Jaffaray's 1st posti

I still can't believe I'm here. How exactly did a little brown boy from Jane and Sheppard make it to Moshi, Tanzania?  Every morning I wake up and it hits me (literally) as I bang into my mosquito net and realize that I'm a world away. A world away from my mother's chicken curry and potatoes, Toronto Maple Leaf highlights and most importantly my man cave (essentially my basement). But before I share my thoughts on this on-going adventure, I want to give a big shout-out to Martha a.k.a. M-Dizzle for creating this blog. What a great way to share our stories with our family and friends as they takes place. I can't wait to re-read these posts when I'm freezing in a library on campus procrastinating from studying sometime in 2012.

It's only been five days, but I have come to know many things about Moshi and its people. For instance, a morning greeting is always genuine and never takes the form of a fake head nod or  smirk. Every morning, I look forward to hearing "habari za asabuhi" or "mambo" as my colleagues file into our transport van one by one.I've also learned that a simple smile will always be met with a subsequent smile. It is usually the best approach in demonstrating to the children of Moshi that you are "rafiki yake" (his/her friend). It is often the case that they are skeptical of the "wuzungu" (white people, or any other person who does not look like them), but smiles, high fives and letting them inspect your student ID badge (they love my never-ending last name) are the best strategies to date.

Today, I had a group of little girls say "good aftaanoon saaaa (sir)" in perfect unison as our jeep drove by. I was told that the greeting was directed at me since I was driving in the passenger seat. This made me especially happy, and was only one of many ways that the people of Moshi have made me feel a genuine sense of happiness. Being genuinely happy has been a common trend during my stay in Tanzania. I feel like it's embedded in the culture here. There isn't really a concept of the traditional 9-5 lifestyle, as there is always time to connect, listen and laugh. I think I can get used to this...

God Bless,

Jeff  (also known as Jaffary to my new found Tanzanian friends and TanzCrew)