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7-18-10 B
I do apologize for the delay in writing. I’m sure you guys noticed nothing since well it’s always awhile between updates but I fear we will have far less entries next time we get internet. I feel like that last few weeks have been rather calm. I mean yes, we’ve had probably 6 rats killed and yes we’ve had a ton of awkward moments….but all in all…I feel it’s calming down.
Let’s see. I think the neighborhood children have finally come to the conclusion that I love them and I am a sucker for all things children. I’ll walk outside and I’ll have like 7 kids sitting on my tiny little porch whispering. It’s adorable. Or I’ll be cooking and hear someone whispering outside and think someone’s in my back yard (which is completely enclosed) and it will be a group of kids going to use our latrine. It’s adorable! I think my counterpart’s son has a crush on me. He’s 7 and ADORABLE!! He stands outside at the far end of our walkway, behind a pole and slowly sticks his head out until he see’s me and then ducks back behind it. It’s awesome. I love that they all know me by name and have stopped calling me muzungu!
Meg and Seth…we FINALLY got your package. It was in Rwanda for seriously a month before we were able to get to it. When we opened it…we were SOOOO surprised. We thought it was filled with toys and what nots for the children but honestly were pleasantly surprised to find you had seriously packed that dude! We are STILL enjoying its products and it’s been 3 weeks since we opened it. Thank you so much!
Our yoga friends have come and gone. We had a great time getting to know them. I have never sat down and had a conversation with a bunch of New Yorkers before. It was great. They were all so educated. I tried to help our boss, Frank, cook every night and that was so much fun. We prepared the most outlandish meals. From green pea risotto to quinoa to sushi. That’s right people. SUSHI. In the middle of the forest…I rolled sushi for the first time. It was something. They had brought all the food with them; I know you’re wondering where we got that food. They brought probably 3 or 4 huge suitcases of food!! Crazy…it was good though. Now back to the simple life of Banda.
As Jarod mentioned, we got rid of our umukozi (house lady), Charlotte and hired a new one, Betty. I am soooo thankful for this! Betty is AMAZING. She has been an umukozi for over 7 years (she’s 19) and knows how to cook the most delicious meals from what they have here in our little village. I fear weight gain is in my future. She knows so much about everything. From every type of tree to plant to herbs, etc. It’s been wonderful. She picked some wild lemon grass for me and made the most delicious tea. I am so thankful! We had heard before that our other girl, her family wasn’t so great and yesterday we were told that supposedly her mom was called out in church. There were these traveling missionaries who “prophesied there was a witch among them” and then they grabbed her and tried to “force her to give up her poisons she puts in food.” CREEPY! Who knows if it’s true, but still raises the hairs on your arm…?
Yesterday, we attended our first gusaba. It is a pre-dowry ceremony. In America (this only applies to us traditional peoples); we have the asking of the father, the engagement, and the wedding. Here it’s very similar but yet different. Basically, the man and woman decide they want to be together. The woman then tells her family and they decide yes or no. If they say no, that’s it. It all stops. Mostly though, they say yes and that’s where the gusaba comes in. The man brings buckets and buckets of food, beer and fantas to the girls’ family. His friends and family help carry it singing all the way. Then, the man has an appointed speaker, for he is not allowed to talk the whole day (the woman is also not allowed to be seen). The speaker then tells the woman’s’ family what the man wants and then the appointed speaker for the woman agrees and tells the man what he is to give. Traditionally it was a cow. Now-a-days it’s 200,000 RF or 400,000 RF if she’s educated. They bring out drinks. After drinks, they bring out food. Yes, they feed everyone. Then, they bring out the beer. The woman’s family offers the beer the man just brought (Two, 5 liter jerry cans) to the man. His speaker then stands and accepts but gives 1 back as a sign of sharing and family. Everyone drinks. (We were told that the beer yesterday was non-alcoholic but I’m not sure if this is common everywhere or what). Then, after the beer is gone, the “close family” goes inside the house and the woman is brought out FINALLY to hug the man. Next will be the dowry ceremony in which the man will pay the woman’s family. After she is “bought” they are free to begin planning the wedding. It’s a long process since 200,000 is A LOT here in Rwanda. Especially in my village where people have a hard time paying 100 RF for soap. So, when we finally attend the dowry I’ll let you in on the details. On a much different note, I experienced something very different during that ceremony. The part where they feed everyone. Of course, they brought out plates for all the adults. Well, there were probably 30 kids just standing around and as the adults became full, they passed their plates to the children. I wasn’t hungry in the first place so once I noticed this, I quickly passed my plate. I can’t even use words except, picture a shark feeding frenzy. They children literally were grabbing the food and SHOVING it into their little mouths. At one point, one of the girls holding the plate dropped it and without missing a beat, the children were on their knees eating the rice and beans from the floor. I almost lost it. Our counterpart told us they never even get rice because it‘s so expensive…mostly only sweet potatoes every single day. It completely broke my heart. So of course I handed my Fanta over quickly, which here EVERYONE drinks Fanta. The children started actually fighting over the Fanta. I don’t know if they’d ever had one but it was heartbreaking. We contemplated taking it away just to stop the fighting but we ended up just walking away. I don’t even know how to describe it to you. You just had to be there…..
