A TZ Thanksgiving

My Thanksgiving didn't start with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. My Thanksgiving started with a bajaj bumpin' Eminem's latest single and passing Maasai warriors on the street.

Erin and I went to Dyan and Steve Larmey's house, where we celebrated with 29 other folks and gorged ourselves on turkey (white meat, hooray!), stuffing (delish), sweet potatoes (yes, I know!), REAL cranberries, and even a few pies. All day it didn't feel like Thanksgiving (um, hi, I went to school and taught), but I kept sharing joyful "Happy Thanksgiving" wishes to all my fellow Americans on campus. Tonight, I was blessed by the Larmey family with a true-blue Thanksgiving meal (minus Gramma's epic shrimp cocktail, of course), and I am thankful for the fellowship I was so lucky to experience. Americans, Tanzanians, Brits, all were most welcome (karibu sana), and it was amazing to meet many new faces for the first time and still feel like we were, for this night, a family.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the ones I love back home!! Miss you Gordons, Grovers, Partches and Bechters! (And Hollingsworths across the miles!)

Erin and I in the Eminem-enhanced bajaj.

Table for 31?

God gave me a little nudge of home when I saw we all had nameplates. <3

A Larmey family thankfulness turkey. It reminded me of the one we have at home. I made it when I was little and labeled every feather "fether."

Erin and me before dinner.

Mary and me. She lives on the compound, too, with her husband who's the school's sports coordinator. They coach swim together.

Turkey anyone? Erin, Dyan and me.

Apple pie and pumpkin pie. Post feast, I had only enough room for one bite of Erin's slice of pumpkin pie.

The bird.
(Notice the African drums in the upper right corner.)

My place at the table. My nameplate turkey-shaped cookie is orange, just above my plate.

About to sit down to dinner.

Dyan and me.

Marmalade!! The Larmey family's pet goat. I finally got a photo of her! She's on the first-floor patio railing.

Forgot to wear this over to dinner! Took a photo and wore it around my room when I got home. Oh, Target dollar bins.

My right leg in its pink-spotted glory. My body total is up to 21 bug bites today. Happy Thanksgiving!! Haha

Feeling especially grateful for my supportive family and boyfriend and for God's daily presence in my life. I couldn't do any of this without them.

Much love,

LG

Wet Clothes & Cold Showers

I've been in Dar a month and a half now and I'm beginning my transition/adjustments all over again. I just moved last Saturday and now I'm living with Erin and Kate in the Twiga house. (All the houses on the compound have names.) My room is upstairs and I have my own bathroom attached to it (and a small balcony patio, too). After living with my parents and sister for 27 years, it's amazing that "my first place" is half a world away. God sure had a plan. There were numerous times I thought I would move out of my parents' house in Cali: when I was 18 to go away to school at San Jose State University, then later when I thought I'd transfer from CSUF to finish college at SJSU, then once I landed my first full-time job, and even later when I had other full-time work. None of those situations panned out for various reasons, but looking back on my life I see how every corner I turned has led me to living here in Tanzania. The steps I didn't get to take toward living on my own before were actually steps toward living my life here. I'm supposed to be here and I'm supposed to be here now.

That sentiment is one I hold to on days when I feel frustrated or lonely or weird. For the past few days I've been feeling like I felt the first couple of weeks here. The move has created the sense of starting over from the beginning. I shared that with Dyan, an awesome woman who leads YoungLife Africa, and her insight was very encouraging: You've been through this beginning stage of adjustment before, so what would you do differently this time around? She was right. It isn't new territory since I've been at this point of adjustment before. I've been keeping her words in mind.

Every day, throughout the day, I try to find things to be joyful about. It helps me feel better overall, no matter what might be on my heart or mind at any given moment. It is amazing at how many opportunities there are to be thankful for things big and small. Thank you, God, for the afternoon breeze so the air isn't so stifling. Thank you, God, for the invitation to go out with a friend so I don't go stir crazy. Thank you for cold showers on hot, sticky days. Thank you for the food in the staff lounge on the day I only brought oatmeal for lunch, and thank you for helping me cross the busy street. Thanks, God, for helping me to recognize the good things happening around me, like the fact that I now have my own room where all my belongings are finally unpacked from my three suitcases.

The first morning in the new house I woke up to the first rainy day since I've been here. Heavy rain, and it was awesome. How refreshing and what a sense of a clean start. That was a Sunday morning, so I immediately wondered what it would be like to walk to church (down the street at school). The rainy season is something I'm extremely curious about, and there it was: a test run. Marie, Erin and I walked to church in the rain (real rain, not SoCal sprinkles LOL) and luckily I borrowed Erin's extra rain jacket. Nevertheless, the bottom half of my skirt was soaked by the time we reached our seats for the service. My shoes were wet but my soaks were amazingly dry, so that was great. It was really cool to sit in the open-air gym and hear the rain pelting the tin roof and watch it come down in sheets out on the soccer field in front of us. What a TZ church experience. What a memory.

