Happy President's Day

October 14, 2008 6:31 PM


Who knew that my first time celebrating President's Day would be so exciting and busy. Coming from a country with a Prime Minister but no President, I found Nyerere Day a new experience. The holiday falls on every October 14th to commemorate the death of the country's first President, Nyerere. This year the 14th has fallen on a Tuesday which makes the second day of the work week a holiday for most employees.

This morning I woke up at my usual 7am confused about what I was supposed to do today. Hmmm there was something…Then I remembered, Nyerere Day! Hilda and I had made plans to meet up this morning at 9am at the bus station then head to the local market to shop for some "new" clothes. Hilda works at Mkombozi with me and is around my age so I was very excited when she proposed we spend our day off shopping. Before I was able to head to the bus station I did some quick pants washing in the event I was unable to find anything at the market. Washing clothes in the morning is not exactly fun but at least the sun would have ample time to dry the items before my return later in the day.

Quick laundry, quick shower and off down the road. I walked for about 15 minutes when a dalla dalla stopped in front of me to let off a passenger, "Busi Station?" A nod from the conductor and I jumped inside. I knew this meant I would be a bit early but why not save that extra energy for shopping? The dalla dalla wasn't very full, for a dalla dalla anyway. I sat down beside some ladies who looked like they were dressed up for the occasion and I hoped they didn’t care that I was down to my last pair of clean yoga pants and t-shirt. A quick ride later and I was at the bus station. I didn't wait long before Hilda called asking where at the bus station I was, considering the bus station is quite large and pretty much a giant parking lot with various buses of different sizes and colours, I was not surprised that she hadn't found me. I was already annoyed by the many men coming over and asking if I was going to Dar, Arusha and many other towns I hadn't heard of. They all looked at me funny when I said I was waiting for a friend. Finally I told one man "rafiki" (friend) which really confused him!

I followed the instructions Hilda gave me over the phone and met her and her friend Esther by the Christian Bookshop. Then we got into a dalla dalla that would take us to the market. The market is actually quite close to town, if one were ambitious you could walk there, but it took about 10-15 minutes by dalla dalla. We turned off the main road toward Arusha at a sign pointing to a stadium and turned into a big huge field. For almost as far as I could see were little stalls set up built of wood. We were off!

Most stalls specialized in a certain type of clothes, women's pants, blouses or men's shoes etc. Some had all the clothes set up on hangers hanging from the wood 'ceilings', while others just had piles of clothes, shoes or other items piles on top of tarps. The more professionally set out the more expensive, Hilda explained to me. Quite quickly I found a nice pair of Anne Taylor pants I liked but then realized buying white pants with brown pin stripes in dusty Tanzania is not a smart move, not matter how cheap the great quality pants were.

I moved on to another stall finding a nice skirt and then to another where I bought a pair of Esprit pants. Hilda tried on some things but Esther mostly just helped us choose different things. I’m not sure if she couldn't find clothes that she liked or if she didn't have money to spend. Trying on bras in the market was interesting to watch. Choose one off the rack you liked and the owner of the stall comes over and helps you try it on over your shirt. I think I appreciate The Bay, Sears etc a lot more now.

While waiting for Hilda to try on some skirts I found a nice long sleeved teal shirt that matches my new skirt quite nicely. All in all, I think we spent 2 hours at the market wandering in and out of stalls looking at clothes, purses and baby clothes (Hilda and Esther were looking for baby clothes for gifts). Late morning brought the hot sun and I was happy to finish my first big market shopping adventure.

We took a dalla dalla back into town and then Hilda and Esther went off to find a new battery for Hilda's phone. I decided to avoid doing laundry and wandered to the Coffee Shop for some lunch. There I ran into a girl who had been at Mkombozi earlier in the week trying to set up a volunteer program and two of her colleagues. They invited me to join them and over lunch I learned that both Chris and Marilyn are from Oregon but just met here recently. He was here setting up volunteer programs for students back in the states and she is a nurse volunteering at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Hospital in Moshi. Wasi works out of Arusha but she is from Sweden originally.

