Praises to God for Babies

To get up to Mama Macha’s house on the side of Mt. Kilimanjaro a neighbor, Justin picked us up in his land rover. It was quite a site to be seen, ten “muzungu” standing in the back of a pick up truck. Justin is a engineer living on the mountain, but works down the village of Mori. Everyday he picks people up in his truck on the way down the mountain. Justin is a long time family friend with Mama Macha and may even be related in some Tanzanian way. Three weeks ago his wife gave birth to their fifth child, a little girl. Justin forgot to tell Mama Macha about the extension to the family because the day after her birth, Justin’s brother was murdered by the wife.(This was the second generation in which the wife killed the husband.) Mama Macha said that it had something to with thoughts of witchcraft.
Today we went to visit Justin’s wife, new baby, and bring a small gift. We were given a warm welcome and all allowed to hold the baby girl, who was adorable!! The mom was so excited we were there, it even brought tears to her eyes she even had to call Justin at work to let him know that we came to visit. Later when Justin came to drop some other girls off at Mama Macha’s house he was praising God and jumping up and down because we went to visit his family. This was very confusing for me because I did not understand why he was so excited. When I asked Mama Macha why he was so happy she asked me, “How many houses have you walked by with out stopping in?” It all made sense, to me visiting was something that you just do, but for Justin and his family to have all of us visit was something very very special. It has really made me understand Tanzanian hospitality a little bit more. I thought it was just a tradition, but Justin has shown me that they are really truly happy to have us.

To be continued . . . Stayed tune to next entries that will have more exciting entries about our week in Mori on the side of Mt. Kilimajaro, a comparison of different tribes; differences in rural villages and Dar es Salaam, hopefully classes starting, and my personal journey.

Being healthy for the first time in a long time

The strangest part about it all is that I am healthier over here than I have been at home in a long time. I am getting eight hours of sleep, running every morning, eating three healthy meals a day and drinking lots of water. Not to mention how emotionally and spiritually healthy I feel right now. I have been stereotyped before people have gotten to know me, and eventually I became the person everyone assumed that I was. I lost my own personality in, education classes, Residential Life, teaching Sunday school, and being a day care teacher. I love participating in those activities, but with them come the responsibility of living a life in a fish bowl. I’ve always been a role model and sometimes the pressure of having to do the right thing gets to be too hard. I feel like everyone is looking at me watching everything that I do waiting for me to make a mistake. It feels so good not to worry about any of that. Over here in Tanzania I have gotten a fresh start where I get to rediscover who Wendy Nelson truly is. I am no longer the little girl who worried about making everyone else happy and follow the guidelines other people have placed in my life. I still have the same morals and I am still the same person, I just no longer am going to concern myself with worrying about the person that I thought that I had to be. I am now the person I want to be, strong, independent, compassionate, and hard working. As my friend from home said, “When you come home you will be healthy and have you own personality.” I am finally becoming the individual I want to be rather than the person my peers have made me become.

The Dirtiter You Get the Cleaner You Feel

I’ve never been more thankful for running water than this weekend. The water went out on Thursday night and did not come back on till Sunday afternoon. This would not have been a big deal at all, but unfortunately I was sick at the time. So we were not able to shower or flush toilets. Drinking water was okay because I ended up buying some because since I had been sick I did not want to take a chance with just boiling water, I wanted to make sure that it was really clean. At home I would never go a week without showering, or wear clothing more than one day. I thought it would be a little difficult for me over here with shortages on water, but I am fitting in just fine! My hair is actually healthier and growing faster, since I am not washing it everyday. I forget about all the little things at home that I took for granted. Things like being able to flush a toilet, take a shower, and even the lights. They are things that I thought were necessities, but I am starting to learn how to live with out them. It is going to be so strange going home and having electricity everyday and water.

Tukuyu and around

3 September 2008

Tukuyu and around

The day started with Stacey and I trying to go for a run, but not being able to get out of the compound/hotel where we were staying because they had locked all the gates. It made me feel good that we were secure, but we were not able to get out. Our run through town was okay, there were a lot of people already out and about, we had a lot of people cheering for us as we ran by, which was fun. Before we left for the day Stacey and I went to the market to buy some bananas to take with us, and usually they are 100 shilling a piece so we were just going to get 5 bananas 500 shillings, right . . .wrong. We couldn’t understand what the woman was trying to tell us so I told Stacey just to give her the 500 and see how many bananas we got. Well we got bananas . . . we got 18 bananas to be exact and they were not the little bananas they were the full size bananas.

