Sunburns and Sickness

Greetings, friends!

I write to you this week from our very own Fanaka Memorial Stationary Shop. My good friend Mwende (librarian extraordinaire) and I are slaving away over the heat of the copier to prepare for midterm examinations next week. Kristina and I have been typing away for the past few days, and we are almost finished with all 50-something exams. (Four forms, each with about nine or so subjects). We are hoping to finish with the copying process by this weekend, and then examinations will take place all through next week.

The process has been a bit slow-going due to nationwide blackouts that have been happening for the past month or so. The Tanzanian electrical supply company (Tanesco), had a contract with a group called Dowans, which was run by a Bahrainian (I think) company. Dowans recently pulled out of the contract, saying that Tanesco still owed money to the electrical supplier. As a result of these issues, as well as a shortage of water (which limits hydroelectric power), has led to nationwide blackouts every day or so. This is incredibly convenient for pretty much everyone. (Please pick up on my sarcasm).

Other than typing exams, I have been struggling through the days as a result of my own bullheaded stupidity. Last Saturday, Kristina and I took a day off and I took her to the beach for the afternoon. We went to a nice resort to sit in the sun and watch the ocean for a bit. However, being of sound mind and incredible wisdom, I did not appropriately or thoroughly apply sunscreen because, as I so sagely put it “well, uhhhhh, I didn’t get burned last year”. Needless to say, blinded by my own folly, I got scorched, to say the least. To say that the 2nd-degree burns which appeared on my knee and in convenient patches on my shoulders would make a leper feel sympathetic is to put it lightly. I’ve always been a Michael Jackson fan, but I think this time I’ve taken it a bit too far this time. In addition to this, for the past week I have also been plagued with some sort of intestinal issue which smacks eerily of dysentery.

However, I am feeling much better today, and have even been able to venture more than twenty feet of the toilet without feeling too concerned! (Forgive the gross details, but hey, I’m in Africa. These things happen.) The good news is that I don’t have malaria (again) which was my first concern. Babu says that maybe I should only drink water from bottles instead of the water we have at the house. Its the local water, and its been boiled, but there is still a smack of charcoal about it that I can’t seem to get used to. Babu supposes that perhaps even the boiled water is disturbing my insides. Don’t worry though, mother, if it doesn’t improve by tomorrow I will be visiting the hospital. No worries.

In addition to the frenetic activity of trying to collect, interpret, type and copy exams, we have also had the excitement of having Baby Heri, Eve and Billo staying at the house this week. This is enjoyable, and as I’m sure my family will be glad to hear, incredible birth control. Eve and Heri stayed in our room for a night, and I can say that although I am an excellent surrogate mother and have no problem soothing irritable infants, I enjoy having at least eight hours of sleep at night, where the only interruption is the beeping of the solar power and the occasional fight among the guard dogs outside (this consists of an alarming amount of yipping, snarling, biting, and some weird version of screaming). However, its fun to play with Heri and its nice to see Eve and Billo so often.

Along with the excitement of having an infant in the house, Babu commanded that we celebrate baby Heri by slaughtering some goats! This was a big to-do at home on Monday, and all of the men who work at the house somehow showed up, and there was much laughter and talking as the knives made quick work of the kids (get it, goats? Ha. Ha. Morbid, right?). As it turns out, “Goats Head Soup” is not something created by the Rolling Stones, but in fact by a shirtless man and a machete. I know my observations may make this whole celebration sound a bit gruesome and barbaric, but it was indeed a family celebration, it was fun, and gol-durn-it if those goats weren’t delicious!

As far as our current project, Hydrate 2 Educate, we are steaming along rather well. The cement tank behind the dining hall is now fully functional and covered. Now, as Babu says, “Let the rains come!”

Last week we were delivered two new black plastic tanks; one will be placed near the girls’ dormitory and the other will go to the boys’ dormitory. The gutters around the girls’ dormitory are now completed and our faithful carpenter Fabian has begun working on the gutters to surround the boys’ dormitory. We had a bit of rain last night, but nothing substantial so far. This past week, Babu has had to have water brought from town twice because there was no water at the house or at the school which is extremely expensive.

We are still having some substantial issues with discipline at Fanaka. Of course the students are always rowdy, but they’re teenagers, and it is unrealistic to expect them to conduct themselves like angelic scholars. However, this is what some of the teachers do expect, yet they do not seem to adhere to such principles themselves. They complain about the behavior of the students, and expect me to excuse their own erratic behavior. This is not altogether unusual human behavior, it is in fact, in my experience, quite normal for people to hold high expectations for others, only to make excuses for themselves. I did reach a bit of a breaking point yesterday, when I confronted a teacher about his methods of disciplining a student, and he proceeded to laugh in my face when I got angry. Later, he accused me of losing my temper and being “too emotional” and embarrassing him, only to seconds later ask me to excuse his behavior because he had lost his temper with the student. This is nothing new or unusual and normally, I let these things roll off my back, but after feeling sick up until yesterday, this argument took a lot out of me. Those who know me know that it is difficult to provoke me; I rarely get angry, confrontational, or even yell really. I dislike passive aggressiveness, but usually shy away from an argument. I’m pretty good at just letting things go. However, yesterday, when I knew myself to be in the right it became a very difficult situation for me.

That aside, things are still moving along pretty well. My sunburns are healing, and I am looking less leper-like (though strangely I am seem to bear more similarities with the average Dalmatian than human). So, wish us luck as we dive into exams tomorrow.

May the Force be with you.

Eileen