Marilyn and Chris were on a mission to find some fabric and food at the market so I accepted their offer to join them, excited to do more touristy things in Moshi without worrying about the hassle that goes with wandering around town alone.

In the market I bought a mango which is still waiting to be eaten. Then in a small fabric shop I bought two different patterns of cloth to make into skirts (Marilyn introduced me to her seamstress on the street along the way). One is brown and off white with big hibiscus type flowers and the other is teal, black and yellow swirly patterns (very scientific I know!). I might have to go back to get more fabric to take home and make purses :)

Final stop along the way was at the grocery store to stock up on food for the week and buy a new dvd. Both ventures were successful and I am now the proud owner of bread. I mean a 16 movie Adventure DVD including Legends of the Fall, 300, Eragon and Troy among others.

Marilyn and I headed home together after saying good-bye to Chris, since we discovered that we live pretty close to each other by Moshi standards. We parted after agreeing to get together soon so Marilyn could teach me how to survive on more than rice and noodles.

Tuesday afternoon I came home and started boiling some water to top up my bottles in the fridge then finished off my laundry. Very exciting stuff.

The rest of the week flew by. I don’t know why time decides to move faster when you stop paying attention. Wednesday with no groups to attend I caught up on planning for the other groups this week and the fostering presentation that was supposed to be on the 18th but was moved to the 25th. I think it looks pretty good and hope it goes well! I have a nifty hand out on the various stages of development and tips for foster parents for what to do with different children in the different developmental stages and a little piece on trauma and how it can affect development.

Thursday the computer team from ACTT came into our office and tested all the computers for viruses. Bonus for me because I brought my own computer but they still insisted on installing updated virus detection software and testing it out. Turns out I had 8 malicious viruses/worms on my computer but compared to the 150 of the computers around me I think that’s not bad. I hope everyone who I sent emails to last week can still read this. If not, sorry?

Didas, one of the IT guys also noticed that my computer is running slow (extremely slow sometimes) and offered to look into buying more memory and installing it for me. His English was awesome and he definitely knew what he was talking about so I said SURE!!!! He text me this evening to let me know it would cost 50,000 shillings for the memory card (I have no clue if that is good), and I assume since he said 20 minutes max to make sure it would work, the labour won't be too much on top of that. I am super excited! Although I hope this doesn't get erased by the process?

My computer took half the day to virus test etc, which was incredibly irritating but a great test of patience and what I had pictured as African office life. I spent most of the time reading some articles that Corey gave me to read for my reflective practice and then jumped at the chance to take the shuttle into town. So did Jane and William, who were also waiting for their computers to be tested. Actually, William jumped at the chance to get his home computer updated and his house was one of our shuttle stops so he could pick it up. We also went to a small market area that I had never been to south of Moshi, stopped at a gas station way down the Double Road, I ran into the post office and Consul jumped out to go to the bank I think. It was quite fun, sort of like a field trip. William said if I want to get to see all of Moshi all I have to do is take the shuttle into town everyday. I laughed and said "but I"ll never get work done!" He sort of laughed with me.

While waiting to be picked up at the post office, Rhasta Bob, one of the tour guide friends I have made over the weeks found me. He asked me what I was doing, so I explained I was waiting for the work shuttle to pick me up since I was in town as part of work (which is technically true). He then asked me why I hadn't called him. I explained I have been busy and haven't had time to book a tour. Then he explained that he tried to call me 5 times the other day and I didn't answer my phone. True story. I was busy doing something and didn't answer the first two times, then noticed he was a stalker and ignored the next three.

Then he went on to ask me why I haven't called. I said I have been very busy and am very busy the next little while. Not good enough apparently. He said he tried to call me on Saturday, I told him I was in Arusha and couldn't answer. Ah, this is where I gets interesting, to me anyway. Rhasta Bob then asked me if I had a boyfriend in Arusha, because if there was someone in Arusha that I’m seeing then he will leave me alone! Completely confused by this guy who I thought just wanted business taking tourists up to the local waterfalls, I nodded and said that I do have someone in Arusha. He said, no problem I wont bother you again, and walked away.

