Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Archive for the ‘Life in Iringa’ Category

In honor of Kent a new good blogging friend and proud parent/grandparent of a tenant family currently at the campsite, I’m posting this 16+ minute video tour of the Riverside Campsite in Iringa, Tanzania. This is where we attended Swahili language school and I filmed this in early November last year.  You can even hear some Swahili, or at least my attempt at it, with English subtitles! Enjoy!

**WARNING** This is a very large video file that will cost a lot if you have to pay for internet service per megabyte (like in Tanzania).  All you high speed folk in the States ain’t got a thing to worry about.  If the video becomes jerky, pause it for a minute or two to allow more to download ahead of you.  Then playing it should be good.

This is video of water from the shower in our banda in Africa.  You’ll see me fill up a bucket in a dim-lit bathroom then carry it outside so you can see it better.                                 

If you’ve ever traveled overseas, especially to a 3rd world country, and spent time close to real life there, the feelings I’m about to describe may be a little familiar.

I went to town this afternoon and on the 15-minute ride there, I had a little time to just ride and think about what I was seeing. Sometimes life here (and even on short term mission trips) feels like a show that I’m sitting there watching. The ways of life all around me are so different than from what my home is like. It feels as though I ride through a movie each and every day and that all the people I see are actors. It is hard for me picture in my head the fact that what they’re doing has carried on before I arrived and will continue after I’m gone. Just growing up and living so far away from this culture makes it feel like it doesn’t even exist except for the moments I happen to be passing through.

Tanzania will keep on keepin’ on even after we hop on the plane Saturday night, just like everyone back home has been since we left there. I’m finding this to be a hard feeling to put into words but if I could sum in a sentence or two, it would be this:
It is impossible to truly know what life is like in a place far far away unless you are there in person or have been there for a considerable amount of time living with the people. No matter if you live in the USA, Tanzania, or Timbuktu (where is that, anyway?) this is true.

My point in all of this? Well, after spending 4 1/2 months preparing for life here immediately followed by us leaving the country… well, I want to remember as much of what I’ve learned as possible about the people and place of Tanzania. I want to easily remember what life is like here… not for Wazungu (white foreigners) but what life is like for Tanzanians. How they think, interact, react, talk, and so on. I’ve soaked up a lot in our short time here and part of me is a little sad knowing I’ll leave some of it behind on Saturday.

I’m really going to miss Africa while we’re gone.

I’m enjoying where I am in terms of speaking Swahili. I’ve probably had hundreds of conversations by now, both short and long. I love being able to communicate with people in the language they know best. Rich Reid, a good friend of ours who has served in numerous places overseas, wrote to me in a recent e-mail, “Do you feel like you can communicate with the locals? Can you believe you are actually learning a new language?” A big YES, and a big NO, respectively.

I’ve made some great friends… Tanzanian friends here simply because I wanted to know about them and had the ability to converse with them. Friends from the ages of 18-60ish. Alloyce, Godfrey, and Faraji are all the young guys who work in the dining room so we have a lot of contact and conversation with them. Domogazi is my pineapple guy in town. He’s in his late 30′s and we met during one of our Swahili town projects (go talk in town) back around week 5 or 6. We have frequented his little stand many times since. Then, there is Baba (Father) which is what I just call him out of respect for his age. He’s 60ish and has a beans stand in the market in Iringa. He’s the one from whom I bought 30 kilograms of beans to give to the villagers around the campsite. He suggested Maharagwe (type of bean) because “Watanzania wote wao hukula maharagwe!” (All Tanzanians eat Maharagwe!)

I’ve even began to dream in Swahili… now, that’s weird. And, most of the English I hear, type, or write automatically starts to be translated in my head. Kinda hard to get it to stop sometimes. But, things will be different in the States because the life for which school has prepared us is now delayed by a 4.5 month detour back to the States where news on the internet will be the only source for native Swahili speakers. I don’t want to lose the communication line.

As I began typing the first paragraph of this post, I realized how one of the sentences I typed pretty much sums up the whole reason we’re in Tanzania. I love being able to communicate with people in the language they know best. That is exactly what we believe to be true for God and those we’re here to introduce to Him. He’ll be able to do the most in their lives when they have all the revelation God has given to us through the Scriptures. We’re here to make that happen.

What is a rat?
For my final Swahili project, I decided to put together a game of Jeopardy. One of the categories in the first round was Msamiati wa Kiingereza. (English Vocabulary) This meant all of their question responses had to include the word in English… not Swahili.
So, this category was chosen and I read this, Kitu cha kompyuta hiki kililigawa jina lake na mnyama mdogo kwa mkia mrefu ambaye kwa kawaida mnawaogopesha sana wanawake:Mouse which translates “This computer part shares its name with a small animal which has a long tail and usually scares women a lot.” One of the other students raised her hand and said, “Panya ni nini?” (What is a mouse or rat? The Swahili word can be translated to either.) Correct response, BUT remember this category is ENGLISH vocabulary meaning you have to say the ENGLISH word. A Tanzanian member of the opposing team pointed that out and raised her hand to answer. I called on her to say it and her response was, “Rat ni nini?” (What is a rat?)

Everybody started laughing so hard and for the rest of the day made jokes about their computers not working because their rat was broken.

Okay, it finally happened to me.

We were walking back to our banda after chai (tea) break today and Dana noticed her shadow. The sun was directly behind us so you couldn’t tell by the shape of the shadow that she’s pregnant. So, she stopped and turned to the side for a few seconds to check out her pregnant profile. Walking in the same direction about 100 feet behind us was a young Tanzania woman whom we’ve noticed to be pretty shy, even when we greet her in Swahili.

