Day 11 (6/28):
So not a lot has been going on since Sunday; however, some of you have confessed to me that you keep up on my blog every day. I promise from here on out to update every day or every other day just so you know that I’m safe and doing ok.
Alright, so like I said, Monday dawned and we were SORE. My legs and butt and other areas were not happy that I was putting those muscles to use. For real. Walking to class was a sordid affair. We were all slow and acting like old women on the way. I decided to wear black leggings and my long blue shirt so as nice to have to deal with chaffing jeans. Not fun.
Class was fine, boring, but we had some good conversations. It’s interesting how all of us in the class are similar in a lot of ways. Meaning that we are all strong-minded females who think we know everything there is to know about whatever it is we’ve chosen to talk about. It can get tense. It’s stimulating, though, which is nice.
After class, I went back to the hotel to check email and Libby went to order the cake with another girl in our group for a separate girls whose birthday was the next day.
After she got back from doing errands, Libby, Emily and I decided to head back to the market for more shopping. You definitely have to be in the zone when you go to the market, otherwise they will literally swindle the hell out of you. I didn’t too bad. The things I bought I got for good prices, but I probably could have gotten them for better prices had I been on my game. Ah well, such is life. If it means a little more in their pockets for ugali for their children, what do I care?
After getting back from the market, Libby and I decided to watch 10 Things I Hate About You on her computer. That was a fun, short movie to watch before soccer came on at 5. Her and I really stick to our routine. I think it gives us both comfort to have something set to do every day, especially something we do together. We get a little anxious when things shake up our routine, but we roll with it no matter what.
After dinner, I skyped with my floor partner from last year, Jennie. It was nice to talk to someone not my family. Not that I don’t enjoy talking to my family on skype or email, that’s not the case at all, it’s just nice to have a diversity of people to talk to. Sometimes I feel like I say the same things over and over again with my family and I feel like I get boring.
Once again, after skype, Libby and I watched soccer and then crashed. We were both still pretty tired from camels the day before.
Day 12 (6/29):
Despite those first two nights, I have literally slept like a baby since then, which is amazing. This experience would be SO much harder to deal with if I didn’t get regular sleep and laid awake the whole night. It would suck (sorry for my language, mom). We also have awesome sleeping weather here. It’s a little chilly at night, so its perfect to snuggle under the covers.
Anyway, I was less sore this morning than yesterday, but I definitely think it will take me most of the week not to feel tight, or like I need to stretch frequently.
As I mentioned earlier, it was one of the girl’s 21st birthday in our group, so after class we had the hotel make us lunch instead of dinner because we were going out to dinner later. We had the cake that had been ordered the day before, which was delicious, but not candles unfortunately. I don’t know if its traditional to blow out candles on your birthday cake here in Tanzania. Who knows. Either way, it was really nice.
We all split up and did separate things for the afternoon. Libby, Emily, and I went back to the room and hung out on Emily’s huge bed. Libby and I share a room so we each get a separate twin bed. Emily, however, has the room to herself, and has this huge queen-sized bed. Em was sewing a book cover out of cloth she had bought at the market, to make her boring journal look nicer. Libby and I just laid on the bed and listened to music while she worked on it. At some point we decided we wanted to watch UP, so we called another girl to join us. She said she’s be over soon, so when the door to our apartment opened, we figured it was her. Emily called out, “Come join us! We’re snuggling on the bed!” We then heard a meek voice say, “housekeeping?” and we realized that it wasn’t our friend who’d come in, but the housekeeper to drop of toilet paper and towels, and we’d just invited her to snuggle. We were all pretty embarrassed, which of course made of crack up laughing. I went to face the nice woman, Flora, and accepted what she had brought. As she left, she said “no problems” which only made us laugh harder. We then continued to bring it up and make fun of Emily for it for the rest of the afternoon.
Through a series of strange miscommunications, our friend never actually ended up coming, until we called her, asking what the deal was. By the time she came over and explained what happened, it was ten after six and we had to meet downstairs to catch the taxi-bus to dinner.
The birthday girl, Jami, decided on a Chinese restaurant nearby, called Dragon Pearl. It was a beautiful restaurant. The manager clearly knew how to deal with big groups of Americans and served us personally, making sure we got enough food for everyone without overordering. We ended up taking four take-away boxes back with us, one with rice, one with noodles, and two with dinner-food. I’d say we did pretty well.
Dinner was delicious, and needless the say, the birthday girl got rightfully tipsy. It was her 21st, after all, and she was in Africa. We had the taxi-bus come pick us up and bring us back to the hotel. I am safe and sound in my apartment, writing this blog entry, watching the soccer game with Libby, and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow will be my first day volunteering with one of the Human Rights organizations. I’m excited to see how that goes. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated.
Also! I’ve heard from some people about postcards, which is amazingly fast considering how long I thought it’d take for them to get to everyone. If you already told me you got it, please disregard, if you got it and haven’t told me, however, please let me know! I’d love to hear from you all on what you think of them, and if I should send more.
That’s all for now. Love and miss you all!
Colleen
Ngorongoro
Ngorongoro - Zebra
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Do You Think The Camel Takes Visa?
Day 9 (6/26):
We were scheduled to do a camel-safari today, but when we woke up, it had rained through the night and it was still pretty muggy out. It does this every day, so most of us had no doubts that it would clear up before noon, the girl who had sort of taken charge of organizing the excursion, however, went ahead and postponed it for the next day (Sun). We were all pretty disappointed since then we had nothing to do all day. We mostly lazed around and did small things. I read for a while, Emily did laundry (we hand-wash our clothes) and Libby worked on her research paper.
We eventually went to the Peace Research Center so that we could access internet because the rain had cut it out for us in the resort. We stayed there until noon, and then Libby and Emily and I headed back. We stopped at the grocery store on the way. Emily needed snacks, and I needed something to drink other than water in the apartment.
It was a slow day, so by the time lunch-time rolled around, I was tired of doing nothing so I ventured to the other apartments and found people interested in eating. We went into town for lunch, at Africafe. After that we went back to the apartment and literally just hung around until soccer started at 5. We watched the game until dinner.
After dinner most of the girls came back to our apartment for cards and just hanging out. We listened to music and drank banana wine, it was a lot of fun. We watched USA v. Ghana at 9:30 and suffered when they lost after a hard-fought game.
Day 10 (6/27):
We woke up this morning and already at 9am the sun was out. We knew today would be a good day. We ate breakfast and when our taxi-bus arrived, all piled into it.
It was a long, bumpy, dusty ride out of Arusha. We spent two hours in the bus, and out into sparse, barren, Serengeti plain. Most of the roads are only half finished, mostly you’re driving over bumpy, gravelly, rocky terrain. This was my first experience doing a drive like that, and I have to say, I will never complain about potholes the same way.
I sort of have this irrational fear of tipping over while in a car. I know that sounds silly, but if you had seen the roads. They are elevated, obviously, so that rain water can wash away, but the divets on each side of the road aren’t paved like the road is. And sometimes they are seriously deep. Meaning, that if one tire were to slip off the road and into the divet, the entire taxi-bus would be in danger of tipping over. It was stressful to say the least. Definitely not what I was expecting. When we finally pulled off the main road, it got worse.
