Thursday, November 06, 2008

Before Election Results...

(I wrote this blog entry....)

Whew. What an awesome ride. It’s amazing to be here in this beautiful mountain region of Tanzania. The days often get warmer than I would prefer, since I was spoilt by a couple summers on the northern tip of Lake Huron, but that’s the price you pay for mango/pineapple season, I suppose. And it’s well worth it when there is water to spare for a little bucket shower in the heat of the day or before climbing into a warm bed at night.

I’m still in the honeymoon phase of unemployment here, although it does nag at me a bit that I have zero income while traipsing about Africa and Europe. It’s been almost 3 weeks now that I’ve been here, and I have a bit of a routine. If Amber doesn’t wake me up at 6 to go see the sunrise or meet the bus driver’s cow, I sleep in until about 9 and putter around until it’s time for chai with the teachers. Maybe I’ll have some coffee and read, or write. Or perhaps tackle Swahili.

Oh Kiswahili. It’s a fairly straightforward language, often combining tense and subject (and probably anything else you need in the sentence, it seems) to the verb, but it’s slow going for me to memorize the different parts. I did manage to greet an entire wedding audience in Swahili, English, and the local language, but that’s about as far as my competency goes J I just hope people don’t answer me and ask a question with words I don’t know!

Got off track from the routine there – you’re just going to have to stay in suspense, because I’m not going back to it! Instead, we’re going to the weekend…

I climbed a couple hours to a mountain’s crater lake the other day with Amber, and we unsuccessfully tried to capture an image of the monkeys who eluded us in the trees while not falling down the trail. If I can get the camera to work, the picture with this post will be of that hike. How are things in the rest of the world? I hear there’s some sort of presidential election going on soon in America. 95% of Tanzanians are hoping you vote for Obama. Just sayin’.

;-)

3 comments:

Laura said...

Sarah,
I love reading of your adventures. Unfortunately, it's a part of the world that I can't picture very well. I do remember my coworkers from Ghana at Yosemite telling me that their continent was the most beautiful in the world--more beautiful than Yosemite, which I found completely impossible to believe. But then perhaps we're most fond of beauty close to home sometimes--nothing will be able to replace the beauty of the American North and West for me. I just like balsam and spruce and birch forests :) Yes, by the way, the picture that you commented on in my blog was from Neebs. Keep enjoying the experience that is life, and give Amber a warm hello and hug for me!

Gwen said...

ninapenda sana hadithi yako :) endelea kuandika! nilizungumza na mary wiki iliyopita na nilikufikiri. na leo, nilipika chapati!!! nilisisimua (na ilikuwa tamu pia). hmmmm furahia tanzania kwa mimi!!

(na katika kiingreza, if you're kiswahili brain is tired)

i really like your stories :) keep writing! i talked with mary last week and i thought of you! and today i made chapati!!! i was excited (and it was tasty too) enjoy tanzania for me!!

Sarahhh said...

Gwen, I miss chapati...

And Laura, can you see the pictures on Flickr? It's a bit of a sensory overload, but you'd enjoy it!