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!