Hiking...

This one isn't specific to the last week or anything, but in general I've been enjoying walking/hiking a bit in the hills behind my compound. The Mwanza region has lots of hills and ridges, with massive boulders just sitting in often really precarious positions that make you wonder how they got there... Anyways, really really beautiful! God sure had some fun in creating the landscape here, and I've so enjoyed exploring either by myself (once I got to hang out with some kids who were playing soccer) or taking other volunteers up. Here are some of the sights!

January bits of news

Not much to write today, but it has been a bit since I last wrote so I'll catch everyone up a bit. The new nursury school at Starehe headed up by Tini has now begun, which is pretty exciting. The beginning has gone mostly really well I think. The kids are all back to school, study time is back after school (but now in the new school, which the kids love) and life is back to normal after the excitement of the holidays. Some new volunteers have been here, first a couple of German girls, now 4 men from Alberta, and in the other house a young couple from Alberta as well. All very nice, we've had lots of fun, the guys and I played the Farming Game (board game a bit like monopoly) last night and had lots of fun. University applications are underway, not sure if they will all get in on time though because TTCL has been under a lot the past few weeks. Hopefully that is better now and it will all go through. And, the directing couple that was in Canada for 2 months is back, so now all 4 are again around which is nice. Anyways, that's all for now, and more to come as long as internet is back to normal now. :)

New Years

Today is New Year's Day. This picture shows how my day began- or more properly how the adventure that was New Years Eve ended. Joyce and Randell, and all those of you readers who stand for adventure and 'going local' vs living the comfortable western existence, you will enjoy this story. So to explain, this is my new friend Ruben, a Dutch medical student who lives in Mwanza until September. He is eating chapati and drinking chai masiwa (milk-based local tea) and I am doing the same just across from him- our 'cafe' is a little table with 2 benches, and covered with a bit of corrugated metal roof, with walls as you see on 3 of 4 sides. We had breakfast this morning at this little place, together for less than a dollar. It was actually a great breakfast, minus the flies swarming me.

So, the beginning of the adventure- yesterday after leaving Starehe I headed into town to meet Ruben, who had invited me to join him in visiting a friend for New Years. I was expecting a nice urban family setting, like the other friend we have visited in town. However, when I met him I realized the plans were not quite what I was expecting. We began by waiting for a dalla dalla to Busewelo, and the beginning of my fear was that I didn't know Busewelo and it was definitely not in the city. Then he told me we were headed to an orphanage there to celebrate with the kids (his friend was a volunteer there) by killing a goat for a New Years dinner. Visions of goat intestine floated to my brain, as well as sleeping on the floor with the cockroaches and mosquitoes in a rural orphanage. Then our dalla dalla broke down, was semi-fixed a few minutes later, broke down again, etc. a few times, until we decided it was not worth it, and didn't get back on, and the dalla dalla man got angry with us because he thought we weren't paying, which in the end we didn't because it drove away and we were still standing on the side of the road some distance away from the town center. We found another dalla dalla, but it was so full that it hurt to sit. Mind you, they are always full- this was full even for locals who are used to it. Then part way from the main road to Busewelo, we stopped to let people off, and the broken dalla dalla drove by, also pausing- the angry man saw me, began shouting at us, and evidently tried to convince our new dalla dalla driver to kick us out so we could pay the angry man- I have hadly seen a man so angry in my life! Our new driver seemed to be on our side and didn't give us up to the angry man, so we kept going and arrived in Busewelo. Busewelo is a small place- a village a good distance from the more urban 'suburb' of Nyakato, where we left the main road. We walked a few minutes and arrived at the home of the orphanage volunteers only to find that they were not home. Ruben then spent a few minutes accidentally calling the wrong number to reach them. When we finally did, and began walking back to Busewelo Corner, it got dark quickly, so we found ourselves to be 2 semi-lost Wazungus in the dark nearly getting knocked over by all the bicycles without lights. This was what I would call the climax of the 'oh my goodness I'm not comfortable with this at all' part of the evening which Ruben found amusing- he is never afraid and isn't overly concerned with comfort.

We reached the Corner again eventually, found the shop the girls told us to go to, where their local friend Christina was the shopkeeper. We waited there until they arrived to meet us, and they took us to their orphanage. This is where the adventure turned into enjoyment. We hung out with the kids for about an hour, there was no goat for me to have to watch being killed and then eat, and the kids were so great. They seemed to have much less than at Starehe, were so much more appreciative of visitors, and were just delighted to spend that time with us. That kind of excitement does not exist at Starehe. There was a little Steven, who must have thought that since we shared the same name we should become attached at the hip forever-he clung to my hand the rest of the evening. There was dancing, clapping games, running around, and was a lot of fun. Then I found a kid reading from a Kiswahili bible, and when he finished I began to read outloud, and soon found myself surrounded by kids wanting to listen to me read- I found passages I knew in English and worked out the Kiswahili fairly well (I can read it decently well even though I don't understand much at all). When I tried to stop the kids wouldn't let me. They forced me to keep reading. Again, that kind of hunger I have not encountered elsewhere. The other big deal for me was that the couple who run the place LIVE THERE! I.e. they have a shabby room in the same little building where the kids live. This is a big deal to me- I have thought a lot about what it means to live apart from (and above) or WITH and ALONGSIDE the people you're serving.

Anyways, then the 3 volunteers took Ruben and I to the little restaurant/cafe/bar at the Corner, where we had a drink and enjoyed each other's company for a while. I hadn't eaten yet, so I decided to be brave and try the one thing they were still serving- some kind of meat kebabs of who knows what kind of meat. They ended up being amazing! Then we met Christina again at her shop, sat there for a while hanging out, and then headed back via taxi (much nicer than Ruben and I walking in the dark) to their house. We then had a fun time together, sharing thoughts on the year finished and the one starting, eating popcorn, playing games, 'ringing in' the new year, and staying up late- it was a very fun time and I appreciated being invited to join the three volunteers with Ruben for New Years.

For the night, Ruben and I slept in another house in their compound that is empty at the moment, and very neglected- we found 2 beds out of many more than that which were in working condition and had mosquito nets, and had a few hours of sleep before getting up, having breakfast, and then taking a dalla dalla back (uneventfully) back to town and then me back to Starehe. So, in the end, it was a very enjoyable New Years even though I was quite sceptical at the start with Rubens plans ending us walking in the dark a bit lost and hungry. It all worked out, and the adventure proved a good time! (no, this does not mean I have been full-heartedly won over to the side of care-free adventure- I will always be my Oma's grandson and need coaxing away from my cautious and safety/comfort loving self. )

Happy New Years everyone!!!