Friday, October 1, 2010
Rethinking what this can be.
There is no need to document my random life as of now. However, this blog is a nice thing to keep around and I won't be ditching it completely anytime soon. If I did, how would I keep track of books I've read and am reading? I'm also re-imagining what it could be... I may come up with a theme of something creative for posts and run with it. Maybe not. Time will tell.
Until then. Hold tight. I'm still here, just waiting for the spirit to move me.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Redirecting your attention...
1200households.wordpress.com
While it is less of my personal opinions, it is allowing me to try out a new style of writing that I really enjoy.
Kilala Heri!
(Swahili parting phrase meaning Best wishes and all good things!)
Friday, January 15, 2010
Best room decoration!
Mia and I made a Christmas countdown chain. Well, not actually a chain to countdown until Christmas but a chain of links counting down our time in Tanzania. Each day after work we come back and tear off a link. Then we write any new Swahili words we learned that day on it and hang it from a string on the other side of the room. At first mention we both thought it was a fun idea, but we had no concept of how awesome it would turn out to be! We get such a kick out of tearing off each link, marking the end of another exciting day… It reminds us to savor the time we have here and keeps us looking forward to the end as well.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Just a little bit of silliness really…
There is a random cat that stalks around the lunch room. Talking with one of the trainers today at lunch I pointed to cat and told her we should make up a name for it. Then I had to check that they do in fact name pets in
The shower area in our bathroom has one soap holder and it’s slanted so the soap keeps falling on the floor. Bummer. So was determined to get a soap dish. Turns out I didn’t really come across any in the market. Solution. I cut the bottom off one of our 1.5L water bottles and creatively used a pair scissors to drill some holes on the bottom. Result? The perfect custom soap dish. Sara 1,
I have only been here for 7 days and I already have a sandal tan that would give John the Baptist a run for his money.
Last tidbit… I am a huge fan of ornately carved door frames. To my delight and amazement Bagamoyo has a plethora of these charming portals. I made Michael and Angela take a picture of me in front of one. Pretty Amazing!
All the mosquitoes love Mia which means they stay away from me. Great for me, not so great for her.
Badhi! (later in Swahili...)
Sara
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Welcome back.
Walking to the car I took in the scenery. It was so green! And with the smell of the fresh rain I couldn’t help but say to myself, “Now, THIS is Afrrica… (Africa being pronounced with a somewhat rolling “r” accent, like maybe rafiki from the Lion King would say it). As Anne Shirley would have said it, I just stood for a moment to drink it all in.
The driver brought me to the hostel where I had a reservation to stay until the afternoon when another student would be arriving and we would go to Bagamoyo together. I was able to shower and get breakfast which consisted of the most delicious bread I had tasted in a really long time. No offense Ryan, but these ladies know how to make bread… The morning feast was followed by a wonderful 4 hour siesta nap. I made myself get up at noon to start adjusting to the time change. However, my body thought it was 3am and was not super excited about that decision.
Funny story 1: I had lunch at the hostel with 3 Asian dudes who offered me some of their Asian peppers to add to my rice. They looked kind of funny, but then I figured it would make a great story for my blog so I went for it. As I took the first bite I imagined what might happen on the car ride to Bagamoyo if they didn’t agree with my stomach, but at that point it was too late to go back. Turns out they were kind of salty, not spicy at all, and agreed with my stomach just fine. Some might have thought that was not a wise move, but I try to broaden my horizons as much as possible.
Funny story 2: I was supposed to be picked up at 3pm to go to the airport to get my classmate and then onto Bagamoyo. 3:30pm No One. 4pm No One. I get a hold of the other students already at the house and they try and see what is going on. 5pm No One. 6pm the car pulls up. The guy went to the airport first and then to come get me. Thanks for the heads up. I was able to read for most of the time, so it wasn’t all a loss. But I might have planned my time differently if I had known I would have 3 more hours! Okay, so that’s not super funny. But it is true.
It was great to arrive at the house and see the rest of the crew! I’m sharing a room with a girl named Mia. She is great! The house is enormous and its size is accentuated by the fact that there is little to no furniture in it what so ever. All the walls and floors are white and the ceiling in the great room is at least 16feet high. Mia and I have our own bathroom and all the beds have mosquito nets. The mattresses are foam which is pretty common. I thought mine what pretty high density until I realized that the divot formed by my body while sleeping doesn’t really go away. Awesome (sarcastic tone). Hopefully, I won’t have any back problems with it.
Well, I’m over my limit so I’ll finish with the wonderful dinner we had of rice and beans. It was very much like the lunch I had at the hostel which also consisted of rice and beans. Welcome back to Africa. Yum.
Turkey. No, not the food you eat.
In the end, I decided the cart wasn’t going to be worth the hassle and that I would just carry my 120lbs of luggage to wherever I needed to go by the strength of my own being. I managed all right, but the distance was little farther than I had guessed… after dropping my bags at the counter I was left hobbling funny when I tried to walk because my muscles were so sore. In hind sight, I should have tried harder to get a coin that would work. But I have to say the looks I got from the people in the airport watching me struggle were really entertaining. It was especially awesome when I walked up the tourist information desk to find out where I could find the Egypt Air counter. I had this huge goofy grin on because I knew how ridiculous I looked. I put down the cooler, let out a sigh and chuckled for a second before asking my question. The ladies that helped me must have thought I was quite a trip… My 3 hour time in Turkey = priceless.