What did I do (and eat) today?

This morning I awoke at 5:15 to the Islamic call to prayer sounding in the distant city.  [Tanzanians are about thirty-five percent Muslim, thirty-five percent Christian, and thirty percent other (mostly indigenous or a mixture of indigenous and Western beliefs).]  The next hour or so was spent savoring those precious moments between sleepland and being awake before actually getting up to prepare for the day.  Breakfast consisted of toast with peanut butter, baked bread in triangles (comparable to doughnut holes, without the sugar), purple grain-like-porridge, mango puree, and instant coffee.  Around 8:30 we walked ten minutes to the main office for orientation, a discussion about gender and culture, and a further overview about our program this summer (continued from yesterday).  Our training ended early to allow for an outing to visit with a woman living with HIV/AIDS.  She graciously shared her story with us and we gave her our encouragement, respect, and words of hope that we could provide her with.  I think this will be the first of many moving experiences I will have here.

 We returned to the office for a lunch of pinto beans and black-eyed peas, greens with cooked carrots, and a deliciously sweet orange.  After this break we created posters that will be used with the HIV/AIDS prevention education during the Life Skills Camp later this month.  At 3:00pm sharp our Swahili instructors arrived to continue our lessons.  Listening to Swahili is amusing, reading Swahili is surprisingly easy, speaking Swahili...will take some time.  When lessons were over we returned to the hostel for a break before meeting the staff at the Maasai Camp restaurant, a mzungu favorite.  I devoured a personal pizza topped with onions, green peppers and zucchini and now, nearly five hours later, I still feel satiated.  Evenings have been free for the volunteers to relax and hang out at our hostel where we have spent so much time chatting that we crack jokes that knowing someone for a day in Tanzania is like knowing someone for three years in the U.S. 

Actually, our joke has much truth to it.  In the four hours of Swahili lessons I have had, the majority of it has consisted of instruction on how to greet others-  an event that can last up to fifteen minutes in TZ.  Why this extended interaction?  Because in Tanzania, people really want to know about one's family, friends, morning, day, sleep, and overall wellness. It is considered rude to enter a conversation concerning the point of meeting before asking about all aspects of one's life.  Even strangers expect at least a brief inquiry about their health and family before offering their name!  So the hours we volunteers have spent together chatting and getting to know each other (during which comments of "I'm not used to not having this much free time!" frequently enter) have actually been us adopting the TZ culture and really getting to know each other before we enter the main purpose of our trip: to serve, learn, and work with the people of Tanzania.