Safari time

True friends

This week has been full of new experiences, first we had the send off then graduation and finally a safari. Let me start at the beginning with the send off.

Send off’s are one of the big things in Tanzania for girls, right behind the actual marriage ceremony. We have had student teachers at our school since the first week of August and one of them on her second day gave us this invitation for a send off. At that point we had no clue what the chicks name was but we felt since it was our first invitation we had to accept. (fun fact anytime you are invited to something here ie graduation party, wedding or send off you have to pay to go) We paid our money and kind of forgot about the whole thing. Well this week rolls around and the girl is reminding us about the party, we are still under the impression that it is for her, little did we know. Our second head master Makla was going to accompany us to the party because he just loves to dance and informed us there would be a lot of dancing. When we got to the party of course the electricity in Isoko was off so that party was running late, when it finally started we realized that the party was not in fact for our co-worker but for what I assume was her sister I am still really confused by it. These two girls walk in all done up in gaudy orange prom dresses, not smiling, they actually looked all around pissed to be there. During all of this there is screaming and waving and dancing while an MC is announcing everything. Then they started passing out drinks to all of the guests (we were sitting on benches btw) and everyone starts dancing. For the first time I ate rice with my hands (super difficult) because of course there was food, because its not an African party unless there is a massive amount of food. At one point it was time to give the gifts so everyone forms a conga line like dancing thing and dances up to give the bride and groom (who apparently its customary for them to show up late?) When my roommate and I got up there our teacher friend stops us and they stop the music and want us to make a speech in Swahili which was not about to happen, so we stood their awkwardly for a good three minutes until they realized we weren’t going to say anything and they turned the music back on. The party was hoppin until we left at almost 11, I am still so confused as to who the girl was but all I know is she looked super pissed, but she did have 2 mzungu girls at her send off and we are on video plenty of times to prove it because I forgot to mention that they had a guy walking around with a spot light and video camera filming the entire spectacle.

Graduation was the next big thing on Friday. Like I said before we had been having staff meetings to talk about graduation for the past month but they were always in Swahili so I never really paid attention. Turns out my roommate and I were put on the decoration committee (such a bad choice on their part, clearly they had no idea I am horrible at making things). So Thursday we were informed that we had to be at school at 7 am Friday morning to prepare for graduation which was to start at 10. We got there promptly at 7 to find no one on our committee there naturally, so we waited around for an hour before they showed up and the decorating began. They brought out a box full of toilet paper, primary colored fabric, a weird collection of balloons, and my favorite gifti paper (pronounced jifti). Then they told us we would be decorating what basically looks like a lean to behind the school. I have added a pic of what the finished product looked like and let me just say I am proud of our work. While we were decorating the DJ got there and started bumping bongo flava and Rihana music at 8 am and the kids promptly started dancing. This kids/the people of Tanzania in general LOVE to dance. They also have some interesting dance moves, I have also added a pic of some of the form 4’s dancing. Like I said graduation was supposed to start at 10 but the guest of honor the MP for our district was almost 4 hours late so graduation really didn’t start until almost 2. Graduation here is fun, like I said there were skits and dances and raps that he kids preformed, that was the fun part. The it went into a 2 hour speech period where the headmaster and then the MP keept talking and talking and not really about the students at all. I wasn’t really paying much attention until all the sudden the MP told us to stand up and singled us out in front of everyone and again asked us to say something to the crowd, again we panicked and just stood there awkwardly and waved. That has become a theme of this experience, me feeling super awkward and singled out and not knowing what to do except smile and wave. Graduation finally ended at 6, when we were told to go and eat yet another feast. We thought it would be for everyone, turns out it was on for the special guests and teachers. There was so much food, they had rice, pilau, chicken, beef, cabbage, and banana. There was supposed to be a dance party after but it got really weird when it was just the creepy teachers and old men dancing so we peaced out to a party we were invited to. Mr. Mbughi the post man/ our friend/ the house where we drink typhoid water, houses 6 girls who come from far away to go to school and two of them were graduating so they decided to have a party. We thought there would be a lot of adults there but when we showed up it was all kids and by kids I mean there were some small kids there getting down as well as the form 4’s. Basically we sat there for 3 hours acting like chaperones and making sure the kids did not get to close to the TV or sound system, or cause too much dust to rise because of course it was an outside event.

