Things we appreciate about living in Musoma

Sometimes it's easy to notice all the things that are irritating about living here, so yesterday we took a little time to list things we really appreciate and enjoy about living in Musoma. This isn't a complete list; we just rattled off things off the tops of our heads and I'm sure we missed some, but here's what we came up with yesterday:

- Fruit! We really like having fresh and flavorful mangoes, passion fruit, guavas, bananas, pineapple, and watermelon.

- Mama Peter's shop! Mama Peter is a very kind and friendly woman who owns the shop where we buy our non-produce items. She makes shopping fun.

- The market! We like wandering through the stalls and choosing our produce from our favorite vendors.

- Music! While we don't always appreciate the music itself (although sometimes it's great), we like how music is a big part of people's lives here.

- No need to be PC! You can stroll up to a stranger and ask them what religion they are, how old they are, etc., and it's totally fine. People call us "white person" and people in wheelchairs are called cripples. While occasionally it makes us wince with surprise, it's nice to just be able to talk without watching every word to be sure nobody will be offended.

- Not being judged on looks! Tanzanians appreciate skinny people, fat people, short people, tall people, all sorts of people. If your clothes don't match exactly or fit perfectly, it's okay. If the water is out and you didn't get a shower that morning and your hair is a little greasy, no worries. Tanzanians seem to care a lot more about your behavior and personality than your body and appearance.

- Househelp! Wealthy Tanzanians hire househelp, and it's expected for foreigners to do so, too. Poor Tanzanians take in orphaned relatives to be their workers in exchange for giving them a home. It's simply how life works here; keeping a house is a lot of work and people are expected to care for those less fortunate than themselves. So we have Rose as our househelp. She's a Christian widow with three children and has worked for me for 3.5 years. We are very grateful for her help two days a week!

- Animals! It's pretty cool when you take a road trip and see zebra, wildebeest, giraffes, and antelope out the car windows.

- Visitor introduction time at church! Every church always has a time for visitors to stand up and give their names, where they are from, etc. It's terribly convenient and a nice way to get to know guests/introduce yourself when you are a guest.

- Hospitality! In general, Tanzanians are happy to have guests and want to make sure they feel welcome. It's a very important cultural value that seems to match up well with how the Bible tells us to live, practicing hospitality. It makes Tanzania a warm and friendly place for foreigners.

- Sunshine! Occasionally we long for a cool and rainy day, but for two people from the soggy northwest, it's still overwhelming to realize that we're guaranteed to have a sunny day every day (with very few exceptions).

Christmas 2010

Christmas fell on a Saturday this year, and at the end of the day we said, "It was a really nice, special sort of Saturday, but it didn't really feel like Christmas."

We got up early, which was fun because we opened our presents when it was still dark outside, which made the lights on our tree much prettier. Unfortunately, the electricity went off about halfway through, so we finished by the light of a candle and the rising sun. It came back on after 30 minutes or so, so it wasn't out all day or anything.

For gifts, we had received a box from my parents, a package from Andrew's mom, and a wee little package from one of his sisters. His dad sent his gifts via Internet (gift cards). Also, for our gift to ourselves, we experimented with ordering books off Amazon and having them shipped to us here in Musoma, and were very pleasantly surprised that they all arrived quite quickly!

For Andrew, it was strange to not have very many people/kids around. Two of his sisters each have a little troop of kids, and so for him, Christmas with no nieces or nephews around felt a little too quiet. For me, I grew up with Christmas being just our immediate family, so I was the youngest and there were definitely no kids around, so Christmas wasn't too odd with it being just two adults, although I really missed my parents and Christmas Eve service at home church.

It was also strange to not give any gifts this year. Andrew especially missed the challenge of shopping and finding just the right thing and eagerly awaiting seeing the receipient open it. I was relieved to not have to stress about finding stuff to buy and all, but it was kind of sad, too, that we didn't have any presents for each other.

