Happy leap day everyone! Today in school, my classmates and I were thinking back to where we were on leap day four years ago. I was a junior in high school. I cannot even believe how quickly four years passes. And how many things have changed in such a short period of time. I can guarantee you that during my junior year at Longmeadow High School, I didn’t have any expectations of traveling to Africa to study wildlife conservation and political ecology during college. Well, I once again would like to apologize for the lack of updates you‘ve been given recently. The internet is particularly unreliable in the city, and while in our home stays we only have internet once a week. Last Wednesday, I was looking forward to telling you all about my family, the Eluidi household, but an unpredicted storm knocked most of the internet capabilities out for the day. Thus two weeks will be condensed into this post.
To get you started, my classmates and I arrived in the village of Bangata, Tanzania on Sunday morning, February 19. Here are a few small facts about my new home, Bangata. It is a small community on the outward slopes of one of Tanzania’s famous mountains, Mount Meru. The village is bordered by the Kichakare River in the East, the Songata River in the west (which I cross every day), and in the north by the protected forests of Mount Meru. All roads from Arusha to Bangata are bumpy dirt roads, that take almost as long to drive up as they do to walk. The level of poverty is relatively high, where as many families still live without power, or even easy access to fresh water. Some families have to walk over a mile to reach a water source, fill their buckets, and return to their homes in order to get water. These first couple days have really made me realize how especially lucky I am to have easy access to an important resource such as clean water.
Pulling into the school driveway was nerve wracking. My heart started hammering, seeing all of our new family members sitting outside of the school welcoming us to our new home. Diving into such a diverse culture is unlike anything I had expected. Though my family has been beyond welcoming, I still have to work hard to adjust to the cultural differences I am facing. My family is composed of my mama (mother), Mary, my Baba (father), Godson, my two Kaka (brothers), Godbless and Abraham, and my two Dada (sisters), Rose and Sarah. Godbless is the eldest, eighteen, Abraham following at fifteen, then Rose at ten, and Sarah is the youngest, only three years old.
I immediately fell into the well-oiled routine of my new family. In the morning, we eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast. There’s chai (tea) and always hot water. I leave the house at 7:15 and say goodbye to Mama who has never failed to be milking the cows as I walk out the door. Rosy, leaves before me for primary school, as does Abraham, for secondary school. Sarah, is usually up and by this time, trying to get me to play with her. As Godbless has completed secondary school, every day he is out searching for college early in the morning. I believe he was accepted yesterday into a college as well! My mother and father were excitedly talking over an official looking document that he had brought to the dinner table.
After our morning chai and bread, I meet a student, Danielle, who lives nearby, and we walk/hike to class together. The walk or I guess you could call it more of a slide, to school is interesting... Especially when it has rained the night before. Our morning walk to school is pretty much a mud pathway down the side of a mountain, jumping from rock to rock through the Songota River, and then hiking back up a steep mud trail on the other side. We’ve gotten lost three times; all of which we took a wrong turn and ended up on a completely different, far more complicated, hike home. One of our “getting lost adventures“ took us across two streams, before George and Lenny (to all you Of Mice and Men fans, I‘m not kidding) , two helpful Tanzanian’s walked us all the way back to our rightful homes. Other than getting lost I’ve slipped a few times on the path, and fell in the river once… Poise has never been my forte.
So back to my family. My Mama works around the house all day, and my father is a guide on Kilimanjaro and Meru hikes. She milks the cows, sweeps the floor, does the laundry, and cooks every day. She is one of the hardest working women I’ve met. My father just got back home from hiking with two Swedish hikers on Kilimanjaro two days ago.
Rosy, my 10 year old sister is the sweetest little girl. She speaks English pretty well for such a young age, and is constantly pointing to things and helping me learn Swahili vocabulary. A couple nights ago she helped me with my Swahili homework, and in return I helped her with her math. She was working on multiplication of double digit numbers and was having trouble with the methodology. Even with the language barrier I was able to communicate the correct way to multiply to her, and she really began to understand how to do the problems better. Ever since she’s been writing down problems, doing them out, and making me check if she has the correct answer or not. This connection I’ve made with her is one of the most rewarding relations that I’ve had on this trip so far.
Sarah on the other hand is a piece of work, always drawing on my homework and knocking on my door when I’m trying to sleep. But she is adorable and when I’m not trying to work, very fun to play and run around with.
So, Today I’m in Arusha buying some gifts to give my family when I leave in 10 days. I’ve gotten my mom candle sticks, oven mitts, and soap, for my father a wallet and a hat, my brothers hats, playing cards, and a soccer ball, for my sisters play-doh, colored pencils, crayons, a necklace for rosy, and a stuffed animal for Sarah. I’m also making them an American meal tonight: Mac and Cheese, hot dogs, and cucumber salad. It should be interesting, I also have mangoes and cookies for desert. Later we stopped at the market place with our Swahili teachers, in order to practice our marketplace vocabulary. I am in one of the groups making fruit salad for tomorrow, and I had to barter for these little bananas the locals call “ndizi sukari” or sugar bananas. I got the price down from 2000 Tanzanian shillings to 1000 Tanzanian shillings which is less than a dollar for about 14 bananas.
School has been going well, we have class every morning from eight to around one, with a short break in between for tea. Yes, “tea time” is very big in Tanzania. Then in the afternoons we either have our political ecology lectures or a discussion with a focal group made up of citizens living around Bangata. Last Thursday we talked about how they believed development was effecting their community and the way they lived. We talked about corruption, education, and lack of infrastructure with increasing aid. Many of the mothers and fathers in my focal group focused on the fact that though many more young Tanzanians are going to school, less money is being given to help build bathrooms, or bring running water to the school. They complain that the government promises better roads, but they never see the money, or the labor necessary to accomplish this goal. In this respect I have found it very interesting to think about global aid through the eyes of the Tanzanians.
Well I better run, hopefully, I’ll be able to tell you more soon
-Emma
No comments:
Post a Comment