"This Is Africa"

Often times I have to remind myself that “This Is Africa” or “TIA”. TIA is a common expression among Peace Corps Volunteers here in Tanzania whenever anything happens that would never happen in America. Like when a fellow volunteer dropped her phone down the choo (the pit latrine where everyone goes to the bathroom) and her neighbors decided that she just had to save her phone. So they created a 6 foot wooden pole with a cup attached to the end to dig out her phone amongst other nasty things I’m sure. The neighbors were soo excited that they rescued her phone! But then she secretly had to get rid of it because of the awful smell. Honestly that’s just gross, or no wait ....This is Africa!

I’m not saying that every TIA moment is gross or even that dramatic. Many TIA moments are simply times when things are lost in translation, but ultimately every “This Is Africa” moment makes you stand back and think... did that really just happen.

One embarrassing TIA moment was on my first day of work when one of my co-workers asked how Moss and I met. I replied “chooni”, which I thought meant “in school/college,” but when everyone started cracking up I realized I must have said something incorrectly. After endless laughter my colleague said “kweli?,” meaning “is that true?” I didn’t understand why it was sooo funny, but I said “nimefikiri” which means “I think so,” but then they laughed even more and once the laughing ended someone finally explained in English that I said Moss and I meet in the bathroom. I had said “chooni” which means in the bathroom, rather than “chuoni,” which means in college. Urghhh.... One letter difference messes the entire meaning up!

Another lost in translation moment occurred about 2 weeks ago when I was attempting to bake for the first time, without an oven! In our peace corps training we learned that you can create an oven by putting an inch of sand in a large pot and after this pot heats up, you can put a smaller baking dish inside, and the sand disperses the heat more evenly like an oven. Anyway, I went outside to collect sand to put in my pot and my neighbor asked in Swahili why I was cooking sand. I attempted to explain to her that I wasn’t cooking sand, but I was using the sand to bake. The only trouble is that I didn’t know how to say sand or bake, or even cake for that matter. So I said something along the lines of 'I put little pot in big pot with ... (and pointed to the sand)...I try cook bread." She giggled, shook my hand, and walked away probably thinking that this crazy foreigner likes sandy bread. Oh well, at least my mini chocolate cake turned out delicious!

Another crazy TIA moment occurred at the end of last week as Moss and I returned home from the beach. Right after sunset we were walking our bikes down this little dirt pathway that leads to our house and we see a group of five children (I’m talking young kids maybe 7 or 8) playing with fire. That’s right; they had sticks of fire that they were swinging at one another. Here in Tanzania it is not unusual to see a small fire, because that’s the way to dispose of trash (you simply dig a small pit on your property, throw your trash in there, and light it once a week. Our trash pit has actually become a popular place among the neighborhood children as they love to root through there looking for goodies. It’s a little disturbing, so we have tried decreasing this practice by burning it more frequently.) Anyway, a large trash pit was burning on a property only three houses away from ours where a new home is being built. Thus far they have only constructed a three foot tall brick foundation, which looks like an outline of the rooms that will exist one day. So not only were the children swinging sticks of fire at each other, they continued to take these sticks and light one of the ‘rooms’ on fire. Well it’s not exactly a room because it is simply bricks in a square shape, but none the less I was shocked! Some children ran to collect more sticks to build up their new fire and we could see the flames growing... The following day all was well and no harm was done, but honestly that was crazy!

There are so many TIA moments in our lives these days that this blog entry could go on for ages. I will have to add more when I’m not super busy at work.

In other news, something awful happened to Kali. We think she broke her front leg or dislocated her shoulder. We are not sure how it happened exactly, but Moss thinks it might have been when she jumped off the office table. She is miserable, in a lot of pain, and can’t put any weight on her leg. I am going to talk to one of the doctors at work today to get some advice, but we are not sure what to do as there are no vets anywhere around here. Keep her in your prayers.

Miss you all!
XOXO