I finally returned home, this journey came to an end. The last days were really very nice, and didn’t really involve too much work, at least, for university. Of course they involved many goodbyes too.
On Monday I met with Simtu, who was my student. We had some food, and I visited his home. It’s really awesome, he used to be Muslim, but now he became a Christian. I guess he noticed, he saw something special during his time at YWAM. Now he goes to church, chose Bible knowledge for his secondary education and even wants to do a DTS. That’s a party in Heaven! And he really puts it in practice too, he wants to help and give.
That evening he came to the base, just after the little farewell “ceremony”. I’ve seen a few those, now it was my turn... People said kind words, I did too. They gave me this wooden African statue, and everyone prayed for me and said goodbye. Bebe was there afterwards as well, apparently she had been keeping Simtu up. James, who couldn’t be there at the time, sent me a gift too – a box full of fruit from Matombo. It had like, five pineapples and a watermelon. I wouldn’t go to Dar Es Salaam as lightly burdened as I had hoped!
That departure was actually the following day. It was somewhat hasty, unfortunately I didn’t even get to say bye to Sitini and Sered. But the journey itself was fine, actually better than expected. So much so that the whole suitcase detour wasn’t very necessary. I assume to combat the army of salesmen they enclosed the final bus stop, you had to pay or have a bus ticket to get there. Besides that, Niwaely’s place wasn’t actually close to the terminal, at all. In fact, it was on an entirely different location. We had to spend a very long time retrieving it the next day, after doing just a small bit of shopping. We also went to view Obadiah’s neighbourhood (I was staying at his place, in case you missed it). He really lives in a beautiful area. Dar Es Salaam is at the ocean, and while his place was quite a distance from it, it did seem like he lived in the dunes. There was very clean sand, hills, and lots of coconut and mango trees. And there was an ocean breeze most of the time too, which is really, really pleasant in a place as hot and humid as Dar. I really enjoyed the place. Of course we enjoyed James’ fruit a lot too. The pineapple was so very nice, not quite what we’re used to in Europe. I ate until my tongue got sore...
On Thursday we went on a trip to Zanzibar, a beautiful and popular island off the coast. We took an airplane there – as we later found out it’s actually cheaper than taking the boat for me (not for Obadiah, they have different prices for residents and non-residents at Zanzibar in some cases), and it didn’t make didn’t make Obadiah sick. Also, it was his first time to go by airplane, so it was quite worth it. We stayed at an acquaintance of Obadiah, the mother of a pastor he knows. It was really a “normal” home, which was of course very nice for me to see. But to my surprise there was also a white person there, a female student from Switzerland who was also sort of between her bachelor and her master and was also teaching English. Common thing, maybe?
Anyway, the first of the two days we stayed there we spent on visiting Stonetown. We saw its beaches, a museum and the old slave market. The dungeons are still there, as a memorial to that horrible time. They would literally stack people there, twenty-five dying every day, the survivors being whipped, some to death just to select the strong ones. To end it all the Brits built a church on the place where the latter happened.
The following day we got up early to go to Prison Island, a very small off the coast of Zanzibar itself. As eerie as it sounds it was actually absolutely stunning. Really the stereotypical “holiday paradise island” – white beaches, palm trees, giant turtles... Well, ok, maybe not so stereotypical, that last one. They did have the very big turtles there, the ones that can get some 180 years old. They actually had one of about 150 there. They once were a gift to the owner of the island at that time. We could actually feed them and even hold them. A baby one of course, just a few years old. There was also a building there that was used as a prison, for disobedient slaves. Or perhaps it was meant to be used as such, I’m not sure. After the Zanzibar revolution, they used it as a place for people with contagious diseases as cholera. But really, what a beautiful location that is...
After having spent a lovely time there, it was time to get back to the mainland, in order to avoid the horrible traffic jams. This time we did go with the ferry, in total it was just a bit cheaper, and it was nice to experience too. I had a great time, standing on the bow of the ship, defying wave after wave. Obadiah however, hadn’t. He was feeling rather sick; probably the only reason he didn’t exit his lunch was because we didn’t have any. He would feel bad for quite a while afterwards.
We did successfully escape the jams, and spent most of the night at Gladness’ place. She’s Oba’s sister, and actually has electricity at her home. There I made a few dvds and cds, we watched the dvd too as it was about the English school. Gladness is really a lovely person, indeed very happy too. She assured my that by this time next year I would be back in Tanzania, and that I would have at least four kids later, which will be when she’ll visit me.
The following day we spent mostly on getting me ready to go as it was actually the day of my departure, my last hours on African soil. Of course I had to say goodbye, to Josephine, Obadiah’s wife, their daughter Deborah and also Bebe. I really don’t know when I’ll see my fellow teachers again, perhaps the next time will be in Heaven... Which will obviously be awesome.
So I got a few presents for my family, we had lunch in town, visited Obadiah’s church’s headquarters... It was a nice time, and all worked out well. I said goodbye to my very dear friend Obadiah, I got on the plane... Finally said bye to Tanzania too.
And so it came to an end. The flight was excellent, and at its destination my family warmly welcomed a rather tired and dazzled Eddy. There were very big roads, wallpaper, chocolate, internet, a terrible cold... But most of you know all that already, don’t you?
As for my coming days, I’ll be receiving a very, very special guest and writing a huge report. Then going to a different university, new dormitory, making sure my loan’s ok, fraternity, uni, uni, uni...
Maybe after three years, or if God wishes...
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
The final stretch
Yes, this is probably my last post from Tanzania. I might be able to squeeze one in in the coming week, but that’s not very probable. By this time a week from now I’ll be on my way home.
The last week has been rather exhausting, I think mainly because I became ill again. It was the same sort of thing as that other time, but not as bad because I didn’t take medicine this time... I’m not sure how I got it, but I think the heat as well as eating a whole loaf of YWAM bread may have something to do with it. The latter is known for its ability to stop things from going.
But we also actually went to Arusha, we being Asheri and me. It was a ten hour trip, so Wednesday and Saturday were spent mostly on lazying in the bus and staring out the window. Which was nice in a way – I got to see a lot of Tanzania which I otherwise wouldn’t have at all. There were some very, very beautiful sight there, it looked really nice. Lush green planes and hills all the way to the horizon... But I admit I slept for quite a while too.
The place that we stayed at itself was (as I may have mentioned) another YWAM base. It’s about the size of the one I’m at, but is much more densely built and populated. I actually quite like it, there’s always people about here and there, it feels very nice. It has more stuff in general actually – more cars, more refrigerators, wireless internet, showerheads, and that most wonderful of blessings: toilets you can actually sit on. But, for some strange reason, they don’t have plates.
On Thursday we got to see the computer school, which was very good. We got a lot of questions answered and our idea regarding it has become quite a bit more clear. One of the teachers there, who was also the one that kept us company and showed us around the Arusha base, was actually a guy from the US. He name is Nick, I think he was about my age. He was really quite a blessing to us. He had only ten students, in a pretty large classroom. In fact, here we’ll try stuffing sixteen in one that’s about three times smaller. Wonder how that’ll be... But anyway, we joined their class, interviewed Nick, had lunch, interviewed him some more... It was our “data gathering” day.
Friday though, we were free. This was the time I would have liked to climb the Kilimanjaro... But we heard that for that, we would need to hire one guy to be our guide, another one to carry our stuff and then yet another one for an equally stupid reason as the other two, which I can’t even remember. And then there’s park fees and the like, all adding up to about a thousand dollars if you want to reach the top. “Commercialised” doesn’t quite cover it. So just having a stroll on the foot of the mountain wouldn’t really be as nice as it had seemed.
Instead, we just went to visit Arusha town, which I think was what Asheri preferred anyway. What I noticed really early was that the people were a fair bit more rude there. They weren’t afraid to come crowding around you, desperately calling you to enter their taxi or to buy their stuff, even if you just want to pass. You don’t see that a lot in Morogoro, which is quite a blessing. But besides about a billion salesmen we also met with Joshua, which was of course great. He’s now well and truly studying. In case I didn’t mention, he studies English for major and Swahili for his minor. He seems to do well, especially at the speaking part. So we had a nice stroll around town, saw a few places, talked a lot while having some sodas etc. Just a very nice, though tiring time. We also had lunch, but I think that’s what made me (more) ill later.
The following day we had to get up very early to go back again, which was good since it meant we’d arrive in Morogoro “early” too. While in the buss we saw even more salesmen, though it wasn’t as bad as on Wednesday. Back then, at some point, there were about twenty people all wanting to sell nets of oranges to the passengers of our bus. Twenty people with oranges, and they all seemed to be rather desperate. The saddest thing was when one lady actually wanted to buy a net, and a guy had handed it over through the window, the bus left before any money could be exchanged. When the lady dropped the fruit to give it back, I think it got under a wheel... You’d say there has to be some better way for these guys to make a living, surely they see that markets can be oversaturated too.
So now we’re safe at home once again. Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Dar Es Salaam, and on Saturday to that other, somewhat more real home. Of course I’ll still tell you how that was here, but by that time many of you will be able to just come and ask about it yourself as well.
As for that last “adventure”, I had some concern regarding my suitcase. You see, in Dar Es Salaam the thievery is apparently so bad your mobile phone isn’t even safe when you’re holding it in your hand. And then I’d be there, shining white and with a huge, 30 kg suitcase... So to avoid the otherwise inevitable we made a dastardly plan: Niwaely, my fellow teacher who now studies in Dar Es Salaam, actually went there with my suitcase yesterday. She is of course black, which helps tonnes, and has a place nearby the bus terminal to store my suitcase safely. The only thing is that Niwa was in a bit more danger... But I just heard that she arrived safely. Thank God for His protection there! A second, less pressing issue was that I had to toil the suitcase through all the way to Niwa’s house, under the African, dry season, midday sun. My right arm was absolutely useless for a while after that. But tomorrow I’ll only have to go with a backpack mostly filled with t-shirts and underwear – and if they steal that it’s not too bad. That’s quite a blessing, too.
The last week has been rather exhausting, I think mainly because I became ill again. It was the same sort of thing as that other time, but not as bad because I didn’t take medicine this time... I’m not sure how I got it, but I think the heat as well as eating a whole loaf of YWAM bread may have something to do with it. The latter is known for its ability to stop things from going.
But we also actually went to Arusha, we being Asheri and me. It was a ten hour trip, so Wednesday and Saturday were spent mostly on lazying in the bus and staring out the window. Which was nice in a way – I got to see a lot of Tanzania which I otherwise wouldn’t have at all. There were some very, very beautiful sight there, it looked really nice. Lush green planes and hills all the way to the horizon... But I admit I slept for quite a while too.
The place that we stayed at itself was (as I may have mentioned) another YWAM base. It’s about the size of the one I’m at, but is much more densely built and populated. I actually quite like it, there’s always people about here and there, it feels very nice. It has more stuff in general actually – more cars, more refrigerators, wireless internet, showerheads, and that most wonderful of blessings: toilets you can actually sit on. But, for some strange reason, they don’t have plates.
