Dana’s Avenue

Charlie Brown is the one person I identify with.  C.B. is such a loser.  He wasn’t even the star of his own Halloween special.

~Chris Rock

Well Tuesday it began.  The rains arrived.  Then it rained 2 days in a row!  And now it’s thundering!  Yay! 

We have not had a drop of rain in nearly 6 months so this is welcomed relief from the DUST!  It’s also just nice to see.  I enjoy an afternoon rain storm.  Our real rainy season doesn’t begin until December but we’ll get a bit of rain from now until then.  And then, if I understand correctly, it will rain nearly every day for 5 straight months and by the end of it I’ll be complaining about the mud and will have forgotten how dusty the dry season is.

But for now:  Let it rain, Let it rain, Let it rain…

After a very frustrating time I finally figured out what was wrong with my tummy.  I had…gulp…parasites.  Yuck.  But.  I took medicine and now I’m much, much better.

Now I can go back to the other healthy changes I wanted to make.

First things first.  I want to kick the sugar habit.  I read that it is almost impossible to cut out ALL sugar but I do want to significanly lower it.  One tip I heard was to think of your plate as divided in fourths.  One fourth would be protein, one fourth carbs (the more complex, the better), and then two fourths would be non-starchy vegetables.  And that should be at every meal.  I don’t know how you’d do that for breakfast but I do think instead of doing only carbs I’ll try to add some protein and maybe some fruit.

As far as exercise I’ve noticed that I do fine with exercise if there is a purpose to it.  In Makete I walked every day.  Why?  Because I had to walk to get places.  I think I may try to find somewhere to go as often as possible here in Mbeya - like every day go somewhere:  the market, Jonathan’s office, or a friend’s house.

I’m still in the brainstorming stages but I just want to be healthier.  Sugar is a totally empty food.  Zero nutritional value.  And it can cause health problems.  And it zaps your energy.  And it makes you fat.  And it’s addicting.  And I’m sure I could think of many other reasons to get rid of it.

I took a lot of pictures on the way to Makete and a few while there.  I’m still trying to post the pictures I took on the way back from conference.  When I get back from Nairobi I’ll have more pictures to share so instead of trying to put them on the blog, I’ve created a photo gallery on our website.  Here’s the link:

http://mccalled.com/photographs/0810kinga

It hit me today that it may be interesting to note how much the nice guest house in Makete cost us.  $10 a night.  Not bad, eh?

Jonathan took all the supplies needed to build a studio.  Here are the results.

The pastor we worked with in Makete recommended a couple restaurants and once we found them to be good and clean we stuck with them.  No need to venture out on our own I say.  Not in Africa anyway.

We only took pictures at one of the restaurants.  Here they are.

The front of the restaurant.

There were 2 tables and, yes, a TV.

Translation:

“Black” Tea

Tea with Milk

Fresh Milk

Donut (don’t think Krispy Kreme…think fried bread…)

Bread

Cake

Tortilla

Beef in fried shells

Beef and rice

Chicken and rice

Beans and rice

Beef and Pilau (seasoned rice)

Chicken and Pilau

You’ve got me on that next one

Roasted Chicken

Chicken and Fries

Eggs and Fries

Plain Fries

Soda

No idea on that last one either - something with ugali which is a local dish sort of like - um - a starchy paste.

A little boy holding a piece of candy I gave him and looking at the TV.  There was another little boy there too but he wouldn’t come out because he was so scared of us.  There are some children who have never seen a white person so we scare them. 

We visited the pastor at his house one time and his 2 1/2 year old daughter was terrified of us and would cry and cry and cry.  Sounds funny but it really makes you feel bad and makes you wish you could change your skin color.

Here in Tanzania, a Guest House is a hotel and a Hoteli is a restaurant.  Not sure how they came up with that but there you go.

In Makete we stayed at a pretty nice guest house.  It was new and well built.  At first we were in the first room in the house which meant we were next to the reception area which meant it was loud which meant it didn’t work for us!  So the next day we moved to a room at the back of the house and it was great.  Lesson learned.

