I could only add these couple pictures as it would not let me add any others :( I promise to keep trying!!!
I took this out the back of the car...the tertiary "road" we just went through!
The Maasai man that rode with us-Paulo (I think) leading us through the road turned river Friday February 1st
Happy February!!!!
What a day, what a day… after morning devo I finished up some e-mail business and we left at 9:10am for another village! Godfrey (my teacher) sat up front with Pastor Hafermann so Nicole (from Germany) and I sat behind them. We chatted for awhile and I tried to do a little studying on my own. It did not take very long to get there as we took Primary road almost the entire way until the end when we had maybe about a ½ to a full mile of Tertiary road so it was not bumpy for too long! We arrived about 10:40am (the earliest we’ve been to a village so far)! I’m thinking, great, we arrived early, now everything will be done earlier…of course I should know better!!! :)
The four of us get nice plastic lawn chairs to sit on with a small table but after only 10 minutes we follow PH to go look at all the cattle under a tree nearby. I found out today that every single cow is named (and this is how they tell each household’s cattle in the village)…now, usually this is about 25-50 cattle at least but sometimes the herd can be as large as 100 and they still name every single one and know the “personalities” of them as well… I was thankful for Godfrey as he was able to translate most of the time…the Maasai, remember have their own language: kiiMaasai, which is very difficult, however, while we were looking at cattle (pretty much just going to the bathroom the whole 10-15 minutes we stood there) a Maasai man and some young children- boys about 8 or 9 and a few younger were standing near us. Godfrey said the man was talking to the children and commenting about how we are very different people in this world, but yet we all still live in the same world…something like that! Then he touched my hair and was holding some up to show the children, but they backed away and then I was like, no-its ok, they can touch it if they want so I held some out to them but they giggled and backed away even further and Godfrey said they were afraid of my hair!!!! Crazy!
About 11:30 or so it was time for the first “sacrament” as PH calls it: chai! And we even had chapati (like a soft tortilla shell)!!! Also, some small pieces of meat that Nicole and I didn’t feel like eating in the morning…I had 2 mugs of the chai…it’s one of my favorite parts of going to the villages- the ginger they put in it just adds so much zip! Haha. There was the native Tanzanian pastor that I met last week that joined us as well as two teachers at the school in the village. They knew English pretty well so they were asking me questions about Minnesota(the Midwest in general). I told them that it is below zero during this time of year and one of the teachers said, what if I come there- how will I live?? It was quite funny! I said you must wear a lot of clothes, and that we have heat in our houses! One of them was confused and thought I lived in Canada, although I already said I was from America and Canada is a whole different country…hmmm. They also were curious to know about a Bachelor’s degree and if we had to take a big final test to graduate (like I will in May). Well, then the next 1.5 hours was just spent sitting and listening to the conversation around me… I understand at least the topic of conversations now at least, and some people are easier to understand as they articulate better (like PH)! I know that the U.S. presidential election was talked about as one cannot mistake “Obama” and “Clinton!” Also, the men shared different stories about Swahili proverbs and snakes!
Finally about 1:30pm Godfrey and I went to study a little bit as PH registered for baptisms, except we got maybe 30 minutes in as we were ready for the service to begin at 2pm and I kept asking PH if he were serious because it seemed WAY to early! But there were only 4 baptisms as this was a mainly Christian village already! Some of the Maasai men cut some bushes so there was more space to sit under an alcove of small trees. The number of Swahili hymnals with the songs and liturgy is down to about 4 and typically a service has about the same number of singers since the Maasai generally do not know the songs. A group of 9 young Maasai girls (ages 7-12?) did a couple songs for us… I love when there is either a girls or mens choir~ it is so wonderful! :)
I could see clouds coming in as PH was starting the baptisms and then he gave a short sermon and then started the communion portion…well, right as the first group went up for communion the rain started…and this time it just POURED. Nicole, Godfrey and myself were huddled under a small tree with some other Maasai women but it did nothing. The Maasai women were smiling and laughing (we were too though), because this village has needed rain very badly!! We went up for communion, and then the rest was a whirlwind as someone set a bowl on a chair and people went to put some money in for the offering. I dropped some coins in and PH said a prayer and everyone dispersed…us to the car! We were completely soaked to the bone!! It did feel pretty good though as it was nice and cooling/refreshing once we were in the car. We waited about 10 minutes and then we drove a couple hundred feet to a building of the school because they didn’t want us to leave without eating of course! Always being honorary/special guests is tough work ;)
For about 20 minutes we waited inside and eventually about 10-15 or so Maasai men came in to eat as well. We stood around and shivered for a bit and then slowly our nice plastic lawn chairs and the table was brought in. We got to use spoons as we ate our rice, with a little bit of goat meat and a topping of potatoes and a buttery tomato sauce! Yum! And we could have soda if we wanted, but today I was SO thankful that they brought in more hot chai for us… not only do I adore this drink, it was also warm as it was probably my first time actually being a bit cold here!!! :)
After we ate we took some photos with a few of the Maasai men and of them as they loved to see themselves of course! Then when were getting ready to leave about 5pm a couple men stopped me at the door to ask me a couple questions about what I am doing here in Tanzania then I went to the car, except Nicole said this man wants a picture with you, and this one also! Haha the first man (is wearing blue) and he had this long wooden dowel in his hand and he gave it to me to hold…I am not sure what the stick is used for…but I felt pretty special!!
