Here I am again, waiting ages to write
another post and only doing so because I've finally managed to guilt
myself into it.
So I feel like I've settled into life
here pretty well. It's been 3 months now—which seems crazy on two
levels. Days tend to drag by here. Not necessarily in an unpleasant
way, just sometimes I'll be doing something and look at the clock and
think “how has it only been 5 minutes?!” But when I think about
how I've already been here 3 months it's like where did the time go?
I've had days here that seemed to last
a week, but I think it's because I'm doing so much and experiencing
so many things I never have before. I mentioned being 2 feet from a
wild lion in my previous post, and let me tell you, that day was a
LONG, amazing day. We started out early (like 5 or 6 in the morning
early) from Morogoro and drove the couple hours it takes to get to
Mikumi National Park. We wanted to get there early because I guess
the lions disappear during the middle of the day (makes sense since
they're nocturnal) and we really wanted to see one. We decided to
rent a safari car rather than take one of our own in. It was a lot
more costly, but totally worth it. Plus, we had 7 people so it wasn't
too expensive split 7 ways.
 |
| This is the car we took. Totally worth it. |
So we spent an hour or so driving
around looking at all the giraffes and zebras and elephants (oh my).
Then at one point our driver kept circling back around to this one
area and getting out and looking around and finally he just went
offroad, weaving in-between these bushes while we're all bouncing up
and down in the back. And then we saw her, this gorgeous lion sitting
in the shade of a bush and we were like okay, totally worth getting 3
hours of sleep. I have no idea how our guide knew she was there, but
I guess if your job is showing off animals every day you learn their
usual haunts.
After that we stopped to have lunch and
then went back out for a couple hours. We saw all kinds of
gazelle-type animals (Charlene says they're like the dogs of safari
because after the first couple minutes you're just like “Oh,
another gazelle. Meh.”), plus wildebeest, water buffalo, baboons,
monkeys, hippos, a crocodile, and even a green mamba (an extremely
venomous snake that was in a tree right above our heads and totally
could have dropped down and killed us if it wanted to. Fun!) I think
we spent about 4 or 5 hours there total, and it was a blast. After we
got back to Morogoro, Charlene had to take her mom and friend back to
Dar es Salaam because they were only visiting for a week, and Zach
went back to Berega, but Kristien, Kevin and I decided to stay in
Morogoro for the weekend.
I feel like we might have spent a few
hours at the pool that day (Morogoro Hotel has a lovely pool with
these cabana things you can sit underneath and it's like our little
retreat we visit every time we go into Morogoro), or at least we did
something else that I can't remember, but I do remember what we did
later.
That night we went to a club with our
Tanzanian friend Almas, who lives in Morogoro and so knows all the
best places to go, plus he's a really nice guy. This particular club
has two sides: one with a DJ and a bar and one with live music and
room for dancing. We were sitting on the bar side and I was drinking
a soda (I feel the need to emphasize this even though I know anyone
who knows me knows I don't drink—but the fact that I can't chalk
what happened next up to alcohol is, I think, significant), and out
of the blue Almas says “so, Lisa, I'm friends with the band manager
here and he said you could play a song tonight.” I just sort of
stared at him and, eloquent English teacher that I am, blurted “um...
what?”
After a bit (read: a lot) of persuading
and nervous hand-wringing I assented and we made our way to the other
side of the club. Then I really started sweating, because good
gracious, there were a lot of people there. And I don't mean “a
lot” like 50 people, I mean like over 100, probably closer to 200
people all sitting around listening to the band and having a good
time. And I didn't even have time to practice.
 |
| If you look closely you can see the green mamba. |
I wanted to back out but I knew if I
did I'd regret it because who can say they've really performed live
in Tanzania, right? So, after an introduction from the band manager
(he called me “Mama Lisa” which I thought was kind-of adorable,
even though I know they do that to everyone here), I went on stage
and awkwardly introduced myself again in English because my Kiswahili
is terrible. I think everyone was a little confused as to why this
random mzungu was interrupting their music and dancing, but oh well.
I ended up playing Paparazzi by Lady Gaga and halfway through my
guitar got unplugged but I just kept going because hey, what else are
you gonna do? Luckily they noticed and plugged it back in before I'd
made too much of a fool of myself. Then a random man came up and
threw 5,000 tsh at me like I was a stripper, which was nice of him.
All-in-all it was a sort of mortifying but also fun experience and
I'm glad I didn't chicken out. Who knows, maybe one day Mama Lisa
will give a repeat performance. But maybe she'll wait until she can
introduce herself in Kiswahili, first.
Things at the school have been going
pretty well. Charlene is leaving soon and midterms are coming up so
the workload is getting heavier for students and teachers alike, but
I'm confident that we'll all do well. We really do have a great,
smart group of kids. And the ones who aren't as bright, well, they'll
still have half a year after this test to improve. I am pretty bummed
that Charlene is leaving, though. I'll miss her, and I know she'll
miss the kids. Just thinking about leaving them, even after only
being here for 3 months, breaks my heart. I don't think I'll ever be
able to stay away from this place for long, just because of them.
Berega feels like home to me now, and I love it.
 |
| I was so happy when we saw a crocodile! They're one of my favorite animals. |
In my next post I will regale you with
the story of my adventure in border hopping to Malawi to renew my
Visa. It was meant to be a quick weekend trip but ended up becoming a
week-long endeavor. Hamna shida, we should have known that travel
plans never go quite the way you want them to in Africa (or anywhere else, for that matter).
 |
| I think this is definitely one of the best pictures I'll ever take. |
Hope you're all doing well, sending you
all my love from Tanzania,
Lisa
