Coffee and Culture

Hello again! 

Make sure to fasten your seatbelts on this one, we are going on an adventure.

So this is what you missed,

Saturday we went to the Arusha Cultural Heritage Centre, and might I add that it has the equivalent feeling of being at a zoo.  There were statues of all sorts of African wildlife throughout the center.  There was even a spice center! Maybe that is a common thing, but I was enthralled! 

Loving the elephant

The place had an art gallery you could get into for free and admire all the beautiful art and history within the building.  Cool fact about the building is that it was engineered to resemble three important artifacts of Africa: a spear, a shield, and a drum. The spear represents pride. The shield represents bravery. The drum represents harmony. 

Cultural Center.

It was so interesting to walk alone and explore all the beauty in art in silence. Now art is for everyone, but you don't have to go in observing the brush strokes, or the symmetry, or analyze why everything is where it is.  Rather, what I did was just appreciate that the art exists for what it is.  There are so many things to see in the gallery, from old statues that represent guardians for African tribes, to modern artists painting realistic human portraits, to 14-foot tall statutes that implement a mold of Africans formed together as one being. On a personal note, this moment was a huge moment for me. All those single people, or introverted people, or people who just need alone time out there, go to an art gallery, swear yourself to silence, and allow yourself to soak up what it feels like to be an individual, to worry about only yourself, and be glad you are doing something for you.  It will be rewarding.  If you're married, drag your spouse with you to one and enjoy what culture has to offer.

The centre is a for-profit organization that is run off of the many wealthy tourists coming into buy paintings or art. They also had an old, dusty flea market that was basically an old warehouse full of old dusty things where I found this really heavy, but cool old elephant body mask....I was very tempted to get it, but there was no way I was going to fit it into my suitcase. 

Can you tell this is me? 

Recycled bottles at Shanga Shangaa

The next thing we went to was Shanga Shangaa, which stands for "amazing beads." This place is also a for-profit organization, but the cool thing about it is that it employs disabled people to create all kinds of glamorous jewelry, candle holders, glasses, "lady gaga" shoes, and even pillow pets!

They have pillow pets in Africa too

Making kangas.

We ate amazing food that was completely American and touristy. They had an awesome lounge area where we saw baby monkeys galore! That's right!

Be jealous! We learned about the coffee plantation that has 2,500 coffee bean trees to ever hectare, which produce 2,000 coffee beans per tree per year. Their coffee is good; you probably drank it at Starbucks this year. It was such a peaceful time to be a tourist.

Coffee beans start like this.

Then we went to a Lutheran church on Sunday, obviously, and it was entirely Swahili and was entirely traditional. There was a lot of standing and sitting, and we even took communion. Keep in mind that the wine was...very alcoholic and...I am not a drinker, so I tried very hard to keep it down. I was amazed with how well I caught up with the sermon and he preached a lot about how God heals the sick. An interesting thought was that they had an auction after the service, for when people can't bring money for offerings, they bring food and sell it. The choir was very angelic too and it was a very peaceful time to just sit in the presence of God.

Coffee Beans

There were so many things we have done the past few days, however I bid everyone a quick goodbye and know that I am sending my love from Africa and will return with more stories. Keep in mind. Make time for yourself.

Love from Africa 

Jax

So many experiences...so little time!

Sorry! It has taken me so long to write, I would hate to leave you all in the dark.

The past few days we have done quite a bit. 

The highlight of this week is that we got to go to the Eastern African Community (EAC), which is the organization involved in moving east Africa (Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) into a federation. We talked with a young girl named Belinda, who majored in public relations, and who has been working there since 2011. She had a lot of enthusiasm, as did others in the EAC, that in the long run unity of east Africa would make a whole world of difference. I am not much of a political science girl, but it was actually quite fascinating to view their process and the many challenges they face. 

We also talked with an internet company that is now one of the top internet companies in northern Tanzania, and growing. We discussed marketing strategies, the challenges they faced getting the business started in a socialist economy, and even app software ideas for cell phones. I will say that Tanzania is an ever growing economy, and the internet company managers and investors told us that Tanzania is a great place to invest in. Check it out.

