I am now fully immersed.
Immersed in a reality of mosquitoes and malaria, poverty and despair.
Immersed in a culture of warmth, compassion, generosity, faith, hope, drive, tradition, ambition, life, love and laughter.
Immersed in a community where the slogan reads: If it is yellow, let it mellow; if it is brown, flush it down.
Let me revise. Us, volunteers, have this pleasure. The rest of the village where we reside have the distinct option of squatting, or...squatting. You may wonder if being the only little oasis with running water and electricity makes me feel guilty occasionally? Absolutely not! I am scared of the dark and petrified of being pottyless.
I have now been here for about 2 weeks, and am slowly picking up important Swahili words, phrases and concepts. For example, everyone my elder I call Mama. Which is quite convenient because I have never been fabulous with names, but slightly disconcerting when people call me that. Hujambo means hello; Kwa Heri means goodbye. Some other important phrases our guidebook thought might come useful include:
Twende Kitandari--lets go to bed
Niguse Hapa--touch me here
Usiwe na wasiwasi nitafanya mwenyewe--dont worry I will do it myself
and my favorite, in this very same section: Tulia, simba--easy lion!
Yes, simba actually means lion, and Hakuna Matata (no worries) is a very commonly spoken phrase here!
Here is something new--I have decided to become a vegetarian for the time being. But before any of your liberals get too excited, let me explain that this is not for moral reasons. Firstly, as if east Africa is not riddled with enough diseases, a new one has been introduced. It is a hemorrhagic disease, carried by mosquitoes, similar to Ebola where you start bleeding and then you die. And even WORSE, it is found in beef and lamb, so there go those items from the menu. That leaves chicken and fish, which are served on a daily basis. But in a country where chickens run rampant, are people's pets and are routinely slaughtered in public, it becomes a little hard to stomach. I like my meat faceless and figureless. Nicely coated strips and round shapeless patties. When I have to pull my meat off of recognizable rib cages, legs and thighs, I simply loose my appetite.
Which is probably for the better...keeping to my theme of cultural immersion, I had the distinct pleasure of spending several hours in the Arusha City Hospital. And what a delightful experience that was. Word of advise for future travellers: If you can ever avoid going to an African hospital, I highly recommend it. Although honestly aside from the occasional cockroach, and relentless insects, they treated me well and were able to diagnose me after 3 lab specimens (no, I was not thrilled at the prospect of having my blood drawn in an AIDS infected country but it is the only way to check for the malaria parasite). Which unlike my fellow volunteer diagnosed that day, I did not have. What I did have was Bacterial Intestinal Disease. 100% less cool than malaria but 100% as awful! But I conquered and survived and subsequently made up for my 6 weeks of binge eating before I left.
If anyone makes it down to this part of the email, thank you! To wrap things up, my placement is interesting but very taxing to say the least. I am working in an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS, as well as doing village/community outreach. These "house" visits (and I use the word house loosely), usually entail a 1-2 hour hike along streams, dirt paths and occasionally the one paved road that runs through (yes, one, and it goes up from Nairobi, Kenya down to Cape Town, South Africa).
Last weekend we did a two day hike around Mnt. Kilimanjaro (I know, who am I with all of this exercise?) and today we are going to a pool that boasts having monkeys in the trees. I am totally excited although quite upset that I only brought one bathing suite, and the advise of our coordinator. A one piece high neck speedo from junior high...
And with that picture in mind~ miss you all and take care!!!
