Warning: I had a fantastic weekend. I might get long winded in sharing. Be prepared.
As I mentioned in my last blog, we had a busy weekend ahead with a Thanksgiving celebration and a field trip with the kids. So, Friday started off pretty normally; there was definitely an excitement in the air about Bagamoyo though. Not all of the kids were going; only some of their parents could afford it, and some went last year, so I'm sure some parents figured it wasn't worth sending their kids twice, but they were pretty excited nonetheless. Then, during break, our student who was hit by a piki piki about a week after I got here returned to school suddenly! She hadn't been back yet, and oh my goodness, was there excitement! Everyone started cheering and chanting her name; the kids flocked to her and their enthusiasm was basically overflowing! Since she's a Class IV student, after break, she came to Class IV. This was the last class of the day, and I was supposed to teach science. Needless to say, that did not happen. I'm ok with it, they're already in the Class V book, and they weren't supposed to start that until January. We'll make it just fine without one day. The kids crowded around her, started singing praises to God, even said the Lord's prayer (I know I shouldn't laugh, but it was so funny because it was so random!), one was even crying she was so happy! It was just such a happy moment to be a part of.
After school was pretty normal for Friday. Christine and I had offered to go to town early and help some of the missionaries with cooking and preparations, but everything was taken care of, so we just hung out at the house. I did have to skip my English class, but we'll have more stuff to cover this week I guess. We made it there, and there were a ton of people! I had never met a number of these missionaries; they don't go to the prayer services. Honestly, because I ended up talking mostly to ones I knew, I'm not sure what they were exactly associated with in Morogoro. Most I know are with PBT, Pioneer Bible Translators. Something I've come to notice with a number of these missionaries is that they're linguists. They're nerds. I really had a nice night of fellowship with them just because I got to nerd out with a number of them, shoot the breeze with some about small towns in America, simple things that you miss thinking about in your daily life here. That being said, as far as Thanksgivings go, this was definitely not the same as being home. I've come to learn that it is really is the people you celebrate Thanksgiving with that make it special. I had some great food and great fellowship, but it can't replace a Thanksgiving at home or with close friends like I celebrated last year in England.
Apparently, we learned Friday morning at school, the teachers were going to cook the field trip lunch during the night before the field trip. As in, the original plan was to meet up at midnight, cook until 6 AM when the students would arrive, then leave. The plan changed to 6 PM, but that was during the Thanksgiving, so Christine and I didn't really help. However, since we literally live next to the school and the preschool building where they were cooking, I didn't sleep much that night. I think it was partly nerves and anxiety over the trip itself and the fact that all night I could hear laughter and cooking going on. We woke up early, and headed over to the school just before 6. Tons of students were there, but it took some time getting organized and for both buses to arrive, but somewhere between 6:30 and 7 am, we left. I was sitting on the little kid bus (we brought kids from Classes II, IV, V, and IV, I don't know how II got included). I was actually the first person seated because they wanted to make sure the mzungus had spots, so they put me way up in front on one bus and Christine up in front on the other. I was surrounded by Class II kids, which was a bit of a bummer. I don't have anything to do with them, so I didn't know them. They were also really shy around me, so they didn't want to say much. The buses were crammed! Ours was 4 or 5 seats wide, we put 6 or 7 kids in a row. Some of the teachers stood the entire ride, which was four hours one way.
The ride itself went quite smooth; cops are corrupt here and stop people randomly or near randomly to get money. Mzungus have particular problems with this. We only got stopped once on the way there. At first, I was quite awake even with the rough night because I was enthralled with everything I was seeing. I hadn't left Morogoro in two months, and I was excited about what I was getting to see. When I say front of the bus, I was in line with the driver, so I actually had the whole front window to look out. However, after an hour or so, I started nodding off and rested for a while. The road we were travelling on was a really nice road, even by American standards. Then we turned off that road onto a normal Tanzanian road, what would be considered a minimum maintence road in the US. We bumped, banged, weaved, and curved the rest of the way to Bagamoyo. Seriously, the road was so bad that I actually got carpet burn on the backs of my legs on the way back because I didn't pull my skirt down all the way down my knees. Around 11, 11:30, we pulled into Bagamoyo, and almost immediately you could see the Indian Ocean. I didn't know how to say ocean in Swahili, so I just pointed to it to the two kids sitting next to me, and they both broke out in to massive grins! :)
Bagamoyo is a very historic place. It was the last stop for slave trades, is the sight of the first Christian Church in Tanzania, and a whole host of other things. However, for a Christian school, we went to a mosque. The mosque was built in the 13th century, so the ruins were quite old. We got to see the mosque, the ruins of a number of graves, a well that still worked, and a 500 year old tree. Also, since it's right on the ocean, they showed us where the tide rises and falls. Apparently, the tide brings up these snails that people boil and eat (the kids were horrified! :D). We got to have some time to take pictures, hang out, and then left.
