50 first experiences! #missionarylife

It’s amazing to me how many situations I find myself in daily, that I have never and probably would never experience if I only ever stayed living in New Zealand. In just 4 and a half months, I will be back living in New Zealand, where life will be very different. So I want to remember all these quirky, amusing, and sometimes uncomfortable situations that I have encountered over this past year

1. Often having no idea what is being said around me and sometimes even to me. I literally sat in an hour long meeting the other day, before I realised they were talking about electing someone as a chairperson. In a Tanzanian church service I usually make friends with a child because I have no idea what the pastor is saying.
2. Learning Swahili and attempting to speak it which leads to some hilarious Swahili fails like: 
   Asking for books at a vegetable stand instead of potatoes Vitabu vs Viazi 
   Saying I need to go to the market to buy a buffalo instead of vegetables Mbogo vs Mboga (easy mistake)
   Answering a question like did you understand with good (nzuri) instead of yes (ndiyo). Not the best way to convince someone that I understood! 
   Telling someone I have been here 7 years instead of 7 months Mweze = months Mwaka = years. Then they really wonder why my Swahili is so bad!
   Singing worship songs wrong over and over again.
   

   
   Using you, we, he or she when I want to say I. It changes the meaning completely!
   Going to the toilet in a local food place and coming back out to ask if I am a mwanaume (male) or mwanamke (female).
   Having to write my daladala stop down on my phone in Swahili so that when the daladala conductor ask where I am going I can tell him! I have now proudly mastered that one and can say "Mwisho wa lami" (end of the tarmac) whenever I here "wapi" (where). My most amusing fail happened while in Zanzibar. At the place we were staying I asked the guy for some mugs and used words like maji (water) some hand gestures and charades to describe what I wanted. He went away for about 10 minutes and came back with a squeegee! The second time around he came back with a flask of boiling water and mugs…close enough.
3. Having to introduce myself in Swahili in a Tanzanian church. There’s no chance of going unnoticed in church!
4. Random compliments/ comment that I’ve never received before this year like: 
   “you look like a rasta” I am not sure why I’ve never been told that before? 
   “You look like a rock star” 
   “Mzungu, I love you” 
   “Are you German?” 
   “You look Scandinavian” 
   “Welcome to Tanzania” (just the other day)
   “I want her as my wife” (Old drunk Maasai man) 
   

   
   “Umependeza” you look nice
   “Give me your dog” while walking Lynda’s dog in the village
   My personal favorite “You look like Kim Kardashian” (while trying on a skirt)
   All from strangers and then from children...
   “is that your real hair” “when you get long hair will it be black”
   “are those mosquito bites (referring to my freckles) 
   “did you get bitten by a tetzy fly? (referring to a pimple on my face!)
   “wow nzuri” (while stroking my hair)
   “why does she have white hair?”
5. Class 2 kids answering the question “why is it important that we have a clean living environment with “because otherwise you will get HIV Aids” hahaha that is most definitely not an answer NZ kids would think of! 
   
6. Second hand clothes shopping which involves digging through piles of clothes to find some gold. It’s kind of like op shopping except wayyyy more intense because everyone wants you to buy from their stall. All you here is “rafiki, support me” “looking is free” and everyone is handing you things to try that they think you may like, such as a yellow jumper. I would literally look like a banana! Or skirts about ten sizes too big or too small! If I am looking for shoes there’s no way I have to bend down and try that shoe on myself! There is always someone ready to put shoes on my feet! 
7. Which then leads to my next point bartering for everything! There is no way I am paying more than 30c for that second hand top haha. Sometimes the price bumps up for mzungu but now we take our secret weapon Joseph, Emma’s fiancé, one of the first guys I’ve met who actually doesn’t mind shopping and always makes sure we get a good deal
8. Having people try and sell me stuff on the street constantly. The most random things being a live chicken, a $5 NZ note, and a lamp shade!
9. Being in a daladala (van) that’s so full that they can’t even close the door. I literally was holding on to both the inside and the outside of the van! Or sitting between 3 large
   mama’s on a two seater seat!
10. Sitting on a daladala and having some high school girls quickly touch my hair and start giggling
11. Strangers wanting to shake my hands as they pass me on the street
12. Eating dinner with a street kid at the local chicken place (instead of giving him money) and not once going to town without being asked for money
13. Staying at an orphanage and hanging out with some of the sweetest kids I’ve ever met with some of the most heart-breaking stories
    
14. Using some of the most horrendous squat toilets I’ve ever experienced and hoping that it’s water on the ground and not something else.
15. Running through the village
16. Being served a huge portion of rice and still managing to finish it (what can I say I have a gift). The day we were given two lunches however, really tested how much I can eat!First I ate a plate of ugali (ground maize) and then a large of plate of rice!
17. Sitting next to a man and his live chicken on the daladala and then realising there were about 7 more chickens tied together that were under the seat!
18. Having random children run up and hug me. This happens a lot working with kids in NZ but usually only with children I actually know!
19. Or having children terrified of my whiteness a simple glance and they run away crying!
    
