polepole ndiyo mwendo

some more pictures! yess.

first one- mtoto, of course. how could i post pictures without one, right?

2nd- in a TREE. this was right before we left bagamoyo, we climbed in this perfect climbing tree. thats Ashley, Sara, Kayli, and I up there. probably the best tree I’ve ever climbed…other than getting covered in ants. but thats no big deal

3rd-another picture from bagamoyo. just the fishermen out in a boat. we really would just walk out there and see this everyday. incredible

4th- a little sneak preview from the swahili rap song we wrote and made one night.

so stories?

went to church today, lasted at least 2.5 hours. and i chose swahili over english service. lets just say i could never be quaker. i loved loved the children singing. oh and when the offering was being passed a woman in front of me definitely took TSH10,000 (=$10) from the plate…mm. had no idea how to react, just reminded me of the need.

oh we had cappucinos the other day! first espresso in 1 month, and it was a grande cup of coffee. we sat at this Swiss Motel, Movenpick, where we go to exchange money and savored our coffee. oh yes indeed.

on the way back from Mikumi i sat at the table with a Masai Warrior and ate lunch with him while he sipped his pepsi. so random/ crazy.

weird food combo here- “Chipsi and Mayai” its french fries cooked into fried eggs. so random, but really quite good. there is alot of fried bread here- like i said if i lived here i would be huge.

me and some of the other girls have had some inappropriate happenings this past week that have made me really wary and kinda scared most of the time when we are walking. But im not going to walk in fear, no sir. hapana bwana. JC has got my back.

OH. fun story. so we have our little bible study every night before dinner. the other night the parents were gone for David’s (Korean from Georgetown) going away dinner. So it was just me, the daughters, the 2 girls that arent daughters but live there, and Flor the house girl. Well after we sing and read, Rachel the 7 year old goes to pray. As she starts to pray in Swahili I dont even pay attention to try and translate, cause i got kinda emotional at how sweet her voice was just praying to God. Then the girls just start laughing at her . Debora told me that they were laughing because their TV is broken and rachel prayed that God would give her Mom and Dad money to buy a new TV. When they laughed Rachel just busted out crying. I got really mad and almost cried, but held it in. I was frustrated but couldnt think of how to say in swahili that Jesus said to have a child-like faith and we should come to God with everything. ah, but they all got fussed when Mama got home, dont you worry.

again, all for now.

ah- only 2 more weeks here in Tanzania?! its bittersweet. its a beautiful and wonderful country and i love love love it, but by the time we are leaving i will be so ready to see all my people again. i miss my people. and refuge. ah, hearing some quick stories of Submerge made my heart ache a bit since i wasnt there, but SO encouraged to hear all that God did and how he really showed up! ahh. cant wait to just worship at home again.

well thats all for now.

baadaye!

okay i got some more pictures up, yesss.

to start this off right, the first two are of course a BEAUTIFUL mtoto.

the third and fourth are me with an adorable little girl Asha. she is beautiful and we were just walking down the street when the kids saw us and started yelling, “WAZUNGU! PICHA!” (hey white people come take pictures of us, basically.) and again they just flock. that was in Bagamoyo, too. things like that dont happen in Dar. nope, in DAR we have kids walk up to us and follow us begging for money. oh my.

the fifth is obviously a lion. very observant. how incredible is he though? i love that one- they are so intense.

the sixth is walking on the beach of Bagamoyo. i love that place. I think i could definitely go back there for a long time if you know what I am saying. Dar is nice too, but so big and its hard to get places. In Bagamoyo you just walk where you need to go. When you walk down the beach you see fishermen working, cutting up fish and squid and selling them. You see men walking around with peanut treats and pots of coffee selling it to the fishermen, women walking down the beach with buckets of fish they bought for dinner on their head, and children on their break from school splashing their feet in the water and walking down the beach holding hands. everybody here holds hands, and i think its so adorable. definitely a different definition of personal space than at home. When you get on the daladala(bus) to go anywhere, you are packed in like sardine. my head may be in somebody’s armpit (which is not a good idea here with the lovely body odor), or just squished on a small seat with a stranger. wouldnt work out so well in America.

oh but Bagamoyo, what a beautiful place. i mean look at it, right? exactly.

yesss. all for now.

here is one of those golden “Im in Africa and played with watoto” pictures you’ve all been waiting for! haa. plus its one of my favorites. this was in Bagamoyo whilst playing with kids outside the bank. Oh my, so adorable. those 2 boys both took a bunch of pictures with our cameras too, some coming out really cool.

so, yes. enjoy that. ive had a time limit on writing all these blog posts, and have left so much stuff out. im going to try and include alot in bullet-format. ready?…ok.