8.13.2010
Long time no write!
7-18-10
Jarod here…Sorry it’s been a while since we’ve updated. We have actually been somewhat busy lately (at least I think so). Work is slowly starting to take on some form finally and things are looking good. The past 2 ½ weeks have especially been busy. Recently we have had the chance to get to know a couple of our other bosses. Lyle who is the Operations Manager for Kageno who travels back and forth between the Kenya and Rwanda sites when she is not back home in Colorado and Frank, the Executive Director of Kageno. We really enjoyed getting to know them and feel like we have a much better perspective of our roles here in Banda and are excited about what the next two years have in store.
Anyway, to recap the last 4-5 weeks, this is what has been happening: rode a wooden bike, broke the wooden bike (it’s okay, it fixes really easy), almost lost my soccer ball to an outraged neighbor lady with a machete (it’s okay Meg, I saved it), had a forth of July party at Ryan’s site with HOT DOGS and MUSTARD and KETCHUP…amazing, killed a half a dozen rats, let one house worker go, hired another one (great decision by the way), ate vegetable sushi…in the middle of the forest, hosted our first Peace Corps visitors, helped paint a house, set up tents for the Kageno visitors, cut grass with a had tool that you swing back and forth like a golf club (brings a whole new appreciation for weed eaters and lawnmowers), slid down the mountain in the rain, all the while holding on to the arm of a 50 year old man as I pulled him down sometimes as well (talk about a booster for your ego), slid down a hill on a piece of banana tree stalk peeling, did yoga, yes yoga with hundreds of Rwandans as they stretched and laughed all the while in their skirts and with babies on their backs…the babies faces where hilarious…from their faces, in my mind they were saying, “what the heck are we doing and why am I upside down), witnessed my first African baptism services (this was no baptism ceremony for wimps…when the Pastor dunked it was with so much force that their feet came up out of the water. Oh and they also made the baptism pool from a creek behind the church but they dammed it up first so the water would be deep enough), helped doctor the finger of a co-worker that was nearly cut off with a machete, shared a bench with a monkey (that was fun), and much, much more.
I think it is safe to say that Sarah and I are continuing to fall more in love with Banda. I think every child in this village already knows Sarah’s name. If they ever see me without her the first thing they ask is, “Sarah ari he he (where is Sarah)? Oh and I have another somewhat sad but also funny story…so there is a kid named Thomas in our village who had an infection or something that resulted in him losing his eye. He is only about 3 or 4 years old. Recently, Kageno has been trying to help and has been taking him back and forth to the district health center in hopes of getting a new eye put in (one that is just for looks obviously). This past week he was given a new eye but unfortunately, the hospital made a mistake in perfecting the correct size of the eye. My supervisor told me that they were having problems with it falling out. I said, “What…his eye…it’s falling out???” So, yesterday I was at the feeding program and I saw Thomas there. I could see that he had his new eye in but after the next swig of his porridge, the eye was no longer there. Yup…that is right, his eye feel right into his porridge. His mother calmly picked it up and cleaned it off…I don’t know what else to say. That’s all for now…be blessed
Jarod here…Sorry it’s been a while since we’ve updated. We have actually been somewhat busy lately (at least I think so). Work is slowly starting to take on some form finally and things are looking good. The past 2 ½ weeks have especially been busy. Recently we have had the chance to get to know a couple of our other bosses. Lyle who is the Operations Manager for Kageno who travels back and forth between the Kenya and Rwanda sites when she is not back home in Colorado and Frank, the Executive Director of Kageno. We really enjoyed getting to know them and feel like we have a much better perspective of our roles here in Banda and are excited about what the next two years have in store.
