Let it Rain, Let it Rain, Let it Rain...
Thanksgiving
For Thanksgiving we were invited back to the American ambassador's house where he didn't make any mistakes with the food or drinks. Among the beautiful setting of his home, we were served wine and beer (on tap) and water (with ice and a lemon!). As it was 2 pm or so in Dar es Salaam and very hot and humid I opted for a little wine but then chugged down the ice water. Mmmm....ice... The ambassador had 20 turkeys cooked and we had all the fixings. It was a great Thanksgiving.
World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day is December 1, but in our town we celebrated it on December 4 due to scheduling conflicts. Russ worked with a local non-profit group on a project for World AIDS Day in which students from a local secondary school would paint three ceiling boards with images and sayings and they would go up in the school and hospital. Russ prepared everything, wrote a grant and received some money for the small project, and we met with the students one last time to go over everything. On the morning of December 4, we walked to the start of the parade/march at around 8 am. There were a few students (30 or so) standing in lines with their arms streched out so they were an arms' length away from each other. A few official looking people drove up in land rovers and got out and we greeted them and then we all stood around for a little while. I was wondering what we were waiting for as everyone, including our dancing and drumming group, were prepared to walk. So after half an hour or so we decided to sit down and a few minutes later we saw a sea of school children running towards us. Hundreds of children dressed in their school uniforms were singing/chanting as they all ran towards the start of the parade. I snapped a few pictures of them coming as they were like an army ready for battle. They all lined up, each separated by an arms' length, and I snapped a few more pictures from higher up. Then, Russ got a call saying that our house help mzee was locked out of our house, doh!, and I remembered I forgot to unlock the screen door. So, I walked home to unlock it and Russ marched with the students to the next village where the events of World AIDS Day would take place.
It's about a half an hour walk and I felt a little silly walking by myself after the large crowd had passed and just told people I was late as they said all the students have already passed. I got to the field and Russ had already set up the ceiling boards and the students were already drawing. There was a program of some sort and our singing/dancing group peformed a play and we were to sing at the very end of the program. So I watched and listened to the various speakers and performers and took some pictures of the students drawing and painting. Then I looked up at the mountain right beside us and noticed gray clouds moving quickly over it. Oh no - rain. I mean it's great that it rained, it just wasn't good timing. It began to downpour and most of the students ran down the hill into classrooms at the school, the students who were drawing and painting on the ceiling boards took them to a classroom and continued their work, Russ and I had umbrellas and provided shelter to a few Tanzanians, and everyone else took cover under the makeshift tarp area (which wasn't waterproof and rain collected in some areas and began to pour through) where the important guests sat. The important guests took cover in their land rovers and continued their speeches through a loudspeaker on top of the land rover. This went on for ten to fifteen minutes or so until the rain stopped then said this event has been postponed - no date was given. My guess is that it is postponed until World AIDS Day 2007. So we didn't get to perform our song but the ceiling boards were finished and hopefully we raised awareness of the growing problem of HIV/AIDS in Africa and empowered people to make good decisions so they can lead healthy and happy lives.
Rain
So the rainy season has started on time this year! Our mzee house help built a fence for our garden out of thorn bushes to keep the chickens, turkeys, goats, cows, kicheches, etc. out. We started double-digging the beds and it soon became tiring as after a few inches of nice soil there's rock-hard red clay that you have to break up. Over the past week we all had our share of work preparing the garden. Just yesterday we finished four beds which will be plenty for our garden of (hopefully) cucumbers, pumpkins, carrots, onions, peppers, beans, lettuce, cabbage, raddishes, collards, and squash. So in the rest of the fenced in area we planted beans, peanuts, and soy beans. We hired some vibarua (day-laborers) to turn the topsoil in the shamba (farm land) and have planted sunflowers, peanuts, and beans, again.
