Jackson's 8th Birthday

It's Jackson's birthday! We had hoped to go to Chemka Hot Springs to go swimming for his birthday, but he had a soccer tournament that weekend and the weather wasn't great, so we'll try to do that another time.  However, an 8th birthday cannot pass uncelebrated, so we met at AIM mall after he'd finished his soccer games that day for a late lunch and cake.  

Above: lighting the candles! An 8 candle and a big sparkler candle, so he's sitting well back!

Below: opening my gift.  I didn't have any nice wrapping paper, unfortunately. 

In Tanzania, the birthday person cuts the cake and serves it to their guests, and he's finally old enough to be able to mostly manage to cut the cake himself. 

Enjoying lunch...David and Fibi (Jackson's aunt and uncle, and my coworkers at Alpha Omega) and their son Kendrick, and Emmy sharing some fish (her favourite!) with Uncle David. 

Jackson's choice for lunch was a star pizza from Bravo.  It's a stuffed crusts with pepperoni and cheese inside, with french fries served in the middle.  It's one of his favourite things to order for special occasions! 

Blue Skies over Arusha

In a nice break from the clouds of the rainy season, we had beautiful blue skies as we ran errands and shopped in Arusha today.  Above is the clock tower, which is one of the main landmarks in the city.  The clocks are sponsored by Coca-Cola and have the logo on them if you look closely (which you probably can't in this picture). Nothing too special about this day in Arusha, but it was such a nice day that I took some pictures, so I'm sharing them here. 

Below: we stopped by a electronics repair shop that a friend of a friend runs, but unfortunately he could not save Beth's phone. :( 

We finished our day eating at the new Chinese restaurant near the grocery store, which is always a treat.  I enjoy cooking, but I'm not that great at Chinese food.  A former student, Isack, met us there as Beth had some books for him; I think it was his first time eating Chinese food, but he enjoyed his chicken fried noodles. 

 

Relaxing with Friends during the School Holiday

It's our Easter break here, so we don't have school for two weeks.  It's still not a great time to travel, so I'm staying around here for this break.  On Monday, I went along with Beth, David and Fibi to take the kids to AIM mall to play in the new play area.  They needed an adult to supervise them, so we sacrificed David and we women went to get coffee/ice cream etc.  I also brought my laptop so I could get some work done there in the city where there's better mobile service and occasionally even wifi.  

We had a good time relaxing, especially since it was a beautiful sunny day, unusual in the rainy season.  

The clouds were beautiful driving home just before sunset! 

 

My New Favourite Chinese Restaurant!

We have a new Chinese restaurant in Arusha, near Shoppers, the grocery store we go to all the time.  I know this might not seem that exciting, but we don't have that many options here of different cuisines.  There's a Chinese restaurants at AIM mall, but it's not very authentic, and there's one on the other side of town, but not easy to get to on a regular basis.  This one is right in the area we always go to, and it's really good!  Definitely the most authentic Chinese food I've had since moving here!  Today I got spicy cauliflower (that is actually spicy!) and Sichuan chicken.  It made me miss by days in Wuhan a bit. :) 

On the way home, we had a beautiful sunset!  

 

Another Saturday in Arusha

February 27th was a beautiful Saturday with bright, clear skies (definitely not a guarantee this time of year, as rainy season is getting started).  The picture above is looking down my road from my front gate.  I went to Arusha with Beth and Emmy to run errands and do some shopping.  Emmy got a lollipop at one point as we were running errands downtown.  She loves to see if they will turn her tongue different colors, and this one definitely did!  I took a photo so she could see it since we didn't have a mirror.  I told her that now her tongue matches her dress. 

I needed to get new keys made for the school library and a few others things, so I spent a while waiting at a roadside key fundi waiting for them.  This is one of the main roads downtown, a block or so over from the main market.  

While shopping downtown, Emmy found these giant tulle bows on a head band, and Beth let her get one.  She enjoyed looking like Minnie Mouse in such a big bow! I got this photo of her when we finally stopped to eat something-between-lunch-and-dinner at AIM mall after we finished our errands for the day.  

One the way home, we turned onto the Monduli road at just the right time of day (between about 5:30 and 6:30 in the afternoon) and it was a clear enough day that we could see Mt. Kilimanjaro briefly beyond Mt. Meru before we went far enough that Meru blocks our view.  Only on the clearest days is Kilimanjaro visible this far away--nearly 100 miles away.  It's hard to see in pictures, but if you look to the bottom right of Mt. Mery, just between the mountain and that biggest bush, you can see the snowy peak in the distance. 

While it's not the dramatic shape of Meru or Kilimanjaro, I think our Monduli Mountain is beautiful, too, especially in the afternoon light as we drive home. 

 

Chinese Food for Valentine's Day!

