Easter

Since I didn’t start teaching right away I had the opportunity that first week, which was the week before Easter, to spend time with friends. Peter, the PCV from my training group who is also a UPS alumnus, came to visit me in Songea for a few days. We had a great time roaming around Songea and discovering new places that I had not yet come across. We stumbled across a sort of neglected museum on the outskirts of Songea that commemorated the Tanzanian warriors who fought against the Germans in the Maji Maji Rebellion at the turn of the 20th century. Peter and I also hiked up Mt. Kipera, which overlooks Songea. I am really lucky to have such beautiful mountains surrounding Songea to explore. For most of our journey we followed a faint foot path, but every once in a while we would lose the trail and have to blaze our way through grasses as tall as us. Here in Songea we are approaching the end of the rainy season, so the grasses are as tall as they will be any time all year and are just starting to take on a golden hue.

After a couple of days in Songea, for Easter Peter, Mateo and I headed up to the orphanage (where we had also spent Christmas). The journey to the orphanage was amazingly fast. After leaving Songea at 6:30 am, we arrived before 1 pm, just in time for lunch. The travel home, on the other hand, took over 11 hours. It was wonderful to relax with friends up there and play with the orphans. On Saturday afternoon we watched a football (soccer) match of orphans against villager kids. And then later that evening had a dance party with the orphans. I don’t know where they learn it, but some of those rural African orphans can really cut a rug!

On Easter we took the orphans to Fox Farms, a nearby resort, where the orphans mixed it up with the kids of expatriates in a candy hunt and balloon fight. In the afternoon the kids went back to the orphanage and the PCVs, besides Tally who was sick all day L, played an awesome game of croquet at the resort. The four teams consisted of Peter and Jenny, Eric and me, Marysunny and Meredith, and Jenna and Jess. Mateo and Christine were judges. Special Fox Farms rules are that if you swear while on the croquet course you must roll down a grassy hill as punishment. Fox Farms also provided us with some terrible wine that they didn’t want. So Mateo and Christine dolled out glasses of wine as punishment for bad shots or other arbitrary misdemeanors. Eric and I became the most hated team because we liked to knock everyone else’s ball off the course every chance we got. Mostly Eric knocked his own ball off the course as well. I wasn’t very popular when I knocked Meredith’s ball over the edge of the course and lost it. But luckily Peter found it for me. Eric and I were one stroke away from winning, but Meredith made an amazing shot and knocked Eric’s ball off the course. Then Peter made an amazing shot to win, but Eric and I got second place.

Back at Jenny and Geoff’s house we relaxed, ate good food, played darts and a couple of games of Settler’s of Catan (both of which I won of course J). It was hard to leave the next day. Not just emotionally, but practicality wise as well. Five of hired a taxi to pick us up at the orphanage the next morning. The unpaved roads were pretty muddy, and our taxi had bald tires and no four wheel drive. About 15 minutes after leaving the orphanage we got stuck on a muddy hill. I didn’t think we would make it out of there in that taxi. Some villagers helped push the car, and after over an hour we finally made it up the hill. Miraculously we didn’t get stuck anywhere else after that. Jenna, Marysunny and I took a small coaster for the next leg of our journey. The conductor tried to charge us 6000 shillings for the fare, but Marysunny was sitting in the front seat and was able to grab an old book of ticket receipts. She found that the fare was only 5000. The other Tanzanian passengers cracked up when the conductor got caught. Jenna told the conductor, “Sisi ni wajanja” (we are too clever), and the bus erupted in laughter all over again.