Two Countries Reunite

On the 13th of December I boarded a Scandinavian bus to make the 8 hour haul to Dar Es Salam to pick up Lindsey on the night of the 14th. I’m not a bus fan in the least! I have heard way too many stories about people dying and getting hurt on buses.
I had gotten my ticket three weeks in advance because I wanted to make sure I would have a spot on the bus since it was somewhat close to Christmas. I hated standing at the ticket office and debating where I wanted to sit. It was a terrible feeling. It was like oh if I sit here and we get in to an accident would I survive? Well, I decided to sit in the front behind the driver, then I would have more let room.
My Tumaini driver too me and the little luggage I had packet to the station, which is not really a station at all. The bus station in Iringa is just a huge parking lot that contains a lot of busses large and small. It’s a mess of confusion with people yelling to you trying to get you to ride their bus and the weirdest people just loitering.
I got on the bus and headed out. The Scandinavian is one of the nicest buses in Tanzania and they are one of the safest. They drive slower than most of the other buses. That is what makes them safer. Well it wasn’t a terrible ride. I sat next to the cutest little Muslim girl and I had fun trying to talk to her in Kiswahili. She was so cute and nice.
About half way there the bus broke down, up to this point I had never been on a Scandinavian bus that hadn’t broke down. All of the passengers got out of the passengers got out of the bus and found shade in the trees of this small village. Basically what happened is a belt broke, but it took them a while to fix it. So, you just sit and wait and wait. Eventually she was fixed and we all boarded the bus again and continued on our journey. One of the only good tings about the 8 hour bus ride to Dar Es Salam is that you drive through Makumi National Park. If your lucky you may see lions, elephants, giraffes, water buffalo, zebras, kudu, or impala. When I went to Dar with Mark and Terry we actually had to stop and let the heard of water buffalo cross the road. There must have been 200 of them. Let just say that we waited a very long time. Lol But what a sight!
I finally arrived in Dar and could not get a hold of Pastor Muro. I would be staying at his house. About an hour later I got a hold of him and his driver was on the way to come and get me. I was finally in Dar with my family. I love the Muro’s so much! They are so nice and carring. Flora always calls herself my mother and I always tell her that she is way too young to be my mother. She is like 34 years. That would have made her 11 when I was born. Lol
The next day I sat around and played with the kids waiting for they day to pass so that I could go with the driver and pick up Lindsey from the airport. Lets just say that it was one of the longest days of my life!
Finally the time came to leave for the airport. It’s about a 45 min drive from the house to the airport. Pastor Muro sent Jackson and Michael with the driver and I. Jackson is Pastor Muro’s nephew that lives with them, and Michael is also a nephew that is visiting the Muro’s.
We Arrived at the air port and didn’t have to wait too long for people to come out the double doors out of the airport. In Dar the airport is set up in a weird way. When the passengers get off the plain and get their visas and grab their luggage they are ushered through two sliding doors that lead outside and that's where they meet the cab drivers or who ever is picking them up.

I stood by the sliding doors for an hour and no Lindsey. Eventually no one was even coming out any more. I was really starting to get nervous! Where is Linds! Well then about a half and hour after that she finally came out with someone else. She was with this girl named Francis from BC Canada. Lindsey had given her my cell phoe number so that we could meet up later.

Michael, Jackson and I loaded Lindsey's stuff into the car and we were off. We didn't get alot of sleep that night because we had a lot of catching up to do.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and that you will have a great New Year. We have been very busy and I will write more tomorrow! Sory I as taken mo so long to write!

