After Christmas day, we went to “Sunrise” beach in Dar – about a 2 hour daladala (public transport mini-buses) ride from the Volunteers’ home. It was a beautiful day and beautiful beach, but it was JELLYFISH SEASON. We all ran into the water and saw these little fellers hanging out EVERYWHERE. It freaked me out, but the water felt so good. I tried to just shoo them away, but I think I got stung once on my arm. It wasn’t a horrible sting – but a sting!!
Another day we went into town and visited the National Museum that exhibits examples of homes from all over Tanzania (I put a bunch of pictures from here on fbook). It was a really neat exhibit, to see all the different types of homes and how they are made. And to walk inside! I just hope someday I’ll be able to walk inside some that have people in them!
After a nice lunch at the museum, the daughter of the family we visited on Christmas met us to take us to her mom’s store where she sells all the goodies she gave me. It was on a really nice part of town, with tons of condo-like houses and a Hilton Hotel (weird). Her Mama was so generous to all of us, giving us all gifts from her shop as we arrived. We bought a few things and then her daughter, Annette, took us to a grocery store to buy sodas and snacks. We went to see the water for a little while. We ended up sharing most of our day with Annette. We had never planned to stay that late (we saw the sunset!), but as always it was a really nice visit. But we were definitely pooped by the end of it.
Our last day in Dar we went again into the city to mail some letters, check out the bookstore (which had freezing air conditioning – what a great feeling!), and take a rest at the botanical gardens. The gardens were not too fancy (at least not like you’d see in the States), but it had beautiful grounds. We found a nice tree to sit under and pulled out our roasted peanuts (we roasted them!), cucumbers and carrots sticks that we brought along. It was so peaceful. We even saw a peacock just hanging out! Our last major event was to visit the fabric district. There were rows and rows of stores that sold khangas and kitenge (different kinds of fabric) used as wraps or to make clothes. I really wanted to buy some but it was just so overwhelming. Each store had hundreds! I ended up finding some nice ones – hopefully I’ll get a dress made soon. Don’t worry – I’ll send pictures!
On Thursday the 30th, all nine of us headed to Dodoma to show the volunteers our new site and spend New Year’s Eve together. That was by far the nicest bus ride we’ve had during our whole trip – it was a beautiful bus with clean and comfortable seats, TVs that showed a really silly Tanzanian film (with English subtitles), no breakdowns, and a nice bathroom stop. We actually made really great time, too. And the ride to Dodoma always feels great because you slowly move away from extreme humidity to the dryness of Dodoma, which feels like heaven after some time in Dar.
Marty was so kind to pick us up from the station. We went home and walked to the local market to get food for dinner. Beth made a peanut butter ginger sauce for our veggies that was incredible. Thankfully the Jesuit volunteer house here has lots of extra mattresses and nets in storage in the tiny hall in our compound, so everyone had their own bed and mosquito net. Needless to say, we had many happy campers wake up the next morning, refreshed from a full nice sleep in the cool Dodoma night air.
The following morning (New Years Eve), Marty took all of us in the Jesuit pick-up to Peter Claver to show them our new school. It was so much fun walking with the other volunteers around the place where I will be doing my work. They, more than others who I’ve visited the school with, know what the experience of coming to a Tanzanian school as an American volunteer feels like. Their comments were so positive and encouraging – saying things that made me so excited to start at Peter Claver.
After a really nice at the Jesuits, we spent most of the rest of the day relaxing and getting ready for dinner (usually a huge event all in itself, considering we have to cook for 9). Our NYE’s dinner was delicious: guacamole, (burnt) beans, chipati (tortilla-like bread), the mango crisp I also made at Thanksgiving, and chunks of fresh coconut. All the cutting took so long and we ended up eating around 10:30pm. It worked out great though, because after dinner, we played Apples-to-Apples, drank some homemade sangria (red wine, pineapple, and mango), counted down to midnight, shouted and jumped around a lot, and then had a dance party in our living room.
Liz made French toast as our New Year’s breakfast. A contractor at the school gave Marty a goat as a gift for the American volunteers (a really special gift), so we went to the Jesuits for lunch. We later went in to town for ice cream, but forgetting the it was a national holiday, we returned home sans ice cream. Most of the day was just down time. Sean and Beth were great and went all over town to get us dinner (chips mayai and veggies). After dinner we decided to walk to the local pizza place for ice cream. We ended the night by exchanging “affirmations” to each other. It was a really nice visit in Dodoma.
We all got up absurdly early to help the Moshi folks catch their bus, and the Dar folks an hour later. After they left, went back to bed and slept until noon (the first time I’ve done that here, surprisingly!) and relaxed most of the day. Sean and I went to the children’s Mass at 4pm for the first time. It was so great – so many kids, and only kids. Very few parents were there. The kids were singing, clapping, playing drums. A woman from the parish (our friend Regina) gave the homily complete with question-answer, and a group of kids went up to state intentions into the microphone when the time came. It was great!
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