I have been off traveling, teaching and living all tangled up in the strange new world around me. The hole in my storytelling is due to the presence of a kiswahili class, an after school musical, a some new friends, a myriad of weekend adventures, the birth of a new collaborative life project and a difficult visit from some amoebas as well as my struggle to find the beginning of this thread. Where does one start start when everything is worth talking about and few things are tied tightly enough to my listeners' prior knowledge to tell about without front-loading?!
My mom, in true GT teacher fashion has accommodated for my learning style and her own anxiousness for news by suggesting that I start at the beginning and use pictures.
So here is a picture tour of our home: (please forgive the layout issues, I can't seem to get them set and need to sleep, so follow the bumps and bruises in solidarity with those that we've run into on our journey!)
This is us(invisible costars= Zak's amoeba and
bacterial infection, my lonely amoeba)
This is our building
We live below a couple who
are about our age, and above
a lovely family with a bubbling
little globally integrated infant,
our IT guy also lives here,
but that doesn't mean that the
electricity and internet
behave themselves. Its safe
and comfortable and we have
running water, which is more
than we were really expecting!
This is our carZak was adamant about getting a car right away and its been very helpful. It opens the doors to adventures that would be quite tedious otherwise. It has two levels of four-wheel drive so we can scale the massive potholes of Dar's lovely roads and drive through sand and shrub on more rural escapades. Zak drives because not only is it stick (on the other side!) but no one obeys traffic laws and we all know that defensive driving is not one of my god given gifts!
This is the guard house
We live inside of a walled-in compound
that includes several housing buildings
like ours and the entire elementary
school. At each gate there are "eskaris"
or guards who let us in and out. They are
the nicest guys, showing genuine
concern for our ups and downs. We have
a mutually beneficial relationship based
on language exchange, they arm us with Kiswahili phrases when we
leave the gate and they are eager to practice their English with us.
This is a cool woven fence and our water tower
The water tower is quaint, but is probably where the amoebas breed! The fence doesn't do much to protect us, but its fun to think about what it took to weave it out of palm fronds!
This is the outside world
Notice the inspiring sign about our school (if you can't see, it says "where diversity meets inspiration") but only diversity within the social class that is allowed through this colorful guarded gate! I can hear the cars on this road beeping frantically at each other as we speak!
This is Barack Obama
This half finished portrait sits in a guard house by our school. When ever Tanzanians learn that we are American, they shout "Oh! Land of Obama!" His popularity ratings have not suffered a bit around here!
This is our walk to school
Although we often miss those
grounding moments in the car
before and after school, both of
our struggles with punctuality
are aided by the fact that we
can hear the morning bell from
our kitchen window, nab our
lunches and trot across this
soccer field to school!
So that is the inner circle of our new inhabitance, stay tuned for The Rooms in Which we Eat and Sleep and perhaps a glimpse at The World Outside These Walls!