If you know the public transit system in Tanzania, dala dalas are very small vans that cram up to 22 people inside of them, when they are originally a van for about 10 passengers to fit comfortably. We have no access to the specific route system, or where they're going, or where they stop, so...you kind of just have to go with it.  We went in a dala to get to downtown, and I was horrified when the same dala kicked their whole van full of people out just to put us back in. They wanted our business, but there were old women in the van, and it wasn't fair! I will say that some dalas drive knowing that everyone will get out of their way.. kind of like my Dad..teehee. We literally pulled out of a parallel parking spot with .0002 turns, and I have no idea how we didn't hit anything. They really test their limits with cars in Africa.

Inside a dala dala

We also went to buy fabric for the tailor to make our African clothing (kitenges and kangas and such).  I split six meters with a friend for $15! I am getting better at haggling because business is business! We have a friend, Lilly, who works at the Kundayo apartments, and she was amazing. She was the one who guided us in downtown Arusha, and made sure we didn't pay more than what we needed for our fabric. I have no pictures from there because, trust me, Africa is not a bad place everywhere, but the streets have so many people that it would be easy to be stolen from. 

We saw some really eyeopening things in the market. We passed by a thief lying on the ground, passed out, beaten, and bleeding for stealing. The source of punishment around here is mob beatings, so you don't steal. My first initiative was to help, but if he's a thief does it make a mob beating justified? 

We also celebrated Peace's (our host sister) 16th birthday.  She loved the pictures from all of you, and she has great gratitude for wonderful family in America to do that for her.

Presley sent birthday wishes all the way to Africa!

We ended up enjoying a wonderful dance party out on the porch where us girls got to just be weird. It was a lot of energy and exercise, I will tell you that. You know all those hip hop music videos with Nicki Minaj or Beyonce, imagine Africans dancing like that. While I would never...EVER dance that way in public...trying to dance that way was hard! I don't know how they move their butts that way! It was a lot of good laughs and laughter. 

Dancing on the veranda

We finally got to meet Baba Peace! He is very kind and speaks really good English, so we reassured him "tunalazima kujifunza Kiswahili, lakini sisi ni walimu cha kiingereza kwa Mama Peace." Our translation (or what we meant to say): "We must learn Swahili, but we are English teachers for Mama Peace." However...a sad, ironic story is that Baba Peace brought home a nice new van for Mama Peace, but teaching Mama Peace to drive the van is like teaching an elephant how to use a computer. At first, it was a constant speed up, brake, speed up, brake. Then of course... she clips the side of a brick pillar and scrapes the paint off the side of the van. There were a lot of... "bwana yesu, bwana yesu, ahhh, bwana yesu." But we had to reassure Mama, in America we would say the van has character now. :-)

So while I forget many small details, the highlights are here encouraging you all to look past your comfort zone and do something you wouldn't normally do. Because yeah, you just might reiterate to yourself how much you still hate it. So tonight I bid thee adieu.  The group of us are baking cookies, some are enjoying the wonderful taste of African beer, which, if you're into that sort of thing, they say is way better here, and enjoy the company of one another. I am currently getting over a cold.  Be sure to sit back and enjoy those in your lives. Make sure you know how much you appreciate them.

I am thankful for even the complete strangers who have their own stories and give me wisdom in their own ways.

Love from Africa

Jax

My first Tanzanian weekend.

So this is several days combined:

 Phew! A lot to mention. So it has been raining often here in Arusha, but it is such a wonderful temperature here that even cool mornings feel good. The rain is extremely loud! I have absolutely loved warm rains and soaking up the smells and sounds, while I have become a fond reader of Eat, Pray, Love. I know I am a little behind, but it's never to late to read it, especially in a foreign country where not only are you experiencing new and exciting things, but also facing some of your deepest fears. 

   I know people have this idea that Africa is starving, but let me reassure you...they eat A LOT! So put eating a lot together with not getting enough exercise, and you quickly figure out that sometimes you just got to let go.

   I guess that school stuff is good too... I'm learning a lot about colonization, African religion, politics (read about Ujamaa if you're interested), and the effects colonialism has had on African society today. Most importantly, I am learning a lot about myself.

  So fun fact...

Africans LOVE long hair! My youngest host sister will play and brush my hair for a whole hour because she is so fascinated by it. My host sisters love to touch it and braid it, and can't believe that I cut it short. They ask me in almost a disappointing voice, "why would you do that?" 

  Anyways...Cool things that have happened...

