Electricity

Since we are in the middle of 24 hour power cuts with 12 hours of power between, power is on my mind.  By power I mean electricity. 
    Electricity in Tanzania is different than in America on several levels.

First of all, the power is 220 volts not 110 volts.  Now, I really don't know what that means except to say that you can't use electric appliances from America with the electricity in Tanzania without using a transformer- unless it specifically says 110-220 volts on it.
  
 The outlets are different here.

            The shape of the plug that can fit into the outlet is different.  So, even if your appliance is 110-220 volts, you would have to have an adapter to plug it into the wall.  We usually use an extension cord that has the correct outlets on it.  To confuse things even more, many appliances that you buy here are from China or South Africa which have a different plug again.  So, our house has many types of adaptors.

        Also, there is a power switch on the power outlets.  You can switch off the power at the wall without unplugging the appliance, which is nice. 

     Another difference is that for some reason, all the light switches for the bathrooms are on the outside of the bathroom.
  

The red switch turns the instant hot water heater on both of the showers in our house.  Most people here don't have hot water heaters, but the few that do usually only turn them on a little while before they want to use the hot water to save power.  We have an instant hot water heater that heats the water as it comes of the shower.  Unfortunately, we get shocked if we touch the tap while it is on, so we have to turn on the shower, then the heater, then after our shower, turn off the heater, and then turn off the water.  Something is wrong with the grounding in the house, I think.
      
         Another difference is that there are two types of light bulbs and sockets here:





Pin type light



Screw type light

 

  All the houses we've lived in here, which are many, have had both types of sockets in them.  So, we have to have both type of light bulbs.  Don't ask why.

 

 

    The biggest difference though, is that we are often without power.  It is rare for us to go a week without losing power for several hours.  Right now, they are working on the power grid, so for 10 days we are without power for 24 hours, and with it for 12 hours, and so on. 

     Not being able to rely on power makes you modify things a bit. First of all, I have to have a gas stove/oven.  That ensures that dinner won't be ruined if the power goes off while I'm cooking.  We have a generator to recharge our phones and computers when they run low.  I only let the kids have 1/2 hour of computer time a day, so they are used to entertaining themselves without power.  They really don't notice it if we lose power during the day.  We have candles and kerosene lanterns for nights if we don't want to run the generator. 

     Those are some of the differences between Tanzania and America when it comes to power.  To be honest though, most people here don't have power at home.  So, when there is a power outage, it doesn't affect them at all!

Time

        I am starting to write more on this blog not just about the kids, but also what it is like to like in Tanzania.  People often ask me, "What is different about living in Tanzania?"  The answer is "Everything."  Nothing is the same.  I want to use these blogs to show just a window into life in Tanzania.  When you are in a culture, you are experiencing everything at once: sights, sounds, weather, food, language, people, smells, etc.  I will attempt to discuss one thing at a time.

              TIME

       For starters, there is Swahili time.  And, I'm not talking about being perpetually late (more on that later).  The way they tell time is literally flipped from the way we do.  7 am to them is 1 o'clock, 4 pm to them is 10 o'clock.  Is your mind spinning yet?  It actually makes a lot of sense.  We live near the equator, so the length of days only fluctuates about 1/2 hour all year.  Which means that it is very easy to tell time by looking at the position of the sun in the sky.  Which is what they do.  1 o'clock in the morning, means that the sun has been up for one hour (it is 7 am).  Saa sita (The sixth hour), means the sun has been up for six hours, is right above you, and it's 12PM.  This way of telling time actually makes sense when you think about it.  And, it's how the Israelites told time in Bible times.