Anyway, to recap the last 4-5 weeks, this is what has been happening: rode a wooden bike, broke the wooden bike (it’s okay, it fixes really easy), almost lost my soccer ball to an outraged neighbor lady with a machete (it’s okay Meg, I saved it), had a forth of July party at Ryan’s site with HOT DOGS and MUSTARD and KETCHUP…amazing, killed a half a dozen rats, let one house worker go, hired another one (great decision by the way), ate vegetable sushi…in the middle of the forest, hosted our first Peace Corps visitors, helped paint a house, set up tents for the Kageno visitors, cut grass with a had tool that you swing back and forth like a golf club (brings a whole new appreciation for weed eaters and lawnmowers), slid down the mountain in the rain, all the while holding on to the arm of a 50 year old man as I pulled him down sometimes as well (talk about a booster for your ego), slid down a hill on a piece of banana tree stalk peeling, did yoga, yes yoga with hundreds of Rwandans as they stretched and laughed all the while in their skirts and with babies on their backs…the babies faces where hilarious…from their faces, in my mind they were saying, “what the heck are we doing and why am I upside down), witnessed my first African baptism services (this was no baptism ceremony for wimps…when the Pastor dunked it was with so much force that their feet came up out of the water. Oh and they also made the baptism pool from a creek behind the church but they dammed it up first so the water would be deep enough), helped doctor the finger of a co-worker that was nearly cut off with a machete, shared a bench with a monkey (that was fun), and much, much more.
I think it is safe to say that Sarah and I are continuing to fall more in love with Banda. I think every child in this village already knows Sarah’s name. If they ever see me without her the first thing they ask is, “Sarah ari he he (where is Sarah)? Oh and I have another somewhat sad but also funny story…so there is a kid named Thomas in our village who had an infection or something that resulted in him losing his eye. He is only about 3 or 4 years old. Recently, Kageno has been trying to help and has been taking him back and forth to the district health center in hopes of getting a new eye put in (one that is just for looks obviously). This past week he was given a new eye but unfortunately, the hospital made a mistake in perfecting the correct size of the eye. My supervisor told me that they were having problems with it falling out. I said, “What…his eye…it’s falling out???” So, yesterday I was at the feeding program and I saw Thomas there. I could see that he had his new eye in but after the next swig of his porridge, the eye was no longer there. Yup…that is right, his eye feel right into his porridge. His mother calmly picked it up and cleaned it off…I don’t know what else to say. That’s all for now…be blessed
Pretty Boring!
7-1-10
It feels as if it has been forever since I last posted…but I guess its only been a week. We’ve been so busy this week! I love it. Our boss from America, Lyla, came to Rwanda. We’ve been chatting with her pretty much every day since she arrived. It has been wonderful. Although our counterpart and supervisor speak English, it’s so comforting to speak with another American. There’s just no comparison. We have a large group of Americans coming on Sunday and will be here four days. They are going to be working with the community and doing all kinds of yoga, gardening, etc. We’re excited to meet them all and get to know them. Today we painted parts of the guest house and rearranged furniture to make sure everything is ready.
In other news, we got 2 more packages! My mother-in-law is just amazing! I can’t even tell you how excited we were to get those. She sure knows how to hit the spot. DR PEPPER! Woo hoo. Megan, your package has arrived here in Rwanda at least 4 weeks ago…and a friend picked it up for us. He was supposed to bring it the next week after he got it but well, he had bus issues and so now it’s been 2 more weeks. I’m sorry! It’s here…we just haven’t received it yet. I promise we’ll let you know when we do.
