Is it Only Mid-Week? (January 14/15 2014)

In my family, we were never ever supposed to swear.  We couldn’t even say “gosh” or “gee” without serious reprimand, but this morning at 5:00 a.m., I wanted to yell “Oh my God”!   A loudspeaker blaring African Christian hymns went off right across our little dirt road, as some zealous group was trying to combat the Muslims’ early morning call to prayer.  This went on for at least half an hour, and then another sound, not quite as loud, began.  John and I were wide awake by this time and had a debate whether it was the Christians speaking in tongues or the Muslims reciting sura as a counter-offensive.  Apparently this battle occurs every morning, same time, same place, but on Monday and Tuesday, the volume had been muted and we had slept through it.  No chance of that this morning!  It’s too bad I didn’t bring any earplugs with me.

Yesterday, Tuesday, January 14, was too busy and I was too tired to write anything.  In the morning, the students had classes: first Core 350 with John, and then Contemporary East Africa with Megan.  I sat in on Megan’s class and loved the opportunity to observe someone young with excellent teaching skills.  The Moto Lounge seems a bit dark, but there are armchairs with brightly colored cushions, and huge windows along the one side.  The mounted antelope head, huge stone fireplace, and touristy paintings and carvings seemed copied from the old colonial estates.  If John wore khakis and a pith helmet, he would look right at home.

Once class was over, we all had another bountiful Kundayo lunch buffet, and then began the anxious wait for host families to come and take the students home with them.  Soon after 4:00 p.m. the Mama Tesha, the woman who coordinated family placements for us in 2012, and the families began to arrive.  Of course, there had to be ceremony and refreshments, so everyone sat around for at least an hour drinking sodas and exchanging greetings and news. Megan speaks Swahili quite well, and it was wonderful to see her chatting with the host mothers. Eventually, Mama Tesha gave a speech about African hospitality, Abraham, Tanzanian sayings, and various other topics before finally announcing the family assignments.  Both the students and families seemed very happy with the pairings, and by 5:30 or so everyone was gone.

It felt very, very empty and quiet here without the students, and since there was no prepared dinner, John and I ended up eating peanut butter and jam sandwiches, which suited us just fine.  I then carefully followed the complex steps I had written down for turning on the TV, and we watched Al-Jazeera for a while before John had to work on his lesson for this morning. I can’t even remember what I did—or more accurately tried to do.