It's amazing to me how my wet clothes didn't bother me at all. I think it's because I know God is with me, helping me deal. I go into a lot of situations with the heart and mindset of "that's just how life is here," which helps me not feel surprised or overwhelmed with many things. A common phrase is "T.I.A." or "This is Africa," and I try to have that resonating in me as often as possible. I try to keep it consistently in mind, using it as a proactive idea rather than reactive. That has helped me see joy in things or handle situations here a lot better. God has been blessing me with feelings of comfort and confidence in various ways, so I'm just going to keep on praying for those! (And good health and safety :) )

I still take it one day (or two) at a time. I'm most excited for my family to come visit. I keep thinking of how life outside the compound will look through their eyes: crossing the insanely busy road to school, riding in a bajaj, shopping at the outdoor market, buying items at the dukas (shack shops), watching a little boy herd his goats down a dirt road, seeing a maasai warrior walking along the street right past people wearing jeans and T-shirts. Inside the compound, at my house, I think about how they'll feel about hearing the blaring music from vehicles driving by, experiencing the electricity going out randomly, listening to the Muslim prayers being played from a speaker on the street, using bottled water to rinse their toothbrushes, showering with a silent shower, seeing ants (of varying sizes) around, and hearing the cows moo outside like they're doing right now. They're mooing a lot today. Doesn't that mean aliens are coming or something when the cows start mooing? Where in the world am I getting that from? Hahaha I have no idea.

Anyway... LOL... School keeps me very busy during the week, so that is good. Felt a little overloaded this week, but it's all coming together. Today (Wednesday) we have the day off because it's a holiday (Eid). There is a lot I need to do for school (i.e. prep for the upcoming poetry unit), but it's nice to be able to have the whole day open and work from home at my own pace. It's fantastic to have all my stuff out of my luggage now. I'm even listening to my CDs for the first time since arriving (first one: Third Day's "Offerings II"). Ah, a sense of home. The walls here are tough and need special hooks, so I'm on the lookout for some so I can make my bare white walls lovely. It was fun to go through all the special items I brought with me, like warm fuzzies from friends written at my goodbye party and past birthday cards that have special notes in them. Some of the items, especially pictures, seem like they're from a lifetime ago, but they make me feel so good.

Pictures from the school's International Day and from our housewarming party are coming soon. They're already uploaded on the computer, so it's only a matter of finding internet strong enough to not take five hours to post online!

Love and hugs to all,

LG

Mondays with a Grain of Salt (or, I Am Not a Snack)

A real update is coming soon. For now, I will say life is going OK. The move should be taking place this weekend, with a housewarming party from HOPAC's Staff-Parent Association taking place Saturday evening. More info on life here soon. :)

But, to ensure my new posts aren't few and far between, here is a fresh one just for you. Behold two mantras I have adopted here in Dar:

Take Mondays with a grain of salt
I've noticed on the past two Mondays I've been a little frustrated at school because of little things. My email's not working again. The last class (not mine) left my classroom a mess. I have to walk to the admin building a few too many times for various tasks. My whiteboard markers are ridiculously faint. My laptop's Microsoft Office program hates me. I have to play musical computers to order a print job, which in itself requires I move files onto my USB flashdrive. Oh, et cetera, et cetera. Even a British/Western-influenced school in Tanzania functions differently than an average school in the U.S., and it's on Mondays it seems I have to readjust myself all over again to this fact. By Tuesday, I'm OK; it's just Mondays.

After talking to another new teacher, who agreed she experiences the same "Monday frustrations," I realized that (A) hooray I'm not alone, but (B) more than that I have to take Mondays with a grain of salt. And not just on campus, but even when I come home after being slightly irritated at school. I have to remember once I leave HOPAC on Mondays that I shouldn't get upset about anything that might happen later that day (i.e., homesickness/entrapment freakout LOL). Of all days, Monday is the day I have to plan for indulging myself. Watching four back-to-back episodes of "The Office" on dvd? Sure. If that's what it takes to unwind and bring the day to a sufficient end. A new day will dawn (praise God for Tuesdays), so I just gotta take Mondays with a grain of salt.

I am not a snack
Oh, bug bites. You sure are fun. I was so proud of myself the other day because my bite total was... zero! Yet the next day I got a few and the day after that four more in one afternoon. (A mosquito HAD to be hiding under my desk. I didn't have those four bites on my lower leg when I got to school that morning!) The worst of it, really, is that they seem to LOVE my joints. With my current tally, all but four are on joints. Oh, and the ones on my feet are seriously the worst. I wake myself up in the night itching my feet in my sleep.

But back to the joints. In the last week, I have had bites on each big toe's knuckle, one on the knuckle of my toe next to my big toe, one on my knee, one on my elbow, and one the knuckles of both my pointer fingers. What is the deal with these jointy areas?! Anyway, I've been perplexed by the mosquitoes' desired sweet spots, so I had to share. When scratching the four bites that align down my leg (a four-inch linear display of pink spots between my knee and my ankle), I decided I should have a shirt that has a mosquito in a red circle with diagonal line through it that reads "I am not a snack." Indeed.

LG