My sister found an app called whatsapp.com that will allow blackberry’s and iphones to chat for just the initial $1.99. SO…if you have an iphone and are interested in chatting with Jarod and I-download it ASAP! It’s wonderful. I finally get to talk to my Julie and Tiff!! Yay. Totally random but I missed Eclipse last night. I’m very sad about this. All my friends have seen it and I have to wait till it comes out on DVD or is somehow shown here in Rwanda. Poo!
I think that’s all for now. I’m pretty boring today. Nothing really exciting has happened.
Here’s a shout out to all our July’ers!
July 1st-Happy Birthday Papaw! I love you so much. Happy 4th of July! July 14th-Happy Birthday Uncle Mark. July 23rd-Happy Birthday Philip! July 24th-Happy Birthday to my sweet little Cademan. Caden is 5 and I’m so sad to be missing it. I love you cadester!
It feels as if it has been forever since I last posted…but I guess its only been a week. We’ve been so busy this week! I love it. Our boss from America, Lyla, came to Rwanda. We’ve been chatting with her pretty much every day since she arrived. It has been wonderful. Although our counterpart and supervisor speak English, it’s so comforting to speak with another American. There’s just no comparison. We have a large group of Americans coming on Sunday and will be here four days. They are going to be working with the community and doing all kinds of yoga, gardening, etc. We’re excited to meet them all and get to know them. Today we painted parts of the guest house and rearranged furniture to make sure everything is ready.
In other news, we got 2 more packages! My mother-in-law is just amazing! I can’t even tell you how excited we were to get those. She sure knows how to hit the spot. DR PEPPER! Woo hoo. Megan, your package has arrived here in Rwanda at least 4 weeks ago…and a friend picked it up for us. He was supposed to bring it the next week after he got it but well, he had bus issues and so now it’s been 2 more weeks. I’m sorry! It’s here…we just haven’t received it yet. I promise we’ll let you know when we do.
My sister found an app called whatsapp.com that will allow blackberry’s and iphones to chat for just the initial $1.99. SO…if you have an iphone and are interested in chatting with Jarod and I-download it ASAP! It’s wonderful. I finally get to talk to my Julie and Tiff!! Yay. Totally random but I missed Eclipse last night. I’m very sad about this. All my friends have seen it and I have to wait till it comes out on DVD or is somehow shown here in Rwanda. Poo!
I think that’s all for now. I’m pretty boring today. Nothing really exciting has happened.
Here’s a shout out to all our July’ers!
July 1st-Happy Birthday Papaw! I love you so much. Happy 4th of July! July 14th-Happy Birthday Uncle Mark. July 23rd-Happy Birthday Philip! July 24th-Happy Birthday to my sweet little Cademan. Caden is 5 and I’m so sad to be missing it. I love you cadester!
6.21.2010
Weird Cravings…
I've just added about 8 blogs....6-21-10...the first one was 5-31-10! Love you guys!
6-20-10
Being in Africa now for 4 monthsish…I’ve began having the strangest cravings. There’s the first thing, I’m beginning to not mind tomatoes (not mind meaning they have to be well cooked-raw still grosses me out). That’s a big one for me. The next thing is cheese. I crave cheese every day! I mean every time one of our supervisors comes from Kamembe, we have them bring cheese. When we arrived to Rwanda, I didn’t like the cheese they have here. Now, I’m eating it like I’ve never had cheese before! On a side note, we got a package this week with Velveeta. It is literally killing me not to eat greedily the whole thing in one sitting. Now here’s the weirdest thing of all that I’m craving. Garlic. That’s right. Garlic. Not cooked in something, simply cut up from the clove and then devoured! SOOOOO good. I don’t get it. Oh and then there’s the sweets. My wonderful nanny sent us packages of jelly belly’s. One of them is “Kids Favorites” and has all the flavors children love to eat. In America I absolutely could NOT stand buttered popcorn. Here…it has become my favorite! I literally crave buttered popcorn jelly belly’s and garlic! What the heck is wrong with me??
