Shannon's Soliloquy

Life back in America

2011-11-27T22:03:00.001-06:00

I’m the sort of person that weird things just happento. Only they happen at a rate muchslower in America than in Africa. Soinstead of blogging daily, I’ll have to blog bi-monthly just to keep thingsinteresting.

……………………………………………………..

The Friday I returned to America was a bittersweet day. Sweet things like my fiancé waiting for me atthe airport with sunflowers, Chuy’s Salsa, and figuring out stuff for school.

Bitter things like staring at my phone for 5 minutes tryingto remember how I call someone.

It’s crazy what being away from your phone for 2 months willdo to you.

I’d like to add that it only took me a few weeks to rememberto take it with me everywhere.

……………………………………………………….

I jumped back into real life first thing Mondaymorning. I was assigned to work atPediatrics of Dallas which is in WAY south Dallas, where all the signs are inSpanish.

I was looking for 201 W Saner avenue. I looked for about 20 minutes before decidingto call and ask for directions. Itshouldn’t be that hard to find, right?

So I called the office. The recording picked up. “…You’llfind us at our new address 3201 W Saner avenue. Right. 3201. Not 201. Somehow I dropped the3. And lost about 20 minutes of my life. Good….

I finally made it. Ijumped right in following a PA around for the first day to figure out what wasgoing on. Why is American medicine sodifferent? It might have been easier tofigure out if people weren’t speaking Spanish. Only Spanish.

I went from speaking Swahili for survival to speakingSpanish. Which I’m pretty patheticat.

I am good at smiling at the kids. That crosses all languages.

I was waiting for my preceptor to finish looking over a UA (urinalysis)with her MA (medical assistant) when this little girl looked around the cornerand smiled at me. Then she quickly hidher head again. Kids are shy. She peaked out again. I smiled again. She said hi. I said hi back. She hidagain. She peaked out again. She said hi, my name is “Princessa” (not herreal name, HIPAA would hunt me down if I used her real name). I said “Hi Princessa, my name is Shannon.”

And just like that, I had a new friend.

………………………………………………………

So in Tanzania there was this mouse that ate my Oreos. It was one of the many tragedies I faced overthere. (only it’s a bit morelighthearted) We got really excitedabout a lot of little things-especially food- because we ate a lot of rice andbeans. So when I got a package of Oreosand so did Julia, we saw this as a golden opportunity. We split one package then and saved one forlater!

Only the mouse got into Julia’s suitcase and devoured itfirst.

And we know it was a mouse because it had the nerve to jumpout of her suitcase at her.

Rude.

So anyway, because of this silly mouse, I bought packagedcookies (A tragedy, if you ask me) because I really just needed to eat 2oreos. And if you buy Oreos, you need tobuy milk. And then you need to dunk themin milk for precicely 11 seconds.

Thanks mouse.

……………………………………………………………

The first Monday I returned, we had Girls night at smallgroup because half the girls weren’t able to make it. We talked about some pretty funny/scandalousthings. Here’s a preview: “Take me to bed or lose me forever.”

I’ll let youfill in the details….

……………………………………………………………..

I realize I’m a champion at putting off paper re-writing. I was running out of important things to doand blog about, so I resorted to waxing a test section of leg.

My roommate was thouroughly disgusted by the length of thehair on my legs. I think she just needsto become a bit more feminist and be less conforming to society. But it’s her life. Anyway, after about a month of not shaving(because we wore floor length skirts every day---no need to impress anyone) Idecided I would try to wax my legs when I got back to America. After not shaving for 7 weeks, it’s prettyliberating and I wasn’t about to be tied down to shaving again right away.

The test run went well. I waxed my left ankle. One daylater things were still golden, so I decided to wax my entire legs.

Before I realized just how big my legs are.

I did the bottom half of both legs, and I got pretty good atit. But since the bottom half is smallerand it took me 2 hours, I decided to just shave the top half of my legs.

Just in case you’re curious, waxing is definitely worth it.

If you can stand the 2 seconds of pain every other minute.

…………………………………………………………..

At my mentor’s request, I was charged with the task ofremoving the word “it” from my paper. Half a million times.

I feel like “it” is a valid pronoun. Sometimes you just need to use pronouns,right? Like if I keep saying “the studywas good. The study was professionallydone. The study is going to getboring. I need to say IT isn’t thatexciting.” Except I can’t use IT.

But I’m not bitter about IT or anything.

………………………………………………………………

At the request of my fiancé, I agreed to watch both Harry Potter#7 movies back to back with him. I madethe stipulation that I needed popcorn.

And Cherry Garcia Fro Yo.

And pizza.

It was actually a really good movie and we had a lot offun. And I fulfilled my need to eat foodlike a crazy American again.

……………………………………………………………….

One night we met Chris and Diana at Olive Garden, which Ilove (because of the salad) and I hadn’t eaten at in FOREVER since I’ve beengone. That night I ate an entire bowl of salad bymyself and we celebrating a birthday of my good friend who also happens to bean excellent English teacher.

She politely helped me edit my paper. Since I hadn’t done such a good job bymyself.

I got a “Much Better!!” (with 2 exclamation points) from mymentor, so I take it the editing job and painstakingly removing the word IT wasworth IT.

………………………………………………………………..

Tuesday I received edited paper #2 from Jessica who alsohelped me edit. The only thing she saidin the body of her email was “Don’t freak out!” That’s what you tell your parents when you get into a car accident, onlyyou’re ok and everything, but it’s pretty bad news anyway. What did she mean when she said “don’t freakout?!” I’m pretty sure whenever anyonesays that it only means the opposite.

Then, at work I saw a girl with Pinworms. Eeew!

Pinworms are notorious for making your anus itch atnight. It’s because you’re all relaxedso they can crawl out and make you itch. They can’t crawl out during the day because your muscles are too tenseto let them crawl out. But at night yourelax a bit and so does your external anal sphincter and then the worms get toplay. We examined this poor girl and shehad them crawling out during the day. Meaning she was WAY overinfested with worms.

It’s funny, I never saw pinworms in Africa, where theyroutinely de-worm the kids every 6 months because worms are so prevalent. I waited till I came back to America andstarted working in a clinic in south Dallas. That’s my life.

…………………………………………………………

At work one day there was a young girl with Type 2 Diabetes. She was at least 150 pounds overweight forher age. She had been warned in the pastthat she was severely obese and needed to lose weight for her health. She had assured the doctor she would loseweight because she didn’t want to have to take medicine for diabetes.

She had gained 10 more pounds in the past month and thedoctor had decided to start her on diabetes medicine. The doctor was explaining everything to hermother and she just started to cry.

Big. Fat. Tears. Rolling down her cheek.

I felt so sorry for her, I just wanted to reach out and holdher hand. But she was across the room,and there was a lot of tension already.

Sometimes medicine is really hard.

…………………………………………………..

Finally, all 3 roommates were back in town. We celebrated by eating Chuy’s and FroYo. Classic American food.

I was super excited about Chuy’s salsa and creamy jalapenosauce. Yum!

Howard was more excited about the Fro Yo. Green Apple Tart Fro Yo.

She said “green apple tart is amazing” at least 100times. I’m not even exaggerating on thisone.

How was I supposed to know she was obsessed with greenapple? Good to know.

…………………………………………………………..

No more than one week into working with the kids, I got sniffles.

Then came the sneezing and coughing. Just enough to beannoying, but not enough to give me a fever and excuse me from work. Howlame. If I’m going to be sick, I atleast want to be really sick.

I guess it only takes gagging kids with a strep throat swabfor 7 days before I catch their yucky germs.

And now I’m thanking God for NyQuil!!

…………………………………………………………

The day of the last African Sunset.

2011-11-13T22:20:00.001-06:00

Thursday/Friday

I awoke and took a sweet smelling showerwith a showerhead that was on the ceiling. Odd, hard to keep my hair dry, but kinda fun.

I waited until I HAD to check out to goto the airport. I was dropped off at theOR Tambo airport in Johannesburg at 11 am, and had 8 more hours to kill beforegetting on my flight to America.

No one was awake in America yet, so itmade no sense to get on the internet. Ijust ate, so I couldn’t eat at any of the restaurants. I decided to spend the last of the rand Ihad, since it wasn’t enough money to take back to America. (only about 15 dollars) I spent it on some neat things including acool bracelet that gave a dollar to anti-malaria efforts.

Which I promptly put on and found highlyamusing since I was currently fighting off malaria.

I spent the rest of my money and stillhad WAY too much time to kill, so I walked around.

Which was great because there was a highschool choir singing in front of a light up reindeer. It was precious. I watched them sing and dance to a fewChristmas songs and instantly missed my good friend Diana. I usually share the first Christmas song ofthe season with her. No problems.

I made my way through security and too mygate as soon as I could. No sense in notgetting there early. When I got to mygate there was an EXTRA search for all the people flying to America. Everyone received a pat down and a bag search. Which was the first time I had ever gotten apat down. Ever.

They also gave “extra” bag checks torandom people as we boarded the plane. Iguess we can’t be too safe. I watched mylast African sunset for the year from the airport terminal. It was breathtaking, like they all are. Not too many other travelers noticed it.

It made me instantly miss the kids inTanzania. And my nightly walks inZambia. And the precious “simpleness”that life has in rural Africa. No one isin a hurry. No one needs more stuff. People work hard. People take long lunch breaks. People enjoy the simple things in life.

They don’t take things for granted. They love deeply.

God, help me be more like that when Ireturn to America.

…………………………………………………………..

I took my last malaria pill. I felt SO much better than I did 3 days agowhen I started the pills. I’m thankfulGod cured me before my 16 hour flight to Atlanta. I really wanted to be able to sleep and eaton the plane. I thought about the 24mosquito bites I received 2 Sunday nights ago when I stayed out past dark towatch the girls sing. I wished I had runback up to my room to put on bug spray. I wished I had enjoyed their singing AND kept myself protected frommosquitos. But all I could think aboutat the time was watching the girls and telling them how beautifully they sangand how precious they were.

Because I had a mom and dad who told methat when I was a little girl. Theyloved me, encouraged me, and watched me when I sang and danced. They made me feel beautiful and precious. I want that for every little girl.

How is a girl supposed to know how muchour Father in Heaven loves us if she’s never felt important and special tosomeone on earth? How do they even tobegin to comprehend that feeling.

If I had to return and do life all overagain, I’d have put on bug spray before dinner. I wouldn’t have left while they were singing. It was too captivating to leave.

I just want all children to know how muchGod loves them. To know how importantand special they really are.

To be able to be loved and show love forHis glory.

…………………………………………………………………

I watched a few hundred (well, 3) movieson the plane. I slept too. I was against the window and there was a girlin the aisle seat. No one was in themiddle, which was wonderful. Such ablessing.

We landed in Atlanta finally and I tookmy trash to throw it away in one of the flight attendant bags. They didn’t have one, so I figured I’d throwit away in one of the trash cans on the way to customs.

There wasn’t one so I threw it away justoutside customs.

Which got me yelled at. I wasn’t allowed to throw food away in theirtrash can. I explained that it came fromthe plane, it was just empty wrappers and a still-wrapped muffin. The lady wanted me to fish it out of thetrash can, declare it on my customs forms, and throw it away aftercustoms. I looked at her like she wascrazy. Really?? Declare my airplanemuffin on the customs forms? She told methe ham in my muffin couldn’t be disposed of there. I told her my muffin didn’t have ham. It was a chocolate muffin.

Last. Time. I. Ever. Throw. Airplane.Trash. Away.

Ever.

She let me go through customs. I got asked what I did in Zambia and Tanzaniaand South Africa. I explained what Idid. The customs guy let methrough. Finally.

if you look really close you can see another airplane

I made the short trip from Atlanta toDallas. I was greeted at the airport byRyan and some beautiful Sunflowers, my fall favorite flower! They were beautiful. It is SO good to be home!

Everything is so soft and so cold and soloud and so fast.

I stared at my phone for 5 minutes tryingto remember what all the buttons did and why I was ever so attached to it.

My life is boring again now. I’ll try to keep blogging though. Something exciting is bound to happen.

The day of Shida (Problems).

2011-11-13T21:42:00.001-06:00

Wednesday

I awoke groggy on Wednesday. I took about 5 pills to get me going: oneroutine pill, 2 to stop my body from aching ALL over, and 2 more to slow downmy intestines…

I slowly started to pack. It was the easiest packing job of mylife: I was only taking home 3 dressesand a skirt. And my new T-Stars Jersey.

I left everything else for the kids.

I only wish I could have brought more toleave.

………………………………………………………………….

What started out as a trip of 3 girlsgoing to town to have a nice lunch and drop me off at the airport quickly turnedinto a huge trip of 10 people going to town for various reasons: 2 for thehospital, one to visit his sick wife (people tend to get really sick in rainyseason), 1 driver, 1 guy to fix a tire, 1 lady to direct everything, and 3girls going to town.

I was ok with lunch probably nothappening as I felt too nauseous to eat breakfast anyway.

But Stephanie reminded me I had yet tothrow up, which I was quite thankful for.

…………………………………………………………

I realized I never got to say goodbye to the girls the night before. I was too sick to move from bed and I fell asleep around 7 pm. They were already in school by the time I drug myself out of bed and drank the tea Julia ever-so-sweetly made for me.

I hate saying goodbye anyway.

I think God knocked me out because hedidn’t want to see my heart break into 1,000 pieces.

……………………………………………………….

We got near town and hit a lot oftraffic.

Which is funny because not that manypeople actually own vehicles, so traffic isn’t a normal thing. But neither is police walking around withmachine guns on their backs. Theyexplained that there were some riots in town and no one could get in or out.

Not that I really wanted to leave, but Ireally didn’t want to buy another plane ticket. I wonder if “riots in the town you’re flying out of” is an excusable reasonto miss a plane flight?

Thankfully, our driver knew the back wayaround town. We made it to the airportand I was beginning to feel much better. Stephanie made a beeline for samosas, yummy meat filled pastries. I went to see if I could get my boarding passprinted.

I was able to get a boarding pass, but Iwas forced to enter through security and passport control before I could eat asamosa.

Or say goodbye. I even had the security guard call out “goodbyeJulia!” for me, but he said no one answered him. I hoped Julia knew it was ok to leave the airport.

