Sunday = Day of Rest

Wali na Bamia (Rice and Okra)

Wali na Ngejere (Rice and Peas)

So I was sitting in my dorm, happily replying to some e-mails when all of a sudden, the power went out.  GREAT.  Well, I suppose it’s been about 24 hours since our last one, so we were about due for a power outage.  And, on the plus side, we haven’t had water all day.  We got back from the beach all salty and sandy and some of us still haven’t showered because there isn’t any water.  This morning I made do with a bucket shower (sometimes I wonder if I will ever get clean using a bucket to shower with) and managed to do some laundry with some water we reserved.  I’m not too confident that my clothes got very clean, but perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised.  Laundry is yet another thing that us wazungos don’t know how to do.  That, along with using a squat toilet (are you supposed to put the toilet paper in the hole?) and flushing a toilet when the water is out (do you pour water in to flush it or just wait to flush until the water comes back on?).  I’m sure the Africans would laugh at us if we ever asked them these questions, but honestly, these are things that most Americans have never had to deal with. 

Last night we finally got dinner around 9:00 p.m.  As always, our dinner was on Tanzanian time.  We were all famished and anxious to get to our roast beef and potatoes that Mr. Godde had ordered for us from the cafeteria.  We were so hungry that we started talking about all of the foods we craved from America.  BAD IDEA.  When the food finally came and we realized that it was wali na kuku (rice and chicken), we were severely disappointed.  I cannot tell you how many times in the last week I have had wali na _____ (fill in the blank) for a meal.  It’s probably been at least 10 times.  But, it was food, and it managed to fill us up. 

This morning was our first lazy day here in Tanzania.  We had absolutely nothing scheduled, which was nice for a change.  I got up and did some laundry, filtered some water, and cleaned up a little.  Then Brennan, Jen, Shaye, and I went on a monkey hunt to find some monkeys (they aren’t too hard to find!).  We sat and watched the monkeys for about an hour, just observing them and their behavior.  I took a walk around campus and ate some lunch (fried sausage, bread and butter, and a banana).  It was a very makeshift lunch, but the cafeteria wasn’t serving lunch yet so I made do with some street food.  I also cracked open my loaf of bread from the store, which tasted surprisingly good.  I always crave plain bread when I’m away, so it was nice to have that.  After lunch I went around campus collecting leaves from some of the trees and identifying the trees using a book from Mr. Godde’s house.  It was quite fun and gave me a little project for the day.  So far, I have identified bougainvillea, aloe, pulmeria, and a handful of other trees and shrubs.  My goal is to learn as many as I can!  We just got back from dinner at the cafeteria (wali na bamia) and now are here sitting in the dark.  Tomorrow we start Kiswahili and I am so excited!  We made friends with the cafeteria workers today, but they know very little English, so it will be great to talk to them in Swahili.  I’m off to play bananagrams right now, talk to you later!

Erin