Our plan for the day was to go south and see Lake Nyasa and then on our way back make it to some waterfalls. The guide book made it sound like it would be really easy. To get to Lake Nyasa hop on a Dahladahla to Kyela and walk south until you run into water. It ended up not being so easy . . . we got off in Kyela and started heading south until some guy asked us where we were going so we told him and we were going the wrong direction, so we got directions and asked how far it was. It ended up only being about a 5-8km walk so we decided to walk down to the lake and then depending on time either walk back or catch a Dahladahla back to Kyela. We started walking again and were walking for about 45 min when someone else asked us where we were going and we told them and he started laughing telling us we still had 5km to go. At this point in time we were tired and hot, so we decided to turn around go back to Kyela and get some lunch and then catch a taxi down to the lake. (There were no Dalahdalahs from Kyela to the lake) We finally made it back, ate lunch at the Steak Inn where we both ordered rice and beans. It was one in the afternoon by the time we were done with lunch so we decided just to head north and try to make it to the waterfalls.

To get to the waterfalls according to the guide book take the Dalahdalah get of at a certain stop and rent a bike and bike 12km to the falls. This sounded pretty fun and we were ready for a bike ride. We got off at the right stop and walked around town asking about a place to rent a bike. To our great disappointment there were no bikes to rent. At this point in time Stacey and I were tired and very very disappointed. We decided to go back to Tukuyu and try to rent a taxi from there. Soon as we had made the decisions, two guys came and asked us if we needed a bike and we were like YES!!! So they went and got two bikes, got on the bikes and told us to get on the back. We have seen this done all through the small towns in the highlands. People can not afford a car so they get on a bike. Now I would have never ever gotten on, but I was so disappointed that we didn’t make it to the lake and not knowing if we were going to make it to the falls we agreed. This ended up being a good thing because even if we were able to find out own bikes there were so many roads to take and then you have to get off the bikes and walk over a river and through some fields where we would have never been able to find it on our own. I am very thankful to our tour guides.

When we finally got back to our hotel in Tukuyu we met back up with Siri, Liz, and Sara so that three of us could hike Mount Rungwe the next day.

4 September 2008

Tukuyu

I just climbed Mount Rungwe the third highest peak in Tanzania!! It was a tough climb and I kept thinking about how proud my Dad would be. I was so proud of myself for making it to the top. It was a four hour and forty five minuet climb to the summit and three hours down. The way up was so hard, it was at a 30 to 45 degree incline the entire time, but well worth it. We were dropped off at the bottom and had to hike through some tea, potato fields. Then we entered the rainforest at the bottom of the mountain. As we started working our way up it changed from a rainforest to a forest and later on into a bamboo forest. It was so interesting how fast the geology of the area changed. Unfortunately when we made it to the top we were in a cloud so we were unable to see even 10 yards in front of us, but it was still an amazing feeling knowing that I made it to the top. Michael our guide showed us to the edge of the crater so we could see inside of the volcano, but since it was so cloudy we couldn’t see in and it just looked like we were standing on the edge of a cliff. So we gave him a hard time and told him that we didn’t believe him it was a volcano. He told us we could hike down into it, but that was another 3 hour hike down and 5 to get back out . . . we quickly decided to believe him after that. My legs would not allow me to hike uphill anymore.

After we got back to the hotel and met up with the two girls who decided not to climb the mountain we all went out to dinner at the only restaurant in town besides our hotel. I had a typical Tanzanian meal of ugali and beans. Ugali is kind of like cream of wheat just really really stiff. Most Tanzanians eat ugali with their hands. The waiter brought it out without a spoon and left to get some other people’s food. I was so hungry that I started to pick at the edge with my fingers. When the waiter came back he was like “Ahh you are a Tanzanian you know how to eat ugali!” and then to his disappointment I asked him for a spoon. During dinner all the power and lights throughout the city were shut off so we got to enjoy the rest of our dinner by candle light.

Iringa!

