DON'T HANG LOOSE IN TANZANIA!!!!

It is amazing how things get altered in translation to another culture.

When I ride my bicycle around here, scores of schoolchildren say, "Good-a morning" to me.  Every one of them in a group wants me to say "Good-a morning" back to them individually, sometimes more than once. Swahili words don't usually end with a consonant so adding a vowel at the end of an English word is commonly done to make it sound right. Since they are beginners in learning English, they say, "Good-a morning" any time of day.

I started to think about an interesting behavior modification experiment.  I wondered if I could change verbal behavior in the kids on my bike route by using a different greeting, one that would be different from what they would ever learn in school and preferably be slang. I would use that greeting whenever I was greeted and see if they started to adopt my greeting when they saw me.  I would be easy to recognize on subsequent encounters.  There are just not that many very tall, bike-riding wazungu in this neighborhood. (I used to translate "wazungu" as "white folks," sort of in a non-pejorative "white folks" way.  It literally means "explorers" which is what they correctly called the first Europeans they saw traipsing around their land.  There is a foreigner connotation to the word.  I have heard Indian-Americans [ancestors from India] and Korean-New Zealanders called  wazungu even though they are not Caucasianoid. I am told that sometimes African-Americans are referred to as wazungu.)  But we digress.

What could I say?  Gang slang is out.  Finally, I came up with the famous Hawaiian attitude/saying, "Hang loose." That has a happy ring to it and also has a cool hand wiggling gesture to go with it. Perfect.

On day one of my non-randomized and definitely not controlled experiment, I picked a group of 5 girls about 10 years old to be the first subjects.  "Good-a morning."  I replied with a happy "Hang loose" and did the happy hang loose gesture.  They recoiled like I was a striking King Cobra. They were definitely not hanging loose.

I asked a Tanzanian friend about it.  There was clearly a cultural incompatibility that I was missing.  It turns out that in Tanzanian culture, the fist looks like his head and the extended thumb and pinkie look like Satan's horns. I was signaling that I was a Satan worshiper which is taken very seriously around here.  Great. I am a hanging loose Satan worshiper!

I am back to the drawing board.  Yo, homie?  Hang loose without the gesture?  I invite your suggestions.  You can add comments to this blog post.

Don

Ultimate pizza

This is my brother Erik's backyard pizza oven.  He lives 15 minutes from me in Arusha.

The dome part is the oven.  It is all made from the clay on his land. The brick factory is too.  The dome has a thick wall with air pockets made by putting empty wine bottles inside the wall. You can just see the tips of some of them.

Erik shovels the coals to the periphery then sweeps the ashes away.  The pizza will be placed right on the hot brick floor.  The yellow thing just above Erik's head is a laser thermometer that told us that the bricks were 500 degrees Celsius which is about 900 Fahrenheit.  Instead of cooking in an oven for 20 minutes, the pizza is done in 4.

Nashesha, my niece, rolls out the pizza dough so fast, her hands are a blur. I challenged her to do the toss the dough in the air thing like I see on TV and she can even do that.

Next the homemade pizza sauce.

Then the other toppings and grated cheese.

The pizza is made on the board then slid into the oven.

Turn it after 2 minutes so it cooks evenly.

Pizza ready to eat.  It is fabulous.

Don

Hadzabe hunter/gatherers

This is a Hadzabe man starting a fire using the "drill method." He produced a bit of hot char by spinning a stick and then put it in the dry grass.  Flames will erupt in another second or so.  They can start a fire in a minute or two.  The Hadzabe are hunter/gatherers and live just like they did a thousand years ago.  Well, with 2 exceptions. They use steel arrowheads that they get from a neighboring tribe that have learned blacksmithing and now they wear clothes.

We tried the drill method too.  A whole series of us were unable to start a fire in  1/2 hour. The Hadzabe were full of good advice, but it was all in the Hadzabe language so we were clueless. The Hadzabe say that they don't know famine like the tribes that are cattle herders or farmers when the rains don't come.  The Hadzabe will eat any animal from impala to locusts. (When I ate locusts, I found that they are actually good.)  They also know of a large variety of plants to eat - leaves, fruit, roots or tubers so they can always find food. Studies of hunter/gatherer lifestyle compared to "modern" lifestyles show that hunter/gatherers actually spend fewer hours per day on obtaining food. Limited needs and enormous resources. Notice the sandal on the right that is made of an old tire.  The Maasai make the same kind of sandals.

