This was my 25th birthday....through the eyes of Nora Gavin-Smyth:
I am writing to you from sunny Dodoma, what some call "the Paris of
East Africa." I am in Dodoma town for the weekend to celebrate my
dear friend's birthday today. We celebrated by going to Club 84, the
club that you see when you close your eyes and imagine the best
African dance club in existence. The floor is a grid of lights that
pulses and flashes different colors. They play the bongo flava
(Tanzanian pop music that I love), they play the Rihanna, they play the
Drake, they play the Aqua (?). They don't play "So Call Me Maybe."
The prostitutes are so nice, when I run into them in the bathroom
they tell me I look pretty. The men, they like to dance kiduku (knees
in, feet out, kiduku kiduku kiduku kiduuukuuu). They aren't glommers
who attach themselves to your butt, but they'll dance with you in a
way that is very pleasant. Karibu Dodoma, I'll take you to Club 84.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Capture the Meat on a Stick
(Read in Dick Vitale's voice because it's awesome baby)
This is a classic battle of battles.
Big game day.
All the fans have been outside all morning drinking honey pombe and eating loads of meat.
It's red versus blue.
Maasai men versus Maasai women....and the babies on their back.
The men are gathering around the stick. They've set up their home court nicely putting the big guys on the perimeter by the thorn fence and the fast guys with the long sticks right by that meat.
Here come the women, marching in with their song. The audience is pumped with anticipation...you can feel the heat!
What's that? Oh a mzungu has joined the women's team. The men weren't expecting this. Some last minute strategy is going to be needed for them to pull this off.
In a game like this you can expect some playful banter between the teams. Both the women and men are whipping their sticks trying to win the game of intimidation.
For those of you out there just joining us, this game is a lot like caputre the flag except each team can use sticks to whack the others. For the men, they are protecting the meat on the stick from the cow just slaughtered, and the women will do whatever it takes to get it.
Oh baby, it's gonna be awesome with a capital 'A!'
The women are in position, just outside the fence now. The men are ready to go and THERE GO TWO WOMEN RUNNING TOWARDS THE MEAT! Sticks flying everywhere, men caught off guard by the quick start. The Mzungu is still back with the others. I don't know Scott, you think she's gonna do anything-this could be a bust for her rookie of the year award.
Whoa! Look out, here come the men attacking. This is something new. They are leaving their meat post and actually going after the women. The women are scattering, running towards the bomas. The men are surrounding them now. This sure is a surprise, leaving their meat, being really aggressive on the floor-you don't see that often enough.
But wait; keep an eye on that mzungu. What's she doing? Why she's sneaking around to the other side of the boma. Is she hiding? She's gonna have to duck a lot to do that.
(Insert laughter)
Whoa! She comes around the other side and attacks the men from behind. She got that mzee right in the heel. He's limpin a bit and now they're going after her around the boma. Oh a woman is streaking towards the meat! She's nearly there!
They got the meat on the stick! They got the meat on the stick!
Wow, just like that.
Game over.
Can you believe it, Scott?
The attack from behind was an unexpected strategy.
Let's watch that replay (pictures to come with play-by-play).
Well I think the men learned a valuable lesson today.
Never trust a mzungu with a competitive streak.
This is a classic battle of battles.
Big game day.
All the fans have been outside all morning drinking honey pombe and eating loads of meat.
It's red versus blue.
Maasai men versus Maasai women....and the babies on their back.
The men are gathering around the stick. They've set up their home court nicely putting the big guys on the perimeter by the thorn fence and the fast guys with the long sticks right by that meat.
Here come the women, marching in with their song. The audience is pumped with anticipation...you can feel the heat!
What's that? Oh a mzungu has joined the women's team. The men weren't expecting this. Some last minute strategy is going to be needed for them to pull this off.
In a game like this you can expect some playful banter between the teams. Both the women and men are whipping their sticks trying to win the game of intimidation.
For those of you out there just joining us, this game is a lot like caputre the flag except each team can use sticks to whack the others. For the men, they are protecting the meat on the stick from the cow just slaughtered, and the women will do whatever it takes to get it.
Oh baby, it's gonna be awesome with a capital 'A!'
The women are in position, just outside the fence now. The men are ready to go and THERE GO TWO WOMEN RUNNING TOWARDS THE MEAT! Sticks flying everywhere, men caught off guard by the quick start. The Mzungu is still back with the others. I don't know Scott, you think she's gonna do anything-this could be a bust for her rookie of the year award.
Whoa! Look out, here come the men attacking. This is something new. They are leaving their meat post and actually going after the women. The women are scattering, running towards the bomas. The men are surrounding them now. This sure is a surprise, leaving their meat, being really aggressive on the floor-you don't see that often enough.
But wait; keep an eye on that mzungu. What's she doing? Why she's sneaking around to the other side of the boma. Is she hiding? She's gonna have to duck a lot to do that.
(Insert laughter)
Whoa! She comes around the other side and attacks the men from behind. She got that mzee right in the heel. He's limpin a bit and now they're going after her around the boma. Oh a woman is streaking towards the meat! She's nearly there!
They got the meat on the stick! They got the meat on the stick!
Wow, just like that.
Game over.
Can you believe it, Scott?
The attack from behind was an unexpected strategy.