One thing that went really well, however, was the food! For breakfast we had some amazing cinnamon rolls, and for Christmas dinner we had BBQ pork with garlic mashed potatoes and pan-fried zucchini. Carrot cake finished our meal.

So, to liven things up we went for a Christmas walk. We borrowed our friends' dog, Ellie, and headed out on a trail that runs along the border of the local military base and a plethora of small cassava farms. It was really fun to be out in the fresh air and outdoors together. We don't go outside very often, so it was nice to be out and about! It was so quiet, too. Two lots away from our house there was a wild and noisy party with really, REALLY loud music going on all afternoon and well into the night, but when we were on our walk, we were far away from there and it was peaceful and quiet. There are huge rock formations in NW Tanzania, and Andrew got some pictures of the landscape. It's always nice to see Lake Victoria in the distance and giant rocks scattered around.

To close out our day, we talked with our families via Skype, which was really nice to be able to do. I don't know what missionaries way back when did, but we sure appreciate the Internet!

Roadwork

Sometimes leaving the house is a challenge. Sometimes getting home is a challenge. No matter which direction we're attempting to go, these days we're never sure if we'll be able to get there and back!

They've been doing some serious roadwork on one kilometer of our dirt road for months now. We live at about the .9 km mark, so we're at the very end of the part that we hope someday might be paved. They've completely blocked it on one side with a backhoe parked across the road, and have put dirt piles and stacked thorn branches in such a way that there is no way a car could get past. Motorcycles believe in "where there's a will, there's a way" and will manage to get past anything, but we're stuck on that side. So, that leaves only one way out for us.

Unfortunately, sometimes they dig ditches across the road or dump huge piles of dirt in the middle of it and don't give us any advance warning. We try and figure out off-road paths that we can take to get around the ditches and piles, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Again, in order to prevent cars from attempting such maneuvers, sometimes they'll put up tapes or lay down thorn branches. When they had the tape there once, we looked at it and thought, "It's not strung that tightly..." and so I hopped out and held it up as high as I could, and Andrew drove underneath it. We've learned a few things about fighting your way through from the motorcycles, I guess!

Yesterday evening we arrived at our house to discover they'd dug a ditch right in front of our driveway. Since it might be about a week or so before they actually lay pipe in the ditch and cover it up again, Andrew laid some rocks and dug up some dirt to give us a way out. Now we'll just have to be really careful to follow our tracks every time in and out!

Church

Yesterday we added to the growing list of churches we've been to in the Musoma area:
Pentecostal Assembly of God
Mennonite (2 different ones)
Moravian
Pentecostal Evangelical Fellowship of Africa
Seventh Day Adventist
Africa Inland Church of Tanzania
Free Pentecostal Church of Tanzania
Anglican Church of Tanzania

This list will continue to grow as we visit other churches. Most churches are surprisingly grateful for a visit, and it's a wonderful opportunity to share about the Bible translation work we're doing in the area. We are also continually reminded of the importance of unity in the church. Our work activities, which are focused on the Bible rather than a particular denomination, seem to promote the concept and fact that there is only ONE body of Christ and we are all a part of that same body (check out I Corinthians 12).

We've mentioned before that church services in Tanzania are always an interesting adventure; one that is rarely, if ever, brief. Some of the questions we might ask ourselves in the morning before heading off to church are:
Will it be less than three hours this week?
Will they have a sound system? (I hope not.)
Will it be working? (I hope not.)
During introductions, how should I introduce myself?
How hot will it be?
Will we have to sit in the front again?
Will anyone give chickens or produce in the offering to be auctioned off at the end of the service?
What is the appropriate amount to put in the offering?
Will the choir do most of the singing, or will we get to sing too?
Should I put on my dancing shoes or should I load up on caffeine beforehand?

The two things that never seem to vary between churches are: 1) filing out of the church at the end of the service and shaking everyone's hand, and 2) ANNOUNCEMENTS. It wouldn't be a true Tanzanian church service without announcement time. Announcements are very important and can sometimes take 45 minutes.

