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.