Fun stories...
Monday was a great day... We woke up and went to our placement at Womens Fund Tanzania. Jesse and I decided we would leave at 8:00am instead of 7:30am and boy did we regret it. The traffic was brutal. Let me give you a little insight into the traffic out here. So... our placement is an hour walk from our home. If there was NORMAL traffic... it would be 5-10 min drive. When we leave at 7:30am it takes us 40 minutes to get there. 40!!! UGH! Now... this particular day, like I said, we left at 8:00am and figured... meh no big deal! It will take us 40 mins anyway, why not give myself enough time to eat after I exercised and give Jesse a better sleep-in. Well, it was a stupid mistake. It took us an hour to get to work... actually a little more than that and it was even MORE hot than at 7:30. Screw breakfast.. I do not want to come to work in a puddle of my sweat thank you very much! UGH!
So we get into WFT and Brian is already there, working away at his computer. We set up and I feel so freaking sleepy. I do not know what it is about this heat, but when I sit in a hot car for an hour or so... it makes me want to go back to bed.
I get a chai tea and we start working. Our internet is being slow as ever, but we grin and bear it. Brian gave us a list of organizations to look up and get a database started for them, which was great! We remembered this was our internet day/phone day [we have to buy internet and phone time weekly... like i say, EVERYTHING is pay as you go] so we decided when we went out for lunch we would stop in to shoppers and get it all loaded up.
About half way through all our working we get a cute little message on our computers saying "Your internet has expired. Thank you for using sasatel". haha sweeeeeetttttttt! haha I guess it's lunch time? The two other CIDA interns working upstairs at Sustainable Cities were leaving for lunch too, so we all walked down to an Japanese restaurant.
They have some really cool things out here for restaurants. I'll try to describe this one, as it is like nothing I've ever experienced. There is a courtyard with tables and you side out there to eat. There were actually TWO restaurants that cater to the customers out there and it is like a competition. Both waiters swarmed to us at our table offering their menus to us and waiting to see which restaurant we chose. I cannot remember the restaurant names, unfortunately, and my camera was dead from the wedding so there are no pictures! We chose the Japanese restaurant obviously and I got this HUGE meal and a drink for about $4. I could not even finish the meal it was so huge. We did stop and remember to get our internet and phone time and then returned to the office. We thought it was perfect timing because Mary was suppose to be in the office at 2:00pm and wanted to have a meeting with us about some of our projects and we had lots of questions needing to be answered that Brian could not answer.
Well, 3:00pm came and went and there was still no sign of Mary. Jesse and I exchanged looks and texts about this fact, but continued to research other NGOs and tried to wait patiently. Would you believe... 4:00pm came around and our driver was there waiting. No Mary for a meeting and no contact with her either informing us of the reasons for why she was not coming. I quickly sent off an email to Mary letting her know what we wished to discuss and informed her of our schedule changes due to the trip to the orphanage. We returned home and that was that. Another less than fully productive day.
That evening the power was out and Jodi and Kara had to make dinner in the dark. We had a candlelight dinner and when we did our peaches and pits... well Mary never showing up was my pit for sure!
I forgot to mention to you what peaches and pits are. Every day at dinner time we all go around the table and say our peach of the day [a good thing that happened that day] and our pit of the day [a bad thing that happened that day]. It is a great way to talk about our days and to express both good and bad things. It works great! I have considered writing my blogs like that. We shall see...
After dinner we all went up to the rooftop and played charades in the candlelight. Cherie called us from her hotel she was staying at and suggested we come for a late swim. Four of us were game: Sienna, Kara, Mike and myself so we called a driver left! We got to the hotel at about 10pm and told our driver to return at 11:30pm. The pool was outside and it was so refreshing! We ordered pina coladas and hung out with Cherie for a bit.
Came home, went to bed. The end.
