Pests

WARNING:  This post may cause some unpleasant visual images, so if you have an uneasy stomach for pests, you may want to skip this one.

Before I came to Tanzania, I had a very unreasonable fear of cockroaches.  Now that I have lived in Tanzania for almost two years, my unreasonable fear has morphed into indifferent disgust mixed with the occasional extreme discomfort.  I don’t know about you, but I’d say that’s an improvement!

I did expect that cockroaches and other pests would be living amidst me here, but the certain experiences I encountered have definitely let some mark (though not as big of a mark as Goliath the Bat in Panama)…

Let’s take a look at the timeline:

September 2012

I first arrived at site and was still sharing the house with Eric.  He was at the nearby village while I was alone in the house (or so I thought).  There are a few gaps in the house – spaces between windows, doors, ceiling, boards, etc. – and it is impossible to keep everything sealed shut.  Using one of these gaps, a sneaky cockroach decided to crawl into the warm house and fly around a bit near where I was sitting, talking to Kaka Ben.  I started FREAKING OUT, yipped into the phone, and practically made Ben go deaf.  [Yes, I “yip” instead of scream; it sounds similar to a dog being kicked.]  I mean, not only was this a gross, disease-infested cockroach, IT WAS FLYING!!!  So I ran for my broom and as I was still on the phone, I talked through my plan to Ben, and finally worked up the courage to smack it.  And it kept crawling!  I then yipped again and smacked it again, but it still wasn’t dead!  (I kept Ben on the phone the whole time for moral support.)
After a few more yips and smacks, it finally laid lifeless against the cold concrete floor, and I could sit down and relax.

I apologized to Ben for bursting his eardrum, thanked him for putting up with my ridiculousness, and hung up.  Just as I put down my phone, Eric ran into the house asking what was wrong.  Apparently, he heard everything (my yipping) as he was walking up the hill to the house.  After I assured him it was just me freaking out about a cockroach, he calmed down and looked incredulously at me and said he thought it was something serious.  I know I seemed like a complete wuss in his eyes (and even my own) but I couldn’t help it.  Give me snakes or spiders, and I’ll be okay (maybe uncomfortable, but okay), but NOT COCKROACHES.

A few more of those icky flying cockroaches came into the house those next couple of months but I eventually stopped reacting frantically so much and just killed them before they flew on me.   Luckily, that only happened once…about a year later.

October 2013

Over a year had gone by and most of the time when I saw a cockroach, I would nonchalantly kill it.  I would definitely still be disgusted when I saw it and would usually comment on it being around, and then either I would kill it or I would try to feign ignorance but keep my belongings closed or sealed.  Insects and arachnids of all types and sizes would be found in various places: the choo [“bathroom”], closets, tables and chairs, cars, even buses.  I for the most part “got used” to them, though I would still sometimes become very uneasy if I new they were around and would still bother me – by “they” I specifically mean roaches.

One morning in October on a school day, I was sleeping peacefully when I felt something on my cheek.  I wasn’t exactly sure if I was dreaming it, but I absentmindedly brushed it off with my hand and rolled over as it made a soft sound of the floor.  Just then, I woke up with a start, realizing that it wasn’t a dream at all and something was actually on my face!  I cautiously looked over the edge of my bed and saw the culprit – a brown, hard-shelled cockroach!  I silently panicked, took my sandal, smacked it hard, and immediately got up out of be to wash my face vigorously.  UGHH!!

That whole day I felt sick to my stomach and had to refrain from gagging, but I did what I could to distract myself…I got over it after a little while, but I had to leave my house for a trip into town that weekend.  And that, my friends, is why you always sleep with a mosquito net even if you live in a house with no mosquitoes year-round!

I arrived in Njombe and the next day I got another unappetizing happenstance, literally.  That was a bad week for me…

I go and eat lunch with Steve at our favorite little mgahawa [“small food stand/restaurant”] which serves satisfying, balanced meals for only 500 Tsh. (about 30 cents).  We finish our meal with full bellies and order fresh juice from next door.  The juice was great!
…Until I take a sip and get a weird texture in my mouth, spit it out, and see I just had a small dead cockroach in that gulp!!  [I honestly don’t know why these things happen to me…]  Yes, I once again silently panicked, showed Steve, felt uneasy again, and washed my mouth out with orange soda and a piece of gum.  Bleh!  Of course for me, when it rains, it pours.  It felt pretty unsettling but I spat it out so quickly that it didn’t really linger in my mouth at all.  I was mainly shock by all this and the previous morning’s cheeky culprit more so than scared or petrified.  Fortunately, this was my last horrible experience for a while.