I made it through all security checkpointsbefore I realized I had no water to take my next round of malaria pillswith. I could buy water, except I leftthe last of my money with Julia to use. Hmmm.

I dug through my bag and found fruit snacks.I thought possibly they would make me salivate enough to swallow thepills. But actually, I discovered if Ichewed one up really well then I could throw a pill in my mouth and swallow itall. It was brilliant. Delicious. I highly recommend it if you find yourself in a similar situation.

I looked out the window and saw Logos,our vehicle! Julia and friends muststill be at the airport! I got squishyclose to the man sitting near the window so I could look out and try to see anyof my friends from JBFC so I could wave bye. I just really needed to say goodbye before I left. I felt like I might cry if I didn’t.

I saw Cha Cha and Rachel and theDriver. I knocked on the window andwaved my arms around violently, which elicited more than one crazy look fromthe airport lounge occupiers.

Finally they saw me and motioned forJulia and Stephanie to wave goodbye too. They were still waiting outside the security checkpoint hoping to passme a samosa. No luck on the samosa, butI got to wave goodbye with minimal tears in my eyes! I was so thankful for the chance to wave!

I was fed gourmet food on the plane. A coke and a “beef” sandwich with a cucumberand cheese spread on it. Better thannothing.

I have always looked through the seatpockets in planes, glancing at the airplane safety card, the sky mall magazine,the airplane sickness bag, and the airline magazine. I always wondered if anyone really had goodenough aim to actually make it in the airplane sickness bag. I mean, honestly, I sometimes have problemshitting the toilet when I’m sick, and it’s at least 4 times the size of theairplane sickness bags.

But good news friends, I can aim.

We’ll just say that I am now able tocross off one of the unofficial goals on my life “to-do” list. I felt really terrible handing my used baggieto the flight attendant. I sealed it upfor him all nicely. I don’t think he wasreally happy to grab it. But probably hewas happier than if I had missed the bag entirely.

…………………………………………………….

I made it to Dar Es Salaam, which used tobe the capitol, but now it’s Dodoma. Iwalked through the airport, dragging myself because I felt yucky. And exhausted. I took notice of all the trash cans along theway just in case. Now that I know I canaim, I need to know where my closest target is.

I was fine and made it onto the secondplane. I was served a meal offish-on-the-bone. I wasn’t feeling up toeating it anyway, but I spooned myself a scoop of orange juice everyminute. I didn’t want to hydrate myselftoo quickly and end up tasting my food again.

I made it to Johannesburg around 11 pmand grabbed a cab for my hotel. I got tothe hotel and loved it. Soft bed. Cute room. Free internet.

I fell asleep soundly and didn’t wake upuntil the wakeup call the next morning. Fabulous.

I highly recommend Life Hotel inJohannesburg. It’s close to the airportand has a free airport shuttle, which saves you about 60 dollars. It also has free breakfast.

Which I was able to eat the next dayafter 2 more rounds of malaria medicine. I had fresh fruit and granola, taking it easy because my stomach wasstill a bit uneasy.

The day I read to the preschool while fighting malaria.

2011-11-04T16:54:00.004-05:00

Tuesday

“Good morning Julius”

I went down to watch morningannouncements since I haven’t seen them yet and Julia has told me such funthings about them.

I can’t believe I missed singing thenational anthem, school song, and doing stretches with the school every morning. Precious.

There’s something special about watchinga child stand tall and proud singing their own national anthem.

I went back up to begin packing for mytrip home. I got as far as separating myclothes I’m taking home from my clean clothes I’m leaving here from my dirtyclothes I’m leaving here.

And then I felt really nauseous,reminding me I forgot to take my malaria pill last night. Eeeh, no good. But Dr. Laura gave me some coartem, so I’mcovered just in case I DO get malaria.

Having finished my project and my 800essays for INMED, I decided to begin writing my blog for the past 4 days.

I was still feeling sick so I decided totake a quick nap before lunch. Juliacame to wake me up for lunch but I still didn’t feel good so I slept. Yuck. I hope I don’t throw up. I don’twant to be sick. Dear Lord, please healme! I know you can.

Julia came to get me after lunch, and Ididn’t feel much better, but I promised to read to the preschool kids today, soI got up.

..................................................

At one time in my life I wanted to be apreschool teacher. Now is my chance!!

Ryan’s Mom found me this awesome bookabout going on a Safari in Tanzania. Ithas all the numbers in Swahili as well as animal names and Swahili kidsnames. It’s the coolest book, and shefound it even before she knew (and I knew) I was coming to Tanzania. God new though.

[look how well they're paying attention!!]

I probably butchered half of the names inSwahili, but I know I got all the numbers right. Julia took some pictures, and then I gave thebook to the pre-school teachers so they could teach the animal names and numbersin English and Swahili and have a really cool book about Tanzania to read.

And it has a map of Tanzania in theback. And the preschool teacherpronounced it “Tanz-ania” with the “an” sounding like the word “an” in the wordanimal instead of the way we pronounce it in English, which I thought was waycool.

We got the power turned on so I couldcontact the outside world and call my dad for his birthday, which wasyesterday, check on my plane flight times because it might have changed for the8^th time, send my completed project to my teacher, and post blogs.

But there was no internet again. Bummer.

I decided to take another nap since Istill felt terrible and I was exhausted!

I slept until the children got out ofschool.

I only got up because it’s really hard tosleep through 200 children running around outside.

Julia was making what sounded like adelicious dish: chicken and banana curry. I was looking forward to it.

Before I felt nauseous all day.

But, as I hadn’t eaten anything all day,I walked up to the big yellow house with the intention of helping her. Really all I did was eat a fresh-baked pieceof bread and lay down on the couch.

I decided I should just go to sleep. And that I should just take the malariamedicine I have. It feels likemalaria. Probably.

…………………………………………………..

I asked Julia to wake me up in 8 hoursbecause that’s how you take all 8 pills on the first day: 4 now and 4 in 8hours.

I vaguely heard a movie playing in theother room. I didn’t think that was asymptom of malaria…

……………………………………………………

I woke up in a panic at 1 am because Ithought I had overslept and not taken the medicine. Really, I didn’t need to take it until 4am. I went back to bed.

…………………………………………………..

I heard Julia’s phone alarm go off so Igrabbed the medicine and started popping the 4 pills out of the foilpackaging.

Julia told me it was only 3:15, that shehad just gotten a text message from Chris, the director of JBFC who iscurrently in America. Likely he sent itearlier and it just took that long to get to Africa because he’s not superrude.

But he woke me up anyway.

…………………………………………………………..

Finally, after what feels like foreverJulia’s phone alarm went off. I took themedicine and had trouble going back to bed.

The day we all dressed up our faces for Halloween!

2011-11-03T09:02:00.000-05:00

Monday

Julia was all bright and perky thismorning. I was grumpy which I blame ongetting woken up by the tortured donkey this morning and sleeping in a regularbed again.

She brought me coffee before she left forschool which put me back in a better mood. I wasn’t sure what to wear, so I decided I’d go to the bathroom and putoff my clothing decision making.

I ran into Stephanie in the bathroom whowas painting her face in the mirror. Shewas dressed in a black tank top, orange undershirt, and green and orangeskirt. Very appropriate for Halloween!

Why didn’t I think about packing aHalloween outfit a month and a half ago when I was packing?

She told me I could wear her SaintsJersey for the day, which made me happy. Then she painted my face and put gold glitter on it, which made me evenhappier.

I looked a bit silly in my oversizedJersey and skirt. I’m not sure the NFLdesigned their jerseys to be worn with huge skirts.

……………………………………………………………….

Being 2 paragraphs away from completingmy master’s project, I was looking for a way to put it off again, which wasperfect because Stephanie was looking for an art assistant!

She had a lofty goal: paint all 200 facesat JBFC School for Halloween!

And hand each kid a piece of candy.

We painted half a millionbutterflies. And a handful of stars andhearts (or “love” as they call the shape) and flowers.

The kids LOVED it!

We took lots of pictures:

……………………………………………………………………

For dinner tonight, we decided to makepizza. Our cookbook, the Joy of Cooking,had a good recipe for pizza crust.

Unfortunately, we’re out of yeast, anddidn’t have an hour to wait, so we returned to our old favorite: tortillacrust!

We made 3 portions and rolled them outtwice as thick as a tortilla. Then wecooked it for about 13 minutes. Then weadded Julia’s homemade tomato sauce, then freshly grated cheese.

Cook for another 10 minutes….andPerfection!! To make the meal worthy ofHalloween, we tried to add our onion and garlic topping in the shape of abat. Ryan would be so proud!

The internet didn’t work, so I couldn’tcall my dad and wish him a Happy Birthday :( Big bummer. So, happy belated birthday Dad!!

I also couldn’t send in my now-completedrough draft of my master’s project. Lesssad.

The day we weren’t woken up by a donkey or children.

2011-11-03T02:57:00.000-05:00

Sunday

I awoke to glitter surrounding mypillow. I vaguely remembered beingpromised a bonfire last night, but we all fell asleep before thathappened. Which was probably morenecessary.

I felt incredibly well rested andremember praising the Lord for soft pillows and a large king-sized bed.

And for no donkeys at Tunza.

I looked at my clock, since I was thefirst person up. I love waking up and then realizing it’s not time to wake upand then getting to go back to sleep.

I decided since it was 10:30, I shouldget up for the day. I got dressed andleft Julia and Stephanie a note. I tookmy camera and went for a walk on the beach.

[beach in the morning]

I stopped by the bar for somecoffee. I specifically asked fornon-instant coffee and the man looked at me like I was crazy and walked me tothe coffee bar. He heated up the water,and I mixed myself instant coffee. Atleast they had sugar and drinking chocolate and cold milk to add to it.

I can’t wait to drink real coffee on aconsistent basis.

………………………………………………………

[The rain that almost spoiled our beachparty]

[tree house climbing!]

Beach party. With our new friends and Dr.Laura. She’s not really a doctor, she’sactually a PA spending a year abroad doing medical mission work, because shewas tired of living in New York and working in Neurosurgery and she wanted achange. She was working in Sudan for thefirst six months before the violence got bad and they evacuated her, so now she’sjust traveling around East Africa. Stephanie’s got lots of crazy stories about Dr. Laura because she spentthe night out on the farm at Buhongwa last weekend before we got out to thefarm. She’s quite the character, but sheearned the nickname Dr. and I guess I have too.

[Dr. Laura, Major, Jacques, andJulia. Notice the slip and slide behindthem]

We finally left Tunza because our busdriver arrived 3 hours after we called him. Which wasn’t bad, I guess considering, it’s an hour drive to Tunza fromJBFC and Jacques offered to buy us all drinks.

[Swarms of bugs]

On the way home Cha Cha (the snakekiller) bought us some corn that was cooked over coals. It was delicious.

[eating roadside corn that tasted likepopcorn]

[Sprite, Desani, Coke, Pepsi, and Fantaare all over the place here]

I love that there are rocks all along theside of the road that look like they would have fallen from a huge mountain,but there aren’t any huge mountains here. Chris said some geologist came one time and told him that there used tobe huge mountains here before the Earth’s plates shifted and now there are nomountains.

Which I take to be true because the “Weall went on Safari” Tanzania book said there used to be volcanoes here biggerthan Mount Kilimanjaro but they fell down and now there are craters.

[Rocks along the road]

………………………………………………….

[Eating pillou for dinner with Setti andSalome]

[What I found on my arm afterdinner. From my bug spray mixing withthe paint of my water bottle. Classy]

The day we were Peace, Love, and Ninjas.

2011-11-03T02:44:00.001-05:00

Saturday

We awoke at 8 because we planned to leaveat 9. We really knew that meant wewouldn’t leave until after 10, but we were ready to leave on time, and that’swhat counts.

We wanted to pack light because we had alot of stops to make. We packed for aHalloween party, an overnight stay, and a swim on the beach.

We ate a breakfast burrito and had realcoffee for breakfast. Which is myfavorite way to start a Saturday. Wewere pretending that tomatoes and onions and “hot sauce flavoring” counted assalsa and that the eggs here taste normal. And that our tortillas weren’t reheated.

All things considered, breakfast wasdelicious.

We wrote post cards while we waited for thebus driver to pick us up for the day.

He was only an hour and a half late, sojudging by last Saturday when he was 3 hours late, we call that a success.

…………………………………………………

First stop in town was U turn. We had very important items to purchace suchas raisins, chicken, cheese, and Skyy.

I was in charge of getting us from U turnto the Post office even though I’ve only spent one day in Mwanza before, and Iwas on the verge of sleep-loss induced delirium at that point.

I almost got us there, but made onecrucial mis-turn at the stoplight. Thankfully, our driver found someone on the street to give usdirections.

Twice.

And finally we found it! I was in charge of putting the mail in theslot while Julia walked over to buy us burgers. They were delicious and came with chips for only 2 USD!

I’m not sure if the chips were goodbecause some boys on the street asked for money and food and saw us eating ourburgers. Julia gave up her chips butthey wanted ours too. So Stephanie and Ifollowed her lead.

It was for the best, they would have gonestraight to our hips anyway.

Julia said that she can’t give everythingshe has to everyone, but God told her to give up her possessions if possiblewhen people ask. Which was a good way tothink about our food.

…………………………………………………………………

We made it to the market with noproblems. Julia, in broken Swahili, toldour driver that we would be at the market a long time so he should gohome. We would find a cab ride from the marketto Tunza because we were told it would only cost 5 USD, and I’m pretty skilledat catching cab now.

We bought plenty of crafts, some new jeansfor Julia, and fresh, delicious fruit at the market!

Our driver, that we thought we sent home2 hours ago, found us just as we finished purchasing everything.

Good thing we didn’t hire a piki-piki(motorcycle) to take us to Tunza yet!

We’re thankful God led him to us beforewe left the market!

………………………………………………………..

We made our way on a bumpy dirt road to Tunza,which is Swahhili for “a place to stay.”

We got to our room and changed intobathing suits and cover-ups. We foundyet another use for the konga/chitengue fabric. We got some delicious (cold!) drinks at the bar: PINEAPPLE FANTA!! Mega good. And some other pineapple coconut soda that was equally as good.

[our bungalow and our cold sodas!]

We walked out to the lake and walked outonto the dock, being careful to avoid all the broken boards. On the way to the end of the dock, tons of Tanzanianguys offered to swim with us. No,thanks. I just straightened my hair formy costume, and there’s no way I’m getting it wet on purpose.

