Crossing the Finnish Line

Well, I finally got up the courage and energy to complete the task of laundry once again.  It turns out that doing laundry once a week is much more manageable than every two weeks, when I have worn everything that I own and have to do the laundry in my pajamas.  This task took me about 1 ½ hours and by the end I had burned more calories than I ever did at the gym.  As I was hanging the last of my clothes on the line, Ben, the Financial Director of 4H Tanzania came by to see how I was doing and casually mentioned that there would be a group from Finland coming to the camp for two and a half weeks.  “Great!” I said.  “When are they coming?” 

“Two”

“Two, when?  Two today?”  I enquire, frantically looking at my pajamas and wondering if I can blow on my clothes to make them dry faster. 

“Of course, two today.”  Ben responded, wondering if it was a liability to have someone as slow as I, working with youth.

You see, I have already explained the concept of “African Time,” meaning 2 is 4, later is tomorrow, and sometime is never.  But there is an entirely separate but related concept that I was unaware of.  In America, if people don’t have their week, let alone their day planned out at least to some extent, they stress about it.  Here, having your day planned out is stress.  I think that it stems from not being able to control the environmental influences on your schedule.  You can’t control when the electricity will work, you can’t control when the bus will arrive, so don’t plan something that you have no control over.  Being an American, this takes a little getting used to.  We never know what is happening two days before it does.  We thought people just forgot to tell us, but in actuality, nobody knew.  Either it wasn’t planned yet, or knowing the plan would stress people out so they didn’t tell anyone.  Either way, you just learn to go with it.

Two o’clock rolled around and sure enough, off the bus stepped 7 girls ages 14-20 and two adults.  That was on Wednesday and we have been enjoying their company and travelling with them ever since. Wednesday night a 4H Club from Tanga came to share their educational dramas, songs, and games with us and we had a blast dancing, jumping, and singing!

 On Thursday we went to the Amboni Caves outside of Tanga.  They were beautiful (inside and outside)…except for the bats.  It doesn’t matter if a girl is African, American, or European, generally speaking, she won’t like bats.  And that wasn’t the last of the rodent’s that the Finnish girls would see on this trip…but I’ll save that story for later.  I have decided that my next profession is going to be naming the stalactites, stalagmites, and rock formations in caves.  Someone has to do it, right?  All of the formations in the Amboni caves had a name.  Some were obvious, some you sort of had to squint and turn sideways to see.  Mother Mary?  Sure.  Why not?

After touring the caves, we walked up the road to meet a bus and take it into Tanga and go to the grocery store and market.  Then we went to the beach in Tanga to swim!  This is the first time I have been to the beach here.  Because of the Mangrove trees lining the coast, the beach area is actually very small, but sufficient for some swimming fun.  It was on Thursday that I got to hear the story of how this group of 7 girls and two adults from Finland came to be visiting 4H Tanzania.  

Once upon a time, a few years ago, in a Finland far, far away, lived a group of 4H Members who wanted to learn about the history of their village and surrounding area.  The girls decided that they would do research on the way their ancestors lived and interviewed relatives to find out what has changed since they were children.  They got the idea to make playing cards with terms and pictures of things that weren’t used anymore.  They sold these sets of cards and decided to use the money to go to an amusement park nearby.  These girls ask Johanna (one of the chaperones) if she would take them to the amusement park.  She said yes and they began planning their trip.  While they were planning, the girls found out that Johanna lived in Tanzania when she was growing up and somehow, their trip to the amusement park turned into a trip to Tanzania…wherever that is.  They began working, planning, and saving for a trip to Tanzania.  They started their own businesses and saved everything they made to go towards their trip.  Laura, Sara, Ava, Anni started a babysitting business and also organize camps when school is out.  Anna cares for horses while the owners are away.  Anina sells drawings and paintings.  Sandra makes and sells “Sandra’s Candles.”  In addition to their individual projects, they sold baked goods, cleaned houses, planted trees, held” Tanzania Nights” with food and songs from Africa.  They worked for over a year and a half, conducting over 50 different fundraising projects to raise over $30,000 to fund their trip.

Wow.

