Go With the Flow

First, I must tell you what a test of patience it is to get on the internet in our village. 10 minutes just to bring up this site! awesome! and excuse my grammer and spelling, I will not take the time to reread or correct. I just cant be bothered! Now that that is out of the way, MAMBO!

The past few days have been good, ups and downs naturally, but overall good! It seems like so much happens in just a few days, so I have begun taking notes so that when i do get to the internet i can remember the big stories I want to share. Some are big, some are small little instances that just happened. First, a crazy experience we had was taking a dalla dalla back from Arusha Town after my last post. The ride is about 45 minutes or so. As we walked up to the dalla stand, our host brother and friend, jeffit, were surrounded by drivers who bagan fighting over who would take us. The pushing started, the pulling on jeffit and eachother, and then the fists came out, all over who would get our buisness! Thankfully, all the hasseling was done to Barnabus and Jeffit, and no one touched or even talked to us. Last night we took a dalla on the way home, all alone without our host bro, and luckily it went much smoother!

We have already begun learning to practice carrying bottles on our heads, our practice for the big buckets. It is much harder than I thought it would be! Our host sister, Agape, who is around 10 is helping us. Sunday we had our program orientation. We traveled to Arusha Town not sure how many other volunteers for expect. There were probably 20 of us, total- more than i thought there would be. Overall, I was not impressed with the group of people. AT ALL. I have never encountered people which such low cultural sensitivity, especially among people volunteering for at least a month stint. A group of the volunteers first impression was this: they told us a story, laughing hysterically the whole time, about how the first night there was a rooster outside their window, so the next day they offered to buy it from their neighbor who owned it and killed it, so they could get their sleep. I was speechless.... lucky... because had i not been I would have had many choice words for them about how completely horrible that is. THANK God, I am out in Usa River with some pretty decent people. Though, we all have our moments.

I have a pretty sweet rash. I kinda resemble a man with a ginger beard because of the location and colour of it. maybe I should be showering more often? once so far might not have been enough... haha.

We had some trouble telling our host brother, Barnabus, 19, that he cant come everywhere with us. We had been going everywhere together, to get used to the city and our village, but have gotten to the point where we need some independence and some time with the other volunteers. We were going back into Arusha Town yesterday for a dinner and had a bit of a struggle trying to tell him we didnt want him to go. I don't know how it will play out in the future... so it will be interesting. Our host fam is great though over all. Very religious, which I expected. And since Stacey and Sharon are atheists, I do the nightly prayer almost every other night. M&D- if only the thumbs up game worked here!

Since I will be doing everything, basically, with Stacey and Sharon, Ill tell you a bit about them. Stacey is from CA, will be a senior in social work. She has a boyfriend and misses him a lot and got mad for getting an A- in one of her classes. We have a lot in common I suppose. Sharon is 23 and will start teaching school in the fall in Toronto where she is from. We are all working on being flexible and going with the flow, but there are times where I just have to keep my mouth shut and let them be upset about things. There is some negative energy about somethings, coming from them, so that is a bit of a bummer. but, they are good girls and I do enjoy them.

We have started our job at Cradle of Love, an orphanage for babies, newborn to 3. It is intended to be a short term stay for children to get healthy and then returned to their relatives or neighbors who will take them. They are also up for adoption before that point or if they are released by their relatives. There are 37 children in the orphanage, yesterday there were 38. One died this morning, the second death in a week. The babies are adorable generally, but I already have a few favorites from each age group. No lie, there is one that I would bring home in a heart beat, but who does that surprise?? The orphanage was started and is run by an American woman. It is interesting though, how little involvment she has in the daily running of the place. Through talking with the other volunteers, there are many...., we have found out that lots of kids just miss a meal, because the Tanzanian nannies don't keep track well enough and there is no system set in place to keep track. It seems like a simple thing to have a spreadsheet and check it all off... a simple solution that the founder has failed to even consider. BUT the place is very nice, with good beds and an okay amount of supplies and lots of voluteeers to make sure everyone gets held. There is a baby that is very sick and came home from hospital just this morning because the owner has gone back to the States for 7 weeks and the volunteer who has been left in charge doesn't have authority to keep them or pay for them to be in hospital. I don't know that Jackson will make it through the week. It is really frustrating. But I won't go too much into that.

We are going on safari on Friday and I can't wait! Five of the six of us in Usa River are going, so that will be nice. Saif has been here for 3 weeks, so he has already gone. I just can't wait, thats about all there is to say about it.

We have started brushing our teeth with the water, our family has said it is safe, and so far no problems. I am sleeping a wee bit better, but still not great. And worrysome enough, I already feel mildly sick of Tanzania food. We had Ugali the other night for the first time, fufu for you Nora, and it is not the most appetizing thing. Imagine grits, ground finer, but cooked to be extra thick. You form a ball, then dip it into a stew like dish. exchange ugali for rice, white or brown, and you have every meal. We are not sure what the meat in the stew is, goat or beef, but we haven't asked. We also have had a huge ant infestation in our room- Stacey's beef jerky was a nice treat for them apparently. They are fire ants, so we are hoping that today we got everything food out of our room. I still have my nutragrain bars! I am saving them for when I really can't make myself eat Tanzanian food!

I think that is all for now. maybe I have caught up?
Things are good, still adjusting, but good. I still have to think about the fact that I really am here. It all just seems to surreal!
Hope all is well! Enjoy a salad for me! I'd kill for one!
xoxo