Today is Father’s Day. What a wonderful day. Happy Father’s day Daddy and Terry. We love you guys so much and are so grateful for how hardworking and wonderful you both are. We love you and miss you more than you know. I hope today is a great day of relaxation and family fun.
So we met this girl the other day. She has these huge indentions on her head, very deep scars, and our counterpart explained that when she was little she and some friends (all about 3 years) were playing and some baboons came up and tried to get into the field. They children started chasing them away and for some reason all the other children stopped and she didn’t know so she kept going. The baboon then came and grabbed her and carried her into the woods where he then started biting and clawing at her head. Eventually he dropped her and the parents found her in some bushes. They carried her about 5 or 6 hours to the nearest health clinic where she was miraculously nursed back to health. It’s incredible! God is good. So, Jarod and I are super glad we ran from those baboons. They are mean!!
Ok, that’s all I’ve got for now. My fingers are freezing. I love you all and will talk to you soon!
6-20-10
Being in Africa now for 4 monthsish…I’ve began having the strangest cravings. There’s the first thing, I’m beginning to not mind tomatoes (not mind meaning they have to be well cooked-raw still grosses me out). That’s a big one for me. The next thing is cheese. I crave cheese every day! I mean every time one of our supervisors comes from Kamembe, we have them bring cheese. When we arrived to Rwanda, I didn’t like the cheese they have here. Now, I’m eating it like I’ve never had cheese before! On a side note, we got a package this week with Velveeta. It is literally killing me not to eat greedily the whole thing in one sitting. Now here’s the weirdest thing of all that I’m craving. Garlic. That’s right. Garlic. Not cooked in something, simply cut up from the clove and then devoured! SOOOOO good. I don’t get it. Oh and then there’s the sweets. My wonderful nanny sent us packages of jelly belly’s. One of them is “Kids Favorites” and has all the flavors children love to eat. In America I absolutely could NOT stand buttered popcorn. Here…it has become my favorite! I literally crave buttered popcorn jelly belly’s and garlic! What the heck is wrong with me??
Today is Father’s Day. What a wonderful day. Happy Father’s day Daddy and Terry. We love you guys so much and are so grateful for how hardworking and wonderful you both are. We love you and miss you more than you know. I hope today is a great day of relaxation and family fun.
So we met this girl the other day. She has these huge indentions on her head, very deep scars, and our counterpart explained that when she was little she and some friends (all about 3 years) were playing and some baboons came up and tried to get into the field. They children started chasing them away and for some reason all the other children stopped and she didn’t know so she kept going. The baboon then came and grabbed her and carried her into the woods where he then started biting and clawing at her head. Eventually he dropped her and the parents found her in some bushes. They carried her about 5 or 6 hours to the nearest health clinic where she was miraculously nursed back to health. It’s incredible! God is good. So, Jarod and I are super glad we ran from those baboons. They are mean!!
Ok, that’s all I’ve got for now. My fingers are freezing. I love you all and will talk to you soon!
Ntabwo Nitwa Muzungu (my name is not white person)
6/17/10
Jarod here. So, it has been an interesting week here in the huge metropolis of Banda Village. Let’s see…I want to start off by just telling you what are normal daily routine is here just in case you were curious…hope you enjoy!
6:30…Wake up to the sound of roosters, men beating on drums and shouting at the top of their lungs and birds chirping
6:40…Begin making fire to boil water to have oatmeal
7:10…Finally get fire started
7:30…Eat breakfast
7:45…Get dressed, wash hair
8:15…Read bible and/or study Kinyrwanda
9:00…Head to town
9:25-12:00…Arrive at Kageno, visit nursery school, visit health clinic, visit children in feeding program, play with children at nursery, talk with teachers, walk to town center and strike up conversation with anyone who wants to talk…brainstorm ideas for future projects.
12:25…Start fire again
12:45…Get fire started and start cooking
1:00…Eat spaghetti, soup, beans and rice or PB&J sandwiches if we are so lucky to have PB&J.
