Today we primarily worked on language skills. My group was
1½ hours late thanks to the bus system (you have to wait until the bus fills up
before the driver will embark, so today we sat waiting for quite a bit), so
they have agreed to keep sending the PC van to our village in the mornings,
like they did the first week we were here. I’m happy about it—saves me time and
money!
Today I saw my first (dead) bush rat—HUGE. We saw it being
held up by a banana-stand salesman on our way to town. We stopped to get
soap/toothpaste from a supermarket before coming back to the village as a
group. We walked most of the ways home. Normally, we would take 3 daladalas (buses)
home, but today we only took one. We’ve done that before, but today we seemed
to be getting extra “Mzungu” and “Wazungu” comments. At one point we met a
Kenyan man named Sammy and his Brazilian wife. She pointed us out to him as we
were walking because we’re white too, and they started asking us if we’re
missionaries like them. We explained that we are all teachers in the Peace
Corps, and we subsequently found out Sammy used to be a member of the Kenyan
parliament. (Don’t remember his last name, but Michelle has it.) In fact, he
was the youngest man to ever be elected to such a position. He told us that he
plans on running for President in 10 years (after the next two 5-year terms),
so maybe I actually met someone who will be super important! He gave us his
contact info, so if he does end up being President, I’m hoping to get some
sweet VIP treatment at the President’s house in 2022. ;)
When I got home I helped stir the cabbage dish they were
making. First you stir-fry onions in oil. Then tomatoes are added until they
boil down to a saucy consistency. Cabbage is stirred into the tomato mixture,
and once that is close to done, carrots and green peppers are added as well.
Oh, and of course salt. They LOVE salt in TZ. Sometimes a little too much, and
that’s saying something coming from me! While cooking I found out that my kaka
goes to Educare Secondary School, my dada Jacky goes to Morogoro Secondary
School, and my dada Priska goes to Primary School (forget the name of that one!).
The school I’m interning at is private, so I was wrong when I initially assumed
my host sister went there.
I’ve been having stomach problems/a little vomiting. I’m not
sure if it’s the food, the new environment, a combination of both, or something
else. Tonight I had a better appetite than I did this morning. We had some
really good chicken and cabbage (they’ve noticed I really like it), in addition
to stewed plantains and rice. I went very light on the rice and quite heavy on
the chicken and vegetables. It seemed to
help!
My sister has a pretty big goose-egg on her head. I had a
talk with our country director about corporal punishment. Apparently I did the
right thing by staying uninvolved, but it is a very different culture here.
Night!
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