Blog 10 - A Day in Our Life

Day 10

Ironically, it was Allison and Andrea’s day to blog, but we both ended up staying at the lodge because we weren’t feeling the best. Don’t worry though, we’re both feeling a lot better! Instead of having to redo the whole blogging schedule, Baba Dick told us to just write about anything we wanted. We’ve decided to enlighten you all on what we feel hasn’t been shared through everyday stories.

            For starters, the lodge. We want to give everyone a better idea on what our temporary home is. The Royal Lodge is probably a lot nicer than what you would expect. We’re all in rooms of three, each room having their own bathroom. The rooms are simple but they do the job. Our bathrooms have their own luxurious toilet which we never realized how much we’d come to appreciate. Our showers, although they are sometimes quite chilly, feel amazing after a hard days work. The rooms make up the perimeter of the lodge and there is a “commons” area in the middle. This is where we eat our meals and hangout. Many games of Uno have gone down there too, along with nightly meeting and show and tell with all of our souvenirs. It’s basically just a big open room with many tables and chairs. We have our nice lukewarm water jugs, to fill our water bottles, in the corner too. The roof is also a cool hangout spot at night when the temperature has cooled down. It has a beautiful view of Mt. Kilimanjaro, when it’s not too cloudy outside. Some people are able to catch the sunrise, while others prefer their sleep and watch the sunset instead. We’ve gotten into a routine with the sun rising at 7am and setting at 7pm. When we first got here, we only stayed on the small deck area by the roof, but now we courageously venture onto the roof to get a better view. All of us students have “meetings” on the roof at night, under the constellations, in order to share about our day or whatever topics come to mind. Some of the topics include foods we miss, activities we’re in, and the stories of the children we’ve met. Some people (Brock) point out the different constellations to everyone else, while others just enjoy the view rather than the information. No matter what people prefer, it’s just a calm place to enjoy life under the bright moon and stars. Definitely a view that we’re going to miss. The lodge is like home to us, but is also the home to 8 little puppies that we discovered behind the lodge. Today, they even mustered up enough courage to come INSIDE the lodge. We all willingly volunteered to pick them up to bring them outside while we enjoyed lunch. Between our cold group showers after work, meetings after dinner, late night chats on the roof, and playing with the puppies, the lodge has been a perfect second home.

            Another point of interest is the new foods we have been able to try. Our group favorite is chapatti, which is a thick, tortilla like bread that is good with just about anything on it during any meal, from Nutella to peanut butter or the meat served at meals. A normal breakfast consists of eggs, “toast” (warm bread), crepes, and local fruit. Lunch usually has kuku (chicken), rice or noodles, vegetables, and mixed fruit. For todays lunch we even got the chance to try the Tanzanian spin on Mac-n-Cheese. Although it wasn’t what we are used to, it was fun to try. Finally, dinner consists of beef, rice or noodles, vegetables, some form of potatoes (either mashed or fried), and occasionally banana custard which is another favorite. Although it’s very delicious, we are starting to miss the foods from back home. Oh what we would do for a nice, refreshing bowl of cereal and COLD milk. Some foods that the students are looking forward to are pizza, burgers, junk food, sweets, and anything cold (especially cold water). Even though we are trying to keep two feet in Africa, we can still dream of our favorite American foods (Parents: have the pantry stocked).

            Our new St. Cloud is the town of Moshi. The first thing we noticed after leaving the airport was that they drive on the other side of the road. We have had to get used to looking the other way before crossing the street. The streets are filled with dala dalas (overcrowded vans) and boda bodas (motorcycles that Baba Dick won’t let us ride). Crossing the road is a dangerous act, unless led by Juma, our protector. The cars don’t seem to slow down much when something is in front of them. We are gradually learning our way around town and mostly know the way home. The people here are all very welcoming and love to smile and wave at us as we pass. We have gotten used to everyone calling us Wazungu, which means white people, and we have learned to embrace it. Replying in Swahili has gotten much easier as the days go by. At first we were hesitant, but now our confidence has grown. Moshi has overall been very accepting of us and we are enjoying everything it has given us.

            After that overview of what it has been like to live here, here is what we can tell you about the day we missed. Our day started out slow when our 7:30 breakfast turned into 8:15. Two students along with two chaperones left around 9 to visit the regional hospital. While the two of us stayed back to rest, everyone else went to their scheduled volunteer location. Lunch was just the usual share morning stories and eat. Since the morning started off late our schedule fell behind so they were a little late leaving for the work site. While the two of us were laying in bed, rainy season finally hit hard. It poured for about 30 minutes with very strong winds (lets just say we were glad we were in bed and not in a dirt hole at the time). It was an interesting site to see the rain pour though the open roof into the common area. After it stopped, we did our service for the day by helping clean up the tables after the storm. Then the sun came out and we wrote this blog on the roof until the others got back.

-Allison and Andrea

Andrea: Hey mom! I missed you today when I wasn’t feeling too well, otherwise I haven’t been too homesick. Everyone else back home, I can’t wait to tell you all about this. I’m so excited to see you guys when I get home.

Allison: Hey everyone! I can’t wait to see you all and share my stories with you! Miss you guys a little extra today, but I haven’t been homesick yet. I’m feeling better after my day off so I’ll be back at it tomorrow, and only a few more days to go.