Jen

My African Debut and The Christmas Sprit

Ok let me set up this story. As you may know Ross (American) Eero and Juho (Finish) love to sit around and play guitar. They decided to put their efforts to good use. So, they started a little band with two Tanzanian guys, Steve and Andrew. They called themselves Simba Wapole (friendly lion) It was just for fun at first, but then they started to talk about playing at a bar in the area. They got a gig at Shooters, which used to be the bottoms up bar.
On a rare occasion I would sit there and sing with them. So, they asked me if I would sing with them at the gig. Of course I said yes…, Why not!
It was quite a night! The place was packed with a lot of Tanzanians and all the wazungu we had ever met. It was so much fun! They sang some covers and some original songs written by Andrew. The crowd loved them and then I got my chance to sing with them and they even wanted me to sing a song on my own. This was about three weeks ago and every time since when I see Andrew he tells me how much him and all his friends liked my singing. Andrew is friends with this guy named Bonnie that works at EBONY FM and he goes over there to record songs a lot. He asked me to record with him before I leave. I might have made my Tanzanian debut!! Lol It was a great night and a good way to have a going away party for Eero and Juho!
They have been gone for a week now and it has been really quite! Ross is also in Dar, so it’s just been the girls Annika, Inga, Chrissy, Sunna (from Finland, she moved in to Eero and Juho’s room) and me. We have been trying to cope without the guys. It’s amazing how close you can grow to someone in such a short time. I guess I’ll just have to go visit them in Finland.
Sally Harris, who is from MN and teaches at Tumnaini has left for a couple of weeks and she gave me her keys and I have been enjoying a hot shower everyday. She also has internet at her place so I go over there to Skype Linds and mom. Even better though she has a projector, so we can watch movies on a big screen!!
The girls and I decided that every Sunday until Christmas we should get together light our advent candle and make Christmas cookies. The first Sunday we rolled out dough and didn’t have any cookie cutters, so we had to just make things by hand. I was getting really good at making trees when we found a giraffe cut out and we decided that since we are spending Christmas in Tanzania that I giraffe would be perfectly acceptable for a Tanzanian Christmas. Then we started talking and we decided that in Africa, Santa does not have reindeer his sleigh is pulled by giraffes. This Sunday when I will be in Dar to meet up with Linds the girls are going to be making ginger bread. Instead of making a house they will make Santa’s sleigh and eight tiny giraffes pulling it.
Also I was amazed to hear that Sunna says that Santa is not from the North Pole. He is from Finland. She said he can’t be from the North Pole because they do not have Reindeer there, so he’s from Finland. They even have a Santa town that you can to talk to Santa at any time of the year. They take it very seriously! Don’t ever tell a Fin that Santa is from the North Pole or you might be stoned to death. Lol lol.
Ya, we are all starting to get in to the Christmas spirit. We made really yummy oatmeal cookies and some Finish cookies at Sally’s. We started to sing Christmas songs that we all know and then I started to sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The girls had heard it but didn’t know the words. They made me sing it like 20 times. I like Rudolph but oh man! Lol

We have also had a lot of fun setting up the menu for Christmas. It should be really interesting. Not only are we having some what of a typical American Christmas feast, but we will be having some traditional Finish and German things too. We have been trying to get a handle on the Christmas tree situation, but I don’t thing that we will have a tree. We might have to either buy a plastic tree, which none of us are excited about, or decorate a baobob or coconut tree. Out side of our little DIRA community there is no sign of the Christmas season yet. It will be interesting to see if any pops up considering that there is a pretty big Muslim population here.
Oh, and I know that you all miss me so much that you will surely be getting me expensive and elaborate Christmas presents and I will be more than happy to accept them when I return home. Merry Christmas!

Tanzania, the perfict place to be a party crasher!