And Stephanie pretended to be afraid ofthe water. Who knows, there could havebeen sharks in the lake.

Julia decided to go for a swim. Stephanie and I just soaked our feet. It wasfabulous!

We walked by the bar on our way back andgot more soda. After not drinking anythingcold for 2 weeks we were really excited about drinking chilled soda!

We also ordered samosas: beef andvegetable filled fried tortillas in a triangle shape. They’re amazing.

We sat on the porch of our bungalow sippingcold sodas, waiting for our samosas, and watching the sunset!

[the porch of our bungalow]

[the sunset on the beach of LakeVictoria]

After watching the sun set we decided to checkon our samosas, which were supposed to be brought to our room. We found our waiter and decided to go aheadand order dinner. We each got somethingdifferent, and we were excited about food we didn’t have to cook and that wasn’trice and beans!

Our samosas finally showed up about anhour after ordering them. We sat on theside of the beach watching the waves roll in until big wolf-like dogsencouraged us to move under the protection of the bar’s roof. We sat at a tall table for another hourwaiting on our food. It was gettingclose to 8pm at this point, which is pretty late for dinner.

Especially if you know how grumpy I getwithout food.

Apparently Julia does too.

Which left Stephanie, who wasn’t grumpy,to tell us stories of her young adult-hood.

Even her hilarious stories weren’t enoughto put us back in a good mood.

We finally got dinner and ate in recordtime. Even I finished quickly because Iwas so hungry. Stephanie spoke with Jan,the owner of Tunza, and he told us we only had 15 minutes to get ready beforewe left for the Halloween party. Stephanie negotiated for 20 minutes and we ran to our bungalow to getready!

………………………………………………………………

[Dressing up]

Peace. Love. Ninjas? Now.

We were going to be Peace. Love. Tunza(which has a really nice ring to it if you ask me) when the party was at Tunza, but theparty got relocated to the Yacht Club because Jan didn’t want to have a partythat competed with them and we couldn’t come up with anything cooler thanNinjas.

[the finished costumes, which aredecently appropriate in American culture]

Where did you get those colorful tanktops underneath your black ones? Honalie asked.

“Oh, they’re just bras.” Thanks Julia.

[Our new friend Chad, Honalie’s son, who’sabout 8 years old]

I feel like every kid wanted to cut holesin a white sheet and be a ghost when they were little.

We didn’t get a picture of Dr. Laura andher friend, but they decided to be Greek Godesses…and we were super thankful wehad a last minute change of costume.

Maybe they don’t live with any Masai.

…………………………………………………………..

We left Tunza as a big group. We walked by some ladies that said “HappyHalloween” and then “Oh My God” before we were out of earshot.

And we thought our costumes weren’t that ridiculous.

Maybe not.

We hopped in the back of Jan’s truck withChad for the ride across town.

[Riding across town in the back of apickup truck]

We arrived to a huge display of tents andlights and decorations. We thought itwas our Halloween party, but when we kept walking through we realized we werereally just walking through a wedding party.

Uninvited.

Then we entered the Mwanza Yacht Club.

Which was having a Halloween fundraisingevent. Good thing we’re still supportingthings with our partying. We found out themoney was going to support the Yacht Club because they only have 2 boats. Interesting. Lame.

Tunza has New Moon parties every othermonth and they give all the money to JBFC Children’s Home and School! Way cooler. Jan, who I realize I talk about a lot in this blog post, is a legitSouth African. He was trained to be atracker in the Apartheid movement, which means he can look at your feet anddecide exactly where you are. Which isdecently frightening.

Somehow, he moved to Mwanza and opened upa beach resort called Tunza. And somehowhe became friends with Chris, the founder of JBFC, so we’re treated likecelebrities when we go to Tunza, which is pretty cool. Well, not celebrities exactly, but themanagement is super nice to us.

We were one of the 10 people dressedup. Chad and the Greek Godesses that camewith us were also dressed up. There werea few others, but most people just looked boring. There was a group of nurses and doctorswearing their uniforms, and there were about 20 of them.

They ended up winning the costumecontest. Wearing your work uniform isnot a costume. Way lame.

So, we lost a rigged costumecontest. And then raffle.

And there was no dancing. The party was starting to get really lame.

And then we went to the bathroom.

[Using the squatty potties we lookdifferent sizes, but that’s just an optical illusion]

I gotta get better at aiming.

………………………………………………………..

Dr. Laura complained to the managementabout us not even being considered for the costume contest, even though we werelegitimately wearing costumes and they weren’t.

She was able to swing us all free shotsof Tequila as a consolation prize.

Why do we keep thinking Tequila in Africais decent? Because they were out of rum.

Which was still a respectable consolationprize.

……………………………………………………..

The manager was a guy from Ireland, and heknew Jan pretty well (who decided on a shot of Jack Daniel’s instead ofTequila, very smart move)

Somehow, Jan got the Irish guy to sing.

So now I can say we got serenaded by anIrish man.

Which was pretty legit. Very similar tothe movie P.S. I love You if you’veseen it.

……………………………………………………………..

Honalie decided it was time for her andChad to go home around midnight, and even though Dr. Laura was trying to convinceus to stay out, we thought it was a good idea to stick with Jan.

Plus, Jan promised us a beach bonfire foran after-party, which we thought would be way more fun then drinking more atthe Yacht club.

When we got back to Tunza and we werebought drinks by Major’s Dad, which Jan convinced us we needed.

I’m not too sure who Major is, but Juliaand Stephanie tell me he is legit, and Jan tells us his dad is a talker, so Janpromised to escort us to our room shortly after finishing our drinks.

And I’m about to do anything Jan saysbecause if I don’t, he can track my feet and kill me.

Jan told us to wait about 10 minutes forMajor’s Dad to go to bed before we start a beach bonfire after party.

The day I finished my project.

2011-11-03T02:32:00.004-05:00

Friday

Julia rolled out of bed at 5:15 to catchthe bus route.

Turns out when 3 girls have to sleep atJFBC because they missed the bus because they were too scared to get on the busbecause the driver almost killed someone on the way to school, we have aproblem.

So she rode the bus this morning toplacate parents and ensure safety.

Being the sweet roommates we are, we hadhot water waiting for her when she got home.

All was fine on the bus.

But we’re thinking maybe that’s justbecause Julia was there.

We’re having one of the teachers whorides the bus on the way home snitch on the driver this afternoon…

…………………………………………………………………….

Then we said goodbye to Jonas who isleaving for his very first plane ride as a 14 year old. Baller.

If you’re going to fly out of an airportfor the first time ever by yourself, Mwanza airport is a good one to flyfrom. It’s tiny.

We sent him off with a card (Safari NjemaJonas!) and raisins and almonds and fruit snacks and a new pen and a plasticbaggie. Just in case.

He was TOO excited!!

[picture of Jonas with his bag in hand!]

…………………………………………………………………

Swahili lesson for the morning:

Na Penda (thing) = like that thing, Napanda (person)= love that person.

Nina Penda= the correct version thatpeople are too lazy to say.

………………………………………………………….

Made my day:

Stephanie and the preschoolers walking ona field trip. I stopped typing (I hadbeen going for 3 solid hours, I deserved a break!) and took a picture. ThenStephanie had them say, “Good morning Dr. Shannon”

Yay!

[picture]

Even though I’m not a doctor. They all know I’m a PA, but they prefer tostill call me Dr. Shannon. I tried.

…………………………………………………………………

Swahili lesson for the afternoon:

Sefara?=Zero. It’s an important number, but noone includes it when they count to 10.

Paka cat

Mbwa dog

Nakupenda= I like you.

…………………………………………………………………..

1:15 pm: first project done. After 1.5 months. Now to finish the other one in 3 hours. (tobe fair, I’ve already done all the calculations and the GATE worksheet, I justneed to type it all up…)

And Go!

…………………………………………………………..

Stephanie’s bug project: left shirts outto dry overnight and collected a shirt full of ants, a handful of spiders, anda lizard just for good measure. He wasprobably just trying to feast on the other bugs.

…………………………………………………………

As I describe the External Validity of mysecond paper for my Evidence Based Medicine Project, I hear Jackie (theAdministrative Director of JFBC) and “Maggie-Bay” (that’s how his name ispronounced, I’ve got no idea how it’s actually spelt) laying the smack down onthe nurse. Too bad it was in Swahili.

Aparantly, in Swahili this morning (whichis why Julia didn’t tell me earlier) she slandered the school’s name all overthe school bus. And Maggie-bay heard hersince he was riding with Julia on the bus.

I wonder if she’s still going to spy onthe bus driver for us??

………………………………………………………..

“Did the temperature just drop like 80degrees?”

Maybe that means it’s about to rain?

“Probably a good prognostic factor.”

Shoot.

Someone’s been working WAY too long onher Evidence Based Medicine project today…

……………………………………………………………

It actually does start raining a fewminutes later, moving the Swahili Smackdown meeting inside our living room,forcing me to retreat to my bedroom to work on my project.

The only place to sit in my bedroom is onmy bed.

Under my mosquito net.

To the sound of rain falling on the tinroof.

If I manage to finish my project withoutfalling asleep then it’s by the good grace of God. The temptation to sleep is almost too much tofight…

…………………………………………………………………

Dinner was a delicious assortment ofchicken tacos. I made tortillas again (I’mgetting good at it, but this time Stephanie and I switched places ensuring thatwe could replicate the entire process at home!)

Then we had wine and chocolate for desert. This trip has redeamed my feelings for Redboxed wine, I can finally look forward to drinking a glass!

Then Stephanie told us the story of “WhenChris rolled over Stephanie’s foot.”

We almost couldn’t breathe we werelaughing so hard! Stephanie is not onlytalented at teaching children art, but also recalling and telling stories!

………………………………………………………..

So, what are the chances the library willlet me access it from Tanzania.

Apparently, it’s a go. Thank you Lord!!

Now if I could only remember my Ovidusername and password…

The day I gave all the kids pipi!

2011-10-28T15:39:00.004-05:00

Thursday

[How cute is this kid?!]

We awoke to rain this morning (which isthe first time any of us have done that since being in Africa) when the donkeysscreamed, telling us it was time to wake up. My bed always feels extra cozy on rainy mornings, so I just rolled overas Julia got ready for work. She grabbedher umbrella before leaving.

Then she came back to grab a jacket.

Apparently it’s going to be cold, rainyday.

I got dressed and had oatmeal withStephanie. She’s super thankful thismorning that art classes don’t start until 10 am.

I debate walking down to get chi, becausewarm tea sounds fabulous on a day like today, but getting wet just doesn’treally seem worth it.

Julia returns from work to eat oatmealand offers me some chi she has here. Problem solved! I get to stay dry and drink chi while working on myproject!

…………………………………………………………..

The rain stopped around 10 am. Julia walks back in and we start to discussstrategy for the weekend.

When you only can drive to the town witha grocery store in it every other week,you have to make very careful plans for everything.

We discussed our strategy: drive to thehotel, check in, drive to the paint store, order paint, drive to the grocerystore, pick up groceries, then back to the paint store to pick up paint, thenhave the driver take everything home while he drops us off at the market and weshop for things at the market.

Julia’s getting really good atplans. She also devised plan to get herhouse ready asap without asking specifically for it. She had Jackie, who “knows the languagebetter” ask for her. That’s the way youhave to do things around here.

………………………………………………………..

Julia’s drunk.

At least that’s what she’s been tellingpeople for the past month.

She thought when two vowels were next toeach other, they make 1 sound like in English. But in Swahili, they make 2 distinct sounds.

She’s been meaning to say “Naelewa (Iunderstand)” but has been saying “Nalewah (I’m drunk)”

Incidentally, Naolewa = I’m gettingmarried, so if I had been off by a letter in the other direction we would haveall been fine.

……………………………………………………..

Julia walked into the 5^thgrade room to drop off some forms, and the teacher was teaching a sciencelesson. Julia had just been typing upthe 5^th grade science curriculum and had just finished the digestivesystem. She glanced down at the sciencebook on the teacher’s desk and briefly saw a cross section of a human with whatlooked like organs inside.

She said to the class, “Oh, you’restudying the digestive system.”

The teacher corrected her, “No, we’restudying sexual reproduction.”

Julia glanced back down at the crosssection of the human, and realized it was a human male with all the anatomicalparts outlined and identified for the reproductive system.

She walked out, blushing, of a room oflaughing 5^th graders.

………………………………………………………..

Julia and I decided to walk to the bighouse (where Chris and his 4 sons live) for internet.

“Hodi (think Howdy without the withoutthe W and just a long O)” we call out. Because that’s how you politely entersomeone else’s house.

“Karibu (welcome)” the housekeepercalled.

After working on my project for a longtime, I excused myself to the restroom.

Where I found boxers hanging from theshower curtain rod.

Living with boys. Boxers hanging from the bathroom.

I guess this is what I have to lookforward to ;)

………………………………………………………….

Guess what’s for lunch?

You guessed it! Ugale and beans! Again!

I just have to keep reminding myself, “bethankful the kids are getting fed…” Imay never eat cornmeal and plain baked beans again.

……………………………………………………………..

Julia gets a text from Chris and Kayci,who have taken 2 kids, a girl and a boy, to America for the first time. They are currently still in transit, but havemade it to an airport big enough to have “moving sidewalks.”

The kids have never seen anything likethat before and jumped around on them, clearly in love.

We would LOVE to be there as the kidsexperience these new things. We onlywonder what they’ll think of New York City, their first destination in America.

Although, Julia is tired of using her oldgeneration phone (the kind without a keyboard or T9Word option) to textChris. The entire conversation about thekids took about 30 minutes to type via phone, when it just took me less than 1minute to explain it to you.

Welcome to Africa.

……………………………………………………………….

This afternoon, we met the kids at schooland spread the word: Shannon is giving you a check up after school and haspresents for each kid!

The best way to ensure you get kids to goto the doctor: give them a present after their check-up.

[small line]

I did a basic physical minus an otoscope/ophthalmoscope. But pretty much everything else.

[Yonga is 4. Does she look skeptical, or is it just me?]

[physical exam]

Each kid got a bar of soap (thanks Dr.Jones!) and a new toothbrush (Thanks Mom!) and a piece of pipi.

