June 14, Nyeema Mwalipopo

Today was a much better day overall. I enjoyed our PST sessions and found them to be very informative. I also had a really good time at home. When I got back I did the dishes outside near the water well. (People come pay to pump out water by turning a crank.) They use a mixture of soapy dirt to scrub the dishes and then rinse each dish in a big bowl of water. Then, they rinse each dish again in another bowl of water that is warm and clean. Everything is dried inside the house and kept in a hutch-like cupboard, or alternatively, put on the floor next to the cupboard.

My host mamma and Priska taught me vocabulary words throughout the evening. I learned the name of most body parts. Apparently they never say the word elbow because they couldn’t remember what it was called. It was really fun/funny and some of the other local kids and the maids joined in, too.  Several of the little boys who came into the house spent a long time looking at my Swahili-English books which was kind of fun to watch.

We had a major miscommunication involved the word “karata”. They were saying it and motioning a hand doing what looked like shaving a carrot. So…I naturally thought they wanted me to peel or shave carrots, and I agreed. Then they took me to the living room and stared at me, which was confusing since they cook outside. They kept saying “cheza” but I couldn’t’ remember what that meant either, but I knew it had nothing to do with cooking. Then I was lead to a storage room…then taken to my room and left there. So…I got out my dictionary. Karata is actually playing cards, which I didn’t bring. They were disappointed in my crappiness.

After dinner (only my mama and I ate—my host baba is away, but I’m not sure why Jackie never eats or where my host brother was. The two house maids ate after we were done) we watched a DVD of music videos by one Nyeema Mwilipopo. I had so much fun watching them. Music videos here are made by filming with regular video cameras while lip-syncing to a boom box. These [super-long] videos involved lots of dancing in front of a green screen. (There was a triangle background, flower background etc.) More amazingly, there were plenty of old, white tourists caught in dance moments...in addition to small video clips of them adjusting their bag or wiping their nose. It made me laugh and smile quite a bit, but I don’t think my host family fully understood why I was giggling so much. It was interesting because the singer was definitely on the heavier side and none of the dancers were stick-thin. There’s certainly a different body image here. Big butts are appreciated quite a bit.
(Maybe I can finally fit in!)

Tuttoanana baadaye (See you later!)