And I thought men were confusing in Canada. Never will I think that again. Ok I will, but I will appreciate their confusing ability more than the very unique abilities of Tanzanian men. I wonder what the name is of my Arusha boyfriend?

Thursday afternoon I did the last minute preps for the Shauri Moyo Primary school group then Simon drove me over and Amani met me on his motorcycle. The group went so well! We played a freeze game version of musical chairs to the song "just dance" by Lady GaGa and at the end they asked if they could keep playing. So cute. By the end of the group I was exhausted and happy to get back to the office where I was able to upload a few more photos onto facebook and reply to some long overdue emails.

Oh before I forget, if anyone is expecting/wanting a postcard I suggest you email me your mailing address. I didn’t actually bring anyone's addresses with me, so if you haven't sent me your address yet, or if we don’t' share more than 49% of our DNA there is a good chance you don't have a post card on the way.

Friday. All day yesterday I thought it was Friday, so by the time today rolled around I was pretty much over the excitement and itching for weekend. In the morning Amani and I went to a new public school with a name so long with so many different letters I need to see my notes to write it out. It is located in Uru and the ride on the motorcycle was amazing. The dirt road was lined on both sides with trees for most of the way: banana, avocado and mango trees among others - I'm not the plant expert in the family. So many different shades of green and each so vibrant! We reached the top of one hill and I looked out over a huge valley filled with trees and I imagine the other side has priceless views of Kili when the clouds have cleared. It was quite damp and humid with clouds lingering to block my mountain views. But otherwise the sky was perfect blue, and the sun shining with super strong rays as usual. Just when I thought I was getting used to the beauty of the landscape, we slowed down to turn into the school. Right beside the school is an enormous Catholic church. Very old, with very European architecture. It is amazing and right in the middle of no where in a rural village. I can't wait to take my camera with me next time.

The meeting with the head teacher went well, and it turned out I remembered her and another teacher from the critical foster care training back in September. The support group at that school will start on Wednesday and hopefully we will have a teacher joining us to help out and so they can pass on our activities to other teachers to use in classes.
Then Amani, the head teacher and 2 other teachers reviewed some training they had done previously in very fast Swahili. I got a moquito bite on my neck and thought about lunch and how to stay awake when you are hot and don’t know what is going on around you. Very social work-y. I know.

The ride back was a bit more stressful and amazing. Amani pointed out the different trees and explained that the Chagga tribe lives mostly in that area. There are many rivers and we could see the irrigation system flowing under the road. Going down the hills was quite the test of my arm muscles to hang onto the bike (obviously I’m ok so no need to worry). I also think that riding a motorcycle requires some ab muscles to stay balanced, but then, what do I know about muscles? I'm starting to enjoy the rides though and rarely think about what would happen if….never mind.

This afternoon was way too long. Way too hot, even with the a/c and I gave in and googled hostels in Nairobi, and signed up for a Skype phone number/account. Soon you can call me on my new North American phone number and I can answer on my computer, if I'm at it and the cost is free for you! If you have a long distance plan that is. Or I can call Canada and the US unlimited minutes any time of day for less than $5 a month! How cool is that? I hope it works out. I'll update you on that soon.

Tonight Lyn and I went out for dinner at a steakhouse in town. First we stopped by Club La Liga because someone told Lyn you can get dinner there. Which you can, but chicken and chips is the most exciting option. They did let us wander inside and it is quite big with pool tables, a big dance floor and bars. Lots of paint and black light too. Might be fun to check out sometime with a big group of people that I know very well.

At the steakhouse I drank white wine while eating beef and veggies in a heated by candle pot and chips. It was yummy but I burnt my tongue. I was also able to meet one of Lyn's regular drivers Moses. He's very nice and is able to speak English, plus he picked me up at home and knows my landlord so he is a good choice to call when I need a ride somewhere.

Ok I have to get up early for the Mkombozi group tomorrow so that’s all for now. I think I still have to write about last weekend….but maybe I'll do last weekend and this weekend together. I hope to go to Usangi in the Pare mountains for the weekend so I will have new adventures to share!