since we use a lot of AI in our work, we thought it would be a fun way to talk about what we do all day. The hour passed quickly and it was time to go play football! Eli, Henry, and I needed to change for the game and went back to our respective houses to put on short pants (what they call out here) and t-shirts. I went down to my house and found out that Paul was not home and that the door was locked and the key was not where I put it last! I walked back to the office defeated but figured I would still go play some football even if it was going to be hot and sweaty.

I get to the field and wait for someone else to get there to balance out the teams. Peter noticed straight away that I lacked the necessary soccer attire, but I assured him I would be just fine! The teams ended up being Peter, Eli, Adolf, and I (I think that’s his name) against Henry, Luka, Simba, and a local guy I didn’t know. When I started to play, the score was 0-2 and we were down. Eventually Eli was able to score TWO goals and I was able to score the third! I never would have thought that I could score a goal here with my little to none soccer experience seeing that the goals are so tiny. It only takes one person to stand in the goal to make it impossible to score. 

The rules are very relaxed in these games so if someone really wanted to, they could just sit in the goal the entire game! I had a blast all things considered and at one point Eli got knocked down by Henry and caused a little banter between the two! Eli argued that Henry was maliciously using his elbow to push around and Henry argued that it’s not his fault that his elbow is at Eli’s head height! Regardless, as the game progressed I found out the strategy that worked best for me; the pain train. Essentially whenever I would get the ball I would just move towards the goal as fast as I could and hope that my momentum would carry me and the call to the goal. I don’t have the dribbling skills to actually get past anyone so this is my best bet. I’m large by Tanzania standards which means that it wouldn’t be the most fun to run into me when I’m running as fast as I can. 

At one point I had the ball and just started yelling as loud as I could to distract the opposing players and let me run through. That got everyone laughing pretty good! Another interesting thing about this game, and more specifically the field we play on, is the fact that it’s not level ground. This means that one team gets to play uphill while the other downhill. I’m not sure if that factor gives one team an advantage or disadvantage but Henry seems to prefer going uphill!

After a gorgeous sunset, the game ended and we won, 3-2! I was of course drenched in sweat after the game and will make sure to never play in pants and long sleeves ever again. We all walked back up to the office where Michael and Miraclin met up outside to walk with us (they were originally coming down to inform us the office was closing). On the walk, Adolph was playing a tik tok video with a song Paul showed me and began singing and dancing to it. Whenever I or anyone else from our group dances, lots of laughs are soon to come and today was no different. Even though at first I didn’t love how loud and how many songs Paul showed me, now I’m glad I have a good grasp on Tanzanian music to connect with others! 

I got my stuff from inside the office and began walking back when I heard Paul’s voice yell! He was still inside of the office and wanted me to wait for him to get back. We’re eventually on our way to the house router in hand. We relaxed in his room for an hour and a half and waited for a boda boda to show up with eggs and avocados so we could have a delicious dinner. Paul informed me that he just got paid so he's planning on going on a big shopping spree tomorrow so we can have whatever we’d like (I’m chipping in some money as well as I enjoy having fulfilling dinners)! 

I was the one to cook tonight with Paul’s guidance. The task to learn: how to cook rice. We first start with boiling water on the stove and going outside to wash the rice outside. In a pot we pour water onto the rice, play with it in our hands, and dump out the dirty water (don’t spill any rice!). Repeat this 3 times.

Back inside, we put the boiling water into a separate pot and then put oil into the pot that just had water and put it on the stove. Once the oil is nice and hot, you put the cleaned rice (make sure there is no residual water) into the pot with the oil. For a couple minutes, stir the rice frequently to make sure it doesn’t burn and stick to the bottom of the pot. Once the rice has been cooking for a bit, you add the previously boiled water onto the rice, put the propane stove on low, and cover. In about 10-15 minutes the rice will be ready to eat! 

For the eggs, boil them as normal! Plate with salt and avocado and voila, you have yourself a complete meal! The meal was fantastic. One part because it was simply good and another part because I had my hand in creating it. I was completely full which is a feeling that doesn’t always happen out there. Paul was very thankful that I cooked for him and I was very thankful he taught me!

After the meal, I went back to my room to relax, blog, figure out stuff for the next semester at Mines, and go to bed!