Nicole and I had to sit in the very back as we brought two Maasai men with us to drop off and a young 17/18 yr. old 6-month pregnant girl that we brought to the hospital in town. She had already lost one baby and they wanted to make sure she didn’t lose another so PH said he would bring her to the hospital where she could stay for a couple days to get better as she had a terrible cough (possibly TB). Nicole asked PH who pays, and PH said that he does. Whenever he picks someone up to bring them somewhere, he pays for them. The hospital was about 1500 shillings per day (remember: approx 1100 shilings= $1).
Nicole and I had a nice chat about the new work opportunities that arose for her here in Tanzania as she can not go back to her base in Kenya because it is not safe. She is in Africa for 9 months as part of her Masters and I keep forgetting that she is a doctor- delivers babies, does C-sections, etc. She is 31 but looks younger, and she paid me a compliment by thinking I was 24 (like Olivia)!! :)
We wanted to beat the rain as Nicole had clothes drying outside, but even though the sky was very dark and it was thundering it never actually rained in Morogoro. It was about 6:45pm when we returned and I sat outside looking through some of the Swahili hymns for a while, then eventually decided I had better shower and get into something dry! I studied some and started to journal before deciding that I was exhausted!
*Nicole and Andrea left today :( but there are about 14 new people coming this weekend as the Long Course in Swahili starts on Tuesday I believe. The long course students only study one lesson all day, so they are here for at least two months min.
*I have neighbors! At the other end of my block is a family of 4 (and another adult male but I don’t think he lives with them…). They are from Norway- Lars and Chelsea (the parents) speak good English, but their two small children (a boy about 6 and a girl 3 or 4~ both super blonde!) don’t speak any I believe. I was actually getting used to the sort of peaceful block (although the common room block is right behind me so I hear the TV going at night, and people talking…), and these kids aren’t the most quiet! I guess you’ll have that! I am excited to see who else comes though!
That’s all for now!!
Usiku Mwema (Goodnight)!
with joy,
Alana :)
Happy February!!!!
What a day, what a day… after morning devo I finished up some e-mail business and we left at 9:10am for another village! Godfrey (my teacher) sat up front with Pastor Hafermann so Nicole (from Germany) and I sat behind them. We chatted for awhile and I tried to do a little studying on my own. It did not take very long to get there as we took Primary road almost the entire way until the end when we had maybe about a ½ to a full mile of Tertiary road so it was not bumpy for too long! We arrived about 10:40am (the earliest we’ve been to a village so far)! I’m thinking, great, we arrived early, now everything will be done earlier…of course I should know better!!! :)
The four of us get nice plastic lawn chairs to sit on with a small table but after only 10 minutes we follow PH to go look at all the cattle under a tree nearby. I found out today that every single cow is named (and this is how they tell each household’s cattle in the village)…now, usually this is about 25-50 cattle at least but sometimes the herd can be as large as 100 and they still name every single one and know the “personalities” of them as well… I was thankful for Godfrey as he was able to translate most of the time…the Maasai, remember have their own language: kiiMaasai, which is very difficult, however, while we were looking at cattle (pretty much just going to the bathroom the whole 10-15 minutes we stood there) a Maasai man and some young children- boys about 8 or 9 and a few younger were standing near us. Godfrey said the man was talking to the children and commenting about how we are very different people in this world, but yet we all still live in the same world…something like that! Then he touched my hair and was holding some up to show the children, but they backed away and then I was like, no-its ok, they can touch it if they want so I held some out to them but they giggled and backed away even further and Godfrey said they were afraid of my hair!!!! Crazy!
About 11:30 or so it was time for the first “sacrament” as PH calls it: chai! And we even had chapati (like a soft tortilla shell)!!! Also, some small pieces of meat that Nicole and I didn’t feel like eating in the morning…I had 2 mugs of the chai…it’s one of my favorite parts of going to the villages- the ginger they put in it just adds so much zip! Haha. There was the native Tanzanian pastor that I met last week that joined us as well as two teachers at the school in the village. They knew English pretty well so they were asking me questions about Minnesota(the Midwest in general). I told them that it is below zero during this time of year and one of the teachers said, what if I come there- how will I live?? It was quite funny! I said you must wear a lot of clothes, and that we have heat in our houses! One of them was confused and thought I lived in Canada, although I already said I was from America and Canada is a whole different country…hmmm. They also were curious to know about a Bachelor’s degree and if we had to take a big final test to graduate (like I will in May). Well, then the next 1.5 hours was just spent sitting and listening to the conversation around me… I understand at least the topic of conversations now at least, and some people are easier to understand as they articulate better (like PH)! I know that the U.S. presidential election was talked about as one cannot mistake “Obama” and “Clinton!” Also, the men shared different stories about Swahili proverbs and snakes!