Visiting the mentals
As we had a bit of a stressful week: Russ was the mgeni rasmi at a local fundraiser (see his blog for details), the Larium/Mephaquin anti-malaria medication we take is making us crazy, and double-digging our garden and preparing our shamba for the rainy season is tiring. So, we needed a little break/get-away from all of this and left for the villages to visit some environmental volunteers.
We hopped on the bus, put our bikes on top, and made our way to James's village, the last of the three environmental villages on the west side. His site is about 2 and a half hours from town by bus and is up in the mountains. We walked around his village and met some of his cool friends and cooked vegetable stew for dinner over his charcoal stove while relaxing in his courtyard. There's no electricity (or cell phone coverage) in his village. His courtyard is awesome! He's got a little garden going on and created cement walkways to his outside bathroom/toilet and kitchen.
The next day we rode our bikes to the middle village, about 1 hour and 15 minutes by bike (down a really steep hill where I thought many times I was going too fast and would wipe out!), where Becky and Jason live. We toured their cute, cozy house and the walked to their neighbor's house to greet them. The girls played hopscotch while the boys played soccer in the road. I took a picture of their neighbor's baby girl who was making faces as if she just tasted something sour. Later that night we made vegetable stew (a popular dish in the bush) and since the moon was so bright (no need for flashlight outside) we walked over to the neighbor's house again with drums and Jason brought along his guitar. We sang a song and they sang a song and danced and we kept trading off until we couldn't think of anymore songs to sing. Sweet Home, Alabama was a hit.
The day after that we rode our bikes to Holley's village (about 45 minutes from Jason & Becky's site) and had some peanut butter and crackers at her house before continuing on home. It was a grueling 3 and a half hour bike ride home up a gradual hill. We had to get off and walk a few times, but we made it home right before the rain started. It was a great visit and I was so happy to see where they live and they people they work with along with getting great ideas for our house and garden.
We are headed to Moshi again tomorrow, but this time it's vacation. We'll be visiting some PCV sites of our friends and then we will be in Morogoro on our way home as Russ is attending an ICT seminar for work. Then we'll be home for Christmas.
For Thanksgiving we were invited back to the American ambassador's house where he didn't make any mistakes with the food or drinks. Among the beautiful setting of his home, we were served wine and beer (on tap) and water (with ice and a lemon!). As it was 2 pm or so in Dar es Salaam and very hot and humid I opted for a little wine but then chugged down the ice water. Mmmm....ice... The ambassador had 20 turkeys cooked and we had all the fixings. It was a great Thanksgiving.
World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day is December 1, but in our town we celebrated it on December 4 due to scheduling conflicts. Russ worked with a local non-profit group on a project for World AIDS Day in which students from a local secondary school would paint three ceiling boards with images and sayings and they would go up in the school and hospital. Russ prepared everything, wrote a grant and received some money for the small project, and we met with the students one last time to go over everything. On the morning of December 4, we walked to the start of the parade/march at around 8 am. There were a few students (30 or so) standing in lines with their arms streched out so they were an arms' length away from each other. A few official looking people drove up in land rovers and got out and we greeted them and then we all stood around for a little while. I was wondering what we were waiting for as everyone, including our dancing and drumming group, were prepared to walk. So after half an hour or so we decided to sit down and a few minutes later we saw a sea of school children running towards us. Hundreds of children dressed in their school uniforms were singing/chanting as they all ran towards the start of the parade. I snapped a few pictures of them coming as they were like an army ready for battle. They all lined up, each separated by an arms' length, and I snapped a few more pictures from higher up. Then, Russ got a call saying that our house help mzee was locked out of our house, doh!, and I remembered I forgot to unlock the screen door. So, I walked home to unlock it and Russ marched with the students to the next village where the events of World AIDS Day would take place.
