Saturday 6/29/13

This morning we got to do a service project! We went to a village and helped them clean up their garbage. There is no dump or garbage system so people will just throw their garbage on the ground. Their only way of managing it is to burn it.

We handed out dust masks to everyone. The kids loved them and they all wanted one.

The service project was through the radio station that Baptist and Lela own. They were broadcasting people talking about the project over the radio. I got to talk about it, so I was on the radio! It was quite possibly one of their most awkward interviews because I had no idea what to say. He just handed me the phone and said to start talking about what we were doing. There really wasn't much to say. "We're cleaning up garbage..." So awkward, so funny.

There were so many kids in the village and they just stood and stared at Kirsten and me. I started talking to them and asking their names. Once they saw I wasn't scary they really warmed up to me. They were so cute.

When we left they all wanted to shake my hand but there were so many of them so then they just started grabbing my arm. It was pretty funny.

Friday 6/28/13

What an adventure we had today! In the morning we went to the Maasai market. The Maasai are an African tribe here in Tanzania. They are the only tribe that I know of that still dresses in their traditional clothing as well as practices their beliefs. For the other tribes from what I can tell, they more tell what region you are from and other than that have no real bearing on how you live your life.

 The Maasai wear really cool clothes. The men carry around sticks and knives. Everyone has their ears gaged and they wear all sorts of cool jewelry through the holes.

Some men do their hair in the strangest fashion, it looks a lot like crazy hair day in elementary school. At their market they sell really cool cloths so I got some and I may make a skirt or something out of it.

 We left Morogoro today to go back to Dodoma. We went to catch our bus at 2:00 and then got on at 2:30. The busses here are sort of on a schedule but they won't leave until they are full. Our bus, the Al Mashoom, was one of the bummiest busses around so it did not fill up very fast. We didn't leave until 5:30!

While we waited on the bus the people at the station kept coming on and trying to sell us bread and bananas and perfume and shoes and all sorts of crazy things. It gets really annoying after 3 hours.

Finally after all the seats were full we started moving but then we just stopped at a gas station and about 10 more people got on and stood in the aisles! The bus made a million stops on the way so a 3-3.5 hour trip turned in to 4 hours.

 The sun goes down at 7 pm every night and as a white person it is not safe to be out after that. We knew we were going to be getting in well past 7 so we started getting nervous about getting off the bus at the bus station. We were thinking about this when all of the sudden this guy two rows up from us yells up to the bus attendants. They come back and he starts talking to them. This was all in Swahili so I just kinda had to guess what was going on. The guy sitting next to the guy who yelled for the attendants was super drunk. I think he was passed out on his seat. The attendants force him to stand up and then take off his back pack and start searching through it. Then they start patting him down. One guy gets out a flash light and starts looking at all of the seats around him. One of the guys finds what they were looking for, and from what I could tell it was a cell phone. I'm pretty sure the drunk guy stole it. All of the sudden on of the attendants slaps the drunk guy super hard. Then the other attendant and the guy who's phone was stolen just start punching the drunk guy and beating him up. The cell phone guy gets up in his seat and starts kicking him and jumping on him. It was so scary! When they felt they had done enough the attendants brought him up to the front of the bus and kept him there until they could turn him into the police.

We were all on edge after that so Boyd called a friend to come pick us up at the station so we didn't have to get a taxi. I was so glad to see him and get safely into his car when we finally arrived in. Dodoma.

Wednesday-Thursday 6/26-27

Boyd was needed in Morogoro at the Nashera hotel so we loaded up in the bus and we went on our way on Wednesday. Its about a 3 hour bus ride.

Thursday morning Kirsten and I helped out by measuring a few things that they have around the hotel. After that we went to town and looked around a bit. We were going to go to a place to get a monkey for the hotel but it was closed.

Kirsten and I saw an albino black person today. Apparently some people have thought we are albinos because we are so white. So funny.

Monday-Tuesday

On Monday Lela, one of the members here, was kind enough to take us to some different markets and help us with our grocery shopping.