On Thursday we got to see the computer school, which was very good. We got a lot of questions answered and our idea regarding it has become quite a bit more clear. One of the teachers there, who was also the one that kept us company and showed us around the Arusha base, was actually a guy from the US. He name is Nick, I think he was about my age. He was really quite a blessing to us. He had only ten students, in a pretty large classroom. In fact, here we’ll try stuffing sixteen in one that’s about three times smaller. Wonder how that’ll be... But anyway, we joined their class, interviewed Nick, had lunch, interviewed him some more... It was our “data gathering” day.
Friday though, we were free. This was the time I would have liked to climb the Kilimanjaro... But we heard that for that, we would need to hire one guy to be our guide, another one to carry our stuff and then yet another one for an equally stupid reason as the other two, which I can’t even remember. And then there’s park fees and the like, all adding up to about a thousand dollars if you want to reach the top. “Commercialised” doesn’t quite cover it. So just having a stroll on the foot of the mountain wouldn’t really be as nice as it had seemed.
Instead, we just went to visit Arusha town, which I think was what Asheri preferred anyway. What I noticed really early was that the people were a fair bit more rude there. They weren’t afraid to come crowding around you, desperately calling you to enter their taxi or to buy their stuff, even if you just want to pass. You don’t see that a lot in Morogoro, which is quite a blessing. But besides about a billion salesmen we also met with Joshua, which was of course great. He’s now well and truly studying. In case I didn’t mention, he studies English for major and Swahili for his minor. He seems to do well, especially at the speaking part. So we had a nice stroll around town, saw a few places, talked a lot while having some sodas etc. Just a very nice, though tiring time. We also had lunch, but I think that’s what made me (more) ill later.
The following day we had to get up very early to go back again, which was good since it meant we’d arrive in Morogoro “early” too. While in the buss we saw even more salesmen, though it wasn’t as bad as on Wednesday. Back then, at some point, there were about twenty people all wanting to sell nets of oranges to the passengers of our bus. Twenty people with oranges, and they all seemed to be rather desperate. The saddest thing was when one lady actually wanted to buy a net, and a guy had handed it over through the window, the bus left before any money could be exchanged. When the lady dropped the fruit to give it back, I think it got under a wheel... You’d say there has to be some better way for these guys to make a living, surely they see that markets can be oversaturated too.
So now we’re safe at home once again. Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Dar Es Salaam, and on Saturday to that other, somewhat more real home. Of course I’ll still tell you how that was here, but by that time many of you will be able to just come and ask about it yourself as well.
As for that last “adventure”, I had some concern regarding my suitcase. You see, in Dar Es Salaam the thievery is apparently so bad your mobile phone isn’t even safe when you’re holding it in your hand. And then I’d be there, shining white and with a huge, 30 kg suitcase... So to avoid the otherwise inevitable we made a dastardly plan: Niwaely, my fellow teacher who now studies in Dar Es Salaam, actually went there with my suitcase yesterday. She is of course black, which helps tonnes, and has a place nearby the bus terminal to store my suitcase safely. The only thing is that Niwa was in a bit more danger... But I just heard that she arrived safely. Thank God for His protection there! A second, less pressing issue was that I had to toil the suitcase through all the way to Niwa’s house, under the African, dry season, midday sun. My right arm was absolutely useless for a while after that. But tomorrow I’ll only have to go with a backpack mostly filled with t-shirts and underwear – and if they steal that it’s not too bad. That’s quite a blessing, too.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
“May God give you oversized blessings, God bless you too much.”
Unfortunately we didn’t get to go to Arusha, at least, not yet – we decided to postpone our trip a week, because there’s some graduation celebration coming week. I think I’ve had my share of those, but Asheri knows the person as it’s a member of our base.
So anyway, Timothy and Paulina’s wedding was truly great. They didn’t go to a government building as we do in the Netherlands, but they did go to a church and the YWAM conference hall for the celebration.
As for the service, if it wasn’t for the long preaching I think many of us dutchies would call it more of a party than a service. There was much dancing and singing and the like, it was very nice. After the service there was of course a real celebration, which I was told was actually a rather quiet one. There wasn’t too much shouting I suppose, a large part was just introducing the visitors and the two families. You could really see that besides the union of two people a wedding is also the union of two families. The families had special seats, and they were given time to introduce themselves, and at dinner time the parents of the two families had a special, separate place so that they could talk together. Also, Timothy and Paulina had to offer one “level” of the wedding pie to their now partner’s family. Of course the couple had to feed each other, and Obadiah and his wife too, as seems to be normal in any celebration that involves a cake here.
Obadiah and his wife had the special roles of best man and best maid. That meant they had to stay close to the wedding couple at all times (even when the couple had to be in front, which was nearly all the time), wipe the sweat of their foreheads, proper the dress, carry the above mentioned pie levels etc. Quite an honour!
One of the last things, which was done in a more celebrative fashion, was of course the giving of gifts. They now have a house to decorate, so they needed quite a few things. And they got them too, but then there were probably well over a hundred guests. There were also a few Maasai, actually, who were given special time to dress the couple in typical Maasai fashion.
I actually had breakfast with them the next morning – they couldn’t really go home since the wedding ended somewhat late. As for Timothy and Paulina, well, until this Saturday they had honeymoon, at this base. After the wedding there really wasn’t any money left for a trip, unfortunately. I think they really have been blessed with each other, even though the nervousness was drooping from their faces during the wedding I think a wonderful thing happened there.
As for my own daily business, I have spent my time working on the computer school, with things as the layout. We decided that it was better if I focused on that rather than the technology school. The main issue there is the lack of a teacher, the other things are relatively easy to do once one is available and can give some input. No, I’m not very much suited for this... It’s mostly about practical stuff, I only know the theory. I have about three days left here to work, I realised – the rest will be spent in either Arusha or Dar Es Salaam. But somewhere that’s ok, I feel like my task here is almost complete, a “closed chapter” as it were. Of course I might still come back... But for now there’s plenty waiting for me in the Netherlands.
So anyway, Timothy and Paulina’s wedding was truly great. They didn’t go to a government building as we do in the Netherlands, but they did go to a church and the YWAM conference hall for the celebration.
As for the service, if it wasn’t for the long preaching I think many of us dutchies would call it more of a party than a service. There was much dancing and singing and the like, it was very nice. After the service there was of course a real celebration, which I was told was actually a rather quiet one. There wasn’t too much shouting I suppose, a large part was just introducing the visitors and the two families. You could really see that besides the union of two people a wedding is also the union of two families. The families had special seats, and they were given time to introduce themselves, and at dinner time the parents of the two families had a special, separate place so that they could talk together. Also, Timothy and Paulina had to offer one “level” of the wedding pie to their now partner’s family. Of course the couple had to feed each other, and Obadiah and his wife too, as seems to be normal in any celebration that involves a cake here.
Obadiah and his wife had the special roles of best man and best maid. That meant they had to stay close to the wedding couple at all times (even when the couple had to be in front, which was nearly all the time), wipe the sweat of their foreheads, proper the dress, carry the above mentioned pie levels etc. Quite an honour!
One of the last things, which was done in a more celebrative fashion, was of course the giving of gifts. They now have a house to decorate, so they needed quite a few things. And they got them too, but then there were probably well over a hundred guests. There were also a few Maasai, actually, who were given special time to dress the couple in typical Maasai fashion.
I actually had breakfast with them the next morning – they couldn’t really go home since the wedding ended somewhat late. As for Timothy and Paulina, well, until this Saturday they had honeymoon, at this base. After the wedding there really wasn’t any money left for a trip, unfortunately. I think they really have been blessed with each other, even though the nervousness was drooping from their faces during the wedding I think a wonderful thing happened there.
As for my own daily business, I have spent my time working on the computer school, with things as the layout. We decided that it was better if I focused on that rather than the technology school. The main issue there is the lack of a teacher, the other things are relatively easy to do once one is available and can give some input. No, I’m not very much suited for this... It’s mostly about practical stuff, I only know the theory. I have about three days left here to work, I realised – the rest will be spent in either Arusha or Dar Es Salaam. But somewhere that’s ok, I feel like my task here is almost complete, a “closed chapter” as it were. Of course I might still come back... But for now there’s plenty waiting for me in the Netherlands.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
T minus three...
I fear that just like the students I’ll be counting the weeks from now... Three more to go, so you’ll likely see only two more blogposts written in Tanzania here! That’s crazy, at least from my point of view, it’s hard to think it’s almost over. Well, over... I don’t think my Africa episode will end very soon, but it’ll be a good while anyway.
By the time I post this the wedding is probably over, but I wrote it just before so I’ll have to tell about that later. I’m excited anyway, Africans are really, really celebrative. And marriage is of course one of the most celebrated celebrations... I do wonder! Even now you hear people making “hululululululu” sounds every now and then, as is custom for some tribes just before a marriage. Poor Timothy has been busy all week going here and there, trying to find money for the rings, visiting the obligatory parties, the marriage teachings etc. By far most responsibilities are on his shoulders. Obadiah is helping him, he was one of my students (... it feels very weird to able to say that, actually), and is now Timo’s best man.
I’m happy to report that the electricity is back more or less constantly by now. We had a fair bit of rain last week, so I think there’s enough in the dam to keep us going for a while. Unfortunately, just as that was fixed our water pump broke, so there wasn’t running water for some three days. We have wells here though, and though showering using a bucket is even more uncomfortable than using the high tap, it did the trick. The pump has been fixed now, so I think everyone spent their morning showering and washing clothes.
Also, the DTS people came back last Thursday, so the base is quite a bit more lively. They had quite a rough time, having to work on the foundation of a church... During said rain, and also harsh sunlight. Two apparently got ill too, but they’re doing better now.
As for Arusha, we’ll be leaving coming Wednesday, I wonder how that’ll be. It’s said to be quite a nice area. Joshua will show us his university, and I still hope to persuade them into climbing Kilimanjaro, at least a short distance. At the 17th I hope to go to Dar Es Salaam, to stay with Obadiah for a few days. Hopefully we’ll visit Zanzibar, among other places, which is said to be one of those “holiday paradises”, though is also nearly completely Islamic. After that, home... Somehow I think I’ll have to get used to that just as much as I had to get used to this place!
By the time I post this the wedding is probably over, but I wrote it just before so I’ll have to tell about that later. I’m excited anyway, Africans are really, really celebrative. And marriage is of course one of the most celebrated celebrations... I do wonder! Even now you hear people making “hululululululu” sounds every now and then, as is custom for some tribes just before a marriage. Poor Timothy has been busy all week going here and there, trying to find money for the rings, visiting the obligatory parties, the marriage teachings etc. By far most responsibilities are on his shoulders. Obadiah is helping him, he was one of my students (... it feels very weird to able to say that, actually), and is now Timo’s best man.
I’m happy to report that the electricity is back more or less constantly by now. We had a fair bit of rain last week, so I think there’s enough in the dam to keep us going for a while. Unfortunately, just as that was fixed our water pump broke, so there wasn’t running water for some three days. We have wells here though, and though showering using a bucket is even more uncomfortable than using the high tap, it did the trick. The pump has been fixed now, so I think everyone spent their morning showering and washing clothes.
Also, the DTS people came back last Thursday, so the base is quite a bit more lively. They had quite a rough time, having to work on the foundation of a church... During said rain, and also harsh sunlight. Two apparently got ill too, but they’re doing better now.