         Ok, now onto "African time".  Usually, we can only make one appointment a day, because you are never quit sure when that person will show up.  Our evangelist will often show up two hours late from the time he said he will come.  We learn to expect this, and not to plan too much into one day.  The reason for their lack of promptness has to do with their culture.  If the person has a prior engagement, it would be rude of them to break it off early, or to interrupt the flow of that event to reach you at a specific time.  Once they come, however, they usually will stay and visit for hours.
        Being exactly on time isn't as important as the event, and spending time with people is of utmost importance here. 
       For instance, church starts around 9:30.  That is when the pastor's family and a few others meet in the church and pray and start to sing.  When the neighbors here the singing, it reminds them that church is starting, and they start to get ready.  People slowly come in, and by 10 AM, most people are there.  But, once there, they are THERE.  The service lasts 2-3 hours, including an hour long sermon and an hour of singing, plus a mini-sermon for the communion.  After church, no one rushes off, but everyone stays around for another 45minutes to an hour just talking and catching up. For them, church is an EVENT, not something to rush through.  They enjoy their time together.
            In America, we are notoriously late.  And, I am often shocked at how short the church service is, and how people run off afterwards.  Maybe Tanzania is rubbing off on us.

Food Part Four: Drinks

  My last post about food is about drinks.  One important note about Tanzanians and drinks. They do not like cold drinks.  They believe that drinking cold drinks (or eating cold food for that matter) will give you a cold.   They would think Americas were absolutely crazy to eat cold icecream outside while picking out Christmas trees (which my family has done at Ted Drews in St. Louis). 

                      Ok, so the most common drinks are:

                          Chai (Tea)- Usually drunk with milk and sugar, sometimes masala (mixed spices like cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, ginger, and cardamom) is added for flavor.  Drunk several times a day.

                                                 Mtindi-  A cultured milk drink

                  Of course, there is always water, but often water here is not safe to drink unless boiled, which may be why chai is so popular.
        
    

Coke, Fanta and Sprite are very popular, usually drunk at room temperature from the bottle.  We still use glass bottles here, which are collected and then filled again at the bottling plant here in Arusha.

 

 

 

Many people enjoy coffee... ironically, this is where coffee is grown, and the WORLD'S BEST COFFEE comes from Arusha, but it is all exported.  To buy N'gamba Peaberry, you have to buy it re-imported into the country, so it is a little expensive.  So, most people here just drink Africafe, an instant coffee.  Like I said, ironic.

 

And, of course there is alcoholic beverages, but I won't go there.  That's all for today!

Food Part Three: Snacks

Tanzanians usually will eat something light in the morning, like uji (a corn/milk porridge you drink), left over chapatti (thick tortillas) or sliced and fried ugali (cooked corn meal), or bread and tea; or else they will skip breakfast altogether.  The main meal of the day is eaten anytime between noon and four, but depending on what is happening that day.  That is when they eat what I posted last time.   The evening or final meal is left overs or something light like chapatti or bread eaten right before bed.  Others may eat the main meal at night if they can't be together during the day.

Katrina (front) drinking uji with the other children at language school preschool.

    Since the meals can be up to 8 hours apart, eating a small snack is normal.  School children walking home from school will be seen buying chips or mandazi from the side of the road.  They may have skipped breakfast or had something small, and most schools don't offer lunches so they are really hungry on their way home from school!  They will eat their "dinner" as a family once the family has all arrived home from school, the fields, and any jobs.

           Typical snacks include:



Mandazi- donuts

Roast Corn

Sugar Cane

Dagaa- Tiny, dried fish

Udongo- literally dirt, especially craved by pregnant women

Chips (fries)

Samosa (fried bread with meat or vegetables inside)

Bananas







 

Food Part Two: Meals

Last week, I wrote about food, and this week I am continuing with typical Tanzanian meals. 

 

   Rice and Cabbage (shredded and stir fried with shredded carrots)

 

Ugali (White corn meal boiled until solid) and Spinach (stir fried with onions, tomatoes and carrots)

 

Ugali is the national staple, sometimes made with Cassava flour, a tuber that grows locally.

 

Chapati (a thick tortilla) and beans (made with green peppers, onions, carrots)

 

Rice and Beans

 

Pilau (Beef or chicken cooked together with rice and spices like cinnamon, chilies, cumin, garlic, coriander, and cloves)  Usually the meat is cooked in pieces on the bone

 

Chips Mayai (An omelet made with Large cooked fries) served with salt and chili sauce.