After the disgusting duo in October, the only bothersome pests were the usual spiders around my house (which I liked because they ate other tiny insects), small beetles and ants that Apollo loved watching and sometimes eating, and the noisy rats that live in my ceiling.  The rats were only annoying because they would eat through my ziploc bags and get to my sauce packets (sent from America) and they would always steal my soap!  Who knew they liked soap so much??  I would come home from a trip and my slightly used soap (still in a partially opened box) would be missing!

The last two experiences with pests that were noteworthy happened after my visit to America.

January 2014

Immediately after EST in Dar, we had to travel back to site and it was the first time I’d been on a bus or any type of public transportation for a long period of time since getting back to Tanzania.  I think I may have been exhausted from the night before with cleaning up Shika stuff at the training center and stressed because four of our travel mates were late and still hadn’t gotten to Ubungo bus stand.  Steve and I were saving their seats on the bus and stalling the driver from leaving the bus stand, and during all this, I saw what I thought were half a dozen small cockroaches crawling around me.  I started getting extremely uncomfortable and very claustrophobic.  I just sat there, half-delirious, half-crying in a little ball on my seat until Steve finally calmed me down.

I think that moment was when I realized the full extent of my culture shock of being back in a developing country after being in a developed country for a few weeks, in addition to missing my family.  It kind of hit me all at once and compounded my discomfort that was triggered by the roaches.  After taking a few deep breaths, I gathered myself, killed a couple roaches, and could relax again.  People don’t tell you how much culture shock can really get to you at times, whether it’s going from here to America or back to Tanzania again.  I was affected by both!  I was not too affected by it when I first arrived in country, but I think that was masked by the excitement of getting here initially.

Anyway, I got over the uneasiness after I let myself miss my American home for a bit and felt much better after the other PCVs arrived on the bus in the nick of time, literally as we were pulling out of the stand.  Phew!

February 2014

This encounter was actually with a snake instead of roaches, which I was incredibly thankful for, so I handled this one WAY better than the rest.  I was at Steve’s site taking care of him per doctor’s orders because he was incredibly ill, and they (PCMOs) wanted to make sure he wasn’t alone.  They were worried it was malaria because of his symptoms, but don’t worry, it was just a nasty stomach bug and he got exponentially better once he got the right medication.  Unfortunately, because neither of us had Cipro, we had to go into town to get them.

The morning before we left for town, we found an uninvited visitor in his courtyard.  It was a dark grey garden snake slithering by the door of his living room.  Steve’s site has more tall grass and fewer trees than my site, and this was actually Steve’s second snake sighting.  The first one he found in his house outside of his tent and he killed it with his grass slasher.  From his description over the phone and thanks to my Kindle, I told him it wasn’t poisonous.  Thank goodness it didn’t bother him while he was sleeping, because he sleeps in his tent in his house every night – both a protective barrier from snakes and a mosquito net.

That morning when we saw the snake, Steve was still weak from his stomach illness and really didn’t have the energy or will to kill this one, so I said I would.  Neither of us was sure yet whether it was poisonous, but I didn’t want to take that chance to get a closer look, and we wanted to make sure it didn’t slither its way into his house while Steve was gone.  No one likes to be surprised by a live snake in their house.

I took his slasher, positioned myself as best I could, and started slashing its body.  It was not happy (I wonder why), so it started to strike back a little, but I finally got a better hack and it was badly injured.  I hacked at it for a while until I was sure it was completely dead and until Steve told me I could stop.  >.<  I know that sounds inhumane, but I really did try to make its death be quick and merciful, but the blade on the slasher was not sharp enough and the snake was in a weird crevice that made it difficult to get a clean slash without getting super close.  It was a bit gruesome, but at least Steve would be able to sleep more easily after he returned home…  And we did confirm after it was killed that it was indeed a non-poisonous snake.

All in all, I do believe this country has made me a lot tougher than I was when I arrived here, and I have learned a lot about my own limits.

So the moral of these anecdotes is to always sleep with a mosquito net or tent to protect yourself from unwanted guests, either look before you swallow or just ignore it, sharpen your slasher, and kill snakes before asking questions, because it could be a black mamba.