As for Arusha, we’ll be leaving coming Wednesday, I wonder how that’ll be. It’s said to be quite a nice area. Joshua will show us his university, and I still hope to persuade them into climbing Kilimanjaro, at least a short distance. At the 17th I hope to go to Dar Es Salaam, to stay with Obadiah for a few days. Hopefully we’ll visit Zanzibar, among other places, which is said to be one of those “holiday paradises”, though is also nearly completely Islamic. After that, home... Somehow I think I’ll have to get used to that just as much as I had to get used to this place!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Thankyou for fallowshape
I guess some of you noticed a severe lack of updating this blog from my part, my apologies for that. When I got to my usual routine of writing emails and a blog post on my laptop last week, in order to save time at the internet café, the power was unfortunately cut off... My laptop’s battery still had some life, but as you perhaps experienced, after some three years laptop batteries tend not to be as good as they were when you bought them. So I only got time to write my emails.
So yes, the power has definitely not always been there, which caused some trouble, as about all I had to do required it. I made a DVD about our school, and I had to work on a university report. My teacher thought it could be a little better still.
This week there was a seminary here at the Kihonda base. One part was about high quality leather processing, the other about small businesses, if I understood correctly. We had quite a few Maasai guests, which meant trouble for the one that had to take pictures, but also beef both at lunch and dinner. We don’t even have that in the Netherlands!
The seminary is now over though, and it has got rather quiet since. The DTS has a ten day “mini outreach”, so all the students and teachers are now even further in the middle of nowhere, teaching the gospel to a village there. One of the teachers told me it isn’t so hard to evangelise here, we concluded that it was actually much easier here than in Europe. People are actually curious, they actually want to know about the gospel. At the mere mention of the word Europeans would slam the door shut I’m sure...
So today we had dinner with five, two of which are guests for the seminary that stay for one more night, since they have to travel quite far. It was a flashlight dinner, actually, as there was no power. And there still isn’t at the moment of writing – right now I’m typing this under the light of a good old petroleum lantern.
It did rain a few times the last days. Or maybe one should say it tried to, as the showers only lasted for five minutes or so, and didn’t even get the ground wet. Still though, it gives hope for some more rain, and thus power.
Two weeks ago, actually (before I completely forget to tell about it), I joined a more homely birthday celebration, as opposed to the communal ones here at the base. Freddy, Niwaely’s husband, was the lucky one. Bebe was also invited, but she was in Dar Es Salaam at the time. I was glad to be able to be there and see it, though it wasn’t as traditional African as most I’m sure. We had a nice dinner, and cake, prayed for Freddy, sang happy birthday... It was very nice. At the communal celebration we actually sang happy birthday in Dutch. Well, I was anyway, while most did try they were probably very confused. But anyway, I enjoyed being at home with Freddy and Niwaely, it’s an experience I’m quite lacking here as I spend most of my time on the base.
And also, Sered and Sitini, the area leader, invited me to come to their son’s graduation on last Saturday. I was of course very thankful for that too! The graduation actually started with a “church” service, as it’s a Presbyterian school. It’s founded by Korean people actually, and there were quite a few there. The ceremony was from ten am up to four pm, though it was meant to end at about two thirty. Of course there was a guest of honour, speeches, songs, and even a martial arts presentation. The Koreans certainly did something there... After the official ceremony we had our own little celebration, with some eleven people, outside in the grass field. There was an MT too, and speeches and all that, and we enjoyed some cake and snacks and soda... Really, we had a great time.
Next week there’s actually another celebration: Timothy, the base leader and also my “room mate”, is actually getting married. The poor guy. Not because he’s getting married in itself, but here in Africa the husband to be has to arrange everything for the wedding – the his fiancé isn’t really allowed to do anything publically; after all, here in Africa the husband marries the wife only, not the other way around! He’s really incredibly busy, partly because due to some circumstances he only had one month to prepare instead of the usual three. And marriage really is a huge thing here. Next week there will be several kitchen parties, a send off, and of course the marriage itself. Nearly every day there is something... He does have a wedding committee though, fortunately, but the poor man still is really having it. Right now he’s off to his own parents for the final things there, so that’s another man missing. I’m really looking forward to the wedding though, I’d really like to see how that is. The Tanzanians are really celebrative – just sticking a ring on each other’s finger definitely won’t do. Plus, I’ll see some of my friends and ex-students from the English School again, which would be great. After that, Asheri and I will finally definitely go to Arusha.
So yes, the power has definitely not always been there, which caused some trouble, as about all I had to do required it. I made a DVD about our school, and I had to work on a university report. My teacher thought it could be a little better still.
This week there was a seminary here at the Kihonda base. One part was about high quality leather processing, the other about small businesses, if I understood correctly. We had quite a few Maasai guests, which meant trouble for the one that had to take pictures, but also beef both at lunch and dinner. We don’t even have that in the Netherlands!
The seminary is now over though, and it has got rather quiet since. The DTS has a ten day “mini outreach”, so all the students and teachers are now even further in the middle of nowhere, teaching the gospel to a village there. One of the teachers told me it isn’t so hard to evangelise here, we concluded that it was actually much easier here than in Europe. People are actually curious, they actually want to know about the gospel. At the mere mention of the word Europeans would slam the door shut I’m sure...
So today we had dinner with five, two of which are guests for the seminary that stay for one more night, since they have to travel quite far. It was a flashlight dinner, actually, as there was no power. And there still isn’t at the moment of writing – right now I’m typing this under the light of a good old petroleum lantern.
It did rain a few times the last days. Or maybe one should say it tried to, as the showers only lasted for five minutes or so, and didn’t even get the ground wet. Still though, it gives hope for some more rain, and thus power.
Two weeks ago, actually (before I completely forget to tell about it), I joined a more homely birthday celebration, as opposed to the communal ones here at the base. Freddy, Niwaely’s husband, was the lucky one. Bebe was also invited, but she was in Dar Es Salaam at the time. I was glad to be able to be there and see it, though it wasn’t as traditional African as most I’m sure. We had a nice dinner, and cake, prayed for Freddy, sang happy birthday... It was very nice. At the communal celebration we actually sang happy birthday in Dutch. Well, I was anyway, while most did try they were probably very confused. But anyway, I enjoyed being at home with Freddy and Niwaely, it’s an experience I’m quite lacking here as I spend most of my time on the base.
And also, Sered and Sitini, the area leader, invited me to come to their son’s graduation on last Saturday. I was of course very thankful for that too! The graduation actually started with a “church” service, as it’s a Presbyterian school. It’s founded by Korean people actually, and there were quite a few there. The ceremony was from ten am up to four pm, though it was meant to end at about two thirty. Of course there was a guest of honour, speeches, songs, and even a martial arts presentation. The Koreans certainly did something there... After the official ceremony we had our own little celebration, with some eleven people, outside in the grass field. There was an MT too, and speeches and all that, and we enjoyed some cake and snacks and soda... Really, we had a great time.
Next week there’s actually another celebration: Timothy, the base leader and also my “room mate”, is actually getting married. The poor guy. Not because he’s getting married in itself, but here in Africa the husband to be has to arrange everything for the wedding – the his fiancé isn’t really allowed to do anything publically; after all, here in Africa the husband marries the wife only, not the other way around! He’s really incredibly busy, partly because due to some circumstances he only had one month to prepare instead of the usual three. And marriage really is a huge thing here. Next week there will be several kitchen parties, a send off, and of course the marriage itself. Nearly every day there is something... He does have a wedding committee though, fortunately, but the poor man still is really having it. Right now he’s off to his own parents for the final things there, so that’s another man missing. I’m really looking forward to the wedding though, I’d really like to see how that is. The Tanzanians are really celebrative – just sticking a ring on each other’s finger definitely won’t do. Plus, I’ll see some of my friends and ex-students from the English School again, which would be great. After that, Asheri and I will finally definitely go to Arusha.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Una kula wazungu?
So this week has indeed been somewhat chaotic, having no schedule... It caused me to unfortunately be a fair bit less helpful than otherwise. Still though, this week wasn’t without progress, and it wasn’t without challenges either.
The most notable one was that of the power failures. The electricity here is generated by a large dam nearby. And since it’s the dry season now, the electricity tends to dry out as well... If it wasn’t for YWAM’s generator, we would have been without any during the graduation, actually. But since it’s rather expensive they prefer not to use it. Last Sunday evening it was gone too, which actually yielded a very nice atmosphere in the dining hall, with gasoline lamps and flashlights. Afterwards I brought some documents to Sered and Sitini, who just started their own dinner. We ended up talking until half past ten around a few candles, it was very lovely being there. And the moon shone so brightly, there really wasn’t much of a need for flashlights outside.
Sitini told me the shipment of the computers takes longer than expected – about eleven months longer, at worst. So starting the computer school isn’t really possible very soon, most likely, at least not full scale. Of course that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything for it.
Besides this, Asheri and I will try to work on a little movie for YWAM’s 50th anniversary. We wanted to last Wednesday, but again the electricity had vanished. Word was that it would be gone from 9 am up to 11 pm, but it came back at 5. They plan to ration it until there is some rain.
I also moved to a new place, as the English school is now devoid of people. Now I’m staying at the room where Timothy, the base leader, sleeps. It’s actually much nicer since it doesn’t catch as much sun during the day, though the company of the students used to much more than made up for that.
As for the aforementioned progress, I can thank God that I finally formulated a solid research question. Yes, I have to do a small research of sorts. Luckily it doesn’t have to be anything huge, since I already did a lot of practical work. The plan is to interview some of the leaders here, to gather some information regarding the locals’ achieved level of education, their wishes and how much they use their education. I suppose it may be a little generic, but hopefully it’ll do. At least a gave some creative spin to it, which involves little paper people.
My Swahili also improved a lot. Before I wasn’t even allowed to speak it, since I had to talk English with the students. But while we had thirteen students at first, I now have about that many teachers, all willing to explain a few words during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here’s a few things I learnt:
Lala salama – Sleep well
Na kunywa supu ja kuku – I drink chicken soup
Hakuna matata! – No problem!
The nice thing is that no one will blame you if you say stupid things, you can get away with anything.
Me: Na omba magi? (May I have some water?)
Giros: Hiya, karibu. (Ok, you’re welcome.)
Me: Asante. Na penda wewe. (Thank you. I love you.)
Giros: ... Asante... >_>; (... Thank you...)
Still though, I’m lacking far too many words to have any decent conversation. For now it’s just greetings and saying what you eat or drink, I do suppose thanks to the learning environment. Perhaps in a month or so though...
The most notable one was that of the power failures. The electricity here is generated by a large dam nearby. And since it’s the dry season now, the electricity tends to dry out as well... If it wasn’t for YWAM’s generator, we would have been without any during the graduation, actually. But since it’s rather expensive they prefer not to use it. Last Sunday evening it was gone too, which actually yielded a very nice atmosphere in the dining hall, with gasoline lamps and flashlights. Afterwards I brought some documents to Sered and Sitini, who just started their own dinner. We ended up talking until half past ten around a few candles, it was very lovely being there. And the moon shone so brightly, there really wasn’t much of a need for flashlights outside.
