Slowly Bringing in the New Year (1/1/2006)
Well it is two days into the new year and you are probably wondering why I have not wished you a happy new year and why did my last email seemed to end so abruptly. The last email ended because the lab monitor suddenly said it was time to go without even a ten minute warning. I did not ask for more time because I figured I would be back the next day and resume wishing everybody happy holidays.
Warning, if you thought the last paragraph was boring skip this next rant:And why have I not wished you a Happy New Year before the year began? Because my friends, Tanzanians come when they arrive, not when they are invited. Last week I had the honor of being co-teacher on duty. However, since there are only about 10 students all studying for their big exam at school of their own volition, the duty largely consists of being on school grounds during school hours and keeping the office open. I was supposed to be free the 31st but since I am the person that lives on campus I volunteered to hold the office keys until the next teacher on duty showed up. I had heard that Tanzanians are sometimes late so I was not surprised when nobody came to my door at 7:30 AM. 10:30 rolls around and I am getting texts about what am I doing for New Year's. I say I am waiting for the teacher who should be here any minute now. At 2 PM I realize my time for getting out is growing thin, but I remember a conversation with the headmistress that she might be having a New Year's gathering, and so I figure worse case scenario is that I have a Tanzanian New Year's, a cultural experience. Not knowing if there is actually a party I take the long walk to the headmistress's house around 4 PM. This gives me three hours of daylight, enough time to be at party or get much needed food if dinner is not provided. Nobody is home, most likely on my own for the night. After buying vegetables I run into the headmistress's house girl and am invited to dinner. Since the headmistress is still not home I enjoy the meal but am the only one eating. After texting PCV happy new years for two hours and reading for an additional two hours I consider staying up to 10PM an accomplishment and head to bed. The next morning I wait until 11:30 before seeking the permission to leave and am told to not worry about the keys just have a good time.
End of rant:So now I am here Happy New Year!No real adventures this week, but I managed to find a new broom and realized that as little as I did on TOD it is more about the concept of being present than actually being on duty. I spent two days I figuring out where to get the cloth and marking it (so it could get cut to exactly the right size) only to find that instead of paying the local seamstress I should wait several weeks until a student will do it for free. These kinds of project delays seem to happen more often then not. Just last week I went on a mission to get a hammer and screw drivers for a gutter project only to find that the work will commence sometime during the New Year. As annoying as searching out supplies for little interminable projects, at least it is giving me something to do and I always feel better completing the task.
A while ago I said I was going to touch on old news. Since last week I harped on the Christmas that never felt like Christmas and this week I have talked about fruitless tasks, I think will continue to drone on another pointless story about my Thanksgiving journey.For thanksgiving we all woke up early so we could take the 3 hr bus ride to Dar. I had just got my phone the night before so I spent the ride learning the rules and mastering the bantumi game. FYI Bantumi is the famous African bean/bead game and apparently it has many different names so if you know of an African board game this is probably the same. I was very glad to be preoccupied with my phone because the last hour of the ride "Red, red wine" was on repeat and drove everybody else nuts. But in video game trance I merely registered "oh, song I like" and treated it as the extended version. I think I may have told you that we were in Dar to have Thanksgiving at the Ambassadors? In any case the short story is that we were and there was more drinks than food. Which was good because there wasn't enough food so although not everybody got turkey, everybody came home happy. After the food was gone we hopped on the bus back to Morogoro, because the next day we had proficiency exams, which obviously were not incredible but were not bad enough to send somebody home.
OK everybody enjoy the New Year and get focused on those pointless tasks,
T.
Warning, if you thought the last paragraph was boring skip this next rant:And why have I not wished you a Happy New Year before the year began? Because my friends, Tanzanians come when they arrive, not when they are invited. Last week I had the honor of being co-teacher on duty. However, since there are only about 10 students all studying for their big exam at school of their own volition, the duty largely consists of being on school grounds during school hours and keeping the office open. I was supposed to be free the 31st but since I am the person that lives on campus I volunteered to hold the office keys until the next teacher on duty showed up. I had heard that Tanzanians are sometimes late so I was not surprised when nobody came to my door at 7:30 AM. 10:30 rolls around and I am getting texts about what am I doing for New Year's. I say I am waiting for the teacher who should be here any minute now. At 2 PM I realize my time for getting out is growing thin, but I remember a conversation with the headmistress that she might be having a New Year's gathering, and so I figure worse case scenario is that I have a Tanzanian New Year's, a cultural experience. Not knowing if there is actually a party I take the long walk to the headmistress's house around 4 PM. This gives me three hours of daylight, enough time to be at party or get much needed food if dinner is not provided. Nobody is home, most likely on my own for the night. After buying vegetables I run into the headmistress's house girl and am invited to dinner. Since the headmistress is still not home I enjoy the meal but am the only one eating. After texting PCV happy new years for two hours and reading for an additional two hours I consider staying up to 10PM an accomplishment and head to bed. The next morning I wait until 11:30 before seeking the permission to leave and am told to not worry about the keys just have a good time.
End of rant:So now I am here Happy New Year!No real adventures this week, but I managed to find a new broom and realized that as little as I did on TOD it is more about the concept of being present than actually being on duty. I spent two days I figuring out where to get the cloth and marking it (so it could get cut to exactly the right size) only to find that instead of paying the local seamstress I should wait several weeks until a student will do it for free. These kinds of project delays seem to happen more often then not. Just last week I went on a mission to get a hammer and screw drivers for a gutter project only to find that the work will commence sometime during the New Year. As annoying as searching out supplies for little interminable projects, at least it is giving me something to do and I always feel better completing the task.
A while ago I said I was going to touch on old news. Since last week I harped on the Christmas that never felt like Christmas and this week I have talked about fruitless tasks, I think will continue to drone on another pointless story about my Thanksgiving journey.For thanksgiving we all woke up early so we could take the 3 hr bus ride to Dar. I had just got my phone the night before so I spent the ride learning the rules and mastering the bantumi game. FYI Bantumi is the famous African bean/bead game and apparently it has many different names so if you know of an African board game this is probably the same. I was very glad to be preoccupied with my phone because the last hour of the ride "Red, red wine" was on repeat and drove everybody else nuts. But in video game trance I merely registered "oh, song I like" and treated it as the extended version. I think I may have told you that we were in Dar to have Thanksgiving at the Ambassadors? In any case the short story is that we were and there was more drinks than food. Which was good because there wasn't enough food so although not everybody got turkey, everybody came home happy. After the food was gone we hopped on the bus back to Morogoro, because the next day we had proficiency exams, which obviously were not incredible but were not bad enough to send somebody home.
OK everybody enjoy the New Year and get focused on those pointless tasks,
T.
posted by Thomas Curtis at 4:01 PM
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