The Time of Great Distress, Minnow Stew, Carpentry and Visiting the Edge of the World

At first, you may think that the phrases in my title are completely unrelated. But they are not. Each of those phrases refers to an event during my travel time, which I will now relate to you. This entry will not be for the weak of heart, or the short of time. So if you don't have at least 15 minutes to dedicate to reading this very very long entry, come back later.. or just wait till I update again.

Let's start at the very beginning, because that's a very good place to start. Leah and I got up at the buttcrack of dawn and rode in a taxi driven by a very nice man named Obedi. We got to the Scandanavia bus station, I bought an apple and some water. The apple was probably a bad idea, but it was delicious. The first 1/3 of the bus ride was fine, I dozed a little bit, drank my complementary soda and wrote a letter. Right after I finished my soda, things took a turn for the worse. The second 1/3 of the bus ride was awful. It was hilly and curvy and the bus was going a little too fast for my intestines. There was no bathroom, I felt like vomiting and Leah had a bad case of diarrhea. The conclusion was that we were in The Time of Great Distress. Whenever the bus stopped we pretty much flew off the bus in an attempt to find a bathroom. The last 1/3 of the bus ride I did better, but Leah was in rough shape. One of the hilarious parts of Tanzanian bus travel is when the bus stops by the side of the road, and everyone goes into the bushes to go to the bathroom, the men all go one way and the women the other. It is ridiculously funny, especially if you have no idea it's coming. We finally arrived in Mbeya, and descended from the bus into the arms of Tebby (almost literally).

Tebby is a friend of Mona, a woman who came on the LCCT exchange to Luther in 2002. Mona gave us Tebby's number and told Tebby to find us places to volunteer for a week. When we first saw Tebby she was wearing a bright purple skirt and a white shirt with purple sequins. Amazing, I know. She was with her friend's husband, Constantino. He didn't talk much, but Tebby kept up a constant stream of conversation in a mixture of Kiswahili and English. We were packed into a cab and taken to the hotel, where Tebby did not let Leah and I out until Constantino went in and made sure they would not overcharge us, even though the price per night was clearly posted, and we had a reservation and had already agreed on a price. Either way, we were then allowed out of the taxi, paid for the taxi and were escorted to our room by the reception clerk, Tebby and Constantino. When we got to our room, Constantino inspected the cupboards and mosquito net (1) while Tebby flushed the toilet, checked the sink and complained that we had no hot water. Leah and I haven't had a hot shower since we've been in the US, so we really didn't care. Then Tebby tells us to sit down and rest. You'd think that we would then be left alone to relax, go eat dinner, whatevever, but no, we sit and make small talk with Tebby for an hour. We talk about her kids, what kind of organizations we want to volunteer at, Constantino's kids, the fact that Tebby is a widow, what we study, that sort of stuff. Then she asks us if we are hungry, and we all troop to the restaurant to order. We order our food and sit and talk. The food does not come for 2 hours. In the meantime, Constantino's wife Batusaje (is means God Bless Us in her tribal language), arrives. She is a nurse/midwife, and is a little crazy, but fun. During this time we also find out that Tebby had entered our cell phone numbers in her phone as "Mzungu" and "Mzungu 2," so that's neat. I know I've always wanted to be known as "White person 2." Tebby's boyfriend also showed up. She was funny, she kept referring to him as her "friend." Our food comes, we eat, and finally everyone departs. We pay the bill and go to sleep.

The next day, Tebby calls to say she is going to meet us at 10, but she runs on Tanzanian time, so she arrives at 10:30 and takes us to the Matola market. Then we get on a daladala and go to Manjwela, a much larger market where we go to a small local shop that sells food of the fried variety. We meet her sister who is also named Leah. We drink coke and talk with Tebby and Tanzanian Leah for a while before walking around the Manjwela market. American Leah had mentioned she wanted to buy a kitenge, so TZ Leah and Tebby pick one out for her to buy. We have no say in the matter. Watching TZ Leah and Tebby walk around the market, talk and barter is hilarious. They led us around by the hand, or link arms with us, or grab us by the shoulders to direct us. We are now their Mzungu children. We definitely saw a side of the market that we most likely never would have seen if Tebby and TZ Leah hadn't taken us around, which was a lot of fun. Not to mention I would've gotten lost because the market winds around and becomes very maze-like. We were introduced to their friends, and we also learned the difference between kitenge companies, which are good and which aren't as good. Apparently it depends on the kind of wax the company uses to treat the kitenge in.

