"Orange Juice on Steroids"

Translation: Passionfruit (Roger’s explanation…keep reading for more!)



Monday Feb 4th


Today marked exactly half-way to my 22nd Birthday this summer!!!! :)
It was a wonderful day!

Sister Paulette started off with an excellent devotion on Psalm 139 (“you knit me together in my mother’s womb…”) and explained that this part of scripture describes her life story, as she feels everyone probably has a verse, or passage that may describe their life story… because she said that her parents already had 5 children and did NOT want anymore, so when her mother got pregnant with Paulette she took some kind of pill to kill the fetus but it didn’t work…she took many pills, but as Paulette said, “God wanted me to be born…there was a purpose for my life, just as there is a purpose for every human being’s life.” So, she was born, and is now a nun originally from the Philippines, but also living in Arusha-Northern Tanzania. She is also completely “normal” as far as I know. She was nervous, but one couldn’t tell. I thought she was brave for sharing and for even singing us a little song in her sweetly soft, and quiet voice!!

At 8am we began classes. Eliza is my teacher this week. She is very tall and thin and I thought she was like 18…turns out she is 25!! She has completed Form 1-6 and was able to be sponsored by a couple different people, but at 25 she still cannot attend a local university (for undergrad study) because she does not have anyone helping her. Anyway, her English is also excellent and that helps as of course, nothing changes as I get more and more lessons under my belt…each new lesson brings up new vocabulary and especially new verbs and that leads me to ask questions about how the words relate to the culture… I struggled with learning the time, however (and still very much do)! The Swahili clock is different…for example if someone says (in swahili): I will meet you at saa nne (time of 4)…it is actually 10am. One has to look at a clock face and the actual number is opposite: so 9 and 3, 12 and 6, etc… goodness it’s confusing- especially adding how to say a quarter after or a quarter less… anyway, she is very patient and understanding as I sit in my chair struggling to speak 3rd grade Swahili!! :)
As I’ve mentioned before, the workers are very friendly! Yesterday, I was able to talk to a couple as I finally know their names. Shedrach, he is always doing landscaping by our rooms, and the dining room so I pass him everyday before and after meals! And Eric~he is just so cute- haha. He normally works at the “gate” out front. It’s like one of those arms that you have to go through at parking ramps and he has to lift it up for cars so with Pastor Hafermann I am going through frequently, and since day one, he gives this big smile and the thumbs up sign!! :) Yesterday he caught me going to lunch and said hello my white friend!! And then he taught me another word- slang I believe for white person…except I have forgotten already so I will get back to you on that one! They just put a smile on my face and enlighten my heart with their kindness. They (along with most people in this area, and really, the country) really do CARE about how one is doing…as in America we just say “hello, how are you?” and keep walking (most of the time).
I suppose I should give an update on the new students!!

I mentioned one American family from Ohio. Julie and Roger are the parents (that I really enjoy), and they have 3 kinds: Emily~12, Amy~7, Josiah~6.

The other American Family is from Illinois (Chicago) and the parents are Randy and Carol and get this, they also have 3 kids that match up almost perfectly with the other family!! Megan~14, Marissa~12, Nathan~10/11. It may not seem close in ages, but Marissa has down syndrome and looks like she is about 8 (and is the same height as Amy). Nathan is so short for his age that he’s not much bigger than 6 yr. old Josiah!! They all make great companions for one another! (Both families home-school also)!

Here’s the difference: Randy and Carol’s family has been living in Northern Tanzania (close to Arusha) for the past year and a half as Randy and Carol are both music teachers and they have developed the very first Bachelor of Music degree at their University (and the first in the entire country as well!!!) So, they all know quite a bit of Swahili, even Megan and Nathan, but as Megan tells me, “Yeah, but I learned it all from the market so it’s mostly slang- I don’t know the grammar!” She is an extremely bright, affable, independent girl. Her younger brother, Nathan, is also incredibly smart. Both of these children have passed their parents up in the Lesson book!!


The Norwegian family living at the other end of my block- Chelsea and Lars are the parents, and their children are Simon and Lea. He is about 4-5 I think I mentioned and Lea is adorable and about 3!

There is a Korean couple but I don’t think they speak any English and they just started learning Swahili…they pretty much keep to themselves though.