Sitini told me the shipment of the computers takes longer than expected – about eleven months longer, at worst. So starting the computer school isn’t really possible very soon, most likely, at least not full scale. Of course that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything for it.
Besides this, Asheri and I will try to work on a little movie for YWAM’s 50th anniversary. We wanted to last Wednesday, but again the electricity had vanished. Word was that it would be gone from 9 am up to 11 pm, but it came back at 5. They plan to ration it until there is some rain.
I also moved to a new place, as the English school is now devoid of people. Now I’m staying at the room where Timothy, the base leader, sleeps. It’s actually much nicer since it doesn’t catch as much sun during the day, though the company of the students used to much more than made up for that.
As for the aforementioned progress, I can thank God that I finally formulated a solid research question. Yes, I have to do a small research of sorts. Luckily it doesn’t have to be anything huge, since I already did a lot of practical work. The plan is to interview some of the leaders here, to gather some information regarding the locals’ achieved level of education, their wishes and how much they use their education. I suppose it may be a little generic, but hopefully it’ll do. At least a gave some creative spin to it, which involves little paper people.
My Swahili also improved a lot. Before I wasn’t even allowed to speak it, since I had to talk English with the students. But while we had thirteen students at first, I now have about that many teachers, all willing to explain a few words during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here’s a few things I learnt:
Lala salama – Sleep well
Na kunywa supu ja kuku – I drink chicken soup
Hakuna matata! – No problem!
The nice thing is that no one will blame you if you say stupid things, you can get away with anything.
Me: Na omba magi? (May I have some water?)
Giros: Hiya, karibu. (Ok, you’re welcome.)
Me: Asante. Na penda wewe. (Thank you. I love you.)
Giros: ... Asante... >_>; (... Thank you...)
Still though, I’m lacking far too many words to have any decent conversation. For now it’s just greetings and saying what you eat or drink, I do suppose thanks to the learning environment. Perhaps in a month or so though...
Saturday, October 3, 2009
The school is over
I just came back from the graduation ceremony, this Friday. I’m happy to say that all eleven remaining students have completed the course successfully, the certificates are in their pockets and some of them have already gone home. The last week was certainly quite hectic, with the written exam on Monday and the oral the day after. After that, we hastily prepared for the graduation ceremony.
In the weeks prior to this one a few students showed amazing improvement, especially two of our Maasai and Rehema, our oldest student. She can keep on talking in English for hours now, it’s absolutely no problem. And for the eight and a half page written exam everyone did very well. In fact, everyone scored over 70%, truly a unique achievement. I have to add though, that the oral went slightly worse, but everyone passed that one too.
We were a little late in preparing for the graduation... We really had to work for it on Wednesday and Thursday. Especially the ladies. I thought women in Europe were very conscious about their looks, but here I think it’s worse. Everyone has to have their hair done, preferably as close to the graduation as possible. Josephine, fellow teacher and leader of the school, asked us to sponsor her for it, but I thought her hair was fine as it was.
The various things the students wanted to do at the graduation added to the pressure, of course. They prepared testimonies, a play, songs to sing... Eventually, through all our hard work we didn’t even have enough time at the ceremony itself, a few things had to be skipped. I suppose in African style we began a little late, which contributed to that. But in spite of all this it was a great success anyway. The people enjoyed the testimonies, the play, I think most of what we did.
Unfortunately, besides the students, we had to say goodbye to two staff members too... Namely Bebe and Niwael, my other two fellow teachers. It’s the official goodbye, they will stay here for a few days more. Niwa is going to study in Dar Es Salaam, while Bebe wants to go back to Rwanda, though she might want to get her drivers’ licence first. I was thanked wholeheartedly by the students and the staff, received gifts and hugs, and the other teachers did too of course. We can be very proud of our students, I think all achieved their goals and are quite able to have a talk with you.
Finally and very importantly, we had some good food. The students had insisted on bringing chicken, and since staff already got beef and pork, we had all three now. Unfortunately I think I got an artery for pork, which tasted very strange, and what I got from the chicken I couldn’t even identify. It was actually hard to imagine that a chicken even had that part... But the beef was fine. Afterwards I had to continue my job of being a photographer, realising their time was almost over everyone wanted me to take a picture. I filled my 1Gb card to the brim and had to print dozens today. At least I have plenty of pictures of everyone there myself now.
It will be very quiet at the base now... And where it isn’t, the noise will probably be in Swahili. Since we were only allowed to speak English amongst the students, my Swahili vocabulary is very limited. At first half of the words I knew came from the movie “The Lion King” (what language did you think “Hakuna Matata” came from?), though now I know some more. Which is still only about fifteen words... They promised me I’d learn very quickly though, maybe in three weeks or so I can actually get somewhere.
I really don’t know what’s in store for me, there’s not much of a strict planning anymore, which feels rather strange. I don’t really know where I’ll sleep either, the whole school building will be very quiet now. Hopefully plans will shape along the way.
In the weeks prior to this one a few students showed amazing improvement, especially two of our Maasai and Rehema, our oldest student. She can keep on talking in English for hours now, it’s absolutely no problem. And for the eight and a half page written exam everyone did very well. In fact, everyone scored over 70%, truly a unique achievement. I have to add though, that the oral went slightly worse, but everyone passed that one too.
We were a little late in preparing for the graduation... We really had to work for it on Wednesday and Thursday. Especially the ladies. I thought women in Europe were very conscious about their looks, but here I think it’s worse. Everyone has to have their hair done, preferably as close to the graduation as possible. Josephine, fellow teacher and leader of the school, asked us to sponsor her for it, but I thought her hair was fine as it was.
The various things the students wanted to do at the graduation added to the pressure, of course. They prepared testimonies, a play, songs to sing... Eventually, through all our hard work we didn’t even have enough time at the ceremony itself, a few things had to be skipped. I suppose in African style we began a little late, which contributed to that. But in spite of all this it was a great success anyway. The people enjoyed the testimonies, the play, I think most of what we did.
Unfortunately, besides the students, we had to say goodbye to two staff members too... Namely Bebe and Niwael, my other two fellow teachers. It’s the official goodbye, they will stay here for a few days more. Niwa is going to study in Dar Es Salaam, while Bebe wants to go back to Rwanda, though she might want to get her drivers’ licence first. I was thanked wholeheartedly by the students and the staff, received gifts and hugs, and the other teachers did too of course. We can be very proud of our students, I think all achieved their goals and are quite able to have a talk with you.
Finally and very importantly, we had some good food. The students had insisted on bringing chicken, and since staff already got beef and pork, we had all three now. Unfortunately I think I got an artery for pork, which tasted very strange, and what I got from the chicken I couldn’t even identify. It was actually hard to imagine that a chicken even had that part... But the beef was fine. Afterwards I had to continue my job of being a photographer, realising their time was almost over everyone wanted me to take a picture. I filled my 1Gb card to the brim and had to print dozens today. At least I have plenty of pictures of everyone there myself now.
It will be very quiet at the base now... And where it isn’t, the noise will probably be in Swahili. Since we were only allowed to speak English amongst the students, my Swahili vocabulary is very limited. At first half of the words I knew came from the movie “The Lion King” (what language did you think “Hakuna Matata” came from?), though now I know some more. Which is still only about fifteen words... They promised me I’d learn very quickly though, maybe in three weeks or so I can actually get somewhere.
I really don’t know what’s in store for me, there’s not much of a strict planning anymore, which feels rather strange. I don’t really know where I’ll sleep either, the whole school building will be very quiet now. Hopefully plans will shape along the way.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Final exams
Final exams
Months really fly by in the blink of an eye, still... Last week flew by faster than ever, probably because last Monday was a holiday. Here in Tanzania they value Islamic holidays too, and last week it was something they call “Idi”, though I don’t know its spelling. It’s a two day holiday at the end of their period of fasting, they did so between sunrise and sunset for the past thirty days or so. They do make things a little difficult, since they have to wait for the moon to show up to know when the holiday starts, which we could only know the night before the actual holiday this year. Fortunately for the school one of the two days was on Sunday, which meant we only lost one day of teaching. Somehow time seems to be more precious before an exam.
Half the class was even present that holiday, so we did some teaching anyway. Well, with “we” I mean “I”, in this case - unfortunately Bebe, on of my fellow teachers, got very ill, because of a rather wrong advice from a doctor. She had to be rushed to the hospital. Fortunately, with great amounts of medicine, milk and fruit she’s now doing well again.
The last day of teaching came and went though, right now we’re just supporting the students with their studying as well as we can. Last Friday they had their spelling exam, they had to know about 160 words. Coming Monday they have their written exam, which will probably be a fair bit more difficult. They have to know all active tenses, eight parts of speech, contractions, questions, opposites, irregular verbs, perspectives, how to write out numbers, plurals... On Tuesday they will have their oral exam, so they need to know pronunciation as well. We’re trying to fix the last few errors there too. Especially keeping the r and l apart remains a problem. For instance, in this Christian environment it’s quite common to wish someone to be blessed if you thank them. If you helped Rehema though, she would sincerely wish you to “be breast”.
But that’s corrected now, quite fortunately. After the tests everyone will have to get ready for the graduation. Here in Tanzania, as opposed to many neighbouring countries, they are allowed to wear the typical master’s graduation robes, with the funny square hats. So everyone is of course quite happy with that – the pictures would certainly look nice on their walls. The graduation itself is on coming Friday afternoon. After that, we’ll have to say goodbye to the students... Which may be a hard thing, again. I was sleeping in the same room as all the male students all this time, often sharing stories, talking about things... The subject of same gender love was certainly food for thought for our Maasai Onesmo. Or for being horror-struck, I do suppose. “This world now...” he sighed. I’ll miss them, though I hope to visit some of them again if I’ll get the time.
Yesterday I visited Asheri and his Brittish wife Beverly at their home, which was lovely again. I was able to transfer the money, so that problem seems to have been solved. Asheri and I formed the plan of travelling up to Arusha together, a six hour journey. We want to visit the computer school at the YWAM base there, see how it works and ask the staff the ears from their heads regarding it. We might be able to take back a copy of their curriculum too, which would be of great help. Visiting Joshua, who’ll happen to be there, would be a plus... As would climbing mount Kilimanjaro, though that’s probably just wishful thinking.
Other than that I’m not sure what the coming weeks will bring. I hope to work on the computer school full time, but I think there may be a lot of waiting involved. Bev already welcomed me to work at the primary school, which would be interesting, to say the least...
Months really fly by in the blink of an eye, still... Last week flew by faster than ever, probably because last Monday was a holiday. Here in Tanzania they value Islamic holidays too, and last week it was something they call “Idi”, though I don’t know its spelling. It’s a two day holiday at the end of their period of fasting, they did so between sunrise and sunset for the past thirty days or so. They do make things a little difficult, since they have to wait for the moon to show up to know when the holiday starts, which we could only know the night before the actual holiday this year. Fortunately for the school one of the two days was on Sunday, which meant we only lost one day of teaching. Somehow time seems to be more precious before an exam.
Half the class was even present that holiday, so we did some teaching anyway. Well, with “we” I mean “I”, in this case - unfortunately Bebe, on of my fellow teachers, got very ill, because of a rather wrong advice from a doctor. She had to be rushed to the hospital. Fortunately, with great amounts of medicine, milk and fruit she’s now doing well again.
