I Cooked With My Brother

For the past two weeks, there have been exams at the secondary school.  That means that the women teachers have to cook for the teachers who are administering the exam.  Tuesday, Melissa and I went to cook and talk with the other teachers.  We were told to bring knives to peel some sweet potatoes.  “Some sweet potatoes” turned into at least 100 potatoes.  I used to complain when my mom asked me to peel 5 potatoes for dinner for our family.  It was quite the task, but it turned into a competition for me- as do most things- and away we went.  It actually wasn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined, and it only took us about an hour and a half to peel them all.   The other teachers were cutting up all the vegetables (spinach, tomatoes, onions, garlic), and building the fire to cook on.  The company of the other women teachers made it a lot more enjoyable!  After we finished peeling, we sat with them while the food cooked.  They had created a jiko (outdoor stove) on the floor of one of the classrooms.  Most of the women on this Island cook using jikos.  They prop their pots up on three rocks and build a fire underneath.  I am in awe every time I see someone cook on one of those things because the heat is so intense. I sweat just thinking about it.  The women also pull out the burning firewood with their bare hands, and touch the metal pot tops without using a rag or pot holder.  It’s incredible.  When our meal was finished cooking, we fed the administrators of the exam and then we all ate together.  Sweet potatoes and mchicha (spinach).  It was delicious, and I think those sweet potatoes tasted extra good because of all the hard work I put into them J  One of the teachers commented on a poorly peeled potato, and I just laughed because I am certain that it was probably one of mine!

During class that afternoon, I went to tell one of my students, “I cooked with your sister this morning.” I know how to say that.  It's not a hard sentence and I know all those words.  But, instead, I told him, “I cooked with my brother this morning.”  I didn’t realize why he was so confused until I sat back down and then I just started laughing at myself.  Oh man, one of these days, I WILL be fluent in this language and look back at these days and smile.

Siku Kuu

Today I woke up to the sounds of Siku Kuu!  The mosque next door had an extra long prayer time and sermon this morning, and I woke up excited to spend the day with some friends.  I’ve mentioned before that there is a Peace Corp worker, Melissa, living here on the Island.  You’ve probably also heard me mention that she is awesome and I am so grateful she is here!  She is always down for going visiting with me, or going on an adventure to explore a new part of the Island with me.  Today, we decided to walk around town to greet friends and neighbors on their special day.  Our visiting began with a stop at Mariam’s house.  When we arrived, the little girls had new braids in their hair, and new dresses, jewelry, and make-up on.  At 10am, they already had candy in their mouths, as well.  On Siku Kuu, the kids go around asking for candy (kind of like Halloween) and they eat lots of sweets throughout the entire day.  We were given cake, doughnuts, and cookies when we arrived, so we kindly ate as much as we could.  We stayed and chatted for a while and then started walking home.  Mariam sent us away with more cake, doughnuts, and cookies to eat and share.  On the way home, we saw our friend, Omar, who waved us down to come to his workshop.  When we went, he invited us to his home for lunch.  We thanked him and told him another friend that we teach with already had invited us to lunch.  He begged us to at least come stop by and see his wife and greet her on this special day, so we did.  When we first walked in, Omar gave us bananas.  Then his wife brought out juice, and more cake, doughnuts, and cookies.  By that time, I was already stuffed.  But what do you do when you are stuffed here?  Keep eating… So that’s exactly what we did.  We left Omar’s house with a bag full of bananas and headed to lunch.  We had lots of pilau (a type of rice), which was so delicious!  We enjoyed a full meal and great hospitality- as usual.

Around 3pm, we headed home completely stuffed, yet completely satisfied. A day full of friends and food.  Those two things are hard to beat.

I definitely didn’t need to eat any more today, but we had already made plans to eat dinner in one of the bigger towns on the Island with the Browns and their visitors tonight.  We ate on the rooftop of a hotel overlooking the ocean.  The company and sunset were both incredible, and there were hundreds of flying foxes over our heads at one point as the sun went down.

After dinner, we walked through the busy town where people were EVERYWHERE.  Kids were running around from all the sugar they had throughout the day, parents were hanging out with friends, and everyone was happy, happy, happy!  The celebration will continue tomorrow, the next day, and we heard it will even continue through Saturday.  Like I’ve said before, these folks love to party!

Siku Kuu Njema!

Celebrate

These people love a reason to take off work, get dressed up, eat lots of food, and hang out with friends and family.  I mean, let's be honest, who doesn't?  Ok, I could do without the getting dressed up part, but everything else sounds great!  Lucky for us, this week is full of celebrations here! Today is Nyerere Day, which is a national holiday to celebrate Julius Nyerere, the first President of this country. Nothing big happened except the schools and some stores were closed.  Then, on Wednesday, they will celebrate Eid-al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice.  This is a celebration at the end of the Hajj.  I am told the celebration will continue until Friday, and then school will resume again on Monday.  When I went to visit Mariam this morning, she was making henna to put on her granddaughters and neighbors in preparation for the coming days.  She showed me how to crush, boil, and mix the henna leaves, and then showed me how she paints it on the bottom of their hands and feet.  