Now to the fun part the safari. Wednesday we learned that we would get a break from school this week so we immediately decided it was time to get the heck out of the small village and see some animals because I have been in Africa for 4 months and yet to see any good animals. We decided to come to Iringa and arrange a safari to Ruaha National Park. It is one of the largest parks in Tanzania and has the second largest elephant population in all of Africa, needless to say I was super excited. We got to Iringa (which I am now obsessed with) After leaving our village at 4 am and taking a semi and then a bus for 8 hours on Sunday. Monday morning we went to a safari company and told them what we wanted and they said in one hour we could leave and go. We had a massive Land Rover with a fridge inside all to ourselves and an awesome guide/driver Nolesco. We got to the park at like 12 and in being in there 5 minutes had already seen 8 elephants. Right now it is the dry season and Ruaha, unlike the parks in the Northern circuit have a lot of bush, so it can be hard to see animals. We ended up seeing a pride of lions sleeping, so many zebras, hippos, crocodiles, elephants, a cheetah, impala’s, warthogs, and waterbucks the first day. It was so nice having the car to ourselves and even nicer that Ruaha is a less popular park and therefore it felt like we were alone there because there weren’t like 5 cars around one animal. That night we stayed the night in the park at the government bandas. The bandas are basically like a metal hut they were nice, but before we went to bed our guide told us to be aware at night of the hippos because they come out of the water in search of for and kill more animals than lions. That was a fun thought right before we went to bed especially knowing that to get to the bathroom it was a good 3 minute walk from our sleeping area. All night long you could hear noises from the animals it was amazing. The second day we got up early and headed out and spotted a cheetah, our guide was so cool and even went off the path to try and get close to him for a pic but he was to fast for us. We saw more animals just hanging out and as we were about to leave in the later afternoon all the sudden Nolesco stopped and we were literally 50 feet from a huge male lion just lounging under a tree, it was amazing to be that close to a grown lion in the wild. I will def be going on another safari as soon as I possibly can because being that close to the animals and just driving around in the amazing landscape is incredible. There were many times during the drive that I was left thinking, this is really my life right now I am so lucky.

We are now back in Iringa town and are planning to leave to tomorrow to start the two day trip back. Iringa town is awesome so many expats. At this point in the trip I love to be able to talk to other white people and just hangout which is what Iringa provides. I have even been able to have a milkshake AND a real latte (it’s the small things in life that I long for). Also another reason why I like Iringa is they have a huge Masai population. As I have said before I am OBSESSED with Masai people they are so cool. SO far I have bought a pair of leather sandals and Masai cloth from legit Masai people on the street. Iringa has soooo many great gift’s, I cant wait to bring them back for everyone!!!

As I promised here are just a few of the pics of my life lately, I hope you enjoy! Sorry they are in no special order.

Half of one of my form 2 classes, the little guy in front Musa is one of my favs
My skirt after it got caught in the bike and we had to cut it





At a soccer game some of my girls, and random gypsy mountain children

Town/ the used shoe dealer who always tries to get me to buy air Jordans

This is what i walk 45 minutes to get to.. classy right?

