Day 217 - Saying Goodbye to Our Neighbors
Tuesday, February 7th, 2019.
Today we spent most of the day just relaxing at home, well sort of relaxing -- we had to fill out long visa applications for India. It took a good chunk of our morning. [Gregory's note: The English may have introduced bureaucracy to India, but the Indians took it to a new level. What's worse, they may use English words, but not in traditional English sentence structure, so some of the questions didn't make any sense. To make things worse, the 10-page application was horrendously designed, so it was very hard to complete.] Around 2:00pm, I asked Honorina to make some french fries just to use the potatoes that we had bought. We didn't have any meat or anything to go with but we had cabbage salad and I made a tomato and feta cheese. We had lunch, read, and I took a nap.
Around 5:00pm, Gregory and I decided to go for a walk. Sunshine has been sick all day and I'm just hoping that she will get better for the safari on Thursday. Daniel preferred to stay home since we have good Internet. [Gregory's note: well, we have better Internet than in Ethiopia. We get about 6mbps down, which is enough to stream a movie if no one else is on the Wifi.]
We were going to the Ilboru Lodge for a drink but we stopped first with our teacher friend and chatted for a bit with him. He asked us if we had talked about coming back to Tanzania and working here. We laughed and told him that we had to send kids to college first. [Gregory's note: although I would actually consider living here -- temporarily.]
After that, we stopped in with another of Gregory's friends, a Rastafarian who was going to make him a belt and a pair of sandals for Sunshine. Unfortunately, the sandals were too small but we told him that we would bring Sunshine to try them on. We took some photos with him and then Gregory took me to the small store across from the lodge. This was Mama's store, whose son Daniel had walked him home the other day.
We walked in and we said hi and then almost immediately, a little girl started to ask me many questions. Her name was Catherine and we just clicked. I told her that I could teach her Spanish and French and that she could teach me Swahili. She wanted to know if I could come back tomorrow to teach her. I explained to her that we would be leaving tomorrow and she told me to take her with me. I said, asked your mom first. She turned around and asked her mom and then she looked at me and said, "she said no." I told her that it was natural because mom would miss their babies.
We spent some talking and we bought a shuka (a Maasai cover) and some bracelets and then Mama told me to choose an anklet because she wanted to give it to me as a present! When we were leaving, Catherine asked me if she could come with us. I said sure but to ask her mom first. Her mom agreed and we left holding hands.
When we made it home, Catherine turned into a shy girl. She had come because she wanted to meet Sunshine but when she saw her, she was just quiet. Gregory offered her a banana and she agreed immediately. Afterward, we offer her food and she sat at the table to eat. A few minutes later, we hear someone knocking at the door and Godfrey, our guard, went to open the door. It was Daniel, Catherine's brother, with another woman and a child. I thought that Catherine's mom had sent for her but no, he just wanted to say hi to Gregory.
We offered them food and all of them said yes, except for Daniel. I was happy to serve all the rice and beans that Honorina had cooked yesterday. They had no problem accepting our offer!
We chatted for a while and around 7:30pm, the mom and the little kid got up to leave and everyone else followed. I gave Catherine a new shirt that my mom had brought me and gave her a hug. She wanted to know if we could come back for her birthday. She was so sweet and smart. I explained to her that we were going to be far away in April but that we would come back to visit next week after our safari.
At dinner time, Daniel and I were bummed that we didn't have rice left because we found soy sauce. Gregory reminded us that those people were hungrier than we were. Luckily, I had saved a little bit of rice for Sunshine who had an upset stomach all day.
After dinner, we read some more, watch a show on Gregory's computer [no TV in the house] and went to bed. We move tomorrow to our new apartment, which I'm really bummed about because I liked this place. Gregory says that I didn't but just for the record, I want to say that for the first time I was happy here, I mean, with a cook and a guard! The place wasn't fancy but it had everything we needed. Well, it is done, we paid for 10 days in the new place! [Gregory's note: yeah it's nice, but it's a little rickety and we can't leave the windows open.]
