Africa is Home

Yup, Africa is my home, which is probably why I haven’t been posting much lately.  You see, once you get into a routine and make a place your home, it all just seems so normal and ordinary.  It’s interesting how one dog’s “extraordinary” is another’s “ordinary”, isn’t it?

Africa is Home

So what is ordinary for me, you ask?  Well, every morning I wake up on my TanFoam mattress after a (usually) good night’s sleep.  What might disturb my sleep: only the occasional power outages that kill our fan.  And the fan, well it kills two birds with one stone: it cools us off in the sticky African heat and it provides white noise to drown out the howling dogs, mosques, roosters, loud music, and other varied nighttime noises.

Oh yeah, I also disembowel stuffed animals on the bed, too

Most days my mom leaves me early in the morning to go to work and I get sad.  Mondays are especially bad since I’ve just gotten used to having mom around over the weekend and then poof, come Monday she’s gone again.  But at least I’ve got Agatha, my house girl, and Twiga, my kitty, to keep me company during the day.

Bros for life

When mom finally gets home from work, the exciting part of my day begins!  We always go on a walk around our neighborhood of Isamilo.  On every single one of these walks I’m haggled by passersby about what kind of animal I am or if I’m available for the taking.  Luckily I’ve gotten used to being the weirdo here in Mwanza so these comments just roll off my back as I trot along.

Keep on keeping on

When we get home from our afternoon walk, it’s usually almost sunset and since we’re nearly on the equator, the sun rises and sets more or less at the same time every single day.  The sun sets fast in Africa so if you’re not quick you’ll miss the beautiful sight!

Quickly setting…

The vibrant African sunset

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there you have it, a play-by-play of my daily life here in Tanzania.  Not so extraordinary when you’ve lived it for more than 9 months.  I bet you don’t think your daily life is very interesting either, but I’d beg to differ.  I’ve been in Africa for so long that I can’t even remember America.  Mom says it’s cold there and that there’s a thing called snow, but I don’t recall any such thing.  America and its snow sound exciting and adventurous, but then again, everyone says the same about living in Africa.  So I guess it’s just change that makes life interesting, huh?

I reckon I’ll need a new snowsuit when I get back

TanFoam Problems

TanFoam is a common mattress company in Tanzania and is the cause of much pain for both me and my mom.  Their motto is, “Welcome to our world of comfort”(http://www.tanfoam.com), but this weekend all mom and I experienced was discomfort.

Me in mom's bed

This weekend mom and I were both disabled thanks to her bed.  Mom has been having back problems because her foam bed is too soft.  I see her walking around in pain and I hate that there’s nothing I can do to help her.  Then, on Saturday night, somehow, I fell off the edge of the bed.  I’ve never done that before and it was pretty embarrassing.  One moment I was sleeping and the next, I’m on the floor.  Mom laughed at me because she didn’t realize that I landed on my foot funny and I didn’t want her to worry so I just went back to bed.

In the morning when I woke up I couldn’t walk on my foot, so I was hopping around like a tripod dog.  Mom decided to play doctor and cut a piece of fabric off a Delta Airlines blanket, wrapped it around my leg, and secured it with a safety pin and some clear tape.  All day I rested and hopped around with my makeshift cast.  I got lots of sympathy from Aunt Amanda, mom, Marcel, and Annabelle because of my condition.

My makeshift cast

Luckily, today I’m all better, but mom still hurts.  I’m hoping she’ll go out and get a new mattress this afternoon and avoid the TanFoam this time!  Or maybe I can even convince her to purchase a Tanfopedic bed instead!