Control Freak in Chaos

This was taken while we were in Dar.  It’s not as uncommon a sight as you would think…or hope…

Well, we made it back from Dar all in one piece and with way too much stuff.  We really didn’t buy that much in all but it seemed like it because of the bigger items such as an oven and enough dog food to last 6 months.  We also stopped in Iringa to get our microwave from friends who were keeping it for us. 

Hopefully in the coming days I can share a few pictures although I didn’t take very many. 

So what did we find in Dar that got me all excited?  Let’s see…  Marshmallows but I forgot to get any so no Rice Krispie treats for us (yet).  (We found 2 boxes of Rice Krispies here in Mbeya and bought them.  Every time I see them in the cupboard I think of the lost “treat” opportunity.  But somehow there is comfort in knowing they are possible here…) 

What else?  Brown sugar, marishino cherries, cream of tartar, chili seasoning, taco shells, salsa, raspberries, rice without rocks (as far as we can tell), blue cheese, Lay’s sour cream and onion potato chips, and almonds.  We didn’t buy anything in bulk except the dog food.  We’ll probably go back to Dar in November just in time to shop for Christmas presents.  I found a few places that have things I’d like to send to people back home but we didn’t get anything just yet.  We’ll do that next time around. 

Let’s see…  Oh.  I got a pound cake pan too so now maybe with that and my new oven I can make a decent pound cake this time.  They had muffin pans in various shapes - butterflies, hearts, stars…but I just stuck with the traditional round.  Last night with my new purchases I made snickerdoodles and they were great.  I burned one batch but the rest turned out well and are now practically gone.  Ugh.  I enjoy baking a lot and way more than cooking.  We’re destined to get fat.  :)  I plan to share our goodies as much as possible!

What can I still not find here?  Sour cream (but I plan to try to make my own), allspice, chocolate chips, walnuts and baker’s chocolate.  I did find M-n-M’s and bought some - BUT - they don’t taste or look quite the same and they’re EXPENSIVE!!  (So do send some on - they’ll be much appreciated!) 

I’ve found cream cheese here in Mbeya thankfully.  It made my carrot cake last week perfect because a carrot cake just isn’t a carrot cake without cream cheese icing.  But once again it’s very expensive.  I looked at a recipe for cheesecake (Jonathan’s favorite dessert) and we calculated the cost at $40!!!  Yikes.  That may have to be one of those “only in the States” things.  Along with frosty’s, mint ice cream, and my mom’s chocolate pound cake with chocolate icing.  Ergh.  Shouldn’t have brought that to mind really.  Heehee… 

Well, it’s getting late and COLD.  I better let the poor cold dogs in and get ready for bed.  Good night…

Here in Tanzania there are people who walk around town selling their goods.  I started to take mental notes of what I’d seen for sale at each intersection we stopped at.  Here’s a rundown.

In December when we were leaving there was one man walking down the street carrying these items for sale: fake Christmas trees, bug zappers, pillows, and an ironing board.  One man.  Walking.  Selling all that stuff.  (We bought a bug zapper from him - heehee…)

This week we’ve seen the following for sale:  shirts, oranges, candles, water, soap, apples, tool sets, seat cushions (and NOW I realize I’d like to have one…), nuts, DVDs, lace tablecloths, drinks, and sunglasses.

Well, we finished our shopping today.  We completely stuck to the list…except when we came across items we forgot to put on the list.  :)  Early in the morning we’ll hit the road so we can get to a game park between here and Mbeya at a decent time in the morning.  Hopefully a good number of animals will be out.  Then we’ll make our way to Iringa to spend the night before heading home Thursday, arriving in the afternoon. 

We found a lot of things in Dar that we didn’t know was there including good places to shop for Christmas gifts when the time comes.  I’m excited about that.  While we were here we picked up a mug for Mama Imanueli (she LOVES hot tea) and a doormat for her home.  We also stocked up on smelly dogfood.  But.  They’re worth it…

Well, I better get ready for bed so I can get even a hint of a good night’s rest before waking up - well - dark and early…

But this time we’re actually going to buy things.  Off a carefully prepared list.  Hopefully that will help us to stick with only the items we need.  (If you consider brown sugar a need.  And I do.  :)) 

It’s 12:30 now.  We’ve spent the morning relaxing and now we’re heading to the SIL office to say hello (okay, we’re really going to show Asher off).  Then we’ll go get our car from the Aussies who are leaving Tanzania.  From there we’ll go to one of the 3 main stores here to make a dent in our list and then head back here.  And somewhere in there lunch and dinner will happen.