Which is Swahili for candy.

[treats]

Exams on 40 kids took me a fewhours. At the end, some kids wanted tolisten to their heartbeat. I showed themwhat it sounds like, then I let them listen to my heart and their heart. The faces on the kids were priceless!

[Can I steal her?! Look at that smile!]

[Stephanie and Seti watching heartbeats]

……………………………………………………………………….

For dinner, we made guacamole (yum!) andquesadillas from scratch! We shreddedthe cheese from U-turn and rolled out and fried dough to make tortillas! We found some tortilla chips the Chris andKayci left open, and since they would be bad before they returned, wecommandeered them for our meal. It wasSO delicious.

Tortilla Recipe-from the Joy of cookingcookbook (so I don’t forget):

1tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

2 cups flower (I used wheat flower,delicious!)

¼ cup margarine (Blue Band brand inTanzania although you could use Crisco in America)

Add ¾ cup hot water (110-130 degrees, Idid boiling)

Mix dough for 6 ish minutes, roll to 8balls and let sit 20 min.

[dough balls]

Roll out balls to 6 inch tortillas, fryin olive oil coating the bottom of the pan.

[rolling out dough]

[frying dough; Danny makes the best helper!]

Deliciousness!!

[eating the cheese coated dough]

P.S. Ryan, we’re registering for arolling pin now :)

The day we chewed 1,000 times.

2011-10-27T12:22:00.000-05:00

Wednesday

Poor Julia.

She runs off to school while I get upslowly each morning. Today I showered (Idon’t shower every day here because of all the trouble it takes, but I get quitea bit dirtier here than I do America). One of the busses broke down, so we were short about 30 kids and 3teachers.

Good thing she’s got a roommate who’slooking for a new way to put off working on her project for school!

I got super excited because Juliapromised me I could read the kids this super cool counting book that Ryan’s momfound. It counts in Swahili and talksabout all the animals in Tanzania and calls them by their Swahili names. It’s probably the coolest thing I brought onmy trip!

I also got pretty excited about teachingthe kids science, since it’s my favorite subject and the kids all think I’m adoctor (they know I’m not, but again, there’s no word for PA in theirlanguage).

I was flipping through the 3^rdgrade science book the other day and I learned so much: methods of HIV/AIDStransmission (they conveniently left out the big one), that you should let your underwear soak for20 minutes in wash water before rinsing it out, then you should iron everything.

Guess I’m not smarter than a Tanzanian 3^rdgrader.

And I’m walking around wearing dirtyunderwear since I only let mine soak for 5 minutes before rinsing them…

Just as I’m walking to school with mybook, belly full of oatmeal from the guest house and chi from the kitchen, thelost bus pulls up. It’s supposed to holdabout 15 people, but it’s carrying about 30 kids and our missing 3 teachers.

And a few loaves of bread, which thechildren chase down the bus for.

Guess I’m going to work on my projecttoday after all.

But first, I walked with a sweet girlnamed Veneranda who walks with the assistance of a cane. All the other kids ran after the bread andshe looked unsure if she should go after some too. After confirming that she did want bread, Iasked if I could walk with her. Shesmiled and said yes. Awesome!

I learned that she wants to be a “sister”when she grows up, but I’m not really sure what that means in thiscontext. She’s in grade 3 and she likesart class.

Although, all the kids leave art classcovered in glitter, so I’m pretty sure they all like art class.

After walking with her to get bread andback to her classroom, I returned to work on my project. I got about 30 minutes in when I got boredand remembered I promised Julia I would do laundry today. I’m out of clean shirts and skirts, so Ireally actually needed to do laundry.

It looked like rain, so I wasn’t sureabout washing, but I figured if it did rain I my clothes would just get rinsedby rain water, which I guessed is just as clean as what comes out of the taphere (that smells like the lake).

And I’d be sure to soak my underwear for20 minutes this time…

After finishing, I went back andsuccessfully worked on my project for the rest of the morning, and got partlydone with my second paper analysis. Thank you Jesus!!

…………………………………………………………

So, this weekend Julia, Stephanie and Iare planning a girls weekend in Mwanza. Chris, the guy who owns the Children’s home, has a friend Jan whojointly owns the farm in B?? that we stayed at last weekend. Jan also owns a hotel in Mwanza calledTunza. They’re having a Halloween partythis weekend and we’re going to stay the night in a beach-front bungalow onLake Victoria.

So, it’s always a challenge to find aHalloween costume in America that’s creative and fun but not really expensiveor really skimpy. But at least inAmerica you have endless supplies at your fingertips.

We don’t have that here.

Stephanie, being the creative Art teachershe is, decided we should be butterflies. We all, coincidentally, have black leggings and black tank tops. We were going to fashion some wings out ofKonga (basically 2 yards of bright fabric) stretched between thick, shapedwire.

Which sounds like fun, but the wire wehave is actually extra barbed wire from a fence project and I wasn’t tooexcited about Julia’s idea to just cut off all the barbs.

So we nixed the butterfly idea.

We floated through a series of costumeideas and decided on Greek goddesses. Weall have white bed sheets that we can make into togas. Stephanie had the kids make hair wreaththings a week or two ago, and we can use that for our hair. We rummaged through things until we foundrope to tie around our waists! And Stephanie has face paint that she’s determinedto use!

[kids with head wreaths that look slightly Greek goddess ish]

Perfect, we thought.

Then we noticed how many people here walkaround in similar outfits (long cloth wrapped around them). We thought that maybe since the Masai walkaround in basically cloth attached to them with a belt, we might appear to bemaking fun of them if all we wore was a bed sheet wrapped around us attached bya belt for Haloween.

So, the toga idea was also nixed.

Because no one is brave enough to messwith the Masai.

Stephanie has a wide array of tie-diedclothing with her. She’s got a longstory behind it, basically ending in that’s what she could find when she wentshopping. She was running in a tie-diedKonga one day (because you have to always wear a skirt here, even when running)and it ripped. So now we have 2 yards oftie die material at our fingertips. Shethought it would be fabulous to be hippies from the 70s. I’m not sure if the 70s hit East Africa likethey did in America, but at the very least, we’ll be bright, colorful, andmatching, which should be fun.

Assuming this idea sticks.

…………………………………………………………

I’ve acquired a new skill.

I’ve learned to speak Swahili. Fluently.

Only, I can’t do it when I’m awake. According to Julia, she heard me say “Karibu!(Welcome)” last night in the middle of the night.

Now if I could just channel thosethoughts in the daytime, I’ll be set!

……………………………………………………………

Jonas is Chris’s 2^nd oldestadopted son. His oldest, Seleh, is inAmerica ringing the Liberty Bell and raising money to keep the Children’s homeand school running.

Jonas recently read “Where the Red FernGrows.” Classic young adult book. But a difficult one for a kid who’s 3^rdlanguage is English.

Being the good student he is, he kept ajournal with all the new words he came across and he gets visitors to translatethem periodically.

While I was pulling my laundry off theline to fold it, I helped him translate some words to Swahili. I would compare it to playing the game Taboo.

I’m decently stellar at the gameTaboo. Ryan can vouch for me. I was really excited to play this new,Swahili version with Jonas.

You have a word that you have to describeto your teammate, only there’s a bunch of words you can’t use (only the words Ican’t use aren’t written out for me, they’re just words Jonas also doesn’tknow).

For instance, translate the wordeerie: I tried to use spooky.

Buzz.

Then creepy. Also Buzz.

How about scary. Yes! We have a winner! We can move on to a new card.

Some of the words were kinda hard, in theway that they could mean two different things. Like the word “winged.” It couldbe used to describe a bird or an aircraft, as a winged object. Or it could be used to talk about how we hadno idea what to make for dinner, but we walked into the kitchen, grabbed somesupplies, and winged it, or came up with something on the spot.

I gave him both translations. I didn’t have the word in context.

Other words on the list: Kernels,superstition, screech, apron, liquor, and my personal favorite “snort.”

I asked Jonas what sound chickens made inSwahili. Because I remember from Spanishclass some animals make different noises in Spanish than in English. But chickens make the same noise in Englishand in Swahili. So I figured pigsprobably do too. I told him sometimes inAmerica pigs make the noise “oink” and sometimes they snort.

It’s like when you pull air through yournose and make a noise. That’s asnort. I didn’t tell him about thetranslation for snort that people do with drugs. I figured that wasn’t what they meant whenthey used the word snort in “Where the Red Fern Grows.”

…………………………………………………………………

Last night, when Julia woke up in themiddle of the night to charge her computer. I really still don’t know why, but apparently it worked.

I got up to go potty, like a normal personmight do in the middle of the night.

The lights were on when I walked throughour living room to the community bathroom. I flipped the switch to turn on the single light in the entire bathroom,and instantly all the lights in the house turned off.

Nice move.

We flipped a series of light switches,and it seems I turned out all the lights in the house, permanently. No problem, we’ll just go to bed and fix ourpower issues tomorrow.

Now, switch the scene to tonight. Julia and I both remember back to last nightwhen we flipped I flipped all the lights off unintentionally. Julia gets the bright idea to reset thebreaker box.

And suddenly we have lights again, but nomain bathroom light, which is a problem because Julia wants to take ashower. She flips on the bathroom light,which throws all the lights off.

We go back to the breaker box to reset itagain, but it won’t reset. Julia (who isthe only one that can reach the breaker box, they practically put it on theceiling here) can’t flip the switch up.

I looked and Julia had the bathroom lightswitch in the on position. She thoughtthat if she left it on, she could trick the lights into all being on when shereset the breaker box. But I explainedthat the breaker box wouldn’t reset with that light on because that’s what isthrowing off all the lights in the first place.

Not that I know much about electricity,but I’ve had to flip a few breaker box switches back in the day when Ilifeguarded so I figured that’s how they worked in Africa.

Turns out, when we flipped the bathroomlight switch down, we had no problem turning on all the other lights in thehouse. We tried unsuccessfully to getsome of the lights in the bathroom stalls and showers to work, but we couldonly get the lights to work in the showers that didn’t drain or didn’t havecold water. So Julia opted for a warmshower in the dark stall that has no door.

It’s funny though, this shower feels tentimes more refreshing than the showers I take in America. Probably, I figure, since I get ten timesdirtier here.

…………………………………………………………………..

We ate dinner with the kids tonight. We heard that it was probably not rice andbeans, that it might be potatoes and bananas and that sounded fabulous to me.

It turned out to be Ugale (cornmealmush), beans, and meat. Ok, notUgale/rice and beans, but close. Still,the meat added a new flavor and I was pretty thankful for that.

Until I bit into the meat.

Whoever came up with the saying “chewyour food 28 times before swallowing,” has never had African meat. Across the board, I’ve not had meat here thatyou can swallow without chewing at least 100 times.

I chewed so long that the meat lost mostof its flavor, which was only decent to begin with. I looked around.

I wasn’t the only American sitting in theroom that was chewing over and over again seemingly unsuccessfully. I was thankful I had only put a small chunkof meat on my plate.

I’m grateful the kids get meat sometimes,and in the future I’ll be happy to let them have it all. When I first got here, I thought I had tofinish all the food on my plate whether I liked it or not. After all, these kids once were the “starvingchildren in Africa” our mothers always told us about.

But Julia and Stephanie let me in on agreat way to ensure there are less hungry kids in the world. You tell the children “karibu (welcome)” andhand them your plate. They dive at itand finish it off, then they fight over who gets to take it to the sink foryou.

Perfect.

Except that my mouth felt all waxy whenwe finished dinner. That’s funny. I asked Julia, who again, is like my personalguide to all things Tanzanian, and she told me it was fat.

From the meat.

Wince. Eeew.

Needless to say, I finished off the lastof the bag of Chocolate Covered Sunshine (Raisinettes) I brought with me to getthe taste out of my mouth.

But realistically, I had to finish thembefore the mouse got to them, so it worked out wonderfully!

……………………………………………………………..

So, headlamps are generally great. I was kinda bummed that I left mine inZambia, but I guess God knows better than I do. While walking home from dinner, I used Julia’s headlamp, and just for agood time, I put it on my head.

And then ate a bug.

Bad idea. The headlamp was promptly removed from my head and the swarm of bugsfollowed suit. Thankfully.

…………………………………………………………

While we charged our computers and workedthat evening, Chris’s sons watched The Polar Express.

It’s officially October 26^thand I foolishly thought I might make it all the way to mid-November this yearwithout hearing Christmas music. Usually, my friend Diana is the first one to get me to listen toChristmas music, either with a mixed CD or in her car. But someone beat her to it this year.

I think it was worth it, just to seeChris’s youngest son, Danny (who doesn’t know his real age because he was foundwith no parents or birth certificate or anything), but we guess he’s around 8,sit straight up the entire time, eyes wide, staring at the movie. Everything he does is “the best thing ever.”

Seriously, this kid couldn’t stop saying“Asante Sana (thank you so much)” when we let him grate our cheese the otherday. Like grating cheese for someone issomething special.

I found myself thanking God that he madeeach child to be something special.

………………………………………………………………….

The day I drank porridge for breakfast.

2011-10-25T21:30:00.000-05:00

Tuesday

I walked down to get my usual Chi for breakfastand they had cups sitting out that were filled with white liquid.

Neat, I thought! A new flavor chi! Maybe with milk! How fun!

But really, it wasn’t chi, it wasporridge. A thick, mixture with a tastelike blended oatmeal (well, it tasted like cornmeal if you know what thattastes like). I could only imagine I wasdrinking Ugale (which is what we had for lunch incidentally, morecornmeal…mmmm!)

I’ve decided that while sugar and cornmealis a hearty breakfast, I’d prefer the regular Simba (which means lion inSwahili-turns out those guys who wrote The Lion King got something right) chitea with the plain bread for breakfast.

But the kids seemed to like it, which isgood.

I ate my porridge with Martha, one of thetiniest girls ever. She reminded me ofsweet Evet at Harvest Children’s Home in Cameroon. She would not let go of my hand. Even when it was time for class, so I walkedher to the pre-school room.

I returned to work on my project forschool (It hasn’t been successful at finishing itself, so I suppose I shouldwork on it) and found Stephanie and Jackie (one of the Tanzanian women whohelps run JBFC Children’s Home and School) in an argument over the waterfilters.

