Beatings, Dishes and a Proposal?

So I am behind again in my blog, but I have been keeping track in my journal. So It will take me awhile to update fully.

July 24, 2008

Tonight is ideal- I have charged my ipod at the internet cafe and now I have music for the first time in weeks, I am journaling and eating a chocolate bar- I know! It is the best thing I have ever eaten. Our Training manager, John, brought it back from Dar for us because we have had a rough week here in TZ. First of all, our PC country directer was fired- no real news why, but now PCTZ has no country director. Next we had to send three people to Dar for medical reasons- two were dental and one girl dislocated her knee. A few people were super sick with food poisoning. Then more serious things happened. A few girls witnesses a baby baboon being killed by children. These girls were so upset that they almost went home. The cruelty to animals here is amazing and incredibly difficult for us Americans. This was obviously really hard for us. Also, my friend Kim's host brother died this week. He was 26 and had been sick. She was very emotional in telling us and we all really felt sad. Many things were a big cultural wake up call for us Americans. After the high of Mikumi, this was rough. I am fine though.

I did alright on my tests and have been enjoying my host family. I had a brief scare when they took Bahati to the hospital, they told me she was sick, but she seems to be alright now. I wish you could all be a fly on the wall at one of our family dinners. They are so funny. Imagine having two years olds with no high chairs or bibs. Iddy is all over the place grabbing everything and mixing food and drinks like a mad scientist. My mama and baba speak so animatedly- so rapidly. Tanzanians make all sorts of verbal noises that aren't really words. It is nice because even when you don't have much language you know how they are feeling. The other night we had a lively conversation about beating children. My baba wanted to know if parents and teachers beat their children. I told him they weren't supposed to and tried to explain the concept of sending them to their room, which seemed to be lost on them. I am thankful my baba doesn't spank my siblings.

On a slight side note, as a child we would go camping every summer with my parents college friends' families. Our friend, Jim Shaw, would be made fun of by everyone for being very meticulous in the way he would wash the dishes while camping- he basically sterilized each one. I think about Jim every time we do dishes here and I am surprised I am still alive. It is amazing how much our bodies can take. Get this- we use dirty cold water out of a hole in the ground and reuse it on all of our dishes. We scrub our dishes out with our hands- which aren't particularly clean. When things are really stuck on we use grainy dirt from our yard to scrub with, I am serious: we clean with dirt.

A boy came over today who was a friend of Mwanne's. He spoke really good english and wanted to know if I knew any rappers or George W. Bush, he was slightly disappointed that I didn't. He wanted to know if I was amazed at how poor they are in TZ, I was unsure of what to say. He asked me to marry him so he could come to America and be rich. Oh, I forgot to mention that this boy is fourteen. The thought Reed's reaction when I come home married to a random Tanzanian fourteen year old was just priceless.