There is nothing out there. When I say nothing, I mean nothing. It’s beautiful landscape. There is really no comparison to the Serengeti landscape, but it is hard to feel miniscule and pointless when driving through it. We would occasionally pass a Maasai village, or see little shepherd children herding their goats or sheep. Every time we passed a child or villager, they waved. There is an insane amount of friendliness and hospitality displayed by the Maasai people that we don’t receive in the city.
By the time we drive down into and up out of, again, our third riverbed, my anxiety level was through the roof. I didn’t know where we were. We were in the middle of nowhere, two hours outside of the city, with nothing but a bus full of 12 white girls and our bus driver and two guides with us. To say that I felt alone and insignificant is an understatement. I came close to a panic attack because of it.
We finally pulled into the Mkuru Camel Camp at around noon, having left the resort at 10. There were three low buildings and no camels. Not knowing anything about how this day would work and whether we would be able to leave in time to get back before it got dark, I was stressed. I’m saying all of this because it’s a blog and I’m supposed to be truthful. Not to deter anyone from doing this. Keep reading. It gets better. We sat at tables in one of the buildings which was open-air and waited for instructions. We were told that we would be taken up into the foothills a little ways and meet the Maasai people firsthand, in their village.
The Mkuru Camel Camp essentially is a cooperative organization that works with the local Maasai village. Tourists are allowed to come and meet the people and take pictures, learn about the Maasai culture, and then take a camel-back ride to some local caves. The point of this is to raise awareness and support of the Maasai people, and to maintain a sustainable goal in tourism.
We were told on the way to the village that the people were preparing a celebration. There was a circumcision to take place for the girls of age, and they were preparing a feast for the occasion. When females in the Maasai culture (and some other tribal African cultures) come of age, they undergo a procedure of female circumcision. The clitoris and labia are altered/removed so that sexual intercourse is for the sole purpose of producing children. While this probably sounds horrible and barbaric, its part of the rite of passage to becoming a woman with these people, and a cause for celebration. Any uncircumcised woman is not eligible for marriage, and therefore will most likely die because she cannot support a family without a husband.
The children in the village were especially adorable. We were told that a local NGO from Italy was camped nearby and helping them dig wells. The kids knew “ciao” from the Italians, so all they shouted as we took pictures of them and interacted with them was “ciao”. It was adorable.
After touring the village we returned to the main compound where we started and ate lunch. They provided us with rice (as usual) and vegetables and meat in sauce. They also provided ugali, which is a staple-food to the East African region made of something similar to cornmeal.
By the time we were finished our lunch, our camels were saddled and ready. At this point I’d calmed down slightly, because the organization where we were was legit and because they knew to have us on the road with enough time to get back before dark.
Me and Libby shared a camel named Lillian. She was pretty ornery, but only because she was one of the few females in the group, and apparently did not enjoy being pulled away from her male suitors. The safari was two hours. One hour ride to the caves and one hour ride back. We landscape, as I said, was beautiful. There is no way I can describe to you how vast it was. I have never felt smaller in my life. The caves they took us to were really a dried up dam leftover from the German colonists. Since there was no water (rainy season was over) local baboons had taken up residence in the upper reaches of the caves and parts of the gorge. It was pretty incredible, since the gorge gave us a splendid view of the plateau below us. We took a million pictures and then hopped back on our camels to ride back.
Camel-riding, I’d have to say, is infinitely better than horse-back riding. Horses tend to be more sociable, I guess, but they are also more flighty, and less sure-footed. Camels are mean, and gross, and nasty, but I never felt unsafe on top of the camel, and I was a good 12/13 feet in the air, and my sight level.
We got back, paid the $35 USD and headed back around 4pm. It was a good day overall. This trip only goes to show how embarrassingly uncomfortable I sometimes am outside of my comfort zone. I freak out. Its something I need to work on. By the time we were on the camels and I had a time-frame I was fine, but the entire time in the Maasai village I was upset and anxious. I think its one of those things where some people are afraid of small spaces, I definitely was wigging out with all the open, empty space.
Like I said, the experience was amazing and I am so glad I did it. I was even able to have fun when we were doing the camel-riding. I just need to be able to roll with the punches and adapt a little bit better and a little more quickly.
When we finally got back to the hotel, we were all caked in dust and dirt from the road. I wrote this blog before dinner and my roommates showered. I’m going to shower all the dirt off me when the hot water comes back, hopefully.
Tomorrow is back to class and normal things in Arusha. No more safari-adventures until next weekend!
Love and miss you all
Colleen Claire
We were scheduled to do a camel-safari today, but when we woke up, it had rained through the night and it was still pretty muggy out. It does this every day, so most of us had no doubts that it would clear up before noon, the girl who had sort of taken charge of organizing the excursion, however, went ahead and postponed it for the next day (Sun). We were all pretty disappointed since then we had nothing to do all day. We mostly lazed around and did small things. I read for a while, Emily did laundry (we hand-wash our clothes) and Libby worked on her research paper.
We eventually went to the Peace Research Center so that we could access internet because the rain had cut it out for us in the resort. We stayed there until noon, and then Libby and Emily and I headed back. We stopped at the grocery store on the way. Emily needed snacks, and I needed something to drink other than water in the apartment.
It was a slow day, so by the time lunch-time rolled around, I was tired of doing nothing so I ventured to the other apartments and found people interested in eating. We went into town for lunch, at Africafe. After that we went back to the apartment and literally just hung around until soccer started at 5. We watched the game until dinner.
After dinner most of the girls came back to our apartment for cards and just hanging out. We listened to music and drank banana wine, it was a lot of fun. We watched USA v. Ghana at 9:30 and suffered when they lost after a hard-fought game.
Day 10 (6/27):
We woke up this morning and already at 9am the sun was out. We knew today would be a good day. We ate breakfast and when our taxi-bus arrived, all piled into it.
It was a long, bumpy, dusty ride out of Arusha. We spent two hours in the bus, and out into sparse, barren, Serengeti plain. Most of the roads are only half finished, mostly you’re driving over bumpy, gravelly, rocky terrain. This was my first experience doing a drive like that, and I have to say, I will never complain about potholes the same way.
I sort of have this irrational fear of tipping over while in a car. I know that sounds silly, but if you had seen the roads. They are elevated, obviously, so that rain water can wash away, but the divets on each side of the road aren’t paved like the road is. And sometimes they are seriously deep. Meaning, that if one tire were to slip off the road and into the divet, the entire taxi-bus would be in danger of tipping over. It was stressful to say the least. Definitely not what I was expecting. When we finally pulled off the main road, it got worse.
There is nothing out there. When I say nothing, I mean nothing. It’s beautiful landscape. There is really no comparison to the Serengeti landscape, but it is hard to feel miniscule and pointless when driving through it. We would occasionally pass a Maasai village, or see little shepherd children herding their goats or sheep. Every time we passed a child or villager, they waved. There is an insane amount of friendliness and hospitality displayed by the Maasai people that we don’t receive in the city.
By the time we drive down into and up out of, again, our third riverbed, my anxiety level was through the roof. I didn’t know where we were. We were in the middle of nowhere, two hours outside of the city, with nothing but a bus full of 12 white girls and our bus driver and two guides with us. To say that I felt alone and insignificant is an understatement. I came close to a panic attack because of it.