Dodoma is not much of a tourist place, there isn't much to do here, but at one supermarket there are some people that hang out there with touristy stuff. I guess if there are any foreigners they go there. We walked in and there was just one guy out there selling some dolls. When we walked out, I guess word had gotten out that there were some white people in there and they just swarmed on us! They kept handing me things to look at, my hands would be full and they'd hand be more. It was craziness!

We also went to the radio station that Lela and Baptist own. It is apparently the number one radio station in Dodoma. They have a two hour segment on Sunday morning that they play church music on.

On Tuesday Carol had some piano lessons to teach up at the University so we spent the day with Boyd. We went out to the job site and helped him get some dirt samples. He taught Kirsten and me how to use a backhoe! We dug a hole about 8 feet deep, got the samples and then we had to cover it back up again. It was a lot of fun driving big machinery like that.

My face is like that in every picture. I was pretty enchanted I guess!

After that we went to lunch and had some Chinese food. It was very strange eating Chinese food in Africa. It didn't feel right, but it tasted very delicious.

Sunday 6/23/13

Today we went to church at a member's home. Without Carol, Boyd, Kirsten and I there are only 3 members in Dodoma with an occasional student. Today we had a student from the University of Dodoma join us. We sang a hymn and prayed, I shared a spiritual thought and then Baptist gave a lesson. Then we had a closing hymn and prayer.

We ate dinner there. It was a huge eye opener to be in another person's house because even our humble home that we are staying in is a very nice one for most people. We sat on the floor when we ate. There were only 6 forks so two people ate with their hands. This family is still better off than many others.

The student, Isack, shared his conversion story with us. He is 27 and has been a member for 6 years now. For the past 3 years he has been attending the University here in Dodoma so he has not been able to go to church. I am so grateful to be born in the circumstances that I was.

Saturday 6/22/13

Today we went up to the University of Dodoma. Carol did a music workshop and Kirsten and I helped out with it. Before the workshop started we watched some students work on a performance of traditional African music.

The workshop started and students slowly came in. We started with 12, but soon got more and more. Carol explained how to read music and how to count. We sang a round, which they loved, and did lots of clapping exercises. Kirsten showed off her accordion skills and then we sang Nearer My God to Thee in parts. The students loved it! I took pictures, but mostly on Carol's camera so I will put more up later.

After that we went up to where the art students were doing an exhibition. The paintings were all really cool. There were some students that learned about screen printing and so they designed t shirts. There was also a group from another village that was dancing and singing.

We then went and watched the last half of a play. It was in Swahili, but a boy named Peter explained it to me later. It was all about women's rights. Peter was with us the whole time and I got to talk to him about all sorts of things. It was very interesting.

Friday 6/21/13

We went to town to the market. They have a million different stores with stuff crammed into them. In most, there is a guy at a counter with everything else behind them. You ask them if they have what you want, which is difficult as most of them speak minimal amounts of English.

We also went to the covered market where they sell food. The deeper you go in, the less English they know. A lot of them couldn't even tell you the prices in English so they would use a calculator to show. The prices varied a lot through out the market and we found out later that it was because they were probably jacking up the prices, hoping that we would pay it. Aunt Carol knew about what to pay though.

Kirsten and I were put in charge of dinner. It was Mexican night! We try and mix it up with the rice and beans because it can get pretty tiring. We made guacamole and corn tortillas from scratch. I used my water bottle as a rolling pin because we didn't have one. It was a lot of fun!

Art Show

As some of you may know, one of my pieces of art work made it into the Springville Art show. It also made it into their travelling exhibition. They have about 50 pieces of art work that travel around Utah to different shows. Right now it is at the Utah Arts Festival downtown! Its super cool because they are using my picture on a few of their posters advertising for the show! Go check it out for me because I can't.

Thursday 6/20/13

We visited the construction site of the hotel that Uncle Boyd is helping with. On our walk there we saw some boys playing soccer!

We also saw a man herding his cows and goats.

At the construction site they do not have any of the modern building technology that we have, so the process is very slow. They dug out the foundation completely by hand.

The dirt is hauled away in 5 gallon buckets on women's heads. Cement is poured in the same way, no cement truck. The men make 5-10 dollars a day while the women make 4.

A day is 12 hours but the people get really tired by the end so they are working on doing a shift schedule where they only work 8 hours.

