Take the Shackles off my Feet so I can DANCE!!

Last weekend Gody and I went along to a local music album launch. The album being launched was by one of my ex-students who is now a teacher at our primary school. Sometimes I end up wondering whether any of our students actually have aspirations to be a teacher or if it is like a secondary pursuit for them in the background while they really secretly want to be singers, actors or anything more glamorous than a teacher.

We were over an hour late (arriving while I battled my internal “be on time!” clock which was chiming loudly even after living in the land of lateness for over 3 years), finding that they had only just started the praise and worship session before various budding musicians got up to have their five minutes of fame. I just love being at these events as they remind me how unself-conscious Tanzanians can be when there is music around and they just want to dance. All the singers had impressive moves and once their turn was over many of them were inspired by the next act and ran back up to join them on stage, imitating their dance moves and sometimes providing back-up vocals much to the delight of the lone singer. There was one middle aged man who, when his turn came up, couldn’t contain his excitement and flung his shoes off into the crowd before launching into his song and dance routine.

Another tradition for these events is that the crowd, once fully amped, dances up one by one onto the stage and stuffs some money into the pocket or hand of the current singer. It doesn’t end there as you find yourself joining the back-up dancers and vocalists and it’s not uncommon for large ladies in mumu style dresses to rival the late M.Jackson as they shimmy and shake their way across the stage.

It took over two hours before the main act came on-stage but when he did he impressed us all by combining his singing talent with some acting – dressed up as a homeless person he cried real tears during his song of sorrow and hope found in Jesus.

The biggest surprise of the day was that the MC repeatedly announced that Gody and I were part of a group of honoured guests who were expected to sit up the front at a special table. Along with a few others we quietly refused to leave our comfortably anonymous positions but towards the end were called up rather forcibly to cut the ribbon on the new CD and announce our monetary contribution of support. This common practice grates at me as the MC then goes around everyone in the audience and asks them to also announce their contribution in front of everyone – those with significant enough contributions receive a clap and those less fortunate suffer embarrassed silence. On the other hand, Gody later said that it is a blessing for us to be able to support the work of this musician and allow him to continue in his work, although I hope he doesn’t give up his day job anytime soon as he’s also a great teacher!

On Being Socialised

 On Being Socialised

One of the great privileges of having lived here semi long-term is that I am able to be involved in the lives of my Tanzanian friends in such an everyday authentic way. The other weekend I visited a friend's family in the morning and was set to work cooking chapatti (flat bread) over an open fire in their mud walled kitchen while my friend looked after her young baby and did the clothes washing by hand. 

Since Tanzanians on the whole have an extremely hospitable culture where guests are a huge blessing and are not allowed to do any form of work I loved the feeling that I was not an honoured guest anymore in this house but a normal part of the furniture, so much so that they would put me to work! 

It really struck me as I was working through the topic of Sociology with my student teachers and we came across the idea of 'socialisation'. It surprised me that this is what has happened to me. The definition that we read was that socialisation is a process by which somebody learns to behave in a way that is acceptable in that society. Hang on, I thought, I have been and am still being socialised into Tanzanian culture! 

There are many small cultural norms that are easily picked up early on like eating with your right hand, using a spoon for every meal that doesn't require actually eating with your hands, wearing skirts that cover your knees, greeting everyone who passes by on the way to anywhere and calling up friends just to greet them without any other agenda. Also high on the list are trying not to look the least surprised when on a crowded bus a chicken suddenly appears at your feet or a goat cries out loudly as you fly over a speed hump and learning how to show hospitality to everyone who happens to turn up at your door at even the most inopportune times (and serve them tea). 

I am still learning more subtle secrets of this culture and ways of doing things and sometimes it can be frustrating to realise that I will never completely fit in. White skin will always be white and stick out, prompting young children in most areas (and some adults) to call out "Mzungu!!" (foreigner) which can be cute and affirming if you are here on a holiday but gets in a way to be degrading when you feel like Tanzania is and will be your home long-term. This is why I think I treasure those experiences of being treated as part of someone's family here so much. It is a blessing to cook chapatti on a fire in a mud walled kitchen and feel so at home and a blessing that God has given me friends over here that can look past the differences in colour and background that we have and develop a genuine relationship (as well as assist me in my socialisation process!)

