Today was my first miscellaneous day. Priyanka, who has been here the longest, and Amit have made a rotating schedule for the medical students. Students rotate among triage, lab, Dr. Bon, Dr. Vicky, and pharmacy. Dr. Msengi, who I haven’t met, decided to take his month vacation for the month of July.
On miscellaneous days, one can choose to relax, clean, or help out with construction. Courtney and I decided to help out with construction. All the IHP workers are helping with finishing the birthing center before the ceremony next Friday. Tomorrow, the Bougamil family is coming, which the birthing center will be named after. We get to the building, and was put to work with painting the bottom of the building brown. With broken Swahili and broken English, we made new friends. For those I can remember, we met Maria, two Mariams, Amon, Abdul, Charles, Salome, and more. Around 9:30am, we were told they were going to Lucy’s for breakfast. We walk over to Lucy’s to find these yummy donuts called sambukas and sweet hot Tanzanian tea (that reminded me of Bojangles sweet tea). Yum! We finished the morning with more painting. There’s something therapeutic about painting, even when it’s just to paint a building.
On the way back to the bungalow, we are greeted by Zephaniah, the guard around our gate. He is always friendly and talkative. Later in the afternoon, I was taking pictures around the compound and asked if he wanted to have a picture taken of him. He said, “Tomorrow, I will be ready for a picture.”
MARKET! Today is Friday, which means local market day!!! Yay! This time, it was only Courtney, Natalie, and I who went to market. The local market is only a 5 minute walk down a side road. We decided to explore the market more than last time. We walk along one side of the market. There are lots of shoes, clothes, suitcases, and miscellaneous things such as old school looking radios and things you would find at a garage sale. There are some dried herbs and dirty water bottles full of some kind of detergent. With lots of people bumping into each other and the occasional car that drives through, the dust is flying everywhere. I’m surprised to see crisp white buttoned dress shirts sold along the road amidst the dusty swirl of commotion.
Alas, we find ourselves back to the area of interest: cloth to make clothes. Men are standing barefoot on the piles of cloth laid on the ground for sale as women and children are perusing the various designs and types of cloth. I love it. In search for the cloth to speak to me, I keep searching. I was ready to go before my eyes found this beautiful cloth with blue print and yellow flowers. Without hesitation, I buy it: 6,000 tanzanian shillings (~$4.00).
After walking back and forth among the cloths, we made friends with some of the sellers. One of the friendliest guys is a guy named Emmanuel, who remembered us from the week before. His English is pretty good. We talked about how we were medical students working at the clinic. He talked about where he learned English and his dream to go to America one day to perfect his English. At the end of the day, we made a new friend. We also made friends with two other sellers, Godfrey and Amos. Later, I find out that Emmanuel is Christian and he taught me to say God bless you in Swahili. Mungu Akubariki.
As we walk out of the market, Courtney comments that picking one's nose is a social norm here. Ironically, as she was saying this we passed a lady who was digging for gold up her nose. We had a good laugh. Even one of our cloth sellers was picking his nose as he was talking to us. A social norm. Later, Amit made a comparison that picking your nose here is like scratching one's head while thinking or yawning. Like yawns, it's contagious. Now I notice everyone doing it. Everyone's doing it, you should, too.
On the way home we stop by the tailor, Grace. I picked up my newly made African shirt, skirt, and matching headband. Very cute. I plan on wearing it to church on Sunday. I also dropped off my new cloth to make a skirt, bag, and head wrap that will be ready by the following Wednesday. Yay!!! Before you know it, I will be an Tanzanian woman.
haha. i wonder if their boogers are black like in mongolia because of the dust. guess it's the perfect place for you sarah. you'd fit right in.
ReplyDeletelove you pooface!