For christmas gifts for our families we made a video of a day in the life of Courtney and Arthur in Songea. We decided to share it with everyone so they would have a glimps of our life there and what it really is like. We hope you enjoy the movies!
Welcome to our world
Felix
Mama Sofia
Saidi
Cooking - Part I
Cooking - Part II
Morning Walk
Songea Town
Songea Market
Songea Grocery
Post Office
Lunch
Preschool
End of Day - Goodbye!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas from Zanzibar!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody! We hope that your holidays are as exciting and filled with palm-leaf hats, airplane seat furniture, and happiness, as ours. We miss you all!
Courtney and Arthur and Bebeth and Mark
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Bugs 2
We posted the other day about bugs. It turns out we jumped the gun. The rains have come and it rained hard for two days. By the second night it had let up and it was nice and cool out. We were under our net reading enjoying an rare night of electricity when we started to hear an unusual number of bugs in the room. Courtney got up to investigate. She walked into the other room where we had left the front door open, which turned out to be a big mistake. She came running back into the bedroom because the “dinning” room was filled with flying bugs! They were pouring in the door, hitting the windows madly, and coming in through any hole they could find. We proceeded to run around the house to shut all doors, turn off all lights, and kill all the bugs by hitting them with a shoe. We now have red shoe prints and dead bugs all over our walls, but it did the trick.
A pot full of bugs that the kids were collecting to eat
After the rains these bugs, which look like ants with 1 inch wings, come crawling out of the ground. We think they are some kind of termite. They all hatch at once and fill the air. The air is so thick with them with them that there is one almost every three feet. If you can get over the fact that they are bugs it is kind of pretty as long, as they aren’t in your house.
The next morning when we got up the ground was covered in their wings. We are not sure if they got eaten and the wings are left behind, they had finished their life span already and died, or they shed their wings. For some reason the wings are all in piles around the base of trees and buildings (as you can see in the picture). When we went for a walk that morning we found 10 of the local kids around the community center building with pots. They were eagerly collecting the bugs to eat! As you can see from the picture they do not look that appetizing but we hear that they are high in vitamin A and protein. We have yet to try them. The bugs here keep us on our toes and are every changing.
Wings at the bottom of a tree
Girl Showing off her bugs
A pot full of bugs that the kids were collecting to eat
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Long Days
This is a post that we wrote almost 2 months ago, but never posted. Some things have changed. Some have not.
In our past posts we described how we have extra time on our hands. But for some reason we are always tired. We aren’t running a marathon, we aren’t taking a huge exam, but we always feel like we have done both. That’s because daily activities here are very draining. Our 45 minute trek to town does us in. We walk through one of the poorest neighborhoods in the area. The kids have one outfit that is beyond dirty and ripped and most of the time half hanging off of them. They are eating unripe mangoes that are the size of a golf ball because they have nothing else to eat. All at the same time running after us yelling “Mzungu” and wanting to walk with us. We do our best to say hi to everyone and their brother along the way but invariably we manage to miss someone who will then proceed to get mad at us in Swahili so we don’t even know what they are saying to defend ourselves. We then make our way through town picking up food for the next few days. We pay twice as much as we should since we can’t understand the prices and ask things like “do you buy bread” instead of “do you sell bread” and get strange looks because we messed up our vocabulary. Then we have to walk back through the same neighborhood with a bag full of food that costs more than people make in a month.
When we get home we stumble through greetings with one of the Mamas who are working on building the community center (they are putting concrete on the buildings and painting them to protect them from the rain). These women will work for 12 hours that day carrying buckets of water on their heads for 500 yards from the tap to the building. For all this hard work each woman will receive 2000 TSH ($1.70) per day. This is more than most places pay, which is about 1500 TSH ($1.20). And through all of this the women feel lucky because most people around here don’t have a job. That wage wouldn’t even buy you one jar of local peanut butter here, for which we pay 4000 TSH, or a lunch of chicken soup which costs 2500 TSH.
By this time the preschoolers have gotten out of school and run by our house. They head straight for the trash pit behind our house. All of our waste, which isn’t much compared to the amount of trash we produce at home, gets thrown into it. The preschoolers jump into the pit and rummage around to see what treasures they can find. Maybe a ripped plastic bag, or an empty water bottle. Both of which are a big find. Mind you, they are children whose parents are well off enough to pay 1000 TSH a month to send them to preschool. When these children or one of the other 15 that come to play soccer throughout the day ask for candy, water, or an empty water bottle, what do you say? We can’t feed the entire town. If we give our empty water bottles out, which of the 20 kids do we give it to? How do you explain in a language that you can’t speak that you have more stuff than they can imagine but you can’t give them a little left over food? On top of this, the community thinks we are paying to plaster and paint the buildings, since we arrived two days before work started. No matter how many times or ways they are told that we are volunteers and we didn’t pay for the buildings it doesn’t matter.
