Days In Iringa 17.8.2007

Dear friends. In spite of of long silence, I still exist, so does the family, and all is fine. We arrived in Dar es Salaam at the end of June, then drove to hometown Iringa and took the first week or two to start a home again. Then followed four weeks at Riverside Campsite language training course. It was such a good opportunity to get some more practise in Kiswahili. I have to say it was high time to learn some more modern msamiati (vocabulary), e.g. one can not manage every day life any more without barua pepe (email).

I have started my new job, mostly trying to create the needed management routines and re-establish myself at university where I was given a new, spacious office. That I am very grateful about. The next challenge would be to learn to work there and not to bring work to home as I have done all my life - I wonder if that is even possible.

Girls have also updated their former friendships here. The very first weeks were not easy to Pihla, since all her friends were on holiday and traveling, and we found Iringa rather empty and quiet. I could tell she was missing back to Finland a lot. It broke my heart to notice the absence of joy and laughter in her life those days. Everyone who knows Pihla can tell she is always joking ang laughing: that was missing. Now I have seen the spark in her eyes again. Kaisli on the other hand seemed to find her “another me” here: more relaxed, more into books, more into being on her own, not spending all the time in the internet or sending text messages… there we have a child to whom Africa does only good. We all are expecting to have our first weekend campout somewhere in the bush, that is something we have missed a lot.

We also have a new family member, a kitten called Cookie. I have to admit she has become a real indoor pet, who even was allowed to travel with us to Dar es Salaam last week. She has a crush on Jyri: one morning when she noticed we were waking up, she jumped into our bed, completely ignored me and walked over me, put herself at front of Jyri’s face, patted him gently, kissed him, stretched herself carefully and started purring. That I would called shameless flirting!

Weather is getting warmer and warmer every day. Roses are so beautiful in the garden: some pink ones are as big as an adult’s fist. Every week I buy two large bunches of lilies from nearby flower garden – one white and one red to bring some colour and beauty in our sitting room. That luxury is not easily affordable in Finland, but here practically free of charge. Another delight is the vegetable and fruit market in town. As you notice, I have allowed myself to enjoy fully the best Tanzania can offer: ukarimu (hospitality) of people, nature’s richness and beauty, sun and warmth. We were also reminded of the darker side of this country, when Kaisli´s mobile phone was stolen – the real miracle was to get it back next week! I have never heard of any case when one would get a stolen phone back. I still find it hard to believe – but as we should already know, Tanzania is full of surprises.