The last day of teaching came and went though, right now we’re just supporting the students with their studying as well as we can. Last Friday they had their spelling exam, they had to know about 160 words. Coming Monday they have their written exam, which will probably be a fair bit more difficult. They have to know all active tenses, eight parts of speech, contractions, questions, opposites, irregular verbs, perspectives, how to write out numbers, plurals... On Tuesday they will have their oral exam, so they need to know pronunciation as well. We’re trying to fix the last few errors there too. Especially keeping the r and l apart remains a problem. For instance, in this Christian environment it’s quite common to wish someone to be blessed if you thank them. If you helped Rehema though, she would sincerely wish you to “be breast”.
But that’s corrected now, quite fortunately. After the tests everyone will have to get ready for the graduation. Here in Tanzania, as opposed to many neighbouring countries, they are allowed to wear the typical master’s graduation robes, with the funny square hats. So everyone is of course quite happy with that – the pictures would certainly look nice on their walls. The graduation itself is on coming Friday afternoon. After that, we’ll have to say goodbye to the students... Which may be a hard thing, again. I was sleeping in the same room as all the male students all this time, often sharing stories, talking about things... The subject of same gender love was certainly food for thought for our Maasai Onesmo. Or for being horror-struck, I do suppose. “This world now...” he sighed. I’ll miss them, though I hope to visit some of them again if I’ll get the time.
Yesterday I visited Asheri and his Brittish wife Beverly at their home, which was lovely again. I was able to transfer the money, so that problem seems to have been solved. Asheri and I formed the plan of travelling up to Arusha together, a six hour journey. We want to visit the computer school at the YWAM base there, see how it works and ask the staff the ears from their heads regarding it. We might be able to take back a copy of their curriculum too, which would be of great help. Visiting Joshua, who’ll happen to be there, would be a plus... As would climbing mount Kilimanjaro, though that’s probably just wishful thinking.
Other than that I’m not sure what the coming weeks will bring. I hope to work on the computer school full time, but I think there may be a lot of waiting involved. Bev already welcomed me to work at the primary school, which would be interesting, to say the least...
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Of this and that
I’m about half way now, officially. The past month went even faster than the first, it’s really like lightning, though I think my illness was the cause of that. I hope, at least. The school nears its end, after that I’ll focus on the computer school, and also on a technology school. It’s really just an idea so far, we will have to discuss, see what is possible.
Last Friday we had the DTS graduation ceremony at the Lukobe base – YWAM has two bases in this area. These people do know how to celebrate, there were dances, gifts, a good dinner, a guest of honour etc. I suppose the graduation from the English school will be similar, though more special for me of course. Right about now the students should start to prepare plays and dances, I’m certainly looking forward to that. Anyway, now knowing what it’s all about, I’d really like to do a DTS myself as well. Of course it should be in the middle of nowhere, again – maybe Mongolia this time, or Antarctica. But I’ll have studying to do first, unfortunately.
I’m happy to tell that Joshua has come to visit us for a few days, together with his family. It must have been the most warm welcome I’ve seen. We’ve missed him very much, and he has missed us. Josh has been visiting friends and family, and taught the choir at one of our students’ church. He’ll only be spending two days here, as they only came to present the dowry for Joshua’s brother. Unfortunately I don’t think he has the money for his university yet. But I know that if God wants it, it will be ok somehow anyway...
I’ve got some money trouble of my own as well, though it isn’t as serious. For some reason none of the ATMs have worked for the past month, leaving me with about six Euros’ worth in Tanzanian shillings. Thankfully Bev, who is from the UK but married the one I’m starting the computer school with, offered to help me out. I sent her money via internet (it took me nearly an hour to get all the required information right, with BIN and IBAN and such), and she’ll hopefully then give it to me.
Other than that I’m at strength once again, except for a small cold. Though I did lose some weight, according to one of the teachers, which isn’t a good thing considering my rather lightweight frame. It’s nothing a good plate of ugali can’t fix though...
Last Friday we had the DTS graduation ceremony at the Lukobe base – YWAM has two bases in this area. These people do know how to celebrate, there were dances, gifts, a good dinner, a guest of honour etc. I suppose the graduation from the English school will be similar, though more special for me of course. Right about now the students should start to prepare plays and dances, I’m certainly looking forward to that. Anyway, now knowing what it’s all about, I’d really like to do a DTS myself as well. Of course it should be in the middle of nowhere, again – maybe Mongolia this time, or Antarctica. But I’ll have studying to do first, unfortunately.
I’m happy to tell that Joshua has come to visit us for a few days, together with his family. It must have been the most warm welcome I’ve seen. We’ve missed him very much, and he has missed us. Josh has been visiting friends and family, and taught the choir at one of our students’ church. He’ll only be spending two days here, as they only came to present the dowry for Joshua’s brother. Unfortunately I don’t think he has the money for his university yet. But I know that if God wants it, it will be ok somehow anyway...
I’ve got some money trouble of my own as well, though it isn’t as serious. For some reason none of the ATMs have worked for the past month, leaving me with about six Euros’ worth in Tanzanian shillings. Thankfully Bev, who is from the UK but married the one I’m starting the computer school with, offered to help me out. I sent her money via internet (it took me nearly an hour to get all the required information right, with BIN and IBAN and such), and she’ll hopefully then give it to me.
Other than that I’m at strength once again, except for a small cold. Though I did lose some weight, according to one of the teachers, which isn’t a good thing considering my rather lightweight frame. It’s nothing a good plate of ugali can’t fix though...
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Illness and departures
As some of you noted, I unfortunately didn’t update this blog last week, my apologies for that. Unfortunately I got quite ill the week before last, I had diarrhoea. They call it “driving” here. On Wednesday it was especially bad, I had to rush to the toilet thirteen times that day. The following days were somewhat better, but the lack of nutrients made me very, very tired. On Monday I went to the government hospital, which was quite an experience. I was lucky to have James to escort me – he works for the local government and knows many people in “high places”. Without that, he said, you could wait all day before getting help. Of course, knowing that some people wouldn’t be helped that day because of me wasn’t a nice thought. But the doctors didn’t want to give me too special a treatment, they feared to be blamed of taking bribes. James also studied at that very hospital for two years, so he knows his way around very well. Of course we had to greet many of the doctors etc. They all seem to know reasonable English, but funnily enough most were too shy to talk with me directly. They didn’t get to practise their pronunciation properly, and feared to make mistakes.
If you don’t want to wait a long time, there’s fortunately an alternative: The private hospitals. Of course I didn’t have any experience with those yet, but I think the government hospital would probably be more interesting anyway. Private hospitals are said to be very expensive, but knowing the prices of the government hospital, I think the latter is just very cheap. For 56 eurocent you could have a malaria check, fortunately using new, clean materials for each patient. Checking stool costs the same, and some medicine against diarrhoea was just 28 cent. Unfortunately I couldn’t have my stool checked that day, they need the day’s first and that one was already down the drain.
But when I came home that Monday I recalled the medicine I took with me from home, namely Imodium, or loperamide. The pills are actually in the typical pill shape, one half was green, the other purple. But as worrying as it looked, I deemed it better to take one anyway. And well, if I was “driving”, the pill was really a handbrake. Or maybe a car accident. I straight went from diarrhoea to constipation, I didn’t have to go until Thursday. So it just made things worse, really. The stomach aches got worse, and because I lost my appetite I remained very tired. My belly got notably bigger too, but then it did hold some seven meals eventually, which was an awkward thought.
But through this the hospitable and caring nature of the people here really showed. People were genuinely concerned, some came and prayed for me, they bought fruit, fruit juice and jam and tidied up my bed. One of the teachers cooked light but very good meals for me (eating ugali or makande at that time would be a very bad idea), even with meat. I don’t like to be a burden at all, but they told me to please not worry about that either. People genuinely want help, not just because they have to. So this impressed me very much, and the memory of it will be at least one good thing that came from these troublesome weeks.
Unfortunately my illness and inability to teach weren’t the only bad things in the past weeks. Two students had to leave the school, too, the week before last. One of them was Revered Ntangale, who we’ll always remember for his very amusing one-liners. He had to because the church he’s a pastor of had its four year conference around this time, and there was no way for him not to be present.
The other person that had to go was Helena. She really was such a lady, always polite and composed, though she could have fun too for sure. Unfortunately her boss called her back to work. Just as Ntangale she really wanted to stay, but there was no way. Fortunately she’s able to visit us after her work and can still gather some new things from the other students. Her English is already excellent though, I’m sure she’s able to reach the goals she has for it.
Though our class is somewhat smaller now, it of course continues... By now I feel very much fit enough to teach again, and the students that remain are doing very well. The course is really nearing it’s end, there’s just some three more weeks to go. The students have been counting the days for quite a while now, after that, they’ll have to make do on their own.
If you don’t want to wait a long time, there’s fortunately an alternative: The private hospitals. Of course I didn’t have any experience with those yet, but I think the government hospital would probably be more interesting anyway. Private hospitals are said to be very expensive, but knowing the prices of the government hospital, I think the latter is just very cheap. For 56 eurocent you could have a malaria check, fortunately using new, clean materials for each patient. Checking stool costs the same, and some medicine against diarrhoea was just 28 cent. Unfortunately I couldn’t have my stool checked that day, they need the day’s first and that one was already down the drain.
But when I came home that Monday I recalled the medicine I took with me from home, namely Imodium, or loperamide. The pills are actually in the typical pill shape, one half was green, the other purple. But as worrying as it looked, I deemed it better to take one anyway. And well, if I was “driving”, the pill was really a handbrake. Or maybe a car accident. I straight went from diarrhoea to constipation, I didn’t have to go until Thursday. So it just made things worse, really. The stomach aches got worse, and because I lost my appetite I remained very tired. My belly got notably bigger too, but then it did hold some seven meals eventually, which was an awkward thought.
But through this the hospitable and caring nature of the people here really showed. People were genuinely concerned, some came and prayed for me, they bought fruit, fruit juice and jam and tidied up my bed. One of the teachers cooked light but very good meals for me (eating ugali or makande at that time would be a very bad idea), even with meat. I don’t like to be a burden at all, but they told me to please not worry about that either. People genuinely want help, not just because they have to. So this impressed me very much, and the memory of it will be at least one good thing that came from these troublesome weeks.
Unfortunately my illness and inability to teach weren’t the only bad things in the past weeks. Two students had to leave the school, too, the week before last. One of them was Revered Ntangale, who we’ll always remember for his very amusing one-liners. He had to because the church he’s a pastor of had its four year conference around this time, and there was no way for him not to be present.
The other person that had to go was Helena. She really was such a lady, always polite and composed, though she could have fun too for sure. Unfortunately her boss called her back to work. Just as Ntangale she really wanted to stay, but there was no way. Fortunately she’s able to visit us after her work and can still gather some new things from the other students. Her English is already excellent though, I’m sure she’s able to reach the goals she has for it.
Though our class is somewhat smaller now, it of course continues... By now I feel very much fit enough to teach again, and the students that remain are doing very well. The course is really nearing it’s end, there’s just some three more weeks to go. The students have been counting the days for quite a while now, after that, they’ll have to make do on their own.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
“The bell has rung!”
