Sheep (kondoo), Goats (mbuzi), and Cows (ng’ombe) Oh My!

Well…I am definitely not in Kansas/America anymore. Jacob and I finally made it to our small village Kongoto after a two-hour flight and four hour drive. After flying into Mwanza, the second largest city, the Attorney General of Tanzania’s brother Jumanne, whose name literally translates into Tuesday since he was born on Tuesday as he is one of eight children, picked us up. During the four hour drive, we drove through a small part of the Serengeti National Park where we saw ostriches, gazelles, and wildebeests out grazing in the savannah. I cannot wait to go back and actually spend some time camping there amongst the wildlife. I don’t know when the migration of wildebeests is, but I desperately need to find out. The last hour of our car ride however, was spent driving slowly down an old, rough, dirt road to our village. As we continued driving, I kept thinking what did I get myself into. We were surrounded by savannah and sparse acacia trees, the ones you picture when you think of Africa, and distant hills and mountains. As we finally arrived and drove through our small village of round mud huts with thatched roofs, I kept thinking to myself, I’m really in Africa. I know I have lived in South Africa before, but it now seems a little less like Africa. Since Jacob and I are living in Kongoto, where the Attorney General Werema grew up, we have the privilege of staying in a house he built to use when visiting family at home. This is such a blessing as there is a constant water supply from a nearby well and solar panels and a generator to supply electricity. Jacob and I washed clothes yesterday and drawing water from the well was fun, but I kept thinking as I saw frogs in there that I hope I don’t get sick. We additionally have part of Werema’s extended family living with us. Magira and one of his wives and four children, a nephew which attends our school in Form 3, and another nephew teaching at a different school for a few months as a part of his teacher training are all a part of our household. It is quite entertaining most of the time. For instance, yesterday I cooked way too much rice and decided to give three of the children the rest of the rice since they were staring at me making it the entire time while playing in the trash. Well…that was not the best idea as I cleaned up sticky rice for quite a bit of time since it was strung all over the floor of the house, table, and chairs where they were sitting. Everyone, as typical in Tanzania and Africa in general, is so welcoming and giving though. A neighbor has brought me thick, fresh milk everyday from her cows, which I cannot drink fast enough as it is definitely not skim milk. Werema and Jumanne’s sister keeps visiting as well and brought some oranges yesterday. It is good that we have a community of assistance as we truly are in the middle of nowhere in a farming village with just a couple small shops and no electricity.

The school in which I am teaching is named Buko Secondary School as it accommodates the two villages of Buswahili and Kongoto. It is approximately a forty minute walk from our house to the school which we do twice a day. There are approximately 130 students and four usable classrooms, although bats (popo) have inhabited the roofs of a couple of the classrooms and are so loud and dirty. The four classrooms house Forms 1-4, grades 9-12 in America. I will be teaching English to Form 1 which is going to be difficult as they know barely any English as freshman, are shy, and their classroom Jacob and I have entitled the “Batcave.” The name was so given because the smell of bat poop is horrendous and the bats are louder than the students. It will be a good challenge! I am also the only female teacher which is a little intimidating, as they tend to direct all conversation to Jacob. I am sure this will get better as I learn more Kiswahili though. There is only one book per subject and form, so the teachers are the only ones who have books. Therefore, all information given is oral or either written on the blackboards for students to copy. I never knew how annoying chalk was to use and erase, or how blessed I was teaching in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. I want to raise money to buy books for the students or teacher aides for the school, but I want to wait and see what would be most beneficial, as this was only my first week teaching. It is so difficult to comprehend a school with just four freestanding open air classrooms, no books, broken chairs and wooden desks, blackboards, and one notebook for every subject. I additionally looked at their test scores from last semester and well over the majority of students failed almost every subject. This are a mix of reasons for this which I will explain later, but this occurs mainly because all government tests are given in English, which the students can barely read and much less understand, especially in the more rural areas where English in never spoken. Therefore, my goal this year is just to try my best to make a difference. It is definitely not going to be easy and I am going to need many, many prayers. I know that God knows what he is doing though, and I have to trust that He will supply all my needs, that He is for me, and that all the struggles both my students and I go through will work together for good. God’s thoughts and plans are bigger than me, so I have faith that since He has given me this opportunity, He will also give me the strength and skill to accomplish this work.