Next, we went to a spot along the ocean, and the kids got to change their "clothers" (for some reason, that is how they say clothes. It is a never ending war to change it). They were so excited to go swimming! I left my swimsuit in the US, so I didn't swim but I waded around with the kids. The water was really warm! We are at the end of their spring, but it was way warmer than I expected. I got a lot wetter than intended since I didn't have any extra clothes, but I didn't really mind. One of them found a bunch of little shells, and brought them to me, so the rest started doing that. By the end, we had quite the pile, and I had hoped to let each kid take one home with them as a souvenir. However, before we could do that, they got washed away. Oh well, they had a blast! It was extra special for me because in the last 18 months I have now been to the Indian Ocean (this), Atlantic Ocean (England last fall), and Pacific Ocean (California summer 2011). When did this become my life?!
After that, we ate lunch, which was fried chicken, chips (british chips, so thick french fries), watermelon, and boiled eggs, served in that order. Shady Beach would be proud of me; to make up for not cooking, I helped peel the eggs. I can still do it, and this was in the back of a bus nontheless! Eventaully, they had to stop me because we had enough, but I'm not gonna lie, I was having fun. Christine and I both commented on how such a meal would never happen in the US for a field trip. It probably wasn't the safest of conditions; the food was stored in buckets after being cooked. There was absolutely no temperature control, but hey, I'm not dead yet. I figure things are probably ok. After lunch, we climbed back on the bus and headed home. Swimming turned out to be a pretty good way to tire the little tykes out, and there were a lot of drooping heads on the way home. The little girl next to me was head bobbing pretty badly, to the point I'm sure she was hurting her neck, so I led her head to me knee and let her rest. Thankfully, I don't think it scared her to see my arm around her when she woke up. I noticed this a little on the way there, but I really noticed on the way back how fast our driver was going in addition to already being on a minimum maintence road. We whipped around curves, shot past villages and countryside, had to go through a few herds of cows, but I can safely say there was no livestock injured in this journey. We ended up beating the other bus by about 30 minutes. As we were getting off, I heard a number of teachers say "Thank you Jesus!" I'd have to agree. Things went just about as perfect as they really could have gone. It's not too often that happens in life.
I seem to have trouble with pictures lately, but here's a few from the trip.
Christine and I crashed that night, and we spent Sunday recovering. It was all so worth it though. As I was waiting for the other bus to arrive (Christine was on it with the housekeys), one of my students came up to me and we had this little exchange:
Madam, are you happy?
Why yes dear I am. Are you happy?
Yes Madam, I am!
Good. I'm glad.
And indeed, I am happy. God bless,
Kjirstin
PS: Please keep rain for us in your prayers! We haven't gotten any more in a week, and we still really need it!
As I mentioned in my last blog, we had a busy weekend ahead with a Thanksgiving celebration and a field trip with the kids. So, Friday started off pretty normally; there was definitely an excitement in the air about Bagamoyo though. Not all of the kids were going; only some of their parents could afford it, and some went last year, so I'm sure some parents figured it wasn't worth sending their kids twice, but they were pretty excited nonetheless. Then, during break, our student who was hit by a piki piki about a week after I got here returned to school suddenly! She hadn't been back yet, and oh my goodness, was there excitement! Everyone started cheering and chanting her name; the kids flocked to her and their enthusiasm was basically overflowing! Since she's a Class IV student, after break, she came to Class IV. This was the last class of the day, and I was supposed to teach science. Needless to say, that did not happen. I'm ok with it, they're already in the Class V book, and they weren't supposed to start that until January. We'll make it just fine without one day. The kids crowded around her, started singing praises to God, even said the Lord's prayer (I know I shouldn't laugh, but it was so funny because it was so random!), one was even crying she was so happy! It was just such a happy moment to be a part of.
After school was pretty normal for Friday. Christine and I had offered to go to town early and help some of the missionaries with cooking and preparations, but everything was taken care of, so we just hung out at the house. I did have to skip my English class, but we'll have more stuff to cover this week I guess. We made it there, and there were a ton of people! I had never met a number of these missionaries; they don't go to the prayer services. Honestly, because I ended up talking mostly to ones I knew, I'm not sure what they were exactly associated with in Morogoro. Most I know are with PBT, Pioneer Bible Translators. Something I've come to notice with a number of these missionaries is that they're linguists. They're nerds. I really had a nice night of fellowship with them just because I got to nerd out with a number of them, shoot the breeze with some about small towns in America, simple things that you miss thinking about in your daily life here. That being said, as far as Thanksgivings go, this was definitely not the same as being home. I've come to learn that it is really is the people you celebrate Thanksgiving with that make it special. I had some great food and great fellowship, but it can't replace a Thanksgiving at home or with close friends like I celebrated last year in England.