We had just begun to filter wateryesterday because we have no more blue “sparklettes” style water pitchers andwe need water to survive. The waterfilters were labeled JBFC and we thought they were for guests to use since theywere in the guest house.

Turns out one belonged to someone else,and he came back for it today. Convenient. I cleaned them bothout after mildly successfully dumping the filtered water into a new jug andwent to read.

Which turned into a nap. I’m really being productive so far today. When I woke up one of the filters was gone,and one was left for us. Thankfully,they left us the non-broken one.

Thanks for watching out for us God!

Also while I was sleeping Chris and Kayciand the 2 kids left for their flight out of Mwanza. They were planning to leave tomorrow, butwhen you try to buy a last minute ticket for 4 people, that’s what you get Iguess.

They abandoned our water jugs because thecar was full of luggage.

Good thing we’re not thirsty for waterthat tastes good.

I’m ready to be back in America when miceeat Julia and I’s cookies. She threwaway the rest of the package of cookies (thankfully it was only 4) and the catate the rest. Seriously, yuck.

Also yuck:

I was on the porch of the big house(where Chris and his 4 boys live and Kayci has a room too) minding my ownbusiness while I worked on my project for school when a stick lookingcatipillar inched towards me. I callJonas, one of Chris’s adopted boys, over and he starts to pick it up and get itaway from me, when there is some yelling in Swahili by momma Mary (thehousekeeper of the big house).

Then Jonas calls out that Stephanie and Ishould come see their “pet.”

Which turns out to be a poisonous snakein the closet.

Chris’s newly abandoned closet that stillhas clothes hanging. Good thing he justpacked up and left for America or he might be dead right now.

Jonas yells in Swahili and calls Cha Cha,one of the Masai guards, over and he tried with a stick to kill it.

Cha Cha hit it, but didn’t kill it, but heran and so did Jonas. Momma Mary heldher ground, and so did I, which I don’t think was the wisest decision. I went to the kitchen while Momma Maryreturned with a can of raid and Cha Cha finally killed the snake.

Stephanie got a picture of it. It was nice and long and green. I would never have seen it, let alone know itwas poisonous.

Lord, please keep me safe from poisonousthings!

………………………………………………………………………

For dinner, we decided we’d had enoughrice and beans (or cornmeal and beans) so we commandeered the rice (don’tworry, we pay them for food) and ate our Indian leftovers. The power was off, so we ate by candlelight.

As there was no internet (no power, noway to turn on the power) we called it an early night.

I attempted to sleep, but very squeaky soundskept me awake. I thought for a while inZambia that the squeaky sounds were mice (we’ve already seen mice here!) but Iwas afraid they might be bats. Batswould be too terrifying.

I attempted to text Ryan from Julia’snewly working, but illegal phone. Ithink it worked. (I hope!) Julia’s phonedidn’t have a charger for 2 weeks, and wouldn’t charge with the “universal”charger. We finally got a charger, butthe minutes she had purchased were expired. They were sold to her with a 2010 expiration date. No one here realized they expired prior topurchasing them. When she finally gotnon-expired minutes about a week later, she got a text from Airtel that she hadto register her phone at a shop so it would be legal. Which is fine, but there’s no shop anywhereclose. And now that Chris and Kayci aregone, we’re on our own with no phone or car.

So her phone will just be unregistered(it still works, we’ve heard there’s a month grace period) until we go back totown on Saturday.

Welcome to Africa.

The day we had prom!

2011-10-25T21:00:00.000-05:00

Monday

I always sleep in until Julia leaves forschool and just before she goes she wakes me up, so I get ready for theday. Usually I’m pretty eager to get outof bed and work on emails/ blogs/ my project for school. (well, maybe I’m not so eager to work on myproject for school) Julia has do doannouncements at 8 am, then watch the kids go to their first class. The kids all have breakfast (usually chi(tea) with some bread) and then they start class again at 10, which is whenStephanie teaches her first Art class of the day. Stephanie started hot water boiling, so we gotto eat oatmeal for breakfast!

The oats were plain, but we added honeyand raisins, so we were thrilled!

I worked on finishing my reflective essayfor school in the morning. It wasamazing all the things I had learned in the past month about Internationalmedicine, I almost couldn’t narrow it down to a one page paper.

I also took my malaria pill. I have visible mosquito bites from last night(for the first time since I got here, and I really don’t want malaria!), so I’mpraying the medicine in the pill is actually working.

…………………………………………………………………..

I ate lunch with one of the girls, Pili,and she showed me around the school afterwards. She showed me each classroom and then showed me the room that was setaside to be “the library.” I almost cried. It was full of workshop equipment and therewas not a book in sight. Pili told methey were supposed to get some computers, and once they did the library wouldbe put together. I hope that happens.

Pray for it to happen?

…………………………………………………………………..

Later I got a tour of the school withJulia where we got greeted by each class, “Good afternoon Julias and herfriend.” They shouted in unison as they all stood up. Julia took several pictures of the campus.

She also told me the “library” space wasbeing used as a workshop now because the playground is under construction. There have always been age appropriate booksin each classroom that the kids can check out. But a central library with computers is in the plans (if they can raiseenough money and they get a grant for solar-powered laptops that Chris appliedfor).

Julia and I also took pictures all aroundcampus, including with the Masai, who are basically the equivalent in theirculture of Ninjas. One killed a lion afew days before I got here.

With his bare hands.

Or maybe it was with a knife. Either way, it wasn’t a gun.

They basically are super-hard-core legitguys that guard the compound at night (so you can sleep easy knowing thatnothing is going to come in and attack us with our Masai warriors guarding us all!)

At lunch, Chris and Kayci wanted to thankus for all our hard work (well, Julia and Stephanie work hard, and I’m justalong for the ride I guess) by taking us out do dinner in Mwanza. They have some errands to run and then wewere going to eat at a fancy hotel called Tilapia. Chris and Kayci also had to get a planeticket from Mwanza to Nairobi, where they would catch a flight straight to NewYork. They had the international ticketfor a month at least, but still had yet to buy the ticket to Nairobi. They managed to get 4 tickets for $45 each 2days before the flight. Only, theydidn’t exactly get the tickets they wanted so they had to leave a day earlierthan expected, which wouldn’t have been a big deal, except that it cut dinnershort (we didn’t get to eat fried bananas topped with ice cream which wouldhave made this meal the best I’d ever eaten in an African restaurant) so I waspretty bummed that they waited so long for tickets since we went home to packinstead of having desert.

We also had to make copies. Julia and Kayci walked into the copy shop butthey couldn’t get the papers printed. Chris walked in, talked some Swahili, and suddenly the printer worked. Interesting.

It was going to take forever to makecopies, so Chris drove Stephanie and I over to Tilapia, ordered some Indianfood, and then left to go pick up money and Julia and Kayci.

On our way over to Tilapia, we got stuckin a line of cars that had their 4 way flashers on and were all honking theirhorns incessantly.

A wedding parade! Just to humor Stephanie and I, Chris put onour car’s 4 way flashers and honked his horn so we could join in theparade!!

Ihad a glass of chilled white wine at Tilapia (apparently you have to specifythat you want your drinks cold here) and Stephanie had a cold Safari Beer. It was fantastic. They rest of the party arrived just on timefor food, which was delicious. I had noidea what I ate, but I loved it!!

We returned home full and sleepy, butwith no water jugs.

I hope we get water to work out!!

The day I almost died cutting into Zuccini.

2011-10-25T20:30:00.000-05:00

Sunday

We woke up Sunday morning with the lightand the chickens on the farm.

We feasted on (semi) tasty black coffeewith a heap of sugar in it and rice and beans for breakfast. When I got here I was SO excited about eatingrice and beans. Now that I eat it forpractically every meal, I’m not so excited anymore.

We returned from camping sleepy andexhausted at 10:30 am. On our way homewe stopped at a 3^rd grocery store in town, Nono grocery. We got an ice cream bar that tasted like themilk had gotten warm, separated fat from ice, and then re-frozen. Not delicious, but we had already paid for itand breakfast wasn’t super great either, so I ate it.

I showered and got ready for church at11. The cafeteria at the Children’s Homedoubles as their Church too. Churchconsisted of a lot of praise, then the “choir” got up (which was pretty muchall the girls) and sang some more praise. Then one of the older girls read Psalms 1:1-2 in Swahili. People here talk a lot in Swahili, which I’mtrying to pick up, but as this is the 4^th language I’ve beenexpected to learn in 4 weeks, I’ve not quite gotten the hang of it yet.

Then there was more praise until aboutnoon and then church was over. The girlswere so beautiful praising the Lord, it was precious.

But my heart broke that they didn’t get anypreaching. Apparently, they used to goto church in town but the pastor preached a bunch on the power of the devil andvery demonic things and wasn’t preaching from the Bible, so the orphanage as awhole stopped going. They’re missing outon good, solid teaching of God’s Word. They have busses to take the girls into town, but that gets expensivewith gas money and they don’t even know if the churches in town preach from theBible either.

Please pray for a solution to that!

………………………………………………………………………..

After eating beans for breakfast, Julia,Stephanie, and I weren’t exactly excited about another lunch of rice and beanswith the girls, so we decided to get creative in the kitchen.

I’m still too terrified to get creativein the kitchen on my own because they have to light a gas burner with a match,and that scares me, so I always use the kitchen with other people.

We decided to cook pasta, sauté zucchiniin olive oil garlic and spices, and throw in tomatoes at the end. Sounded delicious. The zucchini was bought fresh from themarket, and was on the verge of going bad, but it still looked prettygood. Much better than more friedbeans. I started chopping the zucchiniand Julia started the flame and put the olive oil and garlic in the pan. I got to the second piece of zucchini and itlooked a bit funny when I cut into it.

So I cut a second slice farther into thepiece of Zucchini.

And almost died.

Instead of nice, white zucchini insides,there were inch long brown worms crawling through the zucchini making holes.

I screamed, dropped the zucchini, andalmost vomited. Eeeewwww. I’ve never experienced worms in anything Iwas about to eat and I wasn’t too thrilled about it.

Needless to say, Stephanie had to cutinto the remaining zucchini and make sure it wasn’t infested before I wouldcontinue chopping it up. I took overmango (dessert!) cutting for her and showed her a much simpler technique forcutting. Fair trade off.

The remainder of our lunch went offwithout a hitch. It was delicious, aspreviously expected, but I wasn’t really too hungry anymore.

That afternoon we helped Chris and Kaycipack for America. They were taking twoof the oldest kids with them for a month-long furlough/fundraisingadventure. None of the kids have everbeen to America before, so this was a BIG deal for them! We got old suitcases out of the attic andwere attacked by multiple lizards, lizard eggs, and even a bat before we goteverything cleaned off.

Not your typical attic clean out. Poor baby bat!

Julia and Stephanie have been here abouta month, so they know when we want to eat with the girls and when wedon’t. Sunday nights are amust-eat! The matrons make rice pilou(rice with carrots, garlic, ginger, and potatoes) and chicken (which tasted abit like rubber, but the sauce it was sitting in was fabulous!)

We each sat with a different table fullof girls and had a blast!

After dinner it was time for the girls toshow off their stellar dance moves! There was more praise and worship music, in different groups of girls,accompanied by some dance moves. Thegirls were so cute and most of them were already marvelous singers! Then Julia and Stephanie got up to sing anddance a number. The girls howled andsquealed and erupted with laughter!

They promised me next Sunday night Icould join in on the fun. I don’t thinkthey realize how abysmal my singing skills are…

We stayed and watched the girls untilabout 9:30. The singing continued longerbut we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Being exposed to packs of hungry mosquitoes breeds new reflexes to squatand squirm and swat at any kind of bug.

Which is harder to do with a precious 6year old falling asleep on your lap.

We slept well that night thankful forgood food and precious blessings.

The day I rode a tractor and peed under the stars.

2011-10-24T13:51:00.000-05:00

Saturday

The rest of Friday rolled byuneventfully. We made a delicious dinnerof zucchini in olive oil, rosemary garlic mashed potatoes, fresh salad withgrated cheese and carrots, beans, and some kind of meat. It was delicious and I probably ate way toomuch, but that’s ok. I’m beginning tolearn neat things about how to cook from fresh foods, that it doesn’t takenearly as long as I thought it would, and it tastes 10 times better.

So maybe I will check “learn how to fendfor myself in a developing country” off my “to do” list.

Saturday morning started with making 3dozen pancakes without eggs which we, and the farm, were out of. Since there’s not a 7/11 on the corner, wehave no other option. We decided to tryto make “chipote” which is like a tortilla pancake that they make here, but ourpancakes turned out like fluffy “American style” pancakes anyway. I’d call it a success.

The girls taught class while I foundchildren to play with.

I got pretty good at the game crazy 8’s. Pili introduced herself to me and thenintroduced me to the game. I thought shewould win most, but it was fairly even. Maybe she was going easy on me so I would keep playing.

Then we played a game of rocks thatreminded me of jacks. Your goal is tothrow a rock into the air and then move all 12 rocks on the ground across aline and then catch the rock. Aftermoving all 12 rocks, you have to move them first in piles of 2, then piles of3, then piles of 4, then 5 and so on. Each time you move a pile you have to toss the rock into the air, movethe pile, and then catch it.

The game required far more coordinationthen I had.

I read some stories to the littlekids. They were pretty interested untilone of them gave me a Pokémon book to read and it had way too many words toeven hold my attention. The kids and Iboth gave up at that point.

Then it was time to go camping!

Only there was no car to take us. We had been told the car would be there atnoon. We were ready. We were packed. We called the driver, who told us they wouldbe here in an hour. So we decided wewould eat lunch while we waited.

We ate a quick lunch of leftoveramazingness from the night before.

Only we had no microwave. Bummer.

How do you heat leftovers without amicrowave?

Apparently, by putting them back on thestove in a pot, stirring them until warm, and then serving them again. Delicious. Much better, but not quite as quick, than a microwave!

We waited until 1:30 before calling thedriver again. There was some mix-upwhere someone got lost and so the car hadn’t left yet.

And they were 45 minutes away. But they were coming asap. Or the Tanzanian version of ASAP.

I decided it was time for a nap. Well, actually, I decided it was time to readand then after reading for half an hour my body decided it was time for anap. Same thing.

We finally got on the road at 3. That’s how time works here. 3 pm is almost the equivalent to noon. Which is one of the hardest things of being here.

