TIA

Never have I listened to so much DMB. Or kept my feet up from so many cockroaches at night. Or actually seen the milky way clearly. Or eaten so many beans. Or been crammed on a dala-dala (a city “bus” that’s only supposed to hold 10 people) with over double the people of what it holds....and how come I’m always the most sweaty person on there?? These people are walking around too before they get on!! Never have I seen monkeys in the middle of the city, walking on telephone wires. Or have I felt so rushed to use the internet- 1,000 shillings (about $.82) for a half hour when the internet is as slow as dial up is considered agonizing in my mind.  Never have I seen a teacher tell a little boy to strip naked in front of his classmates to “wash his bod” for a “tutorial” during school. Unreal.

I have never been touched, grabbed, pulled on, slapped on the butt, or had my face fingered up by so many dirty little hands plastered with crusty porridge and sweat and filth. Never have I wanted to understand a 6 year old more, either. This language barrier sucks. Can I just say how much I love it though? Glorious. I literally say on Friday nights, “I can’t wait until Monday when I get to hold my babies again”. 

We were dragged through a smelly street market on Monday with vendors yelling, “Sista, Sista! Karibu!” or “Muzungus! Habarri Muzungus! Mambo! Karibu!” After smiling politely, and saying “Hapana, asante” to each of them, we finally reached our destination; a tiny- not even 8x8 shop- with balled up uniforms in tiny plastic bags, everywhere. We waited as Aamina (the teacher) and I negotiated prices and they dug through the piles of sweaters that were waiting to find homes. We needed 36; 12 each in 3 different sizes. After about 15 minutes of about 4 men running back and forth to Lord knows where and us waiting for the sweaters to reach only half that magic number, we decided to head out and say we’d be back tomorrow. After leaving and walking for almost a mile, one of the men chased us down and made sure we were coming back. Weird. “Yes sir, you’ll get our business... just make sure all 36 are there tomorrow”. They weren’t ready by the way.

I've also never been to an African "petting zoo" filled with tortoises, chameleons, monkeys, and snakes. I have, however, been pooped on by birds before... but never by one as huge as today's. Are you kidding me??! No. Discusting. Mama Joe said I'll have good luck today :)

Oh! And I can’t forget our Valentines dinner from the guys. We went to this Italian/Indian restaurant where the special for Valentine’s day was heart shaped pizzas. The pizza was good, and the beer was like a buck forty but the music was cheesy Kelly Clarkson or lame 80’s. During the course of dinner the entire city lost power 3 times. Romantic. Haha. 

TIA. All of these things are Africa to me now. Tanzania, Africa.