Mambo?
Tanzania has been amazing! The people here are so very nice. I am living with the Milanzi family. Mama and baba Milanzi and they have two kids Joseph two and Rachel four. Rachel is very sweet and always wanting to play, Joseph thinks I am a doctor and is still warming up to me, the first couple of days de would start crying every time I was around. He thinks that I am going to poke him with a needle when he’s not looking because most all of the doctors here are white. I played some music on my ipod last night and the kids loved it so I think he will start warming up to me soon. My Swahili is coming along but is really frustrating because my communication is very limited; we study for 8 hours a day so our progress is good. I have to keep reminding my self I have only benn studying for a week and I have to crawl before I can run. I am studying in a small village outside of Morogoro in the mountains called Chengarhwi absolutely beautiful, the people and community is great. I can’t wait until my Swahili gets better so that I can talk with more of the community members. We are studying at a secondary school Andrian Mkoba. Most the day I study with four other volunteers and our teacher Petti who is a native Tanzanian and is so sweat and a very good teacher. In four weeks we will start teaching classes at the secondary school with a cooperating teacher. I am paired up with Albert, a teacher about my age who teaches Math and Physics. He has been a great friend to me and is helping me with my Swahili. The training has been long days and very intensive, and is in a very hot schools thou now I am starting to get used to the heat.
My living conditions are very modest. The home has no running water or electricity but the bathroom does have a “hole” that connects to a sewer system so that is nice. The bathroom consists of a hole it’s the only thing in the bathroom; four walls and a hole it works. The house is very empty except for the couple of chairs in the living room and the small wood stove in the kitchen. In the morning its nice my mama boils water for my bath which I take over the hole, and in the afternoon my bath is cold water which is nice after sweating all day. This Sunday will be my first day off and I am looking forward to being around my house and learn the daily activities like cooking, boiling, and washing my clothes. Thus far my mama has done everything for me not much different than the last couple of months at home in the USA (I love you mom). I was lucky that the family I got placed with the baba(dad) speaks English so I can communicate with him and he can help me with my Swahili. I have had a couple of good conversations with him at night. He is partially handicapped because Polio has deformed one of his legs. He is a great man and really believes in what we are doing here educating the future leaders of Tanzania.
The food has been great here, always plenty of rice and beans to eat. We live close enough to larger cities so we can get a variety of fruits and vegetables which is nice. We have chai twice a day once for breakfast and once about 11. There is not much for eating meat because of lack of refrigeration so if we have meat it is always a treat and in very small portions. I am lucky to get a couple of hard boiled eggs for breakfast with my chai and banana.
One much unexpected modern convenience has been cell phones, almost all Tanzanians that have a job has a cell phone. I was hoping to get away from the ties of the phone but it looks like I will purchase one soon for safety and to communicate will fellow volunteers. I will let you know the number as soon as possible, it is cheaper for you to call me and texting will be free.
I don’t have access to Internet in my town so I hope to come to the larger town of Morogoro once or twice every two weeks to copy e-mails and send some out. So please do write but it may take a while to respond.
Lucas and Lovin’ It