// last night in Bagamoyo woke up @ 3AM with my right hand in extreme pain. i started freaking because i didnt know what it was, took 2 advil and called mom (it was 7pm at home). She just started praying with me and declaring a peace and healing. After I hung up I just started singing “Jesus’ Blood” , was overwhelmed with a peace and literally just fell asleep. the next morning i had a little pain still in my hand, but refused to think it was anything serious and knew God had that taken care of. High Five God! Plus, I had just read Psalm 73:23(think thats right…) that says you hold me by my RIGHT HAND, ahh. Jesus had that on lock. pretty sure it was some weird bite, but im not feeling ANY repercussions

// Here on campus monkeys roam around like we have squirrels at LSU. they are all over the place. I walk outside to baby monkeys climbing on the window bars! how fun is that?!

//We just got back from a 2 day Safari at Mikumi National Park. definitely one of the msot beautiful places I have ever been. It was soooo chilly at night and its surronded by incredible mountains. We got to see all the fun safari animals- elephants, giraffes, hippos (one had just died but we missed seeing its carcas, which from what we heard was extremely stinky), crocodiles, wildabeast, impalas, cool birds, and on the 2nd day after hours of searching…LIONS! those are harder to find, and we saw a family of 3. so incredible. kinda scary-close, but beautiful.

oh and remember how i promised like a thousand times that titsi flies (the ones that carry african sleeping disease that kill you) aren’t in Tanzania?…..oops. yeah yeah yeah i know. well this fly flew in the car and mwalimu warned me that it was a titsi fly. basically we all spent the afternoon attacking them at all costs as they flew in and out of the van. i think i got one bite, but 1 isnt a big deal. you just dont want alot, so im fine

//im loving the language. so much easier to learn here. we have made a few language mistakes like accidentally saying a bad word instead of dolphin to a guy in Bagamoyo, but other than that have been fine.

// we have a free weekend this weekend and im pretty sure that we are going to Bagamoyo again because we loved it there so much, I THINK that next weekend we get to go to a school somewhere and help teach English (YES!), the next weekend is Zanzibar (MMM!), and then we head back. ohh i get to stop in London too and we will leave the airport to have dinner, so we wont be stuck there the whole time.

// everything else here is great. my family is really nice and great. I’ve never appreciated hot water so much in my life, its like a rare jewel. for real.

oh well I’m almost out of time on the internet, it takes so long to upload pictures, but i hope to get more next time?! expecting some Submerge updates soon, and hope everyone is well

ya kuonana…

okay so tomorrow we leave bagamoyo for Dar Es Salaam. ahh. its beautiful here but im ready for a new experience and to meet my “family”

got my shoes stolen last night at a random beach bonfire (where coincidentaly i was surronding by tons of Tanzanians smoking pot. terrible idea, only stayed for a little while). but all of our shoes got stolen. just a bad idea. learned our lesson. [dont know if im supposed to say that i was around marajuana, but oh well. true story. ni kweli. didnt smoke it and never would want to. actually made me nauseous to even smell it]

oh! and 2 nights ago i went to go to bed, right? i picked up my pillow to fix it and there was a large orange centipied-esque creature under my pillow. ahhh. i didnt yell or move it, just went and got in my friend’s bed. 1st encounter with a crazy insect.

andddd we went on a REALLY interesting historiuc tour of bagamoyo. so much history of slaver trade  here. got to see old Arabic and German buildings where they used to hold slaves before shipping them to Zanzibar. and the FIRST Catholic Mission Station here! very beautiful old church and it has a HUGE Baobab tree. ginormous, i was SO excited. (Tori, i took a few pictures for you of course). The history was intriguing and ill have to expound more later.

thats all for now. ill be posting in DAR when i meet my family. yaaaaay

oh hello there dear friends.

im still in bagamoyo, we will be here for 3 more days before we head to Dar Es Salaam to the University for the last 4 weeks.

