he’ll come back when he realizes you’re an idiot

Khangas are a staple of every woman’s wardrobe and life here. A khanga comes as two identical pieces of fabric, both about a meter square that are large enough to wrap around the body. Despite the popular misconception, khangas are not worn as a garment. They are worn over one’s clothing, a baby is placed in a khanga and strapped to the back, or they are wrapped around the head to protect oneself from the sun… they’re incredibly versatile and useful. The only time they’re worn alone is maybe when a woman is doing housework.

Khangas are soft cotton with very colorful prints and patterns. They have a border around the edge of the fabric, and on one side of the border there is always a saying- the khanga’s ‘jina’, which is the Kiswahili word for ‘name’. This is the part that I love about khangas, the jina. I assumed that the words were just meaningless words, or common sayings. No, not here in the land of passive-aggressiveness. Jinas are saying that are both nice and mean, take a few here:

-Second wife- forget it!!
-Let this wedding day be the happiest.
-He likes my full-food better than your half-food.
-Remain safe and happy.
-Friendship will last an eternity.
-I thought you were my friend, but you are my cowife.
-The true measure of a wife is her character.
-A house without a mother-in-law is a happy home.

Frequently khangas are given as gifts, either to good friends, as wedding gifts, or by a husband to his wife. So there are sayings of prosperity (especially for weddings) and saying of love. Friends may also give half a khanga as a gift, with a saying of friendship, so that you can wear matching khangas. (A twist on that old “be fri” and “st ends” pendant idea.) During elections, many women choose to wear khangas showing their political affiliation.

But the best are the khangas that women buy for themselves… they are chosen and worn to express a thought or feeling. If your friend is sleeping with your husband, you buy the one that says “I thought you were my friend, but you are my cowife”. If your husband is considering taking a second wife (which is legal in Tanzania), you buy the khanga “Second wife- forget it!!” to give him a not-so-subtle hint. If you don’t really like your mother-in-law, you buy the “a house without a mother-in-law is a happy home” and wear it, but not when she’s around.

My favorites are the khangas young women wear when fighting over guys. “He likes my full-food better than your half-food”, “don’t compete, you can never beat me”, “when you taste pineapple, you won’t go back to anything else”. And my favorite that I’ve seen is “he’ll come back when he realizes you’re an idiot”.

being grateful for the small things

You may have heard me mention that there are a million bugs in the house. Millions.

A few weeks ago we decided to fix the bug problem. Ha ha ha. I learned, yet again, that here things never really seem to work how you intend. But I digress…

We hired an exterminator to come and spray every nook and cranny in the house. We knew that the bugs would find their way back into the house, but we assumed that we would have at least a short time without bugs, and then when they returned we may be able to kill them as they entered. Ideally, we were going to have fewer bugs. And we were all so excited about it.

Well, the exterminators came and they did in fact spray everywhere. And bugs died. It was a happy moment. But the joy was short-lived. Unfortunately, it was the weak and infirm bugs that died. Some of the spiders and geckos also didn’t fare so well, so sadly I had to bid adieu to some of my first friends here. But the mutant bugs didn’t seem to die. And they have since multiplied profusely. So now we not only have more bugs than before, we managed to kill off all the weak and slow bugs and we are left with the mutant bugs that laugh at us.

Which brings me back to the ants in the house. There are basically 3 types/sizes; the nice ones being the large black ants (similar to those found in sf), then there are the two smaller types, both of which fall into the pyscho mutant category.

Prior to our extermination attempt the ants would crawl on the table, on your food and even climb into your drink. But they would never crawl on you. Now, when you feel something crawling on your arm or your leg or even on your face… in the states you would just think it’s the wind or a stray hair. But not here; here the sensation of something crawling on you is due to the fact that there is something crawling on you. Our attempt to exterminate the bugs seems to have angered the ants and brought out their mutant side. These mutant ants have no fear.

My roommate and I were laughing the other day since she was telling me her boyfriend’s apartment doesn’t have the small ants, only the larger black variety, and that in his apartment it is the large ants that crawl on you. I said that we were lucky only our small ants were mutant. She agreed that we were lucky. Then we looked at each other and realized that we had just said we were grateful that only small ants crawl on us.

It’s important to be grateful for the small things in life.

Yes, I live in Africa now.

dual apologies

I owe two apologies today. The first is to you all for the fact that I haven’t posted a new entry in a few weeks. It’s been a busy few weeks and my study finally started last Tuesday, so I didn’t have time to focus on anything else. But I can promise at least a few new posts this coming week.

The second apology is to the brilliant engineer/architect that designed our office. I may have mentioned the water spouts that are aligned perfectly to funnel water directly in front of the main door to the building. Apparently that was in fact on purpose. The office was originally built as a house- a rather odd house I have to say- but it was originally a residence for a large Muslim Indian family. And in talking with a co-worker I discovered that the owner has an identical house on Zanzibar, with identical water spouts. We joked about the positioning of the water drains and he explained to me that despite the impractically of the water drains, they are considered auspicious. He wasn’t completely certain as to the reason since it’s not a custom in his region of India, but he thinks that it is meant to signify cleansing. Therefore I humbly apologize to the architect/engineer.

drunk and married

Well, I am officially a permanent resident of Tanzania. And it only took 5 weeks and a little grease to process my application- close to a record I think.

On a lighter note, I found out today in my kiswahili class that 'lewa' means 'drunk' while 'olewa' is the verb to marry. Coincidence? I think not...