Tanzania would be the best place for white people to party crash. Since I have been here I have been invited to so many parties for graduation, confirmation and baptisms. Your family is though to be higher up on the totem pole if you have white people at your party. The only problem with being invited to so many parties is that they they all occur on the same day. After Tumaini graduation I was invited to five parties, but they were all on the same day and you can only go to one. It’s kind of a weird practice. But, really you have to choose only one to go to.
The other weekend I was invited to a confirmation party and it was so interesting! The ceremony was at the Lutheran center. It was Alfred’s son Sammy. All of the white people that I live by are pretty close to his family since we hang out with Alfred’s younger brother Adam all the time.
We all got invitations that said that the party would start at 2:00pm. This was the stupidest thing! Tanzanians are always late for everything. We all showed up at 3:00 and the ceremony still had not started! We came back two hours later and finally the ceremony had begun. I don’t understand why they would not adjust the time on the invitation for white people. It’s like if you say 2 we think you mean 2 and not 5. Oh, man you gotta love it over here! J
At the ceremony a guy that I don’t know talked a little bit in Kiswahili. The room was set up so that Sammy was sitting in front of all of us. Then the cake was set before him. After that one by one his whole family came up to him. Then one by one Sammy fed his family members a little piece of cake. I’m not sure what this symbolizes, but it was really cool. During all of this they are playing music mostly Christian music, but there was some Cilene Dion and Toni Braxton in the mix too.
After this process the man I didn’t know spoke again and then a women said a prayer and Sammy got up and helped himself to the food that had been set up. His family followed, each grabbing their selves some grub. Then we (the white people) were ushered to the buffet line, but before anyone can eat they must wash their hands. Luckily enough the Lutheran Center has two sinks so we could wash our own hands. After dinner a server came around with a plate of little cake slices. We each grabbed one. It was some of the best cake I have ever had, but then again it’s been about 4 months since I have had cake so even bad cake would probably taste delicious to me. lol.
Before we ate dinner I asked Alfred if later on I could get a picture of his family, so after dinner and cake was time to piga picha or take some pictures. It’s actually kind of funny because piga means punch. It really means punch pictures. Lol. Also, when they brush their teeth they call it piga mswaki, punch teeth. Lol
The family gathered at the front so I and another guys could take some pictures. Then they decided that all the wazungu (white people) had to join in on the picture. Then we went out side and took some more. After that then they dance. We stayed a little bit but the Finish guys needed to get ready to go back to Finland.
All in all it was a really neat experience. Also, since white people are though of so highly it would be so easy to walk in to any party even if you weren’t invited because they would feel so honored to have you there. You could totally use this to your advantage……….. if you wanted to. Lol

Sink or swim I'm diving in!

Before I left for Tanzania I was really scared to go; I would be leaving my friends and family and living in a country far far way. I mean really really scared. I had been here before, but two weeks is nothing like two months. Also, let me say right now travel doctors are the devil. Mine pretty much told me that going to African with Crohn’s disease is the stupidest thing I could ever do. They put all these terrible thoughts in your head and mine just made every thing worse! I was freaking out inside I almost felt trapped. It was my choice to go but could I really go through with it? My passion for Tanzania was the only thing that kept me from jumping ship, until I heard this song. This is exactly what I felt a couple weeks before I left and it gave me the courage to go. I just needed to take the leap of faith. Jump in and immerse my body in the experience, feel the water rush over me and cleanse my thirsty soul.

Steven Curtis Chapman- Dive
All the waiting rains have fallen hard upon the thirsty ground and carved away to where the wild rushing river can be found and like the rain I have been carried here to where the river flows. Ya. My heart is racing and my knees are weak as I walk to the edge. I know there is no turning back once my feel have left the ledge and in the rush I hear a voice that’s telling me it’s time to take the leap of faith. So, here I go.
I’m diving in I’m going deep in over my head I wanna be, caught in the rush lost in the flow. In over my head I wanna go. The rivers deep, the rivers wide, the rivers water is alive. So sink or swim I’m diving in. I’m diving in.
There is a supernatural power in this might rivers flow. It can bring the dead to life and it can fill an empty soul and give our hears the only thing worth living and worth dying for. Ya. But we will never know the awesome power of the grace of God until we let ourselves get swept away into this holy flood. So, if you take my hand we’ll close our eyes and count to three and take the leap of faith. Come on lets go.
I’m diving in I’m going deep in over my head I wanna be, caught in the rush lost in the flow. In over my head I wanna go. The rivers deep, the rivers wide, the rivers water is alive. So sink or swim I’m diving in. I’m diving in.
I’m diving in. I’m diving in. Ya, here I go!
I’m diving in I’m going deep in over my head I wanna be, caught in the rush lost in the flow. In over my head I wanna go. The rivers deep, the rivers wide, the rivers water is alive. So sink or swim I’m diving in. I’m diving in.
So, sink or swim I’m diving in. Sink or swim. I’m diving in!

