A Day Synopsis

It appears that they have bestowed extra free time upon me this week. Since I already covered the defining events of my week (bo to the jangles), I thought maybe I would drop bombs about my daily routine. I suppose it is a pretty solid sign of my acclimation, that I have a routine. Another is that I now cannot foresee a day without unripe stewed bananas. My body goes into unripe banana withdrawals, I'm pretty sure.

So I wake up at maybe 5:30 or 6 am every day. Yeah. Big change number one. It gets light out at about 6:15 or so, so the family is up and going a bit before. They are not quiet in the mornings. But its nice, I got some great sunrise pics which I will post if I can bust my camera out around here without getting mugged. Anyway, first thing is my morning chore- sweeping the outside area around the house. I call this 'sweeping the dirt', because I am sweeping the dirty dirt off of the cleaner looking dirt. Since they told us to only bring necessities to our 3 month training, I left my running shoes in Dar Es Salaam for the time being. Thus, the sweeping of the dirt is my only true daily exercise. So I sweep the dirt really hard, and really well. I usually manage to work up a sweat doing so. It takes me about 20 minutes, and by that time, my bath water has had 5 minutes on the burning corncobs, so its slightly warm (I have become more skilled at the bucket shower- now I can use only half the bucket and be...clean). I shower up, get all good to go, dressed and whatnot. Sometimes after the shower Mama Mipawa is real proper and has breakfast ready for me. Other days I have time to relax for a bit, so I go converse with Claude or I write in my journal. After breakfast (tea, and maybe maandazi (like unsweet doughnuts), noodles, stewed bananas) I head off to school, a five minute walk in which I dodge the insanely fast moving cars on the crappy dusy dirt road. School starts at 8, but the students get there early to sing. All the teachers hang out in this staff room type place. They always call in and play 20 questions about what's up in my life. They are all pretty supportive, and for the most part speak really solid English. The resident physics teacher is only 24 years old, which is comforting. In fact, he is not really a physicist, he only had one quarter of college level physics, and he is teaching all 4 grades. He is charming and preps well though, so the students get a half-decent bit of it. I haven't taught yet (Monday!), so we have Swahili lessons until lunch. "We" is myself, two girls and a fella, and our Peace Corps appointed teacher. Our little group is becoming pretty friendly with each other, so the lessons usually fly by. In the afternoons we usually have to go meet with everyone for more general training, about Tanzania and its culture. This is always, always the worst part of the day. People say the training is the hardest part of Peace Corps. It's because they make you, for one, sit through 3 seperate 4 hour lessons on gender equality. I'm not kidding. Seriously, it seems like they teach to the lowest common denominator sometimes. Gender equality is not that complex... Another rant there, but I'll spare you all. I usually head home around 5pm. Then, I do one of several things. Perhaps I try practicing the language with Mama Mipawa while she cooks the bananas, or I go to my room and relax. Or I go get a beer with all the others (some things never change?). They have one called Castle Milk Stout that is a little slice of heaven after those long gender discussions. At around 6:30, right when its getting dark, I take shower number two. This is usually interesting. The younger sister, Esta (I think its derived from "Esther"..), prepares my evening bath water. I think she is trying to be the perfect little sis, because she gets a little overzealous on the whole heating the water thing. I cannot describe in words how hot the water was two days ago. I honestly believe it was boiling right before they gave it to me. Honestly. Picture me with a little scoop next to this bucket, holding it very gingerly with a sad, scared expression on my face. I know how much this scoop of water will hurt. As much as the last one. My face and body unleash a silent scream with each little splash of cleanliness, and I twitch on and off. Yeah. Anyway, after that I have another hour or two to study and read (right now -"Magister Ludi: The Glass Bead Game, by Hermann Hesse...anyone read it?). Then is dinner by lantern, in which I cannot see exactly what I am helping myself to. I know the general feel of banana stew now, and I know that it is safe, so I tend to feel around for that and rice. I had some pork product the other day which I believe was the worst thing I have ever eaten. I think it was the Monarch Vodka of food. I really did chase it with other bites of stuff, because Mama had a vested interest in me eating it. Ugh. The food knocks me out usually, as Mama also has an interest in heaping seconds on my plate. So I retreat to my room after dinner, at about 9 or 9:30. Then I am asleep by 10, always. I sleep the sleep of the good, although the malaria medications give me some awesome dreams. Like, awesome dreams, vivid and insane. That's for another post though, as I have concluded my day and I have written way too much.
I hope life is this good for the rest of you, because every day is interesting and rad in its own way. Take care, drop me a line. LOVE