We finally pulled into the Mkuru Camel Camp at around noon, having left the resort at 10. There were three low buildings and no camels. Not knowing anything about how this day would work and whether we would be able to leave in time to get back before it got dark, I was stressed. I’m saying all of this because it’s a blog and I’m supposed to be truthful. Not to deter anyone from doing this. Keep reading. It gets better. We sat at tables in one of the buildings which was open-air and waited for instructions. We were told that we would be taken up into the foothills a little ways and meet the Maasai people firsthand, in their village.
The Mkuru Camel Camp essentially is a cooperative organization that works with the local Maasai village. Tourists are allowed to come and meet the people and take pictures, learn about the Maasai culture, and then take a camel-back ride to some local caves. The point of this is to raise awareness and support of the Maasai people, and to maintain a sustainable goal in tourism.
We were told on the way to the village that the people were preparing a celebration. There was a circumcision to take place for the girls of age, and they were preparing a feast for the occasion. When females in the Maasai culture (and some other tribal African cultures) come of age, they undergo a procedure of female circumcision. The clitoris and labia are altered/removed so that sexual intercourse is for the sole purpose of producing children. While this probably sounds horrible and barbaric, its part of the rite of passage to becoming a woman with these people, and a cause for celebration. Any uncircumcised woman is not eligible for marriage, and therefore will most likely die because she cannot support a family without a husband.
The children in the village were especially adorable. We were told that a local NGO from Italy was camped nearby and helping them dig wells. The kids knew “ciao” from the Italians, so all they shouted as we took pictures of them and interacted with them was “ciao”. It was adorable.
After touring the village we returned to the main compound where we started and ate lunch. They provided us with rice (as usual) and vegetables and meat in sauce. They also provided ugali, which is a staple-food to the East African region made of something similar to cornmeal.
By the time we were finished our lunch, our camels were saddled and ready. At this point I’d calmed down slightly, because the organization where we were was legit and because they knew to have us on the road with enough time to get back before dark.
Me and Libby shared a camel named Lillian. She was pretty ornery, but only because she was one of the few females in the group, and apparently did not enjoy being pulled away from her male suitors. The safari was two hours. One hour ride to the caves and one hour ride back. We landscape, as I said, was beautiful. There is no way I can describe to you how vast it was. I have never felt smaller in my life. The caves they took us to were really a dried up dam leftover from the German colonists. Since there was no water (rainy season was over) local baboons had taken up residence in the upper reaches of the caves and parts of the gorge. It was pretty incredible, since the gorge gave us a splendid view of the plateau below us. We took a million pictures and then hopped back on our camels to ride back.
Camel-riding, I’d have to say, is infinitely better than horse-back riding. Horses tend to be more sociable, I guess, but they are also more flighty, and less sure-footed. Camels are mean, and gross, and nasty, but I never felt unsafe on top of the camel, and I was a good 12/13 feet in the air, and my sight level.
We got back, paid the $35 USD and headed back around 4pm. It was a good day overall. This trip only goes to show how embarrassingly uncomfortable I sometimes am outside of my comfort zone. I freak out. Its something I need to work on. By the time we were on the camels and I had a time-frame I was fine, but the entire time in the Maasai village I was upset and anxious. I think its one of those things where some people are afraid of small spaces, I definitely was wigging out with all the open, empty space.
Like I said, the experience was amazing and I am so glad I did it. I was even able to have fun when we were doing the camel-riding. I just need to be able to roll with the punches and adapt a little bit better and a little more quickly.
When we finally got back to the hotel, we were all caked in dust and dirt from the road. I wrote this blog before dinner and my roommates showered. I’m going to shower all the dirt off me when the hot water comes back, hopefully.
Tomorrow is back to class and normal things in Arusha. No more safari-adventures until next weekend!
Love and miss you all
Colleen Claire
Friday, June 25, 2010
I'm Alive! I promise (long post)
Day 6 (6/23):
I hope I don’t start repeating myself too much on these. I’m trying to post the most interesting things that happen to me, or even just the stuff that sticks with me most throughout the day. Ah well. Here goes.
Wednesday started out the same. We have three options of eggs for breakfast in the morning: scrambled, fried, or “Spanish” (which is essentially a green pepper omelet). I had decided to be brave the previous morning and try the Spanish omelet. Bad choice. I went with just toast this time. Toast, tea, and juice. My morning staple.
Class was the same. Some days its really interesting, and we have awesome discussions and really cool debates over world issues, and then other days its just kind of boring and we have to pick a part international documents that just kind of run into each other after a while. The weather here has a lot to do with it too. Every day is pretty much the same, it’s chilly in the morning and kind of overcast and as the day goes on it gets warmer and the sun burns the clouds away. But even though we’ve only been here a week, we’ve all kind of been able to tell which days will take longer for the sun to come out, and those days the conversation usually lags. Those days all we want to do is snuggle in our beds.
After class my roommates and I decided to venture to the more touristy market that we had failed to find the day before. It was AWESOME. Exactly what we had been looking for the day before. Not to say that I don’t want to see authentic Arusha or experience what local life is like, but other than shady street vendors with stolen goods, we hadn’t been able to find any places where we could feasibly buy gifts for family or even for ourselves. This place was exactly what we were looking for.
So the Maasai people are the local tribal people in the East African region, not just Tanzania. Unfortunately, though their culture is amazing and rich, they are mostly destitute and poor. A lot of times they will make crafts and small gifts and things to bring to the bigger towns to sell. This is what the market was. It was several lanes of tightly packed shopfronts with all different wares. From jewelry, to traditional Maasai weaponry (spears, knives) to typical African clothing, like congas and katangas. It was amazing. If you need a comparison, it’s probably be best to compare the Maasai people and their products to the Amish people who sell things at Reading Terminal Market. The best part of it, however, is that they hike up the price for white tourists because I guess enough of them pay the asking price, but they’re really impressed when you haggle and barter with them, and are much more willing to lower the price. Rule of thumb is generally to go at least half of whatever their first offer is, and work from there.
We had SO much fun. It was amazing and overwhelming and fun. I bought this really beautiful blue scarf (more on that later) and a traditional conga that I may get made into a wrap skirt by one of the local tailors.
By the time we got out of the market, we were tired and hungry and hadn’t eaten since breakfast. We decided to try a place called Africafe, which is a very western-style, tourist coffee house. We were so hungry by the time we ordered, however, that we couldn’t back out when we saw the price tag. I ordered a cheese burger (yes, I’m ashamed to admit it) which was $8,500 shilling, roughly 6.71 USD. For those of you who don’t know Arusha or even Africa, that’s kind of outrageously expensive. But then again it’s meant to be. We have many other options to eat in town that are cheaper and cater to local food, but we wanted to say we’d gone there at least once. I’m ashamed to admit how absolutely ecstatic I was about my burger. I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever had a better burger in the states. Maybe its because I was starving or because I was missing food from home, but its embarrassing how much I enjoyed that burger, lol.
After we got back from lunch, we decided to play cards together (I taught the girls rummy, family, you would be impressed) and watched the world cup. It’s nice because the world cup plays games at regular intervals on the tv here, so every day we watch the 5 oclock game, which ends right at 7, in time for dinner. (I saw the entire USA game, and saw that final goal. EPIC). And then there’s a game at 9:30 which we watch. Emily usually goes to be by that time, so Libby and I have our nightly routine where I play mahjong titans or chess on my computer and write my blog entry and she does the class readings and we have the world cup on low or mute until it ends at like 11:30 and we both go to bed. It’s nice to have a routine with her, especially since we get along so well.
