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Meet Babu & Bibi
September 28th, 2010 hmcane12
I along with my 27 other classmates completed our homestay with various Iraqw families in the Rhotia area. Cool little fun fact, we are the 1st Americans to ever live with members of the Iraqw tribe in this area…ever. Brief background: the Iraqw, known as the Mbulu (in Swahili), are Cushitic people of the Arusha & Manyara regions of northern Tanzania (between the Rift Valley wall & south of Ngorongoro Crater). In 2001 the Iraqw population count was ~462,000.
Monday morning, Jackie (fellow student) and I walked about a mile, equipped with maize, drinking water, sugar, animal fat, and soap, to our assigned homestay. Halfway up a hill, we arrive at babu (grandfather) and bibi’s (grandmother) home. Their granddaughter, Johanna (age 20), skipped a day of secondary school to stay home with her grandparents and spend some time with the famous wazungus (white people) of Rhotia! …Johanna also spoke broken English so she helped immensely throughout the day. 
This is Johanna. We had so much fun with her. She was quirky , brilliant, and hilarious. 
This is where they prepare and cook every single meal. It was comparable to sitting in a box filled with smoke… Although Jackie and I repeatedly screamed, “Moto in the machos, moto in the machos!” all. day. long. (an attempt to say smoke in our eyes in Swahili) “bonfire” luckily is one of my favorite scents! While cooking, Johanna would casually pick up these burning hot dishes with her bare hands, without one flinch. After meals, we used hot charcoal to scrub the dirty dishes. 
This was our “choo” or toilet for the day. 
This is the main component of every meal, Ugali. It’s a common dish in TZ and Kenya, made from maize flour (cornmeal) and cooked with water to form porridge-like consistency…except it felt 1000x thicker 
my arm is so sore this morning from stirring-so pathetic. Like many other families in the rural Rhotia, Babu and Bibi owned a few acres of farmland. Because of the sole dependency on rainwater as a water source and complete lack of capital, farming/harvesting crops has become very difficult. 
much of the livestock are suffering. However, B&B were lucky enough to own a coffee tree 
which is not very common within Rhotia. 
This was the grave of Bibi’s mother…in their front yard. As an ice breaker, I think at least, they first made me shovel cow poop 
after awhile I got down & dirty with Bibi 
(she taught me the right technique). Although my efforts were, at times, laughed at
I think she appreciated the help. Even though Jackie ditched me when it came to shoveling cow poop, I found her out back 
splitting wood with babu. After this, Johanna gave me a quick tutorial on sarong tying 
she said I tied like “watoto” (children). After learning so much, Jackie & I wanted to share something with them…although we didn’t have much to work with…they did have a lemon tree! We attempted to pick some lemons 
not surprisingly, Johanna had to help us out a little bit 
. We cut 
and squeezed 
all 20 lemons (my thumbs were seriously so sore). I made sure the sugar content was perfect 
(Africans love sugar is an understatement). 
It was time to walk the lemonade over to the sitting room, where everyone was waiting… 
they made me try it first, just to prove it was “nzuri” (who knew lemons were so intimidating). Bibi tried it 
and literally spit it on the ground; however, Babu boosted our confidence 
he wouldn’t even look at the camera, he was too busy loving the entire pitcher. 
finally we got a smile out of him. 
They also sincerely enjoyed learning some English words in my Swahili-English phrasebook. After we fed the lemon rinds to the cows, bibi let us milk them 
it was Jackie’s first time! Before supper, Johanna took us on a hike up to the summit of Moyo Hill. She was not impressed with our endurance 
but we had so much fun 
! This homestay made me realize that a language barrier truly means nothing 
. Babu & bibi strictly spoke Swahili and Johanna spoke English sparingly…at the top of Moyo hill I asked Johanna why she hated the lemonade and she told me “Hutbund” Jackie took that as “husband” and I honestly thought she called me hot buns? After asking her if hot buns had some other meaning…and then realizing she said “heartburn”– we all had a great laugh and those moments, as cliché as it sounds, bring you closer. It’s funny because growing up in America, we are shown these huts in depressed areas and have almost been trained to think down upon them, as if they deserve some sympathy, but this way of life is not even close to being sad, it is beautiful. The level of genuine happiness is eye opening. It made me really question what truly creates satisfaction and pleasure. We feel pity for them because they don’t have microwaves or ovens to aid in cooking, but how are they supposed to desire more if they’ve never even been exposed to it? They are so content with what they have because that is enough…and we are the ones craving more. I apologize for rambling, but it really does make you want to reevaluate your life. Anyway, we’re going out to an African bar for a student’s birthday tonight so I got to run! And then Ngorongoro Crater on Friday…aka the national park known for lions. 
It’s the largest crater (due to volcanic activity) in the world…Rough life right?
☮Hannah
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HANNN!!!! Omg I miss you. These pics are sosososos cool. Wait…animal fat???? What is that for? Def. bring back one of those sarongs. They look so pretty. That crater looks incredibly dangerous…please don’t fall in. Also watch out for the lions, unless one of them is named Simba, then it is completely acceptable in hannah and kerry time to become friends with the lion. Miss you and hope you are well, can’t wait for you to be back tho! XOXOX
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