Oh. My. Goodness. Be prepared for culture shock. I seriously suggest reading this blog once to get the info, then rereading it once more really fast because that's how it would sound if I was actually speaking this.
Just to cover the week part first since that was quite normal, Wednesday and Thursday were fine. Friday was busy. After school, Christine and I went to town to get groceries, and we now own a pan for our little jiko (which I think will almost be like a bunsen burner type thing, we don't yet have the oil to turn it on). Then we came back, I had my English class, and then we went over to the pastor's house early. There is a food here called chapati, and it's delicious! It's has a tortilla shape and texture, and is very similar to naan. For those of you who don't know what naan is, it's very similar to lefsa, only it's not sweet. Usually at least once a week, Christine and I get some for breakfast. We really wanted to learn how to make it, so Lauren (the pastor's daughter), and the two house girls showed us how to make it. I have some pictures, and I plan to put them up, but the internet isn't cooperating at the moment, so another day!
Anyway, on to the big adventure of the weekend, many of our students live in an Christian orphanage in town. One is one of Christine's piano students, and she had visited before, so the student asked us to come again. He even asked us to spend the night, and our plans worked out so we did. We had to take a dala dala to town and then walk about 10-15 minutes to the orphanage. I would guess that about 25 kids lived there, and they were super excited to see us- one rushed out to hug us! We knew just about all of them because they all go to Wesley and they're almost all in Classes IV, V or VI. At first, Christine and I talked with their grandmother and auntie, who are two women that help run the orphanage. It was harder with bibi (grandmother) because my swahili is still so limited, and she really didn't speak English. However, the auntie, who herself had grown up in a orphange through the same organization, is attending university in Morogoro and had good English.
Eventually, they fed us, and it was very Tanzanian, ugali. It looks like mashed potatoes, but it has a much stiffer consistency. It's basically flour and water, which is very cheap and very filling so it's more or less a staple here. It has no flavor whatsoever, so when I eat it, I have to mix it with beans, meat, or at least put some sort of sauce over it. Thankfully, we had all of that, but we did eat Tanzanian in that we ate with our hands. What blew me away was the kids took at least twice as much ugali and beans as Christine and I did, and they're tiny! I have no idea where they put it all! As we were eating, we watched the disney movie Tangled. The kids loved it! Then we made a four square court and taught them how to play four square. After that we watched Captain America and Mulan, during which we ate more food. This time, it was pilao which is spiced rice.
That night we took our showers and went to bed. This sounds a lot simpler than it actually was. First off, it was all bucket showers. I didn't actually have a towel either, but at least I was in the bathroom alone. I don't know, it felt a lot more awkward than it probably was simply because it wasn't my house, the bathroom didn't have a lock, etc. I slept in a room with the grandmother, at least seven girls, and Christine. There was only five beds, so Christine and I shared, but our bed was a double. Lots of the girls were sharing twins; I felt bad because likely we took their spots. So then, the idea was we would sleep. He. Hehehehehehehehe. Across the street from the orphanage is a mosque, and there had just been a wedding. In general here, whenever there's a celebration of sorts, they get loudspeakers and blast them. This was absolutely no exception, and the auntie warned us that they would likely be awake celebrating until three in the morning. They started at about 8 PM, and the music went until about 12:30 AM when it started raining. Now, this is not a complaint about rain. We need it right now, so the fact that it was raining was a huge blessing. However, when you're sleeping in a room with a tin roof, it was only marginally better than the music. And throughout the night, whenever the rain stopped, the music restarted. At 4:30 in the morning, bibi started waking up girls one by one to shower, get ready, etc. They woke us up at 6:30. The synopsis of this entire night: we didn't get much sleep. Interesting tidbit, the Muslims were celebrating still when we left the next day; the dancing had signficantly slowed down.