After dinner, before the heading back to our room, I had another girl in our group, Amran, show me how to wrap my hair with the scarf I bought at the market. I’m very excited and will most likely wear my hair like that off the plane. It’s a nice look, it’s practical, and its easy, especially when my hair gets gross and I don’t feel like doing it that day. I’ve learned a life skill that I cannot wait to bring back to the states.
Day 7 (6/24):
As previously mentioned, I tried to spice things up on Tuesday by trying the Spanish eggs, and that was a mistake, but I decided two days later to try the last option, the fried egg. Spanish eggs? Bad decision. Fried egg? Best decision I ever made in my life. The eggs here have very light yolks. I mean, they exist, but when they make scrambled eggs, its almost as if its only whites, that’s how light the yolks are. But the fried egg was amazing. I buttered my toast, stuck that bad boy on there, added some salt, and I was in heavy. It was a nice addition of protein to my morning. The other piece of toast I usually reserve for buttering and adding marmalade. A nice dichotomy of salty sweet. Anyone who knows me, knows I love me some salty-sweet.
Class was interesting again today, but like my theory proves, the sun came out earlier, and we got our first good shot of Mt. Meru since we got here. I was stoked. I got some good pictures, but I can’t wait to get more. There is something seriously incredible about being able to come back to the apartment complex, glance over your shoulder, and see the second highest mountain in the country saying hello. Especially since a lot of times the clouds are still there, but they are wispy enough to be able to see both sides and the peak. Awesomeness.
After class we met up with Auntie Frida, our assistant program director, at the Peace Research Center and she talked to us about volunteer opportunities for us while we’re here. Heifer International isn’t accepting any more volunteers, unfortunately, but there are two others that interest me. One is called Uhai and it’s for people and orphans suffering from HIV/Aids and it would mostly be delivering food to their homes. The other one is at an organization called Shanga and they employ physically disabled and deaf individuals to make crafts and things to sell. It’s significant because in African culture, people with disabilities are outcast and stigmatized as cursed so it’s really hard for them to find employment. I know Rich and Patrick are probably laughing right now, but it’s sort of a serious problem here so I’m excited to see how that is. We’re going there for lunch tomorrow to meet with the people and see if they need help from any of us.
At the Center, we also met two girls from the spring semester trip who had stayed a little while after it was over to do other traveling. They were really awesome to talk to because they gave us names of trustworthy people in town and like good places that were cheap to eat at and just general advice. It made me sad though, because these girls had been there since February and they were leaving to go back to the states and while I know I would have never been able to handle that long of a time away from home, I know that 5 weeks isn’t nearly enough to cultivate the types of friendships they made and experiences they saw. It sort of motivated me to be more optimistic and outgoing about being here and to make the most out of what I can. I know that’s common sense going in, and I know that most of you said that it would get easier every day, but I’d like to give you all a pat on the back and say that yes, you were right. It does get easier every day, and not even easier, more enjoyable. It helps that I’m building stronger bonds with the girls here, but it’s definitely my adjustment to life here is smoother and I’m excited for everything that I’ll see and bring home with me. (Starting with learning to wrap my hair)
We took the advice of the girls and tried a new place for lunch that was right across the street from Africafe, next to the bookstore where we buy postcards and like infinitely cheaper. They sell traditional Tanzanian food, and some more western style foods, but its all cheap, and its all made with their tourist customers in mind, even if the majority are locals. Like, they make sure they boil the water they wash the fruit in, that kind of stuff. Which I liked a lot. I got a chocolate crepe and sweet tea for $4,500 shilling ($3.21 USD). It was awesome.
Since we only have two meals a day served to us, (and trust me, they’re awesome. None of us complain about the food at the hotel. It rocks), we decided as a group to do dinner every day, and figure out lunch on our own. As cheap as things are here, lunch every day adds up. So we hit the grocery store on the way home to start making sandwiches to bring for after class. I bought brown bread, which is kind of like a mixture of wheat and rye (yum), peanut butter, and mixed fruit island jam. For PB&J sammies. Fun fact: simba in Swahili is the word for lion, while rafiki is the word for friend. Tembo is elephant, and hakuna matata really means “no worries”. Oh, and safari really means journey.
I also found nutella at the supermarket we went to, which is hard to find here, and it was mad expensive. But also totally worth it. I cannot wait to get back to my room after class next week and chomp down on nutella toast and pb&j.
Day 8 (6/25):
So a lot of the program that I’m on is about self-motiviation. By that I mean, you’re expected to figure things out yourself, and then seek assistance when needed. Not necessarily that they set things up for you and you take advantage of them. That’s not exactly what I expected, and I think it’s slightly unrealistic in a 5 week time frame, but that’s the way it is, so whatever. I’m saying this in relation mostly to volunteer work. I realized when I got to college that a lot of people volunteer, or have, in their lives. Other than the occasional holiday where I would help my mom wrap presents for local families or make up food baskets, and at school once where I helped do housework in Philly, I haven’t done as serious outreach/volunteering as most of my peers. So like, volunteer culture is something strange to me. Not bad, by any means, just something I’m not familiar with.
Here, though, there is an expectation that you will get involved in some kind of volunteer work, and there’s even a certificate if you complete more than 15 hours of volunteer work and it recognizes the extra-curricular experiences you’ve pursued. So anyway, not complaining, just explaining why this is new to me.
So Alex, this girl in my group, is a Criminology major from University of Florida, so when she heard that we would possibly be able to sit in on a court proceeding for the United Nations International Tribunal Council for Rwanda, she got really excited. She talked to our program director and really took the initiative to set up us going. Technically all the proceedings are open to the public, but its kind of tricky trying to finagle a group of 17 going. Either way, after working on it for most of the week, she told us yesterday that she would go over in the morning (it’s a 2 minute walk from our classroom) and make sure they would accept all of us, and then she would pick us up from class and we would go. 20 minutes into class she showed up and gave us the ok. We all trekked over to the Arusha International Conference Center (AICC) where the United Nations Interntional Tribunal Council for Rwanda meet and try war criminals from the Rwandan genocide. That whole things sounds lofty and cool right now, but none of us really knew the gravity of what that meant until we got there, and then not even fully until after we left.
We were able to sit in on the morning sessions of the case. From 9-10:30 and then from 11-12:30. We sat in a long room with one wall of glass windows looking into the courtroom. There were TVs for us to be able to watch the close-ups even though we could see clearly through the glass and then we had headsets so that we could listen, since the prosecution was in French. The three judges presiding over the case were really intense, as was the whole experience.
Basically, for those of you who don’t know, in April 1994, the president of Rwanda was assassinated. His plane was shot out of the sky. The political tension that had already been present in the country for several months previous came to a head at this point. There was division between the two ethnic groups in the country, the Hutus and the Tutsis. Essentially, these groups didn’t exist before the Belgian colonists came and needed a way to divide and conquer, so they vagrantly made up physical differences between these people and restricted them from marrying into the other group, from interacting, from everything. After many years of this, it wasn’t made up any more, the divide existed between the people. The Belgians succeeded in creating a great enough difference between the people that they didn’t think to rebel against their colonists. After Rwanda received its independence, those divisions still existed. Like I said, it all came to a head in April 1994, with the president’s assassination and what ensued what the genocide of nearly 800,000-1 million Tutsi Rwandans by their opposing ethnic group, the Hutus.
