Language Lessons and a Partner Visit

Looking for chameleons with David on Saturday

Hujambo
--Sijambo
Habari za asabuhi?
--Njema. Asante, na wewe?
Nzuri!

We began our first week of Swahili on Tuesday. We are doing two hours a day and at the risk of being immodest I would say we made phenomenal progress. The reason is that Kiswahili is very similar in structure to Kirundi, and most of the verbs have similar roots. This is important because understanding the rules of syntax of a Bantu language is no small part of comprehension. Now we are working on absorbing as much vocabulary as possible, starting with things we need most practically-- like getting home on a Dala-Dala. (minibus that is used most commonly for public transport.) I used them several times this past week--sorry no pictures.

Me and Mary with Mt. Longido

The week did not start with language lessons though. Instead, I began the week with a field visit to one of our health partners. This partner is called TEMBO, an an acronym that also spells the Swahili word for 'elephant'. They do work with local Maasai communities around the town of Longido to try to prevent early marriage and FGM. We also introduced Zoe, MCC's SALT volunteer, to her host family and got her set up in the local home where she will spend the next year. She will be working with TEMBO as well. We left Monday morning with Sharon, our country rep., me, Zoe, and Chrispin our Ag. coordinator in a pick-up fully loaded with Zoe's things, including a full bed. We arrived in Longido about an hour and a half later. The drive was on a good road through the savannah where we could see some giraffe and antelope in the distance. Longido town is located at the base of Mt. Longido. It was also possible to see Kilimanjaro in the distance enroute, but not the day we went.

Zoe with Sharon and host family

We were greeted by Paulina the director and Mary, one of the community organizers. We had a very informative chat with them about their work then took Zoe to her host family. The house was modest, but comfortable. Zoe has her own room, and the host family was very welcoming. Zoe, who is Kenyan-American and based in the US, fortunately has a good command of Swahili and was able to communicate well with the family.

We returned to Arusha in the afternoon and I was home before the kids got home from school.

The rest of the week was occupied with language lessons, and research on other partners, particularly a new maternal and child health project we will be implementing with a partner working in the Ngorongoro Crater conservation area.

The kids have been doing well in school, although they are still getting used to leaving the house at 6:45 am. We had a chance to go the school to meet David's teachers on Wednesday night. We brought the kids along as we had no babysitter. It was interesting to meet his teachers and hear about the philosophy of education. It seemed a bit rudimentary compared to the complex pedagogical strategies of Pinewood, but I think it will be OK. From things the kids tell me though, detention is a pretty common disciplinary measure, even for not doing homework particularly well or not getting changed for PE fast enough. Oren has already gotten one 'lunch' detention for not doing his homework the way the teacher wanted it.

Despite this, Oren seems to connect well with friends at school. It is a bigger problem outside of school where we have had a lot of trouble finding families with kids Oren's age to connect with. It is really clear that Oren needs a friend his age and we have come up empty so far in looking for one. Oren and David, on the other hand, seem to be getting along in some ways. This past week, Oren came home and told us that he heard through the cafeteria grapevine that David had walked out of the bathroom without his pants on and several students nearly fainted. David confirmed to us that it happened and said he was really embarrassed. We thought it was funny, but also sympathized with David. Then, on Sunday, 5 days later, Oren told us that he and David had made the whole thing up as a practical joke to fool us. We really believed them, and I was surprised to see them conspire together so sincerely to get one over on us. Maybe they really will become better friends here?

Back to finding friends-- One problem with connecting with classmates outside of school is that it is very far away from our house, and many parents send their drivers to pick up the kids, so we cannot seem to connect at school with them even if we wanted to. We even went to a 'team' dinner in our compound (not our MCC team but the mission team that lives on the compound where we live) to see who else was on the base (as they call it). It was a nice dinner but not particularly fruitful as far as finding kids Oren's age.

This week we tried out a new church to see if there were any families we had missed. It was a Vineyard church, so quite different stylistically than the church we have been attending, but not much different in terms of families with kids Oren's age.

3 jars of fresh yogurt

One very nice thing about being here has been having free time on the weekends. Rebecca and I walked around the compound on Saturday and found a feeding area where many species of birds gather (probably because of all the ants.) We saw some very colorful lovebirds, drongos, cordon bleus, gray headed kingfisher, superb starlings, red headed weavers, hammerkop, yellow vented bulbul, some local varieties of thrush, and other things I have forgotten. We also made yogurt. It is pretty easy as a local farmer delivers 2 liters of raw milk to us 3 times per week. We pasteurize it, and on Saturday we put a yogurt culture in it while it is cooling. In 8 hours we have 2 liters of yogurt.

We have tried to find creative things to do in the evening. This weekend, we got out some model planes that we had brought for both boys and worked with them to build them. We are trying to limit screen time, although with the lack of friends for Oren, it is hard to constantly find ways to entertain him or otherwise keep him occupied.

Next week, more language, a visit from a partner, and a visit to a local Mennonite Church. We will keep you posted!