Arusha, we shall return. Off to Zanibar!

Well the day has come for us to travel to Zanzibar for our next month of study. But first I want to share the many things we have done over the last few days.

First, we went on a long hike to these waterfalls, which was me in my natural element. I love to hike.  We traveled into the countryside of Arusha where many crops lie on mountain sides, many men and women stop to say hello to one another, the grass is green, and the air is warm. People greeted us as we walked the six miles to get to our destination. Along the way we picked wild African raspberries, talked with some soldiers, saw lots of monkeys, tried catching frogs, and walked in a cool green canyon where we found a GINORMOUS, peaceful waterfall. I did my best to skip rocks in that little pool, but I found out quickly that I haven't thrown anything in awhile. We taught our host cousin the term "your brother from another mother" and he replied "oh yeah! My uncle from another cousin!.. "  Not quite, Walter. 

We also went to the Arusha Declaration Museum, where we got to view the history of Tanzania from Paleolithic times till now. Funny story is that we got to go out and fend for our lunches by ourselves.  After searching aimlessly, we found this pizza pointe place that was interestingly good. The pizza sauce here is sweet and not a lot of people eat cheese.  After lunch we tried to find our way to the museum, and we had to ask directions from people, and nobody knew where it was, and finally, we figured it out, and phew! That was a run on sentence, but I made our group of four speedwalk, and we were only 5 minutes late!!! :) The museum was great, except the exhibits were more like pictures printed off the internet in exhibit cases where glass was broken, and it looked more like a run down warehouse. But it was such a wonderful experience!

Another cool experience was that we got to be hostesses for our house because an experienced Lutheran pastor from Texas came to visit our home. He told us stories about his outreach program for people who haven't heard the gospel yet. He had been out in the bush for 30 days, but he said the experience is amazing. You'll be sitting in church and a cow or donkey will come in and just lay down right next to you. He was a very confident, caring, and rambunctious fellow. He just went with the flow of the things. 

I went to visit my internship at the Arusha Society for the Protection of Animals, and it sounds like a very eventful, challenging, but maturing experience, because we will be doing PR things as well as working with some clinics every week. Wherever they need us, we volunteers go. Except, because we are white, the locals here think we are doctors. "Dr. Brennan" has a ring to it... I guess.

Every day we walk, talk to new people, and explore new things that we didn't notice before. For instance, we printed something for the first time the other day, and ladies yelled at me from across the road in Swahili "how are you?" And when I responded in Swahili they giggled like little school girls and yelled back "I love you!" in English.  We also had African pancakes...which are basically eggs and milk, but still good.

Mama Peace gave me a dress from her shop, and the
barber inside her shop asked to cornrow my hair.  It's fun!

As the days have been winding down, we have been making the most of staying with our families, because we wont see Glory and Peace again unless we come back to Arusha again in later years. They are off to boarding school.  We have cooked french toast with them, which was nothing like my grandma's, but it was sufficient. We also made farm animal origami, which was actually kind of difficult, but it was great bonding. We lounged around, and I taught our family an American worship song, I knew they would like and that all of you might know, "Shout to the Lord." Mama Peace kept telling me "play it again, play it again." Then, an even greater experience, is that me and Amaya were teaching our dada and Glory how to work out (yes how to work out because they want to "reduce their stomachs") all in Swahili. Mama Peace said that Amaya and I were her favorite students out of all of them...sorry not sorry (yeah I just said that for the sake of the moment). We shared great laughs, and we made great friends. 

We found this gift from Glory waiting for us one evening

So today we said our farewells and our see ya laters to our new friends in Arusha. Our little host brother even cried as we said goodbye, and we had to reassure him that we are returning again soon. I told him one of my favorite phrases "usiogope," which means "fear not." We have learned lots from these new friends. Too much for me to explain here, but all of us are excited to be able to see them again soon.

As of now, I am reading lots, doing my best not to stress out about school, trying not to get sick (a lot of people in our group have been getting sick), and getting excited to see the hot, white, sandy beaches of Zanzibar. I will be staying alone with a Muslim family that I am so excited to call my own because if they are anything like my family in Arusha, I know that I have a lot of love waiting for me. 

Decision of this post: Be grateful for the relationships you have made and will make in your life because each relationship teaches you one thing or another...

Sending my love from Africa,

Can you see the monkey?

Jax

Big slug!