::Sigh::  Third-world problems…

Vacation

Arriving back in Tanzania after being in the states was accompanied by whirlwind of thoughts and emotions.  It was hot, humid, the shuttle cab driver was lost and late, Steve had been waiting for my flight to get in and slept at the airport overnight…yes, talk about a cultural whiplash!  Luckily, Steve and I made sure to ease our way back into Tanzania, so I gave myself an early birthday present to stay at a safi hotel that night before we headed to Mafia Island to swim with whale sharks!!
This was leg two of my vacation.
Mafia Island is the southern island off the coast of Tanzania.  There are two main ways to get there: 1) by cargo boat/ship which takes about 4-5 hours of rocky current which is cheap (about $20) and you have to leave from a small town outside of Dar, and 2) by plane which takes 1-2 hours from an airport in Dar to an airport in Mafia for $120 and was only a 20-minute walk from our guest lodge (Whale Shark Lodge).  We definitely opted to take the flight, which I am now very thankful for because we were only there for a couple of days and the next morning we were going snorkeling with whale sharks.  I wanted to be primed and healthy when we swam with whale sharks and not recovering from a bumpy, seasick ride.

Whale sharks, unlike their name, are not whales.  They are sharks, which are fish - the world’s largest fish!  They are filter feeders, which means they eat only plankton and not fish (or humans), which makes them very safe to swim with.  Their mouths are very wide (about 1.5 meters), which makes it look like they are constantly smiling and reminds me of the Pokemon, Ditto.  Adult whale sharks are on average about 10 meters in length and weigh about 9 tonnes (20,000 lbs.) – WOW!!!  Each whale shark also has a different and distinct pattern of spots (like a fingerprint), which some researchers are starting to use to keep track of migratory patterns instead of the usual tagging.  In Tanzania, Mafia Island is the only place you can find them.  They tend to be in Mafia during the months of November to January.  Whale sharks also have photoreceptors, notably at their heads, so the guides told us to keep our distance from both the head and tail when we swim with them.  If you get too close, they may get spooked and swim into deeper water, or they could smack you with their tail fin, which is very strong.


Steve and I were incredibly lucky on our trip because there was only one other person at our lodge and he didn’t want to snorkel, so it was like we had our own private whale shark boat.  Once we left the beach, the guides gave us a very brief introduction and some guidelines about the whale sharks and where not to swim, had us try on snorkels and flippers, and asked if we knew how to snorkel.  I said I did and Steve said he had once before, and they said okay.  Steve had told me earlier that he was a little nervous because he didn’t have the best experience the first time, so I told him that I would help him out once we got in the water.  We got to the main area where there had been a sighting and found another boat/tour group (way more expensive than ours) there, and before we knew it, they told us to jump in the water, practically without any warning!  I saw the whale sharks and started swimming towards them, but was really worried about Steve so I looked back and tried to help him out but I couldn’t find him until a few moments.  Those few moments were all it took to make me swallow a few large gulps of sea water.  Once I caught sight of him, I looked back toward the whale shark, and it had swum away, so we swam back to the boat and went on to following it.  When we were back on board, I told him I freaked out about where he was and if he was okay, but he surprised me by saying that this was actually less nerve-racking than the first time, which I thought was peculiar because he was just in still, clear water.  I guess that works for him, but I wish I’d known or else I wouldn’t have swallowed so much water.  Unfortunately, I hadn’t swum in ages anyway so I was exhausted just after the first jump, and the sea water started making me feel seasick.  I definitely wanted to go back in, because I still hadn’t gotten a good look yet, but I couldn’t bear swimming yet.  After a few minutes of drinking water and concentrating on breathing, we sighted another one and I was ready to go back in this time.  We were both prepared this time, jumped in swiftly, and started swimming immediately without taking our faces out of the water.
This time I got an amazing view of it and IT WAS HUGE!  It’s spots were so cool and it’s mouth was almost as wide as my body was long!  They swim very slowly, but it was still a feat trying to keep up with them!  Once they got too far out, we hopped back in the boat and went to another location.  The morning kept going like so for about 3-4 hours and once we had our fill, we went back to the shore.  I couldn’t go in as much as Steve did because of my initial jump and stomach full of sea water, but I still got quite a few good jumps in!  I also got some awesome pictures, thanks to my underwater camera and the help of one of the guides.  We never got pictures of us directly with the whale sharks, but it was still awesome!  I even swam by a jellyfish once.  Despite the low visibility due to the concentration of plankton in the water and my on/off energy level, I had so much fun and was so glad Steve had such a blast!!!  :D
We got back to the lodge, paid the guide our 40,000 Tsh. (about $25) per person, and went back to shower.  Usually people have to pay over $50 per person for going out to swim with the whale sharks, and apparently the other boat we saw charged $100 per head, so needless to say, it was a steal for us!!  That evening we paid for our two nights and meals, and we figured that our total Mafia trip minus the flight was less than $80 per person for everything, including transportation from the airport to the lodge and a bajaji to and from town.  A true Peace Corps vacation!
From Mafia Island, we took a slight detour to Zanzibar before heading back to Dar.  We met up with a few Baby Eds, whose sites are on the large island, and spent a couple of nights in Stonetown.  Per suggestions from other PCVs, we stayed at an apartment owned by a Tanzanian that he rents out for tourists for only 24,000 Tsh. or $15 per person per night!  It was at a great location, included a plentiful breakfast of fruit and toast with peanut butter, and each room had a working fan and self-contained bathroom and shower!  If I ever go back, I will definitely call James up again!  He also put us in contact with the spice tour guides.
While Mafia Island is still like Tanzania, Zanzibar is like you are stepping into a different world, let alone an island!  The architecture is entirely different, with a more Islamic and Western feel to it since the island’s majority is Islamic, and Stonetown is a hot tourist destination.  I have never seen so many tourists in one place before.  There seemed to almost be more tourists than Zanzibarians every where we walked!  Of course, that also meant prices were much higher, though because Steve and I spoke Swahili, we were definitely less hassled and we got better prices for everything.  We looked like tourists, for once, but everyone was so much more friendly to us than any other Tanzanian stranger in Tanganyika (continental Tanzania).
The first full day we were there, we went on the spice tour (only $15 per person), which included going to a spice farm, trying out the different spices and fruits while on the walking tour, getting accessorized by the guides with banana leaf crafts (for free), having the opportunity to buy spices, getting fed a wholesome meal, going to the slave trade caves, and going to a private beach for a quick swim!  Best $15 I have spent yet!  It truly felt like a vacation for the first time in forever because we were actually letting ourselves be tourists for once!  The best part of it all was getting to speak Swahili with every guide, because no one else on the tour could.  As we were walking through the spice farm, the whispers of us knowing Swahili spread like wildfire and soon we had every guide come and greet us.  They loved it, and so did we!  Haha.

