Chantal Abroad

So this is it! We are on our way Wednesday. We are happy to leave, but sad to say good-bye. Going home is always full of mixed feelings. We've made many friends. We are very thankful for our time here.

As for a blog, please check out my dad's site. He has written another novel!

Hope to see and to talk with you all soon!

Thanks to Toni at St. Michael's, Michelle at Rexall, Jo, Doug, Kristy, and Karen for their e-mails.

This week has been much of the same as before. Teach English, teach Math, try not to get frustrated, try not to yell, prevent children from beating on each other, prevent Teacher Billy from beating on children, console those you didn't get to in time, hand out pencils, sharpen pencils, sing some songs, hand out some balls, collect balls, find lost balls, have tea with the other teachers, and start again.

Some children are able to communicate well enough between what I know of Kiswahili and what they know of English. Many seem to get the jist of what is going on. Most still reply "Yes!" when asked, "Do you understand?" although some are now saying "Teacher, I don't know." And once they do, they often translate for those who still seem lost.

Dad has had a sore back most of the week. I figure between the push-ups with the children, picking children up, his general stress levels, and not enjoying his mattress he has strained something. As the resident pharmacist, and his daughter, it is my duty to cure him. Easier said then done, but as time proves, he is getting better, slowly but surely. Poor Babu ("Gramps")!

He also let me cut his hair this week. It took awhile but Fr. Mathew says that if my pharmacy career doesn't work out, I could always fall back on haircutting!

Tomorrow is the last Sunday of the church calendar, as Advent starts next week. All the local parishes are meeting at Maji Maji Stadium in town. It is the 3rd largest stadium in the country. We are to meet at the church and process into city. Should be quite the event!

I have some sad news. The family dog, Rocky, was hit by a car at the end of October. He was 10 years old. He gave us many good years. He and his rock-catching and log-carrying will be missed. I also managed to erase 300 pictures. Got to love digital cameras. I won't make that mistake again. I somehow mistook "formating" for "resolution" and said "yes" instead of "cancel". Le sigh. And, Gifti the goat is no longer. He was butchered yesterday. As Dad says, he has become another sort of gift, which we expect to experience soon. I've never had goat before. I'll tell you how it goes. Thank you, Gifti!

Next week the children write exams in English, Kiswahili, Math, and Rhymes. The Archbishop will be coming for a visit, also. The week after that, we pack and head out to Dar es Salaam. We are there for the day and hope to do some shopping before we board our plane bound for Amsterdam.

Thanks to Maman Spindler, The Littlest Spindler (Robert), Kristy, ChrisChan Marlowe, and Matthew Stinson for the notes this week. Mungu bariki!

We had a wonderful adventure last weekend. It turned out that we only had lunch in Mbinga. We met with Fr. Jose who is managing the completion of a new school there. The workmen were just putting the finishing touches on a miniature statue of an elephant that they were creating in cement. It was very acurate.

After lunch, we we travelled right out into the "outback" of Tanzania. We went as far as Mpepai from where it is said that you can see the Mozambique mountains in the far distance. In this town we met with Fr. Babu. He treated us to "Safari" beer, nuts and other treats. It was wonderful. We met with sisters in this town that were running the local clinic/hospital. There was a set of twins there that were born the day before and we went into their room and took video. All the sick people were out on the porch as it was quite warm there that evening. Everyone is quite anxious to give a gift to visitors. One of the sisters gave us a table cloth with hand stitching. Chantal got a straw handbag.

The roads we used run along the sides of mountain hills. They are not passable safely in the rainy season. There are a few spots that were even a little hair raising for us "chickens" during the dry season. There were three "bridges" to cross which were just planks or logs. Lucky for us we had an expert driver and also the local politicians had passed by the week before us so the bridges had been "fixed" a little. I have gotten a good video of the bridge crossings. The vehicles take such a beating that they have to change the tires on the trucks once a year.