"Bwana ni mwema" ("The Lord is good")
Andrew

Pork

Today Andrew went to the butcher shop down the street and bought four kilos of pork. As always, these shopping trips are full of the unexpected. After a wait and some phone calls, some pig pieces arrived in the trunk of a car. He carried it home in a plastic bag and whacked it into pieces in our kitchen. Sometimes we really miss going to grocery stores and buying meat in tidy packages! However, when it comes time to pay, we can't help but feel that we're getting a nice deal at a bit under $2.00 a pound.

Christmas tree

Thanks to some co-workers who recently left Musoma to spend a year in their home country, we are able to borrow a (fake) Christmas tree. We both really love the whole Christmas season and so having a tree is pretty exciting. Over the years, I have managed to bring six strands of lights out to Tanzania with me, so we have plenty of lights for our tree, as well as lights to go all the way around our living room and dining room (see the strand heading up the wall behind the tree). They run on 110 volts, so we had to buy a transformer to change the electricity here (220 volts) so it won't fry the lights (see the box next to the tree). With some Christmas music in the background and our wee tree, we feel like we're all ready for Dec. 25 to come! Thanks to care packages from our parents and thanks to Amazon for shipping around the world, we have now added quite a few gifts under our tree, too. Despite all these fun festivities, we're also determined to focus on Christ, and remember that it is his sacrifice and humility we are celebrating.

We're Visa

There are not insurance companies in Tanzania (other than auto insurance for those wealthy enough to have vehicles), but there is plenty of insurance going around. People build up credit with friends, loan to other friends, and make sure they have a wide, deep network of giving and receiving money and other help. If they have a problem, they can call in some loans, and they are okay with giving out some loans, because it extends their credit network.

Also, underlying this infrastructure, is the idea that those who have more wealth are to take care of those with less. For example, a good Tanzanian friend here once had a job, a real job as a clerk in a store, but refused to receive a salary, because he knew he'd live better as a dependent of benefactors than he would on his own salary. He said that as soon as people heard he had a salary, they'd come to him, expecting him to be a benefactor and he'd be obligated to help them. So he went to work every day, knowing it was good experience that would enable him to have a better job someday, but never took home a paycheck!

So, in this culture of the "wealthy" helping the poor, coupled with everyone living off of loans and most folks being in debt, you can imagine how we fit in. People look at us like we're unfriendly if we don't participate in the general system of friends helping friends, and since we're wealthy in their eyes, when we don't help those less fortunate, we appear selfish and greedy. We're asked for financial gifts and loans constantly. It's one of the greatest stresses of being here. I thought the most difficult thing for me would be the heat, the food, or the language, but instead it is definitely the mixture of friendship and money.

I have no problem refusing a total stranger who asks me for money; that's easy. But when it's a translator I supervise and consider a friend, our neighbors, or a Christian stranger who is clearly in dire need, it's much more difficult to know what to do. What do you say when someone whom you know well asks you for a loan/gift to pay for their child's school fees? If I say "no", there is a good chance that child will not go to school. But if I say "yes", I'm continuing this pattern of living beyond one's means and putting them in debt.

A friend here recenly said "I'm Visa". As odd as it sounds, I realized that we're Visa, too.

By saying we're Visa, I mean that we help people when they have been caught by an unexpected expense, and just can't pay for it all at this moment. Our system for deciding whom to help usually has to do with deciding if it's really something they couldn't have planned for in advance. If I feel like someone should have found a way to save for something they knew was coming up, and then at the last minute they ask for a loan/gift instead, that's not a good time to put something on a credit card. But if their son was sick and the money they'd saved for rent had to go to pay his medical bill, then that's when they really need some help. That's when we become Visa to people in a country where Visa is not everywhere you want to be. There is no insurance and no credit cards here, but there are friends.

-Misha

Fuzzy Felines

Clive and Betsy, our wee leopards. Andrew was working from home one day and they hung out on the chair in his office. Even he couldn't resist taking a picture!