Steve and I also wanted to take advantage of being by the ocean as much as possible, so we ate street seafood and chicken shwarma at Forodhani Gardens both nights we were there.  Many volunteers have had very bad experiences with street food, but we knew we would be there for a couple of days so we tried our luck the first night, and it was worth it!  It was so good and so cheap, we made sure that our food was cooked and heated properly, and neither of us got sick the entire time we were there!  We had shrimp, tuna, barracuda, spiced lobster, swordfish, chicken shwarma, sugar cane juice, and Zanzibar pizza over the two nights.  SO GOOD!

Forodhani Gardens and Zanzibar Pizza (Dessert style)

After our vacation of being an ish-tourist on two islands, we took a ferry back to Dar from Zanzibar, and I spent my quarter century birthday with Steve, Fo, and Nick!  It was technically my birthday eve, but the next day Steve and I had to go to Kurasini Centre again for training, so we celebrated it on the rooftop of Holiday Inn eating sushi!!!  It was so sweet, and Steve even surprised me and told the waitress that it was my birthday, so we got a free slice of cake with a candle!  ;D  It was positively scrumptious!

The next afternoon, Steve and I got a ride from Peace Corps to Kurasini Centre from the PC office and we got to work on our Shika sessions for the Baby Eds’ and their counterparts’ EST (Early Service Training).  Remember my IST (In-Service Training) that I had in Morogoro the December of 2013?  This is the same thing but for their Ed class.
This would be our last official time for all of the Shika Team (Ryan, Willie, Steve, Ben, and I) being together doing a training, so we wanted it to go off with a bang!  We all got there a couple of days before our day of Shika sessions to prepare, and we had a great presentation in store for them.  This time, the theme was a game show/combination of many game shows –it was to be called, “Whose Lab is it Anyway?”  Our sessions would mainly be the same, but there would be a twist because each session would be a different round.  There would be approximately three teams for each subject, one coach/judge for each subject (Steve – Math, Belle – Chemistry, Willie – Physics, Ryan – Biology), Ben would be the host of the show, and there would be three rounds.  But most importantly, there would be an exciting introduction to the show, which we once again spent most of our time preparing.  Willie created a hydraulics contraption using syringes and IV tubing to synchronize explosions and fire to Fall Out Boy’s “Light ‘em Up”, while he hid under a table.  I was in charge of the music and sound effects for the entire show

