Many have been wondering…what in the world do you do over there every day? Well, without further ado, let me share a day in the life of living in Africa. (One editorial note, all the following did not necessarily happen on exactly the same day, but are common enough occurrences that they would all be considered ‘daily’ activities.)
Every day begins the same, with a knock on our window around 6 a.m. That would be the sound of our watchman letting us know he’s leaving (and thus we need to go lock the gate behind him). Our watchman, like most here in Northern Tanzania, is a Maasai. The Maasai are a tribal group who are most recognizable for the vibrant colors of their dress (although many today are departing from this traditional dress...at least when coming to town...as you'll notice in the picture of Benny, our watchman), their nomadic existence and their warrior reputation (‘it’s not wise to cross blades with a’…Maasai…unless you have guns – they only use/carry a stick & machete – or vastly outnumber them, it’s not wise to mess with them – that said, they’re very friendly people). As a point of reference, the Maasai would be Tanzania’s equivalent of Native Americans, they’ve been in Africa forever and still carry many ‘native’ rights (i.e. – they can virtually lead their cattle/herds to graze anywhere they want, though they tend to stick to the open plains, where relatively few other people are anyway). If you want to know more about them, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MaasaiAfter letting our watchman out, I usually go right back to bed (6 a.m. – c’mon now, you didn’t think I would actually be getting up…for good…that early did you?). But never fear, I’m only getting another 1-2 hours sleep, as I’m up for good everyday between 7 and 8 a.m. First things first, water…so we begin boiling. On days when there’s power (which was only 3 out of 7 this week), we have a cool electric pitcher that boil about a half gallon of water in less than 3 min. On other days, it’s over the stove (propane stove). Breakfast usually consists of either toast, made with a frying pan
on the stove, oatmeal (plain only of course…but not bad with a little maple syrup…yes, we found it in a local grocery store…by ‘grocery store’ I mean a quick-e-mart type store), eggs or leftovers from dinner the night before. One interesting note about the eggs, and pretty much everything for that matter, they never refrigerate them here. In fact, we got many weird looks, even from the Light in Africa staff who are from England, when we asked about putting our eggs in a refrigerator. (We do have a mini-refrigerator, a luxury here for sure, though when the power goes out for 2-3 days, we’re back to square one.) Fruit, vegetables, milk (to be fair here, they get milk from cows daily, so it’s not like buying a 2-gallon jug that’ll last for 4 days, it just sits for a day)…even cheese (yes, when we first arrived at the house we’re staying, we were looking through the cupboards and found a container on the shelf with a block of cheese in it – and yes, to our surprise, we can get both cheese & butter here…pretty cool we thought).
Okay, so after cooking, eating & cleaning up…which in all takes much longer than back home…it’s off to the tasks at hand. Now that we have a car (a huge blessing we just got a week ago, and head off. Along the way (driving to Mailisita), we’ll gaze at the beauty of Mt. Kilimanjaro, maybe
see a few monkeys running across the road, dodge a few grazing goats/cattle gone astray (the Masai often graze their herds along the roads, where there’s often greener grasses to feed on), pass a standard Mazda style pick-up truck (maybe the Chevy Luv resurrected) with a load of corn stalks stacked 4 times the height of the truck itself (always topped with 3-4 locals relaxing on the ‘pillow of corn stalks’ - locals were still in the process of loading the truck pictured below), wave at 3-4 locals who are in the process of removing excess
material from their sinuses (typically utilizing the readily accessible tool of a finger – did I mention the removal process doesn’t stop at you make eye contact & wave, removal simply continues, as most have a 2nd free hand with which to wave back), pass at least one man who is in the process of freeing himself of the excess weight of water (typically facing away from the road, but sometimes facing towards it) and witness 3 instances of 2 lane roads becoming 3 lane roads as one vehicle passes another in the midst of oncoming traffic.
Alas, we finally arrive at our destination. Our destination changes daily. One day it might be Mailisita (Light in Africa), where Cindy & the girls will
work in the Nursery (currently 20 kids ages 0-3…plus a 5 year old with cerebral palsy and another one who is essentially disabled simply due to severe malnourishment/starvation for the 1st 4 years of his life) and Dave will continue teaching the bookkeeper how to use a computer to do the books for Light in Africa (as a point of reference, lesson #1 = here is the ‘On’ button, needless-to-say, I didn’t realize I’d be literally starting from scratch when I was asked to help switch to an electronic bookkeeping system…soooo, let’s just say it’s a work in progress). Another day it might be the fundi (local term for a ‘tradesman’) to get something fixed on the car or bike, which of course means Dave gets to sit and watch the grass grow as the work is done (leaving your vehicle with a mechanic, unless you have come to exceedingly trust one, is generally not a good idea here…unless of course
you don’t mind having a couple other valuable parts swapped out of your vehicle for cheaper, used parts while the actual work you came to have done is finished). So needless-to-say, there is no ‘dropping the car off at the mechanic’ here…which also means there is no leaving a car overnight at the mechanic…which means it may take 3 trips into town and 3 days of sitting and watching your car be worked on for a job to be done. Again, the ‘high productive, efficient, fast pace American way’ comes to a screeching halt here…and begins to beat one’s head into the wall again & again to numb the pain of feeling like nothing is getting done (I have the bruises to prove this philosophy!). On Sundays it’s off to pick up
kids from Malaika & Pilgrim House, a quick stop by Mailisita to pick up any volunteers that want to join us and on to Majengo (a local Moshi community) for church. We leave at 9:30 a.m. for an 11 a.m. service, which doesn’t get finished until 1:30 or 2 p.m. Depending on the week, we may take the kids out to lunch after church, which means, given where we live and the size of the group (usually a van full of 15-25 people), we won’t get home until around 5 p.m.
As the sun begins to set (which happens every day, all year, at 6 p.m. – always dark by 7 p.m. – the consistency that comes with living on the equator), we head for home, hoping there’s power. If not, as 4/7 days this past week evidenced, then it’s candlelight dinner for all and off to bed around 9 or 10 p.m. (And now it was just announced that there will be no power during the day, 7 a.m. – 7 p.m., 5 days/week.) On days there is power, we usually head to bed around 11 or midnight (still a night owl as always!). And off to do it again.