Tuesday
We had kiswahili lesson this morning and it was just Big Boy! He discussed the differences in our cultures as well as the culture in Zanzibar. I learned a few interesting things about Tanzanian culture in comparison to Canadian culture. It explains a lot. I'll share with you as I think some of it is funny!
Hahahaha So, that is some stuff I learned from Big Boy!
After our class we were suppose to rush off to the orphanage but last minute got told for security reasons we
were not allowed to spend the night. I was pretty bummed, but we were going to leave to the orphanage Wednesday morning at 7am from HOPAC and spend the whole day, so I felt a bit better.
After our lesson a group of us went to shoppers with our driver, Iddie, and then he took us to his house where his wife had a small shop similar to the peanut lady. We buy our rice from here, so we got some and Iddie showed us his house. It was a little room where his wife, himself and their son slept. This area was gated, but there were many living here. It was not even like a house, but rather theses cement rooms built for many families side by side. They were so welcoming and not at all ashamed by their living standards. He also showed us where everyone cooked together on a fire pit and the other women out there preparing food offered me a seat next to them. I graciously accepted and talked to them about how they prepare food. It is amazing... I feel like my outlook on life changed in this moment. There was no embarrassment or shame but were so welcoming and happy to see us visit them. These people are so friendly and it humbles me to think back to the days when I was embarrassed by my living standards as a teenager. Out of respect, I did not ask to take pictures of their homes.
After that we all, for the most part, just hung out at the house and tanned on the deck. I had a great talk with Nicole, one of the other interns, and we shared some cool experiences. I had my first cry out here! YAY! It was a great cry... or at least I needed it. Dinner was amazing! We had wraps and they were sooooooo gooooood.
OH FUNNY FACT!!!
So in Kiswahili Tako means butt. One of our interns was helping out at her placement handing out burritos and tacos and she kept asking the children if they would like a tako! AHAHAHA Good times!
The end! :)
Monday was a great day... We woke up and went to our placement at Womens Fund Tanzania. Jesse and I decided we would leave at 8:00am instead of 7:30am and boy did we regret it. The traffic was brutal. Let me give you a little insight into the traffic out here. So... our placement is an hour walk from our home. If there was NORMAL traffic... it would be 5-10 min drive. When we leave at 7:30am it takes us 40 minutes to get there. 40!!! UGH! Now... this particular day, like I said, we left at 8:00am and figured... meh no big deal! It will take us 40 mins anyway, why not give myself enough time to eat after I exercised and give Jesse a better sleep-in. Well, it was a stupid mistake. It took us an hour to get to work... actually a little more than that and it was even MORE hot than at 7:30. Screw breakfast.. I do not want to come to work in a puddle of my sweat thank you very much! UGH!
So we get into WFT and Brian is already there, working away at his computer. We set up and I feel so freaking sleepy. I do not know what it is about this heat, but when I sit in a hot car for an hour or so... it makes me want to go back to bed.
I get a chai tea and we start working. Our internet is being slow as ever, but we grin and bear it. Brian gave us a list of organizations to look up and get a database started for them, which was great! We remembered this was our internet day/phone day [we have to buy internet and phone time weekly... like i say, EVERYTHING is pay as you go] so we decided when we went out for lunch we would stop in to shoppers and get it all loaded up.
About half way through all our working we get a cute little message on our computers saying "Your internet has expired. Thank you for using sasatel". haha sweeeeeetttttttt! haha I guess it's lunch time? The two other CIDA interns working upstairs at Sustainable Cities were leaving for lunch too, so we all walked down to an Japanese restaurant.
They have some really cool things out here for restaurants. I'll try to describe this one, as it is like nothing I've ever experienced. There is a courtyard with tables and you side out there to eat. There were actually TWO restaurants that cater to the customers out there and it is like a competition. Both waiters swarmed to us at our table offering their menus to us and waiting to see which restaurant we chose. I cannot remember the restaurant names, unfortunately, and my camera was dead from the wedding so there are no pictures! We chose the Japanese restaurant obviously and I got this HUGE meal and a drink for about $4. I could not even finish the meal it was so huge. We did stop and remember to get our internet and phone time and then returned to the office. We thought it was perfect timing because Mary was suppose to be in the office at 2:00pm and wanted to have a meeting with us about some of our projects and we had lots of questions needing to be answered that Brian could not answer.