Farming = Hard Work

When I was in primary school first I wanted to be a missionary and then I changed my mind and wanted to be a farmer. Funny how things turn out, I remember the day I realised I was a missionary here - it's not like I set out to be one, I just kind of fell into it when I fell in love with Tanzania and God hooked me up from there.

One day I was making bread from scratch or something else typically so missionary and I realised that I actually was a missionary, perhaps not the paddling down crocodile infested waters to some unreached cannibalistic tribe but more your garden variety working for God and depending on Him to prompt others to support you in this work.

Then the other day I realised that I am living out my second dream of being a farmer. Gody (my fiancee) and I bought two acres of land out in the village last year and as the rains have now set upon us we decided to do what all villagers do - plant maize. Last weekend saw us out in the field hoeing up the ground in preparation for the planting. Being in an organisation that promotes specific biblical farming principles known as 'Farming God's Way' meant that we couldn't just join the rest of the village and have cows do the majority of the work, we must get out there and in order to not disturb the soil so much we had to hoe up every hole and put into it some cow manure and ashes by hand. This proved to be very hard work and took most of the day by the end of which I had a sore back, sore hands and bleeding knuckles! Farming really is hard work! And to tell the truth, we are only doing 1/8 of an acre in this method and farming in the usual way for the rest of the land so that we can witness (along with the rest of the community) the difference that it makes.

I have so much respect for the Tanzanians who farm their land, year in, year out and depend almost entirely on the rains to be good so that they are able to feed their family for another year. Let's pray that the rains this year are good and that families are able to harvest abundantly from the seed they have sown. Lets also pray that they become more and more open to principles of farming that will enrich the soil and the harvest for generations to come.

Proverbs 14:23 "In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty."

College Life

It’s been all go since college opened in June 2012 and our new students are finding out what college life here is really like! There are only five of them but they love to dicsuss things and ask questions so it sometimes seems like I have a full class J They have been immersed in the school classrooms, starting first with Maths and building up to now teaching English, Science, Social Studies and Devotions classes. They often only observe their mentor teachers for two lessons and then start to take over the teaching which is a  big step for them but we think that the best way to learn how to teach is to do it!

I have had fun recently teaching my favourite subject  Science, and as the teachers basically have to learn all the content they will be required to teach we have been dissecting rabbits, making sun rainbows, hooking up electrical circuits and exploring other topics. It is great to see my students’ amazement as they learn more and more about this world that God created for us. I just pray that they will use this in their own teaching and pass on their enthusiasm to their own students.

Development!!

I’m sitting here on my computer and the power has gone out four times in the past ten minutes. Power cuts this year seem limited to our little part of Arusha as there is some development going on in the form of a tar sealed road. For those of you yet to see where I live, it’s about 12km (or a 45min dalla dalla ride) out of the main town and the last 4km of road is dirt and has always been quite an adventure for me on the piki piki (motorbike) and perhaps not such an adventure for people who drive cars as they’re always paying for new suspension. You need to keep your wits about you as goats and cattle are herded along the road and long-suffering donkeys haul their loads of charcoal for sale.

Now, finally, we had some sightings of Chinese surveyors taking a look at our little road (when you see an Mchina as they’re called you know it’s business) and very shortly we had the community in a frenzy cutting down every tree that might impede the new road that was rumored to take only a month! It’s been two now but work seems to be cracking along and I never know what I’ll encounter when I venture out. It seems the favourite thing for the Chinese to do at the moment is to pile up large dirt mounds taking up most of the road and watch as cars (who never normally stick to the correct side of the road) take on this obstacle course with gusto. Fine for me, the motorbike can squeeze through some tight places but the thing that gets me is when they spread it all out and you have to ride through half a metre deep gravel. 

To top it all off though is the traffic controllers who perform a type of dance with their small red and green rags tied to sticks, you never know whether to stop, go or to just ditch the whole cherade and take a back path or the footpath swerving for the cattle and stray goats. Today I spotted a traffic controller who’d just given up and was sleeping under a tree.