The government officials, who allowed this to take place, and who staged the coup-de-tat against the regime are considered war criminals, and while we weren’t able to see the individual they were trying today, we saw the testimony and cross-examination of another war criminal who has already been tried and convicted of 11 crimes against humanity and is serving a life sentence in prison, bearing witness against him. Our chairs were lined up behind the witness stand, on the other side of the glass. I literally was separated by 2 and a half feet, and a thin pane of glass, from a man (Colonel Bagosora) who was in part responsible for the death of almost 1 million Rwandan people.
The prosecution mostly questioned him about the night of the coup, and his role in it. It was funny, when they asked him the course of events for that night; he said that “stumbled” on a meeting of the Chiefs of Staff in the government, which was against the law. None of the people present at the meeting the night of the president’s assassination had authorization to hold a meeting like that, and when he “found” the meeting that night, the other people present were considerate enough to invite him to be co-chair of the meeting.
The whole experience was intense and interesting and made me so much more sure of that I want to deal with genocide and the charging of war criminals. Today was the first time I was interested in and excited for law school. I can’t even begin to explain the gravity of my experience. Maybe it will be one of those things that I will just keep for myself, because I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to explain to someone what that experience meant to me.
Ok, so, other than that, which was amazing, we then left and were picked up from the Museum to go to Shanga for lunch, as mentioned before.
After driving out of Arusha for 25 minutes, we pulled off the main road onto a dirt road with forest on one side and some kind of farm on the other. We turned into a small driveway and see a small compound set in a pretty clearing in the forest. We walked through an arch of beaded glass and recycled ceramic pieces into the main clearing. It was a series of low open buildings with people working at various stages of craft on beadings and jewelry and cloth. Shanga, like I said before, is an organization set on a beautiful coffee plantation (hence the farm on the way in) that employs physically disabled and deaf/mute individuals. They pay them well and allow them to be proud of the work they do. They had a gift shop on premises and set in a beautiful garden on the grounds. 100% of the sales from the restaurant and the fit shop went back to the organization. Not only is it morally awesome, but they are also almost completely environmentally sustainable. All of the firewood used to fuel the kilns where they were making the beads comes from the coffee plantation next door, and not from clear cutting the forest around them. They work with the Maasai people to learn the craft of their jewelry-making and collaborate within the organization. All of the cotton used to make katangas and congas is grown locally. The packaging they use to sell the jewelry and products is made from recycled paper in the compound, and they receive glass and aluminum from restaurants and manufacturing places respectively, from Arusha. This place was amazing. Behind the buildings was a beautiful sloping lawn with recycled wood chairs and couches with handmade pillows and cushions, and across the lawn was the restaurant where we got treated to lunch. This restaurant was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to. It must have been 5 star quality, AND everything about the restaurant was sustainable and organic. The food was delicious and the experience was amazing. I plan on doing a lot of my volunteer work at this place. Another cool thing they did was offer Tanzanian Sign Language to the non-deaf workers so that they have a common language that everyone can understand between them.
The food was delicious and fresh and yummy and the coffee from the plantation next door they had us drink with desert was the most delicious coffee I’ve ever tasted in my life. I bought a bag of beans just to bring home and drink. SO good. (How good, Pat? So good.)
The entire day was overwhelming because we did two pretty major things in one day whereas we only usually do one small thing, so we all needed some process time afterwards. I wrote my blog, obviously, and now I’m going to eat dinner.
The line-up for this weekend:
Sat – camel-back safari near Mt. Meru
Sun – music swap with the roomies and maybe laundry
Love and miss you all tons!
Also, if you ever need to contact me while I’m here. Either its an emergency at home or you haven’t heard from me in a while and you’re worried, my consistent phone number is as follows, and please type in exactly as it is, including the plus: +255 685 242 029
Feel free to call. I keep money on it regularly, and I would love to hear from you guys!
Colleen
I hope I don’t start repeating myself too much on these. I’m trying to post the most interesting things that happen to me, or even just the stuff that sticks with me most throughout the day. Ah well. Here goes.
Wednesday started out the same. We have three options of eggs for breakfast in the morning: scrambled, fried, or “Spanish” (which is essentially a green pepper omelet). I had decided to be brave the previous morning and try the Spanish omelet. Bad choice. I went with just toast this time. Toast, tea, and juice. My morning staple.
Class was the same. Some days its really interesting, and we have awesome discussions and really cool debates over world issues, and then other days its just kind of boring and we have to pick a part international documents that just kind of run into each other after a while. The weather here has a lot to do with it too. Every day is pretty much the same, it’s chilly in the morning and kind of overcast and as the day goes on it gets warmer and the sun burns the clouds away. But even though we’ve only been here a week, we’ve all kind of been able to tell which days will take longer for the sun to come out, and those days the conversation usually lags. Those days all we want to do is snuggle in our beds.
After class my roommates and I decided to venture to the more touristy market that we had failed to find the day before. It was AWESOME. Exactly what we had been looking for the day before. Not to say that I don’t want to see authentic Arusha or experience what local life is like, but other than shady street vendors with stolen goods, we hadn’t been able to find any places where we could feasibly buy gifts for family or even for ourselves. This place was exactly what we were looking for.
So the Maasai people are the local tribal people in the East African region, not just Tanzania. Unfortunately, though their culture is amazing and rich, they are mostly destitute and poor. A lot of times they will make crafts and small gifts and things to bring to the bigger towns to sell. This is what the market was. It was several lanes of tightly packed shopfronts with all different wares. From jewelry, to traditional Maasai weaponry (spears, knives) to typical African clothing, like congas and katangas. It was amazing. If you need a comparison, it’s probably be best to compare the Maasai people and their products to the Amish people who sell things at Reading Terminal Market. The best part of it, however, is that they hike up the price for white tourists because I guess enough of them pay the asking price, but they’re really impressed when you haggle and barter with them, and are much more willing to lower the price. Rule of thumb is generally to go at least half of whatever their first offer is, and work from there.
We had SO much fun. It was amazing and overwhelming and fun. I bought this really beautiful blue scarf (more on that later) and a traditional conga that I may get made into a wrap skirt by one of the local tailors.
By the time we got out of the market, we were tired and hungry and hadn’t eaten since breakfast. We decided to try a place called Africafe, which is a very western-style, tourist coffee house. We were so hungry by the time we ordered, however, that we couldn’t back out when we saw the price tag. I ordered a cheese burger (yes, I’m ashamed to admit it) which was $8,500 shilling, roughly 6.71 USD. For those of you who don’t know Arusha or even Africa, that’s kind of outrageously expensive. But then again it’s meant to be. We have many other options to eat in town that are cheaper and cater to local food, but we wanted to say we’d gone there at least once. I’m ashamed to admit how absolutely ecstatic I was about my burger. I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever had a better burger in the states. Maybe its because I was starving or because I was missing food from home, but its embarrassing how much I enjoyed that burger, lol.