Well, 3:00pm came and went and there was still no sign of Mary. Jesse and I exchanged looks and texts about this fact, but continued to research other NGOs and tried to wait patiently. Would you believe... 4:00pm came around and our driver was there waiting. No Mary for a meeting and no contact with her either informing us of the reasons for why she was not coming. I quickly sent off an email to Mary letting her know what we wished to discuss and informed her of our schedule changes due to the trip to the orphanage. We returned home and that was that. Another less than fully productive day.
That evening the power was out and Jodi and Kara had to make dinner in the dark. We had a candlelight dinner and when we did our peaches and pits... well Mary never showing up was my pit for sure!
I forgot to mention to you what peaches and pits are. Every day at dinner time we all go around the table and say our peach of the day [a good thing that happened that day] and our pit of the day [a bad thing that happened that day]. It is a great way to talk about our days and to express both good and bad things. It works great! I have considered writing my blogs like that. We shall see...
After dinner we all went up to the rooftop and played charades in the candlelight. Cherie called us from her hotel she was staying at and suggested we come for a late swim. Four of us were game: Sienna, Kara, Mike and myself so we called a driver left! We got to the hotel at about 10pm and told our driver to return at 11:30pm. The pool was outside and it was so refreshing! We ordered pina coladas and hung out with Cherie for a bit.
Came home, went to bed. The end.
Tuesday
We had kiswahili lesson this morning and it was just Big Boy! He discussed the differences in our cultures as well as the culture in Zanzibar. I learned a few interesting things about Tanzanian culture in comparison to Canadian culture. It explains a lot. I'll share with you as I think some of it is funny!
TANZANIA | KANADA |
INDIRECT: TO SAVE FACE | DIRECT: YOU WANT THE JOKE TO BE DONE. DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE FEELINGS. JUST GET TO THE POINT |
TIME(BOTH CULTURES IN THIS ARE MOVING TOWARD EACH OTHER): -TIME IS PLENTY -NO SCHEDULE/NO TIMETABLE -WASTE YOUR TIME=NO PROB | TIME(BOTH CULTURES IN THIS ARE MOVING TOWARD EACH OTHER): -TIME IS MONEY -SCHEDULE/TIMETABLE -WASTE YOUR TIME=ANGRY |
STATUS: IN FORM OF ASCRIBED(FROM BIRTH) -IF A DOCTOR, DOESN’T MATTER IF HE IS TALKING NONSENSE, WILL LISTEN | STATUS: WORK FOR YOUR STATUS-ACHIEVED |
SHAME: IF OTHERS FIND OUT YOU ARE A LIAR, STEALER=BIG SHAME BUT IF NO ONE WILL FIND OUT, DO IT! | GUILT: IF I STEAL THIS MONEY=IT’S NOT GOOD |
UNCERTAINTY: IF SOMETHING IS UNKNOWN, IT WILL BE AVOIDED -HAVE A FEAR OF TRYING -DON’T CHANGE JOBS MUCH AND KIDS WILL DO THE SAME JOB TOO -CHANGE TAKES A LONG TIME | CERTAIN: IF SOMETHING IS UNKNOWN, WE WILL TRY -NO FEAR OF TRYING -CHANGE JOBS FREQUENTLY AND KIDS WILL DO DIFF JOBS -CHANGE HAPPENS FAST |
COLLECTIVISM: WE DO THINGS TOGETHER/COLLECTIVELY. UNITY, WORKING TOGETHER, TEAM IS POWER -SHAKE HANDS FOR A LONG TIME | INDIVIDUALISM: COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER. I HAVE TO/I CAN DO IT. |
DO’S | DON’TS |
-ASK FOR PERMISSION BEFORE TAKING A PICTURE OF: PEOPLE, PLACE, HOME [DON’T BE SURPRISED IF THEY GIVE YOU THEIR ADDRESS AND ASK TO GET MAILED THE HARDCOPY… OR ASK FOR TSH] | DON’T BE SURPRISED IF SOMEONE IS SHAKING YOUR HAND FOR A VERY LONG TIME |