After the market we got on another daladala and went to Tebby's house. We sit and drink coke, talk to TZ Leah and the boyfriend and play with Tebby's daughter Halle (Hallelujah) while watching Tanzanian gospel music videos, which are quite possibly the funniest music videos ever. They often feature people in coordinated outfits dancing in gardens, on cliffs, or on the beach. Either that or large women in litenge dancing around pools. So it's funny. Tebby cooks for three hours, then serves us dinner. There was rice, and this stew like dish. It had chunks of meat that I think were beef, but I'm not sure. They looked tough and not very good. There were also some peas, vegetables and unidentifiable objects in it. So I serve myself some rice and stew, avoiding the meat chunks, and start eating. It tastes awful, and for some reason tastes like fish. So I look down, and realize that there are minnows in the stew. Heads and all. Minnows, like the ones my family uses to catch actual fish with. I am basically horrified, and just close my eyes and force it down. I haven't eaten since breakfast at 9:30 and it's 5:00 so I am starving. Leah later told me that I had turned a shade of green during this part of the meal. I still can't understand how it took Tebby 3 hours to cook us minnow stew. I eat before 4/5ths of the food, then put my plate down. Luckily, in Tanzanian culture it is good manners to leave a little food on your plate to show your host that you are completely satisfied. I wasn't satisified, but I was done. Then TZ Leah tells me that I haven't eaten much and goes to put more stew on my plate, I quickly tell her "Nimeshiba! nimeshiba sana, asante!" (I am full! I am very full, thank you!") Then, TZ Leah tells me I should eat some fruit. And it's papaya. I don't like papaya. I think it is one of my least favorite fruits. This particular papaya tasted awful. So I forced that down too. I know that Tebby doesn't have a lot of resources, because she is just a secondary teacher, has two children, and is a widow; I know it was extremely kind of her to prepare us food, but it was just awful. At this point we are invited down the street to TZ Leah's house for tea. We stand up to go, I pick up my sweatshirt and my phone falls on the floor. The screen is messed, and what I call the Great Cell Phone Rift forms. It's a black slash across the middle of my screen, and below it, the screen doesn't work. I can still make and receive calls, but I am a little stressed out and don't really want to play any more. But we go to TZ Leah's, drink the best cup of tea I've ever had, count to 20 in english with her 8 year old son, then take a taxi. We think we are going back home, but Tebby takes us around to Kihumbe, the HIV/AIDS NGO Leah volunteers at at and Iwambi, the orphanage I was at, before we return to the Holiday Lodge. At this point we are wiped, pay for the taxi and go to the room. We joke about the minnow stew incident, journal, eat an omelette and chips, and go to bed.

Monday we get up, eat breakfast, and then Constantino walks Leah and I to Kihumbe, then takes me by daladala to Iwambi where I met Deborah. She offered to let Leah and I stay with her for the week. Deborah is a fairly crazy Canadian who used to be a theatre/dance person that runs a Canadian organization called The Olive Branch for Children that works to help HIV/AIDS orphans, and mainly children in general. The organization also holds free clinics for testing, and helps provide free ARV drugs. For a few hours I copy book titles from a notebook onto library book cards for a library she is creating at this orphanage while she and another volunteer named Shelly paint flowers on the floor. We eat ugali and tomatos for lunch, put some of the cards into books, then go to a village about an hour away to watch a peformance put on by Kihumbe, the HIV/AIDS NGO. It was in Kiswahili, but I could follow about 20% of what was going on. It basically revealed myths about HIV/AIDS, and sent the message the Kihumbe would help care of people with HIV/AIDS. The performers danced and sang a song that the main refrain was "we will help the sick, we will love the unloved, we will change the world." It was amazing. The show itself was part mime, part mask, part dance, part skit, part song. It was very cool, and I think a good tool for teaching about HIV/AIDS and getting Kihumbe's name out in the community. Basically, Kihumbe provides home-based care for people infected with the virus. They are almost entirely staffed by volunteers, offer free testing, bring food, clothes, and just go and talk to their clients. It is an amazing organization, partially because it is completely Tanzanian run. That afternoon Leah and I walked to China Restaurant and ate chinese food, then slept at the Holiday Lodge again.

