Vignettes

Early Morning Sights and Sounds
Every morning at 5am the call to prayer comes out over loudspeakers for all our Muslim neighbors in Arusha. It is so much a part of life, I usually sleep right through it.
At 7am, the soft swish of a wet mop in a bucket of water can be heard outside our window as the concrete patio is cleaned of the dirt and dust gathered the day before. Similarly, buckets of water are thrown onto the dirt streets from shop owners to try to control the swirling dirt and dust that is part of everyday life. Every night, I blow a day's portion of dirt out of my nose (thank goodness for cilia!).
I have not broken myself of the habit of daily morning warm showers. The "daily" part is always there. The "warm" is dependent on the electricity and the whim of my particular shower. Some mornings, it is scalding hot and I can only tentatively and quickly stick a washcloth in the water to then use on my body outside of the shower. Some mornings, it is quite cold, so ditto the preceding sentence. And some mornings, the water just stops mid-shower (and usually mid-soaping). I try to take very quick showers!
Life Challenges
The other day I was in the front seat of a dala dala. While we were waiting for it to get enough people on board to leave, I noticed a crippled man crawling by. He had flip-flops on his hands, but nothing on his knees. The lower limbs of his legs dangled at odd angles as he crawled along. He came to a busy intersection, and to my amazement, started to cross the street. I have a difficult time doing this without getting hit, and I am a tall person by Tanzanian standards. I couldn't imagine how he would ever make it across the street. But slowly, inch-by-inch, he managed to get across. The gutter proved to be the challenge for him. It was about 12" high to the sidewalk. He easily put his hands up on the walk, but he struggled valiantly to pull his legs up behind him. He finally succeeded and proceeded on his way. My attention wandered. Five minutes later, I realized he was getting ready to cross the next street in the intersection. I surmise he was crawling to his usual post to sit and beg for the day.

Tom and I visited a village earlier in the week. We went inside a house that could only be called a hovel. It was 8' by 8.' It had a door, but no windows, so once inside it was quite dark except for the wood fire burning off to one side. There was a mattress along one length of the room, the only piece of furniture. The house was made of mud with a few pieces of wood stuck through it to give it some support. The interior walls were completely covered in newspaper from floor to ceiling, I assume as an extra layer of insulation. The man who lives in the house with his wife and baby said that he rents his house, as he cannot afford to buy one.
Traveling Experiences
We were traveling with a Tanzanian friend and needed to get on a dala dala. As we approached the area where the dala dalas wait for customers, our friend was surrounded by young men, shouting, pushing and jostling him to use their dala dala. It started to become unruly, but our friend calmly kept walking. Tom and I got caught up in the melee. I felt a man's hand slip into my jacket pocket. I removed it and slapped his fingers, as a mother to her recalcitrant child. Once inside the dala dala, I told Tom what had happened. He then noticed that his Lutheran Malaria Initiative wristband had been removed and taken. May whoever now has the band wear it in good health and never get malaria!
Colliding Worlds
We were sitting inside Dolly's Patisserie (run by an Arabic family) in downtown Arusha eating a chocolate croissant. I had ordered chai ni mahziwa (tea with milk). I took a sip as I was reading an article by Mahler on my Kindle. I commented to Tom, "This just tastes like milk. I don't taste any tea." "I'm surprised you ordered your tea with milk," he said. "I always have milk with my tea at home," I said, a habit I picked up long ago while visiting England. Tom looked at me and said, "Sue, you are far from home. You are in Africa, thousands of miles away." Yes . . .Kindles, Mahler, chocolate croissants, British tea, Tanzania. . .what a world!

Sue

P.S. We have been without electricity for two days, so I can't afford to use up my computer
battery downloading pictures. Hopefully, next post I will be able to include some!