To help with the lack of electricity and hot water, they brought buckets of water for each room.  You could use that water to flush the toilet, wash your hands, and whatever else you’d use cold water for.  When you wanted to bathe you’d order hot water and it came steaming so you’d mix it with the cold to get to the right temperature.

The room itself was kind of small and in it was a king-size bed, an overstuffed chair, an armoire that wouldn’t open because of the overstuffed chair…then our luggage.  So it was a tight fit to say the least.

But enough from me.  Here are some pics of the outside.

Oh gosh.  We had such a good trip I don’t know where to begin.  There are lots of questions, right?  I’ll give the details and go from there…

Here are a few FAQ’s:

1.  How far away is Makete?  It depends.  One way is about 7 hours.  We didn’t go that way although that road is the smoothest.  Another way is 6 hours.  That’s the way we went to Makete.  Yet another way, the road we took home, is 4.5 hours.  You just have to decide how bumpy of a road you can handle.  There are no paved roads all the way there so you’re on bumpy, bad, dirt roads a lot of the way.  But it’s so pretty because you climb up, up, up into the mountains.  At one point we brushed just under 10,000 feet. 

2.  What did we eat?  For the journey itself we took nuts, banana bread, pumpkin bread, boiled eggs, and some fruit.  There are no restaurants on the way so you have to pack a lunch. 

There are restaurants in Makete and we frequented 2 main ones while we were there, mainly because we weren’t very adventurous.  Once a place was good and clean, we stuck with it. 

So for breakfast we usually had fried eggs and scones.  A scone there is a piece of bread.  But it was good bread…  Then for lunch Jonathan usually had beef and chips and I had chips mayai which is fries with scrambled eggs cooked over them.  Very good.  Yum.  Yum.  Then at night we usually had rice, chicken, and beans.  For snacks we had those things we took for the journey. 

What I didn’t eat was chocolate.  There was no chocolate there and I took none with me.  They say the first step to conquering a problem is to admit you have one.  Hello.  My name is Dana and I’m a chocoholic. 

3.  Where did we stay?  At a guesthouse which is basically a small hotel.  It was nice really.  It was new, clean, and pretty well built.  The electricity didn’t always work.  There was hardly ever any running water.  The toilet didn’t usually flush.  There was no hot water at all.  The cold air came in through the windows and of course there was no heating system of any kind.  And the room was tiny.  But.  Yeah.  It was really nice.  It really was.  Considering everything.  Let’s just say it’s my idea of camping.

4.  What’s the weather like there?  Cold.  During the day it was pretty nice but kind of cool.  At night and in the morning it was downright cold.  I bundled Asher up a lot and I, myself, slept in socks, 2 pair of pants, and 2 shirts.  Cold, cold, cold.  Oh.  And dusty.  Is dusty a description of weather?  Either way, because of the wind, it was very dusty. 

And the day we left we saw, for the first time in almost 6 months, rain.  We left as it began so didn’t get to really enjoy the shower and it still hasn’t rained a drop in Mbeya as we’re still in the dry season.  The rain should begin here soon.

5.  What did I do during the day?  I took care of Asher.  All day.  All night.  But what do I do here?  The same thing.  The difference is that I know where in the house he’s safe to roam and we have space here that we didn’t have there.  Usually I had him at the room for naps but during long awake times I took him to the office where Jonathan was recording to let him crawl around a bit. 

6.  What are the people there like?  Friendly.  Warm.  Receptive.  Respectful.  I loved the people.  I spent a lot of time working on greetings because of how much I walked.  I usually walked Asher to the office and back at least once a day and passed many people.  I took that opportunity to greet people.  One thing I noticed is that everyone asked about Asher.  That makes me realize that I should always ask about the child when I greet a woman carrying a baby.

What else?  Any other specific questions?  I did take pictures and will post them.  I do have a few stories to tell and will do that later.  Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to know.

The recording went so well this week that we’ve returned early!  After sending a crazy email to our prayer partners I’ll keep this post short and elaborate after a good night’s sleep.  It was such a good trip and I’m so happy to be home (and back online but no I’m not addicted) that I’m totally wired.  But I really need sleep, especially to keep up with a crawling/cruising baby all day tomorrow.  So, with that, I’m off to bed…  Praise God for a wonderful and safe trip!!  (And thank you for praying!)