Through the Seasons

Well, I finally had my first bus ride here in Tanzania.  Thankfully, I didn’t get sick on the bus.  That happened during the taxi ride on the way to the bus station.  In fact, the taxi driver wanted to take us to the hospital.  But we made it to the bus station and on the bus with no problems. 

The bus looked well-maintained and the driver looked sane… as far as I could tell… so I was thankful for that.  We sat on the second row and there wasn’t a seat in front of Jonathan so he had plenty of leg room.  The ride is 7 hours long with 2 stops where you get off the bus so that’s really too long to sit at one time but it didn’t end up really bothering us much at all.  The ride really wasn’t as bumpy as it was in the car on the way down.  (The roads aren’t always great.)  The curves still got me (curvy roads have always turned my stomach) and I had to change seats with Jonathan but that was only the last hour and a half of the trip.  Now by then our bodies were really tired of sitting on that bus and I found myself changing sitting positions about every 5 minutes.  I noticed at our last stop of the trip that my feet had swollen a bit too so I loosened my shoes and moved my legs and feet as much as I could.  The swelling went right back down and I ended up being fine. 

The bathrooms here are a bit different but I’m more used to them now so they didn’t bother me.  There are stalls like usual but in each is a hole with porcelein around it that you stand on…hence why they’re called squat toilets.  Then they either flush or there is water you pour into the hole.  There is never, ever toilet paper.  Ever.  So I always travel with a roll.  Always.    The bathrooms sound so different that you may cringe at it (I know I did at first) but they use a similar concept in Europe too apparently and the good thing is that you don’t touch anything.  I really like that part.  Sometimes the bathrooms are very clean and then others are kind of smelly (so you just make it quick).  I have seen bathrooms that were just disgustingly dirty and that really does gross me out (many public bathrooms in America have grossed me out as well) but I used the bathroom at the bus station and at our two stops and all three were clean. 

On the way down we only stopped once and that was on the side of the road.  This was one of my biggest aprehensions when moving here.  And when I did go I kept saying, “This is horrible.”  But I have to say it really wasn’t.  I had a big skirt on that became my bathroom stall walls (and I was far from the road with Jonathan looking out for me).  Also, we were outside so it wasn’t smelly at all and I had my trusty toilet paper with me so really I was all set.  As far as washing my hands…whether at a public bathroom or outside I had to use hand sanitizer until I could get somewhere to wash my hands with soap.  (The public restrooms have sinks but not many have soap.  I have no idea what the point is of simply running water over your hands.) 

One funny thing about culture here is if you’re visiting people at their homes and ask to use the bathroom they’ll ask if you have a big or small intention (like asking if it’s number 1 or number 2).  If it’s small they give you a small cup of water and if it’s big they’ll give you a big bowl/bucket of water.  I’ve never done this but have only heard about it.  I have no idea what these bathrooms are like but the water is apparently to wash things down when finished.  Outside of that I haven’t had that experience yet. 

And now that I’m thinking of culture I have so many things to mention.  But I’ll save it for the future.  Where was I on this bus story?

On the way to Dar we saw impala, baboons, zebra, and giraffe – and got some great photos.  On the bus trip back we were going much faster and the windows are horrible to look out of with the openings being kind of small and blocked by seats but we did see impala, baboons, zebra, giraffe, elephants, and warthogs.  The pictures of those though are few.  It’s crazy to just see these animals doing their thing in the wild.  It makes me think I’m at the zoo.  I want to see hippos but they generally stay in the water and we didn’t pass many water holes close up.  Some have seen lions and cheetahs on the drive from Dar to Iringa but that’s extremely rare – and harder to spot.  Baboons are the easiest as they’re everywhere along the sides of the road – and sometimes in the road.

So that was the extent of our excitement.  The journey was overall very good and we even made it back to the campsite for dinner.  My first bus ride was pretty uneventful…and that’s just fine with me!!

