A 25th Birthday in Tanzania

So I'm safely here in Africa. The flights were long and mostly uneventful, perks included being able to watch Dark Knight, getting Baileys after meals and having an entire row to myself from Amsterdam to Tanzania, making sleeping like a baby very very easy. A slight snafu at customs when they refused to take one of our hundred dollar bills for our visas because it was dated before the year 2000 so we all had to dig in our wallets to come up with 100 dollars dated after 2000. Mary Beth Neckles, Christen, Emily and I were picked up by Kate, Nicholas and Caroline. Kate is just finishing up her two years and will be leaving in about a week. Nicholas and Caroline will be doing their second year of service in Dar with Christen and Emily. Mary Beth and I are hanging out here in Dar with this community until after Kate leaves and everyone will come up to Moshi with us o help us move in and get settled. We will also spend Christmas together up there. Kate and Mary Beth and I are all sleeping in a tent together in the living room of the Dar house. I'm anxious to get up to Moshi to see where I will be living for the next two years and get settled, but this time with people that can actually speak Kiswahili and know whats going on is needed and appreciated. Its amazing listening to the other volunteers speak so easily with the Tanzanians. I have so so much to learn and its scary to think that Mary Beth and I will be on our own shortly. We have started Kiswahili lessons though and I'm looking forward to learning more.

I would love to write about every detail of everything I've done but I don't have that much time and you probably don't want to hear quite that much. Let me just share what my birthday was like yesterday. It was a good day. I'm having a lot of trouble sleeping so I was up at about 5:30. I wake up to both roosters crowing and children laughing and playing in the streets, a very pleasant wake-up call. Since its my birthday I eat cookies and cheddar pretzels for brekfast out of my treat bag I took on the plane. Then Kate walked Christen, Mary Beth, Emily and I to an orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity. The elderly and mentally challenged also live there. I spent my morning playing with about 20 children that were between one and three years old. They were smelly and really liked putting things down my shirt but they were precious and I loved it. At one point they started cleaning up and would take my hand and show me where to take the toys. It was lunchtime. I helped feed two of the children and I was a little thrown off with some of the women that worked there force feeding some of the other children. They were being forced to eat so quickly that two of then vomited it right back up. After lunch all of their pants and diapers were taken off and a row of little training toilets were lined up against the wall and they all lined up and sat on there little pots. They were mostly well behaved, but I definitely did my part in instigating them by returning their raspberries and hand slaps on the floor. While They sat on their mini toilets and we sat on a bench across the hall from them, the older children came in and lined up between us for a little song and dance routine. It was so entertaining and the children were adorable. This lasted for probably an hour, with the little ones sitting on their toilets all the while. Some of then fell asleep. Finallythe older children went back outside and the little ones were allowed to get up and get washed off. After their diapers were put back on (from the same stack of diapers that had been taken off of them earlier) we had a quick dance party before they started grabbing ourhands and leading us into a room filled with cribs where they crawled in themselves (those that could) and promptly fell asleep. It was a good morning and I hope to be able to spend more time there.

The walk back home was brutally hot, we walked back around noon. We were happy to have a refreshing lunch of cold rice and vegetables and lots and lots of water. After lunch we went and had our first Kiswahili lesson with our tutor Emmanuel at Gonzaga Primary School, where two of the volunteers here in Dar work.

After our lesson we went to Mama Davey's house for dinner. Mama Davey has been a friend of the volunteers for years and she invited us over to meet all of us new volunteers. The food was delicious and her eleven year old son was adorable. After dinner we went on a long walk with her to her sisters house to see her sisters new baby. Once we got there they took us to a bar where we all sat around outside and had a beer with Mama Davey. It was so nice to sit around and relax and tell stories.

Once we got home we had a birthday celebration that I was very touched by. Caroline had made me a carrot cake and she even put egg in it, an extra special treat because they are expensive here. It was so delicious. They even got me a gift of some beautiful cloth that I can have a dress made out of. I was very appreciative of all they had done, I was worried that I would be sad about being so far from home on my birthday and they made it a special day for me.

That was my African birthday! Pretty fabulous, although I would be lying if I didn't say that I didn't have a moment right before bed where I was really missing being at home with you all for it. Hope all is well! Miss and love you all! I hope to write again soon, but no promises.