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As for the actual sessions, Round 1 would be the usual Box of Fun where each team, which consisted of both PCVs and counterparts, would have to make a teaching aid out of locally available science materials, using each respective coach’s subject, present it in two minutes, and each coach would choose one team to move on to the next round.  The coaching part of this resembled The Voice.  Round 2 would be the winning teams from each subject (four total teams) now having to teach a more complex, quick lesson to the audience and the judges (four judges), this time using anything from our Shika supplies.  After each presentation, each judge would comment on the team’s performance, and they would be scored.  This was the American Idol part of the game show, so I pulled out my British accent for this bit.  Although I was technically the Brit, Steve was the Simon with his tough scoring.  After all teams presented and scores were given out, the top two teams would move on to Round 3.  Round 3 originally was supposed to include the two teams going to a duka with a Peace Corps car and driver to buy what they could using only 5,000 Tsh. to make and teach an activity to the judges to do; however, the PC car never came and we had to get on with the show.  Instead, we gave them a limited list of things they could use, I tried to keep it in the probable price range, and they presented their activity to the audience while using the judges as the students.  This time, the audience voted for the winner!  It was all in all a great plan and incredibly fun to be a part of, but I think the five of us were still hoping it was going to be even bigger.
While the teams that continued on to Round 2 and Round 3 were preparing for their presentations, the rest of the group had a quick NECTA practical lesson with Ben and Ryan in Round 2 and did a science competition with Steve in Round 3.  There were a lot of bodies to keep track of all at once, but we did have more Shika members this time around.  Although it was A LOT of work that day, I think we pulled it off and everyone, PCVs and counterparts alike, enjoyed the theatrical value if not for the actual sessions.
It was kind of bittersweet to do our last session together as a Shika unit.  I cannot describe how much I love working with this specific group, and all of us just played off of each other so seamlessly, it will be hard to finally let go…but when it does, our time will have been glorious.

Holidays

When I never thought it would happen, I was finally able to start my vacation immediately after the Mbeya Ministry training, which I mentioned in my last blog post!

Since the training was on the eve of Thanksgiving, I packed up all the Shika materials into a box, left it at a fellow PCV’s site in Mbeya (Tracy), and she, Siobhan (another Mbeya PCV), and I made our way to Willie Blackmon’s site for Thanksgiving!  We arrived Thanksgiving morning and were recruited right away to cook and prep for dinner (I helped make mashed potatoes).  What a blessing it was to have Willie’s parents visiting from America, because they brought with them treats that you cannot get here, like canned cranberry sauce!  They even got a real live turkey from Iringa or Mbeya, which Rachel slaughtered earlier that morning!!!  Everything was coming together very nicely, and as dusk arrived, we sat together, said our thanks, and dug in!  IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!  Everyone brought something to the table (literally), even Luke, a British ex-Pat who lives by Willie, brought fresh macadamia nuts!  :D

I was SO full and even with the tryptophan hitting me, I powered through it and played Catchphrase and Mafia into the night.  For those that don’t know how Mafia is played, it is a card game where each card represents a different role.  Depending on the number of players, there are usually two mafia members, a doctor, a sheriff of some sort, and the rest are villagers.  The mafia have to try to vote to kill off everyone until they are the only ones left and the others have to vote who to kill so that they kill all the mafia.  There are many variations of how to play and such, but the best part is the story-telling aspect, and Luke was brilliant, seeing as he had an acting background.  I was, of course, the first to get killed off even as a plebian villager!  Although Luke said it was a compliment because people see me as a threat, I still hold a slight grudge at him for killing me off with such brutality…  >.<  (When then villagers and/or mafia kill you off, the story-teller/”God” uses their creative license to conjure up your death, and mine was quite vividly grotesque hah.)  After mafia, we all turned in, and the next morning I was more than ecstatic for cooking the pound of bacon.  I LOVE BACON and was more than happy to cook it all!  Bacon and leftovers for breakfast mmmm…

After we were satiated, we packed our bags and I headed to Iringa with Siobhan and Tracy to meet up with Ben.  I had been planning to go to Ben’s site to help him with water testing at the different water sources in/near his village.  It was awesome, and I loved getting back into some field work that I really missed doing when I was in EWB.  I stayed there a couple of days with him and his site mate, Nick (Baby Ed), and we made some delicious food!

