MONSOON Weather

Jambo! While we are on day 4 of our "excellent adventure", seems like we've been here longer. Everything is done so differently here and it will take a lot of getting used to, but I'm really enjoying things!

Today Bruce, Lauren, Sarah (another volunteer), and I decided to go for a walk. We have been "stuck" indoors due to the rain--it has been monsooning for hours (the rainy season should be ending, but it started late, so must be ending late). It ended up being a 3 hour excursion...and a very interesting one! We walked through a very old graveyard that had 15th Century graves. While Bruce, Sarah, and I found it all very intriguing, Lauren was quite frightened. An older man started to follow us, and Lauren said to me, "Jenny, I just want to run away!!" We talked with the man who wanted us to sign the guest book for the village, but we had no pen. After realizing the only safe way home was to turn around and walk back through the graveyard, it started POURING down rain. So we took the long road back. On our way home, we ran into Zinyeto, the main teacher helping us at the "school" we're starting. He took us to a sort of communal infirmary where he, his wife, and his 9-month old daughter have been staying. Fatuma (his daughter) has been very sick. When entering the cement-blocked and tin roofed hut, all the women gave us their stools to sit on...they were very welcoming. In fact, the people here are all quite welcoming. During our walk, many of our students from the village start following us, saying "Jambo, Jambo!!", always eager to shake hands and give high 5's.

JENNSTER'S TOP 5 THINGS I'VE EXPERIENCED/LEARNED (in no particular order):

1. Mazungu=white person

2. I am terrible with remembering African names--Mapundo's name is not Mufasu; Zinyeto's name is not Yezango...Juma's name is not Yuma...YIKES! Will I ever get it right?!

3. Mapundo (our driver) is the man...he can drive through any gargantuan-sized pot hole while keeping us safe.

4. Traffic patterns, stop signs, stop lights, traffic laws, etc do not exist.

5. "TIA"-This Is Africa--you never know what you're gonna get.

...until next time.