 

Kuku na Chips (Chicken and Fries)

 Fish and Chips (Fries)

 Mishkaki (Meat kabob), chips and salad (shredded cabbage and carrots with vinegar)

 

Supu (Soup- can be made with out with out beef or chicken- potatoes, carrots, and corn

Plantans fried, or they can be cooked into a stew

 

 

Next week, Snacks!

 

 









 

Food!

         I'm going to try to write more about what it's like to live in Tanzania.

This time, I'm going to write about food. Food here is a little different.  Today I'll write about raw food, next time I'll show some of the typical Tanzanian meals.

 

First of all, water.  We can't drink it out of the tap.  And, although boiling water kills the bacteria, etc. that might be in it, it still has a very high fluoride content due to us being near a volcano.  Fluoride can be very harmful to teeth in extremely high amounts, especially for children's teeth that are still growing in.  Their teeth can grow in with a brown line across them.  So, we only drink bottled water that has gone through reverse osmosis- the only known way to remove fluoride from water.

Butter comes in a 1 lb. block wrapped in foil.  MMM, butter!

Tropical fruit, yum!  The bananas come in many different varieties here including small "finger" bananas, red, green (plantains), and huge ones.  I LOVE avocados, and mangos.

For those who don't know, I am gluten intolerant (I can't eat wheat), so I was excited to find rice flour, millet flour, corn flour and tapioca flour here.  Now, I can try some baking from scratch.

Eggs come in a "tray", which contains 30 eggs.  Trust me, we eat about 30 eggs a week.  They are a healthy snack when boiled, and we eat eggs most mornings for breakfast.

We buy UHT (ultra high temperature) milk, which can remain unrefrigerated until opened.  That's how milk comes here because not many people have refrigeration, and it lasts much longer.

 

Back in the swing of things

Our homeschool room

    Today is we have been in Arusha for exactly one month.  It is nice to be back again, in our routine, and in our old neighborhood.  The kids have started homeschool again, Katrina is in 6th grade, Heather 3rd grade, and Jonathan Pre-School.  Jonathan mostly paints, colors, plays with blocks and play dough.  So... WHAT DO I DO ALL DAY??  Good question.

   My typical day is: 
5:30 am- wake up, work out on Wii Fit
6:00am- Shower
6:30am- Bible reading and Prayer
7:00am- Kids get up, and we eat breakfast together
8:00am- We start school with Pledge of Allegiance, and practicing our memory verses.  I might read a Bible story.  I do Vision Therapy for Heather (she is slightly far-sighted).
8:30am-10am- Katrina and Heather do their first 3 subjects. I do vision therapy and Audiblox with Jonathan, then he plays.
10am- Tea break
10:15am- Gym class.  We go outside and play baseball, Frisbee, or jump rope.
10:45am-12pm- Katrina and Heather do three more subjects while Jonathan paints, learns a letter, or plays.
12pm- We eat lunch, usually national food such as rice and beans, or chapatis (thick tortillas) with stew, or cooked spinach with ugali (corn meal cooked until firm).
1pm- Katrina finish their last 2-3 subjects, and then they take turns playing on the computer or the Wii. They each have 1/2 hour of screen time per day.
2pm-4pm- Kids play, I spend time with the kids playing or going on a walk, I catch up on email, Facebook, etc.
5pm- I send the kids out to play.  Their friends are all arriving home on the bus. I start dinner.
6pm- Kids come in and we eat dinner together as a family.
7pm- Kids shower, and get ready for bed.  We might watch a Monk together.
8pm- Kids in bed, night night under the mosquito nets!
9-10pm- Catch up with Bill, watch a show together, and go to bed.
                 Repeat!

      Weekends are times to spend time with friends, watch movies and just hang out at home.
I hope my daily schedule didn't bore you!! 

Some of the friends from the neighborhood

Katrina's creativity

 
      Now that we are back, Katrina is back to baking!  She made me homemade granola, and she made some apple turnovers.  Both recipes, she made up on their own.  Very creative, and good!

Back in Arusha again!

We're back!

 

 

 

We are getting settled in again, after our 1 year and 4 month furlough.  It's SOO good to be back.  We are staying in the same compound we lived before, and the kids have meet their friends again.  It's wonderful to meet up with our friends and ministry contacts again.