Don

Maasai warriors to-be

This is a photo of Maasai boys.  They induct  a several year cohort of young men into warrior status rather than do it annually for just one age.  I would guess these three are on the younger side. The white paint indicates they are preparing for warriorhood.  Or they may have just put on white paint to see if they could get money for posing for tourists.

Don

Syttende Mai May 17 Constitution Day celebration in Oslo

We had special tickets to get in a special viewing area right on the Royal Palace grounds. The parade is coming right at you.  Then it turns to the left and makes a loop in front of the palace and the royal family.

Our exchange student from 1981, Kine, and daughter, Nora

Husband, Joakim, and son Kasper.

This is called the Children's Parade, totally composed of schools  First comes their banner.  This was Kine's school.

Then comes the marching band.

Then the Norwegian flags.

When they pass in front of the palace and the royal family, the flags are held vertically.

Royal Family.  King Harald V and Queen Sonja on right.
Left, Crown Prince Haakon and wife, Princess Mette-Marit and two grandkids

After the flags comes the student body, then the next school, 123 in all.

Debi and the kids

Even the spectators dress up.  This couple is wearing their bunads, the regional traditional costumes. You can buy "knock-offs" in a store, but the best ones are home made. A child's bunad is made with lots of extra material in the seams and hems so they can be enlarged as the child grows.  As you can see, a bunad is a work of art. Most Norwegians dressed pretty formally.  The tourists didn't.  I didn't have a tie, but did wear slacks, white dress shirt, and my Norwegian sweater.

Nora marched in her own parade all day waving her Norwegian flag.  She was so cute in her little bunad.  Lots of people stopped to take pictures of her including me.

 It was so thrilling to be in Oslo for Syttende Mai. Such spectacular pageantry, such beautiful people, colorful bunads, bands, flags everywhere, a mix of tradition and modern national pride. I got to see the royal family!! Danes and Swedes don't have anything like this.  Norwegians say they are jealous.

This is a odd tradition.  These three girls are part of russ, short for russefeiring, which ends usually at Syttende Mai.  The graduating seniors from high schools have a month long celebration of graduation.  Nightly parties, red bib-overalls usually with the suspenders not snapped so the top part hangs down  in front and back, your name is on the left leg. This goes on during finals which is amazing to me since entrance into a university is highly competitive.  Antics or dares are part of the fun like sleeping all night in a group in a grassy traffic round-about.  They have name cards with a saying on them that they hand out to kids.  Collecting the cards is very popular with the young kids so often the russ are mobbed by grade school kids.

Debi's June 8 post

Warning!  I have nothing very interesting to write about and everything may be clouded in a filter of illness. 

We arrived in Arusha two and a half weeks ago. I got sick pretty fast and missed Nashesha's graduation which was the whole reason we worked so hard to get here!

A few days later Don got got sick!  Now we were both down!  We went through multiple boxes of Kleenex!  Don worked one day before going down. He is now on antibiotics and decongestants. I am recovering, but  he still cannot work cuz he cannot hear!  We are quite the couple shouting when we have something to say!

Don likes to think we caught a bad bug in Norway. Who knows?  He says it stands to reason that Viking bugs would be particularly virulent! 😜

Erik, Don's brother is also sick. He stopped in to see us last Saturday, clearly not well. His problems are different than ours. He  says something bad is going around Arusha. Erik, Bernice and Nashesha left this week for Dar es Salem to renew Nashesha's passport for going to the US for college. 

Mark and Linda left a week ago and will be gone until August 9. It feels pretty lonely when your support system is gone and you are sick!

Today I finally had to get out of the house!  I stopped in to see Wema and family for the first time. Joy abounded!  Truly!  Even big sister and new baby Purity were there!  When I hugged Wema, she was burning up!
I recoiled and said what is wrong!??  She admitted she was sick too!  She caught it from baby Purity!  I told her I could NOT be around her!  I am not quite over whatever I am recovering from! I cannot get a Tanzanian bug now!

So, our return to TZ has been plagued with illness!  In 38 years of marriage,  I don't think Don has missed this many days of work  in a row due to illness!

It is never fun to be ill!  Of course!  But when you have to sit in uncomfortable furniture so long, it makes you miss the comfort of a lazy-boy chair!

I have very little of interest to report cuz I have been so sick. However there are two small stories. 