20. Having a flash mob of children surrounding me in a village touching me stroking my arms, hair and even licking me!! As if I’m some celebrity or mystical creature!  It literally started with a few children but they just kept coming out of nowhere!
21. Camping in the Maasai bush and meeting people whose lives could not be more different to mine if they tried
22. Praying for a group of Maasai women and their children with a group of Maasai DTS
    
    students!
23. Watching a Maasai choir competition. Those Maasai men can jump soooo high!
24. Singing and dancing with Maasai children
25. Teaching Maasai children games like “crocodile, crocodile”
26. Being a minority! I experienced this to a small degree at my primary school in Rotorua which was 90 % maori but never to the degree in which people constantly stare
27. 12 hour bus rides with only one toilet stop!! And buying stuff out the window of the bus
28. No knees in 2016! With the exception of our trip to Zanzibar! That’s right modest is hottest haha
29. Teaching a class full of children where English is a second language and getting blank stares when I speak too fast or after 10 minutes of explaining a lesson. Also having an assistant teacher translate my lessons!
30. Being in a place where there is seemingly no road rules! Don't wait for a gap just push your way in! Also helmets are more of a suggestion then a rule when riding any form of bike
31. Greeting every single person at church with a handshake
32. Praying for people in the village and having the privilege of seeing them except Jesus or set free!
33. Having the neighbors child come to our house just to watch our washing machine go round and round! And entertaining children for hours with a front camera
    
34. Being stuck in a 7 lane traffic jam where technically there should only have been 2 lanes for at least an hour.
35. Doing extra jobs like filtering water through a bucket, boiling the
    milk that came straight from a cow, washing the fruit and vegetables we bought from the market, freezing rice, pasta and lentils just encase there’s any bugs in them!
36. Wearing gumboots to school in the rainy season
37. Weekly whole day power cuts
38. Being called “teacher Rachel” I have had many names as a teacher. At Preschool in New Zealand, I was Rachy-pooh. On practicums I was Miss Judd at kids camps I was “Aunty Rachel” but never have I been “teacher Rachel”
    
39. Going to town and back for less than a dollar!
40. Having a video I took of Tanzanian Joshua school children singing a Te Reo Maori song go viral in NZ! It even got mentioned on the news!
    
    
    But even more impacting than what I have experienced is what I have learnt...

Settling into Tanzanian life

I’ve now been here a week and a half. Even though each day seems to go by fairly quickly it feels like I’ve been here a lot longer. I felt at home here from day one and because I’ve been here before there wasn’t the same culture shock and awe of my surroundings that I felt last time. It’s all very familiar and comfortable. Even going into town I feel less on edge than I did last time. It definitely helps being with Emma all the time. Emma’s been here for two years and speaks fluent Swahili. I am always in awe of her as she converses so easily with Tanzanians and has such heart connections with people. Which only really comes through communicating. I am keen to learn the basics of Swahili so that I can begin to form connections with the locals too. The best part of Emma knowing Swahili was her telling a guy off at the markets who tried to rip me off when I was buying a basket, he very quickly dropped his price after that! 

Sometimes I could almost forget that I am in Africa while on base surrounded by Kiwis and other Wazungu (white people). Christmas wasn’t too different from home. But it seemed to involve a LOT  of food! We started with Christmas Eve dinner, followed by banana pancakes on Christmas morning, a buffet lunch at a local hotel, then boxing day brunch. We even had bacon! As you can see I am doing it really hard here. To make up for the overeating, I convinced Emma to do boot camp with me. So Monday morning we got up at 6:30am and headed down to the school field for half an hour of bodyweight and cardio exercises. We felt so good about it after that we have decided to do workouts every second day. So even here I can still do what I enjoy. The altitude sure makes me feel like I am not that fit though!

Last night I was reminded that I am in fact in Africa, while we were out for dinner in town. After we had finished eating, I looked over and saw a street kid, a young boy probably no older than 12 standing watching us eat. He put his hand up to his mouth indicating he was hungry. I offered him a plate of salad that we had leftover and he took it gratefully. If that wasn’t heart breaking enough he then asked the waiter for our chicken bones and sat there eating every last piece of chicken off the bone. I then passed him some money and he looked me in the eye and said very sincerely, “Asante Mzungu” (thank you, white person).
Beggars are so common here and sometimes kids are used by corrupt people, to pull on tourist’s heartstrings to get them money. Because of this it would almost be easy to ignore them, or question their motives. But regardless this is a kid, who was so hungry that he ate our chicken bones! Our scraps, that we were planning to throw out. A kid who is out at dinner time begging for food. Yeah he may spend the money I gave him on alcohol and yeah it would be wiser to just buy him a meal (which in hindsight I would do next time) but I think the important thing is to never stop caring. I never want my heart to become so hardened that I ignore a hungry street kid. I think of people like Heidi Baker who intentionally feeds 1000’s of street kids even though they all bombard her and beg her for food. She throws all caution to the wind in order to love the ones in front of her.