Wednesday 6/19/13

This morning we went grocery shopping. It is interesting how all prices here a negotiable. In fact, you are expected to bargain, if you take their first offer you are considered stupid. We got tons of fruit for super cheap!

Carol had to go up to the university to teach some piano lessons and Boyd went to work on the hotel so we were left home alone. Carol told us that as long as it is daytime we are safe to walk around the neighborhood. So Kirsten and I decided to play soccer outside with some little neighbor boys. They are between 7 and 12 years old. We brought along a soccer ball to play with them because they don't really have a good one, the one that they have is made out of plastic bags. An older boy came up and started playing us. He was trying to talk to me but he didn't know any English. After a while he started getting really close and touching my arm. I was feeling very uncomfortable. Kirsten and I decided that we probably were not safe after all so we wanted to go inside. The house we are staying in has a 8 foot wall around it and like a thousand locks to keep us safe.We tried to unlock the gate but there was a dead bolt that we couldn't figure out how to open. We kept trying and trying. Finally one of the neighbor boys got over the gate and opened it from the inside for us. Now we are safely locked inside the house with nothing to do.

The maid came today. Her name is Tina. She is a hard worker and does Carol and Boyd's laundry as well as the floors. If you are able to afford one you should hire a maid or someone to work for you because there are so many people here without jobs.

Tuesday

Today was our last day in Morogoro. A lady that runs the hotel we are staying in has a program to help the special needs children in Tanzania. The families here are either misinformed on special needs children so they think they are cursed or are unable to care for them properly. Her program provides them with schooling and proper care. The children are still in touch with their families and still go home for visits. We had the opportunity to go and visit one of them and do some music with them.

When we got there they welcomed us in and we saw a couple kids. They seemed so excited to see us. One of them had no use of his legs so they had devised a wheelchair for him. It was sort of like a wagon with a seat. In the front there were some bike pedals that he moved with his hands to get around. He also walked around on his hands. He wore shoes on them. We found out that most of the kids were away on holiday. School had just ended for them and they were visiting their families. Usually there were around 100 kids.

Our musical "program" was short and sweet. There were about 15 people there: 3 kids and the rest adults. Kirsten played her accordion. Aunt Carol shared an African song and then we all sang I am a Child of God. The people loved it! They all tried to sing along to I am a Child of God even though they didn't know the words. We were invited to come back when all of the children are there. I can't wait!

After that we went to the bus station to catch a bus. We saw a couple of interesting things there. A few people got off of different buses with a live chicken in a plastic bag! Its head was sticking out still. I guess that was their dinner... There was a guy selling hats. He had all of them stacked up and he held them on his head. We got on the bus and three and a half hours later we were in Dodoma. We got there right as it was getting dark. White people should not be out at night because it is really not safe. Kirsten and I were pretty scared. A drunk guy came up and talked to Kirsten, Aunt Carol and I. It was fine at first, but then he didn't leave. We had Uncle Boyd come over and eventually he wandered away. We got safely into our purple house.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. Aunt Carol has some that I will put on later, but I felt weird taking pictures at the special needs school. People already don't like pictures and I didn't want the people there to think badly of me taking pictures of the special needs kids.

Saturday-Monday

On Saturday we went to a museum. It had all of the different kinds of houses that the tribes in Tanzania live in. We listened to some traditional music and watched the people dance.

There were a lot of school groups there on a fieldtrip. They loved seeing the blonde white girls. They all wanted to shake our hands so they could touch a white person. Aunt Carol started taking pictures of them and showing them on her camera. They loved that so much! Everyone wanted their pictures taken, and the children were so beautiful so we didn't mind.

 

Sunday we went to church. Kirsten and I went to young womens. They taught in English, I'm not sure if that was just for us or if they normally do that but we were grateful for that. Sunday school was a mix of Swahili and English. The people were so nice; they invited us to their girls camp on the beach! Sacrament meeting was all in Swahili. I'm sure it would have been really funny for the people there to listen to Kirsten and I sing in Swahili.

