recent conclusions

A quick blog because I'm running on low battery power!

It is day #11 without power in Zanzibar. "Labda kesho" means "maybe tomorrow" and is what I've been hearing about when the power will come back. I'll be thrilled if it is back on when I return from climbing Kilimanjaro with my Mom. We'll see...

here are some updates/conclusions about life here:

1. there is no maroon paint on the island of Unguja. I've been to every single paint shop in town, and after asking me a bunch of questions trying to specify which type of paint I want (water or oil based? dark red? stop-sign red? reddish brown? floor paint? wall paint? outdoor? indoor?) they tell me they don't have any. When I try to back up a step in this decision-tree chain to try the other option, they still don't have it. I say I don't care if it's indoor, outdoor, oil, water, floor, wall, automobile or fingerpaint. There is no maroon paint. Why is this? Well, last week the one store that mixes paints to make custom colors had a generator. This week, there is a diesel shortage and the manager decided that it was too costly to run the store with a generator. Thus, no maroon paint for our office until the power comes back. ughhhhh. When I finally arrived at that one machine mixing paint store, the painting expert guy wasn't there. He was at the mosque praying. I waited about a half an hour before finding out that there was no way to get maroon paint.

2. the rules are negotiable: I don't have a residency permit yet, but I finessed my way into getting a resident's rate airplane ticket to fly to Dar es Salaam tomorrow afternoon to meet my parents and younger sister at the airport (SO EXCITED TO SEE THEM!!!!). I suppose it's a sign that my Swahili is getting better, or that my butt-kissing techniques are improving. Maybe both, because I seem to have to do both on a daily basis.

3. Men here are direct. I have never been asked if I'm married so frequently in my life than in these past few months. Within the first conversation you have with a guy here, he'll ask you if you're married (if you're a girl). My new excuse is that I have too much work right now to get married. Men half laugh at my response, and half give me a look of pitiful horror that a woman would choose work over a life as a wife. While there are so many trashy chick flicks that contain conversations between women about how they wish men would be more clear about their motivations in a relationship, I don't think this level of directness would satisfy those women . Anyway, our mosquito net fundi (the guy who makes them for us) apparently has a crush on me. My friend joked that he "wants to see the inside of my mosquito net." haha. oieeee. I think not.

4. Waking up early isn't so bad.... as long as you go to bed early. I've been waking up between 4 -6 am this week because I'm the only one in the house, and I go to bed soooo early. I get tired in the night working by candle light. I've been getting up to go on runs before it gets too hot, because during the night you cannot see anything at all (there are no street lights due to the power outage!). I would probably run into a telephone pole, tree, or stray cow if I ran at night now. We'll see if this schedule lasts when the power gets turned back on.

5. Water is extremely important. Without electricity, the water doesn't get pumped to the two 1000litre tanks on our roof, so what we have there is what we have. That's it. My showers are seriously less than 3 minutes, and part of that time the faucet is shut off while I'm sudsing up my hair. To do laundry and wash the dishes, I pull up water from the underground tank in our yard and put it in a bucket. While it's a bit of a pain to be doing all of that, I figure it's easier to wash dishes in a bucket in the garden than to take a shower there, as our neighbors can see into our yard. In a place where wearing shorts and tank tops is inappropriate, I don't think showering in my yard would go over very well! But seriously, as an environmental plug to all of you at home in the US, please save water when you can. You'd be amazed how easy it is to do!

I met some Americans today when I was charging my computer in town and doing some work and they had actually been to Belfast, Maine. It made me happy.

I apologize I haven't finished my story about my Kenya trip and then the trip to Uganda. They'll be coming, I promise. This week I am climbing Kili with my Mom while my Dad & Annie do some safari trips. We'll meet back in Zanzibar to ring in the New Year :-) I probably won't be able to post until then.
Have a lovely holiday season! I'll be thinking of you as I climb Kili!!!

hakuna umeme

... power has been out for 24 hours, and apparently there was a fire in the power station. Power isn't expected to come back for 3 weeks. It didn't even go out that long during the Ice Storm in 1998 in Maine! awesome.

I'm glad we have a gas stove.

I know I promised the rest of the story of my trip to Kenya and then my trip to Uganda, but it will have to wait until either the power comes back or I relocate to a café with a generator. I was happily charging my computer here at a café down town when their generator stopped working. Not to worry. I'll probably post installment #2 by next week.

I hope you're all doing well. One funny story for you all:
umeme= electricity
ume= male genital organ

I have a friend who during a power outage once yelled to her friend waiting downstairs "ngoja kidogo- hakuna ume hapa!" (wait just a bit- we don't have ___ here!) to which her now husband said "speak for yourself!"
Unfortunately I now after hearing that story am afraid that I'll mix up the two words when speaking Swahili. I hope whoever is on the listening end has a sense of humor.