Mzungu Maasai

This past weekend. was a really nice weekend. My “twin”, Benjamin, came to visit me. I have been here since September, and this is the first chance we’ve had to get together. Clearly, we aren’t “twins”, ha ha ha, but we call each other that because we were both born in the same year (although neither of us look our actual age *insert winky face emoji*). He lives in Arusha, so I have been a little concerned about him and his family as that is where much of the civil unrest has been located. But he said they were all fine although he is concerned about sending his boys back to college and them not being home for the upcoming Independence Day next month. Speaking of which, that was the day I was scheduled to fly home. Thank goodness Langoi mentioned it to me recently, or I may not have been able to change my flight in time. I moved up my departure date by a day and an half to ensure that I get out before the holiday. I just have a feeling that there may be more pockets of unrest that day. So that was my Saturday, hosting my friend/twin at my little apartment.

On Sunday, I was supposed to go to Emmanuel’s church (which is where my school is located also), but my driver, Baraka, got delayed and we weren’t able to make it. I may have mentioned that it takes a good forty-five minutes to get from my location to the school/church, so it just isn’t feasible for me to go every day of the week even if I drove myself. Speaking of which, I have driven (never alone) here, but it is something I am hesitant to do without a native speaker with me as I still do not speak Swahili very well (or at all…). I am working on learning it, but my brain just has a difficult time wrapping around the grammar aspect of it. Anyway, I went to AIM Mall, the Tanzanian version of a mall which is very similar to the American version. There is a supermarket there, European-style, a furniture store, a pharmacy (where I was able to buy some more contact solution, but you can get all kinds of things there), a “beauty” store…like perfumes and special body washes, a spa, a “department store” that has everything from school supplies to household items, a couple of toy stores that I took a look at to see if they had stuff I might want for the school, a children’s clothing store, a safari goods store, an athletic store (their version of Dick’s Sporting Goods), a kitchenware store, two different spas, and a variety or restaurants: coffee shop, Mexican, pizza, Chinese, brewery (Twiga Beer!), and a children’s playland (sort of like one of those places where the kids go through tubes and slides as if they are hamsters. That kind of place.). Then in the courtyard outside, there is a place for the kids to rent a toy car and drive it up and down the courtyard while their parents spend money or drink a beverage and relax. So you can see, it is very similar to an American mall. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was focused on getting the contact solution and seeing what kinds of items the toy stores had that might be useful for the school.

After the mall, I went to a friend’s house who lives in Arusha. He owns a tourism company where he takes people, re: mzungus/white people, on safari or helps them book safaris. He also has started another safari business which is once a month setting up a trip for Tanzanian citizens to go on safari for the day for a lesser fee than us mzungus pay. He has started these “Sunday Special’s” where he invites guests over and cooks for them. Well, his son and nephew are actually planning to do this to make a little extra money, so they invited me over to try the idea out and get feedback. He has a lovely backyard, full of banana trees (again, I wish I had taken more pictures) and a great seating area/grill area that he is planning to expand. The food was delicious; chicken stew, grilled beef and bananas, and fresh tomato/carrot/cucumber salad. It is a peaceful oasis right in the middle of a big city. I was able to walk around a little bit with him and see where some of the “unrest” occurred. There are burned out cars and buildings very close to his house. He said he put water hoses on the four corners of the property to keep the fires at bay. But he fully believes this government is going to change the constitution for the better, so we will wait and see if that happens. One final “hustle” that he has is a podcast where he talks about tourism and the different national parks available to tourists called Utalii Podcast. I was interviewed for it because he and I actually met at Tarangire National Park last summer when I had my students and staff there. We are kind of hard to ignore when we take the kids because there are thirty little ones running around in matching track suits…it’s kind of adorable.

So that was my weekend. It wasn’t a “normal” weekend by any means, but then, I’m not really sure what a “normal” weekend is supposed to look like. Sometimes I go out to eat here just like I would back home, and sometimes I just stay in and cook…just like I would back home. On Monday I went to visit the babies, and they are really progressing on their “project” of singing “Bwana Shamba Had a Farm”. I think we really might be able to sing it for our end of the year celebration which is coming up rapidly. I can’t believe our fifth school year has almost come to a close! Our government registration is still in the works, so things are really progressing along nicely. We recently received a very generous donation which will allow us to finish some projects that had to be shelved due to lack of funding, do some beautification projects for the property, and get some specialized curriculum supplies (and more playground equipment!) for the school. God continues to bless us and bless my time here in my chosen second home.