Last Wednesday we had the opportunity to go out to Maasai land with Tammy and Peter (Justine Owens parents in law…small world!). I didn’t really know what to expect as I haven’t read, seen or heard many good things about the Maasai people. All I really knew is that they live as nomads in mud huts, wear blankets as clothes, tyres as shoes and lots of beaded jewellery especially in their ears; that their wealth and worth is based on how many cows and wives they have. Each wife is worth 10 cows and has her own mud hut. They are fierce warriors who kill lions to prove their manhood and they follow traditional practices of circumcising the boys  and sometimes the girls too. (Female circumcision is illegal in Tanzania though). So as you could imagine I was both excited and nervous about heading out to Maasai land. However, when we arrived we were greeted as their friends, they were so warm, and welcoming and they reserved seats for us in the incredibly packed church. They were so joyful and enthusiastic as they sang. Even though I didn’t understand anything they were singing, or saying it was still very special to be a part of. If I came to Africa just as a tourist I would only know my stereotypes of the Maasai people that I learnt from visiting the Maasai tourist museum and reading the book “The White Massai” about an American tourist who marries a good looking Maasai man (Good read btw). I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to really experience this beautiful culture. What really struck me about these people is that they have so little, and their world is so opposite to my own yet they have such joy and hope because they know Jesus. Its shows how much of an impact Tammy and Peter have had in this tribes lives, as they have dedicated their lives to serving the Maasai people both practically and spiritually.

  Some other highlights of this week have been going out into the village with Emma to visit a couple of Mamas and their babies. Anyone who knows me, knows I love kids and am particularly clucky over babies. So I was pretty stoked to sit down and instantly be passed a cute African baby to cuddle. I didn’t mind that I wasn’t in on the conversation, which was all in Swahili. I was just content having cuddles. The second house we visited was Mama Hosiana’s house. She has two adorable 6 month old twins. These twins are particularly special as they were born following three miscarriages over several years. Emma has been visiting Mama Hosiana regularly throughout her pregnancy. She has often prayed with her and even raised money for her medical costs. The girl twin was even named after Emma. It was nice to have cuddles with these babies that I have heard so much about on Facebook and through Emma’s blogs. Other than that I’ve just enjoyed being in a place where it’s all about God and everything flows out of a relationship with Him. I’ve loved catching up with Rod and Jan and living with and getting to know Emma through D&Ms, our shared love of coffee, chocolate, village visits, cheese and wine nights, trips to the market, our makeshift boot camps and trips to all the best cafes in town.

Because school hasn’t started yet, I’ve been able to go out into the village a few times with Emma, Jan and Rod to pray for people. We prayed for a boy who had been completely deaf in one ear since about the age of five and his hearing was restored. He was able to hear his mum call him while blocking his good ear. Yesterday we went out into the village again to pray for people. Before we went we prayed and asked for words of knowledge about who to pray for. This was out of my comfort zone but I really want to increase my faith in the area of praying for healings. We walked for 45minutes and didn’t see anyone who fitted our words of knowledge at first, but we got talking to a lady who was on her way to the doctor’s clinic she said she had a lot of pain in her body including a head cold. We prayed for her and the pain was completely gone. I had a word of knowledge about an older man with a limp and a walking stick. Emma then bumped into a mama she knew and was reminded that the mamas husband fitted this description. We went into his shop and he was more than happy to have us pray for him. He had had polio since he was three and one leg was shorter than the other. Because I had a word of knowledge, I really believed that he would be healed. I even kept my eyes open ready to see his leg grow, but unfortunately he wasn’t healed. This was quite discouraging, but we talked about it afterwards and Rod made the point that the person receiving prayer also must have faith to believe they can be healed and although God is more than capable of healing him, it would be hard for him to believe that he could be healed of a condition he has lived with all his life. Rod, Jan and Emma have seen heaps of healings since they have been here but it’s always a bit discouraging when they don’t happen.

On Monday I am off to Magugu for a week with Lynda and Wendy. Magugu is a village about two hours away where there is another Joshua Foundation school. It’s quite a different environment to here as there is a huge Muslim population and it’s a lot poorer. They will be doing some Professional development with the teachers, and planning and preparing for the new school year. I am looking forward to being a part of this and contributing where I can. I am also just looking forward to learning from Lynda and Wendy as they are very knowledgeable and are great leaders and mentors. I will also get a feel for how the schools are run etc. We will be staying in the guest house, which use to have no running water, we just showered out of a bucket, but apparently it now has proper showers and flush toilets which I am grateful for.  (It’s the small things in life)

Prayer requests:

If you are the praying type … Could you please pray that I’ll be able to really help, encourage and support the teachers here. One of the teachers is changing year groups this year so I’ll mostly be working alongside her in a mentor role. I will be helping with planning, one on one teaching and just making sure that things are at a high standard with literacy and numeracy and that the learning is engaging. This is a new role for me and I am not exactly sure what it will look like in this context.  So please pray for Gods wisdom, confidence and good connections with the teachers.

There is quite low risk of malaria here so I have decided not to take the 4 months of antibiotics the doctor gave me, as they made me feel nauseous and I don’t want my body to become immune to them. Four months is a long time to take antibiotics. Please pray that I won’t get malaria and for good health while I am here.

Asante Sana (thanks heaps)