Safari njema! My Adventures in Tanzania

Well our first weekend at our homestay was quite interesting. On Saturday, we woke up around 8:00 am and had breakfast with the family. Unfortunately, both Kelsey and I started feeling sick on Saturday morning. We were able to go to the market at Tangeru with dada Lilian and dada Jacquelin by taking the minibuses. It was so crowded and I will never complain about a crowded campus connector again. When we got to the market, it was pretty hectic, everyone trying to pull us this way and that to buy what they were selling. There was fresh produce everywhere and everyone kept yelling "Mzungu! Mzungu!" (White people). It was slightly overwhelming but luckily we had our host sisters there to help us.We felt bad, however, for being there because we knew the stall owners were charging our host sisters more money for the food because the Mzungu's were with them. When we returned home on Saturday, we played Uno and Go Fish in Swahili with the boys for the rest of the night.We were supposed to slaughter the chickens that are in the pictures below for dinner and we agreed to help, but I think they could sense our fear because when we came back from the walk, they were already being cooked.

On Sunday, we went to church with our family. It was a Pentocostal church in the town where our Baba grew up. It was a long drive away in a pretty rural area. The church was an open building in the middle of a field and the service lasted for three hours. It was all in Swahili so we did not understand it, but it was still fun to get up and dance with everyone. Both of our host parents are very involved in the church. Baba plays the piano and at one point, he motioned for us to stand up and introduce ourselves to the church in Swahili. We were both nervous but I think we did an ok job. At the end of the service, we filed out of the church and were supposed to shake everyone's hand to signal the end of church. Unfortunately, some of the people at the service refused to shake our hand, which kind of made me and Kelsey upset. When we got home from the service, we walked to TCDC with the rest of the girls from the University of Minnesota group and I was able to talk to my parents and Matt so I felt better.

This week at school we are starting our second week of medicine courses with Dr. Msuya. It is going well, but Kelsey and I are still sick. We are getting better slowly so hopefully it ends soon!