A Mermaid, Dolphins, and Crawling Through a Cave….

And believe it or not, all for the sake of learning!

Mermaid: Last Friday during class we somehow got on the topic of mythical creatures.  Naturally, the Little Mermaid came up.  Our teacher, Omar, didn’t know the term “mermaid”, so we did our best to describe that it was half fish/half woman that lived “under da sea”.  He went outside, asked a friend the Swahili word for it, and came back excited to share a story with us!  He told us that he had, in fact, seen a mermaid! He told us that a few years ago some fishermen caught a mermaid here on the Island, brought “her” into the sokoni (market), and he saw “her” with his own eyes.  We seriously could not stop laughing.  We kept asking him to describe what this mermaid looked like.  He said that her bottom half was a fish, she had a woman’s chest, but that she did not have a pretty face like we had described.  We kindly told him that mermaids weren’t real, and it was most likely a type of fish that had some woman-like features.  He insisted that it was a mermaid, and he said that people from all around came to see her.  Then, he told us that they cut her up and ate the bottom half of her.  Everyone refused to eat the top half of her, though.  What a waste!  Needless to say, we had a hard time getting back on track after that story.  (Add that to the list of why this place is awesome: They have mermaids!  Now you know you want to come visit me!)

Dolphins: This past week we actually had two fieldtrips!  Last Saturday we went to the south point of the Island to visit the oldest mosque here.  This time our guide wasn’t as nice and only spoke Swahili (j/k, he was actually nice- I just couldn’t understand half of what he told us. BUT the more people speak only Swahili to me, the more I am able to pick up and understand!)  After the tour of the mosque we HAD to go swim with the dolphins.  There were seriously dolphin everywhere.  It’s like a fun game here, though.  Don’t picture SeaWorld where you stand there and the dolphins come swim up to you and let you grab on.  No, it’s more like you are in a boat driving through the ocean and you see dolphin and head towards them.  The driver goes in front of the where they are swimming and you jump off towards them/ on top of them like you are trying to wrestle a bear.  You swim with them until they swim away, then you hop back in the boat and repeat the process again and again.  It’s pretty awesome. 

Crawling through a cave:  Our second fieldtrip this week was on Wednesday.  It was definitely my favorite thing we have done so far!  We went to visit the Slave Caves and Slave Chambers.  In the late 1800’s, this Island played a major part in the slave trade.  They gave us the history of the cave (again in Swahili) while we were above the ground.  From my limited ability to understand, the guide explained that the slaves were forced to walk through the cave all the way to the ocean, where they would wait in the chambers until the dhows arrived to take them away.  He told us that the cave doesn’t go all the way to the ocean anymore, but that we were going to come out through a hole in the ground part of the way through.  “I love adventure! Piece of Cake!”- I thought.  I assumed they would have created a path for tourist to walk through to get the experience- you know with lighted guardrails.  Nope.  Pitch dark (Except for the flash on my camera and a tiny flashlight) and we crawled, slid, climbed, dangled, and wiggled our way through the cave.  It was no “Piece of Cake”- I was dripping in sweat and covered in dirt- but it was awesome!  

At the end of the tunnel, you have to crawl under a rock and out of a hole by grabbing on to a tree.  Luckily, my friend snapped a pic of me coming out of the hole.  This is a picture of success!

Had I known THIS is what the slave cave was really going to be like, I wouldn’t have worn my long skirt, flip flops, and a white shirt.  The suggested attire for the tour was pants, tennis shoes, and a dark colored shirt- which we were told about AFTER.

In class yesterday, Simba (classmate from Zimbabwe) and Omar (teacher) were talking about African cultures and traditions.  They were talking about some CRAZY stuff and my reaction to some of it  (Ok- to most of it) was, “No way!”  Simba looked at me and kindly said, “Ginger. T- I- A”.  He is right, my friends.  This Is Africa. From Mermaids, to dolphin wrangling, to crawling through a cave in a long skirt, flops, and a head covering, TIA.  You never know what adventure you will find yourself on or what stories you might hear.

I know I shared some fun stories above (and I really am enjoying my class and field trips), but I have been spending a lot of my time studying Swahili.  So much so, that kichwa kinauma- my head is hurting!  I am thankful for all of your prayers regarding language study.  God has truly been enabling me to understand this language way beyond what I thought was possible.  I obviously still have A LOT to learn, but I am grateful for the progress that has been made in these first 3 weeks of class! I hired a tutor yesterday to give me some more individualized practice and instruction.  Josephine is a sweet older lady who lives a few houses down from me.  She will be coming over two afternoons a week, for two hours, to help me practice what I am learning in class.  I am really looking forward to it!

Also, I just realized it’s June 22^nd, which means I said goodbye to you all 1 month ago!  It is crazy how time flies!  Although I’m loving life here, I do miss you all!  I have been blessed with many great friends, family members, and brothers and sisters in Christ.  I have continued to be encouraged by each of you and appreciate your continued prayers more than you know!