(written 8/27)
My Bedroom
I am sitting here, under the canopy of my light blue mosquito net, listening to the crickets chirping, the noisy chatter outside, and the blasting radio as I write this on my first night in Tabora. So much has happened today I cannot possibly share all of it. We arrived at Tabora around 8am after driving through lush green hills that opened into the plains in which Tabora is situated. We met our landlord, Mama Tabia, who will be a great help as we get to know the village and Swahili, as she is very excited to have us and is incredibly patient. We then entered our house- which is the largest place I’ve ever owned. This place is luxurious. However, we discovered that our 3 mattresses had gone missing. No one could figure out how they could have disappeared, as they are huge and would have been seen had someone taken them out of our house. The village security force was called and there will be an official meeting about it tomorrow with all of the town heads. I don’t know if this mattress caper makes me feel less safe here, or the total outcry makes me feel safer.
We then walked around the village; it’s so beautiful and I can already tell that I could grow to love this place. We met a number of women in our group and were invited in for tea by two of them. At both houses we were served tea saturated by sugar and food made of flour, lots of oil, and sugar. Once again, this will be an interesting year of food. Our names are both a bit hard to say, so Ashley’s name has been shortened to Asha (which is a Muslim name and causes endless confusion) and my name has become Jimmy.
After Ana and Sam (the Project Directors for 2Seeds) left and we got some new mattresses, Ashley and I set about making our house a home. Currently it provides hotel service to cockroaches, geckos, spiders, millions of daddy longlegs, and one dead mouse. This place is full of surprises and desperately needs to be cleaned. It is also incredibly barren, with the dirtiest looking walls possible. Ashley and I talked about how to make it a bit more comfy, although I’m a bit worried that adding more furniture will further remove our lives from those of the villagers.
After a few naps, much sweeping of the floor and walls, and organizing our belongings, we went outside to talk to people. There is a water pump (bomba) in the backyard that many people come to daily to get water, so it serves as a social gathering area. We (kind of) talked to the women, struggling through basic communication and frequently making mistakes that caused everyone around us to burst into peals of laughter. I’m pretty impressed at how well we are communicating (pretty terribly, but we can put together a number of sentences). By the time we return to Korogwe in three weeks, our Swahili will be leaps and bounds better.
As the sun set and the goats were herded into their sheds, we waited to get picked up for dinner. We played with some kids, whom I’m pretty sure were trying to get us to repeat stupid or inappropriate things in Swahili. Mama Mudi, one of our project partners, showed up and led us to her house for dinner. Our conversation fragments mostly revolved around her 3 year old daughter who ate with us. It was great to see some of a parent-child relationship, as this is the crux of our work.
It is 8:22pm now and I am exhausted. It is also pitch dark outside. I guess early to bed… is the rule.
A few other things before I go:
-there are baby goats all over! They are the cutest. I become so happy every time I see them and at this point Ashley is already just rolling her eyes.
-the children here seem to have no supervision and just run around all day. Today this included trying to peer through our windows and shouting at us.
-The village is incredibly loud. For living on the edge of the village, it was blasting with sound all day. The most prevalent one was that of kids shrieking and playing and so it was a bit hard to take a nap through all the noise.
-our first few minutes meeting people consisted of us standing outside our back door silently facing twenty people who were staring at us. It was the most awkward introduction ever.
Our house for the next year
Life as a Jamie 