Life in Arusha

*I made a youtube account and have posted some videos on it. I have lots more to go up onto it but it will probably take a while. It takes about 30 minutes to upload one of them. The address is: http://www.youtube.com/user/faithloveandservice

Power

It has been about a week and a half since I last uploaded a blog post. Everything is rationed in Tanzania, but mainly food, water and electricity. What we have come to call “real power” is on for about 6 hours a day if we are lucky. Our house does have a generator but we usually save that for night time and it can be tripped by almost anything we plug into the wall. Sometimes, the generator doesn’t come on at all. “Real power” means that I get toast in the morning, or that I have 5% increased chance of getting a luke warm shower. If I am counting... I have had three warm showers since being here. The power seems to always go off right before I stick my toast into the toaster or when there is 10 minutes left of a movie that everyone is watching in the living room. Almost every night we eat dinner in the dark, which isn’t completely bad because then I cannot see what questionable thing I am eating for the day. But, since the power is one about 6 hours a day... it seems that this is always when I am away at placement or sleeping for the night. Therefore, my laptop has been dead for over a week. BUT! I got to charge my phone, ipod, AND laptop yesterday... such a good day! So we are back up and running. For at least another four hours and thirteen minutes... or so my computer battery says. 

Water

Every other day we run out of water and are usually without it until the next day. The water is almost always freezing and the water pressure is less strong than the water pressure in my kitchen sink. For those of you who have used this sink... the pressure is almost nonexistent. I am not exaggerating. My mom will definitely feel sorry for me when she reads this. Thanks mom. Running out of water sometimes means no drinking water either.. which is easy enough because we can walk down the street about a minute to a small shop and buy a Liter of it. But running out of water means not being able to flush the toilet for the rest of the night or however long until we get a new supply. This is definitely sometimes treacherous!

Food

I haven’t really gone in to depth on what I am exactly eating here everyday. I assumed incorrectly that living in the volunteer house with all volunteers that we would usually have Western food and sometimes get Tanzanian food. Again, assumed incorrectly. I have had Western food twice since being here. TWICE. Two meals. And it isn’t even great Western food. I love food. Alot. Most times when I get homesick it is after a really bad meal. 

The best meal of the day at the volunteer house is lunch, but with my placement, I am gone everyday during lunch time. So I miss the best meal of the day and get to eat lunch at school. At placement we always have white rice and usually beans. But sometimes we get lucky and get maze. (Sarcasm) Maze is the same thing as corn here but it is white. I am not a huge fan of corn but can eat it. Actually, here I can eat anything. The thing is, they do not cook the maize long enough so it is still hard when we eat it. If we are not having beans for the day, and we get maize... they mix it in with the ratio of 502 maze kernels and 34 beans. Today was a “maize day” which is probably why I am a little more grumpy than normal. :) We usually always have cabbage as well. Yuck. But I eat it. If we are lucky we get tomatoes and onions. I hate tomatoes at home... but it is the lesser of evils here. So I enjoy when we have them. OHHH... and the rice... has rocks in it. If you are lucky you may chomp down on one and chip a tooth. The other day Oliwier bit down on one and it was so loud that we all looked up and saw that he was in pain. They try and get all the rocks separated but you always miss several. I love the cooks at school and I am so thankful to have anything to eat, don’t get me wrong, I know children and whole families here go hungry without food... but it is my American food indulgence showing through. I have my weaknesses. 

Our three meals for dinner at the volunteer house are 1) Chips Maeye (fried egg with french fries in it) or Chips Kuku (French fries and chicken). I have talked about this before in a post.. it actually isn’t too horrible but the chickens still have hair on them when you eat them. The chips are good but are not what I could call french fries. Everything is cooked over the gas stove here and we have no oven. 2) Chapatti and lentils. Chapatti is cooked dough.. almost like a tortilla. I love these. Other than when we have “real power” and I get toast.. this is the only other time I get bread. Lentils... are lentils. I do not know how to describe them but if I eat Chapatti with lentils on it and then douse it in chili sauce.. I can almost pretend I am eating Mexican food. This is my favorite meal. 3) Mashed potatoes and cooked vegetables. The potatoes are decent but I support eating meat... and at home, we never have potatoes without meat. So eating it with vegetables is not my favorite. Thankfully we have this one night a week... unfortunately that night is tonight. Meals one and two alternate every other day excluding Wednesdays (Mashed potato night).

In conclusion.. white rice.. beans.. maize.. vegetables.. potatoes.. hairy chicken... CARBS, CARBS and more carbs. Most hours I would kill for a chicken quesadilla with nacho cheese and hot sauce. Speaking of the chili sauce.. everything is made better here by pouring hot sauce on it. Everything. I plan on eating 10 meals on the day I arrive home. That is in 81 days. That is 2x the length of Lent. I love Africa!!!! 

No, but really. I love it here. I love my placement and I love my kids. I love the friends I have made here and am thankful everyday for this opportunity. This past weekend I missed my kids so much that I couldn’t wait to get back on Monday. I am sad that there is only two days left of this week but am celebrating because Friday night we are going for PIZZAAAAA! 

I miss you all and please say a good light humored prayer that I do not go insane from the food here. I am going crazy already and it has only been 22 days. 

I risked taking a photo in the middle of town for this great view of Mt. Meru in the background. 

Yes, That is a REAL mountain!