Well, Asher has just given me a present that I need to clean up before leaving.  Then.  Off we go!  :) 

After two months of not shopping today was FUN.  We met some friends for lunch and they asked if we had ever been to “Shoppers”.  We said, “No.”  They said, “Surely you have.”  We assured them we hadn’t.  So they took us.  It was fabulous!  Not American fabulous.  African fabulous.  But still.  Fabulous. 

We mainly “window shopped”.  Living in Dar definitely has its advantages.  (But everytime we are stuck in traffic or are sweating profusely we realize there are disadvantages too.)  So we picked up a few odds and ends that we need now and will return before heading back to Mbeya.  Before we do our final shopping trip here we have to solidify a list and stick to it. 

Asher did wonderfully today.  He did have a couple small crying spells (and I did get stared at a lot) but for a big couple of days he’s handled it quite well.  If he’s able to communicate anything about his likes/dislikes right now I’d say a) he doesn’t like to be hot and b) he doesn’t like Dar.  But he’s handling it like a champ and is probably as grateful as our room with A/C as we are. 

(Funny thing is that the people living in Dar think it’s COLD here now.  Yeah right.  70s and night, 80s during the day.  And still way too humid.  They’ve gotten too acclimated to the terrible climate here…  :))

As you read this, the three of us are on a bus headed to Dar es Salaam to pick up our vehicle.  Another couple with SIL is leaving Tanzania and sold us their car for a great price.  While we’re there, we’ll get Asher a check-up at the international clinic, go shopping, and, no doubt, sweat a bit as we leave our cool mountains of Mbeya for the hot, humid coast. 

The bus ride is 16 gruelling hours.  I’m taking a book, word search, and maybe headphones but I have a feeling I won’t be doing anything but tending to Asher.  Hopefully he’ll just get rocked to sleep and do that most of the trip.  The way back should be easier since we can stop when we want to and we’ll comfortably be by ourselves in our vehicle.

We’ll be staying in a church’s guest house.  We stayed at this place when we were leaving for America last December.  It’s pretty far out of the way (although close to the airport) but we love it because there are restrooms in the rooms themselves (which eliminates you having to go out battling mosquitoes) and the beds are great.  It used to be run by the Swiss and we believe they imported these beds from Switzerland.  It’s hard to find a nice mattress in all of Tanzania.

You’re on your own for food though so I’ll pack some to take with us.  There are many restaurants in Dar and we’ll probably go out at least once but the ride to anywhere is so far we’ll probably just stick to the guest house or go to other SILers homes in Dar (if we’re invited to any).

So that’s the long and short of it.  But wait?  I didn’t mention the dogs, did I?  They are being taken care of by a multitude of people there at the compound while we’re gone.  Mama Imanueli will still come by every day and the landlord will make sure they’re taken care of outside of that time.  As I write this (a few days before leaving) we’re planning to ask a few SIL people here if someone would stay at our house those days we’re gone but even if that doesn’t happen they’ll be well taken care of - and it’ll be a trial run for when all of us SIL people go to conference in July.

I’ll try to blog while we’re there.  It’ll definitely be a few different days from my usual ones here at home with Asher.  I’m sort of excited about a change of scenary but I’ll be just as excited to get back home on Wednesday!!

Last weekend at church a child in the back made a peep.  And I mean a peep.  All the women in the church turned around and looked at the child and the child’s mother.  The next thing you know, that child is being nursed.  Oooo, I’ll have to remember that.  My goodness! 

The last time we went to church Asher got fussy and, yes, everyone looked at me as I escorted myself out of the church and into our (borrowed) vehicle to nurse him.  Last weekend though we took a taxi to church because we had no other way to get there.  We got through church just fine but then Asher woke up when we were visiting with Mama Imanueli’s family.  They invited us to have lunch with them and we gladly accepted.