It's about a half an hour walk and I felt a little silly walking by myself after the large crowd had passed and just told people I was late as they said all the students have already passed. I got to the field and Russ had already set up the ceiling boards and the students were already drawing. There was a program of some sort and our singing/dancing group peformed a play and we were to sing at the very end of the program. So I watched and listened to the various speakers and performers and took some pictures of the students drawing and painting. Then I looked up at the mountain right beside us and noticed gray clouds moving quickly over it. Oh no - rain. I mean it's great that it rained, it just wasn't good timing. It began to downpour and most of the students ran down the hill into classrooms at the school, the students who were drawing and painting on the ceiling boards took them to a classroom and continued their work, Russ and I had umbrellas and provided shelter to a few Tanzanians, and everyone else took cover under the makeshift tarp area (which wasn't waterproof and rain collected in some areas and began to pour through) where the important guests sat. The important guests took cover in their land rovers and continued their speeches through a loudspeaker on top of the land rover. This went on for ten to fifteen minutes or so until the rain stopped then said this event has been postponed - no date was given. My guess is that it is postponed until World AIDS Day 2007. So we didn't get to perform our song but the ceiling boards were finished and hopefully we raised awareness of the growing problem of HIV/AIDS in Africa and empowered people to make good decisions so they can lead healthy and happy lives.
Rain
So the rainy season has started on time this year! Our mzee house help built a fence for our garden out of thorn bushes to keep the chickens, turkeys, goats, cows, kicheches, etc. out. We started double-digging the beds and it soon became tiring as after a few inches of nice soil there's rock-hard red clay that you have to break up. Over the past week we all had our share of work preparing the garden. Just yesterday we finished four beds which will be plenty for our garden of (hopefully) cucumbers, pumpkins, carrots, onions, peppers, beans, lettuce, cabbage, raddishes, collards, and squash. So in the rest of the fenced in area we planted beans, peanuts, and soy beans. We hired some vibarua (day-laborers) to turn the topsoil in the shamba (farm land) and have planted sunflowers, peanuts, and beans, again.
Visiting the mentals
As we had a bit of a stressful week: Russ was the mgeni rasmi at a local fundraiser (see his blog for details), the Larium/Mephaquin anti-malaria medication we take is making us crazy, and double-digging our garden and preparing our shamba for the rainy season is tiring. So, we needed a little break/get-away from all of this and left for the villages to visit some environmental volunteers.
We hopped on the bus, put our bikes on top, and made our way to James's village, the last of the three environmental villages on the west side. His site is about 2 and a half hours from town by bus and is up in the mountains. We walked around his village and met some of his cool friends and cooked vegetable stew for dinner over his charcoal stove while relaxing in his courtyard. There's no electricity (or cell phone coverage) in his village. His courtyard is awesome! He's got a little garden going on and created cement walkways to his outside bathroom/toilet and kitchen.
The next day we rode our bikes to the middle village, about 1 hour and 15 minutes by bike (down a really steep hill where I thought many times I was going too fast and would wipe out!), where Becky and Jason live. We toured their cute, cozy house and the walked to their neighbor's house to greet them. The girls played hopscotch while the boys played soccer in the road. I took a picture of their neighbor's baby girl who was making faces as if she just tasted something sour. Later that night we made vegetable stew (a popular dish in the bush) and since the moon was so bright (no need for flashlight outside) we walked over to the neighbor's house again with drums and Jason brought along his guitar. We sang a song and they sang a song and danced and we kept trading off until we couldn't think of anymore songs to sing. Sweet Home, Alabama was a hit.
The day after that we rode our bikes to Holley's village (about 45 minutes from Jason & Becky's site) and had some peanut butter and crackers at her house before continuing on home. It was a grueling 3 and a half hour bike ride home up a gradual hill. We had to get off and walk a few times, but we made it home right before the rain started. It was a great visit and I was so happy to see where they live and they people they work with along with getting great ideas for our house and garden.
We are headed to Moshi again tomorrow, but this time it's vacation. We'll be visiting some PCV sites of our friends and then we will be in Morogoro on our way home as Russ is attending an ICT seminar for work. Then we'll be home for Christmas.
posted by lisa at
09:01
1 Comments:
Have a nice Christmas!
And all the best for 2007.
By
Anonymous, at 20 December, 2006 10:46
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