Guest Blogger: Anna!

Annnnnd for our next next blogger we havvvveee... Anna! Anna hails from California and is going to be a senior in high school! Check it out:

"Mambo! My names Anna and for todays blog I’m going to give you a detailed description of my twelfth day in Tanzania.

6:50am

I woke up to the sound of roosters this morning. When the shrieking awakened me my first day I thought it was charming but now I’m beginning to think the roosters have a personal vendetta against me. 

Anyway, I woke up and, using my trusty American laziness, procrastinated getting out of bed and instead use my time to stare up blankly at my mosquito net and come to the conclusion that the single mosquito bite I have so far will most definitely give me malaria.

7:15am

Every morning at around this time my host mom, Mama Sarah, knocks on my door and calls ‘Ready!’ letting me know the water for my shower is heated. I grab my shower bucket and shuffle outside in my flip flops. She always greets me with a huge smile and asks how I slept and if I’m tired. My half closed eyes, ridiculous bed head and an inside out shirt answer the question for me, but even so I sheepishly responded, “yes.. very” before asking her about her own sleep experience.

7:20am

It’s pretty chilly in the mornings, usually 50 something, so I barely add any cold water to my hot water bucket and wash in practically boiling water. It felt great.

7:40am

After I get dressed me and my host partner Amaya come out of our rooms and follow Mama Sarah down the short hallway and through a curtain into the living room to eat breakfast. Our bowls with the food had overturned bowls on top of each to keep the breakfast warm. I like the overturned bowls because when me and Amaya sit down it’s always like a big reveal of what, most definitely delicious, breakfast we’ll be having. Today it was an egg sandwich and a sliced banana, both of which I practically inhaled. The sandwiches are always very good and at home I’ve never been too fond of the banana, but here they taste like a completely different fruit and are SO sweet and good.

8:15am

Amaya and I get picked up in the van with the other eight, and talk about our host family’s and breakfast.

8:30am

We are all in the RUCU classroom and have Swahili class for an hour now. Paulo is our teacher and makes the class really engaging and fun. Since we were going to the market today we learned ‘market expressions’ like “That’s expensive!” and “Don’t give me the white people price!”

9:40am

We walked from the classroom to the market, where some people needed to exchange money. It was suppose to be a quick little excursion but there’s a lot of colorful kangas and funny knock off shoes so the group immediately got distracted and so we ended up returning to the classroom about half an hour late.

10:30am

Since we were running late we had to hustle to the school we were visiting, Matumaini. It’s a vocational school for girls who’ve been kicked out of school because they were or are pregnant. It teaches them trade skills like carpentry or sewing. When we arrived two ladies divided us into four groups and each group got shown how to tie dye a large piece of cloth. When we were waiting for the dye to soak in to the fabric, we got to go inside the store the school has full of products handmade by the girls who attend the school. When the dye finished soaking in the cloth, we laid the fabric out on the grass to dry before hustling back to the classroom.

1pm

At the classroom we grabbed our bags and the soccer balls and headed onto the huge forty seat bus we primarily use for transportation, and head to the Folk Development College (which is about an hour away) where we eat lunch. They let us use a classroom where we’re served freshly sliced watermelon, rice, beans, beans, peas, and vegetables I can’t identify. When we’re finished eating we journal as a group, and then get back on the bus for soccer.

3:20pm

We were with a new school today. It was a primary school, called Mwaya and we had about 16 girls. Lindsay, Hayley, and Eugenie were the group leaders for today so they lead the practice and reffed the scrimmage we always have at the end.

5:30pm

Currently I’m on the bus heading back from practice! We’re heading back to the classroom then to our home stays for dinner. I’m exhausted as per usual but today was fun. 

That’s all for today’s blog! We are SO excited to be heading to Ruaha National Park tomorrow for a weekend safari!!"

xoxox Anna, Dee, and the Iringa Session 2 Girls