At our farthest point in the journey, we stopped in a village of about a few hundred called Njomloole, a name which means "Come and See". The village reception was wonderful. Lots of singing and a procession to an open area where we were the guests of honour. You must picture that much of the clothing here is European and North American style but usually second hand. A group of men had on what appeared to be a collection of slightly battered white uniforms from a cricket team. They had embellished their shorts with what were a wild mix of women's panty hose and leggings in the most outlandish colours worn underneath knee length socks. They were enthusiastic and proud. As the drummers were drumming the action was punctuated by the playing of the instruments they were carrying which was a collection of whistles, horns and huge homemade Kazoos. What a wild sound.

They would have danced and played for us for most of the afternoon if our priest/friend (Fr. Varghese from Mbangamao) had not shortened the proceedings. There was also a choir, poems and then a procession of gifts of corn, bananas, and a something special which I assumed was a symbolic gift. Wrong again...We are now the proud owners of a goat.

This village was really trying to give us the biggest welcome they could. We were even treated to a special meal with the village elders that consisted of rice, chicken, and green vegetable that was close to spinach. And to finish, no honourable meal is ever complete without some soda. Please note that the Pepsi-Coke wars are alive and well in the most remote parts of Tanzania. This happened to be a Pepsi village. Most others we have been to are loyal to Coke. Do not doubt that the cola companies are the real rulers of the world and are doing more than the United Nations to advance the cause of peace. Chantal was a big hit. One of the women got hold of her and started this funny dance-walk combination while singing "wa-wa-wa".

Because transportation is at such a premium here, we of course needed to provide rides to others on the way back from the village. What a scene with five us stuffed into the small cab, holding things on our lap. There were three men, the goat, our big bag of corn and the bananas plus a piece of plywood loaded in the back. No need to tie down the plywood, we would not be going fast enough along the rough roads to create much lift.

That evening we slept at the church in Mbangamao. They have a generator for lights. Father Varghese asked how many minutes I needed to get ready for bed. He was very precise...I was not. The lights went out about three seconds after I noticed an ugly looking insect crawling across the floor towards me. I was now barefoot, in complete pitch darkness and about 5 feet from my bed. I made it to my bed with out meeting the creature but I heard it scutling about a few times during the night. I decided not to get up to go to the toilet until it was dawn.

Names: Children are given names such as Neema (Grace), Furaha (Happy), or Baraka (Blessing). Sometimes they are given English names with a KiSwahili version. Examples are: Gift (Gifti), Goodluck (Goodi), Godlisten (Godi), Norbert (Naberti), Cloudy (Cloudi), Sixbert (Sixberti)
Sometimes they use the literal translation: Happy, Happiness, Given, Mercy, Gladness, etc.
In true Tanzanian style, I named our new goat "Gifti". Too bad we will probably eat him within a week or two. I know you are not supposed to name something going to eat. I was hoping he could be a stud goat and they could name the babies after us. Oh Well.

Height: I'm not the shortest here. I'm definitely not the tallest, but I'm not bottom rung either. I'm not sure if this is because the average is shorter here or if it is because I spend most of my day with primary school children!

Dress: All colours and patterns are In Vogue here. There is no such thing as tacky. You can wear plaid with polka dots, zigzags with flowers, in all colours of the rainbow. "European" dress is common though often second hand. We saw a lady in church wearing a jacket with the words Saskatchewan across the back! Blue also doesn't equal boy & pink, a girl. George came to school wearing a purple jacket with beaded flowers and hearts around the hood. What a man!

My new friend: Maria, the school cook, has a young son named Bariki. He has been playing a game up until recently, that anytime he would see me he would start to cry. I know it was just a ploy to get attention from his mama. Last week, he started to let me hold him. This week, I've been helping him practice walking. We have been getting a long very well. So well, in fact, that he has peed on me twice. I feel honoured.

Holidays (written by Billy): We had an unexpected long holiday last week. Tanzania is about one third Muslim and one third Christian. So, to be fair, everyone gets everyone else's holidays. Last week was the end of Ramadan. This was supposed to mean two days holiday on Thursday and Friday. But because the calculation of the end of Ramadan is not an exact science (something about seeing the new moon, etc. in the evening) the actual holiday is not announced until the evening of the day before. To complicate matters, there was a disagreement among Muslim factions as to whether the moon was indeed seen at the appropriate time. So some thought that the holiday was for Thursday-Friday while most others insisted that the holiday was for Friday-Saturday. The result turned out to be a three day holiday for those like us trying to be respectful of everyone. What a way to run a country!