Following collecting the samples, you have to incubate them by strapping them to your body for 24 hours, or in this case, mine and Ben’s backs.  After recording our results, which showed that the well (top right picture above) had the least amount of bacterial contamination, we headed back into town after we recorded our results and got ready for our safari!

Ben and I had planned a trip with a few other PCVs to go to Ruaha National Park in Iringa.  It was soooo much fun especially because this was my first safari tour with friends and I had heard so many great things about Ruaha!  We stayed a little outside the park for very cheap and went into the park one full day and then the next morning.  There were a TON of lions, birds of different species, and elephants!  [More pictures can be seen in my Picasa Photostream.]

We passed over a bridge in entering the park and saw quite a few crocodiles and hippos, but best of all was a cheetah that was SUPER CLOSE!!!  It was lying right under a tree just a few meters from our car!  Overall, the trip was fantastic, relaxing, and full of bonding memories, including our tire blowing out THREE TIMES while in the park!  LOL.  Seriously, our guide is the fastest tire-changer ever (and the coolest)!  :]

Ben and I said bye to the other PCVs once we got back into Iringa town, and we headed up to Dar to both go to AMERICA!!!!!!!!!  We were both pretty anxious to get back, but we knew it was going to be a shock, culturally and physically.  I was going to be going from super hot and humid Dar in the summer to freezing Chicago in the winter!  As for the cultural shock, Ben had been back before, but this was my first time going home since I arrived in country.  People always talk about the reverse culture shock going back to America, and man, were they right!  It was pretty weird at first, but I think the best way to describe it was – overwhelming.  My senses were overwhelmed the second I got into the Dar airport and especially the plane that took me to Qatar.  It was such a simple, but crazy concept to be able to go to the bathroom whenever I wanted, drink and eat however much I wanted, and there was A/C practically everywhere!!!  My mom was so worried about my 9-hour layover in Doha, Qatar and my 6-hour layover in Paris, but I was loving it!  I got to roam around an air-conditioned airport and speak in English (or French when I was in the CDG airport), and sleep horizontally on chairs without a single person bothering me and telling me “you are tired/sleepy.”  [Also, I was SO happy I didn’t completely lose my French because I could still order and pay without using English!]  And to top it all off, I was picked up at the airport by Steve (and a bag of warm clothes) in Chicago!!!  Easiest travel ever.

It was late afternoon by the time my flight got in, so we just went to Tinley Park (his neighborhood) instead of checking out downtown before Christmas.  I got to REALLY experience cold and I was not quite ready for that!  LOL.  Not only had I never been in temperatures in the teens ever in my life, I was coming from a country that never gets below brisk.  We stopped by old downtown Tinley Park, went down and took some pictures, which were all blurry from my hands uncontrollably shaking, and went to his apartment.  We opened the door, and a glorious smell of freshly-baked cookies hit us just as his sister, Christine, opened the door!  It was so great finally getting to meet her, and his mother in person!  And I got to try the succulent Giordano’s deep dish pizza for the first time ever!  My mouth is watering just thinking about it…

That night, I met one of his sisters, her boyfriend, and his mom – I would be acquainted with the rest in time.  I tried to stay up that night and watch more Christmas movies, but with the jetlag and travelling for almost two days straight, my eyelids were starting to close just as I took my last bite of pizza.  I excused myself, showered in the most comfortable shower I had been in since I don’t know when, and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The next morning, I woke up to the heavenly smell of bacon and toast.  I popped out of bed, quickly went out to the kitchen and saw Steve standing there cooking me my first breakfast in America – how sweet!  We ate and packed in a jiffy, just as his dad arrived to give us a ride to Midway airport to go to Texas!!

The flight was so quick and the second we landed at Love Field, my dad was waiting for us at the gate, as usual.  I was overjoyed and ran into his arms!  This was Steve’s second time in Dallas, so he let me get my fill of being with my family before he gave my dad a hug.  :)  We met my mom, brother, and uncle down in baggage claim and when I reached my mom, she was practically in tears.  Her baby girl was back, at least for a little while!