Let's watch that replay (pictures to come with play-by-play).
Well I think the men learned a valuable lesson today.
Never trust a mzungu with a competitive streak.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Read This Asha
Is Meck which write this words.
Asha sorry for burnt your ball, known you was want to teach at Mazengo Primary School. I am so sorry my best friend Asha for give me Asha.
God Bless you Asha
Asha can you allow us to look movies now on Saturday if you like can you allow us and on Sunday-I have a DVD called Hirauses
God Bless you Asha forever
This is what happens when you take away the neighbor boys 'movie day' because they completely destroyed your soccer ball.
Asha sorry for burnt your ball, known you was want to teach at Mazengo Primary School. I am so sorry my best friend Asha for give me Asha.
God Bless you Asha
Asha can you allow us to look movies now on Saturday if you like can you allow us and on Sunday-I have a DVD called Hirauses
God Bless you Asha forever
This is what happens when you take away the neighbor boys 'movie day' because they completely destroyed your soccer ball.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Picture(s) a Day for the Month of May
May 1st: 'Winter' is coming and the corn outside my house is dying. Yea, that green thing is my house.
May 2nd: My neighbor Raymond got all dressed up to see his Bibi in town. It will also still fit him in 10 years.
May 3rd: I've got mail... from Cara and Brett. My Mom and Meli later added to the new competition of 'awesome boxes.' More competitors are welcomed
May 4th: Visiting my sitemate Nora in Itiso, Chamwino.
....and this is how we opened our wine that night...
May 5th/Cinco de Mayo/Tyler Keyser's Half-Birthday: This day was epic and included an entire day's hike, visiting a strangers home on the top of the mountain, and carrying their gifts back down to the vill.
The home we visited at the top. The wonderfully welcoming family gave us corn on the cob and squash for a snack, then got all dressed up for pictures.
They then gave us gifts of sugar cane and a live chicken before we headed back down. The chicken loved checking out the view and didn't mind that I fell multiple times on the steep trek.
Our tour guide/trooper for the day, 'Jackson.'
May 6th: Cooking dinner at Nora's crib after failing to get a chicken to kill.
May 7th: My broken toe and blistered feet, solved with sandy sandals and a rubber band!
May 8th: Jump rope time with the neighbor kids.
May 9th: The acknowledgement page of a nursing student's research page ended with: 'Also thanks to be sent to the cooker for their good preparation of food and available all the time. Not only this but also for providing a boiled water. So as to be out of water born infection.'
May 10th: Move over daisies, sunflowers are making a comeback
May 11th: Saturday=Movie Day with the neighbor kids. This weeks showing, Tangled
May 12th: I made American food for my neighbors Happy, Frank, Raymond, and Baba Mushi. Yes, that's the Mr. Potato head Masai version Raymond made, and the delicious cornbread and spaghetti I made.
May 13th: Who says you can't eat healthy in the Peace Corps? Mandarin, biscuits, kale, avocado, tomato, peanuts and baobob juice.
May 14th: Watching the vijana play soccer at the primary school next door
May 15th: Hanging at Mama Sara's duka with a tangawezi soda
May 16th: At the primary school chatting with the teachers pre-soccer practice.
May 17th: My walk home from the hospital every day.
May 18th: Dani/Farida/Fritto came in town for a night of soup, garlic rolls, carrot cake, two bottles of delicious Dodoma wine and girl talk.
May 19th: Saturday when all PCVs in the region are in town= Zanzibar mix at Roses, hike with the besti's to 'Pride Rock,' Eric/Copper getting his Tanzanian teenage boy on, and shot gunning beers pre-Club 84.
May 20th: This day will get a future blog...in the meantime admire one of the many fun critters I get to hang with every day. This day is was a praying mantis.
May 21st: When you work with an NGO and have your big Annual Work Plan meeting in Morogoro, these get to be your digs for the week! I got four channels on that TV, lukewarm water that only turned off 1 day, and a western toilet that flushed 3/6 days!
May 23rd: Tanzanians are chatting loads about President Obama's recent support of marriage for all and the election.
Co-Worker: How does your President support a man marrying another man?
Ellen: Well that's not entirely true.
Co-Worker: He doesn't support it?
Ellen: No, he thinks a woman can marry another woman too.
Co-Worker: How does your President support a man marrying another man?
Ellen: Well that's not entirely true.
Co-Worker: He doesn't support it?
Ellen: No, he thinks a woman can marry another woman too.
May 24th: Best thing about the I-TECH meetings, Morogoro....gorgeous.
May 25th: Getting our Logic Model on
May 26th: I returned to Dodoma for some friend therapy of sticking toothpicks up our noses using only our mouths and taking culturally inappropriate pictures with the oddly realistic cardboard cut-out at the local watering hole.
May 27th: Nora required the room to watch Downtown Abbey.
May 28th: What did I do today? I played with Harry Potter leggos, so yea, I was productive.
May 29th: Rainbow Primary School Life Skills Club: Meeting #2. We made a club contract, listed what we wanted to learn in the next few weeks, and played 'steal the bacon.'
May 30th: My veggie Mama. She hooks me up with all my seasonal fruits and veggies for the week for under 5,000 Tsh.
May 31st: Alive, well and 7 months in (20 to go). Time is flying.
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