Finally about 1:30pm Godfrey and I went to study a little bit as PH registered for baptisms, except we got maybe 30 minutes in as we were ready for the service to begin at 2pm and I kept asking PH if he were serious because it seemed WAY to early! But there were only 4 baptisms as this was a mainly Christian village already! Some of the Maasai men cut some bushes so there was more space to sit under an alcove of small trees. The number of Swahili hymnals with the songs and liturgy is down to about 4 and typically a service has about the same number of singers since the Maasai generally do not know the songs. A group of 9 young Maasai girls (ages 7-12?) did a couple songs for us… I love when there is either a girls or mens choir~ it is so wonderful! :)
I could see clouds coming in as PH was starting the baptisms and then he gave a short sermon and then started the communion portion…well, right as the first group went up for communion the rain started…and this time it just POURED. Nicole, Godfrey and myself were huddled under a small tree with some other Maasai women but it did nothing. The Maasai women were smiling and laughing (we were too though), because this village has needed rain very badly!! We went up for communion, and then the rest was a whirlwind as someone set a bowl on a chair and people went to put some money in for the offering. I dropped some coins in and PH said a prayer and everyone dispersed…us to the car! We were completely soaked to the bone!! It did feel pretty good though as it was nice and cooling/refreshing once we were in the car. We waited about 10 minutes and then we drove a couple hundred feet to a building of the school because they didn’t want us to leave without eating of course! Always being honorary/special guests is tough work ;)
For about 20 minutes we waited inside and eventually about 10-15 or so Maasai men came in to eat as well. We stood around and shivered for a bit and then slowly our nice plastic lawn chairs and the table was brought in. We got to use spoons as we ate our rice, with a little bit of goat meat and a topping of potatoes and a buttery tomato sauce! Yum! And we could have soda if we wanted, but today I was SO thankful that they brought in more hot chai for us… not only do I adore this drink, it was also warm as it was probably my first time actually being a bit cold here!!! :)
After we ate we took some photos with a few of the Maasai men and of them as they loved to see themselves of course! Then when were getting ready to leave about 5pm a couple men stopped me at the door to ask me a couple questions about what I am doing here in Tanzania then I went to the car, except Nicole said this man wants a picture with you, and this one also! Haha the first man (is wearing blue) and he had this long wooden dowel in his hand and he gave it to me to hold…I am not sure what the stick is used for…but I felt pretty special!!
Nicole and I had to sit in the very back as we brought two Maasai men with us to drop off and a young 17/18 yr. old 6-month pregnant girl that we brought to the hospital in town. She had already lost one baby and they wanted to make sure she didn’t lose another so PH said he would bring her to the hospital where she could stay for a couple days to get better as she had a terrible cough (possibly TB). Nicole asked PH who pays, and PH said that he does. Whenever he picks someone up to bring them somewhere, he pays for them. The hospital was about 1500 shillings per day (remember: approx 1100 shilings= $1).
Nicole and I had a nice chat about the new work opportunities that arose for her here in Tanzania as she can not go back to her base in Kenya because it is not safe. She is in Africa for 9 months as part of her Masters and I keep forgetting that she is a doctor- delivers babies, does C-sections, etc. She is 31 but looks younger, and she paid me a compliment by thinking I was 24 (like Olivia)!! :)
We wanted to beat the rain as Nicole had clothes drying outside, but even though the sky was very dark and it was thundering it never actually rained in Morogoro. It was about 6:45pm when we returned and I sat outside looking through some of the Swahili hymns for a while, then eventually decided I had better shower and get into something dry! I studied some and started to journal before deciding that I was exhausted!
*Nicole and Andrea left today :( but there are about 14 new people coming this weekend as the Long Course in Swahili starts on Tuesday I believe. The long course students only study one lesson all day, so they are here for at least two months min.
*I have neighbors! At the other end of my block is a family of 4 (and another adult male but I don’t think he lives with them…). They are from Norway- Lars and Chelsea (the parents) speak good English, but their two small children (a boy about 6 and a girl 3 or 4~ both super blonde!) don’t speak any I believe. I was actually getting used to the sort of peaceful block (although the common room block is right behind me so I hear the TV going at night, and people talking…), and these kids aren’t the most quiet! I guess you’ll have that! I am excited to see who else comes though!
That’s all for now!!
Usiku Mwema (Goodnight)!
with joy,
Alana :)
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