MASSIVE UPDATE TIME Pt. 2: a new year [January]

Although I still hadn't started teaching yet, January consisted of….a lot!

The school had a big celebration for their 10th anniversary. As the one in possession of a camera, I was designated the official photographer for all of the festivities. Two days we cleaned (CLEANED!) the neighborhood up and down, from cutting down brush and hoeing up rocks and weeds to picking up fossilized trash buried in mud in the middle of the road. A lot of gross and hard work, but it was a blessing to the community as well!

Also in honor of the anniversary, one day we went to a nearby orphanage to bring them a bunch of supplies. I was super excited because this was the first time I had been able to go to an actual orphanage…as I expected, as soon as I got there I never wanted to leave…I could see myself giving up anything to stay and love them, they were so precious and in need of love…

this baby was found abandoned at a bus station when he was 2 months old.

It was over WAY too quickly… But several of the orphans who go to the school came along on the trip, so at least I got to still be with them as I was torn away from the others!

After meeting up with my parents and my brother Alex in Ethiopia to meet our new adopted brothers, Zerihun and Melaku (will write about that later!), Alex flew back to Tanzania with me to visit for a couple weeks. First time to see my family (or anyone from home) in 4 months!

The first day he was here was my 22nd birthday (and my "golden birthday"? never really understood the importance of that…someone clue me in…) -- probably the most uneventful birthday ever :) Except for skyping with my boyfriend James and my friend Edwin surprisingly giving me two gift-wrapped Kit Kat bars at worship practice! Super sweet. Although the next month, though, my fam had a big belated 'birthday dinner' for me, with fabulous food, and invited people over…really nice of them!

I took him to the school (which had just opened, although I wasn't teaching yet) a few times to play with the kids. Of course a new mzungu creates quite a stir. We sat in the baby class during their snack time, taught the 4th graders how to play Heads Up Seven Up, and Douglas taught him Swahili vocab, quizzing him on it periodically throughout the day.

One day we took a 3 hour bus ride (make that 5.5 hours if we include the 2 1/2 hours sitting on the side of the road with a flat tire…) out to a town called Babati to visit the child the our family sponsors with Compassion International. His name is Alex (originally Juma, but changed to Alex when he was baptized in honor of my brother Alex, whose birthday is one day away from his!). I loved meeting them and wished we stayed longer… just knowing Swahili and their culture well enough to immediately connect with them was so cool. I relish destroying their expectations of what Americans are going to be like :)

We each planted an avocado tree that they had bought in our honor…that was a first!

We also spent a couple mornings clearing out one of the overgrown yards up at the orphan house. Well, the first time was a fail because Alex's started like fainting all over the place from heatstroke…so he'd be laying face-down on the other side of the yard groaning and I yelled, "Tired?" and he's like "Uhhhh…I felt dizzy…I think I'm gonna throw up…I'm seeing black spots…" And I throw my rake down, "Alex! We're going home now! We're gonna go check if you have malaria!" And he's like "No Lindsay! No!! I'm FINE!" He tries to get up and pick up his hoe and go back into the scorching sun, so I steal his hoe with much protest and he begs me with much sweet-talk to give back the hoe like it's his bag of crack.

I'm like, "How long have you been feeling sick?" 

"Oh, just like 5 days…since I got here…" 

"FIVE DAYS???!? Why didn't you tell me!!!?" 

"It wasn't that bad!"

"I'm not giving you the hoe!!!"

I thought I kind of understood boys after all these years with them… but I don't understand Alex.

see the determination...

The second time was better and we got a lot done. Mostly with the help of whistle-while-you-work Seven Dwarfs-type songs we'd make up, like:

I've been workin' in the garden

All the live-long day

I've been workin' here with Alex

Just to get these weeds away

Don't you feel the sun a-beatin'

Making your face so red?

Don't you wish that you had slept in?

You'd still be in your bed 

And then Alex would chant some Army Ranger running hoo-ah type song that I'd have to echo… 

A-! (Army!) 

R-! (Ranger!) 

M-! (Men!) 

Y-! (Yankee Doodle!) 

R-! (uh…Ranger!) 

A-! (…Army?) 

N-! (Never Give Up!) 

G-! (…Give Up!) 

etc etc

Halfway through, I actually got a call from the orphanage administrator saying the neighbors called him complaining about the noise…oops.

One day before he left we went to a nearby conservation forest to hike and go boating. Super peaceful and relaxing and informative, except for the part where they failed to clarify me that the boats cost 10 times more than I heard their broken English say. ($17 and $70 sound dangerously similar in Swahi-nglish)

Other January highlights: 

- Going on an hour-long epic quest with Miriam at dusk to find four escaped chickens, carrying one under each arm on the way back (read: I'm carrying TWO perturbed winged animal at the same time, trying with no free hands to balance on a rickety pile of roofing beams and wooden planks in negligible lighting). I've never physically touched a chicken, so hugging one was a new experience. 

- Started leading worship in Swahili in church every once in a while! They always want to give me the English songs to lead, but that usually ends up with the congregation miraculously losing the ability to sing and just staring at me, so I told them the English songs are more accessible if one of their own countrymen sing it themselves! Want to see?

for other pictures, you can go to my most recent Facebook photo album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2803358&id=838965&l=47d7c6840c
and other pictures with my brother Alex: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2790420&id=838965&l=6287b5d9d3