First, our car which I refer to as "a piece of crap car" and Don calls "our good car", had the ABS light on. A fundi (literally means expert, but is used for any technician or, in this case, mechanic) who was fixing something for Linda, shook my hand through the car window and on introduction, saw the light on my dashboard and told me I needed to get it fixed and he could help me!  I scheduled time, gave him keys and he fixed sensors on a wheel.  However, our first time out driving, the light reappeared.

He got the car again and returned it more than a day later with 1/4 gas tank gone!  I was going to have him fix our microwave too which no longer works,  but I do not trust him now.  I told him  about the missing gas and he replied, "Don't worry Mama!  It is not a big problem, Mama!"  (Sigh...)

Another thing...same day. My favorite, most comfortable sandals which I wear everyday were MISSING!  I had kicked them off before entering the house because they got muddy from the driveway to the door. I am still trying to decide which is better...mud or dust?!  I was VERY unhappy!  My BEST shoes!  I was sure a thief had admired and confiscated them!  This was not good on top of being ill and the missing gas!

I started to wonder what good it is to hire THREE guards at night if your sandals can be stolen right next to your entry door!??  I am thinking more about these guards since Linda is gone. Since the guards tend to be unreliable to work, they are now checking  in with us instead of Linda, and we are recording their check in time on our calendar. Incidentally, they are very unreliable to work!  Makes you crazy when then Tanzanians are so desperate for work.

Anyway, thinking my sandals were long gone and the gas was long gone, I told Exaudi, the gardener, how unhappy I was. He immediately went on the hunt. An hour later there was a knock at my door..."Is this your sandal?"  I was astonished! YES!  Today he found the mate!  Unfortunately, it is a bit chewed!  I bet I can get that one repaired!  I am so relieved to know the culprits were dogs rather than thieves!

I bet you will stop reading  my messages reading after this!  I hope to have something more important to talk about soon...like the reason we are here. My questions about cost/benefit ratio continue. I still wonder if our presence in this foreign country is doing any good. I know WE are changed, but I am convinced that that is NOT enough. I have to be convinced that we are making a difference. 

I can't think about that today. I am too tired to continue and Don is asleep on the sofa next to me. Just driving the roads in Arusha, which I did today with two of Wema's brother's in search of finally some good coffee,  makes me want to scream or climb under covers. 

❤️Debi

Debi's May 25 post

It is hard to know where to begin!  I think I will try to just hit the highlights because there is too much to tell!

Don and I flew out of Spokane on Monday, May 15, after the most amazing weekend. We celebrated 20 years of being cancer free and Mothers Day and a baby shower for my niece,Mari, who graciously had her baby four weeks early just so we could all meet him! All of my sisters and their kids came so it was a delightful reunion and that is rare since there was no wedding or funeral. 

Packing was a challenge!  There were so many "creature comforts" we wanted to take now that we are "experienced" with what is not available here!  We had five 50 pound bags and 2 carry-ons each!  Monday morning was the last time we saw our 5 checked bags until the following Saturday afternoon (5 days later!). I got really tired of my traveling clothes! At first our bags were LOST. Turns out they took a detour and went to Germany!  They then had to be rerouted to England, then Oslo and then Sweden!  Fortunately they arrived the day before be left so we were able to give Kine and family the gifts we had packed. 

Our first stop on our trip was to Oslo, Norway. We have been meaning to visit Kine, an exchange student who lived with us for a year in 2001-2002. She is now married and the mother of two!  I just marveled at watching her drive a car and cook and so capably manage a 2 1/2 year old daughter and a 4 month old son!

We arrived on May 16....just in time to experience May 17 (their independence day) in Oslo!  I've heard about this celebration for decades and I had very high expectations!  Nothing could have prepared me for the actual event!  Wow!  I still cannot believe we were lucky enough to experience this in our lifetime! Kine even got us tickets so we could watch the parade from the castle!

That evening we had the most special dinner at Kine's parent's house. What a feast! They served meatballs, salmon, shrimp, lamb, and pork and salads and two fancy desserts! I was very glad I was not a vegetarian!  Three of her sisters were there along with her 93 year old maternal grandmother. Everyone was in their bunad (traditional dress) and I did not take a picture!  I think it is seared in my memory because it was so very special!  Not surprising, the entire family was just so warm and welcoming!  Why did it take us do long to meet them!??

The next day we drove to Halden where Kine lives in a beautiful house built by her husband, Joakim. We stayed there one night and got a tour of this beautiful community. I could definitely live there!  

On Friday we drove to Sweden to stay at her parent's "cabin" on an island for two nights. Actually, they have a five bedroom home and guest house with a huge deck for socializing. The weather was perfect and we even got a boat ride. There are many islands close together so the scenery was very interesting. 

