Stanzania - The Village

After staying in Njombe for a night, Christine and I finally continued on to see my school. It is a 2 hour trip from Njombe to a village called Lilondo, and then a "bumpy" (to say the least) 8 km ride up into the hills to Wilima Secondary School. Apparently our travelling must have been going too easily for Tanzanian standards because we had a particularly annoying time getting a bus to Lilondo. But after plenty of arguing and fighting, we finally were able to get seats on one of the medium-sized coaster buses Monday afternoon.

More than anything else, I think it was just nice to have time to ourselves and relax at my house. After being on the move every day up to then, we were both happy to just relax and not do anything. We did a walking tour of the school campus and were able to meet with most of the teachers, which was nice. Half of the students were home on break, and the other half were taking tests all week, so unfortunately we could not spend too much time with them.

For Christine's birthday, we celebrated pretty much the only way that I know how to celebrate at my house - cooking and eating a ton of food. Pancakes and fruit salad for breakfast (and lunch), and then burritos (chipatis, rice, beans), chips and guac, and mango salsa for dinner. I had been able to find a Funfetti cake mix in town, so we tried to make it using the charcoal stove oven method, which basically involves putting a pot on top of a few thin rocks inside a bigger pot, and then baking over the charcoal jiko. I have had success doing this in the past, but this time I just didn't have the touch I suppose, and the cake turned out a little, well, let's just say it was obvious that it was baked in a Tanzanian make-shift oven. But luckily you can't screw up the taste of a Funfetti cake, so it was still good. We went and shared it with the mama who usually cooks for me, Mama Edu, and my counterpart and his family.

After leaving my school on the 5th, we went to Songea to stay for the night, and stayed with my friend Veronica who lives right in town. From there, it was easy to catch the early 6am bus the next day to Morogoro, as we began our return trip up north. It worked out very well staying in Morogoro for a night, because it turned out a lot of other Peace Corps volunteers were there for a training, so we were all able to hang out, and Christine was able to meet some of my best friends from my training class.

The next morning we walked to my host family's house to visit and have breakfast. They were so incredibly happy to meet Christine and to see us both. I hadn't even seen any of them since early December, so I also enjoyed being able to see them all. Baba was travelling to Moshi, but everyone else was there, including my host sister Eunice, who Christine actually was writing a couple penpal letters with last year. So I know it meant alot for her to finally meet Christine in person.

Finally, we capped off our epic travelling adventure with a little good luck, getting good seats on the bus to Dar, and getting in with just enough time to get to the airport a couple hours before Christine's 5pm flight. All in all, I think the trip was a very good introduction to the many different faces of Tanzania - from the big-city atmosphere and relentless "Mzungu!"-yelling cab drivers of Dar es Salaam, to the touristy yet entertaining attractions of Zanzibar amidst the beutiful tropical scenery and interesting historical background, to the classic African Land Rover safari adventures and unbeatable wildlife viewing of Ruaha National Park, to the quiet, simple, and albeit bug-infested life of the village among welcoming Tanzanian neighbors, all the while feeling the difficulty and frustrations of seemingly simple tasks such as getting a bus to travel, buying and transporting food items, cooking, and doing laundry in a third world country, and also getting a more in-depth peek into the community and lifestyles of Peace Corps volunteers in this country. I am so incredibly grateful that Christine was able to come visit me here, and I hope that her trip has helped her, and anyone who reads this blog, to get a better idea of what Tanzania is like.