town

Whether I like to admit it or not, My time at Kibidula is rapidly speeding to a close. In every conversation I have pretty much people ask me when I will be leaving, not to hasten the event but two weeks is not very long I guess. So I am trying to savor the last moments. One of the things that I really wanted to do was go and take the daladala (minibus) to the closest large town and buy ice-cream and do other things that you can't do so well out in the bush of Kibidula. So that is what I did today (though I still haven't got the ice-cream yet) While I was here I found that it is a convenient time to use the fast internet in town as well, hence the blog. Well I better go get my ice cream.

Pig Hunt

The other night I came back to my room and all the students were excited. They told me lets go out to the field. I was confused, it was dark and I wasn't sure why they want to go out to the corn field? "Oh," they said, "were going to hunt pigs." Apparently now we have more than monkeys eating our corn but at night wild pigs are coming too. I wanted to see the action so I quickly grabbed my coat and ran after them. It turns out that what they called hunting pigs in practicality is building a campfire in the corn field and because there is corn around we all roasted several ears. I never saw the pig but the corn sure tasted good.

Bike Ride

This past week I did a four day bike ride over the mountains to lake Malawi. It went very well but it was very exhuasting. It was two Swiss family's and I, we were expecting it to take us around three days but we had never been on the trail before. When we came to the last stretch, every person that we met told us that the trail was immposibble to take bicycles down and that we would have to turn around. The advice they gave was accurate the trail was immpassabile by bicycles but we carried them down anyways. Steep mountain trails, more for goats than poeple, but we made it to lake Malawi. Which, as always never fails to amaze me. I'll show pictures when I get home but let me assure you it was quite the adventure.

Jungle Gaboo

Early this morning round about eight
I took an adventure into the unknown
I had no inkling what would await
Deep in a forest, that was all overgrown.

The trail looked quite appealing
How could I resist?
So I swallowed the feeling
of dangers cold fist.

It started out fine,
Past eucalyptis and pine
I thought to myself this is better than
grape juice

Then deeper I went into jugle gaboo
I found many things
but say is taboo.

Onward I journeyed when lo and behold,
way above my head
something started to scold.
A monkey? a snake? a squagalamird?
to my dissapointment it was only a bird

I was on the lookout for a bushbaby too
I had heard of their dwellings
in this jugle gaboo

Then something tubly caught my ear.
There must be some water somewhere up there
So I pushed onward without any fear
Through brables and vines I was hoping wouldn't tear. (my clothes)

At last I found it, that bubbling brook
that plunged over a cliff
How beautiful to the look.

Micheal Fay would be jealous,
if he could go where I do
on my adventures into jugle gaboo.

Swamp

This weekend is the board meetings for Kibidula, so there are alot of people visiting for the meetings from America, Zambia and Europe. Also the two student missionaries came up from Riverside Farms are here so I have had a great time geeting to know them and showing them around Kibidula. Yesterday after church we decided to take the canoe and the dugout across the swamp. I think I have blogged about the swamp before but just incase my memory fails me I will explains it again. One side of Kibidula is located on a huge marsh (It is more of a marsh than a swamp) that is full of water all year around but towards the end of the rainy season the water level rises several feet. This makes it easier to paddle the canoe through the tall grass and water lilies. It is about a mile across and I have always wanted to paddle over to the pine forest on the other side but have never had a chance. This was the perfect opportunity. We got the aluminum canoe that Kibidula has and borrowed a dugout from a fisherman so there would be enough room for us all. One of the Student Missionaries from riverside and I rode in the dugout. It is quite tippy but we managed to stay fairly dry. Halfway across we stopped at a little island that is only a pile of grass and a bush. The grass felt like there was no dirt underneath because when you stepped on it you sank down about a foot and water would seep up through. It was fun, we made it across and explored a little bit on the other side before returning to a beautiful sunset reflecting off the of the water. What more could you ask for?

Addresses

This past week for English class my students have been writing letters. It is a good excercise for them to practice there english on. I told them that if they knew the address of someone here in Tanzania they could write to them. If not I could give them the address of someone in Europe or America and we could write letters there. Well all of them opted to write letters to local people exept for two wanted to write to their sisters who lived far away. However, they did not know the addresses. All they knew was the town they lived in. But that was enough I guess because by the end of class they had the addresses written on the letters and told me the were ready to mail. I was a bit supspicious, no one at one moment dosent know the address of thier sister and then the next does. So I decided to do a little investigation. One of the letters was written to PO Box 58 Dar es Salaam. And when I looked on the back of the notebooks the students use I saw that the company's address who makes the paper was, PO Box 58 Dar es Salaam. Alas, she assumed that since the address on her notebook said Dar es Salaam and her sister lived in Dar es Salaam that the letter would go to her sister. I explained to them the next class how addresses work and thought all would be settled. But, later another one of my students told me she wanted to write a letter to a friend in Dar es Salaam. Do you know the address I queried? "Yes," she said prouldy, and then pointed at her note-book, "I found it right here." Ah well.

