This past week was really a fun one. One night I went with Mama on our normal night banana buying walks and this girl yelled Mznungu (traveler) at me. I am almost immune to all of the attention that I get now so I didn’t think anything of it. Then out of nowhere Mama yells ANAITWA JOSHUA (his name is Joshua). It was SO funny since I didn’t expect it at all. Then when we were at the market the lady asked about me and used the munzungu word again and Mama had to correct her! LOL. GO MAMA!
This past week for lunch one day they brought us to town to practice the resturant vocab we learned and we go to EAT OUT! The food was pretty much the same like we normally eat but it was really a treat to come to town. I also had ice cream for the first time in what seems like forever. The ice cream wasn’t the best quality but it really reminded me a lot of home and it was different than the sugar donuts we have all the time so I got that warm fuzzy feeling. It was weird because I have never gotten it from eating ice cream before. What a treat! One the way to town we had to take this Tanzanian type bus (I will have to write more about these later because they are truly unique) and all of the people that were on there that had seats all let us have their seats and stood the rest of the way so we could sit down. We get spoiled like that a lot more than I would have ever expected.
My host brother Enoshi thought it would be fun to catch these small little birds and scare them with me. He brought one in the house when I was studying and was holding it by its legs and making it flap its wings as he held it closer to me. I haven’t been scared of anything in such a long time but it really freaked me out! He also showed me where he cut this one’s bird’s wings. One of my fellow volunteers said that the other day at the school they are at this one student was selling a monkey that he had caught. He had it in a plastic bag. They told the school but I doubt they will do anything. People don’t see animals as pets here at all. Basically if it doesn’t have any economic value to them then see no point in keeping them.
My family has been taking of the fact that I know Spanish lately. My Mama now knows all of the foods in Spanish and the kids know how to say Tu simpre estas jugando con migo (you are always playing with me). I told them that one time and the just went nuts so I have coached them on how to say it. The other night we watched this Brazilian Sopa Opera in Portuguese on the TV during dinner. It was really neat. The also said the word MALARIA in the right way and it made me realize that it was a Spanish word that means BAD RIVER!
My Kiswahili is progressing! One night this week one of my host sisters’ just started laughing for know reason and I thought that she was laughing at me so I asked her in Kiswahili if she was playing with me. I think I caught her and the rest of the family off guard because it made her and the rest of the family burst into laughter. It funny because people will just randomly laugh when we say common greetings to them because they are not used to Mznungus learning their language. For example the other night I asked my Babu (Grandpa) if he wanted another beer and it did it in perfect Kiswahili. Again he was not expecting it and so he just burst out into laughter. It basically doesn’t take much for me to amuse my family. We seem to be always laughing!
The little baby Julianna has still been crying when I pick her up and stuff. I think that I might be the first white person she has ever seen in her life! This week my Mama told me to take her with me to the market at night when I went. So I did and right after we got a little ways from the house she stopped! I was so amazed! My brother went to the market with me because I don’t think it looks good for a white person to be carrying a black baby out in public. She has actually been sick with what we think is Malaria. My Baba (dad) and Mama had to take her to the hospital this week. It is common for them to get it. They only run into problems with it if they don’t get the antibiotics early or at all.