The next morning, we went to church with the, and I'm really glad we go to a different church. Being United Methodist missionaries, we are expected to go to the United Methodist church, and quite frankly, as it is a growing church with a still small congregation, I want to support it. However, it was very educational to go to a different church and see how different they can be. I assumed that most churchs in Tanzania were like ours- small congregations, pentecostal type worshipping, simple structures. The Calvary Assembly of God was incredibly different. The building was beautiful, large, the congregation had to be at least 250 people! There were stained glass windows even, a full praise band, working electronics, I mean there were screen with the song lyrics! I would have believed I was in the US. Interestingly, the entire service was in English and Swahili, which I'm not sure why. Christine and I were the only wazungu there. I know this because the pastor saw us and knew we were visitors simply because we are white; he then asked us to come to the front of the church to introduce ourselves. However, they even sang songs in English. The pastor (other than the on the spot intros) was fantastic. I have never seen such a charismatic and excited pastor; they have a part of their service which was more or less special music, but it was open special music. Anyone who had a song or something ready and wanted to share with the congregation could. When a group of teenage girls stood up to come sing a song, he was literally crying "WOOO! WOOOOO! WOOOOOO!" :D It was so entertaining, but it was great! His sermon too was so impassioned. What was especially interesting was the English interpreter. First off, the interpreter was almost as excited as the pastor, and secondly, sometimes the pastor would suddenly speak English. The interpreter would have to switch gears and speak Swahili, and he did it almost flawlessly!
I know this sounds like I think our church is deficient in comparison to this church, but I really don't! In all honesty, they were almost uncomparable, but a lot of that is probably related to congregation size. No matter where you are in the world, the congregation immensely affects the church. Besides, at the end, things started to get a little "un Methodist", shall we say? I didn't hear any tongues (at least, none that I know of) but I was prepared for it. And besides, I really missed my Sunday school kids, so I'm quite excited to go back to our church! :) Back to the orphanage, after all of that, we went back for lunch, which was beans. Thankfully, by this point they had given us spoons because those beans were steaming hot. I've never thought about this as much until we went here, but Tanzanian fingers must be so weathered. Between handwashing clothes and eating hot foods with their hands, I wonder if they can even feel anything. We played some more four square, and then at about 4:30 we went to the prayer service with the other missionaries. When we actually got back home, I was so relieved just to be back in Kihonda and at our house.
This was my first real experience with Tanzanian hospitality, and, as odd as this is to say, it's overwhelming and it made me feel awful. They fed us, gave us a place to sleep, gave us hot water for showers (when I say hot, it was just under boiling) which was my first remotely hot shower since I arrived, and then even offered us money to ride the dala dala home! In return, I sat on their couch watching movies, hung out with the kids, and went to church with them. I gave absolutely nothing in return. I understand this is the true meaning of hospitality, and in many ways, it's such a genuine Christian hospitality. I just wished I could have at least in some way earned my keep! First off, I'm sure funds are quite limited in the orphanage. Yet, they paid for four of our meals, meals that Christine and I didn't have to worry about, didn't have to prepare, and didn't have to spend our own money on, when we're the ones who truly have money to spend. I wished I could have helped with the dishes or cooking or something, but Tanzanian hospitality would strictly forbid that. I felt so guilty from about Saturday evening on. As a missionary, I'm here to give; people here are so quick to give back to me. Surely if they keep giving this much to me, what I give back in the end will not equal out. I've had some feelings like that before, but not so badly. Things are different at the Pastor's house because we go there everyday and pay for our food. We're more like these weird neighborly family members versus guests, and we're treated as such. But, not being able to give back when you want to and you're being given so much is such a distressing feeling.
