Lost in Translation

May 26th…

In the past, I have sometimes been accused of being too casual in making plans with people…To me ”See you later” is not a plan but apparently this attitude is catching up with me here in Tanzania…

Last week, I heard that our cook Matthew’s child was in the hospital so once he was back, I went to see him. (my Swahili vocabulary surrounding food is actually pretty good)… Up until this point, most of my conversations with Matthew have centered around food, so it was strange to struggle so much during this conversation but I was able to find out that it was his "daughter" and that she had a problem with her eye. (my Swahili is also pretty good when it comes to body parts) I then ask him if tomorrow I might be able to give him some balloons to take home to his daughter.
So as I leave, I see a little confusion in his face but overall I am feeling pretty good about our conversation. Later that night, Felician (an English teacher) comes to tell me that Matthew came to him to see if Felician would accompany me to Matthew’s house as Matthew was worried that I might not find it on my own. Apparently I had somehow made an appointment for 5:30 pm the next day? And of course, balloons in hand, Felician and I went at the appointed time the next day…lol

Later that same week, I was sitting outside the store when two women came and sat with me. We chatted over a soda and the one woman told me that she would like me to come and visit here at her place. Quite often I accompany Father Chuwa or Father Henry to different towns so I’m never exactly sure when I’ll be around, so, through Felician, I said I wasn’t sure when I could meet or if I would have time before I left the next week. We had some more conversation … part Swahili and partly translated by Felician and then we said goodbye…Kwaheri.
So two days later, I am at the school taking pictures and Felician comes to tell me that my friend Fairista is here to collect me (and Felician) to go to her place. So I am a little perplexed on what to do as …A) It’s the last day of school and Felician actually has a job to do at the school which does not include being my personal tour guide and B) I have no idea how far away this place is as most people here are used to walking far distances and when you ask them how far it is to somewhere, they say “just over the hill”. Just over the hill can mean anywhere from 100 metres to 25 kilometres…
So thankfully, Felician agrees that we should go and that he will come with me… So we join Fairista and start walking. I want to bring some sodas to here place as a gift but it’s almost impossible to figure out how many to buy (as there were then about at least a dozen children around us) So we send some of the older children off to buy 18 sodas…(Fairista has said that she doesn’t want a soda but would really like some soap…so we buy her some soap…and a soda) We follow Fairista for quite a while, going through other people’s yards…stopping to say hi to them…and then finally we reach her house. About 5 minutes later, the children come carrying the case of sodas… We sat and chatted…and I find out that Fairista is 38 and has four children…(three of which are away at school so only one of our crowd of children is actually hers.) It was such a party atmosphere…I taught the children the “Capt’n Jack” song and dance…and we took lots of pictures. Then just as we were about to go, Fairista presented me with a live chicken as a gift. There is something so surreal when you receive such a kind offering… I then lead the children in songs the whole way back to the school “I said a Boom, Chick a Boom” …I think this may have been one of my most favourite experiences here… so Lost in Translation is not always a bad thing…