We went walking on Friday to this Maasai craft store that had some awesome things in it! The art was eccentric, and they had interesting trinkets of all kinds. I spoke with the owner of the store in Swahili, and just because I spoke Swahili he said that we would get the wanafunzi ("students",  because students are fun...get it?:)) price. So prepare yourselves because I might come back with some souvenirs.

   We also went walking on Saturday to go buy towels with my host sister. Our host mama owns a clothing store in this market place, so we went to see her small shop and buy towels, except Peace did all the haggling for us... oh boy. What would we wazungus (white people) do without her. We walked a shortcut to get there, and it was very interesting to walk the back streets of Arusha.  Let me reassure you, it was very safe. I will say I have never been stared at as often as that moment though. White people are like celebrities in Africa. Some of the citizens were very friendly and would yell out of their huts "karibu wazungus!" Sometimes you just get to accept your role with a laugh.

This little man just wanted his photo taken. 

   We also did laundry today... boy is that a good arm workout. Lots of scrubbing. Lots of wringing out water. My host cousin helped in teaching us, and all I kept hearing her bark at me was "no! Like this.. no! Like this..NO! Like this!"... I would just smile and say OK. 

Loved taking this hike

   We went on a hike up in the foothills of Arusha with two of our classmates, Grant and Chris, and their host brothers, to go spot some monkeys. We went down into a dirty pond hoping to find fish, but found none. We passed this really big cool tree (not very descriptive, but imagine it being magical) that stood tall to protect the churches that were in front of them. We climbed up a hill to look out at the city of Arusha and Mount Meru. Basically, the countryside of Arusha and Tanzania is very beautiful. Long story short, we saw one monkey and a lot of luscious vegetation. 

Overlooking Arusha.  Mount Meru is in the distance.

   We passed a boarding school for boys, and if you know nothing of the education system in Tanzania, basically boys and girls go to separate boarding schools once they reach their version of high school, with no phones, no t.v., and no computers, because they need to focus. Their parents don't even get to see them until their graduation day. 

   At the top of the hill, boys were playing basketball, and at least fifty of them were playing soccer. That was my favorite part of the hike, getting to see how skilled even little boys were at soccer, and how they knew the game. 

   We sprinted (yes, sprinted) back down the hill, and we got to see Chris' and Grant's host family's Lutheran church. It was yellow and green and towered so high above the trees. The choir was practicing the hymn "It Is Well" in Swahili, and it was such an angelic moment.  Boy can they sing! We also paid respects to their small cemetery, where the boys' father/uncle and grandparents were buried. While it was a very decorated and beautiful cemetery, it also shared it's sense of grief. We also saw the oldest Anglican church in the area. 

Lutheran Church

  Sunday, we went to a Pentecostal church, and man, can those Tanzanians worship! They sing and dance loud and proud. They say amen and hallelujah to everything. The preacher yells. It's pretty stereotypical, but being there will always give you chills. A few things I thought were funny were:

   1. They had a special with two guys, both of them were dancing but one of them was singing. However, it was super obvious that the guy was lip synching, but to everyone else that was so normal! Then people started going up and putting money in the man's shirt pocket! If you didn't know better, you'd think we were at a night club, but I swear it was clean. 

   2. We also had to have handkerchiefs, because the pastor would take a towel and bless us by putting the towel on our face and placing the towel on our handkerchief, and then you would sit down and cover your face to pray with it. Similar to a rosary. Never in all my life have I seen such a thing! 

   3. Then of course we had to go up as first timers and stand in front of everyone to get prayed for, and fill out guest forms, but they were so surprised, when I told them we could read Swahili! They were so appreciative!

   4. It was also nice because they had one pastor preaching in english, and another pastor translating, but they were preaching about financial fortune, which is a topic I am not used to hearing about in a church. As if they were telling people how they should use their money to gain promotion in this life. In the pastor's words, "you put money in all the wrong things, the world will vomit it out!"

   We also got to try Tanzanian cake for the first time! Holy crap, that stuff is sugary and rich. It was our host cousin's birthday, and she turned nine. I know to a Tanzanian this isn't a huge deal, or maybe even other fellow Americans, but usually, I am used to seeing at least one gift at birthday parties, but for them, they had the power of loved ones around them as a gift. Her cake was decorated really extravagantly...or as extravagantly as a Tanzanian could make it... as Disneyland.  So when its your birthday, it's always good to go to Disneyland.

   So I suppose moral of the story... even if you, me, we, etc. forget to at times,

Eat, pray, love.