Basically, this all culiminated about a step away from a meltdown from me. I think between the overwhelming hospitality, lack of sleep, and the fact that I had been immersed for 30+ hours in culture sans break all contributed. I have noticed here that as long as I get time to leave the public culture, go to my room and absorb what I've just expercienced in my own time, I'm usually ok. It's when I haven't had time to grasp everything that's happened around me I start to feel overwhelmed. 30 hours was just too much. On top of all of that, the weather was again rainy, autumnal, and the church felt Western. I had awful, intense homesickness and flashbacks to Clear Lake, Carleton, England, you name it, which again could have been heightened because of the exhaustion and whatnot. Sunday just was a really tough day for me. I avoided breaking down because we were still at the orphanage and then at the prayer service I could spend some time thinking about radically different Western things which I really needed. I have no idea yet what to think of this entire experience. Culture shock and bewilderment are a reality in a new culture. I try to take joy in the small blessings, like remembering to say "Poa!" without thinking when someone says "Mambo?" to me, improving my Swhili bit by bit, getting to people here better, etc. And I can't classify it as a 'bad' experience; it was just so much. In retrospect, spending the night was probably not a good idea for me. It was just pushing my experiences of Tanzanian culture too far too fast. In some ways, I'm glad it's behind me. This will not be my last experience with culture shock, in fact, it's probably just getting started, but I survived it. When it happens again, I know I can make it through.
In other news, please keep rain for us in your prayers. October is supposed to be a short rainy season, and we had maybe two tiny rains in October. We need more a lot of it, and we're already feeling the effects. We just went four days without water (I'm getting really good at bucket showers). It felt absolutely amazing today to have water all day yesterday! I took a real shower last night! Actually, yesterday I skyped a friend with video for over an hour, had water all day and the electricity did not go out. I felt so blessed! Class IV is taking their national exams today, Thursday, and Friday, which means we have a five day weekend since we can't be on school grounds while they're testing. Not really sure what I'll do yet other than school work; we were only informed yesterday about the long weekend. I'm ok with it, I plan on sleeping in and enjoying it. :)
I really do miss you all, think of you lots, and pray that all is well for you!
Love you lots, and God bless!
Kjirstin
PS: I feel I must comment on the election. I didn't actually vote because I didn't trust the Tanzanian postal system to work in time for an absentee ballot. Given how politically minded I've been my whole life, I thought it would bother me more that I ended up missing my first presidential election. I'm actually not upset at all. Besides, saying I missed it because I was serving my God is a pretty good reason. :)
Just to cover the week part first since that was quite normal, Wednesday and Thursday were fine. Friday was busy. After school, Christine and I went to town to get groceries, and we now own a pan for our little jiko (which I think will almost be like a bunsen burner type thing, we don't yet have the oil to turn it on). Then we came back, I had my English class, and then we went over to the pastor's house early. There is a food here called chapati, and it's delicious! It's has a tortilla shape and texture, and is very similar to naan. For those of you who don't know what naan is, it's very similar to lefsa, only it's not sweet. Usually at least once a week, Christine and I get some for breakfast. We really wanted to learn how to make it, so Lauren (the pastor's daughter), and the two house girls showed us how to make it. I have some pictures, and I plan to put them up, but the internet isn't cooperating at the moment, so another day!
Anyway, on to the big adventure of the weekend, many of our students live in an Christian orphanage in town. One is one of Christine's piano students, and she had visited before, so the student asked us to come again. He even asked us to spend the night, and our plans worked out so we did. We had to take a dala dala to town and then walk about 10-15 minutes to the orphanage. I would guess that about 25 kids lived there, and they were super excited to see us- one rushed out to hug us! We knew just about all of them because they all go to Wesley and they're almost all in Classes IV, V or VI. At first, Christine and I talked with their grandmother and auntie, who are two women that help run the orphanage. It was harder with bibi (grandmother) because my swahili is still so limited, and she really didn't speak English. However, the auntie, who herself had grown up in a orphange through the same organization, is attending university in Morogoro and had good English.
Eventually, they fed us, and it was very Tanzanian, ugali. It looks like mashed potatoes, but it has a much stiffer consistency. It's basically flour and water, which is very cheap and very filling so it's more or less a staple here. It has no flavor whatsoever, so when I eat it, I have to mix it with beans, meat, or at least put some sort of sauce over it. Thankfully, we had all of that, but we did eat Tanzanian in that we ate with our hands. What blew me away was the kids took at least twice as much ugali and beans as Christine and I did, and they're tiny! I have no idea where they put it all! As we were eating, we watched the disney movie Tangled. The kids loved it! Then we made a four square court and taught them how to play four square. After that we watched Captain America and Mulan, during which we ate more food. This time, it was pilao which is spiced rice.
