Things About My Site

Favorite Villager:  Old man around 70 years old who is the only guy I have ever meet that gives an empassioned speach at church and then ten minutes later is hopping on his motorcycle and tearing off down the road giving me a broad smile and the honk of his horn.

Good Food: Raw cucumbers with sugar, don’t bash it till you try it.

Potential Project:  I told an old man that I was volunteering in Tanzania.  He said I should work on getting him some new teeth, he is running out of working ones.

Teachable Health Moment:  A child spoon feeding another child mud out of a puddle.  I walked by and said “Stop, that water’s dirty”.

Swahili phrase:  ‘Si mbali sana’  It directly translates as ‘Not very far’.  If people are close, they say close, if people are far they say ‘Si mbali sana’.  I feel like four hour hikes are just ‘Oh, not that far’.  I have yet to find a Tanzanian that lives ‘far’ away.  I don’t know, I guess if you can get there, it can’t be that far.

English phrase: ‘One for the road’.  Another volunteer and I had spent the night at one of the local bars and as we were leaving a Tanzanian shouts this phrase out.  He porbably knew less than a hundred english words, but I’m glad to see that these made his vocabulary list.

Clothing Item:  Headmaster of Primary of school wore his snoop dog shirt for the first day of school...  And the second day.

Song:  I let some kids listen to a bunch of my ipod songs...  Their favorite by far was ‘Cotton-eyed Joe’.

Proudest Moment: Helping farmers irrigate their farms one morning.

Disappointment: I always am trying to play soccer, but I never get wind of it when people are going to the field

Wander: Helped some lady carry Cassava to her house in the other village, on my head for the whole way too.

Mistake:  Telling people I was going to the big market and hours walk away.  Ended up getting 3 seperate requests for fruits, vegetables, and Chili sauce.

Awkward Pause: The pastor said that it was the last song of the service, they all sart singing and I just kinda sit there in the front row. They sing for like a really long time, a few choir girls keep giggling, and when they finally stop. *Awkward Pause occures here* Then an old man stands up in the row behind me, and says, ‘aren’t we suppose to leave?’. Pastor appologizes, and tells the choir sing another song, and leads me out. That’s about the time that I realized that they always file out front row first.

This is the chaos of my local market

This is my Mountain!