After we got back from lunch, we decided to play cards together (I taught the girls rummy, family, you would be impressed) and watched the world cup. It’s nice because the world cup plays games at regular intervals on the tv here, so every day we watch the 5 oclock game, which ends right at 7, in time for dinner. (I saw the entire USA game, and saw that final goal. EPIC). And then there’s a game at 9:30 which we watch. Emily usually goes to be by that time, so Libby and I have our nightly routine where I play mahjong titans or chess on my computer and write my blog entry and she does the class readings and we have the world cup on low or mute until it ends at like 11:30 and we both go to bed. It’s nice to have a routine with her, especially since we get along so well.
After dinner, before the heading back to our room, I had another girl in our group, Amran, show me how to wrap my hair with the scarf I bought at the market. I’m very excited and will most likely wear my hair like that off the plane. It’s a nice look, it’s practical, and its easy, especially when my hair gets gross and I don’t feel like doing it that day. I’ve learned a life skill that I cannot wait to bring back to the states.
Day 7 (6/24):
As previously mentioned, I tried to spice things up on Tuesday by trying the Spanish eggs, and that was a mistake, but I decided two days later to try the last option, the fried egg. Spanish eggs? Bad decision. Fried egg? Best decision I ever made in my life. The eggs here have very light yolks. I mean, they exist, but when they make scrambled eggs, its almost as if its only whites, that’s how light the yolks are. But the fried egg was amazing. I buttered my toast, stuck that bad boy on there, added some salt, and I was in heavy. It was a nice addition of protein to my morning. The other piece of toast I usually reserve for buttering and adding marmalade. A nice dichotomy of salty sweet. Anyone who knows me, knows I love me some salty-sweet.
Class was interesting again today, but like my theory proves, the sun came out earlier, and we got our first good shot of Mt. Meru since we got here. I was stoked. I got some good pictures, but I can’t wait to get more. There is something seriously incredible about being able to come back to the apartment complex, glance over your shoulder, and see the second highest mountain in the country saying hello. Especially since a lot of times the clouds are still there, but they are wispy enough to be able to see both sides and the peak. Awesomeness.
After class we met up with Auntie Frida, our assistant program director, at the Peace Research Center and she talked to us about volunteer opportunities for us while we’re here. Heifer International isn’t accepting any more volunteers, unfortunately, but there are two others that interest me. One is called Uhai and it’s for people and orphans suffering from HIV/Aids and it would mostly be delivering food to their homes. The other one is at an organization called Shanga and they employ physically disabled and deaf individuals to make crafts and things to sell. It’s significant because in African culture, people with disabilities are outcast and stigmatized as cursed so it’s really hard for them to find employment. I know Rich and Patrick are probably laughing right now, but it’s sort of a serious problem here so I’m excited to see how that is. We’re going there for lunch tomorrow to meet with the people and see if they need help from any of us.
At the Center, we also met two girls from the spring semester trip who had stayed a little while after it was over to do other traveling. They were really awesome to talk to because they gave us names of trustworthy people in town and like good places that were cheap to eat at and just general advice. It made me sad though, because these girls had been there since February and they were leaving to go back to the states and while I know I would have never been able to handle that long of a time away from home, I know that 5 weeks isn’t nearly enough to cultivate the types of friendships they made and experiences they saw. It sort of motivated me to be more optimistic and outgoing about being here and to make the most out of what I can. I know that’s common sense going in, and I know that most of you said that it would get easier every day, but I’d like to give you all a pat on the back and say that yes, you were right. It does get easier every day, and not even easier, more enjoyable. It helps that I’m building stronger bonds with the girls here, but it’s definitely my adjustment to life here is smoother and I’m excited for everything that I’ll see and bring home with me. (Starting with learning to wrap my hair)
We took the advice of the girls and tried a new place for lunch that was right across the street from Africafe, next to the bookstore where we buy postcards and like infinitely cheaper. They sell traditional Tanzanian food, and some more western style foods, but its all cheap, and its all made with their tourist customers in mind, even if the majority are locals. Like, they make sure they boil the water they wash the fruit in, that kind of stuff. Which I liked a lot. I got a chocolate crepe and sweet tea for $4,500 shilling ($3.21 USD). It was awesome.
Since we only have two meals a day served to us, (and trust me, they’re awesome. None of us complain about the food at the hotel. It rocks), we decided as a group to do dinner every day, and figure out lunch on our own. As cheap as things are here, lunch every day adds up. So we hit the grocery store on the way home to start making sandwiches to bring for after class. I bought brown bread, which is kind of like a mixture of wheat and rye (yum), peanut butter, and mixed fruit island jam. For PB&J sammies. Fun fact: simba in Swahili is the word for lion, while rafiki is the word for friend. Tembo is elephant, and hakuna matata really means “no worries”. Oh, and safari really means journey.
I also found nutella at the supermarket we went to, which is hard to find here, and it was mad expensive. But also totally worth it. I cannot wait to get back to my room after class next week and chomp down on nutella toast and pb&j.
Day 8 (6/25):
So a lot of the program that I’m on is about self-motiviation. By that I mean, you’re expected to figure things out yourself, and then seek assistance when needed. Not necessarily that they set things up for you and you take advantage of them. That’s not exactly what I expected, and I think it’s slightly unrealistic in a 5 week time frame, but that’s the way it is, so whatever. I’m saying this in relation mostly to volunteer work. I realized when I got to college that a lot of people volunteer, or have, in their lives. Other than the occasional holiday where I would help my mom wrap presents for local families or make up food baskets, and at school once where I helped do housework in Philly, I haven’t done as serious outreach/volunteering as most of my peers. So like, volunteer culture is something strange to me. Not bad, by any means, just something I’m not familiar with.
Here, though, there is an expectation that you will get involved in some kind of volunteer work, and there’s even a certificate if you complete more than 15 hours of volunteer work and it recognizes the extra-curricular experiences you’ve pursued. So anyway, not complaining, just explaining why this is new to me.
So Alex, this girl in my group, is a Criminology major from University of Florida, so when she heard that we would possibly be able to sit in on a court proceeding for the United Nations International Tribunal Council for Rwanda, she got really excited. She talked to our program director and really took the initiative to set up us going. Technically all the proceedings are open to the public, but its kind of tricky trying to finagle a group of 17 going. Either way, after working on it for most of the week, she told us yesterday that she would go over in the morning (it’s a 2 minute walk from our classroom) and make sure they would accept all of us, and then she would pick us up from class and we would go. 20 minutes into class she showed up and gave us the ok. We all trekked over to the Arusha International Conference Center (AICC) where the United Nations Interntional Tribunal Council for Rwanda meet and try war criminals from the Rwandan genocide. That whole things sounds lofty and cool right now, but none of us really knew the gravity of what that meant until we got there, and then not even fully until after we left.
We were able to sit in on the morning sessions of the case. From 9-10:30 and then from 11-12:30. We sat in a long room with one wall of glass windows looking into the courtroom. There were TVs for us to be able to watch the close-ups even though we could see clearly through the glass and then we had headsets so that we could listen, since the prosecution was in French. The three judges presiding over the case were really intense, as was the whole experience.