Our bags all arrived with no problem (phew!), and we drove to dinner to meet more members of my family, including my twin cousins!!  And where do you think we were headed for dinner??….
TEXAS ROADHOUSE

It had been over a year since I’d had real steak, and that’s what I requested be my first meal back home.  Once again, I was overwhelmed by how happy I was to see everyone and be eating my favorite foods.  It was absolutely delicious, I got loads of hugs and kisses that night, and when we got to my house, it was incredibly nostalgic.  It was like stepping back into a memory that I had forgotten had been my own.  Everything was exactly the same, except for my dog no longer being there.  I was sad at first, but luckily I had come to terms with her being gone long ago, and as I quote Billy Mack from Love Actually, “Christmas is all around you, come on and let it snow!”

While I knew my trip back home would be refreshing, it would not be relaxing.  Every day was packed and our itinerary was filled to the brim with events, venues, and FOOD.  The morning after arriving in Plano, Steve and I did a Peace Corps presentation at my mom’s law firm, which went incredibly well, had lunch at El Fenix (one of my favorite Mexican restaurants), and that evening went to my mom’s friend’s house to a cocktail party to meet the Tanzanian ambassador of America!

Now, how did we do that, you ask?  Funny story, but an attorney at my mom’s law firm, whom I have known since I was a child, had told her sister (another attorney) about our presentation about Peace Corps Tanzania.  Her sister just so happened to be having a cocktail party for the Tanzanian ambassador and other Dallas-local Tanzanians at her house that evening!  What a coincidence, right?!  So once her sister heard what we were doing, she invited us and my parents to the party.

Steve and I were introduced to the ambassador, and it was SO ODD having our two worlds come together so drastically.  We both agreed that it was so nice getting to meet everyone, but we were actually more comfortable speaking Swahili to the Tanzanians there than we were speaking English to Americans.  I guess we really had been living in Tanzania for a while…

We didn’t stay too long because I was still a little jetlagged, but the connections we made were priceless!  And Ms. Melissa, if you are reading this, please tell your sister that we thank her so much for that amazing opportunity!  I still cannot believe there is a Tanzanian community in Dallas, and there is a legitimate Tanzanian food place we could get ugali.

The next day was full of pictures and a family friend’s wedding.  We met the couple when we all used to play badminton together on weekends and they are a few years older than me.  My family, Steve, and I braved the cold and got to their wedding, and were very happy it was inside.  The wedding was very short and sweet but very intimate, and it was so great to see another non-traditional wedding.  I was so happy I was able to make it home in time to be a part of their special day, because I’d known them for a few years.  :)

We said our congratulations, took more pictures, ate very good catered food at the reception, and left so the twins could get home for bed before they got too restless.  I would have liked to stay a little longer to hang out and dance, but I also knew I was waking up early the next day to go to the shooting range.  (Yes, I know there are some things that make me very Texan, and this is one of them.)

Sunday morning, I was finally going to get to introduce Steve to shooting.  He was nervous at first, but who wouldn’t be (other than me)?  He got over that fear very quickly though.  Besides, it is important to at least be familiar with them, just in case (…for a zombie apocalypse).  Once we got to try my uncles’ combined collection of pistols and rifles, we met up with other family members at Twisted Root (a legit burger and root beer joint).  My cousin, Wat, then took us antique store shopping for a couple hours and we got home in time for the official “Belle is back visiting” Party.  That was when Steve got to meet some of my friends, one of whom drove all the way up from Austin just to see us and drove back that evening (thank you so much Michael!!!).  It was so great getting to catch up with them and I was happy Steve fit in with them so well too.  Everyone went home that night with full bellies and doggy bags of extra food and egg rolls.

On Monday, we went to the Perot Science Museum (which was mine and Steve’s favorite and I want to go back again), ICE! (where they had indoor ice sculptures with the theme of The Nutcracker this year), and KOREAN BBQ for dinner!  I think that was my favorite day in Texas since I had gotten back.  When we were at both the Perot Museum and ICE!, I couldn’t help but think how cool it would be if my students were there to see and experience it all.

It was so blatantly obvious now why and how we, as Americans, have had critical thinking and creativity engrained in us even before we were aware of it.  I just wish it were part of the culture here in Tanzania…but it isn’t.  That is why Steve and I love so much being a part of Shika na Mikono, because it gives us a chance to expose Tanzanians to how science and math can be fun and creative and not so scary.  Being here as a teacher has really helped me be so grateful of being raised in a country where education was literally at my fingertips.  I could go to a science museum or planetarium and play science and math games all day just because I thought it was fun.  Enough of my babble, but pretty much, I wanted to say that we loved it!  Oh and Korean BBQ was such a great experience for Steve.  That was his favorite meal too.

