A Day in the Life

I don't know where to begin! It's been so long....I've been living in my village for about two months now and its weird how much I feel at home there these days. The barren walls of my house have been covered up by the drawings that the kids have done, washing my clothes by hand and riding my bike to the well to get water have become daily norms for me, I actually have cravings for ugali now, and I have found some great friends and family here in Nanjota. Of course it does help to come into Masasi town, or rather "The Sass" every so often to see my American friends and belt out a bit of Celine Dion with the Dadas at the local eatery.
I started teaching English at the primary school to standard six students. Primary school goes until standard seven. I really enjoy it, and I think the students do too, even if they can't understand me all the time. They're really not hard to please considering without me there, they wouldn't have a teacher at all. Every time I walk in the classroom, they all stand up and say "Good morning teacher!" They don't all have books or pencils and some of them can't even read very well, so getting through to them has been a challenge. Many of them are too timid or shy to speak in front of the class or in front of me, so I try to let them work individually and go around to help them one on one. I think next week I'll bring in some candy as incentive, which will probably change things a bit. Last week, I went over pronouns and had them write sentences using them. They got the hang of usng the pronouns, but when asked to come up with sentences of their own, they didn't know enough words to complete the sentences. One boy showed me his sentence, which read "I am your bananas." So I hope now he knows his pronouns and the meaning of the word banana.
I also started doing formal house to house surveys throughout the village with my VEO (village executive officer) and the village chairman. This was much more challenging than I anticipated. We walked around visiting about 7 homes each day for about 3 days , and I would tell people why I had come to Nanjota and ask them questions about their families and possible work they would like to see done in the village. Nobody speaks English so I probably got about half of the information given for each survey, and many times people either didn't know how to answer the questions or were too scared or embarrassed to answer me directly. But then there were other families that were very open and honest. Many people hadn't gone to school past primary school. The majority are from the Makuwa tribe. The village is made up of about 70 percent Muslims and 30 percent Christians. Many women are raising families without husbands, and there are a number of children that don't go to school for various reasons. Often the parent can't afford to buy uniforms or books, or kids end up staying home to help with housework instead of going to school, especially if there's only one or no parents. Families are always pretty big also. I talked to one old guy....I tried to talk to one old guy, who told me that he had twelve kids. I also talked to an old bibi who only spoke Kimakuwa, the tribal language. Also I'm pretty sure she was blind. I took a seat on the mat outside her house next to her and proceeded to ask her 12 year old grandson my survey questions (such as what do you know about preventing HIV/AIDS) while he translated for her and then back to Swahili for me. Not sure that I got a whole lot of information from that one, but I was happy to visit with them. Next, I'm trying to set up some needs assessment meetings at the village government office, one with the men, one with the women, and one for the village youth outside of school. I'm hoping to get started with those over the next couple weeks.
I've also gotten a chance to visit farms with people from my village. Its cashew season right now! And everyone is very happy because they are harvesting their cashews and getting more money. I went to the farm with Mama Swaum one week and helped her collect korosho (cashews) that had fallen from the tree. Each cashew grows out of the fruit of the tree, which are called "mabibo" in Swahili. We collected mabibo, separated the cashews from the fruit and brought them all back to the house. We roasted to cashews and then cracked them open to get the nuts out of the shells. They were delicious! And Mama Swaum then uses the mabibo to brew pombe, local alcohol, which she can sell also.
Last Sunday I went to church and ended up having chai afterwards at the mission with the two Polish sisters who live there. It was kind of weird, because although they too are wazungu, we still had to speak Swahili to each other as they don't know English and I certainly don't speak Polish. They run the hospital in Nanjota and walking into the Mission was like stepping into a different world. The floor was clean. There were chairs with cushions, a CD player with speakers playing music, and a whole plate full of candy on the coffee table. They fed me...a lot...and talked with me about life in the village. They asked me where I get water and I told them that I go to the well like everyone else. Sister Sofia, or Mama Mkubwa as she's known around the village, was astonished to hear this and insisted that I come to the Mission to get water. The Mission is much closer to my house than the well, and the water is much cleaner...and I didn't want to be rude, so I thanked her and returned the next day with my bike and two large buckets. So I've become a bit spoiled but I still enjoy going to the other well sometimes with my friend too.