We traveled towards Mwanza (the airport Iflew into) towards Buhongwa. We tried tostop for ice cream and drinks at our favorite grocery store, U-Turn, but it wasclosed. So we went to mini-martinstead.

Julia ran in while the van of peoplewaited on the street. All I’ll say isthat Julia and I have some stellar searching skills. We found what we needed and also grabbed somecans of fanta, sprite, and coke.

The buildings here are all painted withsprite and coke logos, and the advertizing makes me want a soda, even though Inormally would never want a soda in America.

Supposedly, the paint makes the buildingshere (most made out of mud-bricks and not cement) last longer. So Coke comes in and paints the houses,making them more sustainable, and for the price of paint gets a whole villagealong the street as advertisement.

And apparently it worked.

Either that, or we were just desperatefor something cold, and since the ice cream looked like a squished, hot mess,soda was our best option.

And it was delicious. If you’ve never tried Sprite made with SUGARinstead of high fructose corn syrup, you’re missing out on a very deliciouspart of life. It’s like drinking cokeout of a bottle or drinking Dublin Dr. Pepper. Knowing that there’s sugar in it makes it taste that much better.

I promise!

And I guarantee the people at Coke wouldtell you the same thing.

We reached the campground at Buhongwa (whichis a farm owned partly by JBFC Children’s Home) and were immediately handedsome hot Castle to drink because our driver was a bit upset that we were morethan 3 hours late because we had to find Mini Mart grocery store since U-Turnwas closed by the time we got there.

With a hot bottle of Castle in my hand(which I wouldn’t recommend, the cold sugar Sprite was much better!) Julia andI were offered a ride on the tractor!!

[Tractor! Look how big the tires are!]

Um yes, I’ve lived in Texas all my lifeand I’ve NEVER ridden on a tractor, but I’ve always wanted to!! I’ve been in a hay ride that was pulled by atractor, but that isn’t the same. SoJulia and I rode the perimeter of the farm with our Castle on top the bigwheels of the tractor. WAY too cool!!

We got to see the land they had turnedfor sunflowers. Not only are sunflowersbeautiful (we’re using them in the wedding!) but they make a lot of greatproducts like sunflower seeds and sunflower oil that are good to sell as wellas good for the Children’s Home to use.

Sustainable. I love it!!

We made it back to the campsite and wesat around talking. I got to talk toChris (the 26 year old who started the Children’s home a few years ago and hasturned it into a school and 2 farms to feed the kids too!) about his ideas forbringing healthcare to the kids. I toldhim that I was super passionate about teaching and empowering others to be incharge of their own healthcare, and he thought that was a good idea. There’s a lot that has to happen to make it areality, but plans are in the works. First, they need to finish a few other huge projects including arestaurant that the older girls work in to gain experience in “the real world.” Nice.

The girls began to cook dinner while wesat around talking.

Then it started to rain so we all huddledunder a rain fly while the cooking continued.

We talked late into the night and ate a(semi) delicious meal of rice, fried potatoes, chicken and green peppers, andpenne pasta covered in tomato paste.

Bed time came too soon. Since the tents were packed, Julia and Islept in the van. Or, attempted to sleepin the van. The tiny seats mixed withthe fact that the door didn’t shut mixed with the mosquitoes, mixed with a lotof other stuff made it practically impossible to sleep.

My chitengue sprayed with bug spray madea decent mosquito net. Yet anotherreason those things are so practical! Ijust hope the bug spray I brought isn’t toxic to breathe in all night…

I got up to go to the bathroom in themiddle of the night, and all the lights were out. The bathroom had no roof, so it was open tothe air. Which means I got to pee underthe stars.

Beautiful.

The day I woke up in Tanzania.

2011-10-21T07:08:00.000-05:00

Friday

Yes, I just skipped Tuesday, Wednesday,and Thursday. I was traveling all 3days, and a lot happened so I’ll be sure to fill you in with this blog. I just wanted to start with Tanzania sinceI’m here now!

[Beautiful]

I awoke to the sound of waves crashinginto rocks and the sound of donkeys screaming. Which would have been so much more relaxing without the donkeys. But they weren’t as bad as the chickenselsewhere, so I was pretty much able to snooze till 8:15.

I got out of bed and fumbled my way tothe bathroom, since they don’t have power during the day. Why waste electricity when you can usesunlight? It’s brilliant in concept, butwhen you’re not familiar with where everything is, it becomes a bittreacherous.

I pulled at the sink handle, hoping ithad been repaired, because it was broken the day before. Thankfully, water rushed out of thefaucet. I don’t ever think aboutthanking God for water in the faucet in America, but I think I might just tryto every now and then.

I opened the door to use thetoilets. They don’t flush toilet paperhere, which reminds me slightly of the time I built houses in Mexico for springbreak. They didn’t flush toilet papereither. Which is a funny habit to getused to.

I held my nose because they conservewater by not always flushing. “If it’syellow let it mellow. If it’s brown,flush it down.” Eeew.

Yesterday the toilets weren’t flushing atall, so we deposited our “brown” waste in another toilet across campus that didflush. So our “yellow” water has been“mellowing” for quite some time now.

I’m not sure at what point yellow waterbecomes so dark and smelly that it looks brown so I’m allowed to finally flushthe toilet.

I’ll be sure to consult Julia, my guideto Tanzanian culture and the Swahili language.

……………………………………………………………………….

I fumble through my bag for the remainingclean clothes I own: a black and brown skirt, a purple tank top, and a greentank top.

I suppose it’s not really important tomatch at this point.

Not that I really have much of achoice. I left a drawer full of clothesin Zambia on accident. I was planning toleave all the shirts, except for 1, in Tanzania so it’s not really a bigdeal. I figure God needed them to stayin Zambia more. Which is ok, I just onlyhave 1 t-shirt and 4 tank tops to wear now.

So matching isn’t really an option atthis point.

But at least being clothed is still anoption.

……………………………………………………………………………….

Julia and I walk down to the cafeteria ofthe school to get our morning Chi. That’s the Swahili word for tea. The chi is warm and sweet and slightly reminiscent of fruit loops.

I think it might be lemongrass tea!

Or at least a close cousin of lemongrass!!

Which I’ve been dyeing to drink since Ileft Cameroon and I’m thrilled to start my morning with it. We also have a slice of bread that I dip intomy tea pretending it’s biscotti. Notthat I really like biscotti, but I think I like it better than plain, whitebread. It’s a bit fancier.

One of the kids threw a piece of crusttowards the cat. I assumed it was toshoo the cat away, but no. The catpounced on it like a lion might pounce on a mouse. Then it continued to rip it to shreds whileconsuming the bread.

Note to self: Tanzanian cats that arefull grown but still look like kittens are actually quite ferocious. Avoid contact if possible.

Julia went to work and I finished my chiwhile overlooking Lake Victoria.

Did I mention the JFBC compound is righton the bank of Lake Victoria? Because itis, and it is beautiful, peaceful, and unlike anywhere I’ve lived in theworld. There’s a relaxing “sea” breeze. There are mountains off in the distance. There are rocks on our side making a smallhill. There are chairs set up to facethe lake. I could stay here forever.

Except that there are a few more thingsI’m not wild about.

One, in particular, being the bugs. They’re everywhere. Some buzz, some crawl, some fly, and someland in my wine.

Last night, after fishing a bug out of mywine and continuing to drink it, I considered myself fully assimilated with theculture.

………………………………………………………………………………..

……………………………………………………………………………….

So Tuesday, Frances and I took a 7 hourbus from Livingstone, Zambia, to Lusaka, Zambia which is the capitol and whereour plane flew out of. On the bus ridewe watched Hanna again. Only the soundwas off and on (we think it might be because the copy is an African bootlegversion of the movie) so I still don’t really know what was going on in the movie. So I still want to watch it in Americasometime. We also re-watched TheChaperone, which wasn’t worth re-watching, but the sound worked so now I’veseen it twice and still wouldn’t really recommend it.

When we arrived at Lusaka Backpackers wegot a key to a log cabin. How cute. Only, not bug-proof. We hunted down a second mosquito net,thankfully.

We had no internet accesss, as they hadinternet but did not have any more slips to sell us the internet. Our room was only big enough for 2 beds andour luggage. It was still early, like 7pm, so we walked out to the common area where there was a pool and a bar and aTV with some pre-game soccer starting. We deciced to join the festivities and have a beer and watch thegame. Manchester United was playing somesmaller team. We had our last bottle ofMosi, the Zambian beer, for the trip and watched the game, talking about life,until half-time. The score was still 0-0and we were pretty exhausted from traveling all day, so we called it a night.

We awoke the next morning and showered,feeling instantly refreshed! It would beour last shower in Zambia before we both had long days of traveling ahead ofus.

We grabbed filtered (not instant!!)coffee, and sat down to write since we had no internet access. Again.

While I was getting dressed that morning,I discovered I left my shirts in Kafulafuta, Zambia. Nice move. Oh, well, I suppose God needed them more there than in Tanzania where Iwas planning to leave them before I returned home.

After finishing coffee, we decided topack up for the airport since Frances had told her parents she would contactthem when we got to Lusaka backpackers and if they hadn’t heard from her by thetime they woke up, they should call the embassy, worried.

We heard the airport had internet, and soas not to worry the parents, we embarked early.

Which was a pointless move because theairport definitely did not have internet, but it did make us wait to check in.

We had to pass all our bags throughsecurity before we were allowed to check our bags. I was stopped and my bags were searchedbecause they thought they saw food in my bag. I told them I had popcorn andgranola bars, and was a bit worried they might take away my food. But the lady at security just wanted to seemy food, not actually eat it.

Maybe she wanted some. I guess they didn’t see the millions ofpounds of toothbrushes or bars of soap or toothpaste that I was carrying alongwith me.

We checked our bags in, and since thescales were broken we “estimated” the weight of our luggage for the lady at thecheck-in counter.

We guessed they were all within ourweight limit (30 kilograms) because we hadn’t been in the same room as a scalesince we packed them. Maybe that wasGod’s way of sliding us through security without making us pay any fines.

When we got to Johannesburg thatafternoon, we discovered that we had packed 2 liters of water in one of thebags. We meant to drink that. We took them out before Frances flew the bagto America. And thankfully we did,because her bag was too heavy, so she had to transfer almost 20 lbs to the pink(shared bag full of curios) bag. She wasable to transfer enough weight to avoid paying any fees.

My flight didn’t leave Johannesburg untilalmost midnight, so I couldn’t check my bag in. We ate a quick meal at KFC since it was much cheaper than any of theother restaurants in the airport. Wealso stopped by the internet café to check emails and say hi to family andfriends.

Then we said goodbye.

I hate saying goodbye. Especially to someone I’ve spent so much timewith. We shared every moment, everychallenge, and every piece of joy for the past month. She knows exactly what I’ve thought abouteverything. And now she’s going back toAmerica while I wait to be able to check in my bags.

I almost wished I was going withher. Back to America. Back to my fiancé. Back to my friends. Back to chips and salsa and sangria. Back to food, family, fun, familiar.

Not traveling all alone to a country I’dnever been to before.

But we said goodbye over the last of ourHit cookies and parted ways.

……………………………………………………

I passed the time by eating my KFC mashedpotatoes slowly. Then looking in all theairport gift shops. Then finally playingsome card game in my hands that I don’t think I was playing right because Ididn’t really do much with the cards. But I was getting tired and I just needed something to do with my hands.

I got in line to check my bags around 10pm that night. They were unable to printmy boarding pass for Dar Es Salaam, the capitol of Tanzania, at the firstcheckpoint so I continued along to the counter. I had my itinerary, and the updated itinerary I printed right before Ileft America, almost a month after booking the flight, that had my 2^ndplane flight bumped back an hour.

They were unable to find my reservationfor the plane flight. I pulled out mypayment conformation letter. I’m notsure why I printed it and carried it with me, but I did. They called the manager over who was able todetermine that I “had not paid” for the flight so my reservation was cancelled.

Good thing I printed the paymentconfirmation email! And I distinctly remember getting a call from my creditcard company asking if I really did buy a plane ticket from Johannesburg toTanzania, because I had never been to either place and I didn’t pay with acredit card for my flights to Johannesburg. I authorized the payment. And Iremember paying the bill for my flight that month because it was considerablyhigher than normal.

What happened?

Did my credit card company cancel thetransaction? That would be unusual. And I had JUST checked my email and I neverreceived a notice that my booking was dropped because I “failed to pay.”

Something here smells fishy.

I stood next to the counter,thinking. What if they don’t find myreservation? What if I didn’t actuallypay? Will I have to stay the night inJohannesburg? Where will I sleep? Will I have to pay again? Will I get a refund? Will I be able to contact Julia and let herknow I’m not coming when I thought?

Oh man.

The manager took my payment confirmationemail and walked up to the office as I decided not to worry, that God was incontrol, and he has a reason for everything.

And I’m not alone. He’s here with me, making sure his will isgetting done.

The manager finally returned with a newitinerary for me. Turns out 2 more of myflight times had also been changed. Hewanted to keep my payment paper, and reminded me I had a copy in my email. I’ll just have to remember to print anotherone before I leave to go home in case something happens.

Sure enough though, when I got to thehouse in Tanzania, I looked up my credit card statement and I paid. I don’t know what happened, but I’m thankfulit all got worked out.

………………………………………………………………..

From Johannesburg we flew to Dar EsSalaam. I got off the plane at 4 am,after having tried to sleep in the aisle seat of the plane, and being mildlyunsuccessful at it.

I walked in a sleepy state, following thecrowd of people down the stairs towards passport control. I filled in the necessary entry permit, allexcept for address because I hadn’t thought to print the JFBC address. And I couldn’t even remember the initialsJFBC at the time (I was getting it confused with JMBC in Cameroon) and I didn’twant to lie, so I left that line blank.

I included the address with my visa,shouldn’t that be ok?

I handed the passport officer mypaperwork and the only thing he said was “sister, where are you staying?” If I knew, certainly I would have filled inthe blank. I told him I didn’t knowwhere, but I was staying with a friend and she was picking me up. That seemed to placate him, because he got mygiant stamp out, and I got an entry stamp in my passport right across from thevisa.

I walked towards someone who lookedofficial because I wasn’t sure where to go next. I needed to get to the check in counter toprint my next boarding pass. I was toldmy luggage was checked all the way through to Mwanza airport.