2:00…Head back to town, mingle with people, venture around the valley to continue to familiarize ourselves with the community.
4:00…Arrive home, rest from all the walking, read or study, try and get a signal to see if we’ve received any communication from the outside world and then…..you guessed it.
6:00…Start making fire again
6:25…Get fire started and start cooking
7:00…Eat
7:30…Boil water to drink and to shower with
8:00…Take warm bucket back by head lamp or lantern
9:00…Walk Sarah to the latrine to use the bathroom (since its dark out…for better or worse right???)
9:30…Lights out…oh weight, our light went out when the sun set at 6:30.
9:45…Should be long gone asleep by this time…yes we are an old couple…you try and find other things to do here.
In other news, the kids are slowly getting used to seeing our while pale faces here and the word umuzungu is heard less everyday…or so it seems…maybe we are just blocking it We make it a point to tell them our name so they can use it instead of the dreaded “umuzungu”. Now that many of them know our names, they really enjoy shouting it out whenever they see us. It doesn’t matter if we are 2 hills over…as long as they can see the only two white people in Banda walking, they will scream at the top of their lungs “Mwiriwe Sarah or Mwiriwe Jarod”. It is so funny because so many times we find ourselves searching the hillsides trying to figure out where that little voice is coming from and then finally one of us will spot a little kid 500 yards away standing on the side of a hill greeting us. This just goes to show there is no greeting radius you must be in for someone to want to talk with you…especially with the kids. They are wonderful though. Tonight I got to ride on one of their wooden bikes. Well, I say ride…it doesn’t really role very well so another kid pushed me. It was fun until the front wheel fell off and I came to an immediate stop.
Also, this was cool…we were walking home for lunch yesterday day when I hear Sarah say, “Jarod…look!!!” I looked down at the path and there crossing the path was a little green chameleon. It was so neat because not long before we came here I almost bought Sarah one as a gift because she wanted one for a pet and now we were seeing one in its natural habitat. We picked it up and carried it to our house. It was so funny because for some reason the children here and even adults are scared to death of these little creatures. They would literally take off running when they saw what Sarah was holding. Turns out this is because they teach the children (in order to protect the forest and all its creatures) to not touch or harm the chameleons because if you do, you will become like it and walk very slow and if you kill it, you will die as well. For some reason, the slow, creeping speed of the little dude just seems to freak them out. So, of course I had a little fun with that on the way home waving it in the kids faces as they walked by.. Then we sat him down in the front yard, he climbed up a tree and hasn’t been seen since. Our counterpart said that during the dry season we will see many of them here in Banda. They even have the large horned chameleons here…gotta love this place.
The end of the week has started off great. We just got a package #5 from my parents tonight. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to see one of those dudes show up. It is like Christmas every time. This one was packed full of goodies and Sarah and I will enjoy its contents for quite some time. Also, there was a CREAM SODA and another DR PEPPER for Sarah. This was some kind of exciting to see. For about 32 minutes after opening the package I believe we were in some kind of state of euphoria or ecstasy…good stuff. Thanks so much Mom, Dad and Sis. Also, our friend Ryan is coming to visit on Saturday…the first visit from any of our fellow PCV’S although they all say they want to visit the forest and see us. And, there will be a group of about 20 or so Americans coming to stay 4 days in a few weeks. They are all yoga instructors and I am not sure what they will be doing here but we are going to be housing a couple of them…should be interesting…maybe I can work on my reverse warrior pose…who knows.
Anyway, there is more to talk about but this is getting long and I will save some stuff for Sarah. I hope things are going well for everyone back home. Be blessed!
Jarod here. So, it has been an interesting week here in the huge metropolis of Banda Village. Let’s see…I want to start off by just telling you what are normal daily routine is here just in case you were curious…hope you enjoy!
