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Erm, what the actual heck guys. It’s 2025, I can see you visiting my blog posts and not liking them. I mean come on, hundreds of reads and only 4 likes? It’s a little embarrassing and it’s not like you even got me anything for Christmas. You know I like attention and affirmation, that’s why I’m blogging! Anyways, jokes aside—I’m glad you’re all reading these blogs and I hope you get as much out of reading these blogs as I get out of writing them.
This past month I got to celebrate my first holiday season during summer! This was also my first holiday season away from home. Merry Christmas, happy Chanukah, happy Kwanza, and happy new year (Kwanza also happens to mean “first” in Swahili)! Even though I’ve been enjoying my schools summer break and haven’t started teaching yet I think there’s still quite a bit to talk about such as: living alone in rural Africa, going on adventures for my birthday and Christmas, how I’ve been filling my time, and fun interactions I’ve been having. This blog is a bit longer than my usual, but I promise it stays interesting.
I’m surprised how ok I am with having no idea what’s going on. Living in my own house in rural Africa comes with its challenges but also so many unseen benefits. I will say that living alone in America was hard enough even when I could get a $5 rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I urge you, reader, do not take your rotisserie chickens for granted. Don’t take your delivery pizza for granted, no matter how sub-par you think it is. Grocery shopping for me consists of doing a 1 kilometer walk into the village where I can get a rotating selection of tomatoes, onions, carrots, peppers, and mangoes. My main source of protein is eggs. The best deal is if you buy 30 eggs so that’s what I did. When I bought the eggs I thought they would give me the carton tray that they were sitting in, but the lady in the shop took all 30, put them in a thin plastic bag and handed that to me, telling me to make sure to carry it with 2 hands. Being somewhat foolish, I was doing my shopping around sunset so naturally when I headed back to my house with my newly purchased 30 eggs in a thin plastic bag that had no handles it was pitch black. In case you were wondering, there usually aren’t street lamps in rural African villages, and the roads are bumpy and tend to be tricky to navigate even in ideal conditions. I suppose this is where you expect me to tell you that I tripped while carrying my 30 eggs in a thin plastic bag with no handles while walking home in the dark and the eggs went flying and all broke. Being a former college athlete, no, I didn’t trip and lose all my eggs. But it would have been really funny if I did. Lately I’ve been missing laundry machines and dryers. The other day I did my laundry but it started to rain as I finished, then proceeded to rain for the next week. Nearing the end of my supply of clean underwear at the end of the week, the sun finally made an appearance and I was able to dry my clothes on the line. Phew. In my house there is no electricity, no running water, and no cell service. Just when you thought the most humble person you know couldn’t get any humbler, here I am. But, before you feel sorry for me, know that I am enjoying every second of my time here. People spend thousands of dollars to go on vacation and experience what I am getting paid (though not much) to experience.
For my first birthday away from home I joined up with my fellow volunteers in Njombe and we visited the Mpanga Kipengere Game Reserve. We got to swim at a huge waterfall, get back massages from the water, and there were even little tiny fish in the water that eat the dead skin off your feet. It was definitely a birthday to remember. Christmas in Tanzania is not celebrated like it is in America. It’s not commercialized, and nearly everybody continues business as usual. Not a single store in town was closed. However, I didn’t let that stop me from spreading some Christmas cheer to everybody I could. I took the opportunity to go to Kitulo National Park with my fellow Njombe volunteers. It is known as “The Garden of God” (Bustani ya Mungu) due to the extensive period in which the alpine flowers are in bloom, from November to April. Between the sights and the elevation of 9600 feet the park was breathtaking. Sometimes when you’re reading a great book or watching a great movie there is a certain point in which you know you’ll be sad when it’s over—at least I get this feeling. I already feel like I got this feeling from my service and it has barely even started. I’d say it’s a testament to how well everything is going so far.
I think feeling bored is ok. So often it is seen as a negative quality to be someone that feels bored sometimes. So often it is seen as something positive to be someone that doesn’t get bored. While I think there’s always something to do, that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to or need to do anything at all. If you can get comfortable being bored you’ll find that everything else you do gains an element of purpose that might not have previously been there. While there are times that we have to do things like chores, menial tasks, and other work, in other times where we’re given the option of doing something for little pleasure or being bored for a little while I encourage you to try being bored at your next opportunity. This is all to say I’ve given myself the opportunity of being bored in these past few weeks. To be bored is a privilege that not everybody gets to have. The other day during break all the students had gone home and all the teachers were either at home or on vacation. Since I live on school property, my environment was devoid of its usual hustle and bustle. I figured I would take the opportunity to journal and draw. Taking my journal and my pencil, I went and sat in the middle of my school’s pineapple farm. I quickly found that I couldn’t think of anything to write about and my drawings were coming out as scribbled garbage. I didn’t have anything else to do so I decided to sit and do absolutely nothing. The day that followed—in my opinion—included some of my best journaling, my best drawing, and I even wrote songs, something I rarely do. I spend hours playing guitar everyday and I recently got tools so I can start building my own furniture. In addition to this creative renaissance I’m having, I also have so much time to read. In just the past month I’ve finished reading 12 books. Feel free to drop book suggestions in the comments.
“In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.”
— John Steinbeck
One day shortly after I returned to my village from a trip to town I saw a teacher from my school. We have a good relationship and talk about all kinds of things. When I saw her she asked me if I was successful in getting WiFi when I was in town (pronounced why-fee with a Swahili accent). I responded, yes I got WiFi at the hotel and it was great I really enjoyed it because I hadn’t had WiFi in so long. She was really happy for me and congratulated me on my success. I was confused why she was so excited but thanked her and thought nothing of it and went on my way. Later I met with another teacher who said they had heard I got WiFi. Confused why everybody was asking about my WiFi, I said yes, it was nice to get my phone all updated and upload my blog. That was when the teacher looked as though he had a revelation and told me they thought I got a wife (also pronounced why-fee with a Swahili accent), not WiFi. And so I learned that wife and WiFi are homonyms in Swahili.
Another day, I met a Tanzanian stranger at a restaurant that wanted to talk to me. He was adamant that white people are inherently smarter and richer than Tanzanians. It was an argument I never expected to have, but here I was arguing with a Tanzanian that they are just as capable as people with lighter skin color. While I don’t think I fully succeeded in changing his mind, I still find it an incredible opportunity to be able to have that conversation right as I’m going to start teaching. While I may not be able to win this argument through normal conversation at a restaurant, maybe I can win the argument in the classroom.
That about summarizes my past month, thanks for reading if you made it this far! By the time I publish my next blog post I’ll have started teaching, which I expect will come with many more stories. I’ll be teaching junior level math and physics, so any ideas for fun lesson plans are also welcome! As much fun as it sounds like I’m having, know that I miss you all and I remain as optimistic as ever. I hope I kept my promise that this blog post would be interesting.
Love,
Ryan