By 4:00 we are ready to crawl into bed and lock the door. But this is why we came. We want the kids to run after us to talk. We want to the kids to come and play soccer. We want to try to grapple with the fact that at home we eat more food in a week than most eat in a month here. We want to learn about a new culture and way of life. So while it may be overwhelming and draining, it is also exciting and a learning experience. It is all worth it when you manage to say you are trying to learn Swahili to the man in the market who is selling carrots and he thinks you are the great for trying and smiles and tells you “karibu sana Tanzania, rafiki yangu.” “You’re very welcome to Tanzania, my friend.”
In our past posts we described how we have extra time on our hands. But for some reason we are always tired. We aren’t running a marathon, we aren’t taking a huge exam, but we always feel like we have done both. That’s because daily activities here are very draining. Our 45 minute trek to town does us in. We walk through one of the poorest neighborhoods in the area. The kids have one outfit that is beyond dirty and ripped and most of the time half hanging off of them. They are eating unripe mangoes that are the size of a golf ball because they have nothing else to eat. All at the same time running after us yelling “Mzungu” and wanting to walk with us. We do our best to say hi to everyone and their brother along the way but invariably we manage to miss someone who will then proceed to get mad at us in Swahili so we don’t even know what they are saying to defend ourselves. We then make our way through town picking up food for the next few days. We pay twice as much as we should since we can’t understand the prices and ask things like “do you buy bread” instead of “do you sell bread” and get strange looks because we messed up our vocabulary. Then we have to walk back through the same neighborhood with a bag full of food that costs more than people make in a month.
When we get home we stumble through greetings with one of the Mamas who are working on building the community center (they are putting concrete on the buildings and painting them to protect them from the rain). These women will work for 12 hours that day carrying buckets of water on their heads for 500 yards from the tap to the building. For all this hard work each woman will receive 2000 TSH ($1.70) per day. This is more than most places pay, which is about 1500 TSH ($1.20). And through all of this the women feel lucky because most people around here don’t have a job. That wage wouldn’t even buy you one jar of local peanut butter here, for which we pay 4000 TSH, or a lunch of chicken soup which costs 2500 TSH.
By this time the preschoolers have gotten out of school and run by our house. They head straight for the trash pit behind our house. All of our waste, which isn’t much compared to the amount of trash we produce at home, gets thrown into it. The preschoolers jump into the pit and rummage around to see what treasures they can find. Maybe a ripped plastic bag, or an empty water bottle. Both of which are a big find. Mind you, they are children whose parents are well off enough to pay 1000 TSH a month to send them to preschool. When these children or one of the other 15 that come to play soccer throughout the day ask for candy, water, or an empty water bottle, what do you say? We can’t feed the entire town. If we give our empty water bottles out, which of the 20 kids do we give it to? How do you explain in a language that you can’t speak that you have more stuff than they can imagine but you can’t give them a little left over food? On top of this, the community thinks we are paying to plaster and paint the buildings, since we arrived two days before work started. No matter how many times or ways they are told that we are volunteers and we didn’t pay for the buildings it doesn’t matter.
By 4:00 we are ready to crawl into bed and lock the door. But this is why we came. We want the kids to run after us to talk. We want to the kids to come and play soccer. We want to try to grapple with the fact that at home we eat more food in a week than most eat in a month here. We want to learn about a new culture and way of life. So while it may be overwhelming and draining, it is also exciting and a learning experience. It is all worth it when you manage to say you are trying to learn Swahili to the man in the market who is selling carrots and he thinks you are the great for trying and smiles and tells you “karibu sana Tanzania, rafiki yangu.” “You’re very welcome to Tanzania, my friend.”
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
New phone number
In the past few weeks we have losted our phone. But have no fear we have a new one with a new number so you can still call us!
+255-7820-42471
As always we love hearing from everyone via snail mail, e-mail, and phone!
+255-7820-42471
As always we love hearing from everyone via snail mail, e-mail, and phone!
Container
We haven’t posted much about the state of Africa, NGOs, or the like. So here goes…
The NGO that we are volunteering for sent a container from the USA to the community center. People at the community center, us included, had been very excited about it because it was suppose to contain good educational materials and things for the center. We were particularly looking forward to receiving books to start a library. After traveling for over a year, the container arrived in Songea this Thursday morning. While it did contain some of the items we had been hoping for, it also contained many other things that were surprising, kind of crazy, and down right useless.