Masai Medecine: Remember not to cough

On Sunday's I usually eat at one of the missionary families house for lunch. This past Sunday they also invited our Masai cow herders to come over for lunch, which they did gladly. So there we were eating, when we noticed that one of the Masai was not eating his food. "He must be extraordinarily picky' I thought, "everyone likes beans and rice." We offered him other food but he said that he was OK and there was nothing wrong with his food. Finally another one of the Masai spoke up and said that he (the one not eating) had a sore throat and was coughing. Now we understood, or so we thought, he was sick and it hurt him to eat. But then his friend proceeded to explain that yesterday he had cut something out of the throat of the sick man to cure him of his cough. He did it with a razor blade and used warm milk to ease the pain. I still wasn't sure what he had cut out so last night I went to visit them. They didn't let me look in his mouth arguing that I couldn't see anything anyways, Whatever it was they had removed and it was gone. Through much explanation I learned that it was the epiglottis that had been removed. Apparently it is a common practice among the Masai because of the six that live at Kibidula four have had theirs removed. As for me I'd take any garlic potion over warm milk and a razor.

A Very New Month

I do apologize for not blogging in a while, I went on vacation for a while to Lake Maliwi. It was very nice. I got to swim around, look at freshwater tropical fish, and hike in the surrounding mountains. I had a great time. Then this morning I was talking to some of my students at breakfast and I mentioned to them that today was March 1. One of them agreed that yes, today was sana moja. Which means much one. I looked at him funny unable to figure out what he was talking about until he laughed and told me that to MUCH and MARCH sound all the same. So yes, today is much the first.

Homemade Ice-cream

In my spare time lately I have been working on a homemade ice-cream maker. I got the idea one day while rummaging through the shop where I found a hand drill that I thought could be transformed into ice-cream maker. I tend to get many ideas about all the things I can build but often they are not all feasible.
The ice-cream maker, thankfully, was different. After months of sporadic labor I finally finished it last Friday and I was just in time, for on Sunday one of my friends had a birthday. Perfect chance, I thought, only in my excitement I forgot that I needed cream. Well, I resorted to my only option which was to go and beg the Masai early Sunday morning for three liters of milk. Then I was ready start making the ice-cream. Even as I was making the mixture memories from home came drifting up to my nose; peach, and it smelled good. Then I put it into my makeshift five-gallon bucket/spare gears from a drill ice-cream maker and began to crank. It never froze all the way but compared to the way it tasted that was a small matter. People enjoyed it and I enjoyed giving them a taste of home.

Events of the Past Week

I really havn't done much that I can think of this past week. In biology class we are studying fungus which is nice because it is easy to get specimens for study, especially in the rainy season. Then yesterday, I was invited to a send off party for someone getting married. Life here revolvles around major events in life weddings and funerals. I was similar to a wedding. A lot of dancing and food and soda. It was nice quite long though. It started around two and ended around eight at night or thats when we left at least. But, other than the persistent rain (it was all outside) I found it quite enjoyable. First the bride marches in and they introduce the family, the groom, and all her friends. Then they give her gifts and sing songs about her leaving and getting married. I was the only white person there so I got a real experience. During the pictures they asked me to be in them for the sole reason that was white. Though I had never met neither bride nor groom. Anyways just another facet of Tanzanian life.

Sickness

After an exhausting week I became sick. Something has been going around and I really did not want to get it. A five day flu with a high fever, not desirable. But, I suppose time and chance happens to all. The first symptoms I noticed were on Thursday night when I was trying to ride my bicycle back to my room and I was unable to stay on the road but rather weaved around and made unecessary side trips into the bush. I didn't think much of it though, just attribuding it to tiredness. Well, the next day it got worse and worse. I worked until lunch time then I had to go laydown. When I took my temperature it was 102 and a few hours later 104 that scared me, but so did the weird sensation I felt that my hands were directly connected to my shoulders bypassing my elbows and that my bed was on a steep angle and I was continually sliding towards the edge. Thankfully, my sickness did not last five days (that would be torture) but only two and a half so now I am better and hungry.

A Happy Birthday

Well, in case some were unawares, last Friday was my twentieth Birthday. It turned out quite nice and I am no longer a teenager. It started in the morning with a partial solar eclipse, which was quite impressive. On Saturday night we had a small birthday party with the some of the younger people, I made the cake or at least attempted to. It was definitely edible.

The average Tanzanian is quite laid back, so I am learning a lesson or two in not getting to worked up about things. For example, last week I was working in the fields with them weeding the corn fields and I always seemed to be hoeing out corn when I wasn't supposed two. After every time I ended the life of one more corn plant, the student I was helping said, "hakuna matata" (no problem). Then I would hoe another corn plant and he would say, "hakuna shida" (no problem). Then I when I got carried a way and accidentally hoed his head, he groaned "hakuna matata"

On a more recent note I have spent the last three days building one day churches. Quite exhausting work, but, also very rewarding. We attempted to build two in one day but rolls had to settle for putting on the roof the next day. Hakuna Matata.

Was Home Really This Nice?

This last week I hav'nt been up to much, just house sitting for a family that is on vacation. And I must say, it is quite nice. Not to imply, however, that my room where I normally stay is not nice, just different in several noticable ways. For example, if I want to take a hot bucket bath, (showers non existent). I have to go to our only water spigot and fill up a pot with water, build a fire in the stove, then go to my room for about twenty minutes while it heats up. But now, when I wake up I can walk straight into the bathroom turn on the tap and enjoy. Even more they have electricity so I can take a shower and listen to Handels Messiah on my computer at the same time. Heavenly. The family returns tommorow and it is probably best I am getting a bit soft.