Happy Thanksgiving!

25 November 2009

We finally moved into a new apartment in town. It is a two bedroom place that we are sharing with one of the basecamp volunteers who is also here long term. It is on Fire Road, which is not far from Clock Tower, a central landmark in town. We are getting adjusted to our change in location, but some things are easier than others. We had gotten to know many of the people who lived around our old house so they no longer called us mzungu or thought we were tourists. We are now trying to create those relationships again with the people in our new neighborhood, but hopefully since we are more comfortable here and know Swahili better, the process will move a bit faster this time. We are also anxious for the street peddlers in town to get to know us so they stop asking us to book a safari ten times a day on our way to work. Our new apartment in pretty nice, though. We have a fridge, a hot plate and a western toilet, which is awesome. We also have a TV with cable, amazing enough! We spent our first days here trying to watch the news and get caught up on what is happening around the world since we have been so removed for the past few months. I think it will work out well for the next four months.

27 November 2009

Yesterday was our first Thanksgiving away from home and it was better than I had expected it to be! We went back up to the basecamp house and had a big dinner with all the volunteers. Everyone cooked their own special dish and it was delicious. No turkey or pumpkin pie, but the food was all really good and everyone pitched in, which was fun. Zach and I made a makeshift version of stuffing made out of a Supaloaf (their bread) and rice. It was not quite like stuffing at home, but it was yummy and everyone liked it a lot. After dinner we got to talk to all the parents at home, so that was a great ending to the day. Although it was hard to be away from home it was a Thanksgiving that we will definitely always remember.

We also have some exciting, and surprising news! I think we have blogged previously about the dogs that we rescued from the street up by our old house…? Well, basecamp took no responsibility in taking care of the dogs long term and the girls who brought them home are now gone (they arrived the day we did). The new volunteers who came in were not crazy about the fact that there were dogs at the house and aren’t really willing to help take care of them. Basically if someone doesn’t find a new home for them, they will get put out on the street and probably survive for less than a month. One of the older volunteers (and our new roommate, Stacie) looked into taking them home, and found that it is not very expensive and there are no restrictive requirements about bringing them into the country. The only thing is that she would only be able to keep one of them once she gets home, so Zach and I are going to take the other one! She will live at my mom’s house until Zach and I move and can take her with us. She is a mutt and adorable. The picture on this blog is of her when she is just a couple of weeks old. We are re-naming her, though, to something in Swahili and are torn between three names, so we are going to post them all here and if you are so inclined to give your input, we would love to hear it. Here they are:

Kianga (Kee-on-ga) – means Sunshine in Swahili

Malaika (Mah-lah-eek-ah) – means Angel in Swahili

Karanga (Kah-ron-ga) – means Peanut in Swahili

Anyway, hope you like at least one of them for our new little Tanzanian pup. They are learning both English and Swahili right now, so when we get home they will still be able to understand people, but we also want them to stay connected with their heritage by learning commands in Swahili J.

Written by Whitney