Basically, for those of you who don’t know, in April 1994, the president of Rwanda was assassinated. His plane was shot out of the sky. The political tension that had already been present in the country for several months previous came to a head at this point. There was division between the two ethnic groups in the country, the Hutus and the Tutsis. Essentially, these groups didn’t exist before the Belgian colonists came and needed a way to divide and conquer, so they vagrantly made up physical differences between these people and restricted them from marrying into the other group, from interacting, from everything. After many years of this, it wasn’t made up any more, the divide existed between the people. The Belgians succeeded in creating a great enough difference between the people that they didn’t think to rebel against their colonists. After Rwanda received its independence, those divisions still existed. Like I said, it all came to a head in April 1994, with the president’s assassination and what ensued what the genocide of nearly 800,000-1 million Tutsi Rwandans by their opposing ethnic group, the Hutus.
The government officials, who allowed this to take place, and who staged the coup-de-tat against the regime are considered war criminals, and while we weren’t able to see the individual they were trying today, we saw the testimony and cross-examination of another war criminal who has already been tried and convicted of 11 crimes against humanity and is serving a life sentence in prison, bearing witness against him. Our chairs were lined up behind the witness stand, on the other side of the glass. I literally was separated by 2 and a half feet, and a thin pane of glass, from a man (Colonel Bagosora) who was in part responsible for the death of almost 1 million Rwandan people.
The prosecution mostly questioned him about the night of the coup, and his role in it. It was funny, when they asked him the course of events for that night; he said that “stumbled” on a meeting of the Chiefs of Staff in the government, which was against the law. None of the people present at the meeting the night of the president’s assassination had authorization to hold a meeting like that, and when he “found” the meeting that night, the other people present were considerate enough to invite him to be co-chair of the meeting.
The whole experience was intense and interesting and made me so much more sure of that I want to deal with genocide and the charging of war criminals. Today was the first time I was interested in and excited for law school. I can’t even begin to explain the gravity of my experience. Maybe it will be one of those things that I will just keep for myself, because I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to explain to someone what that experience meant to me.
Ok, so, other than that, which was amazing, we then left and were picked up from the Museum to go to Shanga for lunch, as mentioned before.
After driving out of Arusha for 25 minutes, we pulled off the main road onto a dirt road with forest on one side and some kind of farm on the other. We turned into a small driveway and see a small compound set in a pretty clearing in the forest. We walked through an arch of beaded glass and recycled ceramic pieces into the main clearing. It was a series of low open buildings with people working at various stages of craft on beadings and jewelry and cloth. Shanga, like I said before, is an organization set on a beautiful coffee plantation (hence the farm on the way in) that employs physically disabled and deaf/mute individuals. They pay them well and allow them to be proud of the work they do. They had a gift shop on premises and set in a beautiful garden on the grounds. 100% of the sales from the restaurant and the fit shop went back to the organization. Not only is it morally awesome, but they are also almost completely environmentally sustainable. All of the firewood used to fuel the kilns where they were making the beads comes from the coffee plantation next door, and not from clear cutting the forest around them. They work with the Maasai people to learn the craft of their jewelry-making and collaborate within the organization. All of the cotton used to make katangas and congas is grown locally. The packaging they use to sell the jewelry and products is made from recycled paper in the compound, and they receive glass and aluminum from restaurants and manufacturing places respectively, from Arusha. This place was amazing. Behind the buildings was a beautiful sloping lawn with recycled wood chairs and couches with handmade pillows and cushions, and across the lawn was the restaurant where we got treated to lunch. This restaurant was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to. It must have been 5 star quality, AND everything about the restaurant was sustainable and organic. The food was delicious and the experience was amazing. I plan on doing a lot of my volunteer work at this place. Another cool thing they did was offer Tanzanian Sign Language to the non-deaf workers so that they have a common language that everyone can understand between them.
The food was delicious and fresh and yummy and the coffee from the plantation next door they had us drink with desert was the most delicious coffee I’ve ever tasted in my life. I bought a bag of beans just to bring home and drink. SO good. (How good, Pat? So good.)
The entire day was overwhelming because we did two pretty major things in one day whereas we only usually do one small thing, so we all needed some process time afterwards. I wrote my blog, obviously, and now I’m going to eat dinner.
The line-up for this weekend:
Sat – camel-back safari near Mt. Meru
Sun – music swap with the roomies and maybe laundry
Love and miss you all tons!
Also, if you ever need to contact me while I’m here. Either its an emergency at home or you haven’t heard from me in a while and you’re worried, my consistent phone number is as follows, and please type in exactly as it is, including the plus: +255 685 242 029
Feel free to call. I keep money on it regularly, and I would love to hear from you guys!
Colleen
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The next installment...not too much to report!
Day 4 (6/21):
Going to sleep Sunday night was stressful and anxious. I didn’t know if I could handle another entire empty night, laying awake. Thankfully, I slept like a baby. Maybe my body was tired of not having enough rest, or god was smiling on me, either way I woke up Monday morning like a new person. I’d never felt better in my entire life.
Libby had similarly slept well, as had some of the other girls who were struggling with sleep. It was almost as if the sandman had visited us all. Breakfast was excited and happy with the first day of class ahead, and everyone’s renewed energy.
We got to class and spent the morning from 9am-11am discussing various introductory topics revolving around human rights. We had a half hour break, where we split up as a group to do various tasks. I had to go change some money from American dollars to Tanzanian shillings. The exchange rate over here is awesome and things are ridiculously cheap. Sometimes I feel bad paying the little I do for things. We returned to class for another hour and a half of lesson, before finishing for the day. At 1pm we had roughly an hour and a half to run errands before we had to report to the Peace Research Center to meet with our program director to file immigration paperwork, i.e. we needed a resident permit.
I spent my time in a group that needed postcards and stamps. I bought 12 postcards, and twelve stamps and ended up paying less than 10 USD for the purchase and sending of the postcards. It’s insane. Anyway, after that we didn’t have anything to do so we headed right for the center. I sat there filling the postcards out and writing messages while waiting for everyone else to show up. Eventually we figured out paperwork and returned to the complex.
In the afternoon I checked my emails and facebook, did secretarial stuff around my computer and then hung out in the apartment. My roommates and I ended up having an awesome talk about a wide variety of things from our respective “Long Story”’s (ex-boyfriends that left their mark) to our different expectations of this program and whether they’d be fulfilled, to a lengthy conversation on the kidnapping of that little boy in Oregon and whether his step-mother was really the proper suspect.
We filed down to dinner which consisted of soup, fried tortillas, rice, meat dishes, vegetables, and desert. We were treated with these awesome fried puffs filled with nutella for desert. As soon as one of the other girls popped one open, we all let out a small scream and jumped for the tray. The cooks laughed at us until we left the table.
After dinner I attempted to do the readings for class the next day, but filled most of my time playing Mahjong Titans on my computer while my roommate Libby actually did the readings and watched the world cup.
After feeling slightly anxious about getting a good nights sleep a second time in a row, I was rewarded with almost a full nights rest. I slept from 11 to 6 am when my bed woke me up, and while I fell back asleep, it was that type of sleep that isn’t really restful, because you’re close enough to the surface of consciousness that it’s almost not worth it.
Day 5 (6/22):
Today dawned chilly and damp, kind of like always. Since it’s after the rainy season here, mornings are chilly and cold but by the afternoon the sun has burned the clouds away and its nice and warm. It’s weird though, I haven’t worn short sleeves without a sweater or jacket since I got here.