Bagamoyo is wonderful. its on the beach and we can walk and ride bikes to town. Its a small town with little shops and people walking everywhere that will talk to you in swahili and very small and comfortable. thats why we are kinda scared about Dar, its a huge city. But we will be on University Campus and with our families, so it should be a great experience.

so, big things. lets see, Sunday we went SNORKELING in the Indian Ocean. We paid a guy named Muhammed to take us in a smallish wooden boat to Mwambakuni Island(really a sandbar in the middle of the ocean). We set up a table and then went snorkelling- ahhhh. it was like things you see in documentaries. we saw coral, anemones(i cant spell that), huge starfish, all kinds of fish. really great. we had a picnic lunch out there and found shells then headed back. increidble experience.

and yesterday was GREAT too. ive been kinda down just being at the hotel and not feeling like im doing anything useful being here and not even getting to get out and talk to people. yesterday we rode bikes to the bank and while a friend Ashley and I waited outside, we decided to go talk to 2 little boys we saw. Well they wanted us to take pictures and as we did, the kids began to FLOCK around us. it was grand. we took pictures and talked and played hand games, and then THEY took pictures, loved to use the camera. oh it was so fun. made my heart smile.

and during this we met a kid named Abdalah. he is 15, and has really great english. he brought us to his house to meet his mom and came shopping with us to buy vitenge and kangas (some traditional clothes). so very cool as well.

so- its been great. Mwalimu Deo has been kind of sick the past couple of days, he thinks he may have malaria (which he has had a few times before) but went to the doctor and has to go back Friday to have a small operation (he wont tell us what), so please be praying for him as well. He is a strong man and would rather teach than take care of his health. oh my.

i hope all is well at home. i will miss Father’s Day (siku ya baba) so much love to my Pops(s–since there are 2).

i know still no pictures, but i cant. so hopefully when we get to DAR on Sunday i can get internet on my laptop and put some up. wahhhh

thats all!

hey, another post. craz, right? i had to pay another TSH2,000 to use the internet… no not $2,000. its shillings and equal to about 2 US dollars.

i wanted to give a quick update on my horrendous red bumpy legs. this morning mwalimu (my teacher) and i walked down the doctor to see whats going on. He took a look at my legs and started writing a prescription. asked how long they had been there, we couldnt communicate very well because mwalimu left me with him alone- his english isnt so good and my swahili doesnt reach to medical terms at all yet. so i was motioning bumps, tried to explain i took benadryl (didnt know benadryl). but we figured it out. he seemed to think it was mosquito bites.

well this would prove to be the most mosquito bites ive ever seen, but sure thing doc. im taking a antibiotic and steroid and it should hopefully go away within the next few days.

oh and the doctor visit and 8 days of meds- $7.50! say what?! i wish home was like that. but TIA.

other than that- all is well.

one more cool story- today we were walking on the beach at lunch during our break and this guy, Sebastian, walked up and asked us if we wanted coconuts (Nazi in swahili…not like the germans). we were like sure, so he proceeds to just hop on up a TALL palm tree and snatch a few coconuts and break them open for us to drink. it wasnt ripe so it was bitter, but how cool?! ah, im loving it.

 titakwenda kunywa kahawa kwa rafiki yangu, ashley and kusoma kiswahili sasa! (im going to drink coffee and study swahili with my friend ashley now)

i love love love you all.

sarah andry- i miss your face too. i keep saying (in my head of course) why i oughhhttaaa, but nobody would understand. so, thats for you

baadaye!

ahhhh im in africa! im here in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. google it- it is absolutely incredible. it has taken me awhile to get the internet, but wanted to update everybody

im loving it, we made it safe and have been having a great time. I havent gotten sick, but i do have a strange rash all over my legs, oh well. looks like chicken pox.

we hung out for the first 2 days, just exploring the area with the 6 other students. So far some highlights- walking along the beach of the Indian Ocean and helped some fishermen make rope from bark, bike riding to the city and shopping, on that bike ride we found a random church and heard them singing so we went in. there were like 10 people there and we sang worship with them (i understood some of the songs!) and then they asked us to sing…which we cant. so we sang amazing grace, apparently i was the only one that knew all the words…it was awful, but fun.

we also killed a goat. well not us technically. we were riding in a daladala(tiny van/bus) and they dont play here. we felt a bump and saw a goat sliding along the road, the driver didnt flinch.

so, yeah. that was sad.

we started class today and are eating lunch at the hotel right now.

thank you all for your support, i love yall and miss yall! please pray for strength for me and also that this scary rash is nothing and goes away. its all good- HAKUNA MATATA!

oh, and the children are be-a-utiful, of course.

Tori- i met a kid named samson, i took a picture of him. so adorable

thats all for now! i should get better internet in DAR in 2 weeks.