A Few More Little Thoughts

Since I wrote on here when I got to Babati on Friday, I've thought of a couple of anecdotes I think I need to include here.

Let me start with the mchawi. We first learned this word on the waterfall hike, when our guide seemed to leap over mountains without trying. It means "wizard", and in our Harry Potter/fantasy world we thought it was a hilarious word to know. I would sometimes tell little kids "Mimi ni mchawi," just as a joke. Then I went along on a patient visit to a 9-year old girl who has HIV, and who still thinks her mother died because wizards were jealous of her. I learned then that Tanzanians actually take wizarding seriously, but I didn't realize quite how serious until this week. Apparently in Majengo, a neighboring village to Qash, wizards were caught wizarding around someone's house, and were captured in the village office and have been sentenced to die. "Wizarding" in this case apparently consisted of flying in on a bucket, and placing cursed dead bats around the house. Therefore yesterday for Halloween I dressed up as an mchawi (basically a witch costume but instead of a broom I carried a bucket, which I tied around my back the same way they hold their babies here). I have realized, though, that saying I'm an mchawi isn't as funny as I first thought.

Also the hippos! Last Babati weekend I did probably the most dangerous thing I've ever done and went out in a canoe to look at hippos. This is particularly dangerous since hippos are very violent and known to overturn boats. It was totally worth it, though, to see the hippos poking their heads up and snorting and carrying on with their hippo antics. Most of the hippos live on the far side of Lake Babati, away from the town, but there was one baby hippo that was estranged from the family and had been hanging out closer to town. Unfortunately the baby hippo was killed last week, and Babati town had a hippo-meat feast, which frankly I'm glad I missed.

Last night's party was crazy, and while the teaching partners still don't really understand Halloween, we all had fun together. Today I'm going to have lunch with one of my teaching partner's actual family, so I'm excited about that.

Thanks for reading again!