But that was a lie.

I was told to wait for my bag by the samegreat manager that helped me earlier. IfI didn’t shake his hand earlier and thank him for his help, I would havethought he was just an angel sent from God to help me get to Tanzania. I found it and put it through the customsscanner because that was my only option. They let it pass straight through. I was afraid to be stopped by customs, but I never got stopped,thankfully. Then I was pointed down along hall that looked more like an alley-way. I followed another passenger that was in a business suit. Surely, if we were going to get mugged, hewould get hit first.

We made it to another scanner and Ipassed my luggage through with no problems. Which is nice, I guess if there was a problem they would have found itat any one of the 8 scanners I had been through in the past 2 days.

I walked to the counter and the man wasable to print my boarding pass with no problems, mercifully. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadproblems again.

He weighed my bag, but I knew it was 25kg because they put a tag on my tag stating the weight. I was allowed to carry 30 kg according to thewebsite, because I was flying internationally since I originated in SouthAfrica.

However, once I picked up my bag, theflight from Dar to Mwanza was considered domestic.

So I was only allowed 23 kg.

Tricky.

He let my bag through being 2 kg overwithout making me pay a fee. He told methat I wouldn’t be allowed to have that much over on my way home, but he knewthe flight wasn’t full so I was allowed to carry a bit more weight. Awesome!

I had prayed about what to take out of mybag before I left Livingstone because my bag was too heavy to lift, and thehostel we stayed at worked with a local orphanage, so anything we donated wouldget put to good use. I took out half thetoothpaste and crayons and notebooks, because those were the heaviest items. I also took out the bag of jolly ranchersbecause I still had chocolate and fruit snacks for the children and I didn’tfigure they needed the jolly ranchers too. And they were the heaviest snack I packed.

Turns out I took out exactly what neededto be taken out. I’m sure the orphans inLivingstone will be thankful for the crayons and sweets and other items!

………………………………………………………………..

After checking my bag I made it throughthe last security checkpoint. I sat downand journaled, waiting for my plane numbers to be called.

First was a flight to Mt.Kilimanjaro. Then was a flight toMwanza, but all these passengers had orange boarding passes and I had a whiteone.

A few other people with white boardingpasses got up to go (because it was around the time our boarding pass listedfor us to board the plane) but they were turned away. After the crowd made their way to the plane Iwalked up to the flight attendant with my white boarding pass and made sure Iwasn’t about to miss my plane. She shookher head no and spoke in another language, so I guess that meant I wasn’tsupposed to board. Because if I was shewould have grabbed my boarding pass.

Not 3 minutes later, it was our turn toboard our plane to Mwanza. I’m not sureabout you, but if I knew there were 2 planes flying to the exact same place, Iwould have tried to get a bigger plane and make a deal with the other company.

But maybe that’s why I’m not in theairplane business.

I got back on the exact plane flying fromDar Es Salaam to Mwanza. I just sat 3rows back. Really, it would have beennice not to get off the plane at all, but I guess if I hadn’t gotten off, Iwouldn’t have gotten an entry stamp in my passport and I would be without anyof my luggage.

So I guess it was a good thing I gotoff.

Our plane wasn’t completely packed, so Iwondered again why there were 2 planes flying to Mwanza at the same time.

We were flying above a thick blanket ofclouds, which was a shame because I was hoping to get a look at Mt.Kilimanjaro. I had a window seattoo. They announced something in anotherlanguage, probably Swahili, and I heard the word Kilimanjaro. I looked out my window and sure enough, therewas a mountain peak sticking up out of the thick blanket of clouds.

[What I assume to be Mt. Kilimanjaro]

How neat! Thanks God! Now I have my ownpicture of it!!

I touched down in Mwanza and we rode abus to the small airport building. Itwas even smaller than the airport in Ndola. The smallest one yet. I walkedthrough the building to find Julia Ando with a sign that said KalibuShannon!! I wasn’t so sure about theKalibu, but I was SO SO thankful to seeher, a few tears slipped from my eyes.

I had traveled many days, many hours, andhad almost not made it to Tanzania for several reasons. (lost bookings, overweight bags, unknownaddress for where I was staying) But God has me here for a reason, and He ismuch bigger than any of the tricks the enemy has up his sleeves!

Julia, a girl named Stephanie from NewOrleans, and a girl named Kayci from Tulsa and I walked next door to havebreakfast. We had a quick breakfast ofinstant coffee in warm milk with 2 spoonfuls of sugar, which I have decided isthe best way to drink instant coffee. Weate some kind of fried dough filled with beef and vegetables. Then we had a “girls day out” in the town, becausewe had a few errands to run.

I felt a bit like I was sleepwalking, butnot too bad. I really just needed a nap,but since that wasn’t really an option, I followed Julia around trying to keepmy head above water.

…………………………………………………………………….

We stopped at the bank and pulled outmoney. 1600 shillings is = to 1dollar. I’m so confused with Kwacha andRand and Tanzanian Shillings. It’s somuch more trouble than dollars! Butabout 8000 is = to $5 and 10,000 is about $6, which is what my money is indenominations of.

We went to the post office where thegirls mailed post-cards. I got a few tomail out next time we’re in town!

We went to the grocery store called UTurn. Ok. Julia and Stephanie and Kayci all had listsof things to buy and I just floated around trying to be helpful but not reallydoing much. It was the biggest grocerystore in town, but it was only half the size, maybe even smaller, than any ofthe stores in Ndola. Which surprised me. We got the basics like sugar and flower andgranola and almonds, and then a few fun things like wine and cheese andtortilla chips!

We also got ice cream, which made mereally happy!!

Then we went to market, which was quitesimilar to markets in Zambia and Cameroon, thousands of small shops withmismatched inventories from who-knows-where and brightly colored fabric and salesmentrying to convince you to buy their products. We got Julia a nice French press. Well, I bought Julia a nice French press because then we can drink deliciouscoffee together and she can continue to drink good coffee when I’m gone. It was kinda a selfish purchase meant to be ablessing to her, but she was super excited about it, so the goal was achieved!

We found Stephanie a dress and Julia somechitengue fabric (they call it a chitengue here, but I think they pronounce ita bit different). They also have somekind of fabric that looks like a chitengue but isn’t as long and has a borderon it, that they call something else. Julia really bought that thing.

Then we bought fruit and vegetables andheld them in wicker baskets which made me incredibly happy.

Carrots and tomatoes and onions and zucchiniand mangos and pineapples and limes and cilantro and avocados and peanuts!

It was fabulous!!

SO exciting!!

Except everything was done in Swahili,which I have never heard before today, and I was really lost.

We finished shopping and drove home. We had a great late lunch of Nshima/ some word that starts with a U herebut means the same thing and beans. Delicious.

We sorted my things out for thekids. I washed all my clothes.

By hand.

For the first time ever.

It took a lot more effort than I thoughtit would. Then we hung all the clotheson a line to dry.

Then I took a quick nap.

After napping I met all the children and gota quick tour of the school and Children’s Home and then it started pouring downrain.

I met Chris briefly. He’s 26 and he bought and built this children’shome and school. He had somewhere to goand Stephanie and a bunch of rabbits went with him. If I had been more awake I would haveremembered where they went maybe, but I think we’re meeting up with them to gocamping on Saturday, so maybe I’ll find out then.

When it finished raining we tried tonavigate the showers. Julia told methere are 3 showers. Only 1 has a light. Only 2 drain. Only 1 has workinghot and cold water. Only 2 have doors.

So which one is the best to use?

The middle one, the one without a door,is the only one that has hot and cold water. It’s also the only one that drains. It isn’t the one with the light, which makes for a dark shower.

But at least it’s a warm, dark showerinstead of a cold one or a boiling hot one.

We used a chitengue as a door (yetanother great use for this multi-functional piece of cloth!) I got fabulously clean (the kind of cleanthat you don’t realize is possible because you’ve traveled for so long that youjust think the dirt is a part of you)!

So problem solved! Well, solved as good as it can be for here Iguess.

…………………………………………………………………..

That night Julia, Kayci, and I drank redwine and cooked quesadillas and made guacamole and had salsa. It was a fabulous meal and I was reallythankful for it!! It made me feel at home. We ate at a table overlooking LakeVictoria.

Then we went to bed and I slept like alog. Wonderfully!

…………………………………………………………………..

So, I’m officially in Kitonga, Tanzania now. I’ll be doing health check-ups on all thegirls at the Children’s home starting next week. I’m so excited to be here!! Hopefully I’ll pick up some more Swahili onthe way :)

Continue to look for more blog updatesnext Monday!

Lord, My life is in your hands!!

The day we rode two boats and never fell out but we jumped out of one and took a walk to Zimbabwe.

2011-10-17T16:36:00.002-05:00

Monday

We started the day with legitcoffee. Not the instant stuff.

We immediately fell in love and werethankful we didn’t realize how good coffee was before we drank instant junk.

[coffee!!]

(my shirt is off because i put on a tank top yesterday but missed the line of skin right next to the tank top so I have burn lines on either side. So i kept my shirt off to fully sunscreen myself before we left today!]

………………………………………………………………..

Today we white water rafted. Half the day.

We started out with an informationalsession describing what to do if you fell out.

When you fell out.

The entire time I’m trying to listen tothis guy, but behind him there’s a picture of a raft that’s mid- capsize. How am I supposed to pay attention to you ifthere’s 6 people on the verge of death behind your head?

He described a “short swimmer” as someonewho falls out but is still holding onto the boat.

If I could manage to hold on to the boat,I probably wouldn’t have fallen out. Thanks though.

A “long swimmer” has let go of the boatand is at least a few feet away. If thename describes how much swimming I have to do, I may be in trouble. How long do I have to swim for before you pullme back in??

There are 3 ways to rescue a longswimmer. There’s your paddle, which you’resupposed to hold on to, but honestly, if I can’t manage to hold onto the boat,there’s about no chance I can hold the paddle. There’s also a throw rope. Whichthey aim at your head.

The last thing I need after being thrownfrom a boat is a rope bag hitting me in the head.

The third way is a kayaker that is reallyexperienced that floats near the 2 boats to help direct you where to swim ifyou fall out. Clearly, they are preparedfor us to fall out.

We hike down into the gorge of Victoria Falls. On either side of us is black volcanic rockthat has fallen from the top.

Comforting.

We were also instructed not to swim tothe side if we fell out. They told usthe sides are rocky, but later they said that that’s where the crocodiles hangout.

“But don’t worry, we fed them yesterday.”

I just hoped he was joking.

Then we put on life jackets and helmets.

Wow,I was just starting to feel like all the safety measures were just aprecaution. Guess not.

………………………………………………………….

Weclimbed our way down straight up fallen rock into the canyon of the falls. We meet our other boat-mates: Helen and Mark from London. Helen is a young dentist and on our trek downthe rocks we talked about our lives and why we were here and she said she wouldlove to do something like that.

Shegot our email address so we could set her up with the clinic we worked with.

Shealso does research with endocarditis and I think she should continue thatresearch because we could use some great outpatient options for treatment. She will, but she plans on taking a sabbaticalto do volunteer work, and they could surely use it in rural Zambia.

Whenwe finally reach the bottom, we hop in our raft and practice paddling straightinto the “Boiling pot.” Which is a class2 rapid. Pretty tame.

Wehit the second rapid, which was a choiceof a class 3, 4, or 5. Our captain tellsus if we do well on the class 3, he’ll let us pick what to do next time,knowing there are at least 3 more class 5 rapids coming up.

Theydon’t let you raft class 5s in America. Well, not that many class 5s.

Theother captain gave their boat the choice.

Wewent through first, and came out waterlogged, but just fine.

Theother boat capsized.

Andlost all of the 7 rowers.

Itwas chaos. We paddled back to them andgrabbed 3 girls and pulled them into our boat. We met the 3 girls earlier, all studying abroad in Namibia. And from America. Very nice girls.

Butone of them had on a vacant face, like we picked up her body from the rapidsbut her soul was still lost. Francesdescribed it as a “Bamby” look of complete shock and utter terror.

Ononly the 2^nd rapid. Thismight be a long morning.

Thankfully,after returning the lost crew and oars to their boat, everyone was fine. We continued down the rest of the rapids(except rapid #9, called commercial suicide) without incident.

………………………………………………………………………………

Wewere told rapid #9 is a “class 6 rapid.” I’m pretty sure class 6 doesn’t exist in America, but the drop here wasso large that they had to give it its own category. They moved all our boats on shore with us,but allowed 2 “really experienced” kayakers to go down it.

Peoplehere kayak off 10 feet of straight rock into the water. They can probably handle anything.

Andthey did. Although I think they were abit whiter on the other side of the rapid.

I was mildly thrilled to get out of theboat because we trekked on the Zimbabwe side of the river. I got to visit another country today withoutpaying for a Visa!!

Frances was just worried about beingthrown in prison here, because the prisons sound horrendous and we don’t thinkwe would last 20 minutes in one.

I wanted to do something cool in Zimbabwelike eat lunch or skip rocks. But all wedid was carry our paddles. I signed “Ilove Ryan” to Frances just before we got back in our raft because I wanted toat least say I did something cool in Zimbabwe.

So Ryan, I love you, and I said it in a completelydifferent country, in a completely different language, so somehow it shouldmean more. Or something. I’m not sure I can love you any more than Ialready do, but I felt like I had to step it up a notch since I’ll be gone forso long.

…………………………………………………………………

After 10 rapids, 3 of which were class 5,we jumped in for a quick swim. Then wehit the mid point for lunch. Frances andI were the only 2 doing the half day trip. (we only had 2 days here and we heard the second half didn’t have anymore category 5 rapids but had a lot of paddling, and we already worked ourarms hard enough!)

At lunch Frances and I had to climb outof the gorge. Which is much easier saidthan done.

I WISH we had pictures. Of the whole day, but especially theclimb. Imagine a mountain that is at a60 degree incline. Then put a ladder onit and climb the ladder.

But make the ladder out of sticks andmake people bear crawl up it because otherwise they might fall down.

Then tell them they can’t have wateruntil they reach the top. We hiked it in40 minutes, and we probably only made it so fast because we were desperate forwater and lunch.

I downed a whole bottle of water and thenan ice cold coke from a glass bottle.

