Trading Spaces

September 16, 2008 7:45 PM

This entry is the first from my new house. I am typing this from my "living room" where I am surrounded by 3 other chairs and a couch, the laptop sits on my coffee table which is placed in front of my tv stand and TV! I am currently enjoying a new episode of Isidingo, the South African soap opera.

Today was fairly productive. After sorting through my emails I went into town to prepare for my move. The 9:30 shuttle left almost on time with just Consul, Yusuph and I being driven by Simon. After a painfully long wait at the Tanzanian Social Welfare office we dropped Yusuph off at the Finance Department building and Simon took me on a search of the city. First, I exchanged some Tanzanian Shillings for dollars at a Bureau de Changes (if someone can tell me why all currency exchange places in Africa are called Bureau de Changes please do!). My new landlord prefers to be paid in US dollars because his children are studying in Uganda and it helps him pay for their expenses, which works ok for me, but involves an extra trip to exchange the money I get from the ATM.

Next, we went on a search for a mosquito net, finding that the ones in the street stalls were all square or very thick. We would up at a place called Chui Traders which sells fabric. They had a beautiful huge one for 22,500 but we managed to find a very nice shorter one for 5,500. Then discovered that they also sold sheets, pillow cases and pillows which I picked up for 17,000 which I think is quite steep but Simon didn't give me any signals that it was too much (like he did for the first mosquito net). My sheets are cute and random. One is pink with flowers and the other is white and green stripes. Then when I moved in I realized that the bottom sheet I had brought from home is only slightly too small for my mattress and I think it will work out great.

In the afternoon I went to the fostering training program that Steven is running. I arrived in time for some "group work" which was interesting because I was placed with 2 men and a woman who were discussing the assignment quite intensely in Swahili. The instructor called me aside and explained that they were asked to describe themselves based on Body, Mind, Spirituality and Social lives. It was similar to exercises we do in Social Work involving social location and I was pretty impressed. Except the instructor was having trouble explaining to the participants what he wanted them to do. For example, my group was discussing how one of the teachers found the school day very structured with rules but at home there were not real 'rules' and no set times for things to happen. He said he acts different at school and at home because of this.

After this exercise the instructor tried to explain measures of "wholeness" based on Body, Mind, Spiritual and Social aspects. At the end of the day he explained to me that it is very difficult teaching these concepts in Swahili because he went to school in Chicago for his PhD in Psychology and only knows the terms in English. Also, many terms do not have a Swahili equivalent. He explained that the direct translation for "Counselling" is a word that cross translates to mean "advice giving" and that he doesn't want the participants to think that by going to a counsellor they will be told the answers to their problems, so he instead uses the English word in his explanation. I hope to return tomorrow afternoon for the training because I find it very interesting learning the concepts and new words in Swahili.

My move from the lodge was not without complication. Simon offered to help me gather my things to drive over here to the house. I wasn't about to turn that offer down which meant gathering my things to move and telling the lodge I was moving all in one swoop. Oops.
I think I caused quite a raucous because Isaac came running into my room while I was packing the last of my things and asked what was going on. He said that he thought I could talk Mama Moshi down but not to the same level that I am paying here at the house. He said he understood that its hard as a student and she was charging a lot and offered to help with my bags. Then I went to speak to Mama Moshi. She was not happy. I don’t blame her but I never signed a contract and had not actually given her any money since arriving. She asked me if I knew the policy for leaving earlier than planned and I replied that, no, I did not know because she never showed me anywhere that there were policies or contracts. She didn't think that was funny. She said that because I did not give notice I would have to pay the short term rate, which I agreed was fair (yet crazy expensive for the area) and proceeded to fork over almost the equivalent of 3 months in this house for only 20 days staying at her lodge.

She warned me that if I "pulled this" at another place it would not go as well and I should be thankful. Although, I think at another place they would not let me stay there for 20 days without paying.

So Alex helped me grab a bag and I said good-bye to the chef and other boys that either live there or just hang out there and we drove away. It was quite stressful! Luckily I had already given Isaac my number and he text me a little while later to say we can still be friends and he will miss me. So nice! I hope we do stay in touch, we had some good evening conversations.