6:30…Wake up to the sound of roosters, men beating on drums and shouting at the top of their lungs and birds chirping
6:40…Begin making fire to boil water to have oatmeal
7:10…Finally get fire started
7:30…Eat breakfast
7:45…Get dressed, wash hair
8:15…Read bible and/or study Kinyrwanda
9:00…Head to town
9:25-12:00…Arrive at Kageno, visit nursery school, visit health clinic, visit children in feeding program, play with children at nursery, talk with teachers, walk to town center and strike up conversation with anyone who wants to talk…brainstorm ideas for future projects.
12:25…Start fire again
12:45…Get fire started and start cooking
1:00…Eat spaghetti, soup, beans and rice or PB&J sandwiches if we are so lucky to have PB&J.
2:00…Head back to town, mingle with people, venture around the valley to continue to familiarize ourselves with the community.
4:00…Arrive home, rest from all the walking, read or study, try and get a signal to see if we’ve received any communication from the outside world and then…..you guessed it.
6:00…Start making fire again
6:25…Get fire started and start cooking
7:00…Eat
7:30…Boil water to drink and to shower with
8:00…Take warm bucket back by head lamp or lantern
9:00…Walk Sarah to the latrine to use the bathroom (since its dark out…for better or worse right???)
9:30…Lights out…oh weight, our light went out when the sun set at 6:30.
9:45…Should be long gone asleep by this time…yes we are an old couple…you try and find other things to do here.
In other news, the kids are slowly getting used to seeing our while pale faces here and the word umuzungu is heard less everyday…or so it seems…maybe we are just blocking it We make it a point to tell them our name so they can use it instead of the dreaded “umuzungu”. Now that many of them know our names, they really enjoy shouting it out whenever they see us. It doesn’t matter if we are 2 hills over…as long as they can see the only two white people in Banda walking, they will scream at the top of their lungs “Mwiriwe Sarah or Mwiriwe Jarod”. It is so funny because so many times we find ourselves searching the hillsides trying to figure out where that little voice is coming from and then finally one of us will spot a little kid 500 yards away standing on the side of a hill greeting us. This just goes to show there is no greeting radius you must be in for someone to want to talk with you…especially with the kids. They are wonderful though. Tonight I got to ride on one of their wooden bikes. Well, I say ride…it doesn’t really role very well so another kid pushed me. It was fun until the front wheel fell off and I came to an immediate stop.
Also, this was cool…we were walking home for lunch yesterday day when I hear Sarah say, “Jarod…look!!!” I looked down at the path and there crossing the path was a little green chameleon. It was so neat because not long before we came here I almost bought Sarah one as a gift because she wanted one for a pet and now we were seeing one in its natural habitat. We picked it up and carried it to our house. It was so funny because for some reason the children here and even adults are scared to death of these little creatures. They would literally take off running when they saw what Sarah was holding. Turns out this is because they teach the children (in order to protect the forest and all its creatures) to not touch or harm the chameleons because if you do, you will become like it and walk very slow and if you kill it, you will die as well. For some reason, the slow, creeping speed of the little dude just seems to freak them out. So, of course I had a little fun with that on the way home waving it in the kids faces as they walked by.. Then we sat him down in the front yard, he climbed up a tree and hasn’t been seen since. Our counterpart said that during the dry season we will see many of them here in Banda. They even have the large horned chameleons here…gotta love this place.
The end of the week has started off great. We just got a package #5 from my parents tonight. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to see one of those dudes show up. It is like Christmas every time. This one was packed full of goodies and Sarah and I will enjoy its contents for quite some time. Also, there was a CREAM SODA and another DR PEPPER for Sarah. This was some kind of exciting to see. For about 32 minutes after opening the package I believe we were in some kind of state of euphoria or ecstasy…good stuff. Thanks so much Mom, Dad and Sis. Also, our friend Ryan is coming to visit on Saturday…the first visit from any of our fellow PCV’S although they all say they want to visit the forest and see us. And, there will be a group of about 20 or so Americans coming to stay 4 days in a few weeks. They are all yoga instructors and I am not sure what they will be doing here but we are going to be housing a couple of them…should be interesting…maybe I can work on my reverse warrior pose…who knows.
Anyway, there is more to talk about but this is getting long and I will save some stuff for Sarah. I hope things are going well for everyone back home. Be blessed!
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