Just a typical passenger on the bus

A giraffe standing perfectly in the hole of a tree, it was perfect timing

Awkward single pic of me with some elephants in the background

The lion that we stumbled on when we were leaving the park, it was so close

Our sweet safari ride with a fridge

Sunset from our campsite

Some elephants that we saw right when we got into the park

Part of the dance party while we waited for graduation to start

In refrence to my last post, there is nothing gay about this at all, just to boys hanging out

Some of my form 2 girls just throwin up the delta after i taught them top tri delt rushee

Mr. Mbughi and I at the graduation party

At the start of the Safari

gypsy mountain children hanging out at my house

how we decorated for graduation

Pole Sana

I am sorry it has taken me so long to update but things around here have been pretty crazy. From now on I should be better about updating because I finally received my solar panel from my amazing parents!!!! It came just in time because my lovely area of the globe is entering the hot dry season, which for me means that the 45 minute walk down the mountain to warm beer and electricity wont be happening very often because the town relies on hydroelectricity and the electricity is constantly being cut. Getting my solar panel was another story that again involved me having horrible transportation problems. Things would be to simple if the postman were to deliver my packages to me but no instead I must go to him. He of course does not work on the weekends so I had to miss school one day to go to him. On the way there I got to ride on the fancy big charter bus that has started running from my village to Mbeya, but on the way there the bus got three flat tires and we were waiting for three hours before I befriended the conductor, Charles and started walking. An hour later I told Charles the next motorcycle that drives by get them to take me where I want to go I will pay good money. I have really become way to lax when it comes to transportation, getting on the back of random peoples motorcycles in the hopes that they take me where I want to go, but hey its Africa and everyone can be bought for the right price.

In other news when I was walking through a clothing market two weekends ago out of the corner of my eye I spotted what looked like a razorback so of course I immediately bolted towards it and low and behold it was a XXL razorback football jersey with the tags still on it, naturally I bargained with the man and that lovely piece of apparel became mine for the low low price of 8 dollars. I will be wearing it every game day from now one. It is basically like a dress on me but I don’t even care.

At school the big news this week is it is graduation for the form 4s on Friday. Graduation from secondary school is a big deal here because the majority of the kids do not get accepted to go on to further studies. What I did not realize is that it is a production. The whole school is involved. There are raps, skits, songs and dancing. They go all out. Apparently I should have known all of this already because for the past month we have been having staff meetings every Friday but of course the meetings are all in Swahili (even though everyone in the room speaks English) so I take that time to work on my brick breaker score. There is also going to be a feast with anything I could want according to my second headmaster. When I asked if there would be queso and salsa he just looked at me baffled, where upon I informed him that clearly they were not having everything. Graduation is also a day long event it starts at 10 and goes to 4 ish, then my roommate and I have been invited to an after party for one of the girls where there is going to be more food and dancing until whenever the petroli runs out. I am pretty excited for this and cant wait tog et some great videos and pics of the kids to show everyone the first chance I get with good internet, because it is a spectacle.

Lets see the pagan rituals have continued, we went again this past weekend and we learnd that this time there were two different groups drumming adnhtat it was a competition that ended with all these kids charging into the ring. Basically this whole "celebration" as they like to call it revolves around drumming and the groups taking breaks to go out into the banana tree fields to drink pombe (aka home brew, the name of one translates from Swahili to mean lion tears, so you know it must be good) Needless to say it’s a great time to people watch.

this week we have been invited to a send off for one of the student teachers at our school. Again these things involve massive amounts of food and dancing. I already have my outfit picked out because apparently people go all out at these things , and I have to keep up with all the Africans. Nobody wants to be that culturally insensitive mzungu. I will def be providing a detailed description on Saturday when I update with how graduation went.

So here is a list of a few things I have learned since last time

1. Found out that for the past two months we have been drinking typhoid water at multiple people’s houses repeatedly, that was a fun thing to learn, yet it helped to explain many things. I probably now have multiple parasites living in me but hey its Africa.

2. Thought I had some random skin disease (potential leprosy) on my arms because my skin was turning different colors, only to find out that in fact it was not a disease just dead skin cells that were collecting because I take a shower with a bucket. That was fun to learn, and furthers my belief that I really never get clean.