Dad and the Prime Directive (written by Billy): Our classes have been going better. As predicited by Marie-Therese, we are beginning to see English phrases being used in new contexts. It is quite a delight. Also I taught the Junior High class how to play "Hangman". They had never seen this game and it was an big hit that finally got most of them to participate. To think, I had almost given up trying to communicate the rules. I am glad I persisted but I once again feel that I have broken the "Prime Directive" and may have contaminated Tanzanian society for years to come.

Our imprint (written by Billy): We have also been taking 1960's rock and roll tunes and putting new words to them and teaching them to the students. It has been a treat and surprise to hear them sung on Saturdays as children walk by the school. One of the songs is sung to the tune of "I like that old time rock and roll" and is about different forms of transportation such as a "daladala" which is of course the local mini-van-bus. I used a couple of local district names in the song and now it goes like, "I like to ride in a daladala, From Bombambili to Msamala..." Chantal's super dance moves and other choreography helps to encourage the children to learn the words and tune. They sure do like to boogey!

This week has been more or less like any other week. We have a groove going. We get up, have a shower, have breakfast. We each teach a group of the nursery school children (class A and class B) for 2 hours. Then the children have a break for an hour, during which they have porridge, and then play time. We sit in the staff room with the other teachers for tea and chapati (think pita or pancake). We then tackle the youngest group, class C, together, with the help of Sister Agnes. It is not easy to control a class of 40 3-6 year olds, whose language you don't speak and who don't speak your language, either. They are always beating on each other, or sleeping, or crying, or running around the classroom. One even tried to bite Dad!

Tuesday started out fairly typically. It soon got dubbed "Bloody Tuesday". To start things off, Endeshi, a girl in class B (who Dad and I have nicknamed The Parrot), slit her tongue when the pencil that she was holding in her mouth got bumped. No worries. I got her to rinse her mouth out and the bleeding didn't last long. Next thing I know, Deus is running out of class. I yell after him, as the children are not supposed to leave the class without asking first. He stops short to spit, you guessed it, blood out of his mouth. He has just lost his second tooth. Of course. Got him cleaned up, and went back to class. As a side note, I don't think the Toothfairy knows her way to Tanzania. During break time, we were interupted several times by various tattling and/or crying children. More than usual. Last came Deus, with blood dripping out a cut in his head. Apparently, one of the other children slammed the gate on him, in retaliation for something he had done earlier. Dad and I had brought some latex gloves with us. We got those out and some bandages, fixed him up and got him on his way. He was an amazingly good clotter. Thus ended Bloody Tuesday.


The first rain of the season came on Wednesday. At 3:55 in the afternoon, just as I was finishing up class, the skies opened, and the rain began. I had noticed some dark and ominus clouds earlier in the afternoon. It lasted for 4 hours. The children had to walk home in the rain. Not one had come prepared. Some waited for the rain to quiet down. Others just stuck a plastic bag on their heads and made a break for it. One of the children, Yosefu, who can't walk, got a ride home from one of the older children who had gone home to get a car to pick up his friends. Dad and I weren't convinced that the young man was old enough to drive (it was confirmed later that he doesn't have his license) but it saved Yosefu from crawling in the mammoth muddle puddles, for at least one day. It hasn't rained since, but it is definitely cooler and cloudier than when we first arrived.


Yesterday (Saturday) we gave Maria, our cook, the day off. For lunch we went down to the near by hotel, the Top One Inn. Upon Amanzi's, one of our guards', suggestion, we tried the Banana Meat. It was quite enjoyable. The bananas were boiled (tastes more or less like potato) and mixed in a broth with meat and vegetables. It came with a side of warm cabbage and mixed veggetables salad. We then took pictures with the "local wild life", the plaster replicas of elephants and gorillas. We walked back home and played some checkers with Amanzi. For supper, we made chipsi mayai, a fried potato and egg pancake/omellette. We cooked on the charcoal stove. Turned out quite well. Not the same as Maria's but it hit the spot!