I woke up once due to Charlie the rooster and the mosque, but went back to sleep. Have I told you about Charlie the rooster yet? My first night here he was crowing at 1am, and 3am, and 5am, and 6am...Helen goes, "yeah, Charlie is very proud." Apparently. I am getting used to Charlie though, and the mosque. For the last few weeks I've felt the call to prayer at 5am every morning from the mosque three miles away was incredibly annoying, though I think it's beautiful at 8pm. Just something about that 5am wakeup call wasn't doing it for me. But for the last couple days when I've woken up and heard the call to prayer, I just lay in my bed and listen. It's beautiful. It is kind of a chant but sounds a bit like a song. I don't think it's a recording, because it sounds different sometimes.
Speaking of singing: a couple of times this week I have heard the students and some of the faculty singing in class before getting started. Their voices are lovely. The dean of the school has led the singing the couple of times I have heard, with the students singing a reply. I had no idea what was going on so I just stood there and listened. It gave me little shivers and made my eyes prickly and swelled in my chest. I could have listened to their beautiful voices all day. I don't know what they were singing, but I assume it was religious. The hospital here is a private Christian organization, and when I was in a faculty meeting this week, it was started and finished with a prayer. The students also start with a prayer before class begins.
On a completely different note: I love my cab driver. His name is Mr. Msangi and he is wonderful. A couple weeks ago after he had adopted me he told me to tell Paul, "not to worry, I take care of you." And he now tells me to give Paul his regards. Mr. Msangi never overcharges me, he teaches me Swahili as we drive, he is hilarious and I really do feel he will take care of me. One time he dropped me off in Rau, and I asked Mr. Msangi if he could come pick me up in an hour or so when I called. He told me it was a sketchy place and he would wait for me. I told him he didn't need to wait, I didn't know how long I would be, and he said he would just wait because he told Paul "I would take care of you." So he waited for an hour for me. He is just a cute little old man. He is shorter than me and walks with a limp and his hair has receded. He calls other drivers idiots and bastards, and one of my favorite things he said when we were going through a roundabout and people were driving poorly: "Are you driving or dancing? Drive!" He thinks the kids who go to the mzungu club Glacier are idiots and told me and Helen he would never take us there, "you would need a different driver to take you there," but we have no intention of going so it's okay. We told him what the lady at the fruit stand wanted to charge us for a watermelon (4,000 Tsh) and he said to never pay more than 2,000 Tsh and if we go to market this week he will have us wait in the car and he will go buy it for us. The purpose of this paragraph was just to make sure I remember Mr. Msangi, and to say that having a good cab driver can make things so much more pleasant.
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| Mr. Msangi |
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