Can you say dedication?  I was so impressed when I found out how they had raised their funds.  And I am so excited that they reached their goals and are now spending two and a half weeks travelling in Tanzania.  Sadly, they are only spending a week here in Kange.  My favorite thing we have done with them so far happened on Friday:

After spending the morning visiting a primary school 4H Club just down the road from us where we planted trees with the kids, we then visited a group of young women 4H members who meet and work at a vocational school where they sew and embroider.  When we returned to Kange, we met with the same Secondary school 4H club that we had met with on Wednesday for more games, singing, and dancing.  After we were COMPLETELY exhausted, we ate a wonderful Finnish dinner prepared by the girls.  They wanted to make dinner for everyone on Thursday night, because in Finland it is the Midnight Sun Festival, celebrating the longest day of the year.  During the summer in Finland the sun doesn’t go down…ever.  So they have a big bonfire and celebration.  Fortunately for us, they wanted to bring the tradition to Tanzania and share it with us!  So we ate, sang, shared stories and roasted sausages over a bonfire with our new Finnish friends.  I am SO glad they decided to share their tradition with us.  After the bonfire, we participated in another Finnish tradition in which you gather 7 different types of flowers to put under your pillow that night.  Then, you will dream of your future husband.  The girls assured me that if you don’t have any dreams, that doesn’t mean you won’t get married.  And if you dream of a stupid man, that doesn’t mean anything either.  I like this tradition.  We settled for 7 different types of leaves since we didn’t have flowers.   For those of you who are wondering (because I know you are out there), I had a completely dreamless night.  However I did have several new mosquito bites and a muscle cramp in my leg.  I don’t know what that says about my matrimonial future…  But before we fell asleep on Friday night, there were screams coming from one of the girls’ rooms.  Either they were being murdered, or someone had lost a limb…it was hard to tell from the screams which had happened.  We arrived at their door to find, not a murderer….but something even worse…a mouse.  Poor Mustafa who works here and was fast asleep next door was put in charge of finding the rodent (which took a lot of work) and chasing it outside.

This event brought back memories of a certain 4-H event that I attended as a member.  State 4-H Roundup…I don’t remember the year.  Two kind, sleep-deprived chaperones (Charlotte and Tracy) told us we could stay up past “lights out” as long as we were completely quiet.  And we were…until a cockroach the size of a charter bus ran across the floor of the dorm room.  Thinking we were being killed, the two sleep-deprived chaperones came running…then we went to bed.  In their defense, I’m pretty sure this was the same year as Charlotte’s famous “Sermon on the Mezzanine.”  Good memories.

Saturday we drove about 45 minutes west to Muheza where we met with a group of young women (ages 18-25).  We enjoyed sharing about projects and activities with them.  Mostly they were impressed with the girls’ projects and wanted them to share their knowledge about candle-making, and their other crafts.  The women sang for us and we sang and danced the Finnish version of the Hokey-Pokey.  Whether you are in a dingy skating rink or in a village in Africa, apparently the Hokey-Pokey is a real classic.  After we returned to Kange and had lunch, the group went to another 4H Club in Tanga and then to the market to buy fabrics and kangas.  Unfortunately, due to a battle wound on my foot that I received during a game of flashlight hide-and-seek the previous night, I stayed at the camp during their trip into town.  Saturday night, after dinner we played a Finnish card game, then Uno, then the evening turned into a big slumber party!  Collin looked onward as I got my hair braided, nails were painted, massages were given, and there was much laughter. 

Today, we went to a Lutheran Church in Tanga.  It was so wonderful to hear the beautiful singing and try to follow along as much as possible.  People there were so friendly and helpful and helped us follow the service as best as we could.  It was great getting to spend some time with new people doing what they do every week.  After lunch, we returned to the beach for a little more fun in the sun and returned to have a candlelit dinner (not for the ambiance, but because the electricity was out).

I am worn out!  But I have had a wonderful week getting to know this group from Finland and we will be sad to see them go when they leave for Moshi on Tuesday.  Tomorrow they are going to visit clubs in Korogwe (where we went two weeks ago), but Collin and I are staying behind to finish a grant proposal and some other paperwork we have to do.  And then, if you can believe it, Collin and I leave on Thursday for Mombasa, Kenya where I will say goodbye as he leaves to travel in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia for two weeks before returning home.  I arrived in Tanga 1 month ago today and the time has flown by!  I can’t wait to see what the next 5 months have in store for me!