3. Pig fat is a totally acceptable as a dinner course. At the house of the postman of the village (where we have been drinking the typhoid water) they always serve us pig fat but call it meat. These are HUGE chunks of straight fat and we can never tell because it is always super dark by the time we eat. You never know what you’re going to get until you bite into it. I try to keep it off my plate but he always notices and throws huge piece onto my plate.

4. Because I wear knee length skirts I am risquÈ. We were having a talk with the girls last Friday and one of the things they brought up was skirt length for the girls and their uniform and all the sudden one of the teachers was pointing to me and my skirt and repeatedly saying hapana (no), awesome.

5. Kande in Tanzania totes different than candy in America. Kande here is basically a combination of beans and the maize that we feed cows in America. It is not a good combo. I go really excited when the kids told me that for lunch instead of the typical ugali and beans that we were having kande, but nope instead it was food that in America would be fit for the livestock. It was not a good experience (although I did learn that a banana leaf makes a great spoon). Now all the kids laugh at me when I ask wahts for lunch and I say sipendi kande sipendi kande (basically I do not like I do not like)

6. I am obsessed with bongo flava. Look it up, the music videos will crack you up

Until next time

Things I learned this week:

1. Never underestimate how good having truly clean hair can make you feel.

2. You can meet some great characters riding in the front of a lorry (semi) for 5 hours.

3. cooked rice in a plastic bag is totally acceptable take out

4. plastic bags are called Rambos, after Rambo (some of them even have his picture on them) but pronounced lambos. I had been super confused by the whole concept until this week.

5. two grown men walking down the street holding hands...nothing gay about it, they are just friends, guys hold hands all the time here. I love it.

6. Calendars make perfect wall decorations. Pretty much all the houses/ establishments here have calendars covering the walls the most curious things about it is that none of them seem to be from 2011. Most are from 2005 and before but some go way back to the 80's, I still do not get why they think its cool.

7. showing dead bodies on TV is totes fine.

September has arrived and I am struck by how fast time is actually flying here. Yes some days I still end up questioning why they heck i got myself into this situation but more often than not the days present me with experiences that I know I will cherish the rest of my life. I still miss America and all my friends and family way to much but I am learning to deal/manage here in Tanzania. Case in point this past weekend i was trying to go to Mbeya to eat some pizza, take a warm shower with running water, put pictures on my blog, and watch TV. Of those things i only accomplished two of the things, and it took me ten hours to get there and ten hours to get home. Mbeya is only 100 kilometers from my town there is no reason it should have taken that long, but hey I had an experience. I got to meet the guy who drives the minibus, Georges (we are real tight now) family, AND i got to ride in the front of a lorry with two Tanzanian nuns who spoke Italian, i mean really where else can I have an experience like that?

This week was also the EID holiday, which is the end of Ramadan. In our village it is about 99% Christian but apparently it is a national holiday, so Monday at 3 pm our headmaster informed us that we may not have school the next two days depending on if the moon rises. That is how things work here you find out the day before if there will be a holiday. Incidentally i was also informed this week that the midterm break our students are supposed to get in two weeks we actually are not going to be getting until October...Awesome, but that's a different story. Anyway the moon did not rise Monday night and we went to school Tuesday to find only 40 students it was pretty much a worthless week.

The beginning of September also marks the end of the harvesting in Isoko which means a big celebration. Today I went to the celebration that entailed traditional dancing and drumming. It was really cool to see all the dancing and drumming but then one of the students who was standing by me informed me of the history of the event. He told me that all of the people who were doing the drumming were drunkards and all the ever did was bang their drums and drink all day. Tonight they will be drinking all night and the party will continue until tomorrow. The celebration is supposed to happen every Saturday until October, I guess it is their version of Oktoberfest? Oh and he also told me it was a pegan ritual, to go in and do the dancing, after my roommate was drug into the dancing area. Gotta love it.

Oh yeah and in honor of the first razorback game this weekend i taught my kids how to call the hogs..It was a sight that of course i got on video and they will be made to repeat every game week.