Car Spirits, House Girls, and Other Thoughts From the Bush

"I am not afriad of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship." -Louisa May Alcott



March 17, 2010


I am wandering through a cornfield. It is dusk. On my wrist hangs a bag of raw meat that I am trying not to think about. That hand grasps the hand of a child. My cell phone is in my other hand where a Tanzanian man is telling me about the evil spirit that is living under the hood of his car. I pause a minute in my brain, like so many times here, I think- "What?!? How did I possibly end up here?"


It is no wonder cornfeilds are in so many horror movies. I am coming back from one of my subvillages, they have butchered a pig. Meat is a rare luxury in Image village which completely agrees with my diet. Mama Glad has been working hard at her shop and has asked me to bring back a kilo of pig guts (guts is my word) for her family. Ewwww... Really? Toughen up, Brie, you are not the one going to eat it. Incidently, on the way back through a cornfeild I find Mama Glad's three year old daughter. Is she lost in the corn? I have no idea. I offer her my hand which she accepts. My phone rings- it is William. By some miracle I have phone service in a cornfield...

William: Brie, Vipi? (slang: how? as in "how is it going?") I took the car to the mechanic but he can't fix it.
Me: Why? He doesn't have the right parts?
William: No, a bad spirit is in there.
Me: (calmly, because nothing surprises me anymore) Really? You think this or this is what the mechanic has told you?
William: That is what he told me.
Me: (In English) wow, how lovely to be a mechanic in Tanzania.
William: Why are you speaking English?
Me: Never mind. So what do we do about evil car spirits?
William: I have never seen one before, maybe Mzee Ngoda can get rid of it.
Me: Right. But don't you think we should just take it to another mechanic? I mean the car is junk, a spirit really isn't the problem.
William: Brie, spirits can be everywhere.
Me: What does a spirit want with a piece of junk?
William: (laughing) There must just be more spirits here than in America, because you don't really understand. We have to draw the evil out, then the car can work again.
Me: Okay. Just don't forget to come and get me before we draw it out.

A voodoo car ceremony is something that I have gotta see. Then I will recommend taking it to another mechanic.

My best text of the week came from my friend, Kate, at about 6.30 pm. "Well, I don't have a book that I feel like reading, so I am just going to stare into space until it is an acceptable hour to get into bed." (For PCVs this is about 8 pm)

The best book I have read in a long time is: The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls.

I read somewhere that the Chinese symbol for "crisis" is the same as the symbol for "opportunity". I wonder if we lived our lives like they were one in the same, what opportunities we could create for ourselves.

My life has suddenly gotten immensely better with the addition of a 23 year old village girl named Jane. It is common knowledge among my friends and family, that I am an incredibly messy and disorganized person. I was once told my a friend that it is amazing that I come off so put together when I come from that (gesture toward my room). In Tanzania, I was doing all my own housework. Only feeling vaguely jealous when my PCV friends would complain, "My house girl stretches out my clothes when she washes them." or "I called my house girl and told her to start heating water for bathing." Eventually- I caved. My house just got messier and messier until I realized that this is probably the only time in my life where I will be able to afford house help. I actually like washing my clothes by hand, but now Jane does everything else. And let me tell you, Tanzanians can clean! I wish that I could import Jane to America so she can clean up my messes for the rest of my life. Jane dish-washes, floor-mops, bed-makes, table-wipes, spider-removes, trash-gathers, window-washes, etc. I don't know how I ever lived without her. Plus she washed my sheets. I should not admit this, but the last time I remember washing my sheets was 5.5 months ago. (You try fitting them into a bucket, scrubbing them, and then getting them to air dry.) Anyways, she might be the love of my life. I pay her about nine dollars a month. All of my villagers claim that I am grossly overpaying her. Even she told me that it was too much. So they think that I am an idiot, but little do they know I would pay her three times that for the same work- she is just that valuable to my survival. I came home from a meeting the other day and she had cooked lunch- I almost proposed right there.