So, for all of you people in the Western world who may not know, the new moon appeared yesterday, signaling the end of Ramadan, and the celebration of Ied. Yeserday, as it was Sunday, there was no school, so I went to Gongo, a village 17 kilometers from here. It is higher up, more agriculturally advanced, but very different than Matipwili. For one, there are pineapple groves everywhere. However, they don’t have a clinic of their own, so you can imagine it’s a big problem when they have health issues. I went with 5 Tanzanian medical students who are staying at Kisampa, as well as a couple from New Zealand who are both nurses.
At Gongo, we had a meeting, where I had to introduce myself in Swahili to about 60 people. I was nervous, but they were all very kind. Being Ied, there were children everywhere, singing, dancing, and wearing masks. They went from shamba to shamba, as the rule in Gongo is that they must visit every house. I took lots of pictures and videos of the children, some of them could really dance. They seemed to be very amused at my presence, shouting MUZUNGU! MUZUNGU! Which means white person.
After that, we walked to the primary school, which was in need of extreme renovation, and then the Chairman of the town prepared lunch for us. We had pilau, which I have had many times before, a traditional Swahili dish of rice, potatoes, and a meat. Afterwards, they opened fresh coconuts full of milk that were delicious!
We got back to Kisampa around 4, and learned that we had 12 more guests coming for dinner! Because it was Ied, we had pilau again! We ate in the pavilion, sitting down, with our hands. You mush the rice up in your right hand into a ball, then eat it. To give the kitchen staff a break, they ate with us, so I sat with my friend Muhammad (Moody) while he showed me how to eat it properly. It was funny.
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