Busy Weekend!

We’ve had plenty to do this past weekend, and it’s all catching up to us – we’re exhausted! It all started with a ‘Pizza Night’ in a restaurant called Dragonaires just outside of mjini town on Friday night. Our pizzas took forever to come and we were in a rush to get to town in a teksi, and had to ask the kitchen to hurry up! We went to town and met friends who accompanied us to the mziki disco as we were told it was an experience not to miss. It sounds pretty dodgy but was perfectly fine, and we went to one often frequented by our Auzzie friends at the International School. It was funny as most of the time people were just sitting staring at the moving lights, exclaiming WOW! We did a bit of dancing to the songs we know (we’re getting familiar with quite a few Bongo Flava songs) and had a good time. A taxi driver we knew came to take us home and we didn’t sleep until 2am, which is way past our bedtime, seeing as most people sleep when it gets dark here! It was quite a night for us! Saturday night we went to the school to have a sleepover with the Form One girls. We can’t describe how excited they were! We ate rice and beans for dinner, and then popped an entire bucket of popcorn (two kilos) and poured salt all over it! Just as we were about to set up the movies, a huge truck arrived at the school. Typical of Tanzania, it arrived at 9pm, when it was pitch black. It turned out to be the new furniture for next year’s non-formal class in the new building. There were thirty mattresses, hundreds of plastic chairs and some extremely excited girls who were squealing and so anxious to see all their new furniture! Mattresses were being thrown on people’s heads and carried into a classroom and we all climbed into the back of the truck and started dancing. We’ve never seen such excitement!! It was perfect for our plans though, as we took a couple of the mattresses, spread them out on the floor of the classroom, covered them with kangas and kitenges, and all lay down on them! Yustina, one of the girls, described our haphazard laying down as the same as the saba saba (a second hand clothing market) because the vendors ‘don’t arrange them’! The level of excitement was so high that it was impossible to sit still or calmly on the mattresses, everyone was jumping around, lying on top of each other, and bouncing up and down. We had brought two bags of sweets with us and threw them out at the girls, like at a concert, and they scrambled and jumped for the candy, laughing! Once we had all settled down somewhat, we set up the movie ’17 Again’ with Zac Efron to show the girls what it looks like in America. The girls had enough English to understand the basic plot line but what they enjoyed the most was the scenery and little actions the characters did. What made us laugh was Babu Jona’s interest in the movie – we couldn’t comprehend how Zac Efron kept a Maasai guard enthralled for two whole hours, as he doesn’t speak English! By the time we’d finished the movie, it was late and some of the bouncing had turned into sleeping, but they didn’t want to stop! We ended up watching Pirates of the Caribbean until saa saba (one am) then retired to the dorm. The girls all pair up in bed because they enjoy the company, so there were plenty of empty beds, and Elena slept in Martha’s. Camilla shared a bed with Lucy, a girl sponsored by the Hunnewell Book group, who had made her promise to share the bed because she was so excited to learn that she lived on Hunnewell Ave.! The next morning was Fran’s birthday, and we had some delicious birthday chapati to celebrate! In the afternoon we met with Rehema and Jesca for them to take us to the saba saba to look for clothes! It was utter chaos, with thousands of people grabbing at you, cheap clothes strewn everywhere, and shouts of MIA TANO, ELFU MOJA (FIVE HUNDRED, ONE THOUSAND)! We managed to find a few bargains and bought the girls a couple of tops each, which they were so thankful for! In the evening we took Fran out to Hotel Oasis to have some Indian food (YAY CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA) which we had been craving forever!

            Today we had a really interesting day at school – one of the VSO volunteers, Renee, works in Dodoma at a school for the deaf, and came to stay with us for the night tonight. We asked her to come to the school with us and do a presentation about deaf culture in Tanzania for the non-formal girls. The girls absorbed it so quickly, and were fascinated by the Kiswahili sign language and culture! They were all so attentive and involved, asking hundreds of questions. At one point, Sharifa came up to us and signed in Kiswahili sign language “Can I go to the bathroom?” It was incredible! Also it was so cool for us to learn Kiswahili sign – it’s awesome and beautiful to watch. We had many additions and subtractions to our household this week! We gained a few mirrors, which was shocking, as we hadn’t seen our reflections in over a month. We lost a few mice, due to rat poison, which we feel very bad about, but they were eating our favorite clothes! We also have a new member of our household, an adorable three week old puppy, which we named Kahawa (coffee in Kiswahili, due to his color.) He technically belongs to the landlord, but we take care of him, and he spends all his time in our house! This Friday we are off to Zanzibar and are really looking forward to it!