A few weeks ago I managed to get internet access on the mobile phone that I use (thanks auntie!). I tried to post on my blog but in spite of blogspot's promise of success it didn't seem to have worked. I wonder where that post ended up...
Anyway, so a few people have been asking me a very important question: What is the food like? Well, it’s different, of course, mostly. They do have spaghetti, rice and potatoes here, but besides that they have two dishes you won’t see in the Netherlands, namely ugali and makande. And here we have a warm meal at lunch too. But besides breakfast, lunch and dinner we hardly eat anything.
For breakfast we have white bread. It’s home baked, and I very much like it. Unfortunately there isn’t anything to put onto the bread, so it’s just that and tea in the morning. There used to be jam and butter, but I think that became a little too expensive. They say bread is very “YWAM” though – they will remember YWAM for it.
Then there is ugali. It’s basically a white, tasteless mass. Apparently it’s made from grinded, dried corn, but you really can’t tell if you see it. But as bad as it sounds, it’s actually ok to eat, if you have an equal amount of sauce or something else to go with it. We have it for lunch every single day here, which to be honest is a little hard to take for me. They absolutely love it here – it takes the same place as bread does in Europe. There’s places here where they have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner... I have no clue how they manage. It’s very heavy, I think you need at least four times as much spaghetti to fill the same space in your stomach. Thankfully the people at the base now have alternatives during lunch too, that’s quite a blessing.
For dinner we have rice, spaghetti or makande. That last one is made from dried rice as well, though it isn’t grinded. They boil it together with beans for some two hours. It’s quite alright I suppose.
The sauce they add isn’t quite like what I’m used to. They call it “soup” here, and often it actually is a kind of soup. But it works fine, and every now and then dinner can be very enjoyable.
One disappointment a foreigner might have is the lack of meat, it really is a luxury here. We have meat or big fish once or twice a week. Chicken I had exactly once so far, I got a part of its spine. Since it’s luxury I guess, they eat everything. Not only meat, but also great lumps of fat, chicken feet – one fellow teacher will even eat fish eyes. “Yes, it’s part of fish!” I was lucky enough to find two in my soup yesterday. Luckily enough I only have to worry about that once or twice a week... We have “small fish” more often though. It’s really just that – many tiny fish, each is I think about an inch long. It goes with ugali during lunch, and is just fine to eat.
Instead of meat they like to have beans a lot, which sometimes causes trouble in class. One student coined the phrase “to make Mbagala”, after an explosion in Tanzania’s ammunition depot in Mbagala.
One more interesting thing is their love for salt, they put surprising amounts of it on their food. Their love for sugar is just as big – most have about three spoons per cup, some even have six. I don’t think they’d want to drink tea without any.
I’m still good after well over a month, so the food must be just fine for me.
Anyway, so a few people have been asking me a very important question: What is the food like? Well, it’s different, of course, mostly. They do have spaghetti, rice and potatoes here, but besides that they have two dishes you won’t see in the Netherlands, namely ugali and makande. And here we have a warm meal at lunch too. But besides breakfast, lunch and dinner we hardly eat anything.
For breakfast we have white bread. It’s home baked, and I very much like it. Unfortunately there isn’t anything to put onto the bread, so it’s just that and tea in the morning. There used to be jam and butter, but I think that became a little too expensive. They say bread is very “YWAM” though – they will remember YWAM for it.
Then there is ugali. It’s basically a white, tasteless mass. Apparently it’s made from grinded, dried corn, but you really can’t tell if you see it. But as bad as it sounds, it’s actually ok to eat, if you have an equal amount of sauce or something else to go with it. We have it for lunch every single day here, which to be honest is a little hard to take for me. They absolutely love it here – it takes the same place as bread does in Europe. There’s places here where they have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner... I have no clue how they manage. It’s very heavy, I think you need at least four times as much spaghetti to fill the same space in your stomach. Thankfully the people at the base now have alternatives during lunch too, that’s quite a blessing.
For dinner we have rice, spaghetti or makande. That last one is made from dried rice as well, though it isn’t grinded. They boil it together with beans for some two hours. It’s quite alright I suppose.
The sauce they add isn’t quite like what I’m used to. They call it “soup” here, and often it actually is a kind of soup. But it works fine, and every now and then dinner can be very enjoyable.
One disappointment a foreigner might have is the lack of meat, it really is a luxury here. We have meat or big fish once or twice a week. Chicken I had exactly once so far, I got a part of its spine. Since it’s luxury I guess, they eat everything. Not only meat, but also great lumps of fat, chicken feet – one fellow teacher will even eat fish eyes. “Yes, it’s part of fish!” I was lucky enough to find two in my soup yesterday. Luckily enough I only have to worry about that once or twice a week... We have “small fish” more often though. It’s really just that – many tiny fish, each is I think about an inch long. It goes with ugali during lunch, and is just fine to eat.
Instead of meat they like to have beans a lot, which sometimes causes trouble in class. One student coined the phrase “to make Mbagala”, after an explosion in Tanzania’s ammunition depot in Mbagala.
One more interesting thing is their love for salt, they put surprising amounts of it on their food. Their love for sugar is just as big – most have about three spoons per cup, some even have six. I don’t think they’d want to drink tea without any.
I’m still good after well over a month, so the food must be just fine for me.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Birthdays and class
There were no big trips deep into Maasailand this week, unfortunately. I wouldn’t call it completely uneventful either, there was a birthday and many things happened in class of course.
As for birthdays, traditionally they didn’t celebrate those hear, but it’s coming up. The way is quite different from what I’m used to though. They take birthday quite literally - the lucky one has to be the “bebe”, the baby. There’s a father and a mother too, which are chosen on the spot. I was to be the father this week...Those parents had to feed the baby cake, which is of course a good laugh. And there’s a grandmother and –father too, they’re the ones who present the gifts. There’s plenty of dancing too, all in all they manage to make it quite a party. Though whereas in the Netherlands you may give gifts of maybe ten euro’s for instance, here I think gifts of three euro’s are considered to be expensive...
The students are doing good in class. This week they had a big exam, which got everyone pretty nervous. Rev. Ntangale, one of the students, said the morning before the exam, “No corner, no apostrophe, no abbreviation, no discussion, no anything - must be bent! (which means, ‘must be spanked’)” But the students did well.
They also had to teach themselves, about an animal of their choosing. Wherever they were lacking information they had to make it up themselves, which yielded some interesting “facts”. Apparently tigers only suck the blood from the goats they kill while not touching the meat, and there’s fish in the ocean that if not caught by people live for all of eternity and can have a million children. Also, and this actually came from our oldest student, hyenas are able to shoot poo right in your face from six miles away. I will never forget her clarify, “POOO!!!”
The students themselves love discussion the most. Often there’s a lot of "fire", it’s incredibly fun to see. Unfortunately we were very busy this week, and we only had time for a small discussion that had to end just when the fire started. It was about whether men should do housework. They managed to get to a point about the women being too tired from housework to still do anything in bed after the day, but then it was lunchtime.
As for birthdays, traditionally they didn’t celebrate those hear, but it’s coming up. The way is quite different from what I’m used to though. They take birthday quite literally - the lucky one has to be the “bebe”, the baby. There’s a father and a mother too, which are chosen on the spot. I was to be the father this week...Those parents had to feed the baby cake, which is of course a good laugh. And there’s a grandmother and –father too, they’re the ones who present the gifts. There’s plenty of dancing too, all in all they manage to make it quite a party. Though whereas in the Netherlands you may give gifts of maybe ten euro’s for instance, here I think gifts of three euro’s are considered to be expensive...
The students are doing good in class. This week they had a big exam, which got everyone pretty nervous. Rev. Ntangale, one of the students, said the morning before the exam, “No corner, no apostrophe, no abbreviation, no discussion, no anything - must be bent! (which means, ‘must be spanked’)” But the students did well.
They also had to teach themselves, about an animal of their choosing. Wherever they were lacking information they had to make it up themselves, which yielded some interesting “facts”. Apparently tigers only suck the blood from the goats they kill while not touching the meat, and there’s fish in the ocean that if not caught by people live for all of eternity and can have a million children. Also, and this actually came from our oldest student, hyenas are able to shoot poo right in your face from six miles away. I will never forget her clarify, “POOO!!!”
The students themselves love discussion the most. Often there’s a lot of "fire", it’s incredibly fun to see. Unfortunately we were very busy this week, and we only had time for a small discussion that had to end just when the fire started. It was about whether men should do housework. They managed to get to a point about the women being too tired from housework to still do anything in bed after the day, but then it was lunchtime.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Tempus fugit
Coming Monday I’ll have been here for exactly one month. I really can’t believe it, it went so fast! That I’ll be here for three more months doesn’t seem like such a long time now.
Last weekend I got to go on safari, together with a two students and two other teachers. It was what they call Eight-Eight, which stands for the eighth of August. It’s when people show their harvest, or any of their other work to anyone that’s interested. The Mikumi National Park had a special offer, so we decided to go there. Of course we couldn’t expect much luxury – the transport vehicle was a somewhat large van that seated some 40 people (African style) and the guide wasn’t always there. But it was still great to see the wildlife – elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, baboons, impalas and even quite a few crocodiles. Unfortunately we didn’t see a lion or any other big cat, in this season you can only see them at dawn or dusk and we were there in broad daylight. But it was still very nice, I was especially impressed by the number of animals that were there.
I also got to go to the Maasai, again! The settlements we went to were closer by than the one of last week, but since most of the road was sandy and generally very poor it took us much longer to get there. It was about 45 km, and it took us two and a half hours. All of it was bush land too, there are no shops or anything at that road. So if those people want anything they can’t find in the bush, they have to bike or walk those 45 km, twice... That’s about 18 hours on foot! But I suppose they chose that kind of life.
Again we went there to encourage the people and to see if the schools are still alive. For one settlement that was so – they even got taught some math, which I found impressive. But the other school unfortunately wasn’t active. As with many things, money is the problem. Sometimes teachers volunteer, but most of the time they ask for a compensation for missed income. An allowance, if you will. And in that particular village, the parents didn’t want to pay for education. They don’t really see its importance. If there’s no money and no volunteers, the whole thing stops of course... Which is a shame.
That area is blessed with an actual river though, so people can have all the water they need. Unfortunately, upstream people use the water for irrigation, especially in the dry season of course. This causes the river to dry out for a few months every year. This means the people have to move elsewhere, leaving behind their school. This way a solution in agriculture causes a problem in education elsewhere. The Maasai could probably dig a well, but I somehow get the idea that these people secretly don’t want to settle. Most here seem to find that almost shameful, since it can bring so much good, but somewhere I do understand. You would lose a lot of freedom, being “stuck” in one place. They used to just go anywhere they want, live anywhere they found nice. Until they simply felt like moving on... At least, that’s how I imagine it to be. It’s a shame it doesn’t match with the rest of the world, and I understand that it can be quite a dilemma for them.