Continuing with Monday! After class at 4 we went to afternoon tea/snack break and then Sofia and I were going to take the Dala Dala to town, but Chelsea offered to drive us as she and Lars have a car!!! Roger and Julie wanted to come to town as well just to check out the surroundings and get their feet wet. We had about an hour before we needed to be back for dinner so we checked out a couple shops and then went to the market (it was actually my first time to the market in town)! It’s probably just as you would imagine- many stands of food: different beans/seeds, LOTS of fruit, clothing, some tables of dead tiny minnows piled high (awful-smelling as we passed by)… Since Sofia has been here 6 months already she has been to town and to the market many times…and since she’s white, people obviously remember her too… so all 5 of us are walking through the market and about 6 different guys say hello to Sofia and they love to do “knuckles” so all 5 of us gave knuckles to many different guys!! Sofia bargained for a large wicker basket for Chelsea (was 1.50), and then Sofia also bargained for an avocado for herself and for a bag of passion fruit…there had to be at least 15-20 passionfruit in one bag and it started at 2000 Shillings, but she bought it for either 1.00 or 1.50!! I have heard of passionfruit and we get the juice here sometimes but I never knew what they looked like! I was shocked to see a bag full of whiteish/yellowish large bouncy ball-like objects… we continued on and found a jewelry shop!!! It was Wonderful and I will definitely be going back as we were on a time crunch… I just love the cow bone necklaces and earrings and beaded bracelets! I wanted a pair of earrings and they were 2000 shillings- Sofia talked to the woman in swahili and then all I had to do was say, elfu moja mia tano= 1500 shillings and she said ok. I had given her a paper 1000, and then I only had a 5000 or 10000 which of course I didn’t want to have to bring out and make change for so as I kept digging she said it’s ok… therefore I paid a grand total of $1 for them!!

It was pretty fun being the only 2 that knew any Swahili out of the 5 of us…so it was a little role reversal as these 3 adults were dependent on us to get around!!

The last place we stopped was the supermarket…we’re getting to be regulars (at least once a week)! I wanted some apples and some instant coffee powder (from Kilimanjaro! It’s the best kind)!! I also wanted some more of those vanilla wafer cookies with chocolate in the middle! It’s my one guilty pleasure!! Also, after picking up about 5 things off Sister Annette’s list I bought a carton of plain vanilla ice cream as we (Sisters, myself, MeeHa,) have been planning on celebrating moving onto book two for the past week and a half!!! We drove back and Sofia rushed the ice cream to her refrigerator and we went to dinner. Then after dinner, we sat outside of Sofias room and dished out bowls of delicious vanilla ice cream!!! Although I will move on to book two late tomorrow or early Thursday we also celebrated my Half-Birthday!! :)

Ice Cream has never tasted SO good before!!! It was an excellent treat!

About 7:20pm I came back to my room and had some e-mailing to catch up on as e-mail hadn’t been working for a day and a half, and then I spent the next couple of hours writing yesterday’s blog!


**For the further explanation on the title and for those that have never seen/tasted passionfruit before: at dinner, we had Passionfruit for the first time since I’ve been here (which is about 4 weeks)! I sat with Megan and Emily (the two oldest girls) and Megan was saying how much she enjoyed the fruit as she cut it in half for me and showed me the inside…she said, “I like it, but some people don’t because they think they are eating little bugs.” I was like greaaaat, that really makes me want to eat this now… it is extremely tart naturally so usually people put some sugar on it (which I did). At different times during dinner people would eat it, and some, like Nathan, just inhaled his in 2 spoon-fulls! Megan kept pushing Emily to try it and she relented, but ended up loving it! Then I hear Roger say, “oh my gosh, it’s like orange juice on steroids, whoa!” He made a good face at the tartness! I waited until the end of the meal and the more I looked at the inside the more I was grossed out… it reminded me of fish eggs…or tadpole eggs…or something?!! There are little gooy yellowish/orangeish/clearish balls with tiny black crunchy seeds inside…so when you cut open this tiny fruit one gets two halves of a spoonful of goo on both sides! Well, needless to say I tried a small bit on my spoon, and the texture was a little weird going down, but I enjoyed the tartness and wished I wouldn’t have put sugar on it! I think I was used to it somewhat after having Passionfruit juice so much (although it’s sweetened a lot)!

Wishing a good day to all!

remembering His promises,
Alana :)