Kihonda

Per request of my family back in the states, I will try to give you an idea of what a day in the life of Belle in Tanzania is like.  Though I guess this whole blog kind of does that doesn't it?

I live in a village called Kihonda with my host family, which consists of a mama [mother], baba [father], dada [sister], and three kaka [brother].  My mama’s name is Feliciana but I usually refer to her as Mama or Mama Katemana.  My baba is Simoni, and as for my wadogo [siblings] they are: Robert (21), Romanus (18), and the twins, James (13) and Jennifer (13).  As of yesterday, I have met all members of the family except for James, including my baba mkubwa (uncle/baba’s older brother).  James is still at boarding school, so I will not be able to meet him by the time I leave for my site.  Mama works in community development for the local municipal government and Baba researches at the Kihonda University and does machine operation, I think.  Robert is studying Computer Engineering at a university in Dar es Salaam and Romanus is about to finish secondary school.  James and Jennifer both go to boarding school, but James will not be done until later, so most of my evenings have been spent hanging out with Jennifer.  She is awesome!  :)

My family is so abso-bloomin-lutely nice and hospitable.  Everyone speaks English very well except for our house dada, who speaks practically no English.  But I try to practice my Kiswahili with her, so it’s pretty cool.  My house is really nice and quite modern, as in I actually have a Western toilet, electricity, a TV, fridge, freezer, and sometimes running water.  The water does turn off intermittently, especially during weekends when I need it the most for washing clothes, so we have to store water in our tank in the back.  Don’t worry, I still have to take bucket showers, need to boil some water to take warm showers, and have to wash my clothes by hand.  It still is a good transition for going from American living to Tanzanian village living, which is really good because I really doubt I will have electricity at my site.

On days that I have to go to CCT, which is about 16 km away from Kihonda, I usually wake up around 6am, eat breakfast, walk to the daladala stop (standi) at 7am,  and take two daladalas to get to CCT.  The first daladala goes to town, then I take another one to our stop at CCT, and I walk another 10 minutes to CCT at around 8am.  The whole trip takes about 45-50 minutes from the time I leave my house and the time I arrive at CCT.  Then the whole day is spent in sessions run by Peace Corps staff and trainers (current PCVs), with three breaks in between (chai aka tea time at 10am, lunch at 12:30pm, and soda time at 3:30pm).  We are done each day at around 4:30 or 5pm and then we either go to Dragonaire’s restaurant, Rombo bar, or usually back home via another two daladalas.

On days that I have to go to CBT (Community Based Training) at Kihonda Secondary School, I can wake up at around 7am, get ready, eat breakfast, and leave the house at 7:40am.  I arrive at school at 8am and we go ahead and start language.  The day is jam-packed with language, with a couple of breaks for chai and lunch.  My brain is most definitely fried almost after every day at CBT because of language training, but it feels great to know that I can survive quite well in Tanzania after only 2 real weeks of Kiswahili.
I love my family here and I am really starting to feel at home here in Tanzania.  I got some Tanzanian music from my brother Robert last night before he left to go back to Dar this morning (he just came to visit this weekend) and am super pumped to share it with other PCTs.  AND I am so excited to say that I am watching the Euro Cup final with Romanus (Roma for short), Jennifer, my dad, and my uncle.  SO happy…reminds me a lot of home.  Dad, I’m going for Spain all the way!  Viva España!  :P
Also, I will be going into town tomorrow to use the hi-speed wifi at the Oasis hotel, so hopefully I will be able to upload quite a few pictures!  Yay, proof of my existence!