Meanwhile, our “chained down” life at the base is good. The English course continues, and is now quite hard for the students. They have a lot of distractions too, not in the least the temptation of secretly speaking Swahili, which isn’t allowed here, for their own benefit. But there seems to be progress, all students are now able to tell very long stories if they want to, be it in somewhat broken English. By the end of next week we’ll be half way through the course.
The first small steps for the computer school have been made, too. Asheri and I had a meeting of sorts today to see what is needed. I thought getting enough computers would be a challenge, as they are more expensive here than at home in the Netherlands. But just recently Asheri got in contact with someone who happens to really want to send us computers. That’s God at work... So now we have to get a good curriculum to teach, and we have to make the classroom ready. The space is there, but a lot of things need doing still. You can’t plug 16 computers into one socket, for instance. A voltage stabiliser is a good idea as well, apparently, since voltage peaks cause the office computer to break down every once in a while. And of course there’s no internet either. Luckily the Arusha base already has a computer school up and running, so they may well be able to help us to solve these practical issues. I have good hopes!
Last weekend I got to go on safari, together with a two students and two other teachers. It was what they call Eight-Eight, which stands for the eighth of August. It’s when people show their harvest, or any of their other work to anyone that’s interested. The Mikumi National Park had a special offer, so we decided to go there. Of course we couldn’t expect much luxury – the transport vehicle was a somewhat large van that seated some 40 people (African style) and the guide wasn’t always there. But it was still great to see the wildlife – elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, baboons, impalas and even quite a few crocodiles. Unfortunately we didn’t see a lion or any other big cat, in this season you can only see them at dawn or dusk and we were there in broad daylight. But it was still very nice, I was especially impressed by the number of animals that were there.
I also got to go to the Maasai, again! The settlements we went to were closer by than the one of last week, but since most of the road was sandy and generally very poor it took us much longer to get there. It was about 45 km, and it took us two and a half hours. All of it was bush land too, there are no shops or anything at that road. So if those people want anything they can’t find in the bush, they have to bike or walk those 45 km, twice... That’s about 18 hours on foot! But I suppose they chose that kind of life.
Again we went there to encourage the people and to see if the schools are still alive. For one settlement that was so – they even got taught some math, which I found impressive. But the other school unfortunately wasn’t active. As with many things, money is the problem. Sometimes teachers volunteer, but most of the time they ask for a compensation for missed income. An allowance, if you will. And in that particular village, the parents didn’t want to pay for education. They don’t really see its importance. If there’s no money and no volunteers, the whole thing stops of course... Which is a shame.
That area is blessed with an actual river though, so people can have all the water they need. Unfortunately, upstream people use the water for irrigation, especially in the dry season of course. This causes the river to dry out for a few months every year. This means the people have to move elsewhere, leaving behind their school. This way a solution in agriculture causes a problem in education elsewhere. The Maasai could probably dig a well, but I somehow get the idea that these people secretly don’t want to settle. Most here seem to find that almost shameful, since it can bring so much good, but somewhere I do understand. You would lose a lot of freedom, being “stuck” in one place. They used to just go anywhere they want, live anywhere they found nice. Until they simply felt like moving on... At least, that’s how I imagine it to be. It’s a shame it doesn’t match with the rest of the world, and I understand that it can be quite a dilemma for them.
Meanwhile, our “chained down” life at the base is good. The English course continues, and is now quite hard for the students. They have a lot of distractions too, not in the least the temptation of secretly speaking Swahili, which isn’t allowed here, for their own benefit. But there seems to be progress, all students are now able to tell very long stories if they want to, be it in somewhat broken English. By the end of next week we’ll be half way through the course.
The first small steps for the computer school have been made, too. Asheri and I had a meeting of sorts today to see what is needed. I thought getting enough computers would be a challenge, as they are more expensive here than at home in the Netherlands. But just recently Asheri got in contact with someone who happens to really want to send us computers. That’s God at work... So now we have to get a good curriculum to teach, and we have to make the classroom ready. The space is there, but a lot of things need doing still. You can’t plug 16 computers into one socket, for instance. A voltage stabiliser is a good idea as well, apparently, since voltage peaks cause the office computer to break down every once in a while. And of course there’s no internet either. Luckily the Arusha base already has a computer school up and running, so they may well be able to help us to solve these practical issues. I have good hopes!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
The Maasai
Before I came to Africa I feared the three months I’d be teaching here would be boring, but so far every week has brought something interest, to say the least. This week I was invited to visit the Maasai. We actually have three of them in class, but now I and the British teachers got to see how they live. These are actual bushmen, the ones living far from cities and roads. Not so much because they didn’t know any cities, at least, not the ones I went to. These people chose to live away from what most would call civilisation, because of the peace and quiet, and for their culture’s sake.
Meeting those people was fascinating... They do have the colourful robes and they do walk around with blade and staff or spear. Where they live, anything could happen. YWAM is supporting schools among the Maasai, so they can learn how to read and write. The settlements are so remote that you have to go there every now and then, there’s no real other way to see how the schools are doing, and whether they’re even “alive” still.
Because the schools may stop, yes. There’s two main reasons for that, namely a lack of water and a lack of motivation. The Maasai are animal keepers, they herd cattle. If there’s no water their livestock may die, which is their fortune. And because they’re cattle keepers, they often don’t see the point in literacy. I could tell our visit meant so much to them. The teacher told us the school will definitely be very busy the next day, even though most of the people went away in search of water, since it’s the dry season now. They were very, very thankful, just for our presence, and for knowing that we think of them. In fact, when they heard I was 21 and not yet married, they offered me a woman to marry... But they were just kidding of course. At least, I hope they were. I think they were less enthusiastic when they found out I didn’t know how to keep cattle, at all.
Having many wives is normal among the Maasai – some may have more than ten. They have more children too. Twelve, twenty... Some men have more than eighty! Sered told there was one Maasai that even started his own primary school, just for his own children.
These people unfortunately know very little. I didn’t expect them to know about the string theory etc., but they didn’t even know the stuff their sandals are made of came from cows such as the ones they keep. They also had and still have to be taught about things as boiling water against parasites and the importance of hygiene. YWAM hopes to start a health education programme, which would be great.
Sitini said some of the Maasai we visited live for ten years without going by car, so of course they were eager to come along. Unfortunately the jeep was full... So they tagged along on the back of the car instead. They do have bicycles though, and some even have mobile phones. But I think that’s just for status, I do wonder about the network coverage there... And how they recharge without electricity.
Meeting those people was fascinating... They do have the colourful robes and they do walk around with blade and staff or spear. Where they live, anything could happen. YWAM is supporting schools among the Maasai, so they can learn how to read and write. The settlements are so remote that you have to go there every now and then, there’s no real other way to see how the schools are doing, and whether they’re even “alive” still.
Because the schools may stop, yes. There’s two main reasons for that, namely a lack of water and a lack of motivation. The Maasai are animal keepers, they herd cattle. If there’s no water their livestock may die, which is their fortune. And because they’re cattle keepers, they often don’t see the point in literacy. I could tell our visit meant so much to them. The teacher told us the school will definitely be very busy the next day, even though most of the people went away in search of water, since it’s the dry season now. They were very, very thankful, just for our presence, and for knowing that we think of them. In fact, when they heard I was 21 and not yet married, they offered me a woman to marry... But they were just kidding of course. At least, I hope they were. I think they were less enthusiastic when they found out I didn’t know how to keep cattle, at all.
Having many wives is normal among the Maasai – some may have more than ten. They have more children too. Twelve, twenty... Some men have more than eighty! Sered told there was one Maasai that even started his own primary school, just for his own children.
These people unfortunately know very little. I didn’t expect them to know about the string theory etc., but they didn’t even know the stuff their sandals are made of came from cows such as the ones they keep. They also had and still have to be taught about things as boiling water against parasites and the importance of hygiene. YWAM hopes to start a health education programme, which would be great.
Sitini said some of the Maasai we visited live for ten years without going by car, so of course they were eager to come along. Unfortunately the jeep was full... So they tagged along on the back of the car instead. They do have bicycles though, and some even have mobile phones. But I think that’s just for status, I do wonder about the network coverage there... And how they recharge without electricity.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Of pizza and mountains
I had pizza yesterday. It was so good! I was smiling ear to ear when eating... Simtu, one of the students, took showed us around town a little. He's actually somewhat famous in the area as he's a boxer, and I recon he's one of the more wealthy students too. He took us to this Rock Garden Resort, a beautiful area with a little river and boulders, of course... I'll have to upload pictures later. He also took us to this restaurant called "Dragonaires", where we shared said godly pizza. I think pizza will be the first thing I want when I come home again... It's so good...
Joshua and I also climbed the nearby mountain. And it wasn't just "mountain" by Dutch definition, it was of actual, proper height. Even Josh thought so. Strangely, no one else wanted to go with us. It took us one hour to get to the base of the mountain, and after two hours of climbing / crawling upwards we made it to the peak! Actually there was a higher peak still, but we'd had to go through a small valley first, and we simply didn't have the time. But we could see all of the Morogoro area from where we were, it was a fantastic view. "The whole of Morogoro is on our eyes," as Joshua put it. And it was on that peak that Joshua heard he was accepted at university too. We prayed together too, for all that we could see from there. It was a fantastic, though exhausting day.
Joshua and I also climbed the nearby mountain. And it wasn't just "mountain" by Dutch definition, it was of actual, proper height. Even Josh thought so. Strangely, no one else wanted to go with us. It took us one hour to get to the base of the mountain, and after two hours of climbing / crawling upwards we made it to the peak! Actually there was a higher peak still, but we'd had to go through a small valley first, and we simply didn't have the time. But we could see all of the Morogoro area from where we were, it was a fantastic view. "The whole of Morogoro is on our eyes," as Joshua put it. And it was on that peak that Joshua heard he was accepted at university too. We prayed together too, for all that we could see from there. It was a fantastic, though exhausting day.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Weeks pass
After two weeks of teaching, I’m actually starting to get a rhythm. I wake up at 6:30, teach until either 13:00 or 15:30 (together with others though!), help with homework in the evenings and go sleep at 22:30. So it’s a fairly busy schedule – though less busy than that of the students, who have to do various duties around the base too.
So in the past two weeks time really flew, it feels like just a few days. I’ve gotten a lot of impressions though, and learned a lot about Africa through all the people here at the base.
One thing that impressed me was the number of accidents. In the first two weeks I heard of three cases of malaria, a severe road accident, three more illnesses and three deaths... This about the family or close friends of the ones on the base, and about the students themselves in the cases of malaria. It really seems like a lot to me.
They do have hospitals here in Morogoro, but they’re true businesses – money is king, not the wellbeing of the patients. That in some cases that means false diagnostics, high medicine prizes or even fake medicine. I guess the same goes for the health care centres that are in the countryside. In spite of this the students who had malaria are now nearly fully recovered without having to miss much of the lessons. A few pills really make a huge difference.
As for road accidents, it’s mostly the motorbikes that get into trouble. Of course these are quite popular here, as they can take you anywhere a car can take you for a lower price. I haven’t seen any police on the roads so far though, and driving on the highway without a helmet seems perfectly normal. Besides that there’s people driving after having a few beers, so no, road safety isn’t exactly optimal.
