You do not want to overload yourself with work; however I do try to secure a number of jobs so I have good work to occupy my time. Sometimes you will
encounter a situation where there is not much work at the first job you go to
so this allows for an alternative. I have begun to help in the gardens this
week where we have been pruning banana trees and planting soybeans. I have also
agreed to help out at another one of the schools. A friend of mine named Barack
teaches how to use computers and speak English at the vocational school. He has
asked me to help him with pronunciation and thinks having me come to class
would benefit his students as well.
The main goal is to just speak with them. This is a big
problem with any language class, in America or Africa. You never actually use
the language in real life. I took Spanish in high school, but once you leave
the classroom you revert back to English and never even try Spanish. The same
is done here. They learn English, but only use Swahili. Having me in class will
help that. I just told him that they could ask me questions and we could talk
about America or some specific topic. The topic isn’t of much importance, using
English is.
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| Pruning a banana tree in the banana plantation |
Additionally, after my trip to Dar and Arusha in March I
will come back for the tail-end of my service. After speaking with Br. Joseph
who runs the clinic I think (you never really know) I will get to work in the
sick-bay or testing area. I feel this would be more beneficial for both of us.
An additional hand helping out with the sick kids and it is a more interesting
and significant experience for me.
Last week my friend Raphael and I went into Songea to meet
with a man he knows from Germany. Theodore, the German, is visiting until March
and has been coming back to Tanzania since 1981. He is a really nice guy and
understands Swahili and the country well. Therefore, on our way to Dar I think
we will travel with him. He will be leaving once we reach Dar, but to have
another person in our company will be nice when travelling.
The rain tends to come in the evening (most of the time) and
so I have been able to sneak in a few of my long walks every now and then.
Every once in a while I will get caught off guard by a storm moving in and
that’s never too fun, but I usually make it back in time. Ruvuma, the province
I live in, borders another which is home to one of the largest national parks
in the world. I mention this because I believe we get to pass through it on the
way to Dar. It’s always fun to see wild animals that you would never imagine
seeing in America. Also, I can hear monkeys in the distance while out and about
sometimes. I haven’t spotted them, but I can hear them. I don’t necessarily
think this is because of the national park considering monkeys are all over
Africa, but maybe. This also explains why everyone has a dog. They help chase
the monkeys off when they get too close.
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| Passion Fruits |
The ‘cool fruit list’ continues to grow as the seasons
change. I have always been a big fan of fruit juice and so back home my Mom
will pick up juice that is labeled things such as passion fruit or guava. I
never had tried these fruits in real life, but they grow here and it’s awesome.
Passion fruit has to be the lemons rival. The juice inside is so sweet. It’s
delicious, but super sweet just like a lemon. The guava tree is growing and in April
the guavas will be able to be picked and eaten. I also walk through the garden
and pick up some advocatos to eat. It’s common to find some worms wiggling
through them, though, and so after seeing them my appetite for advocato at that
time tends to cease.
Another food I recently tried is cassava. I think that is
how you would spell it. Cassava is pretty good and is eaten more for its energy source
rather than taste. It doesn’t taste bad, but it is taken in the morning for
energy throughout the day. Br. Germanos and I will chomp down on some while
working in the garden.
Br. Germanos invited me to help vaccinate some pigs the
other day. I suppose I wasn’t of much help, but I did get to see how it was
done. Many pigs here were infected by a parasitic worm and so they asked Br.
Germanos to come and vaccinate them. He injects them right behind the ear. Interesting for us and terrifying for
the pigs who have no idea what is about to happen.
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| Cassava |
My Swahili is getting better, but it is something that takes
time. People speak too quickly which I feel is a problem for so many people
trying to learn a language. In fact, it’s not that they speak too quickly. It’s
that our brain does not know the words and, therefore, is unable to separate
them when hearing them being said. If you are reading this then you are
probably fluent in English like I am. Since this is the case, our brains automatically
separate the words so you are able to understand when someone is speaking to
you. We never actually stop talking; its continuous speech with our brain doing
the work to decipher what is being said. This is why when you hear Spanish you
think the person is talking 100mph when really your brain just cannot separate
the words and so it sounds like one big phrase of gibberish.
However, I did learn how to say the S word in Swahili this
past week. This is probably something you think I shouldn’t be stating, but I
thought it was funny and actually a bit useful. Now if you get really ticked at
that cop for giving you a ticket, stub your toe in church or are upset at the
amount of work your boss just gave you there is a word you can use and they
will have no idea what the heck you are saying. Kasheshe (Kuh-shay-shay) is
that word.
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| Br. Germanos vaccinating some pigs |
Words you know are obviously easy, but even words you sort
of know can be tricky because you don’t actually know the definition. You are
just able to use it when speaking. Then the words you don’t know look as if
they aren’t even from the English language. Ha! Good thing I have the quizlet
app. It allows you to create a set of flashcards which are super helpful. I
have some actual flashcards, but I guess I didn’t being enough (though, I
thought I had) so I may use those for Swahili words.
Something I have noticed and thought I would mention is the
amount of people who are unable to drive. There are plenty of cars and people
who do however there are lots who do not. In America practically everyone you
meet has a driver’s license. It’s actually kind of strange when they don’t.
Yet, here, so many people use public bussing to get around that it is rare to
see personal vehicles. In Dar es Salaam, the business center for Tanzania,
there are plenty but not in the outskirts or the villages. Lake Nyasa is only a
few hours from where I live and is one of the largest lakes in Africa. I have
heard it is beautiful. The lake is called Nyasa in Tanzania and Lake Malawi
elsewhere. Br. Germanos wants to plan a trip there in April and so I said we
should. I then asked if he could possibly drive us to save money and time. He
laughed and said that he did not know how to drive. Public bussing it is haha J
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| At Raphael's house in Songea. Holding baby Christopher, his nephew |
Supposedly there was a large carnival/festival taking place
in Europe this past week. I believe it was called the Fasching Carnival.
Christa, the older woman from Austria, wanted to celebrate it considering it
takes place in Germany and so we grabbed a Safari lager and a few cookies from
the nearby shop. It was nice to just hangout and relax.
Today is Ash Wednesday. At mass this morning we received the
sign of the cross in ash, but rather than placing it on the forehead they put
it on top of the head. Everyone has short black hair except for me so I think
the priest was a bit confused on what to do. It ended up more as a big heap of
ash in my hair ha. Hey, it works.
Well, with this extra free time I have I better get back to
memorizing hundreds of vocab words so I can attempt to do well on some random
company’s standardized exam that will hopefully impress a college enough for
them to allow me to go there. Let the fun begin!
Thanks for reading!
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