Tuesday morning I walked to Deborah's house, dropped my stuff off, met Ibrahim Deborah's boyfriend, drank instant coffee and talked with Deborah before going to Iwambi. I found out Deborah had done a lot of study on feminist performance art, and had focused on postmodern feminism, which is what I wrote my huge feminist philosophy paper on last semester. Tuesday I got to play with the nursery school students for a few hours. It was so much fun. They had a drum, and we drummed and danced around. I got to practice my Kiswahili which was good. Little kids are less intimidating to talk to, and they are really good teachers. During this time, I learned that Deborah and I share a love for the music of the Indigo Girls, which was cool. I also got complimented on my drumming skills, also fun. In the afternoon, we organized more book cards, and I offered to build a table and a bookshelf for Deborah with my mad carpentry skills from stage crew. That afternoon Leah and I walked around Mbeya and went to the Sombrero Restaurant for dinner. I had an avocado milkshake that was really interesting and better with a spoonful of sugar in it.

Wednesday I went with Ibrahim and Bwigga (another Olive Branch worker) to buy wood, a saw, hammer and nails for my projects. That took us all morning, mainly because Tanzanian speed is so different than Western speed. We bought the wood at a lumber shop, then had to cart it down the road to a machine shop with power where the wood was put through a planing machine to smooth down the boards, then we hired a truck to take us to the hardware store to buy nails, hammer and saw, and finally to Iwambi. It took a long time, but I got to see the back streets of Mbeya, saw a Tanzanian lumberyard, met a woman that was wearing a silver pimp suit, and bartered at a hardware store which is pretty darn cool. I started working on the book shelves, and really missed electric tools. No wonder it takes so long to build things in Tanzania because using a hand saw for everything is tiring. Another setback was the issue of Bwigga, Ibrahim and other assorted men thinking I couldn't use the saw and insisting on trying. I laughed inside when they sawed even slower than I did. Patriarchy is alive and well in Tanzania. Either way, the boards were cut, and I started to put the shelves together. A beautiful little 5 year old girl from the orphanage named Miriam who was missing her front two teeth was helping me. She would hand me nails, helped me hold boards in place, and watched intently every move I made. I offered to let her hammer some of the nails in, but one of the boys who was hanging around heckled her and she didn't try. Bwigga came over later and tried to "help," the side he "helped" on is crooked. Oh well. I went in to town because American Leah and I were going to meet Tebby at 4:30 at the Holiday Lodge.

Tebby didn't show up till 7:30. I mean, her father was sick, but she showed up at 7:30 dressed to the nines wearing a new straight haired wig with her boyfriend, and she had already eaten so Leah and I guessed she had been on a date. Which is fine, it's just that we spent our afternoon at the Holiday Lodge restaurant. Anyways, we talked, gave her a kitenge as a gift for helping us, ate dinner, and got a ride back to Deborah's in her boyfriend's little blue truck, all four of us in the cab. Leah had to sit on her lap. At Deborah's we drank some juice, talked and went to bed.

