Post 3 - Misconceptions about Africa

Common Misconceptions about Africa:

That there is not a lot of food

That the food is not tasty

That it is always super hot

That there is no plumbing or running water

 

Angel House Missionary Home

The mission house, aka home for the next 3 months, is super nice and way too big for just the two of us living here! It has 3 bedrooms down stairs with bunk beds in them, and then 3 bed rooms upstairs with one bed in each room. Esther and I each have our own bathrooms attached to our rooms, she has a “Western” style bathroom and I have a very African bathroom with a choo, but I love it! Coming into this I thought I was going to be taking bucket showers so I was so excited when I saw my little bathroom with running water! The shower water here is freezing, and I’ll be the first to admit I love taking very warm showers, but after sweating all day, being covered in dirt and having mysterious gunk on you from the kids it is the most refreshing shower! I did learn the hard way you do not want to shower in the morning; after the water has been sitting all night in the cold… it is like jumping into an outdoor pool in the middle of winter… it took my breath way and nearly made me wipe out when I tried to jump out of it!

Shower in my room.

The food here is tasty for the most part! A lot of the time I have no clue what I am eating unless we are at home… I did get tricked the other day and ate liver of some animal… can honestly say that is not my favorite. There is this dish named ugali that is a very traditional African dish basically made out of flour and water, and all the kids think that Esther and I are so weird because we like it! It reminds me of a very clumpy cream of wheat.  Every time we have been invited over for a meal to someone’s house there has been more food, delicious food, than I could ever dream of.

When I first learned that I was not supposed to wear shorts in Tanzania because it is against the culture to show the back of your knee, I was convinced I was going to have a heat stroke every day! While there have been some days that have been ridiculously hot, for the most part the weather has been wonderful! At night you definitely need a jacket and same with first thing in the morning!

If anyone has ever seen me play soccer, they know that my face turns really red whether it is 100 degrees outside or 30! The first time I played for a while with the kids, my face turned so red, and they did not know what to make of it. Some kept asking if I needed to sit down, some wanted to touch my cheeks, and some just laughed at me! I couldn’t help but laugh with them! For me it was something that has happened my entire life and is normal, but to them they had never seen it happen to anyone! It was a great reminder to me that when I come across things that seem very weird to me, to just embrace those things because it is something that they probably do not even think about, just like I don’t think about my cheeks turning red!