Saturday is the same

It's Saturday, 9/6 -- and it was like many of my other Saturdays. I slept in until 8 AM - no Chapel today - and had a leisurely breakfast and coffee in my PJ's -- reading and writing in my journal -- until about 11 AM. Then I started the daily routine of taking a shower. For the first week I was here, I did not have hot water -- I learned to take a "bucket bath" -- my hostess would heat some water, put it in a small bucket, add cold water -- then I would soap up, and get under the cold shower to wash my hair and rinse off. You must understand, that having indoor plumbing is very rare here -- even in the city of Dodoma and Dar es salaam. The Bishop has a home in "Dar" that has neither electricity or water. People have outhouses and women (almost 100% of the time it is women), spend a lot of hours each day walking to the well and hauling the water for the family. Each day I take a 45 minute walk with some of the faculty and staff at the College - -and the wives of the students must think we are nuts -- they get plenty of exercise, just providing the daily allotment of life-giving water to the house. My lodgings at the college are very nice -- by African standards, especially -- I have been very comfortable here. The house I am staying at has a large living room and dining room area, a great kitchen with stove, frig and running water, a large bedroom and indoor bathroom. (The square footage is actually more than my condo in Atlanta!) I have a small hot water heater in the bathroom. So, when I make coffee and breakfast in the morning, I switch on the electricity for the heater -- so by the time I am ready for a shower, the water is hot. But it is such a small unit, and water is so precious here, I don't stand under it -- yep, there goes the bucket bath again -- but it's very nice to have a hot shower to end the routine!

I am also assisted each day by a "housegirl." She is a local woman who comes in and will cook anything for me, do my laundry, and cleans the house everyday. The name of the game in Africa is DUST! She must damp mop the floors each day to make sure we are not over-run by dust...this is sub-Saharan desert, after all. At first, I was very self-conscious about the dust all over my shoes -- until I noticed that everyone else's black shoes were light brown, too! I was also very self-conscious about having a "housegirl" -- until I found out that the $3US that she is paid for a half day's work is the only income her family has - -and she is supporting several siblings and a new baby as well. I was doing my own dishes, until I learned that she was offended -- she thought I did not think her work was up to the right standard. The woman who is working for me is called Seche -- (Say-chay) -- and she is very good at English....pretty much. I asked her to boil three eggs for me, so I could make egg salad (because I coldn't figure out how to use the stove!!) When I returned from class, I found three friend eggs with onions and peppers -- they were delicious, but not boiled!

I am bringing back pictures of the washer and dryer system -- a large, round blue plastic tub and the clothesline out my front door. The laundry detergent here is very effective -- Sandy McCann says she worries about what it is doing to the environment -- but it "gets out everything!' It works especially well on my plastic clerical collars!

People here are concerned about the environment as are we -- their main concerns are the effects of deforestation. People here cook outside on charcoal, which is made from slowly burning the local trees. But there have been so many trees taken down, without replacing them, that the whole area around Dodoma and beyond is feeling the effects - trees are necessary for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide -- and with too few trees, they are seeing major destructive changes. It is against the law to cut down trees -- but people must cook and heat water, etc -- so what are they to do. You see many men on bicycles here - with huge bundles of sticks on the back - they have gathered them or cut them to provide for their families.

Right behind Msalato College is the village of Msalato -- I will be bringing pictures back. The Wagogo people build their homes out of bricks made from the beautiful red earth of this area -- we folks from Georgia feel right at home. They then fire the bricks and use them to build homes with a large living area and perhaps several bedrooms. People who are very well-off have roofs of tin called "bati" -- others have sod or thatched roofs -- on these, the folks plant stuff, or store things -- but it is a high status symbol to have "bati." It is also especially nice to have a tin roof when the rains come -- which begin in December and end in March each year.