Thursday I went to Iwambi and finished the bookshelf with the "help" of about 4 men. Ridiculous. Bwigga insisted on helping me build the legs for the table. I told him what to do and just let him build two of the legs while I put the table top together. This time, Miriam again was watching me like a hawk, but when I offered to let her hammer, she smiled and took it. She actually put almost every nail in to the top of the table. I would start each one a little bit for her, and then she would hammer it in. I was proud of her. Bwigga finished his two legs, then wandered off to hang out with the men building a new dormitory. I built my two legs, put the cross support in and put the table top on the legs with the help of Miriam and Serena, a 14 year old girl at the orphanage. I let Miriam hammer the nails connecting the table top to the legs. She did a good job. Keep in mind that throughout this process, not only did I have men coming up trying to help me, but I also had a crowd of women spectators who didn't say anything, but were almost always watching me work. After I finished they all came over and inspected my work. Apparently it passed muster because there was a lot of fast swahili, handshakes and comments like " She's a good carpenter" made to me. It was fun.

After Iwambi I returned to Deborah's. Leah and I had planned on going to Forest Hill to visit the six kids Deborah has adopted and put in a group home, but Tebby called and Leah felt obligated to go visit her. Deborah and I went to Forest Hill and played with her kids. They are a lot of fun. She has a 3 year old Erica who is a solid little girl. My shoulders hurt after picking her up. I felt like a human tree when I was there, because the kids were climbing all over me. We had a dance party, I practiced Kiswahili, then we watched part of the Lion King in english and learned Kiswahili and English words for animals. It was fun. In the taxi back Deborah told me if I didn't have kids she was going to send me one because she thinks I am great with kids. It was a little weird actually, being told that a woman I met a few days ago is going to send me a kid from Africa, but she meant well. Went back to Deborah's and ate grilled cheese for dinner. It was delicious. I hadn't eaten cheese since TCDC, and I hadn't had melted cheese since I was in the states. We talked more, and then went to sleep.

Friday Deborah and I bought paint, and painted the shelves and table with two coats of paint. We went back to her house, hung out a little waiting for Leah, then went to Forest for another round of being human jungle gyms. I really liked playing with those kids. Then we went to the Mbeya Hotel for dinner and ate good cheap Indian food. It was delicious. Back at Deborah's house we talked and watched parts of the movie Rent until 12, 12:30.

Saturday we slept in till 8:15, Leah and I ate breakfast and packed, then went to the bus station to buy our ticket. We took Tondwa's Express to Matema Beach, a small town on Lake Nyasa about 130-140 kilometers away. That isn't very far, but it took us 7 hours. It was a little ridiculous. Not only was it a long bus ride, but I was very sick Saturday. I had a glorified cold, cough and started to get car sick. Deborah had given us some generic medicine that was supposed to help nausea, and I took it. It had interesting consequences. First, I wasn't able to swallow the pill, so I chewed it. It made my tongue and throat go numb. It also knocked me out with 30 minutes. I slept soundly on this bumpy, crowded dirty bus for 4 hours, woke up at a stop, got off and walked around, then got back on and fell asleep till Matema. It was dark when we arrived. We ate dinner and went to sleep in our hut on the beach.

Sunday morning I woke up and went to look at the lake anbd felt like I had reached the edge of the world. Lake Nyasa is possibly one of the most beautiful places in the world I have ever been. There are forested mountains on the left that disappear into the mist down the lake, and on the right the beach curves around down the shore and also disappears into the mist. The mist doesn't clear all day, there is always a mist hanging on the horizon. Lake Nyasa is very skinny, but very long, long enough to see the curvature of the atmosphere on the horizon. When the sun sets, the mountains change from green to purple, and there are lights on boats that are fishing in the distance. There are millions of stars. It's beautiful. For two days we did nothing but lay on the beach, walk 4km to the market and back each day, eat, journal, swim and sleep. I rested a lot, which was great. I loved it there.

Tuesday we took the bus back at 5am, got to Mbeya around 12, ate Indian food at the Mbeya hotel for lunch, had grilled cheese again for dinner, and basically relaxed all afternoon/night.

Wednesday morning we got up early, said goodbye and thank you to Deborah, and got on the bus back to Dar. The bus ride was better than the last time, but I still didn't feel so good.

We arrived back in Dar, came to the University ate dinner and I crashed. It is good to be back.

If you are reading this, you got to the end of the post, I congratulate you. More news later.