That night we took our showers and went to bed. This sounds a lot simpler than it actually was. First off, it was all bucket showers. I didn't actually have a towel either, but at least I was in the bathroom alone. I don't know, it felt a lot more awkward than it probably was simply because it wasn't my house, the bathroom didn't have a lock, etc. I slept in a room with the grandmother, at least seven girls, and Christine. There was only five beds, so Christine and I shared, but our bed was a double. Lots of the girls were sharing twins; I felt bad because likely we took their spots. So then, the idea was we would sleep. He. Hehehehehehehehe. Across the street from the orphanage is a mosque, and there had just been a wedding. In general here, whenever there's a celebration of sorts, they get loudspeakers and blast them. This was absolutely no exception, and the auntie warned us that they would likely be awake celebrating until three in the morning. They started at about 8 PM, and the music went until about 12:30 AM when it started raining. Now, this is not a complaint about rain. We need it right now, so the fact that it was raining was a huge blessing. However, when you're sleeping in a room with a tin roof, it was only marginally better than the music. And throughout the night, whenever the rain stopped, the music restarted. At 4:30 in the morning, bibi started waking up girls one by one to shower, get ready, etc. They woke us up at 6:30. The synopsis of this entire night: we didn't get much sleep. Interesting tidbit, the Muslims were celebrating still when we left the next day; the dancing had signficantly slowed down.
The next morning, we went to church with the, and I'm really glad we go to a different church. Being United Methodist missionaries, we are expected to go to the United Methodist church, and quite frankly, as it is a growing church with a still small congregation, I want to support it. However, it was very educational to go to a different church and see how different they can be. I assumed that most churchs in Tanzania were like ours- small congregations, pentecostal type worshipping, simple structures. The Calvary Assembly of God was incredibly different. The building was beautiful, large, the congregation had to be at least 250 people! There were stained glass windows even, a full praise band, working electronics, I mean there were screen with the song lyrics! I would have believed I was in the US. Interestingly, the entire service was in English and Swahili, which I'm not sure why. Christine and I were the only wazungu there. I know this because the pastor saw us and knew we were visitors simply because we are white; he then asked us to come to the front of the church to introduce ourselves. However, they even sang songs in English. The pastor (other than the on the spot intros) was fantastic. I have never seen such a charismatic and excited pastor; they have a part of their service which was more or less special music, but it was open special music. Anyone who had a song or something ready and wanted to share with the congregation could. When a group of teenage girls stood up to come sing a song, he was literally crying "WOOO! WOOOOO! WOOOOOO!" :D It was so entertaining, but it was great! His sermon too was so impassioned. What was especially interesting was the English interpreter. First off, the interpreter was almost as excited as the pastor, and secondly, sometimes the pastor would suddenly speak English. The interpreter would have to switch gears and speak Swahili, and he did it almost flawlessly!
I know this sounds like I think our church is deficient in comparison to this church, but I really don't! In all honesty, they were almost uncomparable, but a lot of that is probably related to congregation size. No matter where you are in the world, the congregation immensely affects the church. Besides, at the end, things started to get a little "un Methodist", shall we say? I didn't hear any tongues (at least, none that I know of) but I was prepared for it. And besides, I really missed my Sunday school kids, so I'm quite excited to go back to our church! :) Back to the orphanage, after all of that, we went back for lunch, which was beans. Thankfully, by this point they had given us spoons because those beans were steaming hot. I've never thought about this as much until we went here, but Tanzanian fingers must be so weathered. Between handwashing clothes and eating hot foods with their hands, I wonder if they can even feel anything. We played some more four square, and then at about 4:30 we went to the prayer service with the other missionaries. When we actually got back home, I was so relieved just to be back in Kihonda and at our house.