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Jonathan and I have had a wonderful time in Dar es Salaam.  I always tend to give you the down side of things as well as the positive so I’ll go ahead and get those out of the way.  It is HOT and STICKY in Dar and the mosquitoes are BRUTAL.  (Oh and the traffic is horrendous too.)  Otherwise…

Jonathan and I went on a DATE while we were here.  We went to a Western style movie theater where we saw No Reservations.  We ate popcorn and Jonathan had a slurpee.  We had a great time.  (I even wore make-up for the first time since leaving the States.  Oh la la.)  While in Dar we’ve shopped at the Western style stores to pick up a few small things that you can only get in Dar.  I even treated myself to pink nail polish so I can keep my feet pretty. 

The night we arrived in Dar we went to an Indian restaurant with some friends.  The restaurant made us forget we were in Africa, the prices more than reasonable, and the food was delicious!  Yum, yum!

We planned originally to stay in the SIL guest house but friends of ours (fellow SIL members) invited us to stay with them and it’s just been wonderful.  It’s a lot different than being in a banda on a campsite so we’ve enjoyed the break.  And although our hostess says she doesn’t like to cook she does a fabulous job at it so we’ve enjoyed that aspect as well.  (And we’ve actually sat on a couch and accessed internet anytime we want it – except when the service is down – so that’s been a huge treat!)

We’ve also used a lot of our Swahili which has been greatly encouraging.  We really haven’t had any trouble doing the basic communication around town.  We can really see our progress better now that we’ve gotten away from the classroom and just used what we know.  It’s been great…

…and overall a great trip.  (And I’ll never complain about a dry 80 degrees in Iringa again…) 

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We have a break from language school next week so Jonathan and I are going out of town for a few days.  We leave Saturday morning for Dar es Salaam and return Tuesday.  We plan to buy a few things that can only be purchased in Dar (it’s a much bigger city than Iringa).  We also have an appointment on Monday morning for a prenatal checkup and an ultrasound to find out the gender of the baby. 

I’ll keep you posted!  (Pray the baby’s legs won’t be crossed…haha…)

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In our time here we’ve learned that people (in general) don’t like to give negative responses…even if that’s the truthful answer.  Sometimes it’s confusing and other times it’s plain frustrating although most of the time it’s kind of endearing because (and when) you realize the intention behind it.

What do I mean by negative responses?

One morning at breakfast Jonathan and I asked for pancakes and they said “okay”.  We waited for 20 minutes before finding out that they weren’t making pancakes any longer that day.  Why not just say that in the first place?  But they tend to be so accomodating without thinking that in the very near future we’re going to learn the truth.

Another way we see this is when we ask for favors at the campsite.  They will go out of their way to give you what you ask for.  We will ask for something and they will say “no problem” when in actuality it’s a huge problem and inconvenience for them – but they put our request above the effort they’ll have to put forth to fulfill it.  Now that we realize this we’re more careful to ask for anything. 

One of our teachers has a portable DVD player that is broken.  She said she can’t take it to town because they’ll say they can fix it when they really can’t. 

One of our classmates said if you’re looking for a ride somewhere and ask someone if they can drive they’ll say “of course” even if they can’t.  (So something to be really careful of because they’ll try to drive you where you want to go.)  I’ve heard the same goes with directions.  You don’t get many people saying “I don’t know” even when they don’t.

This is definitely a cultural difference that can cause problems and will take a while to adjust to (as much as we can get used to it).