For pictures please click here
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Nfshd4wCAHK2rFZL9
For pictures of our neighbors click here
Today we spent most of the day just relaxing at home, well sort of relaxing -- we had to fill out long visa applications for India. It took a good chunk of our morning. [Gregory's note: The English may have introduced bureaucracy to India, but the Indians took it to a new level. What's worse, they may use English words, but not in traditional English sentence structure, so some of the questions didn't make any sense. To make things worse, the 10-page application was horrendously designed, so it was very hard to complete.] Around 2:00pm, I asked Honorina to make some french fries just to use the potatoes that we had bought. We didn't have any meat or anything to go with but we had cabbage salad and I made a tomato and feta cheese. We had lunch, read, and I took a nap.
Around 5:00pm, Gregory and I decided to go for a walk. Sunshine has been sick all day and I'm just hoping that she will get better for the safari on Thursday. Daniel preferred to stay home since we have good Internet. [Gregory's note: well, we have better Internet than in Ethiopia. We get about 6mbps down, which is enough to stream a movie if no one else is on the Wifi.]
We were going to the Ilboru Lodge for a drink but we stopped first with our teacher friend and chatted for a bit with him. He asked us if we had talked about coming back to Tanzania and working here. We laughed and told him that we had to send kids to college first. [Gregory's note: although I would actually consider living here -- temporarily.]
After that, we stopped in with another of Gregory's friends, a Rastafarian who was going to make him a belt and a pair of sandals for Sunshine. Unfortunately, the sandals were too small but we told him that we would bring Sunshine to try them on. We took some photos with him and then Gregory took me to the small store across from the lodge. This was Mama's store, whose son Daniel had walked him home the other day.
We walked in and we said hi and then almost immediately, a little girl started to ask me many questions. Her name was Catherine and we just clicked. I told her that I could teach her Spanish and French and that she could teach me Swahili. She wanted to know if I could come back tomorrow to teach her. I explained to her that we would be leaving tomorrow and she told me to take her with me. I said, asked your mom first. She turned around and asked her mom and then she looked at me and said, "she said no." I told her that it was natural because mom would miss their babies.
We spent some talking and we bought a shuka (a Maasai cover) and some bracelets and then Mama told me to choose an anklet because she wanted to give it to me as a present! When we were leaving, Catherine asked me if she could come with us. I said sure but to ask her mom first. Her mom agreed and we left holding hands.
When we made it home, Catherine turned into a shy girl. She had come because she wanted to meet Sunshine but when she saw her, she was just quiet. Gregory offered her a banana and she agreed immediately. Afterward, we offer her food and she sat at the table to eat. A few minutes later, we hear someone knocking at the door and Godfrey, our guard, went to open the door. It was Daniel, Catherine's brother, with another woman and a child. I thought that Catherine's mom had sent for her but no, he just wanted to say hi to Gregory.
We offered them food and all of them said yes, except for Daniel. I was happy to serve all the rice and beans that Honorina had cooked yesterday. They had no problem accepting our offer!
We chatted for a while and around 7:30pm, the mom and the little kid got up to leave and everyone else followed. I gave Catherine a new shirt that my mom had brought me and gave her a hug. She wanted to know if we could come back for her birthday. She was so sweet and smart. I explained to her that we were going to be far away in April but that we would come back to visit next week after our safari.
At dinner time, Daniel and I were bummed that we didn't have rice left because we found soy sauce. Gregory reminded us that those people were hungrier than we were. Luckily, I had saved a little bit of rice for Sunshine who had an upset stomach all day.
After dinner, we read some more, watch a show on Gregory's computer [no TV in the house] and went to bed. We move tomorrow to our new apartment, which I'm really bummed about because I liked this place. Gregory says that I didn't but just for the record, I want to say that for the first time I was happy here, I mean, with a cook and a guard! The place wasn't fancy but it had everything we needed. Well, it is done, we paid for 10 days in the new place! [Gregory's note: yeah it's nice, but it's a little rickety and we can't leave the windows open.]
For pictures please click here
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Nfshd4wCAHK2rFZL9
For pictures of our neighbors click here
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