WE ARE IN AFRICA!!!!
Habari gani! Ian and I made it safely to Africa!
In case you had not heard the news, Ian joined me in Africa for the 2014-15 school year.
We are using this as a year to explore different cultures and as such Ian has been enrolled in the local school system, (more on this later).
On our way to Tanzania we spent a few days in Istanbul Turkey, or rather we ate our way thru Istanbul Turkey. This was my second time in Istanbul and I really loved it the first time and thought it was a great place for Ian and I to share in the culture together. Seeing the city thru the eyes of a teen was totally different than the way I saw it the first time. He first noticed all the cats around the city and that people went out of their way to feed them. Goggling this when we got back at the hotel we found out that Prophet Muhammad was kind to cats and so the Islamic people of Turkey are also kind to cats. Who knew!
Where I thought the cultural aspects of Turkey would hold the same attraction to him that it did for me he had a different spin on things. At the Grand Bazaar when I was interested in the rugs and how long it took to weave one rug and the clothing made from felting, he was more interested in the Sultan style knifes, swords and Marilyn Monroe lighter, (of all things).
On leaving Grand Bazaar, Ian and I spent hours wandering the streets looking for the Spice Market, we were completely turned around.
As we are both big tea drinker we ended up spending wayyy too much money on different teas, as we kept smelling and wondering what the tea was gonna taste like. Ian’s favorite so far is the Jasmine tea that blooms into a flower and mine is the Turkish black tea with a dash of pomegranate tea thrown in. At Topeka Palace, I was happily showing him all the beautiful tile work while he was busy imaging what it would be like if he were Sultan and ruler of both the Asian and European sides of Turkey.
On our stop at the famous Blue Mosque, I was chatting him up about the significance of the
mosque while he was commenting on the washing areas and the smell of everybody’s feet. The one thing we did see eye to eye on was TURKISH DELIGHT!!
We enjoyed the taste of these sweet treats so much that we would stop in all the shops that we past that were giving samples of Turkish delight, and there were many! On the first night in Istanbul while our bodies were trying to adjust to the time difference we got up, went wandering the streets to buy Turkish delight to eat in the middle of the night. We were in Turkish delight heaven. We ended up bringing some to Tanzania to share with friends. As we walked along the streets we would stop to sample the foods from street vendors, drinking freshly squeezed pomegranate juice and eating bread that looked like pretzels but Ian said tasted like a bagel. We ate at outdoor café’s the whole time, I loved the lamb and Ian the falafel, and were even lucky enough to witness a wedding taking place with bottle rockets shooting off to celebrate the bride and groom cutting the cake. Totally AWESOME!!!
Time to say goodbye to Turkey and hello to Tanzania.
The first week here we were trying to settle into the house, unpack, adjust to the 7 hour time difference and our two little puppies Lala and Redz, get over jetlag, and start looking into schools.
A pretty big week for us. We did settle on the Kilimanjaro Secondary School. The school uses a Western curriculum approved by Cambridge University in England, and has a school year from August –June, a plus, instead of from Jan-Nov as we had been expecting. Ian unfortunately started school on test week, but it gave the teachers a chance to evaluate him and adjust the classes he needs to take. He has made a few friends so far, and even dropped our plans of Chinese on Friday night, to go hang out with friends.
As if school, making friends and puppies were not exciting enough, Ian has learned how to ride a motorcycle! But don’t worry, he wears a helmet.. I know, to the adult that’s very little consolation. He is actually very good at it and is very proud of himself and can’t wait to give me a ride on the back..which will not be happing any time soon.
Throughout all of this Ian’s biggest amazement about Tanzania are the ladies selling shoes, displaying one shoe on their heads, as they walk through town hands free.
This weekend we went to the village, and Ian got to see the inner workings of a subsistence farm. I think it’s changing his mind about farming which he has long held near and dear to his heart. We were helping the family to take the beans off the field, except the beans are wrapped around the corn stalks so you have to uproot the old stalks, unwrap the beans, throw them in a pile to be bagged and carried back home, where they are put in the sun to dry. The dried pods are beaten with a stick to unshell the beans which are sifted to separate them from the dried crumpled leaves. Ian’s thought was that we would have to buy beans at the market because this process was too much work.
Ian did, however, participate in the chasing of the chicken for dinner.
In our honor the family wanted to kill a chicken to cook for dinner. The catch; after choosing the unlucky chicken it had to be chased down and caught before killing. There were 3 boys running all over the yard and the nearby woods chasing the chicken who knew he was running for his life. Ian joined in the chase. It was something to see all the boys working up a sweat chasing their meal. In the end the chicken was very tasty and we said a prayer in gratitude of it given its life to nourish our bodies.
At the end of the day, tired from our time on the farm, Ian gets a chance to ride the motorcycle for a few miles on the way home. It was wonderful seeing him driving on the left, with the beautiful snow capped peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro on his right, him navigating the streets, the people and the cows and goats. We had a great day out, and to think, this is only our second week here.