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It seems like it doesn’t take long after posting an update for there to be a need for a new one.  So here goes… I took a “belly picture” at 14 weeks and although I felt I was beginning to show, when I looked at the picture it really didn’t look that big.  I just took another picture at 16 weeks and whoa!  Now I’m showing.  Hopefully Jonathan will post the belly pictures soon.  I haven’t totally outgrown any clothes but the 2 pair of fitted pants I have here with me are snug now and won’t last much longer.  I have non-fitted clothing to go to for a while then I’ll break out the maternity clothes given to me by a friend.  Those will hopefully get me the rest of the way through although I think I underestimated how big my tummy’s going to get.  Yikes. As far as sickness, I’m getting tons better.  I made it to 8 out of the last 9 classes and generally feel much better throughout the day and even when I wake up.  I’m hoping the morning sickness has subsided and continues to do so.  Because of this change I feel I am keeping up with language learning a little better now.  Well, I’m catching up a bit maybe and using it more now than I was.  Also, classes haven’t been quite as hard this week.  We haven’t had a ton of new information and have had the change to practice what we know and what we’re learning.  I think that’s helped.  There have even been instances when we’ve spoken to a Tanzanian and they’ve understood us.  Very exciting! At the end of September, and for the 9^th time since we arrived in Tanzania, we’re moving.  This time we’re going to have our own banda with a stove, refrigerator, and bathroom.  It’s also on flat ground now so no more hiking back and forth which will be very nice!  This banda is probably the farthest from the classrooms and dining room but none of the walk is uphill so we’ll still get exercise without it just being grueling.  It’s a great move and we’re excited about it.  It’s situated right on the river so the view is nice and the bird-watching should be too – lots of opportunity to see Kingfishers out hunting.  In other news, we get a break from language school the first week of October.  We may go to Mbeya a couple days that week to check out the town and possibly even the available housing.  We’ll wait a while to actually make that decision but we do want to get an idea of what the area looks like.  Also that week is our three-year anniversary.  I’m not sure what we’ll do to celebrate but we should be able to make it special.  At some point we’d also like to go on a short safari but we’ll see how things go before planning that one.  There’s a game park very close to the campground and others who have gone have had a wonderful time.   I believe that’s the only thing new going on here.  It’s enough I’d say.  We’ll keep updating you as we’re able!

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Right now it is Wednesday afternoon and we’re getting ready to head to town for the internet café and our ultrasound.  Since our ride home from the doctor last Friday I have only vomited once: this morning.  I put on my shirt and lost it.  I’ve had quite a hard time with all laundry smells.  But other than that I’ve been in the clear.  I think I must have “normal” morning sickness now because I don’t necessarily feel great.  I’m just not actually throwing up.  I still have nausea and now all the tricks I’ve been given actually work where before my body just wanted to throw up all the time so it did – no matter what I did or didn’t do.  So I guess I’m grateful to feel normal – pregnant normal – pregnant with morning sickness normal.  :)  I’ve made it to half of our Swahili classes so far and although I’ve picked up a lot I still feel a bit behind the others.  I’ll keep studying… 

As far as accommodations, we are now living in a wooden banda.  It’s much nicer than a tent and we’re a lot happier here I think.  Every place has its adjustments.  Our banda was recently painted so that smell lingers and is a lot to deal with but hopefully it will continue to subside.  Also, we are quite a walk to/from everything so I just have to take it slowly.  The best thing is having our own bathroom and hot shower.  The banda itself is big and has two separate, locking rooms so we’re sharing it with another couple.  They have a seven-month old boy who provides our morning (and sometimes afternoon) wake-up calls.  Our friends say we might as well get used to it and really it hasn’t been bad. 

Hopefully we’ll get some pictures posted one day soon.  As much as Jonathan usually takes pictures, he hasn’t taken a whole lot since we’ve been here.  I don’t think either of us have found our “routine” yet but one day soon we’ll feel settled in…  The other day we realized that we’ve moved 6 times during our first month here.  That’ll take it out of you!  But we may be in this banda for the rest of our time here and if so that will really help.

Well, we’re off to catch a ride to town.  We’ll update you again soon.

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As I said in my last post (better read it first), the staff at the hospital was amazingly good to me.

One of the things I hate most in life is having blood drawn.  It’s not seeing the needle as much as the thought of veins popping out and that rubber band thing they strap to your arm.  I even hate having my blood pressure taken. 

My IV had to be put somewhere in my lower arm and they had to use that band to try to find a vein.  I knew there was a problem right away because she flipped my arm around a couple times and said something in a strong voice.  I always have these problems.  The lady finally said, “You have little veins.”  Uh-oh. 

They’re trying to find a vein and I’m struggling with the process so I decided to explain why.  I said, “Nipendi” (I don’t like) and pointed to the rubber band thing.  The nurse took it off and then tried squeezing my arm instead.  Not exactly what I had in mind.  The other nurse told her that they need to use the band and she responded in a loud voice, “She doesn’t like it!”  I was like, “No, no!  You can use it.  It’s okay.”  Now you know in the States that would never have happened. 

