Side Effects May Include: Patience

One’s capacity to accept or tolerate delay develops immensely while in Africa. Whether you are traveling, shopping, teaching, working or just trying to have conversation, patience is needed. 

I have come to understand that patience is necessary in living here because of the slow pace of life. It can become tiresome and stressful, but rather than getting uptight, which will do no good, you must be able to just relax and, as I’d say, chill.

Some of my Frisbee kids!

Additionally, because you learn that things take a while you begin to plan ahead. If you know you will be travelling it is smart to leave a day early. If you don’t want to stand on the bus then you have to get there early. If you want a conversation to go more smoothly then you must study Swahili. Everything takes time. As a result, whether you have patience or you don’t it is almost guaranteed you will by the time you leave Africa.

Along the topic of patience, one must be accepting of the fact that many here do not know what something’s are back home, even if they are common to us. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays my students have sport time in the afternoon. I have brought out my Frisbees and have begun teaching them how to throw and catch. They were extremely interested. I wasn’t surprised to find out that they had never seen or heard of a Frisbee so it was fun to show them for the first time.

Imagine 400 kids leaving their classrooms and heading out to the football pitch to begin sport time while a white guy shows up with this strange flying disc. Yeah, those 400 kids quickly surrounded me while trying to explain and demonstrate how to play. It was funny.

There are four things I picked up on during sports time:

1. They couldn’t get enough of my red hair. Many would come up and start touching or playing with it. Some of those who did also asked if they could have it. I had to sadly say no considering the fact that, yes; it is attached to my head. Haha!

2. Many would call me Uncle Joseph. I asked them why and they told me that when they don’t know someone very well they call them Uncle. Interesting. They told me that they would just call me Joseph from now on, though.

3. Once again, my name was a major topic of discussion. Students that had names that started with the letter “J” seemed to be very happy. Who knew this would be the cause of popularity in an African high school?

4. In an earlier post I mentioned before the exchange of the greetings “Shikamo” and “Marahaba”. I also said that you must bow when a young person says this to you. Correction: even though you may bow sometimes I must say that I think it is more common not to. This is because a lot of the time you will pass a large number of kids who will all say it and bowing to each one so they can touch your head would take forever and be a bit absurd. Therefore, in situations like this you end up just replying and moving on.

So, after their initial fascination of both the Frisbee and my red hair wore off they began to quiet down. Some went off to play another sport, but the majority stayed. I have a number of Frisbees so I was able to form multiple circles for them to play in. Then they went about throwing the Frisbee. I wouldn’t say throwing a Frisbee is difficult, but when it’s your first time it can be a bit tricky. Therefore, even though I know how to play well I needed to be patient with the kids and wait until they got the hang of it.

Saint Monica's!

Hanging out with the kids is a lot of fun and they have asked me to make sure I make it to each sports time so they can play Frisbee. I, of course, said I would.

In the carpentry shop we have begun making chairs and a bed. It can take some time getting involved with more of the interesting aspects of carpentry (I do a lot of sanding), but it is fun to be in the shop anyways.

After work I enjoy going on my walks into the fields which extend back behind the village. However, there is also a road that runs past Hanga and into another surrounding village and then out into the countryside. It’s wonderful to walk down and it’s always fun to pass by the houses and say hi to the people. They can’t get enough of the uzungu (white man).

Lately we have been graced with some great weather which makes the walking much more enjoyable. The norm in January and February is rain and we have had plenty of that, but the past couple of days were very sunny with a high around 80 degrees. It was nice to get out and enjoy it. Yet, rain is a major part of this time of year so it is nice to have a rain coat for those days that aren’t 80 degrees and sunny. I’m one who doesn’t mind a bit of cold, but I do think the weather I am having here beats what the east coast just got caked with. Enjoy digging yourselves out of that New York.

Check this out: I have heard that in one of the many national parks that span across Tanzania an extremely rare white giraffe was spotted. I could be wrong, but I think this is the only one that has ever been seen. The pictures of it are really cool. Check it out!

To wrap things up, a common phrase to religious here in Tanzania is: Tumsifu Yesu Kristu (We Praise Christ) which you then would reply: Milele Amina (Forever Amen).

I suppose as January comes to a close and February begins to show itself you all move one month closer to that beloved Minnesota summer and I move a step closer to the African winter. Ah, but who am I kidding, those two are practically the same thing! Ha, the one big bonus of living so close to the equator. Happy February everyone!

Thanks for reading!