So, we began walking again and I turned to the woman and said, “Anapenda kuangalia tembo yako.” Which was what I thought to be in English, “She (Dana) likes to look at her stomach.” But, tembo isn’t stomach. Tembo is elephant and tumbo is stomach! Not too bad. So, I said Dana likes to look at her elephant. No problem… wrong. My Swahili was off more than I realized until a minute or two later. “Wait a second. I said, ‘yako’ (your) and not ‘yake’ (her). So, I just told that woman that you like to look at her elephant. No wonder she looked bewildered.” Dana and I both got a kick out of it.

It really helps to be able to laugh at yourself over here.

One day this past weekend, I heard the village kids playing in the river. There were a bunch of them so I decided to give them some popcorn someone sent to us from the states. (Thanks again, by the way!) So, I walked over to the riverbank and yelled, “Watoto chizi!” (Crazy kids) It took them a little while to figure out where I was standing because of the trees and brush between me and the water. “Mnajua popcorn?” (Do y’all know what popcorn is?) Then, in a syncronized reply, “Ndio!” (Yes) That surprised me actually but Dana reminded me later that we’d seen it for sale in town. “Mnapenda popcorn?” (Do you like popcorn?) “Ndio!” they replied in sync again. “Mnataka popcorn?” (Do you want some popcorn?) “Ndio!” and you know how they said it… about as loud as they could. So, I said, “Sawa, karibu.” (Okay, welcome [to have some].) They started coming down the river like a tidal wave.

After popping it in the microwave, I took it to the gate to give to them. But, the gate was unlocked this time so I was actually able to walk over to them for the first time. As soon as I opened the bag and held it down toward them, all nine hands tried to go into the bag at the same time. “Subiri! Mmoja, mmoja!” (Wait! One at a time.) One of the older kids went first… with a two hand grab… little runt. The others grabbed as much as they could with only five fingers. The last two children were smaller than the rest and they were saying, “Bado.” (Not yet.) Then, I heard a third voice next to them saying the same thing and reaching for the bag in front of them. I glanced up from the bag and the first thing I saw was a shirt pocket full of popcorn on this kid. I continued on up to his face and, you guessed it… ’twas the little runt again. “Enda!” (Go!) I said to him and he took off. “Huna kweli, kwa hiyo si zaidi kwa wewe.” (You don’t have the truth, so no more for you.) I couldn’t think how else to say that I didn’t appreciate his deceitfulness so that’s what came out.

There was enough left to give the last two kids their fair share. I hope they enjoyed it.

How do we drink water?

Good question.  We wondered this quite a bit before coming over here.  We brought our own 5-gallon bucket-style filter as well.  The answer to the question is chupa nyingi za maji (many bottles of water).  Since we have a small fridge in our banda and room to keep a lot, we usually by the bottles by the box-load.  There are six 1.5-liter bottles in a box and I like to buy at least 3 boxes at a time.  The price for a box has recently increased to Tsh 2,200/= which is just under $2.00 USD.

We use the filter for  brushing our teeth, cooking, etc.

By the way, the word for bottle (chupa) is really easy to  be confused with  the word for underwear (chupi).  Yes, I have made that mistake here… at the table… during lunch… with lots of  Tanzanian laughs all around…

The Creation of God

I was sitting at our desk which faces the porch from the inside of the banda.  Out of the corner of my eye I caught some movement in one of the trees outside.  As soon as my eyes focused through the screen on the window, I couldn’t believe what I was looking at and what was looking right back at me.  A male African Paradise-flycatcher.

If you are not into bird-watching, you may be asking, “what’s the big deal?”  Watching birds has become far more than a hobby to me.  It has become a significant way of me noticing more and more of God’s detail in His creation.  More of His creativity.  More of His ability.  To make some of the things I’ve seen absolutely requires a Creator.  There are thousands and thousands of different species of birds in the world, each with its own size, color, beak shape, song, and so on and so on.  All of these are details God came up with just because He wanted to and could.

So, each time I see a bird I’ve never seen before or have the chance to watch how He made them to live, I feel blessed.  Honestly, I do because it is more than just about this bird or that bird.  It is about God… and me…

If you’ve noticed, our e-mail response times have improved and our blog posts are more frequent.  These are just two of the benefits of having internet access in our banda now.  Yes, out in the middle of nowhere, we have figured out how to access the internet.

I discovered shortly after arriving in Tanzania that Celtel (cellular provider) offered data services like internet access on their network.  They are the only company that has a signal that reaches us at Riverside so that’s who we’re with.  A couple of weeks ago, I finally figured out all of the umpteen-gazillon settings and got my laptop online… about wet my pant, I tell ya.  On top of that, I can do it without wires because both my phone and laptop have bluetooth connectivity.

So, the next challenge was to get Dana’s online.  I tried and tried all to no avail.  Then, I remembered that my laptop can share it’s internet connection.  We tried it and it works.  So now, the internet comes into our banda, into my phone, to my laptop via bluetooth, out of my computer via wireless card, and into Dana’s laptop via wireless card.

i didn’t even have this cool of a setup in the states.  Guess I never really needed to tap into my resource of a cell phone as a wireless modem.  It is REALLY nice to be able to communicate all from the luxury of our riverside African banda.

Now, you can pray for the price to come down (450 TSh/Mb ~ $0.40 USD/Mb) and its speed to increase… I’m connecting at about 5 kb/s, about a tenth of the speed of dial-up in the USA.  Patience is a virtue.