Wazungu (White People)

Another awesome day in Africa. Per usual, we woke up early, but this time instead of meeting Mike and Nosim, we had had Alley arrange for a cab to take us to the outskirts of Olasiti (the name of the village, remember?). I told the cab driver where to take us, but I had gotten directions from Emmy, who's English sounds a lot like Swahili, so what I wrote down clearly wasn't the right thing (it said Bada Bada Mpia CD Posi...that's what is sounded like when I talked to her). So we got dropped off nowhere near where Mike and Nosim were going to meet us in the village. No worries though...we got to walk through a traditional African village by ourselves and say hey to everyone...like a movie again. By the way, when I say village, don't think like 8 huts around a fire with giraffes and lions roaming on the horizon...there are a lot of huts/houses/shacks, and they are both close together and very spread out; all in all its probably at least several hundred acres...think more like a county, or an area code. Anyway, we walked from where we got dropped off to Matonyok, about 45 minutes. On the way a 17-year old started walking with us, and we communicated in broken English before he left to study at school. We got to Matonyok and were sung to again (apparently this will be a daily thing) before beginning our lessons. I can't speak for the other 3, but I myself taught the youngest kids how to make the "a" sound with works like "man" and "pan," then, after we had a quick recess, we did math outside. I made a plus sign (which could also be turned into a minus sign) and an equals sign out of sticks, and using the kids as number amounts, we did basic math like 1+1 and 6-4...etc. It was a lot of fun, and the kids loved to be picked up. Eventually we had lunch time: chipati, bananas, oranges, ugali, and beans (we had given them money for the market), after which I walked around with the kids while they told me Swahili words for things like rope, stone, stones, etc. We left the orphanage early today, and went with Mike and Nosim to the Cultural Heritage center; basically an Epcot for Safaris. We've realized that when you purchase the safari package, you are basically kept away from the real Africa that we are experiencing...everything for them is very glamourous, clean, expensive, English-speaking, etc. I'm extremely glad that we are doing what we are doing...basically becoming African for 2 weeks, riding dalla-dallas, buying food, negotiating prices, getting dirty, etc. After the Heritage place, we took a dalla-dalla with Mike and Nosim to the center-ish area of town, where they left us to find our way home on our own. Obviously, since I'm typing this, we did just fine. We got back to the hotel, dropped off our bags, and took a cap to a restaurant called "McMoody's." Apparently this is the American restaurant in Arusha. We had hamburgers, pizza, milkshakes, etc., and it was actually all very good. We saw a really funny (in a sad way) sign too...it said "Give to a streetchild today, and there will be two tomorrow." We've also saw a lot of Masai today. Masai is the biggest tribe in this area, and also the most proud. They walk around (most of them) in the traditional bright robes and tire tread shoes (just Google Image 'Africa' or 'Masai' and you'll see) and speak in their own Masai language (the grandma at Matonyok is Masai, so are Mike and Nosim and Ndemno and Emmy...basically everyone, but they don't all wear the clothing). It feels a little bit like Disneyworld, when they walk in to the shops and stuff dressed in their "costumes," although they could easily kill all of us with a twig. Apparently many of them come from their "land" 6 hours away to sell the famous gem tanzanite. We saw some today for $4,000, so they're making bank. So back to the day. We ate at McMoody's and then walked on our own back to the hotel (a quick 4 or 5 or 10 blocks...whatever). Now, we're sitting in the internet cafe communicating with relatives (I'm trying to sell stock). After that I assume that we'll go back to the room, do some Sudoku, maybe play some cards...who knows. If you go out on the street after dark and you are white, you die...or at least thats what the Americans say.