Last weekend, I visited the village of Lulindi with my neighbor. She went to visit family....it was....a learning experience. My neighbor, Mama Lazia, is very nice, but it was just a lot of Swahili for three days without enough Cameron time. She walked me around the whole village, which seemed to be fairly comparable to village life in Nanjota, and introduced me to her family. Let me ask you a question...have you ever seen a pair of 115 year old boobs? Because I have! I met Mama Lazia's grandmother, who looked like if you pushed her she'd just fall over and die right there. She can still walk, and she does have a few teeth left. She was very sweet and gave me some papayas to take back to Nanjota. We spent three nights in Lulindi, and I didn't have the foresight to plan for sleeping arrangements. We arrived at her sister's house the first night and I asked where I would be sleeping. Mama Lazia told me that the three of us would be sleeping in one bed. OK! I got ready for bed and jumped in with Mama Lazia, who is a big lady, and her sister, who I had met earlier that day. Before getting into bed they both took off their shirts and switched the radio on. As I lay in bed, a bed which was definitely not as big as I would have liked it to be, and I was sandwiched between these two Tanzanian women listening to the soothing sound of the Swahili radio blasting in my ear, I realized I could also hear a large rat squeaking somewhere in the tiny dark room. Mama Lazia rolled over and proceeded to spoon me...hard. At this point I asked myself,"What is going on with my life right now?" Needless to say, I was very excited to return to Nanjota, and I'd never been happier to see my house.
I've made good friends with a few of the vijana(youth) of Nanjota. My new friends, John and Rizik, have come to visit me a few times to play cards and this week we went to Nairombo, a village within the Ward of Nanjota, and got to meet some of the people living there. We also climbed a large mountain. It was hard to get to the top, but once we got there the view was incredible! I could see all the way past the Sass. Everything was green with cashew trees. We also rode bikes to the village of Milunda for the primary school graduation there. As we past through a few of the houses and emerged on the main dirt road, John and Rizik started laughing and I look behind me to see a swarm of children running after us screaming and waving and trying to catch up with me. Rizik said it was like I was the president!
Last Saturday was the graduation at the secondary school. There is only one secondary school for the six villages in the Nanjota Ward, and there were about 35 students in the graduating class. It was a really nice ceremony. They sang and danced a lot. I got to sit up front with all the village officials, and they welcomed me. Afterwards we ate some delicious pilau.
On Sunday I was visiting my friend, Tupatupa, in the afternoon. There is a lot of pombe drinking that goes on in the village everyday, but Sundays in particular can get pretty rowdy. I'm sitting outside the house talking with Tupatupa and his wife, when this obviously drunk bibi wanders into the courtyard. She's very short and stumbling. She had approximately 5 teeth in her mouth. She walks up to us and starts singing. I can't understand her and realize she is speaking Kimakuwa. She continues to sing louder and starts doing this dance which involved violent pelvic thrusts. I couldn't stop laughing. Tupatupa told me she was doing a tribal dance, and then he started to clap and sing along with her. She decided to take a break and took a seat next to me. She starts speaking loudly telling me that she is Makuwa and asking me where I'm from. Again she tells me she's Makuwa in a loud voice just in case I didn't catch it the first 2 times. She asks Tupatupa if he's got any pombe, to which he replies "hapana," and then she slowly hoisted herself up off the ground to continue singing and thrusting. She sang and danced her way all the way out of the courtyard.
There have been many moments such as this one over the past few weeks when I take a step back and look at where my life has taken me, and I just have to laugh. Sometimes I still can't believe I'm here and doing this. Who would have thought that I would be singing Kimakuwa with a crazy drunk grandma in a village in Masasi? Or that I would be braiding my neighbor's hair into corn rows while having a conversation with her in Swahili? Or that I would be riding my bike through scattered mud huts and cashew trees with my new Tanzanian friend seated behind me? I'm definitely enjoying it here in Nanjota and have grown accustom to the Tanzanian way of living. The other day I woke up with a rat in my bed and just pushed him off, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Ya, I think I've integrated.