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.

Communion

Today we had communion at the local Kibidula church. It was my first introduction to African style communion. There was not much different other than we went outside to wash our feet. Which it is my opinion that even if Jesus did not command us to wash each other’s feet we should do it anyways because it feels so good. I like it a lot. After we had finished washing each feet we went back inside for the bread and juice. I was wondering where they would get their grapes for the juice because I have never seen any here in Tanzania. And when they uncovered the juice, I assumed that they didn’t use grape juice because it was yellow. More like a pineapple juice or something. Well, they do use grape juice but they only way to get grape juice is by boiling raisins and straining out the juice. And since golden raisins are the most common here, the juice turns out yellow. I must say that it taste a lot like what it is, raisin juice, but it does the trick when you need it to. As for the bread, it tastes just like home.

Christmas Memories

Yesterday I returned from one of the most memorable, adventurous, exhausting and plain interesting trips of my life. Last Friday the director of Kibidula asked me if I would be willing to go the northern part of Tanzania and buy some sheep for the farm. I would be going with a Tanzanian guy named Ezekiel and we would buy around 100 sheep and ship them back to Kibidula. It sounded fun, especially when I found out that the sheep were in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. So Monday morning we took a fourteen hour bus ride to a town called Boma Ng’ombe. Which is Swahili is means cattle corral, it a small town at the base of Kilimanjaro. It was dark when we arrived but when I awoke in the morning. You could see the mounting right out the guest house window. It is really hard to describe, a huge dormant volcano the rises to over 19000 feet. And even though it is near the equator it has an eternal snow cap. Anyways it is a real beautiful mountain. The next day we went to a farm to look at sheep but he only sheep that farm was willing to sell were rams, so we bought five and continued looking for our hundred sheep. Well, they proved hard to find, but by Thursday we had all the business sorted out and a letter from the vet saying they had all necessary vaccinations (required for transporting in between regions of Tanzania). And we were ready to load them on the truck that we had rented. I was wondering how they would do it, but when it came time the Maasai sheep herders just grabbed the sheep and handed them up to me on the truck. Then came the adventurous and exhausting part, It was two thirty in the afternoon on Christmas eve and we had a twenty four hour truck ride back to Kibidula. Also, the sheep needed to be watched so that they did not trample each other to death. So me and Ezekiel took four hour shifts watching it the back with the sheep. So I spent this past Christmas Eve and part of Christmas day with the bleating sheep in my ears, and me returning the favor by bleating Christmas carols back at them. It took us twenty three and a half hours of almost nonstop driving but we made it back safely to Kibidula. As for me, I was tired and stank horribly, but it is one Christmas I will never forget.

Churches and Manure

Nothing really amazing happened this last week. I have only been doing two things lately: building churches, and shoveling manure. Which as I was thinking about it today (while lying down for my sabbath nap) is really quite interesting. I'll start with One Day Churches. Kibidula has a hundred and forty of them to build. But, since it is rainy season we usually only get in one a week. Thursdays are the church building day and they usually beging around five thirty in the morning, so that we can be to the church site soon after day break. Then we work really hard and, if all goes well, are done in time to sit down to a real good African Lunch of peas and rice. It is quite a fufilling day, in the morning you start with bare ground (sometimes not so bare, the first church we did first required the removal of some large bushes and stumps) and by afternoon we leave behind a new church and a happy congregation. The other days of the week I have been hauling manure for the farm here and at first appearances it is just about as fruitless as building churches is gratifying. It all has to be loaded and unloaded by hand, which takes maybe an hour and a half. and if we work hard we can do four loads a day. Unless, it starts to rain then you only get dirtier. And just as building a church only takes a matter of hours. I have calculated that at the current rate it will take a month of only hauling manure before we finish. However, as I was thinking about it I realized that both jobs are equally important because both jobs are essential to the work of God. While one does seem more satisfying the other is needed to make sure the first can continue. So, I have decided to seize the pitchfork with renewed vigor.

Earthquake!