Anyway, back at the base a lot of people went to the conference. In fact, I think everyone who wanted to go somehow got the money, in a lot of cases in the last two days or so. As told two Brittish ladies (or girls? I never know for people in their 20s.) came to teach exactly when the regular teachers were gone. Sounds like there was some divine planning there! They do great at class, especially at pronunciation of course. And they made some fun games to play during class as well.
Next week the regular teachers will be teaching again, minus one... If God wants, Joshua is going to start his study. We’ve become very close friends in the past days, and I’d hate to see him go. We made music together, and talked, went for walks... “Linguistics in Arts”, I think the study’s called. He really wants to go. Today we’ll see whether he’s accepted at a university, whether he actually can. If so, I’ll be the only male teacher left, wonder how that'll go.
Obadiah comes in and starts speaking. "Ah! I still remember after our picnic. We hadah eggs, nuts, banana..."
"And bread, and pork too," Joshua says.
"Yes! That combination..." Obadiah rubs his stomach as he continues. "Ah! It was big problem in ze dormitory." He points at the loo. "It was like... Ras? Tras? That new word... Yes, 'blast'!"
So in the past two weeks time really flew, it feels like just a few days. I’ve gotten a lot of impressions though, and learned a lot about Africa through all the people here at the base.
One thing that impressed me was the number of accidents. In the first two weeks I heard of three cases of malaria, a severe road accident, three more illnesses and three deaths... This about the family or close friends of the ones on the base, and about the students themselves in the cases of malaria. It really seems like a lot to me.
They do have hospitals here in Morogoro, but they’re true businesses – money is king, not the wellbeing of the patients. That in some cases that means false diagnostics, high medicine prizes or even fake medicine. I guess the same goes for the health care centres that are in the countryside. In spite of this the students who had malaria are now nearly fully recovered without having to miss much of the lessons. A few pills really make a huge difference.
As for road accidents, it’s mostly the motorbikes that get into trouble. Of course these are quite popular here, as they can take you anywhere a car can take you for a lower price. I haven’t seen any police on the roads so far though, and driving on the highway without a helmet seems perfectly normal. Besides that there’s people driving after having a few beers, so no, road safety isn’t exactly optimal.
Anyway, back at the base a lot of people went to the conference. In fact, I think everyone who wanted to go somehow got the money, in a lot of cases in the last two days or so. As told two Brittish ladies (or girls? I never know for people in their 20s.) came to teach exactly when the regular teachers were gone. Sounds like there was some divine planning there! They do great at class, especially at pronunciation of course. And they made some fun games to play during class as well.
Next week the regular teachers will be teaching again, minus one... If God wants, Joshua is going to start his study. We’ve become very close friends in the past days, and I’d hate to see him go. We made music together, and talked, went for walks... “Linguistics in Arts”, I think the study’s called. He really wants to go. Today we’ll see whether he’s accepted at a university, whether he actually can. If so, I’ll be the only male teacher left, wonder how that'll go.
Obadiah comes in and starts speaking. "Ah! I still remember after our picnic. We hadah eggs, nuts, banana..."
"And bread, and pork too," Joshua says.
"Yes! That combination..." Obadiah rubs his stomach as he continues. "Ah! It was big problem in ze dormitory." He points at the loo. "It was like... Ras? Tras? That new word... Yes, 'blast'!"
Saturday, July 25, 2009
"Teacher, come!"
Yes, I’m a teacher now – an English teacher. I’ve never been in front of class before, but it was the one way I could help here, for now. Apparently I’m doing alright. The students are motivated, if somewhat dazzled by all the tenses, irregular verbs and pronunciation rules. Well, it was quite a refresh for me too. Their own language (Swahili) is a bit like Japanese, strangely, except without all the different characters. Most of their syllables are made of just two letters – one of them being a vowel. Words like “thoughts” and “hundredth” are quite daunting. Besides that, they have huge problems in trying to keep the “r” and “l” apart – sometimes it seems they’re swapping them deliberately.
But a few of them can make lengthy stories in English already, which is great fun to hear. Yesterday they were to tell about how they met their wife / fiancé and their marriage (“When you went on honeymoon, what happen?”). Apparently some tribes don’t go through the stage of “boy- and girlfriend” like we do in Europe. And yes, in by far the most cases the man had to pay the woman’s family, in cows and cash.
We also made them discuss whether women are allowed to wear trousers, as it’s generally not done here. The Bible says that God doesn’t like women to wear men’s clothing and vice versa, and trousers are definitely men’s wear here. The discussion was a bonfire, and a very fun kind of way. It struck me that during the discussion, people were able to find Bible texts like the one on men’s and women’s clothing very rapidly.
Next week three out five teachers will be at a YWAM conference for East Africa, elsewhere in Tanzania. For a while it seemed Joshua and I would be the only ones to teach all week, but fortunately we’re blessed with some reinforcements – actual British reinforcements even, so the lessons should be all the better.
After that, I’ll try and start a computer school with another Tanzanian, who’s actually Joshua’s best friend. There’s nothing but an empty classroom so far, but we’ll see what we can manage. If God wills it we will be making Tanzanian nerds here.
But a few of them can make lengthy stories in English already, which is great fun to hear. Yesterday they were to tell about how they met their wife / fiancé and their marriage (“When you went on honeymoon, what happen?”). Apparently some tribes don’t go through the stage of “boy- and girlfriend” like we do in Europe. And yes, in by far the most cases the man had to pay the woman’s family, in cows and cash.
We also made them discuss whether women are allowed to wear trousers, as it’s generally not done here. The Bible says that God doesn’t like women to wear men’s clothing and vice versa, and trousers are definitely men’s wear here. The discussion was a bonfire, and a very fun kind of way. It struck me that during the discussion, people were able to find Bible texts like the one on men’s and women’s clothing very rapidly.
Next week three out five teachers will be at a YWAM conference for East Africa, elsewhere in Tanzania. For a while it seemed Joshua and I would be the only ones to teach all week, but fortunately we’re blessed with some reinforcements – actual British reinforcements even, so the lessons should be all the better.
After that, I’ll try and start a computer school with another Tanzanian, who’s actually Joshua’s best friend. There’s nothing but an empty classroom so far, but we’ll see what we can manage. If God wills it we will be making Tanzanian nerds here.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
I'm there
After a very long journey, I finally arrived at the Youth With A Mission base here in Morogoro. Actually, it's 10 km away from Morogoro... So it's a bit more in the middle of nowhere than I thought at first still.
Anyway, the very friendly couple Sitini and Sered were waiting for me on the airport, and drove me to the YWAM base. The journey took about four hours, including a small stay at the only highway restaurant that's along that road. This "highway" is one of Africa's main roads: it goes all the way to South Africa, and if you take a turn at THE main roundabout of Tanzania, you can go to Kongo and beyond as well. I guess a peculiar fact is that the road has just one lane for each direction...
I could also have gone by the direct train but that takes about twice as long - while we were averaging 75 km/h on the highway.
When leaving Dar-Es-Salaam, the country's capital and the destination of my final flight, I got a first glimpse of the lives of the people here. Most houses have roofs made out of wave metal sheets, and there were so many people apparently making a living from selling things next to and on the road. There were people living in ruins, even. After seeing all of this, the stories about those Africans charging western people five times as much as other Africans don't sound like a crime so much anymore, at all. It simply makes sense...
I guess the base is a relatively good place to stay. The houses are solid, the gardens are well maintained, there's perfect electricity etc. By Western standards I guess it can be called primitive - there's no internet (except for "the office"), the shower's more like a tap that just happens to be mounted very high and there's no hot water, at all. But at least you can drink it without getting sick... It tastes horrible, but you can drink it.
The people here are very friendly, I got a very warm welcome ("Welcome to Tanzania. Hululululululululu!"). Joshua especially is great - he's sort of looking after me, and sort of showed me around. The English students are very curious and love to practice their English with me.
Last friday, the day after my arrival, I spent most of my time in the English School itself. I may have to teach there as well. There are twelve students (including one muslim, surprisingly - they made him pray for our lunch) and four teachers, excluding me. There is much more interaction with the class than what I'm used to - they have to actually "drill" words there, and the students are constantly asked whether they understood what was being explained and told to make example sentences etc. Even though most students are far in their twenties, the English being tought is pretty basic.
Tomorrow Joshua and I are going to Morogoro. I hope to upload this text there then, as I actually wrote it on my laptop on friday. Weekends are always free, which is fortunate since still have quite some sleep to catch up with - I had to stay in Dubai airport from half past midnight to half past ten, which wasn't fun.
What'll happen in the days therafter I don't know... I might be in front of the class by then. For now I can only take things as they come.
Anyway, the very friendly couple Sitini and Sered were waiting for me on the airport, and drove me to the YWAM base. The journey took about four hours, including a small stay at the only highway restaurant that's along that road. This "highway" is one of Africa's main roads: it goes all the way to South Africa, and if you take a turn at THE main roundabout of Tanzania, you can go to Kongo and beyond as well. I guess a peculiar fact is that the road has just one lane for each direction...
I could also have gone by the direct train but that takes about twice as long - while we were averaging 75 km/h on the highway.
When leaving Dar-Es-Salaam, the country's capital and the destination of my final flight, I got a first glimpse of the lives of the people here. Most houses have roofs made out of wave metal sheets, and there were so many people apparently making a living from selling things next to and on the road. There were people living in ruins, even. After seeing all of this, the stories about those Africans charging western people five times as much as other Africans don't sound like a crime so much anymore, at all. It simply makes sense...
I guess the base is a relatively good place to stay. The houses are solid, the gardens are well maintained, there's perfect electricity etc. By Western standards I guess it can be called primitive - there's no internet (except for "the office"), the shower's more like a tap that just happens to be mounted very high and there's no hot water, at all. But at least you can drink it without getting sick... It tastes horrible, but you can drink it.
The people here are very friendly, I got a very warm welcome ("Welcome to Tanzania. Hululululululululu!"). Joshua especially is great - he's sort of looking after me, and sort of showed me around. The English students are very curious and love to practice their English with me.
Last friday, the day after my arrival, I spent most of my time in the English School itself. I may have to teach there as well. There are twelve students (including one muslim, surprisingly - they made him pray for our lunch) and four teachers, excluding me. There is much more interaction with the class than what I'm used to - they have to actually "drill" words there, and the students are constantly asked whether they understood what was being explained and told to make example sentences etc. Even though most students are far in their twenties, the English being tought is pretty basic.
Tomorrow Joshua and I are going to Morogoro. I hope to upload this text there then, as I actually wrote it on my laptop on friday. Weekends are always free, which is fortunate since still have quite some sleep to catch up with - I had to stay in Dubai airport from half past midnight to half past ten, which wasn't fun.
What'll happen in the days therafter I don't know... I might be in front of the class by then. For now I can only take things as they come.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Me too, me too
I'm afraid there's no way around it now: I'll have to start "blogging" too, just as some of my friends who did the same minor as I did. In this "blog" I hope to keep you up to date with how I fare in Tanzania.
As you probably noticed this "blog" will be in English, since I have many friends abroad too. Sorry fellow dutchies, globalisation can suck like that.
As you probably noticed this "blog" will be in English, since I have many friends abroad too. Sorry fellow dutchies, globalisation can suck like that.
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