Day spent around Bukoba

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011
Today was a casual day around Bukoba. With our transportation being serviced and a surprise visit from the Tanzanian “IRS”, it was too late in the day for us to begin the drive to outer villages. Anna and I were able to visit the Internet café and spend some time walking around downtown. I will admit that our presence is more warmly accepted when Smart is with us. We have never been treated rudely but it does reinforce the fact that Smart is very respected here.

Since we were in town, Hope took us shopping for some fabric. The colors and patterns worn by the women here are beautiful. Matching and color coordinating are not important but there is functionality to all of the clothing. Woman wear skirts and usually matching tops but they also carry a piece of cloth over their shoulder which I later found out is like a jacket or shawl if they get cool. I was told in the fabric store that if you are going out on a date, you would wear some kind of cloth or fabric wrapped around the top of your torso and arms. This look is supposed to be sensual which was funny considering that our American idea of dressing is quite the opposite. How great would it be teaching 8th graders when being completely covered is “sexy”. No more having to fight over ridiculously short skirts and spaghetti strap tops.

Hope, one of the Imuka singers, is helping take care of us at the COSAD headquarters. She is a fantastic cook and laundry has been done sometime this morning and is now drying in the courtyard. Flavia is a nine-year-old girl who is staying here as well. Her mother is the caretaker at the COSAD house so. She is very sweet yet I have found her to be quite ruthless when it comes to playing games. As a teacher I have spent years “nurturing” young minds and their self esteem so playing cards with a forth grader, I thought I would need to go easy. As the night went on, I came to realize that the first few games were a courtesy to me. She is quite talented at cards and proceeded to “school” me several times. Even playing my hardest, she was a tough cookie to beat (which I did only a couple of times).

Flavia

The food has been amazing during our time in Africa. Fruit is very plentiful and Hope even made fresh passion fruit juice in the blender. We eat a lot of rice and green bananas but usually there is cabbage, beef and even sometimes flatbread that goes with. For breakfast we usually eat hard boiled eggs, bread and tea.

Cooking with Hope outside

Dinner of greans, fried bananas, meat and rice

The Imuka/COSAD family seems very close and we are privileged to be invited into it. The people we spend time with regularly are Smart, Hope, Justina and Edison. We (Mary, Anna and I) often refer to Edison as “Waldo” because he is like the Bukoba version of “Where’s Waldo”. We will part ways with him and then he keeps popping up everywhere we go. It has become a game to find him in the crowd.

Technology has been a little bit of a struggle. The internet café in town has been a savior for updating the blog but with all of running we do every day- I hate to make everyone stop for me to go online. I do apologize for the gaps in updating.

Hope all is well back home.
I love and miss you all,
Erika