House Visits and the Easter Bunny

Yesterday after doing an interview with an official in the agricultural office in Mto wa Mbu, a few of us went down to Rhotia to visit Chris and Theo. We thought we would only be hanging out in town with the two of them and making plans for Easter, but Chris invited us to his house a little outside of town so we all walked there with him to visit. Walking down the road to his house, we faced one of the nicest views I have seen yet. The rolling hills were covered in maize fields and lines of different crops, all bright green after the recent rain. A huge lone tree towered at the intersection of two dirt roads, and Chris told us that it was the place where village meetings took place. I can’t imagine a nicer place to meet.

When we arrived to his house, Chris’ housemate greeted us and brought us fantas. We took a tour of his house (he has a dog with newborn puppies that are adorableee!) and then sat out in the yard and drank the sodas and looked at pictures of his family together. His immediate family lives far away, but many of his relatives live nearby and we stopped by their house on the way back. The grandmother, a woman who looked older than time, hobbled over and kissed our hands, and I didn’t know what to do so I gave her a hug. All of them were very nice seeming, but it was hard to tell what was going on since most didn’t really speak Swahili and as I’ve mentioned before, the Iraqw language is so completely incomprehensible that I can’t even pronounce most of the words. Most of the words include sounds that I have never heard spoken before… I can’t imagine that anyone is able to learn the language having not grown up speaking it. Anyways, as we left the relatives’ home, a man came running up behind us waving his arms wildly and beaming. We weren’t sure what was going on, and he grabbed our hands and shook them vigorously and then hugged Chris’ legs and kept exclaiming something. After he left we asked Chris what he had been saying/doing, and he said that it was his uncle and he was “just happy to see us.” He also told us that his uncle especially liked beer. Aha.

Today we were invited back to the house, only this time to come a little earlier so we wouldn’t have to rush back so fast afterwards. Chris told us he would make us dinner, and insisted no matter how much we protested, so we left at 4pm today and met him and Theo downtown again. This time Marta (one of the staff from SFS) joined us, and Chris also said that about six friends were at his house waiting for us. We bought a bunch of sodas to contribute to dinner, and walked to his house again to find that there were not only six visitors, but that all the women in his extended family had come to the house to cook for us! They all crowded into the house when we got there, and set the table with a whole feast of rice and meat and chicken and pasta and various types of fruit. What a surprise! They were all dressed in nice fancy clothes, and I was glad that I had made sure to wear a skirt and nice shirt for town. We all ate together and then they all invited us outside and did a welcome dance for us. The whole thing was so nice, I was totally taken by surprise! They invited us to join them and showed us how to do the dance while Chris, Theo, and Marta watched and laughed.  It was a lot of fun and they made us feel so welcome. At the end we all took a “family picture” together in front of his house. What a day!

Family Photo

Learning the dance!

Tomorrow we are going to Theo’s house after Easter mass, since he says it is his turn to host us. I am excited to see what it is like here on Easter- I think it will be a very big deal! They say that it is kind of like Christmas and New Year’s day here, and that they all have big celebrations at home. I’m sure the church will be packed! Just in case you were wondering, the Easter Bunny doesn’t seem to make it to Tanzania. When we mentioned the traditions we have on Easter and described the story of the Easter Bunny, Theo and Chris were dumbfounded and told us that they just celebrated Jesus. Theo stared at me blankly when I tried to explain. “...A rabbit?” Describing our various holidays and how a man dressed in a red suit comes to deliver presents on Christmas was hilarious and made me realize how silly some of our traditions must seem from an outsider’s perspective!