Woah! Hold up….“There won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas”?!

So, here are a couple numbers for all of you out there. I have been in country 86 days now. I have been at my site now for 24 days. I have cooked about 70 or so meals for myself, successfully started my jiko about 12 times have had 2 sweet dance parties in my kitchen waiting for beans to cook and consequently gone through 3 (Tanzanian) rolls of TP.  I have ventured into my village 30+ times, been laughed at by my neighbors and have laughed at myself about 1,000,000 times.  To wrap up the numbers….there are 6 days till Christmas and 13 until a whole new year!

The past week went pretty well here. I got some more work done on my garden and am planning on planting soon, if I can figure a way to keep the animals out! I also bought some paint, blue and yellow to be exact, and sponge painted my kitchen and painted a pattern in my hallway. I also now have a blue polka dotted shower room! (At least it is not purple handprints on pink walls; my bedroom circa 4^th grade).  I am also now running/ exercising a fair amount because, let’s face it, I have nothing better to be doing with my time, but working off all of the carbs I am currently feeding to my face. Another thanks to the Murphy’s for the 25-minute body circuit that would make you sweat even if you were on Antarctica. Between body circuits, P90x and some running I have been keeping my endorphins up and keeping myself from feeling stagnant.

Tuesday, I found out my couches were ready to be picked up, so I went down to Mbeya with my counterpart to purchase cushions for my couches. I would like to say right now that my counterpart, Madam Yolanda, has been awesome, patient and very helpful. It is thanks to her that I did not get ripped off today while buying cushions and transporting them home! After buying the world’s ugliest cushions (brown, black and white animal print), but before returning to pick them up, our trip to Mbeya also involved us walking around the market and looking around for used clothing. I have not talked too much about being white here in Tanzania, but today was a pretty white day for me.  Everywhere I went people were shouting ‘Mzungu’ (white person) at me and people in Mbeya see white people all the time. I have no idea what set off the people in the market, but I now know what it must feel like to be a celebrity. After the market experience, we headed home on the dala with my cushions in tow. I am not sure if I mentioned it before, but there are no gas station rest stops in Tanzania or if there are there are very few, instead men come running up to the windows of buses, cars, dalas and trucks with everything from water, juice, hard boiled eggs, corn on the cob, mandazi (fried dough), loafs of bread, cashews to underwear, belts, umbrellas, flip flops, stools and phone vouchers. It is really quite a show. They literally sprint after the vehicle until it stops, then harass you to buy whatever they are selling, if you are white you will be asked to buy without a doubt. I think my favorite part of this whole experience is when a passenger is attempting to bargain with the running concession stand as the vehicle is departing. This exchange usually involves a lot of shouting, flying money, goods tossed at the vehicle window and if the passenger is lucky… their change. Needless to say I often do not take part in this ritual because I am white, usually carry my water with me and don’t have enough Purell on my person to even think about putting my hands near my mouth (Dad, I know you are proud right about now).

Wednesday was a complete pumzika (rest) session along with a little laundry, an afternoon run and a visit into my village for a soda. One of my favorite (and one of the only places) to go in my village is the main duka or store. The duka sells things such as, eggs, soda, TP (which is really expensive because Tanzanians don’t really use it), batteries, plastic flip flops, pens, margarine, candles, bread (occasionally), candy, baby formula, kerosene, cooking oil, juice and a few other things that are not coming to mind right now. It is one of my favorite places for a few reasons; 1) it is really the only other place to go hang out besides at my house 2) I get to speak Swahili when I venture there or really broken English with a boy who works there and insists I only speak English to him and 3) It plays American music really loud… i.e Jordan Sparks and a Shania Twain remix, which is pretty good, but I think I only think that because I have not heard any new music in about three months.  I know the most important reason I like venturing to the duka is reason #3. Today I sat outside the store on a plastic stool given to me by the kid working there and drank a soda. The whole time I sat outside the store the music was blaring and every time a customer came up to buy something, instead of turning down the music the conversers would just shout above it.  I can attest that common sense gets lost when listening to Shania Twain on full blast, but I could not help but find the situation humorous, so much so I was laughing out loud to myself in front of my whole village.  Guess it is not enough that I am white, but now I am the crazy white girl whose name no one can say.

Today, a couple of volunteers and I hiked into Ngozi Crater because the entrance to the hike is right across the road from my site. The hike is pretty interesting because you have to hike up to the rim of the crater and then down into to get to the lake (last time I only hiked to the rim). On our way up to the rim we ran into a group of Tanzanians who worked for the government, but were on a work retreat. Let’s just say that jeans, kitten heels, dress slacks, dress shirts and ties are not proper hiking attire (maybe The North Face or Patagonia should focus their efforts in Tanzania).  I have to give these people credit though. They were probably unaware of what the hike required and all seemed to be very happy yet, wamechoka (tired).  Some of the group actually hiked down into the crater and we ran into them on our way down. They made the four of us stop and take a picture (see below) with them, which was pretty entertaining. (You are not going to not take a picture with four white people if you run into them, right?!).  The rest of the hike down into the crater was pretty steep and a little hairy because of all the erosion from the rain. Round trip the hike took us 5 hours, the last one of which was spent in a torrential downpour  and would be something I would definitely do again. The lake was very beautiful and pristine minus the very real threat of schistosomiasis (no swimming!).

So the holidays are creeping up and I am missing home more than I can say. Here in Tanzania, as many of you can guess, there is/are no Christmas lights, Christmas specials on TV, candy canes, cocktail wieners, Reece’s Peanut Butter Christmas Trees, Christmas music, snow, Starbucks red cups, people ringing a bell for the Salvation Army outside Stop & Shop, Aunt Sally’s blue cheese smashed potatoes, sound of plows outside my house, Aunt Sue’s baked brie, cheese balls with the nut covering, snowman novelty ice cream that Grandma used to buy, kasheshe at the local shopping center, Aunt Leanne’s ham rolls (I eat pork again), family Christmas cards  (Thanks, Grandpa. Got yours in the mail the other day!) or sugar cookies.

This Christmas I will be celebrating with other PCVs from my region and without most of the aforementioned, but it is Christmas…it matters who you have in your life and not what you have, right? We are planning on having Christmas and Christmas Eve dinner, pancake Christmas breakfast (super pumped…one of my favorite foods), a nice pumzika session and a yankee swap Tanzanian style on Christmas day.  

 I wish you all happy and safe holidays. Please think of me every time you hear Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” because you know I will be jamming on this side of the hemisphere. All my love from TZ.