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.