The best part of Tanzania!

The best part about living in Tanzania is the people. Generally the Tanzanians that we have met have been very warm, welcoming and friendly. Everytime we leave our house we are greeted by people on the roads. Kids coming running out to yell “Mambo” (What’s up?) or “How are you?” It’s very cute because if you answer they don’t actually understand but it seems to be the only thing they know in English so they continue to chant it over and over. So far we saw two kids wearing Montreal Canadian shirts and one Toronto Maple Leafs shirt so I’m keeping an eye out for that Vancouver Canucks shirt that just has to be out here!
Our family has been really sweet and, although most of them don’t speak English, have been trying their best to make us comfortable and to look out for us. It took us awhile to convince them that we don’t need to eat first by ourselves, that we actually prefer to eat with the family. They often insist on not letting us help but we have been trying to be more involved in the clean-up after meals. They helped us do our laundry on Sunday and apparently the image of two mzungu doing their laundry by hand is hilarious because they all seemed to get quite a kick out of it! Mama Paul (here the Mama’s names are that of one of their children) is very good to us and is regularly asking us what we want to eat and making sure we shower, lock our door and are generally comfortable. Paul is away for a few days at a conference but he made sure before he left that we remembered to always lock our door (with so many people, friends and neighbours by all the time it is easy for volunteers to have their stuff stolen which makes the host family feel terrible), not to go out alone at night and to make sure to call him at anytime if we need anything. Since Paul has been away we’ve been trying to communicate more with the other members of the family and it seems to be going well.
Sunday night was one of my favourite nights here by far. During the day Michael, Nicole and I went into town to work at the YCI office to prepare our programming for the week. Once we got home we decided to take the soccer ball I brought out (Sam, are you reading this??? I hope to have more stories for you before I donate it to YCI for their playdays) so we kicked the ball around the street with some of the local kids (and some of the local adults too). The best part for me was when I brought my camera out to get a video of one of the soccer players juggling the ball and Nicky (grandson of our Mama and Baba who sometimes stays at the house) was fascinated with the camera! It only took him a few minutes to figure out how to take a picture, review it, scroll through pictures and then take more. He was so excited to take a picture of someone and then run up to them to show them the picture he had taken. I have a few pictures he took with his fingers in the way that are really cute. Then later that night Nicole and I sat out with Mama and Nicky and she taught us some Kiswahili with Nicky helping to translate. He and I did cartwheels (mine weren’t so much cartwheels but they made him laugh) and it was a lot of fun.
It’s crazy that I already have less than 7 weeks left. We’re currently planning our safari with the Zanzi volunteers to Mikumi National Park and then our trip to Zanzibar two weeks later.
Before I forget…Happy Birthday Colin, Loren, David, Luke, Steven and all other October birthdays!!!
Love from Morogoro!