Today was quite the day. I’m not going to go into nearly as much
detail as I would like, as a favor to the world. Nothing terrible actually
happened, but I still just had a hard time at multiple points throughout the
day. Sometimes I can’t help but hate feeling like I’m not in control of my own
life and my own daily actions. I’m so conspicuous here and everything I do and
say has some sort of implication. I use white lies at times, but sometimes it
feels like I can’t really do my own thing without offending someone’s
hospitality or seeming “anti-social”. It’s an ironic problem to have—people are
too giving, too nice, and try to help too much sometimes. I don’t know if
that’s really comprehensible unless you’ve lived in such a hospitable culture,
but it can be very overwhelming. It’s hard to say no when the person is really
just trying to do you a favor, and it’s strange to insist someone not help you
when they’re clearly going above and beyond the call of duty. I just haven’t
been able to get my own rhythm and routine yet, and that’s what I think I need.
Anyway, I went with Anjelina (Mama Mwinji) to the fundi to
get my shirt fixed, and then to the other fundi to pay for my bedframe and
coffee table. She then invited me to her house for lunch at around 1:00 pm,
though she hadn’t yet cooked anything. I tried to help cook once she came back
from buying oil (I asked to go, but she told me to rest), but she insisted I
just rest on her couch. She also insisted I stay to rest (slash take a nap) at
her house for hours and hours after that. I was there until about 5:00, even
though I really wanted to go to the market and expressed that to her. When we
finally went to go to the market, I saw some of my male students walking by
with pieces of my bed frame. Once outside, we ran into the fund as he was heading to my house, so that
ruined my plans to buy loquats. (I had to go unlock the door so he could set my bed frame up.)
Normally they use motorcycles to transport big bulky things
like bedframes, but since I’m a Mzungu they wanted to charge me literally 10x
the price to do so. I was told my “students would help” around noon, so I didn’t worry too
much about it. I later found out at around 5:00 that my students weren’t getting me a better
deal, but actually taking my bed piece-by-piece from the fundi’s shop to my
house. I felt really bad they had to carry such heavy stuff 1 ½ kilometers, but
I guess the one plus is that it was very culturally appropriate of me to demand
such a thing. Teachers get an odd number of perks here, and students carry
stuff for them a lot it seems.
In any case, two pieces of the bed went missing for about an
hour at around 5:00 this evening. I’m not even sure what really transpired.
All I know is that at the very least I’m now sitting on my bed in its nice NEW
frame, all by myself. Getting my bed and table here was at least something that
was accomplished today, though for about 2 hours I was worried that part of my
bed had literally gone MISSING. (It arrived via bike after a while, but I’m not
sure why there was a long detour, and why they wouldn’t really explain what was
happening.)
I will also note my coffee table has legs that remind me of the
stools in Beauty and the Beast. I think it could potentially start walking
around my house. I would like a teapot, chipped tea cup, old-school clock, feather duster etc. to match. (Saumu and I also jokingly now call my coffee-table my “meza-kiti” or “table-chair”. We all sat on it awkwardly while the fundi put my bed together, and Saumu died laughing when Anjelina and I danced around the house. She laughs like only a young teenager can. So giddy, and clearly so uncomfortable with my own accepted inner-awkwardness. It's great. I thought about Sam a lot when I showed her dances like the "Macarena" later on. He does a really good meat-stick, but I forgot how to do it, so I didn't break that one out.)
Dinner was...interesting...some sort of potato-like substance that I've never seen before. The avocados were really good, so I had a whole one basically. And I had multiple cups of tea, which was great. Those girls are too kind to me. They're going to teach my to make vitumbua when I get back from Tanga, and they'd pretty much bend over backwards to accommodate me all the time if I'd let them. I've told them I want to cook for myself tomorrow, and I will be potentially teaching/at the very least being introduced to students, so I hope I get a little autonomy. Only time will tell I guess.
Two pluses from the day:
1) Children have started shouting "Jadey" when they see me. Not "Mzungu", not "Mchele", but my name!!
2) They spell my name "Jedi"...like in Star Wars.
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