One week
Trip Start
Jul 16, 2008
1
54
84
Trip End
Ongoing
Moshi, Tanzania
Friday, February 6, 2009
After school most days we have gone visiting neighbors and family. We sit for tea or a soda. On Wednesday Yobu took me to Moshi. It's quite a trip. About 30 minutes walk to the bus and 30 minutes on a bus. He pointed out the correct ATM for me, then we went to the electric company to buy Mama Angel some units of electricity (Each house has a box with numbers on it. You buy units of electricity, then punch the numbers into your box when you get home. When you have used up all your units, it cuts out and you go back to the store to buy more. He bought her 56 units I think. He said it would last about 3 months). We had lunch and then we went to the internet cafe (which was VERY slow). I didn't want to make Yobu wait too long so I said I only needed half an hour. I should have known better. I don't think he would have minded waiting, considering when we finished he said that since we had nothing more to do in Moshi, we would have a soda! We sat for almost an hour in a little outdoor cafe that he always toes to. After a little while I relaxed and just enjoyed that this is how life is in Africa, and why not just stop and have a soda for a while and relax?
We waited a while for a bus back because the first bus was so full we would have had to stand (and standing on the bus is not like standing on a bus in NYC...you have to lean over other people because it is not high enough to stand and it is soo crowded. So we just waited!) We went to the market after we got back. I liked the market a lot. I think I would have had a hard time on my own. I'm sure they would have completely overcharged me and I wouldn't have known how to bargain anyway (Uzia has taught me my numbers, but just 1-10!) and here $1 is 1,000 Tsh...I certainly don't know how to say my numbers up to the thousands.
After marketing, we went to a restaurant so I could try Tanzanian beer. We met Ruta there. Had Kilimanjaro beer. They got me two beers...way more than I needed considering how dehydrated I was (have I mentioned it is HOT here!!!) Pretty good beers. I feel like all I did that day was drink...cokes and beers!
I was exhausted when we got home (1 liter of beer) and then a half an hour walk home) but one of Yobu's brothers, Baba Alan, was back from the Park where he works for 10 days at a time so we went there for tea (he leaves just a few minute walk away). Edgar came. They have cute twins, Jessica and Prisca, who are I think 6 years old. We got there and it was pitch black because their electricity just cut out. So we sat in the dark with just a few head lamps, drinking tea. After a little while it came back on. It was another awkward gathering, with everyone sitting in mostly silence. Maybe they will get used to me soon! They don't have to be silent just because I don't understand!
I have been to Mama Angel's house several times, for soda or tea. Yesterday Mama Mackie and I went to one of her friend's, Mama Gordy. then came home to find Simon, another brother. Lots of visiting! Its exhausting but very nice to be so welcomed everywhere!
School has been good. Some teachers are very welcoming, others, not so much. Kind of understandable-who wants some random foreigner coming in and taking over? Others love it and have asked me to take more classes (now I teach Class 1 English 4 times a week).
The teachers' English isn't great, which is too bad since they teach in English and it is an English Academy. But the teachers have a hard time undrestanding me. So it's not surprising that the students do as well.