Love from Africa

Jax

My Tanzania siblings, plus a surprise.

  I am loving getting to know my host siblings.  They are beautiful...more to come later.

This is Glory and Britney.  I have learned that Glory is very afraid of dogs.  

Another photo with Britney.  She is wonderful.

Here are all of my Tanzanian "siblings"

Surprise! This is Pastel.  He changes colors.

Day 3 - And so I meet my host family...

Sawa...

   Today was THE day. Butterflies jittered in my stomach out of soooo much excitement. Today we met our host families. All the families began filing into Kundayo, and we all lined up as if being auctioned off to a lucky... or not so lucky family. Mama Tesha is the infamous mama and coordinator of it all. Her sassy and respected character told us that we could trust her to put us into great hands. So each pair of students waited intently for Mama Tesha to finally announce our new Tanzanian families.

   

Amaya

My good friend, Amaya, and I were lucky enough to get a wonderful family whose father is the owner of a safari company. We got to meet our new mama, Mama Peace. Quite fitting I would say. Mama Peace is such a warm, friendly, and welcoming woman with a bright smile to light your day. She seemed just as excited as we were.  She has those big loving warm arms that you just feel at home. We haven't met Baba Peace yet. He is on safari, but we are very excited to get to meet him soon. We also got to meet Mama and Baba Peace's wonderful watoto (children). There is Peace (15yrs old), Glory (14), Brittany (7), and Junior (4). You got to love Junior's cute chubby cheeks. All of them are such wonderful, beautiful and polite blessings for Mama and Baba Peace. 

   Peace has a lot of responsibility, since she is the oldest.  Her birthday is next Wednesday, so wish her happy birthday from America by sending a picture or something by Tuesday. Glory is just... so glory. She is so kind and willing to help us with our Swahili in return for learning our English, even when she had a headache. Brittany is very curious, and she and I will sit down on the kochi and exchange Swahili and English words back and forth. She is sooooo determined; even when I am all out of words she insists..."nyingine!" (another). Junior was shy at first, but what can you expect from a four year old. He warmed up to us quickly, and by no time, he was climbing on my back for piggy back rides, shouting Ben10! Ben10!, and showing us his famous kung fu. Silly boy! Soon our relationship with the kids escalated to them teaching us how to dance, giving us smiles, playing games, and even telling us they loved us...in unison...awwww.

   An even greater part about Tanzania is their relationships with one another. The people of a country that have seen their fair share of struggle have learned that sometimes they just feel blessed with an overabundance of family. I met people who weren't even family who come and go from the house, and Mama Peace considered them family. Something I am not used to is that they have house help.

   The bed they gave us is HUUUGGGEEE.

I am pretty sure they don't make this size in America. I sometimes ponder if Mama Peace gave us the master bedroom, because I find Baba Peace's clothing in the closets.... how giving... The bathroom is blue tiled everywhere, but nothing in it seems to work properly.  The sink had a hole, the shower had no hot water or water pressure, and the toilet didn't flush.  They don't use toilet paper either, which I think is so wonderful for me.  I dont think just because I am Amerikani that I should get any sort of special treatment. I had to take a bucket bath this morning, which was awesome because it taught me gratitude, along with humbleness and efficiency! 

   We also had a true Tanzanian dinner with lots of fruit, rice, and beef that was basically all bone. :) We got to sit in on their version of family devotional, where they said the Lord's prayer, read a Bible verse, discussed it, and then sang a song together.  It was such a beautiful sight to see a family sit together and carry God into their daily lives as a reminder of the blessings they already do have, rather than what they don't. They too understand that everyone suffers in their own ways, and that life could be harder, so instead they take it for what it is. In essence, relationships are important because they are what help the system run smoothly.

   I think it is important to note that our family's eagerness to learn our ways and understand them is just as much as we want to understand theirs. Mama Peace explained to us how she really wanted to learn English, because westernization is now on such a high demand that you almost can't get a job without one. We have a lot to learn from her and she is constantly pushing us to learn more and more every day.