Well, this week was real exciting. I was able to feel my first earthquake. On Sunday night other people here felt two earthquakes. Nothing much, just a little shaking of the gound and the house creaking. However, I didn't feel a thing and was real dissapointed that I had missed my opportunity. Then, on Wednesday morning, I was laying in my bed reading my bible, when if felt thump, thump, thump as my bed shook with the convulsions of the earth. It didn't last long, maybe fifteen seconds. Then all was peace and quite. At first I didn't realize what was going on (half groggy waking up phase), then I became aware of what it was and wished I could feel another one so that I could analyze it more. Well, I got what I wished for because, lo and behold, a minute or so later another, more powerful tremor sent my bed into uncontrollable spasms. For me it was wonderful. As for the group leader who lives in the other part of my house, he thought the day of Judgement had arrived. Later that day I found out that the epicenter was down near Lake Malawi, and was measured around 5.9 on the Richter Scale. There was some damage done in the south part of the country but nothing was hurt here. Even today there was a minor earthquake but maybe it is just to remind us that this world is not our home.

Package

I have for some time now been waiting for a package from my family. Packages take some time to get here so after a month I was not too worried. As weeks passed by and one month became two, I became more and more expectant for the goodies I was soon to receive. Well, the other day, I was joking to one of the boys here that my package was sure to come that day. This was not the first time that I was sure my package was to come that day, and all other times I had been disappointed. This day, however, turned out to be different. Just as the words had left my mouth, Vusi, a man from South Africa, drove up and told me that I had gotten my package. There it was in the back of his car. Perfectly wrapped in its beautiful, blue and white United States Postal Service tape. Well, needless to say, I was very happy with the package. Actually more happy with what the package contained. Wonderful treats. It is amazing how little things from home can have such special meaning to you when you have not seen them for a long time. Like the farming magazine that my family sent me. It was quite a delight. Or the pest control form that my sister filled out for my room, indicating on it that I had every kind of cockroach and spider infesting my house. (Its not so bad really). In the end it made me wonder whether or not it is more blessed to give than receive, but after thinking about I decided my family probably got more joy in sending the package than I got in receiving. But, boy it sure was nice.

Disclaimer: This was not a dissertation to make everyone who reads it feel like they must send me a package. Rather, it is a grateful recipient sharing his thoughts, feelings, and emotions upon receiving a taste of home.

Wedding

Well the other day I had the privilege of being able to attend my first African wedding. One thing that someone should know about African weddings is that they are long. This is mostly because no one ever remembers the pastor showing up even an hour within the appointed starting time. This wedding wasn’t too bad, the pastor showed up two and half hours late and we were able to start. The weddings here start with a long march (they don’t march very far it just takes a while) And I really can’t call it marching it is a little like a shuffle where they take steps about three or four inches apart and step on each foot twice before they switch and put the other foot in front. Anyways it takes a long time for the wedding party to march in, then they march out, then they shuffle back in. Finally the bride comes in with the same slow shuffle, but she only goes halfway down the aisle where she is met by the groom who lifts up her veil to make sure he hasn’t gotten Leah. Then together they march to the front of the church and the rest of the wedding proceeds. One interesting thing to note is that the bride and groom are not allowed to show any emotion during the wedding so they tend to look depressed or bored throughout the ceremony. Also something else that is interesting is the sound the women make after the wedding is over; it sounds something like a mix between and Indian yell and calling for cows, quite remarkable. Then after the wedding all the girls dance in front of the couple as they walk to the reception. The whole service is replete with lots of singing, music, and dancing. I was surprised that this is the first wedding where the bride marches into “Power in the Blood”. At the reception all the guest come and present their presents to the couple and congratulate them. Then it ends with a meal of beans and rice. Which, for me, makes a very complete day.

Chameleon

Tanzania has some of the most diverse wildlife anywhere. Besides the normal lions (I have yet to see one),Elephants and zebras, it also has other small less noticable creatures such as the chameleon. When I say less noticeable, I mean that they are hard to find. The fact that they are very small (around six inches) and can change colors only makes the task that much harder. One of the missionary boy's, Tim, who is about seven years old told me that he would help me find one. So one day he and I went out in the trees looking for a chameleon. We searched and searched for over an hour but with no success, he told me that he would keep looking for one and when he found one he would save it until I could see it. Well, that was two weeks ago and still we had found no chameleon, however on Friday I went to Tims house and he was all excited, there on his hand was a small green chamelon. They are so cool. When I held him he suddenly got little dark spots all over him and then once he got stripes. Very crazy animals.
We tried and tried to get him to eat a bug so I could see his tongue out but he was not hungry but he wouldn't eat anything we placed in front of him. Right before I was going to leave Tim put the chameleon on the couch and he crawled down in the crack between the cushions. When we pulled him the most amathing had happened, instead of being lime green he had turned a dark grey almost completely black. I was impressed. So now I am a big fan of the tiny chameleon.