Sunday, January 6, 2019
First Impressions
The plane trip to Tanzania was pretty much tedious. However, there are a few highlights. One: The
plane was an hour and a half late out of Spokane. We sat on the tarmac for more
than ½ hour. Two: I tripped getting off the plane and fell. Hurt my knee but it’s OK now. Three: Two
hours late getting out of Seattle so when we got to Amsterdam, we had barely
enough time to change planes. It was
quite a ways to the correct terminal and if we hadn't been taking the disability
transit cart, (because of Janet not because of me!) we would have missed the
plane. All legs of this journey seemed
never ending. The highlight, however,
was when we landed at Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania and while still on the runway, we were told that
the plane had to be disinfected. Yes, apparently we had bugs of some sort. So, a
flight attendant, walked quickly down the aisle holding up a can of spray in
each hand and spraying everyone and everything with “disinfectant.”
Ray, the taxi driver and good friend of John and Janet’s,
was waiting for us so we quickly sped on to Kundayo where we’re living. It took about an hour. Two things were
immediately noticeable on this drive. First, everyone drives on the left side of
the road so I often thought someone was coming straight at us. Second, it was really dark. Although the houses and buildings had lights,
they were far away, and street lights were few and far between. When we arrived
at Kundayo, Maso told us that he decided to move me into the apartment next to
John and Janet. This apartment is quite
a bit larger than the one he’d originally assigned to me. And for the same
price. YAY!
 |
| My apartment on the right. John & Janet's apartment on the left. |
On Saturday, John and I took a dali-dali into downtown
Arusha to get water and basic food/supplies.
A dali-dali is a kind of van that picks up people at regular stops. In addition to the driver, there was a man
who stood in the sliding doorway of the van and directed people on and
off. Then he slapped the side of the
vehicle to let the driver know it was time to go. The trip cost about 20¢. We were the only Wazungu.
Downtown is much like I expected with lots of people in the
streets—oh, did I say that it’s warm here?—and lots of cars and motorcycles on the left side of
the road trying to run down pedestrians (just kidding!). Actually, the motorcycles go anywhere they can on any side of the street and in-between anything in their way. Anyway, there was so
much to see I was on jet-lagged-sensory overload and can’t say much about it.
We went to a café/bakery named Fifi’s to buy bread and then we went to a
grocery store to buy staples. One of the
best things about the stores here is that there aren’t a lot of choices. For example, there were 2 choices of olive
oil in 4 different sized bottles. It
made shopping so much easier. I must start taking some pictures!
In the evening, John and Janet decided to have Kookoo and
Chipsies so I decided that was a good idea too. It's a kind of Chicken and French Fries take out. So, before moving on with that experience,
take a look at the photos that follow.
Which of these things can you not see? 1) A bathtub 2) Gloves 3) A wheel
from a car 4) A wok.
Yes, you’re right.
The answer is #2) Gloves. It was
fascinating to watch the “cook” pick up meat from the grill with his bare
hands. Ouch! How did he do that? Anyway,
when we got there, John ordered a chicken and a half. The man took out a chicken, split it in half,
smashed it down a bit, and stuck it on the grill. He kept turning it and at one time, he made
cuts in it. After about 40 minutes, it
was done and he chopped it up into bits and pieces. The “chips” were fried up
in the wok which sits on a car wheel behind the bathtub grill. Charcoal is the
source of heat. Back home at our apartments, we laid it all out and indulged.
It was soooooo good.
Sunday, this morning, we went to church. Ray picked us up about 9:30. On our way, John
told him that we had gone into town on a dali-dali. Ray said he already knew that. YIPES! Talk about a small big town. Apparently, everyone knows everything one
does. It’s a smaller big town than Spokane.
OK, church. The room
holds about 300 people. We sat in the 4th
row. When the service started, it was
about 1/3 full. By the end of the 1st
song, it was full. I figured that all those people were waiting outside for the
music to start and then they came in en masse. By the end of the service, it
was really full. People showed up…whenever.
There were a couple of interesting things about this service but since I
didn’t get photos, I’ll wait another week to say more about that.
After church, we went to lunch with Sharon, a friend of the
J’s. The restaurant was George’s where I had a humungous salad that was super
super delicious. Service was African style and the conversation was long and
interesting so it was almost 4:00 by the time we got home.
Now it’s almost 6:30 in the evening and it’ll be dark in
about ½ an hour. I’m sitting on the veranda outside the restaurant so I’ll try
to post this. If you’re reading this,
you’ll know I was successful. (NOT!!!!)
(PS. It’s really nice and warm here! Mid 80s and a little
bit humid but not bad.)
BIG POSTSCRIPT! I tried for hours since yesterday to post this but the wifi at Kundayo is just too wimpy and I couldn't even ave anything. Today I went into town and got a SMILE so now I'm happy.
