Back in Dodoma

The latest from my journal :) Enjoy!

April 17

The last week at Riverside was a good week and I am now back in Dodoma. I am going to miss the girls though. So here I am sitting on the Veranda at Albert and Tiffanies’ enjoying having a house to myself and listening to the music from the church over yonder. I arrived yesterday around 6pm and Musa and Pendo picked me up and we went to Pendo's house for dinner. Don was there as well and it was good to see him. Dinner was wonderful and I so enjoyed the company and the food.  After a few hours Musa drove me to the house. It was weird coming here because Hilda is not here as was planned. Then to top off the night there was no water! So I said to heck with it all and went to bed in the main bedroom. Before going to sleep I said a prayer, asking for water so I could clean and do laundry today.

I am so glad that God listens to me sometimes as the water came on around 7am. So like a good little girl I got up and started cleaning and doing laundry. (Although I get to cheat a bit because they have a washing machine). By 8:30am I had finished 2 loads of laundry and it out to dry, washed dishes and swept the floor. The house feels better now that I have done some cleaning and I feel better too.

I must say I like having my own place and space. Then I can also have a garden and do some seed increases for work.

On Friday, my last day with the SIL group at Riverside was a very good day with lots of laughter. We had a cultural excursion into town to meet with a couple Masai who talked about their culture and way  of life. It was very interesting and is defiantly a culture I do not agree with. To begin with, they still do female and male circumcision. The girls at 15 and the boys at 20. They are also a very proud and warlike tribe and will not hesitate to fight. Their way of life regarding cattle grazing is also very unsustainable and environmentally destructive. For a Masai man to be considered wealthy he needs at least 1000 cattle! That is a huge amount of cattle to be grazing! Their's seems to consist mainly of meat, milk and blood. Not a very well rounded diet in my opinion.

Ronit had a necklace chosen for her by the Masai man. To put it in her words, “He gently place the chosen necklace around my ivory neck”. She is so dramatic, but entertaining. Life would be quiet and most likely a little dull without her around camp.

Then that evening we had a chocolate fondue for dessert! ‘Daisy’ brought lots of chocolate with her from home. I couldn’t think of a better way to end the day! We had a lot of fun and lots of laughs.

Later in the Day

Sitting on the veranda in the afternoon listening to the music from next door :) and hoping I can get my internet to work. I have been having a good but busy day. But despite that I can’t believe its only 3:50pm! It feels like it should be so much later than that. And I forgot how much warmer it is here. I have been warm all day. I have done 4 loads of laundry, ironed some of it so I don’t have to worry about the mango fly maggot, and went to make coconut milk but the coconuts were rotten. Walked around and found a vender just done the road to get some tomatoes and oranges (they had slim pickings and I was not going to be fussy).

 April 18^th

I had a great day again today. Spent a quite morning on the veranda reading, reviewing a little Kiswahili checking email and so on. Musa stopped by around 11am to get the truck as he was taking one of the Mama’s to visit her sister at the hospital.

When Musa came back we went to the market so I could get food for the week. I so enjoy Musa’s company. It was good to shop for the first time with a local because now I have an idea of how much things cost. The fruit is much more expensive here compared to Iringa. That is because most of it is not grown here and is brought in from other areas of the country. We also stopped by Two Sisters so I could pick up a few expat items J Then the icing on the cake...

Half way home Musa pulled over and said “Time for you to drive” or something along those lines. And amazingly I did not stall the truck once (nor was I close to stalling it)! It felt so good to drive again and have control. We both had a good laugh though when I went to signal and turned the wipers on instead. Lol Need to remember that the signal switch is on the opposite side, just like almost everything else. Thank goodness the gas, brakes and clutch are all in the same spot. Could you imagine how confusing that would be if they were switched like everything else? Gongshow!!

I need to back up to Saturday as I have not talked about my bus trip back to Dodoma. It was much better than my trip down to Iringa and did not hurt quite so much. I also have another boyfriend! I have got to figure out to talk to men without them thinking that I will be their girlfriend. I now there is a cultural issue as it is not normal for a guy and girl to be friends here. Only relationships are accepted. So very different from back home. At first I thought things were going to be okay with Philimon, but then I got a text from him at 1am last night asking if I would be his girlfriend and he misses and loves me very much. I think this is normal for here, but man does it ever creep me out! But at least I most likely will never run into him as it is a big town. But if he does happen to see me he will remember me even if I don’t remember him. But I am not worried about that J

April 20^th

So far work has been good. Spent the last 2 days either at the church or in the field. There has been a lot of work completed so far but there is still a ways to go. The terracing and tree planting at the 3 new sites is completed and they are getting close to being finished with digging in preparation for the dam. It was wonderful to see the group at Kawawa as they are very hardworking, happy, energetic and they are the ones who named me Mavua (rain woman). I love going there as I feel so comfortable with that group and actually try to speak Kiswahili with them.

Today was the first time I ate ugali in the village with everyone else. I must be honest here. I do not mind the ugali but the mboga (vegetables) that go with it make me want to gag L It has this gooey consistency and is so hard to swallow. There is nothing wrong with flavour though and I will have to force myself to eat it as it would break their hearts if I said no.

Yesterday I drove home from the villages. Again it felt good J I must admit I was quite nervous, almost scared as we were coming up to the city. There is a lot more traffic in the city and I also had a vehicle full of co-workers.  But I managed just fine and everyone said I did a good job and that I am allowed to drive again! Lol It also helps that Musa is a good Mwalimu and gives good directions and advice.

I forgot to mention earlier that I have been cooking for the last few days and it is nice to be able to cook what I want. It is hard to believe that I have not cooked since January!