Long past due

Well, it has been forever and a day since I've last posted. I have been getting supplementary applications for vet school while here, so I have been spending much of my internet time filling them out. Last weekend I filled out an app for Michigan State and this weekend I had Ohio State. It has been interesting definitely trying to fill them on from internet cafes in Arusha but luckily, the internet connection hasn't been too slow and I haven't had too much writer's block so I've been able to complete them successfully. The only issue is the fact that they only give you 10 days to complete the supplementary application and I always seem to receive them in my email only a few days before the due date. MSU was understanding, so hopefully OSU will be too.

So this past week I moved into my homestay in the village of Maroroni! It's about an hour outside of Arusha. Driving here is crazy. There is no such thing as multi-lane highways here. Everything is one lane, so if you are behind a very slow truck, you have to pass them by driving into the side of opposing traffic. Since our SIC truck is definitely one of the faster cars here, we end up weaving through the lanes pretty quickly. The road to my homestay is all dirt and rocks. Similar to the Safari, it's super bumpy, but also fun. Luckily I'm not that tall, so I never have to worry about bumping my head on the top of the truck. To describe our town, I would say it's similar to Arizona. They have no cactus, but to begin with, there's very little vegetation. It's very dry and dusty, with only a few shrubs growing every so often. It is usually comfortable in the mornings and evenings, although you hardly need a jacket, and very very warm in the afternoons. My homestay is the farthest away from the center of village, so my roomie Gaby (she's from England, about 30 minutes outside London and I love her!) and I have to walk about 45 minutes to get from home to two of the schools where we teach at. We have three schools in total - two are near the center of two, one is another hour's walk away. We have two primary schools (ages 8-12) and one secondary school (13-20 years old). So on Tuesdays and Thursdays we end up walking for a total of four hours. Although when it drizzles in the morning it can be aggravating, I love our walk. We are able to pass many people and exchange greetings and introduce ourselves. With every single person, you must say your greeting (either Shikamoo for elders or Mambo), then ask Habari... (how is morning/work/afternoon/day), then shake their hand. My homestay family doesn't speak any English, so I have definitely been practicing my Swahili.


We have four American volunteers (Joey from Claremont, Carrie from UCLA, Gaby and I) and two Tanzanian teaching partners (Fatuma and Jonas). We usually split into two groups of three because generally, they try to schedule two classes for the same time - then we are able to teach the most people efficiently. Usually Gaby and I wake up to get out of the house by 7am and then start teaching. We teach from 8am to about 3pm each day and then eat lunch and spend a few hours lesson planning as a group. We then head back home and have dinner with the family, an event that never ceases to be fun/interesting/challenging. My family lives in a brick house, with cement floors and a metal roof - by most standards, upper middle class. My baba is a business man. When we tried to ask him what kind of business, he said many words in Swahili that I did not know, so I'm just going to leave it at that. My mama sings in the choir then comes back to cook our dinner, which has been fabulous. I will describe food later. Mama and baba have five children, one girl Glady, that lives in Arusha, and four boys - Godlisten (we call him Goddy, but isn't that an interesting name??), Alan (he is getting funded by a donor through World Vision to attend secondary school), Frances, and one more. Honestly, there are so many people in the house, it's very difficult to get names straight. Because Goddy is married (he's 22!), so his wife and 3 month old son, Weiss live in the house. And then Mama has a friend who also lives in the house with her two children - Bri and a 10 month old, Angel. It's so strange, but Mamas take on the names of their firstborn. For ex, Mama is Mama Glady, then there's Mama Angel, and Mama Weiss. We also always have visitors who always take the chance to stop by and observe the wazungu (foreigners). There are four rooms in the house, one of which Gaby and I share, and then also two outside buildings made of brick in which more family members can stay. Goddy is currently building a new house of brick for his family. Next week, he promised to show us how to make bricks and help, which I am very excited about!

Mama is an excellent cook. My least favorite dish is not even that bad - it's banana stew. Although the bananas are plantains, so they taste like potatoes. We have also had ugali (stiff porridge) and mchicha (kale), beans and chapati (like tortillas), potato and nyama wa ng'ombe (beef) stew, wali (rice), makonde (corn and bean stew) and cabbage. It's very straightforward eating. It's nice, because you know that there are definitely no preservatives or artificial anything in the food, but it also can make it not as flavorful as the food back home. Therefore, Gaby and I have purchased garlic salt to help give it an extra kick. With every meal we also get ndizi (banana) and sometimes machungua (oranges). One night Gaby and I got a nice surprise though. Mama had been asking what we liked to eat and we told her, not expecting to ever eat them. But the next night we got PASTA!! with TOMATO!! and AVOCADO!!. It was SO exciting, we actually squealed. The next night she made chips (fries) too! So we've been spoiled definitely.

Mama always makes us clean our plates, always motioning that she wants us to eat more. This becomes sometimes problematic when she decides to serve us seconds herself, but it is very cute of her. The worst thing I've had to eat yet has been warm milk. Mama gave us fresh milk, which was very warm and very lumpy and we definitely had to drink it and pretend to enjoy it. I'm not the biggest milk drinker so I ended up chugging it to avoid thinking about it too much. Luckily, I've been able to share all these experiences with Gaby, so I've had the best time, in spite of many awkward situations.

It's definitely time to get going, as I have spent WAY too much time this weekend on the computer. Luckily, OSU is my last supplementary application, so I won't have that problem in the near future. I hope you all are doing well and email me! I want to see how you are doing!

Love,
Stefanie