I've been so busy that's it's been hard to find time to do anything, much less update my blog, but it's Sunday morning before church and it's raining, so I can't do my usual Sunday morning run.
I'm not really sure where to start because it's been so long since I wrote last!! The day before the mission team left, I took a couple of them to the Agape Children's Village that I had visited previously. My plan was that we could teach the kids some of our songs from VBS and then we could make balloon dogs with them. We encountered a problem when we realized that it was a public holiday for the NaneNane (8/8 referring to the eighth of August), and we couldn't access the balloons and pumps in the office at school. But, we decided that we would just teach the songs and maybe do a game. When we arrived, we explained what had happened, but amazingly enough, the director of the orphanage told us that a Korean team had come and left them balloons and pumps, but they didn't have the least idea what to do with them. It was such an amazing God moment!! It was great getting to teach the adults and the older kids how to make their own balloon dogs! Though, many of them took the dogs apart and got creative with hats and one kid had a set of headphones. Many of them just wanted to use the balloons as swords. It was GREAT! :D
In the afternoon, I went to the NaneNane celebration. Basically it was like a state fair. There were tons of booths where people were selling vegetables or things to help your vegetables grow better. Sokoine University of Agriculture here in Morogoro had a pretty big setup inside a building with all kinds of information about crops and things you could purchase. There was an area where there were some rides, but I didn't ride on any of them. (I'm not sure that I trust rides in Tanzania...haha) Also, the visitor's center was opened for people to come in and see the animals and bones of animals. They were giving out brochures on different parks in Tanzania. It was mass chaos in that area because everyone wanted a brochure. I'm not really sure why, though. Maybe because it was free? A student that I had run into was with me and made sure that I got copies of every brochure. I felt bad because everyone else only got one, but maybe they figure that a white person is more likely to visit all of the different national parks. There was one brochure with a lot of really beautiful pictures and I gave it to my student. Although it would have been nice to keep it, I thought that he and his family would really enjoy the pictures.
The next day, I started language school at the Lutheran Jr. Seminary. It's been a WONDERFUL experience so far. In some ways it feels as though I've learned more Swahili in the last week and a half than I have in my first six months of being here. Because of my previous exposure to Swahili, I've been able to more rather quickly through the lessons. At first I was getting through about 3 units a day. But, now I've slowed down to about 2 units per day which still is not bad. There are 30 units in the first book and 30 in the second. So far I'm half way through the first book!! So far, I haven't made too many big mistakes. However, I did at one point tell my teacher Kula nymba kubwa "Eat a big house" instead
of Kuna nymba kubwa "There is a big house". As you can imagine, she was quite confused. Haha! :D
A normal day of attending language school starts with me waking up at 5:45am. I do my 30 minutes of yoga, get dressed, eat a quick breakfast, make sure my bag is packed properly for the day, and race off to the daladala stop at about 7:15am. It takes about 10 minutes to walk to my daladala stop and then I take the Mjini/Kihonda daladala for about 5 minutes to the big bus stand. Then I have to walk around the big bus stand to the Mikese/Mjini stop. Usually, I have to wait on that daladala bus for a while (up to 15 minutes) before it takes off. From there, it takes about 15 minutes to get to the Lutheran Jr. Seminary. Altogether, a journey that could take about 20 minutes has taken me anywhere between 45 min-1 hour (but it only costs $0.50!!). Language school usually goes from 8am-4pm, but a couple days a week I opt to work through the lunch break and get done at 1:30pm because I have other things I need to get done. We get a 30 minute Chai (tea) break at 10am and then we get a 2 1/2 hour lunch break at 12pm. I'm not sure why lunch break must be so long, but I think it's because some of the language teachers go home (I heard one walks 30 minutes home one way!). It's a SUPER long break to me. On the days when I stay until 4pm, I have discovered via a fellow missionary/language student, that I can get a key to one of the rooms at language school where I can read or take a nap. It's been a wonderful discovery for me!
My evenings have been full to the max. On the days when I stay until 4pm, I don't get back until about 4:45pm and then I have homework to do, emails to check, laundry to wash, work for Class VII to grade, I usually do some kind of workout, etc. Even though the students are out of school for the census break, Class VII is still meeting, so I've been sending work every day with Nathan. He writes it up on the board, the students do it, he brings the work home in the evenings and I check it. Also, in addition to everything stated above, on Mondays I'm teaching my English class at 4pm (so I have to do a short day), and on Wednesdays I'm still going to the prayer service at 5pm. Tuesdays and Thursdays I haven't been getting back until 7pm because I go straight to the International School so I can run and play volleyball. Honestly, last week wasn't working for me (seriously, washing clothes in my bathroom at 10:30pm is not ideal), so I'm going to have to figure out how I can change what I do this week.
Well, I'm going to end here for today! I've still got a ton of stuff to do to get a head start for the week. Please pray for me that I'm able to do everything that I need to get done with joy in my heart!!
May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine
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