Getting a Tanzanian License

So, I set out to get a drivers license. I was really worried that it would take forever. I talked to Terry and she said that it was a huge hassle and it took her five days. She had to go to one office on one end of town and then pay for a license book. Then she had to go to the government hospital on the other side of town and pay to see the eye doctor. Of course, then she had to go back to the office on the other side of town and pay the license guy, but he was not in. Tanzania is so corrupt that in any office there is only one guy you can give money to otherwise the others would more then likely just pocket your money or they charge much more then they should. Then a couple days later she had to go to the police station so that a head traffic cop could sign off on her license.
Well, I decided to use this corruption to my advantage. I talked to my friend Alfred who is really well known in Iringa and he has a lot of connections. So, on Monday he agreed to take me to get a license. Me being the casual air head that I am I forgot to bring my glasses for the eye exam. I told Alfred and he said no problem. I was really nervous. I did feel a little good though. I had the feeling that today I would be like every other Tanzanian and bend the rules to get my way. Finally I would have the resources to avoid the normal problems that you have to deal with being white in Tanzania. Of course people want you to pay more for things because they think all white people are rich. They also usually jerk their chain a lot and make white people jump through more hoops then they would a Tanzanian.
Alfred and I went to the office on one side of town. We talked to the tax guy right away and he told us that we would need to go to get a passport picture and get an eye exam and come back. We got my passport picture and headed to the government hospital. I don’t know what Alfred said to the receptionist, but I got to see the nurse right away. Then Alfred worked his magic once again and the nurse didn’t even give me an eye exam. Then we made our way back to the office. He made me the license. Everything was going so smoothly and I was amazed. I was finally getting the same treatment a local would get. It felt so great! Our last step was to go to the police station and get my license signed. We headed over there.
We entered his office and he looked at my incomplete Tanzanian license, my Minnesota license, my passport, and all the other paperwork I had. He looks up at me and says “where is your international license?” I was like he has to be joking!! If I had an international license I wouldn’t need a Tanzanian license!!! He agued with Alfred for about a half an hour. He didn’t know what a Class D license was for. I told him that in the U.S. I can drive cars and trucks, but not big trucks or busses. Then he saw that under other endorsements it says firearm. I think that he thought that that meant that in the U.S. I can drive around with a gun and shoot things. (OH MAN!) I don’t understand a lot of Kiswahili, but I could definitely tell that he was being really rude and crabby. He told us to come back the next morning.
After we left Alfred explained to me that this guy wanted me to pay 50,000tsh about 47 USD to take driving classes, but this guy owns the company that gives these lessons. There is just one example of the corruption. On our way back we ran into one of the big potatoes (important person) at the police station. He said that if this guy didn’t give me a license we would talk to his superior about the situation and that I would be guaranteed a license by the next day.
The next day I could not continue on this adventure because I had class really early. Alfred went in to town for me and tried to get the license signed. Again they told him that he would have to pay them off. He said no. Then they told him to bring me back the next day. The next day I got to continue on this wonderful adventure of corruption.
We set out and first went to the tax office on the other side of town. They said that we would need to make some copies of the paper work that we had been given. That meant that Alfred and I would have to go to the main street and make copies. Ya, they don’t have any copy machines in most offices and why would they waste their ink and paper on you when you could spend your own money to pay for copies. Then we went back to the tax office he made me a new license and then I had to pay for a new license book. Don’t ask why. I don’t know. Then we set out to the police station. I sat there waiting for about a half an hour waiting for someone to help me. The office was empty. FINALLY when he came he signed my drivers license, no questions asked. Now, it is legal for me to drive in Tanzania for the next three years. Tumaini has agreed to borrow me a vehicle over Christmas break. Petty much I went through all of that so that I can drive for a week when Lindsey is here.
I can’t believe the hassle though! People are crazy behind the wheel here. I drive better than most of them on any given day. Linds and I will use the car to travel around town and other places close to town. It’s not really safe for us to go long distances by ourselves. The only thing that makes me nervous is driving on the wrong side of the road. It should be interesting! Lol :-)