I love you all very much! Katie :)

Hogs and Holes: A Home-stay Experience

The Infamous Pigs

Little Beni and I

The Fam and I

A home-stay is basically where a foreigner stays at the home of locals in whatever country he/she is visiting or living. Therefore, home-stays are always quite the interesting experience as one adjusts, adapts, and reflects on the living and social habits and traditions of a particular culture different than his/her own. My home-stay in Lushoto was no exception, but brought immense joy to my heart. As I was finishing packing my bag with necessities I knew my family wouldn’t have, such as toilet paper, three boys ages 16, 13, and 8 show up to collect me. Just seeing them ignited so much excitement within me. I noticed how nicely they were dressed just to come get me as I followed along behind them down the worn, uneven clay road. I was quite nervous as I thought about what I might be getting myself into. I thought about the bathroom or no bathroom situation, where I was going to be sleeping and possibly with whom, if I was going to have to eat liver or another foreign body part of an animal, and if they were going to be able to speak any English. After a short ten minute walk with little conversation as Swahilli sentences are quite difficult to formulate, we turned beside a rural, shack store, called a duka, and made our way down the hillside to their house. The colorfully painted mud house was surrounded by banana (ndizi) trees, avocado (parachichi) trees, corn (mahindi), many other vegetables, and heaps of tropical flowers. Mama Bosco, mothers are called by their oldest child’s name following Mama, took me straight to my room with my own bed. I was so glad to have my own bed, but I knew that meant that all three boys would be sleeping together in one bed. Tanzanians are so generous, and I knew I couldn’t say no, but I felt horrible about it. After setting my bags down, Mama Bosco took me straight to see the five pigs behind the house. I mean the stalls were pretty clean, but the smell and amount of flies was a little out of control. She additionally pointed out the bathroom/bathhouse which was just the next stall over from the pigs and contained one hole in the ground for using the bathroom and another hole for water to drain while taking a bucket bath. The amount of flies in that room might have outnumbered the ones with the pigs. I wish there was a video of me both trying to use the bathroom and bathe in there while fighting the flies. I actually took more advantage of the bucket and smaller bucket of water I was supposed to use to clean afterwards, in my room at night to use the bathroom. I am so very glad I brought toilet paper, which I had to hide because I felt so bad about having it. The rest of the weekend I spent eating way too much food including mostly fried bread, rice, beans, and peanuts. The amount I ate was still not enough though as they made fun of me because the eight year old Beni ate more than I did. The amount of food they eat is incredible. I kept thinking that maybe it was a good thing that I was eating so much rice and bread as I didn’t have to use the bathroom all weekend. Too much information I know, but so much to be thankful for! In addition to eating, Mama Bosco and I spent all day cooking the food for every meal, as one pot over charcoal is all we had. Beni and I became best buds, and he called me his sister before I left. I taught Beni how to play tic-tac-toe, thumb war, and hand games that I used to play and little girls still play. In exchange, Beni taught me how to shoot marbles, dance, and made me draw lots of pictures. Even though there were not many words spoken over the three days as they spoke no English, and my Kiswahili was/is still being worked on, I of course cried as I left. Goodbyes are not my strong suit as you all well know. Mama Bosco gave me some cloth that matched hers to wear as a skirt, called a kanga, and Beni gave me a drawing that he had been working on. I was already missing them.

It is so crazy to think that ninety percent of Tanzania’s employed people live on less than $1.25 a day, while the unemployment rate is twenty-five percent. Both of these statistics are worse than the surrounding countries of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. I am sure my family is no exception to these statistics. You would never know this was true though just by seeing their joy and love for one another. When we look at their surroundings and circumstances as Americans, we see an immense need, and there is one. But, I am not sure that what they do have is not just as good as or better than all the stuff we really don’t need. I love the way they take care of one another as a family and a community. It is infectious. If I ever have a family of my own, I would be privileged for it to be anything like the one who welcomed me in as an instant daughter and sister.

I leave tomorrow as well to go to my school near Musoma in the north where I will be staying for the year. I am a little nervous, but excited to see my house and where I will be teaching!