Neighbor, Aisha, helping Mariam grind and sift the Henna leaves.

We had an awesome time laughing about her “squat” position, which is perfect. I am trying to learn from her because my toilet at the house I’m staying at now is a squatty potty.  This might be too much information, so forgive me if it is, but I’m trying to get some tips on how to successful go to the bathroom in the hole and not get some drops of pee on my feet.  I was embarrassed to admit that until I started talking to other women here and they all say it happens often and there’s no shame in it.  It's just part of life here.  Unless they are just telling me that it happens to them too, to make me feel better...

Mariam is still an incredible squatter after 55(ish) years.

As we were talking, the chickens started stealing her son and granddaughters’ bread.  It was hilarious because these chickens were literally jumping in the air to get food.  I caught one in the act.

The granddaughters would start crying when the chickens would come and take their bread, but the son or myself would jump up and chase them and get it back for them.  The tears would stop, but they started hiding their bread under their dresses, and one even put some of her bread in the pocket of her shirt as she scared them away with a knife!  

I’ve been invited back for the celebration on Wednesday and I’m looking forward to it.  Who wouldn't want to hang out with this awesome family?  I think I might have to get some henna tats to fit in, though.

Amina (Neighbor), Mariam (Mariam's Granddaughter), Abduli (Mariam's son), and Mariam (Mariam's Granddaughter)

Under The Sea

So I’ve been dying to get in the water here because it is so beautiful, and Friday I got my chance!  There are/were two American single girls here on the Island with me (One left Sunday to return to America).  The one who left, Aly, was working at the dive hotel at the north end of the Island.  The other one, Melissa, is with Peace Corp, living in my town, and working at the same secondary school as me.  They are both awesome and very similar to me in that we all love to be outside, and in particular, in the water.  We all decided it was time to go diving on Friday, and it was incredible! We dove to 35m (I’m being forced to learn meters, centimeters, kilos, and Celsius to survive here.  Confusing me! Thanks, America!), and saw lots of beautiful coral and fish.  The coolest part of our first dive was finding cleaner shrimp.  Ever seen Finding Nemo?  If you take your regulator out of your mouth, let it fill a little bit with water, the shrimp come cling to your mouth and start cleaning your teeth.  And to think I was worried about not going to the dentist the whole time I will be living in Africa. Guess I’ll just have to go visit the cleaner shrimp every six months (or six days…).  Here are a few pics from the dive.  I didn’t take a camera, so these pics were stolen from Justin’s camera.

Friday was just what I needed- a day of relaxing with friends and enjoying God’s beautiful creation under the sea!

Sunday, we had a sweet time of fellowship with some of our other friends on the Island- Reid, Sandy, and their 4 kids!  They have been living on the Island for the last 5 years, but have just returned from a 7 month stay in America.  They are awesome, and I’m actually going to be moving in with them on Thursday of this week.  And no, I’m not sick of the Browns! Haha They have some friends coming in town for the next couple of weeks and needed their guest room back.  Shannon and I also went by “my house” on Sunday afternoon to check up on the progress.  Let’s just say I hopefully will be able to move in by the end of March! J/k- it really shouldn’t take that long (still aiming for November).  There were at least 5 workers there, but it didn’t look like they had started doing any work yet.  I’m going to slyly go show my face every day so they know I mean business.  I am excited to move in to my new house, but I am also grateful for friends opening up their homes to me now. 

Yesterday, I spent the morning in the local Primary school.  I have 4 specific English teachers I am working with- Fatma, Sharafe, Wanakombo, and Sharifa.  I met with them the past few weeks to talk about their curriculum for the remainder of the school year.  Now, the plan is for us to meet every Monday.  I will be teaching them English and discussing teaching strategies for their upcoming lessons each week.  Only one out of the four teachers is able to hold a conversation in English with me.  We are going to start with basic grammar and vocabulary and go from there. 

God has continued to give me favor with these teachers and my other students.  He has provided awesome friends, places to stay, and has protected me on multiple occasions.  I am so blessed.  I have been overwhelmed by His goodness and provision recently.  I have continued to be comforted through intimacy with the Father, and His unfailing love for me. I am so undeserving of His love, BUT oh, so grateful for it!  I have been absolutely blown away by His creation here, and grateful for the opportunity to explore more of His underwater world this past week.  Thank you, Lord.