Friday 5-23-14

Friday 5-23-14

                Oh my has today been oh so very long. I started waking up at about 5:30 and knowing my alarm on my watch doesn’t work very well, I had a very hard time actually falling back asleep.  I got the kids off to school okay then went up the hill to buy some chipati for our trip to Morogoro in the afternoon. Mamaliz said that I needed to go nice and early to be able to get any, so I went at 7:30, got up there and “bado” not ready yet. Darn. I came back down the to the house to discover Mamaliz had a bad stomach. So I had to go off to school and get the kids set up for testing on my own. I was a little nervous, but it went just fine. She even showed up right as I was starting the math flashcard portion of the test. During the English portion of the test, I greatly enjoyed when Mamaliz made the paragraph with ten mistakes for the kids to correct. The paragraph was all about her bad stomach and hoping she didn’t vomit in the car on the way to Morogoro. One of the things the kids tried to correct was vomiting to Vomiting. Because apparently vomiting is so important it should be capitalized.

                11:30 came around and we hurried off to the house. I bought a few half cake for the trip since I couldn’t get chipati. We made it up to the house and got our stuff together and after about a half an hour of trying to get out, we were on the road. There were six of us all crammed into a truck. It did have six seats, but keep in mind that two of those were tiny middle seats. It was a rough ride there and even harder on the way back home. We did get the fridge and the stove for the volunteer house and the mattress will be picked up in a few days. We just couldn’t get everything to fit in the one trip. I got some grocery shopping done which made me happy. I do wish I could have easily come across a bread pan, but I will find something and make do. We went to Ricky’s Café for early dinner. It was just the kids and I since Mamaliz still had the fridge and stove to deal with at that point. I got the kids one hamburger and fries to share so that they would have enough room for the cake and ice cream they were so excited for. The little stinkers at like two bites of the burger and claimed they were full. They had it last time we were there and loved it, so I know it wasn’t that they didn’t like it. I got so upset with them, I finally gave up and told them ‘fine don’t eat, but I am taking some of your allowance you have earned for wasting food I have just bought for you, and you will get nothing else for the rest of the night”. While at the market getting our last few items, Mamaliz bought bananas and not remembering what had happened with their dinner, offered a banana to Jove knowing how much he loves them. It was too late so I had to let Ayla have one also. She almost complained because it was a very ripe banana. I let her know very clearly that if she didn’t eat the whole banana without any complaint that I would not feed her tomorrow. She got it really fast and ate it down. So the kids were pains, but while there I saw this old man making pretty simple but very cheap sling shots. I bought two of them, one for each of the kids. I let them see them, but told them they couldn’t have them until they could prove they were going to be good and earn having them. Then even when they did, it would be a sometimes thing, and most likely more for when we get home and take them out in the desert where there are not a bunch of other kids around to get hit by a flying whatever they throw.

                We are back to the house now after a very long drive back. I surprisingly was able to do some reading in the car and didn’t get too sick for doing it. It was nice because it made the drive go by a little faster. Kids are in bed, I have a nice hot cup of green tea, and best of all there is power and internet, which is better than when we left. It was not the best of days, but the way I see it, is that I am so much luckier and better off than so many of the people around here that even on my worst days, I should not complain because it could be much worse. I am grateful even for my bad days.

 

UPDATE: I forgot that when we were in the car ride back, we had another person in there with us. He started talking to the kids and sang them a counting song in Swahili. It was a way that kids can learn their numbers 1-10. It was so cute, and the kids just loved it. Jove kept asking him to sing it. I finally had to tell Jove I would sing it to him so he could learn it. He told me he didn’t want to learn, he just wanted us to sing to him, so I stopped J