This was my first real experience with Tanzanian hospitality, and, as odd as this is to say, it's overwhelming and it made me feel awful. They fed us, gave us a place to sleep, gave us hot water for showers (when I say hot, it was just under boiling) which was my first remotely hot shower since I arrived, and then even offered us money to ride the dala dala home! In return, I sat on their couch watching movies, hung out with the kids, and went to church with them. I gave absolutely nothing in return. I understand this is the true meaning of hospitality, and in many ways, it's such a genuine Christian hospitality. I just wished I could have at least in some way earned my keep! First off, I'm sure funds are quite limited in the orphanage. Yet, they paid for four of our meals, meals that Christine and I didn't have to worry about, didn't have to prepare, and didn't have to spend our own money on, when we're the ones who truly have money to spend. I wished I could have helped with the dishes or cooking or something, but Tanzanian hospitality would strictly forbid that. I felt so guilty from about Saturday evening on. As a missionary, I'm here to give; people here are so quick to give back to me. Surely if they keep giving this much to me, what I give back in the end will not equal out. I've had some feelings like that before, but not so badly. Things are different at the Pastor's house because we go there everyday and pay for our food. We're more like these weird neighborly family members versus guests, and we're treated as such. But, not being able to give back when you want to and you're being given so much is such a distressing feeling.
Basically, this all culiminated about a step away from a meltdown from me. I think between the overwhelming hospitality, lack of sleep, and the fact that I had been immersed for 30+ hours in culture sans break all contributed. I have noticed here that as long as I get time to leave the public culture, go to my room and absorb what I've just expercienced in my own time, I'm usually ok. It's when I haven't had time to grasp everything that's happened around me I start to feel overwhelmed. 30 hours was just too much. On top of all of that, the weather was again rainy, autumnal, and the church felt Western. I had awful, intense homesickness and flashbacks to Clear Lake, Carleton, England, you name it, which again could have been heightened because of the exhaustion and whatnot. Sunday just was a really tough day for me. I avoided breaking down because we were still at the orphanage and then at the prayer service I could spend some time thinking about radically different Western things which I really needed. I have no idea yet what to think of this entire experience. Culture shock and bewilderment are a reality in a new culture. I try to take joy in the small blessings, like remembering to say "Poa!" without thinking when someone says "Mambo?" to me, improving my Swhili bit by bit, getting to people here better, etc. And I can't classify it as a 'bad' experience; it was just so much. In retrospect, spending the night was probably not a good idea for me. It was just pushing my experiences of Tanzanian culture too far too fast. In some ways, I'm glad it's behind me. This will not be my last experience with culture shock, in fact, it's probably just getting started, but I survived it. When it happens again, I know I can make it through.
In other news, please keep rain for us in your prayers. October is supposed to be a short rainy season, and we had maybe two tiny rains in October. We need more a lot of it, and we're already feeling the effects. We just went four days without water (I'm getting really good at bucket showers). It felt absolutely amazing today to have water all day yesterday! I took a real shower last night! Actually, yesterday I skyped a friend with video for over an hour, had water all day and the electricity did not go out. I felt so blessed! Class IV is taking their national exams today, Thursday, and Friday, which means we have a five day weekend since we can't be on school grounds while they're testing. Not really sure what I'll do yet other than school work; we were only informed yesterday about the long weekend. I'm ok with it, I plan on sleeping in and enjoying it. :)
I really do miss you all, think of you lots, and pray that all is well for you!
Love you lots, and God bless!
Kjirstin
PS: I feel I must comment on the election. I didn't actually vote because I didn't trust the Tanzanian postal system to work in time for an absentee ballot. Given how politically minded I've been my whole life, I thought it would bother me more that I ended up missing my first presidential election. I'm actually not upset at all. Besides, saying I missed it because I was serving my God is a pretty good reason. :)
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