They finally found their target and tried their best to get the IV set but it wasn’t working out and the more they messed with it, the closer I drifted to la-la land or wherever that is you go when you faint.  They gave up on that one and proceeded to look for another place to poke me.  Before they got very far, Jonathan said, “Anahitaji Coca-cola.”  (She needs a Coke.)  They stopped and said, “Baada [something].”  We just looked at her and she said in English, “Before the needle?”  Oh yeah.  So this nurse left the hospital and went to a store to get me a Coke.  I took a few sips and was fine until the second try.  At least that time was successful.

Each time they were trying to get the IV in I would look away and hum.  They kept giggling about it.  I tell you, African women must be tough.  They didn’t understand my aversion to all this and had no idea I may pass out.  The song I usually sing and the one I started with was “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus” but each time I got to the word blood I lost it.  I just couldn’t think so I started humming “Jesus Loves Me”.  It helped.  J

Let’s just say I hope to have zero IV’s in the future but if I get that sick again (assuming the vitamin B complex helps) I’ll go right back for more.  And I’m happy now to know what to expect in the staff there.  We just couldn’t thank them enough.

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*Warning:  This post is long.  It’s a good story of my adventure though so read on.  Take breaks as needed. 

Okay, it’s time to finally face facts.  My morning sickness is bad, or severe as the doctor put it.  I’ve been on medicine daily for five weeks and still have plenty of bad days.  Even on the good days the medicine itself knocks me out so either way I’m bed ridden a lot.  And if you know what kind of medicine I’ve been taking you know why I’m so tired of it and why I’m sort of glad to be out of it. 

Last Thursday I decided to start trying to manage the sickness with nothing but natural remedies such as eating before lifting my head in the morning, eating frequently throughout the day, and all that jazz.  I had a good day.  Then I woke up at midnight feeling terrible and ended up vomiting every 30 to 60 minutes from then on out.  Jonathan arranged for us to get a ride into the doctor Friday morning at 9:30.

That was the first time I saw the prenatal doctor in town.  He’s fantastic.  He ordered some blood tests to make sure I didn’t have anything outside of morning sickness.  We did the lab work then waited for the test results.  I was still vomiting and so sick I couldn’t sit up.  The staff there was so wonderful and accommodating I couldn’t believe it.  They totally vacated one (of the two) examining rooms so I could lie down.  They even brought me a pillow.  I heard “pole sana” so much on Friday I’ll never forget what it means.  (“very sorry” as in “I feel very sorry for you”… awww…)

After an hour wait the doctor went over the test results with us.  Apparently I’m one of those women who have severe morning sickness called [insert that technical term I forgot here].  So I told him that I just couldn’t continue functioning this way and didn’t know what to do.  Without medicine (of which I haven’t been able to find here) I can’t hold down a drop of water.  He said that what women here do is have an injection of a vitamin B complex.  I heard that same thing in the States before I left so I decided to have that done.  Injection though didn’t mean “shot” like I thought.  It meant IV.  That IV takes 3-4 hours to administer which they were ready to do right then.  Fine with me.  I was miserable.

As we walked to the “Recovery Room” where I had my IV Jonathan called an SIL nurse who has toured that hospital to make sure we were safe getting that done there and she said we were.  When they brought everything into the room we asked for new needles, bags, and syringes (just in case).  They assured us everything was new and we watched them unseal each package so we knew they were. 

That’s when the real “fun” began.  I won’t go into all the details but lets just say I don’t have good veins for IV’s.  But they got it on their second try and I laid there for over 3 hours with the liquid slowly drip, drip, dripping in.  By then it was 5:00 and our ride back to the campsite was leaving.  The nurse said it would be fine to stop there since I had gotten so much in (probably 85%).  After being there for 7 hours, seeing the doctor twice, having blood tests, a urinalysis, and an IV of vitamin B complex, the bill came to about $18.  The interesting thing to us was that you had to pay for each step along the way before actually having it done.  (So we would pay to see the doctor and then see him.  We paid for the lab work then had it done.  Etc.)