 

After church we made our way over to the bus station. A lady named Immaculate drove us in her car. When we were almost there a bus merged over into us! Immaculate's car wasn't too damaged, it had some of the paint scraped and the front bumper was a little damaged. She pulled over and gave that bus driver a piece of her mind. She managed to get him to pay for all of the repairs. Easily that was one of the more terrifying moments of my life. 

 

The roads here are crazy. There are no defined lanes; generally there is a right and left lane, but if a driver wants to they can just go on over into it. The busses are notorious for this. I guess they figure if they are in a head on collision they'd win every time. The roads themselves are littered with potholes. The bus we were on was packed. It was a 3 and a half hour ride. I'm glad we were near the back so I couldn't see the crazy driving of the bus driver. I'm sure I would have died of fright.

 

We got up early Monday morning so we could go on a hike up the mountain here in Morogoro. We started around 7:45 and just started walking up. On our way up to the mountain we saw so many women walking down carrying bananas on their heads. We had to take pictures of them discreetly because they understandably do not like people to take pictures of them.

 

We asked a boy if he wanted to be our guide and when we pointed to where we wanted to go he looked at us like we were crazy, so we kept going. We found a man who was willing to guide us. Uncle Boyd told him he'd give him 20,000 shillings, about $12 to guide us up and back down. That is about 2-3 days work for the people here so he was more than willing to help out.

 

The people on the hill were very poor. It was so interesting, the further up that we went, the more excited and amazed the children were to see white people. One would see us and then they would all come running to look. They always looked at a distance though, they were to afraid to get close. The trail went straight up the mountain, no switchbacks for them! We probably didn't bring enough water with us, but we managed. The people there grow corn all the way up the mountainside. It was a beautiful view clear up there. We ended up hiking for 5 hours. We were all very tired by the end.

 

Sorry for the long post. A lot happened these past few days. I tried to keep things concise so if you would like to hear more about something or see more pictures of things I can definitely post more. Just leave a comment. These are not even a fraction of the pictures I have.







We Made it!

After a total of about 22 hours of flying plus layovers, we made it to Africa!

The lady sitting next to me on one of the flights was really funny. We went through some really bad turbulence and she started screaming and grabbing my arm. She didn't speak any English so the whole situation was funny. After our second plane landed everyone clapped and cheered. I don't know if that is standard for international flights, or if people were just super excited to be done with a 12 hour flight, but either way it was really funny.

We got in at about 2:30 AM and we got picked up by Boyd as well as the member of the church from this area. His job is actually to pick up people that are here on a humanitarian trips from the air port and take them around town. We are staying in a hotel for now and we got to take a hot shower! Apparently that doesn't happen very often. It felt really nice after our forever long plane ride.

 

This morning we woke up and went to breakfast and then after breakfast Aunt Carol wanted to show us around Dar es Salaam so we went for a walk. Uncle Boyd was in a meeting so it was just the three of us. We just kinda wandered for a bit and then Aunt Carol needed to go to the bathroom so we started walking back to the hotel. We soon realized that we were lost and so Aunt Carol just decided to go to the bathroom in a supermarket. It was one of the hole in the ground kind. Gross... We’ll have to get used to that. So after that we tried to get our bearings and figure out which direction we should walk. We asked a man if he knew where our hotel was and he directed us down the road. Kirsten thought it was the wrong direction, but we went there anyway. We walked for quite a ways and we didn’t recognize anything so we decided to ask someone again. We ended up talking to a man named Alex. He knew English really well and was able to figure out where we are staying and then he gave us a ride back in his car. It was so good that we found him because none of us had any money or a phone or anything that we should have had with us. Turns out Kirsten was right. We had gone the complete opposite direction, but we made it back safely!

I'm A Blogger!

Well its official, I'm a blogger! I decided that the next few years of my life will be quite adventurous that maybe people will want to hear about it, and even if they don't, at least I'll have it written down for myself.

I guess the title of this blog requires a bit of explanation. Since I am going to Tanzania for a month my aunt said it would be a good idea to learn a bit of Swahili so I can communicate just a little bit with the people there. While on the ever useful Wikipedia reading through how plurals work in Swahili I came across the sentence "ndizi moja inatosha" which means "one banana will suffice." I knew that if I didn't learn any more Swahili I would be fine just knowing this one sentence. Why else would they use it as the example?