Taking Care of Business the Right Way

A nice melancholy overcast is settling across the southern Tanzanian sky this evening. I like the gloom. It brings forth a cool, relaxed and worry-free feeling. It is a great feeling to have at the end of a long week.

I spent the past few days working my usual jobs. On Thursday I made my way over to Nocagugu again only to find that my friend Raphael had gone into Songea earlier that day. I didn’t mind, though. It’s a good long walk out to the formation school and so it made for some good exercise. Today, Saturday, I went into Songea. I am beginning to prepare for my trip to Dar es Salaam and Arusha and so I wanted to grab a few things from town. I pulled out some cash to have on hand and bought a cheap pair of headphones. Those will come in handy on the 12-14 hour bus ride from Songea to Dar. I also ran an errand for Christa. She wanted me to pick up a few things for her from the post office and so I did.

The Zipper Headphone is
what they call them!

I wasn’t too sure on where to go to buy headphones and such so I asked a random man. His name was Vincent and he was extremely nice. He showed me around and where to buy certain things. I did end up buying a pair of headphones, but you have to try them out before walking away. You can almost guarantee they are knock-offs (they tried to sell me some free KLM airplane headphones) which isn’t bad, but they may not work.

It is never a surprise to me when buying something and finding out it does not work. This is very common and the first pair I had my eye on actually didn't work. Luckily the one’s I ended up buying do. If they stop working after the trip to Kilimanjaro then so be it, but I hope they get me through the long bus rides.

I also purchased a pair of shoes. Are they used? Yes. Do I care? No. They are a pair of white high-top converse which are just my style. I bought them from a street vendor for $12! New ones in the U.S. would probably be $60+. They look great and feel great and that's all that matters. I bought them to have a nice fresh pair for my trip to Europe.

For helping me, I bought Vincent some chipsi for lunch. We enjoyed the meal and some Stoney Tangawizi (ginger ale) in Songea.

In town, like most everywhere else, the toilets available to you are just holes in the ground. I have mentioned this before, but want to touch on it again quickly. As you can imagine, one must squat in order to take care of their business. However, even though this way is much more primitive and unsanitary, people who go to the bathroom in this fashion are doing so properly.

Contrary to popular belief, humans were not designed to take care of their business at a 90-degree angle like most of our modern toilets allow. By squatting you actually align your body properly and allow less strain on the inner organs. If you have never taken care of your business in this manner before it can take some time to get used to, I’d know. It feels weird and can strain the legs a bit, but, in the end, it works just the same or even better.

John and I coined the term the ‘orangutang hang’ for when one must do their business out in the bush. This also has happened. When you start thinking about it, though, if you were to put something like a rope or bar to help you stabilize while taking care of your business it would be extremely helpful. Honestly. It would also be much more comfortable. I’m starting to think there could be some good money in this idea. Watch out world, the Orangutang Hang is coming your way!

You may be thinking it is gross that I’m talking about going to the bathroom, but it is something we all do every day and considering it’s such a significant part of our daily lives I thought it may be worth talking about. Now, I highly doubt you all are going to start tearing out your nice porcelain toilets for something a bit different. I don’t blame you (Mom and Dad, please don’t!) Something you can do, though, is buy a small stool and place it in the bathroom. This will allow you to raise your legs a bit and help your body’s posture.

So that is that, just a quick tidbit on how to take care of your business properly.

While getting ready to head back to Hanga from Songea I was asked to get out of the dali dali (minivan taxi) by what he described himself as an immigration officer. He asked for my passport. I told him I didn’t have it on me (which I didn’t). Blah, blah, blah. I find this stuff bizarre, but if it is actually a normal thing then that’s fine. I am still skeptical, though. I told him that I had to get back to the monastery in order to pray. It wasn’t a complete lie, but it did work! He told me to pray for him. I’ll do that while also praying that I never get asked to show my passport while shopping in town again.

Monalisa. A student at Saint Benedict

I went to the debate at the secondary school again. It is fun seeing the kids get up and try and argue a position. I think the best parts, though, are when they just go all out. Some walk in with this swagger that most high-schoolers try to pull off.  It’s this “I’m super cool and know that I am right” sort of walk. There are the shy ones, of course, but the kids who bring in this persona just make you laugh. It’s not that I am laughing at them. It’s more that I am laughing because it reminds me of every kid in my high school and how almost everyone acts this way while they are young. Too funny.

Rather than bring one of my own books with me on the trip I’ll be going on in March I have found an old worn out one in the monastery. It is titled East of Eden. I have heard it is good. I will have finished The Things They Carried by the time I leave so it will be nice to have something to read while on the trip. Plus, now that it is already beat up I won’t feel bad about keeping it in my bag with all of my other gear.

A little bit of a shorter post this Saturday. Things are good over on this side of Africa. I hope the same is for all of you. Take some time to just sit and relax. The weather back in Minnesota probably isn’t very comparable to that of east Africa, but still take some time. Life is always moving so dang fast. We’re always going, buying, consuming, talking and because of this time just gets away from us. I read a post on Facebook about growing up in the 90’s and 2000’s and the post mentioned the word chillax. I remember using that word far too much back in my middle school days. Good times. However, it’s a good word to use right now. Just chillax.

To conclude, my sister gave me a blue bandanna to take with me to Africa. I wear it every day. Many people come up to me and ask for it. They always want the blue bandanna. More than anything else I have on me. It’s always the blue bandanna. Every once in a while I will hand out candy, help someone out with a few bucks and I always promise them that at the end of my stay I will give them a piece of clothing (because that has been my plan all along and so I will). However, it’s a solid no on the blue bandanna. They usually ask one more time just for safe measure. I smile because even though the bandanna is inexpensive and not a necessity they are asking for something that I’m just not going to give away. My sister gave it to me and because of this it has tremendous value. When alone in the middle of Africa it is nice to have something from my sister and so the blue bandanna will stay snug around my neck protecting it from the sun for the rest of my time here.

Thanks for thinking of me, Grace! The blue bandanna has definitely come in handy! J

Enjoy the day, everyone.

Thanks for reading!