30 August 2008

Dar es Salaam to Iringa

Today we started the nest leg of our journey in Tanzania, our independent travel. I am still finding it hard to believe that we are starting travel. It feels like just yesterday I arrived in Tanzania and was afraid to go buy a banana in the market and today I start traveling. My group which is composed of Liz, Siri, Sara, Stacey and I are headed to Iringa. Iringa is supposedly a six to seven bus hour ride from Dar es Salaam, but due to T.F.T. the ride took nine hours. I thought that it was going to be really long and take forever to get there, but it went surprisingly fast. The bus stopped a few times in order to use the restrooms and get dinner. On our dinner stop we all had a hard time deciding whether or not to get food. We spent so much time in making the decision by the time we got the food it was time to get back on the bus. Luckily, the conductor of the bus realized that he was missing five people . . . we are very hard to miss. The drive was through the mountains and the outskirts of a national park. The mountains were covered in dead trees, which was such a contrast to the green foliage near the river. By the national park we got to see some elephants crossing the road and a few giraffes off in the distance. We arrived in Iringa after the sun had started to set so we had to hurry and find our hotel before it was completely dark. We ended up staying at the Lutheran Center for 5,000 shillings per person a night (roughly $4.50 USD). Since the Rough Guide had been published they renovated so they wanted to charge us 35,000 shillings a night for a room, but the receptionist was very helpful and told us that we should try to bargain with her and we were able to talk her down. I was so surprised at how inexpensive a hotel was. The room was really nice, three big queen sized beds and even warm water.

31 August 2008

Iringa

I am officially turning into a Tanzanian, or so Liz, and Stacey say so. I have this issue of staying awake. I am usually asleep by 9:00pm and get up at 6:30am. This is so different from when I am at home and only get a few hours of sleep a night or staying up till early hours in the morning and not waking up until the afternoon. I really like this new schedule, I feel like I can get more done in a day and overall feel more healthy and happy. I hope that I will be able to continue this when I get back to the United States, but I highly doubt that I will be able to just because the culture is so different. Anyways, the first thing we did this morning was try to find breakfast, this turned into somewhat of a challenge because it was Sunday and a lot of the places in the guide book were closed. We ended up walking around town until we found a Salama café a small cozy café that was open. They served the best chapatti I have had so far during my time in Tanzania. After breakfast we headed to the market, where this time unlike the first time in Arusha, I was not over whelmed and I had a good conversation with one of the vendors about all the different spices and how they were used. We continued walking through the different districts of town. Discovering it was broken up into separate areas for the fruit vendors, fabric, auto/household goods. Iringa reminds me of a small town in the United States it is so welcoming and relaxing. In the afternoon we decided to hike up to Gangilonga rock which is where an old chief used to go and meditate. According to the hand book all you have to do is start walking towards one end of town past the grain silos and you will see it “nestled in between two mountain peaks.” The two mountains ended up being more like hills and the rock was just that . . . a rock. We were not even sure if we were headed to the right rock since nothing is marked with signs, so we just started walking in the direction we thought it was. Impressively we all made it to the top. The only reason why I say this is impressive is because we were all wearing skirts and flip flops. The view from the top was amazing, it looked over the entire town of Iringa. From this point we could see the Iringa was actually nestled into the mountains. We stayed on the top of the rock for a few hours listening to some middle school aged boys rap hit songs in English. It was very random and kind of strange having the different cultures work their way together. Dinner was also an adventure, we kept looking for a certain hotel, but were unable to find it so we ended up at a Mexican/African/Italian eat out of take in restaurant. I ordered chicken curry and after waiting about twenty minuets we heard some squaking coming from the kitchen. All eyes turned on me and Liz since we were the ones who ordered chicken. Needless to say dinner was very fresh and delicious. Rest in peace chicken curry. . .

1 September 2008

Iringa

Stacey and I woke up this morning at 6:30 to go for a run. It was an amazing run!!! We ended up running through the suburbs of Iringa as all the children were heading to school and as the sun was starting to rise. It was a bit chilly because we are in the mountains and further away from Dar es Salaam. Today was the souvenir day, where we spent way to much money buying gifts for other people and ourselves. The prices in Irigna were some of the best that we have seen way better than Arusha. In Arusha it felt like we were getting the tourist prices and here in Iringa it was more of the everyday price. Granted it is still not as cheep as local Tanzanians can get things, but it was more reasonable and as Gemma told us at the Maasai market, “Try to bargain, but remember that extra few shillings means more to them than it does to you.” It does not bother me too much to have to pay a little bit more as long it is not the Muzungu prices and if after having conversations with the shop keepers and getting to know them I have no issue. We were privileged in the afternoon to be able to get a tour at a place called Nemma’s Craft Workshop. It was created with the intention as an outreach program in order to give people with disabilities in the Iringa area a vocation and means of living. They now have people coming from all over Tanzania who want to be part of this project. If someone has a disability their choices become very limited. Neema’s provides them with training in a specific craft, such as beading, weaving, and paper making. The profits that are made by the items sold goes back to the people who are working. They also have a small café where most of the waiters and waitresses are deaf so you fill out a card with what you would like and they bring you what you ordered. The center is aimed at more of the tourists, but when I bought jewelry or carrot cake from them I knew that the money was actually going back to them and I did not mind spending a few extra dollars to help out a good cause.