So we’re in the living room all facing each other.  There are her teenage children and her husband in the room and I knew I’d have to feed Asher.  Hmmm…  Leaving the room is totally bizarre and so is covering up in some way.  (If I am surrounded by Europeans or Americans though I leave the room.)  And even if covering up was okay Asher’s not used to it so the few times I’ve tried that with him he has shown quite clearly that he doesn’t like it. 

I had only one choice.  Nurse him right there.  I had seen a couple ladies in church do it so that emboldened me a bit.  And it was quite natural and beautiful actually.  Obviously exposing that part of your body means absolutely nothing in this culture.  Oh but showing the tummy (and knees) does so I had prepared by wearing a tank top under my shirt so I would, in no way, show anything I shouldn’t.  I also kept my shirt kind of down on me where it wasn’t so “in your face” (so to speak).

And there was nothing to it.  Everyone went right on with their conversations.  The kids went in and out of the room not paying me any attention at all.  They weren’t purposefully avoiding me out of embarrassment.  It is just such a common sight to them that it was nothing to take notice of.  I found this all very amazing and felt good about my choice to nurse him there.  We were done in no time and began eating our lunch.

What a different culture!  It makes nursing children so much easier since it’s so much more common and acceptable (well, even expected).  I am reminded of my favorite nursing book.  I have never read it.  It’s my favorite based on the title only.  “So That’s What Those are For”.  Classic.

Ever since I said I may post sporadically I haven’t missed a day of posting.  I’m totally addicted.  So expect me to keep posting regularly.  (Now that I said that maybe I’ll miss a few days…)  I’m starting to give up the hope of getting settled in (REALLY settled in) anytime soon anyway. 

We are traveling over the weekend into the beginning of next week so that may cut into my postings a bit but maybe not…  We’re going to Dar to pick up the car we got from another SIL couple.  They’re leaving for their homeland of Australia. 

At least it’s the cool season so Dar will not be as miserably hot as usual and it’ll be a break from the cold of Mbeya.  (I never thought I’d want to go to Dar to get a break from Mbeya and I really say all that loosely anyway - trying to find the bright spot for going to Dar.)  And we’ve been making our “bring back from Dar” list since more things are available there.  We may also take Asher for a check-up at the international clinic there.  We have a good relationship with a Swiss doctor there who I frequently email medical questions.  She’s great.

So that’s our story as of now.  We’ll keep you up to date on our travels.  We’re taking a 16 hour bus trip from Mbeya to Dar which should be interesting and not at all comfortable.  But once we get there we’ll have a car and not have to travel that way again unless we just want to (which I truly can NOT imagine). 

I better get to packing.  I’m going to have to be creative and selective.  I don’t want to be bothered with too much luggage on this trip!!

Okay, it’s COLD now!  Yes.  COLD.  I’m not exaggerating!  It gets up about 70 as the high during the day.  (I’m clearly not making my case am I?)  But that means it’s in the 60’s much of the day.  The nights though are when we’re really dealing with the change in weather.  It gets down to 45 right now and you have to remember we have no heating/air system in the house.  We did buy a little space heater in town that we run for a few minutes before bed and a few minutes in the morning to knock the chill off but otherwise we just bundle up.  I’m sad to say I don’t have good clothes for Asher for this weather.  To take him out to Bible study last week I put him in footed pajamas and a jacket and a blanket but I do wish I had brought better clothes for this because he can’t really just stay covered up at night.  I think I’m going to have to start putting footed pajamas and his sleepsac on him together at night.  But it’s only a couple months then is should start heating back up.  Right about the time of year my American mind thinks it should be cooling down.  I guess I should celebrate Fall and Christmas now but it’s just not the same.  And if I hear no football in the background then my mind will know I’m trying to trick it.  Oh the seasons…  I love, love, love Autumn and Christmas and look so forward to that time of year when I can (try to) make pumpkin pie or bread, sugar cookies, and maybe some dough ornaments.  But.  It’s only June so I must keep all that for later and enjoy - um - summer (?) while it’s here.  Now back to the scarves I’m making for Mama and her daughters…