DON’T HANG YOUR UNDERWEAR TO DRY OUTSIDE FOR EVERYONE TO SEE, IT’S NOT ALLOWED. -WASH UNDERWEAR, HANG OUTSIDE TO DRY AND PUT A KANGA/SHIRT OVER IT TO DRY | |
-DON’T FART IN PUBLIC. EXCUSE YOURSELF IF YOU NEED TO FART AND WAIT LONG ENOUGH TIME FOR VENTILATION BEFORE COMING BACK. |
BODY GESTURES:
THUMBS UP: TZ: "I AM COOL"
WINK: TZ: LET’S GO BABY
HANDSHAKE WITH THE ENDING SCRATCH: HI BABY I NEED YOU, I WANT YOU, LETS GO
INDEX FINGER TO SAY “COME HERE”: IS THE WAY THEY CALL THEIR DOG, NOT GOOD TO DO TO PEOPLE
-LOOK AT THE MAN DIRECTLY, IF YOU SHY AWAY HE THINKS IT MEANS HES GETTING LUCKY
-NO MEANS YES IN THIS COUNTRY (INDIRECTLY)
-NO MEANS: "SHE IS JUST NOT READY"
Hahahaha So, that is some stuff I learned from Big Boy!
After our class we were suppose to rush off to the orphanage but last minute got told for security reasons we
were not allowed to spend the night. I was pretty bummed, but we were going to leave to the orphanage Wednesday morning at 7am from HOPAC and spend the whole day, so I felt a bit better.
After our lesson a group of us went to shoppers with our driver, Iddie, and then he took us to his house where his wife had a small shop similar to the peanut lady. We buy our rice from here, so we got some and Iddie showed us his house. It was a little room where his wife, himself and their son slept. This area was gated, but there were many living here. It was not even like a house, but rather theses cement rooms built for many families side by side. They were so welcoming and not at all ashamed by their living standards. He also showed us where everyone cooked together on a fire pit and the other women out there preparing food offered me a seat next to them. I graciously accepted and talked to them about how they prepare food. It is amazing... I feel like my outlook on life changed in this moment. There was no embarrassment or shame but were so welcoming and happy to see us visit them. These people are so friendly and it humbles me to think back to the days when I was embarrassed by my living standards as a teenager. Out of respect, I did not ask to take pictures of their homes.
After that we all, for the most part, just hung out at the house and tanned on the deck. I had a great talk with Nicole, one of the other interns, and we shared some cool experiences. I had my first cry out here! YAY! It was a great cry... or at least I needed it. Dinner was amazing! We had wraps and they were sooooooo gooooood.
OH FUNNY FACT!!!
So in Kiswahili Tako means butt. One of our interns was helping out at her placement handing out burritos and tacos and she kept asking the children if they would like a tako! AHAHAHA Good times!
The end! :)
I love you Moriah and I am proud of you and the work you are doing on the other side of the world.
ReplyDeleteIt appears you are slipping into more than just women in self employment. Most notably the orphanage. I am glad that is satisfying and rewarding and I can easily see how it would be. Keep it up. I look forward to seeing and talking to you again. Rachel is going to teach me skype. Talk to you soon. Hopefully soon!!!
Thanks dad! The orphanage is a great experience! I am loving everything I do here! It is coming to my half way point and I am getting so nervous!! I am not ready to go!!!! There is too much to doooo... Anyhow, Thanks for posting dad. I miss you and I hope I get to talk to you soon. Especially when Brock gets home! I am going to email you so, check it soon and I love you!
ReplyDelete