So we left and I felt okay as we rode the bumpy, dusty streets back to town but just not great.  I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the afternoon before and it had been a long day.  I held on for as long as I could but ended up vomiting in the car just before reaching the gate to the campsite.  (Sorry fellow passengers!!)  Thank goodness I had my throw up bowl with me.

So right now it is Saturday afternoon and I’ve made it this far with no vomiting.  I’ve been slowly reintroducing food and liquid back into my system and hopefully the vitamin B stuff will work for 2-3 weeks like the doctor said it should.  I hope to never have to have it done again but it beats daily medicine that only half-works.  I’ve heard that when women have severe morning sickness it’s more likely to last the entire pregnancy.  Hardly seems fair, does it?  But we’ll see how this does and go from here.

Sorry I didn’t have any pictures of myself there at the doctor.  I was way too unwell to have my picture taken but now I wish there were some for documentation sake.  It was very surreal to be lying in an African hospital.  (Well we do have ONE picture of me getting the IV but I look way too pitiful.  It’s not quite share-able. )  There are other pictures but after an hour trying to upload them… I give up… for now…

Oh!  And we even got to use a little of our Swahili.  There were moments that we actually communicated what we intended.  Outside of that we were grateful they knew some English.  That’s just not the place for miscommunication!

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Sorry it’s been so long since communicating with you!  We have been sorely out of touch and will continue to be for a while yet.  We are at the campsite in Iringa preparing to begin language school next week.  At the moment I’m at an internet cafe in town (which we don’t get to very often).  The speed of the internet is quite good I’d say and for only about 45 cents a half hour. 

Although I have continued to be sick, I have tried my best to keep up with the schedule.  This has proved to be a bad decision.  Tuesday of last week was my worst yet and even with the medicine I was sick all day long and only managed to keep down a few strawberries.  I have continued to get better since and haven’t gotten sick in a few days now.  I don’t know yet how I’m going to handle language school since all morning long is my worst time.  I’ll do the best I can without pushing myself beyond these new limits of mine. 

So, as for the campsite…  At first we were in a tent and there was a hike to a bathroom that was just grueling on me.  We got to move into a banda with a bathroom but only until this morning when we moved back into a tent but one closer to bathrooms.  If any bandas with a bathroom open up in the future we’re second on the list to get one.

I guess in summary it’s been tough going but the Lord has definitely met us at each moment and gotten us through.  I will be through my first trimester on Friday and will soon go for another ultrasound (at a cost of about $8) to make sure the baby’s progress is still moving along nicely.  With how I’ve been feeling, I suspect he or she is well (one benefit of the sickness I suppose). 

As far as temperature it definitely gets cold here but so far we’ve done well to keep warm.  We’ll see how the temperature is at the new tent.  I have to say I really like our new location the best of anywhere we’ve been so far.  I hope we can just settle in there.  This is our fifth move since coming to Tanzania and I’m tired of saying, “Where is my…?”    The campsite itself and its surroundings are beautiful.  Hopefully now that I’m feeling better I’ll be better able to enjoy it. 

No pictures to post here now.  You can see some on our main website though under “photos”.  At each picture there’s a link to show where on a map the picture was taken.  So enjoy and hopefully I’ll be able to communicate more frequently now that we’re more settled into our location.  Now to figure out how to send cards and letters…

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This morning at the convenience store Jonathan bought 2 Cadbury’s chocolate bars.  This afternoon, after checking the wrapper and finding out it was made in Kenya, I tried one.  Never before in my life have I had bad chocolate but that was truly bad chocolate.  And not like, ‘oh French chocolate was so much better’.  Or, ‘I’m used to gourmet chocolate and this just doesn’t compare’.  Think of the cheapest chocolate you can get in the States.  This is a lot worse.  It really didn’t even taste like chocolate.  I didn’t even know there was such a thing as bad chocolate.  But I’m here to proclaim the news – there is!  I’ve heard you can get chocolate here from South Africa that is pretty good and some from the UK that of course is the best but the most expensive and probably hardest to find.  Worth it?  If I’m going to eat chocolate at all it is!  I’m also glad I still have some chocolate with me that we bought in France.  After tasting the bad chocolate, the good chocolate just blew me away.  Never take that stuff for granted.  Who knew!?

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