Apparently, we learned Friday morning at school, the teachers were going to cook the field trip lunch during the night before the field trip. As in, the original plan was to meet up at midnight, cook until 6 AM when the students would arrive, then leave. The plan changed to 6 PM, but that was during the Thanksgiving, so Christine and I didn't really help. However, since we literally live next to the school and the preschool building where they were cooking, I didn't sleep much that night. I think it was partly nerves and anxiety over the trip itself and the fact that all night I could hear laughter and cooking going on. We woke up early, and headed over to the school just before 6. Tons of students were there, but it took some time getting organized and for both buses to arrive, but somewhere between 6:30 and 7 am, we left. I was sitting on the little kid bus (we brought kids from Classes II, IV, V, and IV, I don't know how II got included). I was actually the first person seated because they wanted to make sure the mzungus had spots, so they put me way up in front on one bus and Christine up in front on the other. I was surrounded by Class II kids, which was a bit of a bummer. I don't have anything to do with them, so I didn't know them. They were also really shy around me, so they didn't want to say much. The buses were crammed! Ours was 4 or 5 seats wide, we put 6 or 7 kids in a row. Some of the teachers stood the entire ride, which was four hours one way.
The ride itself went quite smooth; cops are corrupt here and stop people randomly or near randomly to get money. Mzungus have particular problems with this. We only got stopped once on the way there. At first, I was quite awake even with the rough night because I was enthralled with everything I was seeing. I hadn't left Morogoro in two months, and I was excited about what I was getting to see. When I say front of the bus, I was in line with the driver, so I actually had the whole front window to look out. However, after an hour or so, I started nodding off and rested for a while. The road we were travelling on was a really nice road, even by American standards. Then we turned off that road onto a normal Tanzanian road, what would be considered a minimum maintence road in the US. We bumped, banged, weaved, and curved the rest of the way to Bagamoyo. Seriously, the road was so bad that I actually got carpet burn on the backs of my legs on the way back because I didn't pull my skirt down all the way down my knees. Around 11, 11:30, we pulled into Bagamoyo, and almost immediately you could see the Indian Ocean. I didn't know how to say ocean in Swahili, so I just pointed to it to the two kids sitting next to me, and they both broke out in to massive grins! :)
Bagamoyo is a very historic place. It was the last stop for slave trades, is the sight of the first Christian Church in Tanzania, and a whole host of other things. However, for a Christian school, we went to a mosque. The mosque was built in the 13th century, so the ruins were quite old. We got to see the mosque, the ruins of a number of graves, a well that still worked, and a 500 year old tree. Also, since it's right on the ocean, they showed us where the tide rises and falls. Apparently, the tide brings up these snails that people boil and eat (the kids were horrified! :D). We got to have some time to take pictures, hang out, and then left.
Next, we went to a spot along the ocean, and the kids got to change their "clothers" (for some reason, that is how they say clothes. It is a never ending war to change it). They were so excited to go swimming! I left my swimsuit in the US, so I didn't swim but I waded around with the kids. The water was really warm! We are at the end of their spring, but it was way warmer than I expected. I got a lot wetter than intended since I didn't have any extra clothes, but I didn't really mind. One of them found a bunch of little shells, and brought them to me, so the rest started doing that. By the end, we had quite the pile, and I had hoped to let each kid take one home with them as a souvenir. However, before we could do that, they got washed away. Oh well, they had a blast! It was extra special for me because in the last 18 months I have now been to the Indian Ocean (this), Atlantic Ocean (England last fall), and Pacific Ocean (California summer 2011). When did this become my life?!
After that, we ate lunch, which was fried chicken, chips (british chips, so thick french fries), watermelon, and boiled eggs, served in that order. Shady Beach would be proud of me; to make up for not cooking, I helped peel the eggs. I can still do it, and this was in the back of a bus nontheless! Eventaully, they had to stop me because we had enough, but I'm not gonna lie, I was having fun. Christine and I both commented on how such a meal would never happen in the US for a field trip. It probably wasn't the safest of conditions; the food was stored in buckets after being cooked. There was absolutely no temperature control, but hey, I'm not dead yet. I figure things are probably ok. After lunch, we climbed back on the bus and headed home. Swimming turned out to be a pretty good way to tire the little tykes out, and there were a lot of drooping heads on the way home. The little girl next to me was head bobbing pretty badly, to the point I'm sure she was hurting her neck, so I led her head to me knee and let her rest. Thankfully, I don't think it scared her to see my arm around her when she woke up. I noticed this a little on the way there, but I really noticed on the way back how fast our driver was going in addition to already being on a minimum maintence road. We whipped around curves, shot past villages and countryside, had to go through a few herds of cows, but I can safely say there was no livestock injured in this journey. We ended up beating the other bus by about 30 minutes. As we were getting off, I heard a number of teachers say "Thank you Jesus!" I'd have to agree. Things went just about as perfect as they really could have gone. It's not too often that happens in life.
I seem to have trouble with pictures lately, but here's a few from the trip.
The kids at the mosque.
Me with a few of my students
Our, at one point, seashell pile. Then the waves came up and swept it away.
Madam, are you happy?
Why yes dear I am. Are you happy?
Yes Madam, I am!
Good. I'm glad.
And indeed, I am happy. God bless,
Kjirstin
PS: Please keep rain for us in your prayers! We haven't gotten any more in a week, and we still really need it!
Kjirstin - love this! Finally... pictures of you with the kids!! You look good! Healthy and happy - what more could a mother want? Keep up the great work! Love, Mom
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