Maasai Boma

We just returned from an incredible weekend that for us has fit the definition of what most people assume is Africa. We left early Friday morning to drive North past Dodoma to a small Maasai boma in the Maasai Steppe.We drove for about two hours on a cement road then for another five hours along a dust path that led us directly into the African bush. We passed a few small villages and ended up off the path in a small clearing. We were visiting Noah, the brother of the SEGA Maasai guard Sytote, and his village consisted of five round stick huts with mud roofs and fifteen Maasai, clad in the traditional dress of ananka which are the sheets they wear. All of the women wear mostly blue and a ton of white beaded jewelry and they stretch their earlobes out and adorn them with huge earrings which tinkle as they walk. They strap adorable babies to their backs and there were maybe ten children in the village. They also burn circles onto their faces as a tradition, and have so many other interesting traditions it’s difficult to describe them all! For instance, if one man is away from the village and another man comes to visit the village, he can sleep with the first man’s wife! Another tradition we were worried about was the donation of an animal to the visitors, which they then have to kill and eat. We were given a chicken, but luckily managed to escape the killing and got Moudy, the driver, to do it! Phew! There were tons of baby animals around – goats, chickens, donkeys and puppies – it was really cute! The language of the Maasai is Kimaasai, which we obviously don’t speak (well, now we know a little!). They speak a little Kiswahili, and so do we, so that was the mode of communication between us. After a dinner of beans and rice the first night we had a moment where everything just seemed completely unreal. Elena and I were sitting on a log by a small fire with three of the Maasai men in the pitch black under a blanket of stars (you can only imagine how many there were!) We were having a conversation with them in Kiswahili about how many lions each of them had killed. It felt totally normal at the time, but looking back on it, we were so lucky to have an opportunity like that! The answers by the way were simba saba (seven lions), mbili (two), and sana (loads!) We were lucky that night to have Noah guarding over our tents as we slept to scare off any animals! No lions came, but some hyenas visited us last night! We woke up a couple of hours after retiring to bed to singing in the background, which seemed far away. We sat listening for a while then thought “What are we DOING?” – we had to be there, not missing out! We went and asked Noah what was going on and he explained that it was a church service, unaitaka kuenda? You’d like to go? So, we went, and came across a fire behind one of the huts with the whole village sitting around, and the children singing a Kimaasai hymn and dancing around the fire. It was incredible to see, and we really enjoyed it! After half an hour we heard singing coming closer and it was another boma, coming to join! When we tried to leave because we were exhausted, they stopped us, and one of the men came out in a burlap sack with twigs and animal hides and was pretending to be a ghost, scaring all the little kids! That was the highlight of our trip. If you ever get a chance to go to a Maasai boma, take it!!!

Mama Leia and Baraka

Hanging out under the tree - the only shade around!

The Boma!

The Maasai children around the fire at night

Uh Oh!

So we have been a little lackadaisical in our water treatment recently, and both managed to catch some weird disease that makes us look like this!!

Haha! Just kidding! We were bored one night and so decided to take some weird pictures - there's not a whole lot to do at night in Morogoro! We have a new housemate though! She's a VSO volunteer called Fran, and she's awesome! (Check her blog out - http://franbruty.blogspot.com .We're having a great time with her, and she even brought movies that she's letting us watch! We had a real treat a couple of nights ago - popcorn, Sprite and a movie! Yay! We've been doing more and more work at the school and are having so much fun. Below is a picture of our recorder lesson! They are sitting in the new canteen that is still being built ( I think we annoy the builders somewhat) and in the background is the kitchen and composting buckets! Notice in the picture how they're all holding the recorders the right way around! Such progress! Today we mastered Hot Cross Buns, and were singing very, very enthusiastically. We also tried a round of Row, Row, Row Your Boat, which still needs some practice ;) One of the girls, Sharifa has a particular talent of blowing the recorder through her nose. We hope it's just a joke, as we haven't seen her play it any other way! We're also very excited as we're having dresses made for us as we speak! We bought some kitenge material and took it to the tailor and asked (mostly in Kiswahili) for what we wanted! We'll see how it turns out! Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we're leaving for the Maasai village ( a ten hour drive) with Polly, Martha, and Malaki, a tiny little Maasai who's coming with us. There's only four huts in the middle of nowhere apparently (we're imagining the village from the Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton)! We'll let you know how it goes!

  

Saraphina, Salome, Adolphina and Mwanaisha playing the recorders!