  One thing I had never thought of before that I will leave you with, is the fact that Americans are so eager to be able to give food, mosquito nets, toys, or whatever to Africa. Africans are very thankful and grateful people for our gifts, but if we Americans could ask ourselves what would it be like if someone wanted to come to the States and say "Hey! I'm here to help you" what our response would be. At times, I feel our ignorance shadows the fact that we forget the real picture. Tanzanians are very VERY proud people of their culture. Sharing our Swahili with them has amazed them greatly and has represented America in a way that instead of just giving without really knowing or understanding what and who we are really giving to, we want to understand. At times, people's ignorance makes them not realize that Africans...Tanzanians in this case.. aren't as unhappy as we make them, and in the end, they might end up teaching us more than we would teach or help them.  

Sending love from Africa!

Jax

P.S. The family has one cat named Twila, and dogs...we don't go near those.

T=

A very small slice of Day 2

More to come later on Day 2....I'm pooped and going to bed.  But I am getting better at carrying the water on my head.  By the way, does anyone know what "Ndoto Kutimia" means?

DAY 1 So this is me keeping you updated.

   Its the Sabbath day here, so it's not as busy as normal; in fact, this morning we woke up to the beautiful sound of the Muslim call to prayer. We started today with a Tanzanian breakfast with amazing matunda (fruit), yogurt to have our bodies get to know the Tanzanian probiotics, madazi(donuts), and muffins. The fruit here is amazing! 

   After breakfast we got ready, and set off to explore the bustling streets of Arusha. And away we went! The roads are rushing with dolladollas, motorcycles and semis, but have no fear we were safe! We walked through a really awesome fruit market (you can buy fruit for 50 cents) and got harassed by vendors and men.  I learned really fast how to be firm and say "huhitaji kujua" (you dont need to know), "sitaki" ( I dont want it), and "acha bwana! Hapana" (no!). No proposals yet, but that will change fast. 

   We also went to the supermarket for waters, and the electricity and internet are out because it's Sunday, which is supposed to be meant for Jesus and family. We talked with an old gal who pulls garbage carts.  She wanted us to take a picture with her, and with her and her cart. She was very sweet! 

   It is crazy to see the differences in style in women's clothing.  We saw everything from your traditional Tanzanian women in wrap around skirts and heads covered, to westernized women in tight skinny jeans and t-shirts. We even saw rural maasai cattle herders every so often, visiting the city for the first time. We saw churches and nice hotels, and we walked to a clock tower, which sits exactly in the middle between Cape Town and Cairo. 

   At the street market we were harassed even more by vendors. Its obvious that my bartering skills and my understanding on the currency will have to improve. We went into this nice indian restaurant where this cute little girl came up and hugged me and smiled big. Careful though, she bites! We also saw fellow Whitworthians there! Small world! We continued on to share soda at a nice safari hotel and found out... Tanzanians dont like cold drinks or cold foods...not kidding. We then walked to see an old Germany military outpost from when Tanzania was colonized by Germany, and which is now a museum. We also saw a statue dedicated in the name of President Nyerere for the fighters that died in the 1978 Uganda war. 

   We continued walking, and that is when I really got to see a different side of Arusha.  There were little shops everywhere, and behind them many huts made out of mud bricks. Many things were beaten up and old, and women carried small buckets of water for laundry, bathing, or drinking. Many locals gathered in this place. The sidewalks are nonexistent, and the roads to these homes and stores are dirt. It's obvious that cars never yield to pedestrians, and you must always look right, left, right before crossing the street because the cars drive on the opposite side of the road. I even saw a very skinny young dog.  Of course me being the animal lover I am, I felt so awful because that dog will never have the hope to know what it feels like to have a family that loves them and cares for them, so love your pets unconditionally. 

   Although this part of Arusha is very rundown, there is still a sort of beauty for the way that people live here. Even through the poorest conditions from what we Americans have, they are still happy.

   At the end of the day, the women (us) had to stereotypically carry the water jugs back to the Kundayo apartments for the sake of our immersion into the culture.  I got to practice balancing the water on my head... of course I dropped it, but no harm no foul.  I ended up taking the jug after it fell in the dirt. :-)

 I have a lot of blisters on my feet (wrong shoes but still breaking them in), but I knew that girls have to do this everyday, with or without some sort of pain, so as soon as I got back, I washed my feet and applied medicine, and all is well. Now, we relax before dinner to the sound of a church worship band because services last hours here! 

   I have a lot to learn about this place. I cant and wont learn it all at once, but there are a lot of wonderful things and beauty here. I'll keep you in the loop as best as possible, but internet is off and on here so no promises. We do get host families tomorrow! Just know I am safe! I love you all and you are on my mind. Keep me updated about the states! 

Jax