Things you learn in Tanzania

Well hello everybody! It has been a great weekend for all of us! Paul, Chalice, Abby, & Genni headed off to Zanzibar to enjoy a relaxing weekend at the beaches while Aaron and Kasia headed off to climb up a volcano (I'm sure Kasia will post a blog about her exciting adventures doing that!). Sam and myself were able to go with Deepal (an MO-er from last year's team who has returned to do a scholarship program for the CCF kids)up to the Maji Ya Chai. Deepal had arranged for the CCF Arusha boys to have a soccer match against the Maji Ya Chai CCF boys, so we tagged along to hang out and watch the game. They were all AMAZING players!! We had a great time hanging out with the kids, just loving on them, playing soccer with the little ones (since I am NOT talented enough to have played real soccer with the older boys!), and sharing candy with them.

I've been keeping track of some of the strange, entertaining & interesting things that we've noticed about Tanzania, so I thought I'd share some of them with you!

- no matter who you are or where you are, it is apparently completely socially acceptable to pick your nose at any given moment. Digging for gold included.

- There are no fenced in fields of grazing animals. Single cows and goats are literally tied up in the ditches at the side of the road.

- Chickens are EVERYWHERE. We have yet to determine how anyone actually keeps track of who's chicken belongs to who.

- "Muzungu's" (aka non-African people, usually white skinned) are a hot item to be stared at, waved at, pointed at, and frantically yelled at with a "Mambo Muzungu!!"

- Perhaps most surprisingly, everyone has a cell phone. I was in one of the clinic waiting rooms and an elderly Masaai woman (a VERY traditionally dressed tribe) carefully put on her glasses and then pulled out a cell phone and started texting. Who knew!

- It is not uncommon for the electricity to just cut out for minutes to hours of time. This happened to us a few times at the hospital during surgeries - with no back up generator! - causing us to grab our flashlights and headlights for light.

- real toilets are hard to find, they're usually just holes in the ground. Toilet paper is even harder to find, followed by paper towel or even normal towels to dry your hands.

- It is perfectly acceptable for bugs to be everywhere - one day we were working in the maternity ward with this HUGE green grass-hopper just hanging out on the patient files. If bugs like this were found in canadian hospitals I'm pretty sure four residents would be trying to shoo it out while four nursing students shrieked and begged the residents to not kill or hurt the bug (but please still get rid of it! lol).

That's all for now! Tutaonana rafiki's!!!

xo Court