First the books. As promised, there were thousands of books in the container. We were excited. But after opening all the boxes, we discovered that we were sent 20 (sometimes 40 or more) copies of each book. It is hard to fathom what we will do with that many copies. It is harder to fathom what we will do with one, much less 20, copies of some of the books in particular. A few prime examples are How to Grow Shrubs and Trees in Cold Climates or Do I want to be a Mom?. (This book explores many of the American issues associated with motherhood. We were lucky enough to get 40 copies). How about 20 copies of electrical wiring for semi conductors, or many of the books that are in French or Spanish.
Educational Materials: As we have posted before, the schools here have very little, if any, resources. The preschool was very excited that there were educational materials coming. Once again, it was very interesting to see what was sent. For those who are teachers you might have heard of Open Court, a phonics-based reading program. This is a very complicated program that has many materials (books, flash cards, work books, etc). We received 15 copies of the Volume 1 kit, 15 copies of the review kit, and one copy of volume 2. Many teachers in the US (who speak English) go to training courses to understand how to teach using this method. Many teachers in the US would be very excited to receive these kits but it is hard for me to imagine how one, much less 15, of the same kit will be put to use here. Neither the teachers nor the students speak English. The school still does not have basic educational supplies such as paper, pencils, markers, or anything of the sort.
Toys: There were a couple of boxes of toys that arrived (we are guessing for the preschool) that are very interesting. Most are brightly colored, battery operated (people cannot afford batteries here), hunks of plastic crap. The kind of toys you see in the store and wonder who actually buys them. Others are Barbie-type dolls that are scantily dressed, which in this culture is associated with prostitution. Lastly, there are four tents. People don’t camp around here, but you never know, we could start a camping club!
Oh, and best of all, every single book is affixed with a giant sticker that says “for donation only – not for resale.” The stickers literally take up a third of the book cover. Which is great, so when kids are looking at the book on how to grow shrubs in cold climates, they can remember that the totally irrelevant book was given with generosity and thoughtfulness.
The NGO that we are volunteering for sent a container from the USA to the community center. People at the community center, us included, had been very excited about it because it was suppose to contain good educational materials and things for the center. We were particularly looking forward to receiving books to start a library. After traveling for over a year, the container arrived in Songea this Thursday morning. While it did contain some of the items we had been hoping for, it also contained many other things that were surprising, kind of crazy, and down right useless.
First the books. As promised, there were thousands of books in the container. We were excited. But after opening all the boxes, we discovered that we were sent 20 (sometimes 40 or more) copies of each book. It is hard to fathom what we will do with that many copies. It is harder to fathom what we will do with one, much less 20, copies of some of the books in particular. A few prime examples are How to Grow Shrubs and Trees in Cold Climates or Do I want to be a Mom?. (This book explores many of the American issues associated with motherhood. We were lucky enough to get 40 copies). How about 20 copies of electrical wiring for semi conductors, or many of the books that are in French or Spanish.
Educational Materials: As we have posted before, the schools here have very little, if any, resources. The preschool was very excited that there were educational materials coming. Once again, it was very interesting to see what was sent. For those who are teachers you might have heard of Open Court, a phonics-based reading program. This is a very complicated program that has many materials (books, flash cards, work books, etc). We received 15 copies of the Volume 1 kit, 15 copies of the review kit, and one copy of volume 2. Many teachers in the US (who speak English) go to training courses to understand how to teach using this method. Many teachers in the US would be very excited to receive these kits but it is hard for me to imagine how one, much less 15, of the same kit will be put to use here. Neither the teachers nor the students speak English. The school still does not have basic educational supplies such as paper, pencils, markers, or anything of the sort.
Toys: There were a couple of boxes of toys that arrived (we are guessing for the preschool) that are very interesting. Most are brightly colored, battery operated (people cannot afford batteries here), hunks of plastic crap. The kind of toys you see in the store and wonder who actually buys them. Others are Barbie-type dolls that are scantily dressed, which in this culture is associated with prostitution. Lastly, there are four tents. People don’t camp around here, but you never know, we could start a camping club!
Oh, and best of all, every single book is affixed with a giant sticker that says “for donation only – not for resale.” The stickers literally take up a third of the book cover. Which is great, so when kids are looking at the book on how to grow shrubs in cold climates, they can remember that the totally irrelevant book was given with generosity and thoughtfulness.
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