A week in Dodoma

We had a week off to stay in Dodoma before we traveled to retreat. We took the girls to their first Mass which I think they really enjoyed – my favorite liturgical dancers were there – and Monday night they went to their first community night at the Ihumwa residence. Monday night community nights are absolutely one of my favorite times of the week. Around 6:30pm on a Monday, we gather with the Jesuits and sometimes the Sisters and have Mass, dinner, and play games like Uno or Scrabble. The Jesuits have recently incorporated a rotating schedule of 'homilists' which includes us volunteers. I like it a lot, because it gives all of us a chance to share our faith and reflections. Sossy loves Scrabble (and is incredibly good at it) and so I'm excited to introduce him to “Banana Grams” which is essentially a fast paced version of Scrabble.

The rest of the week was more house cleaning and obtaining necessities, but also a lot of exploring town and visiting friends. One day we took the girls to visit our friends in Ihumwa, the village just beyond our school. We traveled there in the afternoon and as soon as we arrived, our friends Charley and his wife Mama Tula treated us to a delicious lunch of beans, fish from Hombolo (a lake about 100 km away from Dodoma – Charley rode his bike there to buy the fish for us), and ugali. The meal was absolutely delicious, and the memory of sitting under their mango tree on a mat surrounded by children also eating, and joking with our friends makes me smile. It was so great sharing that with Cristina and Hannah, too. Mama Tula was complaining that she didn't want to eat, and I joke that she had worms (though I knew from Sean that she was pregnant) and she replied, yes one very big worm! I forget when exactly she's due, but it will be exciting to be around with another new born! People are always having babies around here, it seems. Tanzanians consider children such a blessing. Sometimes I get a little jealous that I myself don't have a beautiful little dark-skinned child to tie around my back. Maybe Mama Tula will let me borrow hers ;) !!

After lunch, and after playing with the mob of children that gathered to see us, we all walked to the market that opens every Friday evening in their village. There are tons of people there, many who are completely not used to seeing white faces, especially not in their market. I love being there and surprising the people with the very little Kigogo I know (the tribal language of Ihumwa). Though, I tried to smile and greet a very small boy who was being held by his mother and he was absolutely spooked and started crying. That was a total ego-crusher, but we all couldn't help but laugh, including the mother and her friends. I can't imagine what it would be like to see a person with different skin for the first time as a young child!

At the market we bought a little pork and went back to Charley's house. I tried to help Charley cook, but his little kitchen filled with smoke and I wasn't strong enough to stay there long. Charley set up a mat right outside and the four of us tried to sort rice as he prepared the pork. Cooking on a charcoal stove takes a really long time because you first have to wait for it to get hot enough, and then you cook every dish one by one. We had a great time sitting outside waiting for the meal, though. The stars are incredible in the village, with no electricity they absolutely shine. We played around with Tula a bit making shadow puppets on the wall of their house from the fire of their stove. There is great peace in being there, with their family, at that time of the day, waiting for a meal. It's quite indescribable really, but those are the moments I know for certain change me, and will stay with me.

When it was time to eat, they set up a mat on their living room floor where we sat and were served giant portions of rice, beans, and pork. Charley's food is always so delicious, but Tanzanians are friends to oil, so I eat quickly and get filled quickly as well. After dinner, Charley said a night prayer, thanking God for his guests and for our meal and for the blessings life gives us. Sitting in candlelight, listening to him pray in Kiswahili is another moment I'm finding the words hard to find to describe.

Hannah, Cristina, and I shared a room with Tula (she's about 10), and Sean had his own mattress in another room. Charley's house is quite nice – four rooms and a living room space – but he's only renting it until his new home is completed – a simple two-room mud house. Nights in the village are perfectly quiet, but people in the village wake very early, so it wasn't long before we started hearing the neighbor kids chatting with Sean outside our window. In the morning, Mama Tula insisted we all shower before we leave, so I took my second village shower, in a tiny brick structure, from a bucket of water that is neither hot nor cold, in the morning under the blue sky. I think all showering experiences should be like that – it's just you and the heavens looking down on you.

We watched Charley make us chipati and soon we were enjoying chai and chipati. They sent us off with a basket full of mchicha (a spinach like leafy green) and a few onions and walked us to our dala stop. Leaving there always makes me wonder how different my experience would be if we lived in the village. I can't say village life is better or worse that life in town – it would quite simply be absolutely different.

The weekend before retreat we had been planning on taking Cristina and Hannah to a wedding for our friend J4 (Jumanne, which translates the 4^th day, or Tuesday) in Morogoro, but unfortunately his father died and they postponed the wedding. The rest of Saturday was packing and getting ready for our trip the next day.