I think I’m a little nostalgic that this village which sometimes seemed like the absolute end of the line is now going to be more accessible and more houses will start popping up, giving the feeling we are becoming just another extension of town. Although, as I ride or walk along the road and large dust clouds envelop me I get the feeling that perhaps a little development won’t be such a bad thing after all.

2012 - It was the Year of New Inventions

It all started when I got back from Mama Hussein’s farm after a week of helping her cook by an open fire in the hut which serves as the kitchen and felt as if I’d cough a lung up from all the smoke inhalation. I sympathized with the African Mamas who cook like this day in day out and thought that there must be a clean green solution for their cooking needs.

Research started using our sporadic internet between bursts of even more sporadic power cuts. I finally declared that solar was the way to go and promptly lost all hope seeing all the detailed plans with multiple angle conversions and sunlight distributors in them. Then I stumbled across a design that even we could achieve out here – the solar powered tyre cooker. After watching an informative u-tube clip Joelle and I set out with a couple of friends to reconstruct our very own solar cooker made from tyres, boxes and aluminium foil. Our first test of cooking rice wasn’t all that successful although we recorded temperatures of up to 180deg in our cooker. We then did some more research and successfully cooked bread, vegetable stew, meat stew and some undercooked muffins. As the sunny season disappeared the cooker was relegated to the balcony and served as a solar water heater for many months.

The second invention I stumbled across and became excited about was the no-electricity fridge. It consists of two large ceramic pots, one inside the other and a layer of sand in between that gets watered each day to provide the evaporative cooling effect. This is able to store fruit, vegetables and other food items in the same way as a fridge works. A few weeks later saw a friend and I lugging the pots onto a dalla dalla, transporting them the last km home cradled between ourselves and a motorbike taxi driver. The fridge set up, experiments started with tomatoes and it seemed that this is a winner, keeping tomatoes cold and fresh for up to 2 weeks instead of 3 days in the heat.

Next up was a solar hot water heater as our solar hot water just wasn’t cutting it on the roof. Black jerry cans were purchased and also a large black basin, which was covered in glass. Both worked to heat up water although the basin had a higher temperature. But overall the solar cooker won out and continued it’s delegated work of heating up the washing up water and bucket bath water when we couldn’t bring ourselves to bathe in cold water.

The invention that generated the most interest, however, was the bicycle powered washing machine. Not being so mechanically gifted myself I tend to find the invention and get others excited about it so that it gets off the ground. Since we had Paul, a very mechanically gifted Aussie man working in our garage at the time, it was he who ended up putting the plans into action. The first prototype washing machine consists of a small barrel attached to a handle that spins it on a horizontal plane. It is currently in the village being tested by a friend of mine and once tweaked we might make a larger machine that will be hooked up to a bicycle. It fulfills my standards of washing clothes although the real test will be if it lives up to Tanzanian standards, who often spend hours scrubbing and wringing their clothes to clean perfection. 

Undercover Market

One of my favourite parts of the week is going into town to do my shopping. I have always done my main shopping at the central market in the middle of town. The central market is a place bustling with activity, vegetable sellers line the streets and shove fresh capsicums and carrots under your nose while young children try to interest you in wilted bunches of coriander.

This week, however, was different. As I skirted around the fringes of the market I didn’t see any of the usual sellers lining the street – the place was decidedly quiet and deserted. I entered into the main hall to head to the butcher and as he hacked at large carcasses hanging beside him I enquired about what had transpired outside.

He told me that the people lining the road had been kicked out by the government for being illegal sellers and were now set up in another part of town. At the same moment a Mama sidled up to me and asked quietly if I wanted some tomatoes. I did in fact so she opened a bag by her side and, furtively glancing around emptied the lot into my bag before scurrying off. Then another came up, hands empty and asked me if I required carrots today – she then disappeared and shortly came back with a bag at her side, quickly doing the exchange and cautiously handed me my change before walking off quickly.

I had to chuckle to myself as I finished up my shopping in the ‘legal’ part of the market . Who would have thought that vegetables would ever need to be sold on the sly?