Seriously, Coca Cola doesn’t have toadvertise her, it’s so refreshing drinking a cold coke after climbing 40minutes out of a canyon, that I would drink it any time.

………………………………………………………………..

We finally made it to lunch. It’s a burger and coleslaw and a salad. Fabulous. I pray before every meal, and after I finished, as I had a scoop oflettuce heading towards my mouth, Frances asks:

“Didyou remember to thank God for helping us stay in the boat?”

No, but I suppose I can addend my prayer.

And I’m pretty sure God heard me.

[post-rafting]

…………………………………………………………..

We watched our kyack trip duringlunch. It was fabulous, but I wasn’t sosure about paying someone $35 for a video I might only watch 2 or 3 times.

Because let’s be honest, watching uscrash into water and get drenched is pretty funny. Especially when you get to see ourfaces. And watching the other boatcapsize is hilarious.

But 10 rapids and 25 minutes later you’djust be bored and wishing you had been with me to raft the Zambezi river.

Then at least you could watch yourselfdisappear under a wall of white water only to reappear with a boat half full ofwater and a dazed look on your face.

So you can thank me for not buying acopy.

…………………………………………………………

We got dressed and ready for our sunsetcruise. We’ve heard great things aboutthe cruise and we’re expecting a lot out of the sunset. We think they’re fabulous and we feel like weshould enjoy it even more from the water.

We did.

We also saw hippos and a whole herd ofelephants!!

[elephants!]

…………………………………………………………….

The sunset was beautiful (as always). Itook about a thousand pictures, but I uploaded my favorite 2 just for you!!

[Sunset]

………………………………………………………….

I forgot to talk about how I saw Zebraand monkeys at the Falls.

Zebras. Just like I took a safari. But withoutpaying 1,000,000 K for it (about 200 USD)

[Zebras!]

I also forgot to talk about how they havea picture of their new president, Sata, everywhere. It’s a law that every business has a pictureof him up. No joke, it’severywhere. People think it’s so funnythat the law isn’t the same in America. I can’t tell you the last time I saw Obama’s face in a restaurant orresort or shopping mall. But I can tellyou I last saw his face on a baby’s onesie at our clinic.

…………………………………………………………………..

Tomorrow we take a bus to the capital,Lusaka and stay the night. We take aplane to Johannesburg on Wednesday morning. I catch a flight in Johannesburg 7 hours later for the capital ofTanzania, Dar Es Salom, overnight. ThenI connect to Mwanza, Tanzania and arrive at 8 am Thursday morning, and travelwith Julia to the orphanage and pray I don’t collapse right away. I’ll have 2 full days of traveling.

I probably won’t post a blog untilthen.

Please pray for safe travels and goodrest in-between! Thank you!!

The day we should have died.

2011-10-16T16:45:00.003-05:00

Sunday

We started the morning slowly, catchingup on emails and generally recuperating from the night before. We each eat a Hit cookie and get dressed,loading up with sunscreen everywhere except my feet.

Which was a bad decision.

At 11am, we are ready to leave for VictoriaFalls on our free shuttle. We get in thevan with a family from Atlanta.

Again, how small is the world?!

We learn that they’re going to hike toDevil’s Pool, and so are we! But theyknew how to work it out, which was wonderful because Frances and I would havenever made it on our own.

We booked a tour guide, Leonnard, fromthe gift shop. We would have totally skippedthat step if it was just us.

But we would have not only been up acreek without a paddle, but up a creek attached to the largest surface area offalls in the world.

People kept telling us the falls would bebetter in the rainy season and that they would look pretty pathetic now. They weren’t nearly as long, but they were nowherenear pathetic!

[first sight of the falls]

That’s just the part of the falls wecould see from the entrance to the park. Where all the mist is in the background, there is a bigger part of thefalls. But we still think Victoria Fallsis beautiful!

We ended up hiking past the small fallsover to where the mist is.

Only, we hiked right on the edge! (well, like 10 feet from the edge)

But don’t worry, the family we met fromAtlanta had two 8 year old boys that went with us, and I think they were finetoo!

It's crazy how close they let you get to the edge. There are several pictures where I'm only 3 feet away. We hiked through streams and over dry land where there are normally falls at the end of rainy season, only there weren't many falls there because it's dry season.

Which was great because it allowed us to walk to Devil's Pool.

It's this natural pool right past Livingstone Island. It's right at the edge of the cliff, right before the falls fall. We were (with help) allowed to lean off the edge of the cliff and stare straight down to the bottom of the falls. My eyes followed the same path the water does when it falls and makes amist. It was terrifying and breathtaking. The pictures don't do it justice.

They never do.

I have so much more to write about, but I want to post pictures ASAP, so here are the pictures, I'll fill you in on the details later :)

The day Frances was born.

2011-10-16T16:14:00.001-05:00

Saturday

3:30 am.

Wake up, get dressed.

4:00 am.

Leave for Ndola.

4:15 am.

Frances gets serenaded for her birthdayfrom 3 Zambian men as we travel down a dirt road.

Instantly I’m jealous.

As we drive down the road in the dark Irealize just how dark it is here.

And how some people are already awakepushing bags of charcoal to market. Suchhard work. I asked Henry a few lastminute cultural questions: what are those round straw baskets that sit 1 foodoff the ground and 6 feet tall? Asilo. I make a mental note to see what asilo actually does for the grain sitting in it before I make a judgment on whatI think of their version.

I’ve generally found that anythingZambian is way cooler than anything American.

5:00 am.

Board a bus. We’re the first ones on. We wave goodbye to Henry, who waits for us todepart because our supervisor made him.

Shortly after 4 other Masungus board thebus and sit up front. We’re all the wayin the back, we couldn’t be farther apart.

5:45 am.

The bus departs.

6:00 am.

We watch the sun rise. That’s a first.

[sunrise pic]

I tried mildly unsuccessfully tosleep.

8:00 am.

The bus makes a short stop somewhere butthe other Masungus stay on the bus, and we do too.

Good thing because the bus took offwithout warning. We might have gottenleft behind!

We watch a movie called “TheChaperone.” I think it was American, anda decently poor representation of Americans. No wonder so many people laugh at us.

But they spoke really quickly in themovie, and people “don’t understand us” when we talk fast.

I don’t understand how they understandmovies.

But we ate caramel popcorn during themovie, which we discovered during the missionary video, can make any moviewatchable.

10:00 am.

We arrive in Lusaka, the capitol, and areforced to get off the bus so it can fuel up. We’re taking the same bus all the way to Livingstone (thankfully!) so wedon’t have to move our bags.

We get bombarded with taxi drivers.

We get bombarded with people selling usthings.

We get bombarded with dust and dirt.

We lost the other Masungus!

They got off the bus before us and wedidn’t see where they went.

Thankfully, we’re pretty easy to find!

The first set was a married couple fromMarietta, Georgia. We made small talkwith them because that’s where my Fiancé is from. Turns out, his brother went to SPSU.

It’s a small world after all!

But they were staying in Lusaka for a fewhours and then catching the late bus to Livingstone so they weren’t veryhelpful.

But they introduced us to their travelcompanions, who were incredibly helpful! They were going to Livingstone AND staying at Jollyboys camp! Howfabulous. They told us we could walkfrom the bus station (we were under the impression we had to get a cab). One was from South Africa. She had her hair platted, like she livedhere. She also wore socks with hersandals, which looked decently ridiculous, like something a local would do andI wouldn’t understand. But she’s livedhere for 7 years teaching English, which makes her practically a local. She was definitely legit. The other was a girl from Australia. She knew where Mt. Isa is, which is the onlyplace I really know about in Australia and that’s because my roommate isstudying there. She is a nurse, butwants to be a nurse practitioner, so we tell her about PAs and how she shouldgo to PA school. She’s going to lookinto it.

Then Frances and I grabbed a coke sincewe had an hour in Lusaka.

[Cokes]

Well, I grabbed a Coke and she grabbed anorange Fanta. We really both wanted yellowFanta but we couldn’t find any. Really,we just wanted to sit down, but we learned from Lorna that if you want to sitsomewhere nice or use a nice toilet it’s polite to buy a drink.

And they were in the glass bottles whichalways taste much better.

We then walked over and paid 1000K to usea toilet. Which was the first toilet wepaid for, and the dirtiest toilet we had used yet. Seriously, I’m not sure what our money paidfor.

……………………………………………………………

11:30 am.

We got back on the bus and ate somepeanut butter crackers.

We depart for Livingstone and a man getsup to preach for 10 minutes. Howappropriate, I think, as I had just finished reading my bible.

He preached some from Psalms andProverbs.

11:45 am.

I decide to take another nap. Sometime during the nap the Air Con goes outand so they open all the windows making us not able to hear the music.

Which is a shame because they finallystarted playing some American music. Ithought it didn’t exist in Zambia. Allmorning we had been jamming out to Zambian music in Lamba and then suddenly,Seal’s “I’ve been kissed by a rose” comes on. Frances and I start singing along. We heard some old boy band jams and some Celine Dion. It was pretty legit.

Until it wasn’t.

3:30 pm.

We watch another movie.

Only we can’t hear it because all thewindows are still open. It looked like agood movie though. I pretended like itwas one of those silent movies where you can figure out what’s going on just bywatching people’s faces. I came up withmy own dialogue in my head.

But if anyone owns Hannah, I’d like tosee if the dialogue I came up with is the same as the dialogue the directorintended.

5:45 pm.

We finally arrive in Livingstone. Our first task is to grab our luggage andfind the other Masungus. The one fromSouth Africa has been here at least 5 times this year, and knows exactly how toget to Jollyboys. We grab our bags andfollow them. The legit one from SouthAfrica had a huge backpack so she helped me with our extra bag. Backpacks are probably the coolest thingever.

………………………………………………………………………………….

6:00 pm.

We complete our challenging walk uphillwith all our luggage, only to find out we made it to Jollyboys lodge and notJollyboys camp. The lodge looked legit,and was more of a young adult crowd. Wemade a mental note that we would stay there next time, and get driven to thecamp, which is about 10 minutes away. Bythis time we’re drenched in sweat and really dehydrated since we had 10 poundsof water with us but were afraid to drink any of it because we didn’t want tohave to pay to be disgusted by another toilet. We chug some water, settle in, and go find a beer for Frances’ birthday.

6:15 pm.

We have found our first drink in a month,Castle, a South African beer, which was the cheapest and most interestingoption. (1.60 USD/ beer) we signed up for a sunset cruise and whitewater rafting adventure for Monday, sign up for a free lift to the falls fortomorrow, and ask for a cab so we can grab dinner.

[first beer]

6:30 pm.

We were unsuccessful in getting a cab,the 2 that Jollyboys uses are both busy, so we were told to go out to the gateand have the guard flag down a cab. (Guards are common at all the compounds here, but we’re safe, don’tworry!!)

I propose walking since they’ve said it’sonly 1.5 kilometers away and it’s the cheaper option. Frances turns down that option as we’ve bothonly had 1 beer, but we’re both feeling it a bit. She thinks a cab is the safer option and Igive in since it’s her birthday.

He finds us a car with 2 seats and we getin.

Turns out walking might have been thesafer option.

Every time we get in a cab and the driverfinds out we’re American, the first thing they ask is “How’s my man Obama doingin office.” We usually give a standard, “He’sdoing great.”

But we had to tell the driver this 3 or 4times, as he quickly forgets what he’s doing.

He also isn’t sure where we’regoing. All we know is the restaurantJollyboys recommended is right across from Shopright grocery store. Turns out there is more than 1 Shopright inthis town, and the driver doesn’t really know where any of them are.

It’s not actually a cab, but a car with 2guys and a girl on their way out. Theywanted to stop by the bank on the way to drop us off. Frances and I aren’t sure what to do at thispoint. We’re not really sure where weare, it’s dark out, and we don’t feel very safe.

The girl gets money, and after talkingabout Obama a few more times we pull across the street where there is ashopright. There is no Zambezi cafe, butFrances and I get out anyway. Anythingelse has got to be safer than these people. Who were nice, but maybe drunk. Or on drugs.

After our near death experience, Francesjust wants to go home. We see blue carswith “Taxi” written on them and figure this is the safest option. We ask to go to Jollyboys and I tried toconvince Frances that we should go to the Lodge, grab another drink, and thengo home.

She was a bit hesitant, but agreed.

Turns out this might have been the bestdecision of the day.

We order a cider and food. Perfect. We get lots of smiles from the other campers at the hostel. We met some people, including a guy from Englandand his friend from Australia, who invite us out to the bar with a big groupthat’s about to leave. We declined theoffer since we had just ordered food.

But they were insistent when they foundout it was Frances’ birthday. They eventried to cancel our food orders. It wastoo late to cancel, so they stayed back from the group and offered to walk witha second round of people going a bit later. So we ate, felt much better, and embarked for “Fez Bar.”

[outside Fez Bar]

[inside Fez Bar complete with a wall mural and international friends]

We had no idea Fez Bar was a Mexican foodrestaurant. Complete with margaritas andchips and salsa. Not quite delicious,but the only salsa I’ve had in a month, so it was decent.

The girls we sat next to were fromDallas. Again, what a small world. One was a nurse at Baylor, where I did mylast rotation. The other girl was ateacher in plano!

[new Dallas friends]

After everyone finished eating, it wasdecided that we should go out dancing for Frances’ birthday. We had 3 drinks at this point andwholeheartedly agreed!

The group heads back towards theShopright. Turns out there is a greatZambian club there. The place wasn’thopping when we got there, but our group of 15 filled the dance floor quickly. Frances was in need of a Birthday Shot, so wegot a group of friends to drink with us.

[Our new friend from Canada shooting withus]

The terrible thing was that Francespicked tequila to shoot, forgetting we weren’t in America. It tasted like lighter fluid.

The name of our club was: Nakusema Nkutaka. I would love to know what that means.

We learned a new song (that must be bighere because the club played it 3 times) called shower. The singer repeats “shower” over and over andyou pretend to be in the shower washing your hair or your underarms. It’s so easy to dance to and a lot of fun!!

We called it a night at midnight and therest of the group did with us. We weregiven the advice of “only get in a blue cab that’s labeled Taxi. Perfect. We were able to secure a ride home in a nice safe taxi. I quickly showered and hit the sack. It was a wonderful birthday celebration fullof new friends!!