Amy Medina

Some things are the same.  

The huge crowds.  

The excitement in the air.  

The noise makers.  

However, this particular kind of ball game probably wouldn’t attract the same kind of crowds in America.  Even with the “Real Madrid Legends” as the visiting team.  (If you don’t understand the significance of this, I won’t try to explain it to you.  Just trust me when I say it’s a big deal).

Even the President of Tanzania was in attendance.

No nachos or hot dogs sold at this game.  But candy, peanuts, samosas, and ice cream were plentiful.  Maybe the snack sellers at Dodger Stadium could learn a few tricks from these guys.

Another thing that’s the same?  I only go for the company.

I love her.

And Grace loves her girl.

Though we went as a family, ball games are not family events here.  The crowd was probably 90-95% men.  Very few women, and even fewer children.  When we go, we definitely stand out.  Once, we even got our picture in the newspaper the next day.  

It was fun, even though Tanzania lost.  

That is, it was fun until after the game.  But that incident is part of a bigger topic, so I will save that for the next post.  

So, today the vet came.

He sedated Precious [the Rhodesian Ridgeback], then lanced the infection out of her eye, and then injected her eye with antibiotics.

On the front porch.

Under the very interested gaze of my eight-year-old.

Who needs school?

Hey, this is nothing.  When I was a kid in Liberia, the vet neutered our dog on our kitchen table.  

School actually does start tomorrow.  But it can’t possibly be more interesting than this.

Okay, so it was a little tricky to get these pictures.  If you started randomly taking pictures of say, your neighbors, or the clerk at the grocery store, they would probably call the police.  I already stick out around here.  So I had to be kind of sneaky getting these pictures.  Which explains their lack of quality or general artistic-ness.

But hopefully, you get an idea of what it looks like around here.

There has been very little city planning in Dar es Salaam.  Very few streets have names and there is no organization to the buildings.  It’s very much a hodge-podge, and our “neighborhood” is no exception.

the outside of our gate

the view from our gate–the path leading up to the main road

Our neighbors directly in front of us.  There are multiple families living in this house.

The unfinished house on the path to our road.  It’s been unfinished the entire time we’ve lived here, but in the past couple of years, it looks like people are living there anyway.

Carpenter shop directly next to our house.  We hear their saws almost every day.  They recently made me a table for the kids’ play room, and they did a great job.  

Homes directly next to ours that are typically Tanzanian–concrete block, no indoor plumbing, very little electricity.

In contrast, this is a home very close by that is far nicer than our home.  

Children and goats

…and they love getting their picture taken.  They nagged me about when they could come over and play again (which happens 2-3 times a week).

A typical fruit and vegetable “duka.”  Sorry I couldn’t get closer….I couldn’t think of a good reason to take their picture and I didn’t want to freak them out.

Local bar.  We find it interesting that there is so much alcohol in this country, even though both Islam and [African] Christianity forbid it.  

The front of a car.  Um?  

Maybe this is the rest of the car….

Unfortunately, trash is everywhere.

The football pitch (soccer field) very near us

And I came home from my walk to this….Frodo had brought me a hedgehog.  How nice of him.