Shikamoo

Q: Shikamoo
A: Marahaba

In Tanzania one greats an elder with "Shikamoo" and the only reply is "Marahaba." I get "Shikamoo-ed" from children a lot.

Our host family is great. There is Mama (mom), Baba (dad), 3 dada (sisters), 2 kaka (brothers), and 1 house helper. Russ and I have our own room with a mosquito net. Our house has running water an electricity and I'm a pro at using a pit latrine.

The food is great! Potatoes, rice, ugali (corn mush), vegies, and meat.

Daily routine:
-Get up at 6:45 am (12:45 TZ time)
-Use latrine
-Eat breakfast (boiled eggs, bread, butter, chai)
-Russ rides his bike to school while I walk (we're in different training groups)
-Kiswahili classes
-10:00 am Chai (very British system)
-Kiswahili classes
-12:00pm lunch (rice, peas, potatoes, banana, chai)
-Kiswahili classes and TZ culture
-done at 5 pm
-walk home (10 minutes)
-play with children (ages 9-14), speak Kiswahili with them, have them laugh at us because we can't pronounce somethings and say the wrong words
-watch tv
-eat dinner at 8 pm
-go to bed

Today mama, russ and I went to the market and I bought some material to make a dress. There is a daughter in our family who is 25 and she can make me the dress. It cost about 3500 T.shs for the material and another 1200 T.shs for the zipper, lining, and thread.

Town is about a 45 minute walk from our house but we could use the daladala. Daladala...hmm...it's a bit difficult to describe. They are the transportation system in towns. There is no schedule and you kinda just flag them down on their route. It costs about 200 T.shs to get a ride to town, but you might wait for half an hour in the sun just for one.

All us PCTs tried to use the Internet yesterday because it was our only "free" day since we got to TZ but the system was down. Luckily it's back up today. I changed the timestamp on blogger so now the time should be correct.

I'm amazed at how long it takes to cook! All water that will be used in food and for drinking has to be brought to a boil so it kills the bacteria, etc. and that takes forever. That's why we eat so late at night.

Oh, this morning I washed my underwear! Baby steps, right? The house helper washed my regular clothes a few days ago but washing your underwear is very personal. When you hang them out to dry you need to put a cloth over them otherwise it's like you being naked outside.

I'm trying to upload some pictures to our gallery. We'll see how many I can get uploaded before my time is up!

Note to new PCVs: Save room for a lot of stuff the PC will give you once in country. I could fill another backpack with the learning books and medical kit (like a small toolbox) that PC gave us. Also, please tell your family back at home that you probably won't be able to contact them for about three weeks once you leave the US.