Steve was leaving on Wednesday morning to go back to Chicago, so Tuesday was our relaxation day – finally haha.  We went to eat dim sum for lunch, and Steve got to meet two more of my friends that night.  Panar stopped by for a while and we played board games, which was so much fun, and Mylinh came by later.  It was a late night, but so worth it for both Steve and me!  Wednesday early morning, my dad and I dropped Steve off at the airport.  Once Steve left, there was only a week until Christmas, so I tried to see as many of my friends as possible who were in Dallas for the holidays, ate more of my favorite foods, and went shopping for Christmas gifts and things to take back to Tanzania.

Christmas day came and it was CRAZY!!  SO MANY PEOPLE!  Our house was full of presents, babies, and food.  The X-Mas Cup Tournament commenced as usual, and after the games were played and winners announced, we did our annual Secret Santa reveals and watched the kids open their mounds of presents.

The next couple of days I got to hang out with my mom and twin cousins for a full day and my bestie, Mylinh, for another full day, and go see the Chinese Lanterns Festival before I left for Chicago on the 30th.  My time in Texas went by so quickly, but even if I stayed longer it wouldn’t have been enough for my family.  To be honest, I actually missed Tanzania for its simplicity and rawness.  I got to Chicago, which was still cold, and Steve and I went straight to a friend’s house from the airport.  Finally, I met Max Power, the famed dog that Steve has talked about so much, and his owner Alex.  That evening I also got to meet more of his family (his cousins and both his sisters) at their Game Night.  However much my family likes their Texas Hold ‘em, Steve’s cousins love their games even more!  :D  I had so much fun!!  It had been ages since I’d gone to a game night of any kind and I missed it.  His cousins made me feel right at home and they welcomed me with open arms.  I don’t think we left his cousins’ apartment until I have no idea when (almost 3 a.m.?), and Steve and I slept until almost 2 p.m. the next afternoon, New Year’s Eve.

This is Max Power (and his owner, Alex, in the picture on the right).

NYE.  Was it already the cusp of a new year?  We were getting picked up by two of his friends, Ray and Holly, to go to his other friends’ apartment in downtown Chicago for a New Year’s party.  That was when I was introduced to pretty much all of Steve’s closest friends, who are all really awesome and chill.  (I was SO happy this was a chill NYE get-together instead of a full-blown party because I was still pooped from Game Night.)  I got to catch up with Jake, whom I had met in Tanzania when he visited, and met a few others.

It was great company, and even though I barely made it to the countdown into 2014, I made sure to stay awake long enough to say goodbye to the majority of the guests.  Once most everyone left, Ray, Holly, Steve, and I picked our respective sleep spaces at Nick’s apartment, and I was out like a light.  The next morning, Steve and I were dropped off back at Tinley Park to unpack and shower, and had another relaxing day before dinner with both his parents, followed by Ticket 2 Ride, the board game.

We spent the majority of the next day really taking in the sites of downtown Chicago.  We started with going to the Museum of Science and Industry, followed by ice skating at Millenium Park and going to Water Tower Place, and warmed up with some hot chocolate at Ghirardelli’s.  That was my fantastic downtown Chicago day, thanks to my personal tour guide!  I also got to eat (so much) at Portillo’s the next afternoon and more Giordano’s that evening at his cousin’s house for another impromptu game night.  The last day in Chicago and America, we spent doing some last minute shopping, packing, and playing in the snow and making an Olaf snowman (from Disney’s Frozen) – yay!  I had never been around so much snow in my life, so I was super giddy!  Although it was sad to leave everyone, it was good we left when we did because the “polar vortex” was coming in and I was able to leave Chicago right before getting stuck.  Steve left on a different flight going back to Tanzania and my flight left a few hours later.  My flight was only delayed for an hour to de-ice the plane, and then I was off back to Tanzania!  The not-so-lucky few that left in a flight only a couple of hours after me were either delayed three hours or they were completely stuck in Chicago until the next Monday or Tuesday – eek!  Pole for them…

It was a short trip but it was perfect way to reboot!  I want to thank everyone that made my trip home so wonderful and memorable, and it will only be a few more months until I am home again, wherever home will be!

Although my time in America was a vacation in itself, the rest of it unfolds in Tanzania…in the next post!