   We first flew into Nairobi, and spent two nights there before taking a 5 hour bus ride down to Arusha.  It took a taxi and a taxi-van to get us and our 15 pieces of luggage to our house.  We slept the first night in our house, and have been unpacking and getting organized ever since!  We started school the Wednesday after arriving- the kids were eager to get started again.  It's slowly starting to feel like home again.

     We don't currently have a vehicle, so I've been hoofing it!  I walk almost everyday, usually to the nearby fruit stand to get some veggies for dinner or other small things.  If we need to go into town, we have to hire a taxi, so we try to limit out trips and do lots of things at once.

     We went to Moshono Christian Church yesterday, and were very blessed to see everyone again.  I feel blessed to be here.

 

 



They put a playground in at our compound while we were gone.

The view of Mt. Meru from our house.

3 weeks to go

Now that we are down to the last three weeks, and are up at Bill's parents with all of our luggage, it is time to finalize what we are taking, weigh the bags, and list what is in each bag.
     
   I wonder what I'll forget this time?   Every time I move, we usually lose something.  And, every time we have gone to Tanzania, I have forgotten something crucial. 
  
  For example:
My computer power cord
My purse
Our toiletries

So, I wonder what I'll be missing, or have forgotten when we get there??

40 days and counting...

We won't be seeing any snow for a long time!

  This summer has just flown by, and I can't believe it but we have purchased tickets and we are set to return to Tanzania Sept 9th.  That is 40 days from now!  But, no pressure!!  Haha...
   Ironically, we are mostly packed to go already, because when we moved out of the apartment we just put the things we wanted to take back with us into tubs and have now taken those up to Bill's parents (we will be flying out of Chicago, from their house).  So, we feel really prepared. 
     TOO PREPARED!  Now, what are we supposed to do?  It's a waiting game now.  The ACM meeting is next week, then we will be visiting family and friends as much as possible before we head out.
    Bill was able to find a house for us while he was on his short trip, so we will be going straight into our house (or at least shortly after we arrive).  That will be nice, as I'm hoping to get back into our routine/homeschool schedule as soon as possible.  All of our homeschool books and most of the materials are already waiting for me over there, thanks to the Connect Christian Church team.

    Getting excited!
         

Moving Time

The family at our Lincoln Apartment.

 

 Well, we are packing house once again.  It seems like we do this a lot.  The packing can be frustrating, but it's the good byes that are hardest.  We've made some good friends while living here in Lincoln.  I'm a bit surprised, and grateful because last furlough we didn't make any new friends.
  
  As of next Tuesday, we'll be officially moved out of this apartment, and between then and when we arrive at our house in Arusha in early September, we're "between homes".  This is one of the hard parts of missionary life, the transition period.  I wish we could just magically "be there", in Arusha, in our new house, unpacked and ready for our next term on the field. 
   
   I am going to miss a lot about living in Lincoln: our friends, our church, the girls' school, conveniences, smooth roads, parks to name a few. 
   Onward to the next adventure!

Summer is Flying By!

Wow!  This summer has been non-stop for us, and it isn't going to get any slower before we return to Tanzania.
       We started with a week of camping with my parents.

 

 

 

   After that, Heather got to go to horse camp, and she won two blue ribbons!

 

 

 

Then, we had VBS at Hebron Christian Church.  So fun!

 

Halfway through the week, Bill left for Tanzania to lead a short term group from Connect Christian Church.

 

 

From there, the kids and I went to visit Bill's sister in LaGrange, IN.

 

After that, the kids and I returned to Lincoln, IL for their VBS.  (Sorry, I didn't take any pictures!)

 

 

Then, I dropped Katrina off at camp...

 

        ...while Jonathan, Heather and I went down to my parents for a week.  While there, we went to the Magic House with friends...

 

 

 

     ...to the zoo with my brother...

 

    ...and to the Botanical Garden with my parents.

 

 

   We then returned to Lincoln to pick up Katrina from camp.  Now, I'm packing up the house, and preparing to pick up Bill from Chicago... He'll be home in less than a week!!

          That is our summer so far!