On Monday night, I left work a bit early to go to Arusha with Beth and Tizo. I really needed groceries, and due to other stuff going on throughout the week it didn't look likely that there would be another chance.  While in town, we were supposed to meet some friends of Tizo for dinner at an Indian restaurant, but it turned out that the friends couldn't make it and the Indian restaurant wasn't open.  So, instead, we went to a Chinese restaurant that they like to go to for special occasions, since it was Valentine's Day.  I hadn't been to it, and I love Chinese food, so it was a fun outing.   

Emmy was so cute that day with her hair in puff balls!  She's getting so big! 

Below: sizzling chicken!  One of the things that I don't like about life in Monduli is the limited restaurants in a small town; the few we have are only Tanzanian food.  Previous to this, I've lived in big cities for all of my adult life, and even Columbia has quite a variety (Mexican, Chinese, Italian, etc.), so I miss having a variety of places nearby.  Arusha has quite a few options, so I really enjoy it when I get to try a new place there! 

Dust Storm!

I was teaching form three this afternoon when the wind started blowing.  Now usually, a bit of wind wouldn’t disturb us; it’s often a bit windy here at our campus on the hillside.  But the wind was rattling the windows and bending the trees, enough that the students started to glance over their shoulders at the windows behind them a bit nervously.  A strong gust blew right in the open windows, and the students scrambled to gather papers that were blown off their desks and shut the windows. 

Within a few minutes, the wind blew in heavy clouds, darkening the day considerably.  But these clouds were an odd color, with a sickly yellowish tinge, and low.  They cast an odd enough light that my class was rather derailed for a few minutes as everyone commented on the odd clouds and fidgeted nervously.  Finally, after nothing further happened for a few minutes, I told them that if we died, they would die having learned a bit more grammar, so sit down and be quiet. 

The odd clouds grew an even deeper yellow-brown color as the wind continued to gust, but by the time class was out twenty or so minutes later, the worst seemed to have passed and the clouds were lightening to closer to their normal gray.  I caught a picture of the last of the dirty clouds as I walked back to the library. 

We later heard that it had been a huge sandstorm, and we had only caught the very edge of it.  Friends in Kisongo (thirty-minute drive away) and out near Kilimanjaro sent pictures; at the Arusha airport, the clouds were so thick and full of dirt that you could hardly see the planes!  I’ve never seen anything quite like it and judging by my students’ reactions, it’s not too common a thing here in Monduli, either. 

Here are a few photos from other people: 

The clouds coming up from the valley towards the school campus; I couldn't see this angle from the classroom, but another teacher took this photo. 

The storm passes over the Arusha airport.

This photo was all over the news--someone took a photo from a plane of the storm passing Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Arusha Errands

Another trip into Arusha on a day I don't teach any classes...Beth and I ran errands both for ourselves and the school, stopping by the bookstore for supplies and the eye doctor to pick up students' glasses that had been repaired before doing our own grocery shopping. 

Emmy and I hung out in the car during one of the errands when just Beth ran in.  

Errands in Arusha

This term, I don't have classes on Thursday, so that's generally the day that I go with Beth and Michela, and whoever else needs to go, to Arusha to run errands and go grocery shopping.  Today, we had a few unusual errands, so here are some pictures of our day. 

First, we needed to go out to the Kahindi Mechanic Shop, where one of the Shorts' cars is being worked on, to check on the progress.  The road out to the mechanic passes by a small quarry where rock is dug up and turned into gravel.  The gravel is made the old-fashioned way--there is no big grinder, just some people sitting around with hammers beating the rocks into smaller and smaller chunks to earn a pittance for the gravel they produce.  

After finishing at the mechanic, we headed downtown to buy vegetables at the big central market.  While we were down there, I stopped by a roadside stand to have more library keys and an extra set of keys for my house made. 

Next, we we to the home of Ali Shariff, and Indian expat who runs a hair salon out of his home.  Well, half the week he works out of a space he has at Sable Square, a shopping center in an area with a lot of expats, and half the time he works out of his home salon.  While there are salons (well, 'saloons', someone got the words mixed up decades ago and it stuck) everywhere, he's the only one we've found who caters to non-African hair. 

He's quite a character.  He loves animals; he has a couple of cats and a whole pack of small fluffy lapdogs running around the place.  Around back, there're several cages with all sorts of exotic birds.  He also has a set of concrete zebra statues in his front yard.  Emmy liked the baby one, but was rather scared of the adult-sized one.

We ended the day at the TFA Plaza, where our favorite large grocery store, Shoppers, is.  While there, we stopped by Rachel's Fabric Shop.  She has an amazing selection of kitenge fabrics, especially batiks.  We also used to have clothes made there, but the seamstress we liked went on maternity leave and none of us are impressed with the work of the new seamstress.  It's fun to look around there, but I'm always tempted to buy more fabric than I really need.  Today, I looked through some of the ready-made dresses they had, and I found one I really liked.  I probably wouldn't have picked this color scheme if I was starting from scratch, but it's different from anything I already have and will match well with a jacket and a scarf that I already have.  So, I have a new dress.  :)