Love you guys, katie :)

A Beautiful, Rough Patch

The trip to Lushoto did not start on the expected date and neither did my body. Our bus driver forgot we were supposed to leave on Saturday and wanted us to wait until Monday to leave. However, we somehow coerced him into leaving on Sunday at ten which of course turned into like two. Times of departure and arrival are definitely more like a loose estimate here. Not only was the bus driver not ready, but neither was my body. I woke up on Sunday under my restricting mosquito net really disoriented. This fogginess turned into a fever, headache, sore body parts, and just weakness. You all know how I am about medication, so I of course refused to take anything thinking that I would see how I felt when we arrived in Lushoto. Well…the trip to Loshoto took a lot longer than expected and we had to spend the night in “The White Parrott Lodge.” So where we were supposed to arrive in Lushoto on Saturday, we finally made it on Monday. But to get back to the sickness situation, when driving up because I felt so bad I just kept drinking water thinking we would stop at some point for a bathroom break. That was definitely wishful thinking. I seriously was dying for about five hours, literally! Finally, when we did stop on the side of the road, I started to use the bathroom and didn’t see all the people walking along the side of the road as Africans do because they walk everywhere, and heard some people laughing. They of course were laughing at me, and I got so embarrassed and ran back to the bus with all the little energy I had in me to hide. I mean…it was obviously too late to be hiding. When we finally made it to the lodge, I had the two moms on the team help me perform a self malaria test. Y’all know how I hate anything to do with sickness, needles, etc., so that was of course an ordeal in itself. Lisa had to prick my finger, put the blood in this contraption, and wait for one or two lines to appear after fifteen minutes. It was all so dramatic. It was negative, which was great, but then the question arises then what is going on. I woke up the next day and felt so much better but then my stomach was not so good. I couldn’t eat anything without it coming straight out or coming up. I was just having a really hard time until today really…five days later.  

However, during all this sickness and not eating I have had some amazing experiences. I have had traditional African cooking lessons with some pretty talented mamas cooking with babies on their backs…although explaining to them why I couldn’t eat the food was a little challenging. Y’all have got to try making coconut rice and this omelet with fries cooked in…soooo good! We also went on this five hour breathtaking hike through four villages up to a viewpoint overlooking the Usambara Mountains and all of Lushoto. I am going to eventually upload pictures, because I cannot give the area proper description, but it is like a rainforest in the mountains with clay, red earth. Every plant, view, person, house, animal is picturesque. Mango trees, eucalyptus trees, corn, sugar cane, vegetable gardens, banana trees, coconut trees, goats, chickens, sheep, cows, chameleons, mud and stick houses, and so much more cover the trails and mountain sides. All the Tanzanians we met along our hike were so sweet and welcoming, and I got to practice my Swahili. The little girls gave me flowers to put in my hair, and the boys ran along with us with their home-made plastic bag soccer balls, and wheels they kept going with sticks. One little girl in particular who gave me a flower wanted something in return, so I gave her a piece of candy from a tin I brought from America…but she wanted the whole tin of course, so I gave it to her and told her to share. That was my last food item from home, but I was okay with it. I couldn’t eat them anyway after all the mango I ate for breakfast came out on the hike.

I think I learned these last five days something I have experienced many times…that God is the supplier of all things including health. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it at one point as I sat just thinking about the situation I was in not being able to eat anything, having no water to shower, the electricity being out for the next several days and so forth. There are so many things that I know are blessings such as hot showers, electricity, internet, sleeping without mosquito nets, and being able to eat and have food in general. But…that doesn’t stop me from taking them for granted. God can take away as easily as He gives. It is in these low places that I really discover the foundation of my being. God alone is my sustainer. At home in America, everything is just so comfortable and we don’t really realize we need God…we don’t depend on him as much to sustain our lives. In our weaknesses we find his strength. God wants to be needed, desired, and primary in our lives, and he is not afraid to strip us down until He is all we can depend on for help. It is scary but exciting to think what else he has in store for this year! This week has most definitely been a beautiful, rough patch!

Oh...and Happy 4th of July!!! I cannot believe I am missing all the fireworks!

Love you guys, Katie :)