The food and the conversation were absolutely delightful. We felt so at home!  We honestly felt like family!  

The only problem was that I could not sleep! I had trouble sleeping even before we left home (too keyed up!) and then I did not sleep for 5 nights except for a couple of two hour naps. I actually started to feel sick!  Finally I crashed and slept 12 hours. I hoped I had turned a corner. 

We got our bags on Saturday and repacked, and changed clothes. Our projector came so we were able to show them our Tanzanian pictures. It does not get dark until nearly midnight!  It is still dusk at 10 PM!

On Sunday after sad good-byes, we left in the afternoon to be in Oslo in time for our 7:30 pm flight. We had business class tickets where we could lie flat...even Don!  Don slept, but I did not! I must be the world's worst traveler! So we arrived in Arusha Monday afternoon. Erik picked us up in our car. We dropped him at work and proceeded to get cash and groceries just like we knew what we were doing!

The roads are remarkable!  All that construction is paying off! The main east/west road through town is so much wider and has a median between what will probably be at least two lanes each way. The median makes it impossible to turn right any old place like before. There are even street lights installed!  They don't work yet, but that will be such an improvement! There is also no paint on the road yet and we saw cars going both directions on both sides of the median!  Oh yes!  And NO traffic lights!  There were only four on this road, but now negotiating a major intersection is tricky!

The weather has been unusual...so much more rain! We purposely try to avoid being here in April since that is so rainy. This year the rains have continued into May. Our road, which is NOT paved, is a giant mud hole for several blocks near the highway. I had no idea where to drive. I could see major ruts (12 inches deep) and I was afraid of getting stuck. 

When we got home, no one was around to meet us and we needed a key. We decided to unload and put everything on the porch. When we got to the house, we discovered everyone was there!  They were hurriedly putting the house back together. I had asked to have our house painted while we were gone (at our expense) and that had just been accomplished in the last two days!  What an improvement!!!  Gone are the stained ceilings and the peeling paint and the cracks!  The sunny yellow color is so clean and pleasing!  I was reminded that painting is only part of the work!  The worst part is taking everything down and putting it all back!  The floors also got a good scrubbing! It looks so good!  I am so happy!  Linda worked HARD!

Linda had also bought us groceries!  We had eggs, milk, bread, snacks and much more.  She also had emptied our store room/pantry so they could paint and had started to find new homes for things stashed there. The result is that I have twice the storage as before!  This is a serious improvement!  Good thing cuz we have a lot more stuff than  before!

We had dinner at Erik and Bernice's house that night. It is truly a treat to have Bernice's food again. There is something so special about how she cooks!  I need more lessons! And we got to take home warm banana bread/cake!  Mmmm

Even though I was so tired, I could not sleep again and then I started to get the chills and a fever!  My Grandma Nicol always said, "I can sleep anywhere...just hang me on a nail!"  I take after her in many ways, but not this!  My biorhythms are entrenched!  I notice daylight saving changes for a week!

So, here is the sad news...today is Nashesha's graduation and I am too sick to go!  I know I have trouble pacing myself sometimes....I just want to do it ALL!  I fear that the reason I got sick was because I was run down. Or maybe it was lack of sleep?  Don is at the ceremony and he can tell me all about it!  I just hate missing this!  This was the event that made us rush to get here!

Then I have to remind myself...we are here!  Safe and sound!  Our house is better than ever! I am experienced now!  I can no longer worry about one more thing at home!  We will get Skype working and I can start calling...especially to my Mom who worries. There is no one like my Mom for caring about my welfare. Oh yes!  We have not been without power once since arriving!  That is three days!  Linda says it is better!  We may have power 90% of the time!  I could get used to that!

Tomorrow is Friday. I hope I feel better and we can finish settling in. I think it would be fun to go see Wema at her school on Saturday. Don wants to go too but we still have three spots in the car for her family members. That will be a fun reunion. 

So if you have managed to keep reading this long, I should say again, you have permission to forward this to people you think would be interested. I thought no one read these messages and was surprised when we got back how far they had been circulated. I type one letter at a time on my phone and do not know how to do group messages. 

I think I am the most  unlikely person to ever try and do something like this!  I LIKE efficiency!  I like reliability!  I like cleanliness!  I like my home and my family and my friends!  I guess I like my husband more!

Thank you for following our journey. I appreciate your prayers...I feel very far away right now.

Debi