Breakfast was nice. I really like the breakfast here because it’s the same thing. I know that sounds strange and I will probably get tired of it after a while but I have a cup of tea, every morning, just like my mom, buttered toast with jam and fresh fruit.
We trooped up to class, and I dropped my postcards off on the way. For those of you who requested them, keep an eye out on the mail in the next few weeks!
Class was good, slightly less engaging and full of conversation than the first day, but I’m sure there will always be days like that so I’m not worried.
During our break a bunch of us went to some of the shops to check out prices for jewelry and gifts and things. After class we decided to try to find the market. That was an experience. We ended up finding the market for the locals, like the one they use. Apparently there is a separate market slightly directed towards tourists in the opposite direction. By the time we got to the backstreets where they were selling raw fruit and vegetables we realized we were not in the right place. Being the minority is a strange experience and not fun. It’s a learning one, for sure, but weird and alien. The locals did nothing but stare at us, which I guess I would too if I saw someone who wasn’t supposed to be there.
It’s weird, either the locals harass us (mostly teenage/twentys age boys) and try to talk to us and be our friends, or the adults just stare at us. I’m sure there’s less hostility directed towards us than I believe, but it’s still strange all the attention we get.
After we got back from the market, I internetted for a while and did my usual thing, then went back to the room and hung out until dinner. Dinner was delicious, as always. We had mashed potatoes for the first time and it was amazing.
Right now I’m just finishing up this blog and hoping to see someone on skype.
It really sucks, the time difference. 7am my time is midnight at home so none of my family would ever be on then, but then like right now, it’s like 8:30pm and it’s 1:30pm at home. I dunno, I feel like I’m never one when other people are on, and I only get to communicate over email. It’s nice, because a bunch of people regularly email me, so that gives me something to do, it just sucks going on facebook and not seeing anyone ever that I want to talk to.
I’m sorry for complaining a lot. I guess its ok since its my blog and I can say whatever I want, but for the people who read this, I am making the most of this experience, at least I’m trying. But I can honestly say that this is the most difficult and confusing experience I’ve ever been through. It’s definitely good for me. I know I’m learning a lot about myself, but it’s just uncomfortable. So I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m complaining a lot and being unfrateful. I’m so grateful to be here. Trust me.
Alright, that’s it. I have a feeling it will be a slow week filled with a lot of the same things so I’ll try not to update unless something super-out-of-the-ordinary happens.
Love and miss you all,
Colleen
Going to sleep Sunday night was stressful and anxious. I didn’t know if I could handle another entire empty night, laying awake. Thankfully, I slept like a baby. Maybe my body was tired of not having enough rest, or god was smiling on me, either way I woke up Monday morning like a new person. I’d never felt better in my entire life.
Libby had similarly slept well, as had some of the other girls who were struggling with sleep. It was almost as if the sandman had visited us all. Breakfast was excited and happy with the first day of class ahead, and everyone’s renewed energy.
We got to class and spent the morning from 9am-11am discussing various introductory topics revolving around human rights. We had a half hour break, where we split up as a group to do various tasks. I had to go change some money from American dollars to Tanzanian shillings. The exchange rate over here is awesome and things are ridiculously cheap. Sometimes I feel bad paying the little I do for things. We returned to class for another hour and a half of lesson, before finishing for the day. At 1pm we had roughly an hour and a half to run errands before we had to report to the Peace Research Center to meet with our program director to file immigration paperwork, i.e. we needed a resident permit.
I spent my time in a group that needed postcards and stamps. I bought 12 postcards, and twelve stamps and ended up paying less than 10 USD for the purchase and sending of the postcards. It’s insane. Anyway, after that we didn’t have anything to do so we headed right for the center. I sat there filling the postcards out and writing messages while waiting for everyone else to show up. Eventually we figured out paperwork and returned to the complex.
In the afternoon I checked my emails and facebook, did secretarial stuff around my computer and then hung out in the apartment. My roommates and I ended up having an awesome talk about a wide variety of things from our respective “Long Story”’s (ex-boyfriends that left their mark) to our different expectations of this program and whether they’d be fulfilled, to a lengthy conversation on the kidnapping of that little boy in Oregon and whether his step-mother was really the proper suspect.
We filed down to dinner which consisted of soup, fried tortillas, rice, meat dishes, vegetables, and desert. We were treated with these awesome fried puffs filled with nutella for desert. As soon as one of the other girls popped one open, we all let out a small scream and jumped for the tray. The cooks laughed at us until we left the table.
After dinner I attempted to do the readings for class the next day, but filled most of my time playing Mahjong Titans on my computer while my roommate Libby actually did the readings and watched the world cup.
After feeling slightly anxious about getting a good nights sleep a second time in a row, I was rewarded with almost a full nights rest. I slept from 11 to 6 am when my bed woke me up, and while I fell back asleep, it was that type of sleep that isn’t really restful, because you’re close enough to the surface of consciousness that it’s almost not worth it.
Day 5 (6/22):
Today dawned chilly and damp, kind of like always. Since it’s after the rainy season here, mornings are chilly and cold but by the afternoon the sun has burned the clouds away and its nice and warm. It’s weird though, I haven’t worn short sleeves without a sweater or jacket since I got here.
Breakfast was nice. I really like the breakfast here because it’s the same thing. I know that sounds strange and I will probably get tired of it after a while but I have a cup of tea, every morning, just like my mom, buttered toast with jam and fresh fruit.
We trooped up to class, and I dropped my postcards off on the way. For those of you who requested them, keep an eye out on the mail in the next few weeks!
Class was good, slightly less engaging and full of conversation than the first day, but I’m sure there will always be days like that so I’m not worried.
During our break a bunch of us went to some of the shops to check out prices for jewelry and gifts and things. After class we decided to try to find the market. That was an experience. We ended up finding the market for the locals, like the one they use. Apparently there is a separate market slightly directed towards tourists in the opposite direction. By the time we got to the backstreets where they were selling raw fruit and vegetables we realized we were not in the right place. Being the minority is a strange experience and not fun. It’s a learning one, for sure, but weird and alien. The locals did nothing but stare at us, which I guess I would too if I saw someone who wasn’t supposed to be there.
It’s weird, either the locals harass us (mostly teenage/twentys age boys) and try to talk to us and be our friends, or the adults just stare at us. I’m sure there’s less hostility directed towards us than I believe, but it’s still strange all the attention we get.
After we got back from the market, I internetted for a while and did my usual thing, then went back to the room and hung out until dinner. Dinner was delicious, as always. We had mashed potatoes for the first time and it was amazing.
Right now I’m just finishing up this blog and hoping to see someone on skype.
It really sucks, the time difference. 7am my time is midnight at home so none of my family would ever be on then, but then like right now, it’s like 8:30pm and it’s 1:30pm at home. I dunno, I feel like I’m never one when other people are on, and I only get to communicate over email. It’s nice, because a bunch of people regularly email me, so that gives me something to do, it just sucks going on facebook and not seeing anyone ever that I want to talk to.
I’m sorry for complaining a lot. I guess its ok since its my blog and I can say whatever I want, but for the people who read this, I am making the most of this experience, at least I’m trying. But I can honestly say that this is the most difficult and confusing experience I’ve ever been through. It’s definitely good for me. I know I’m learning a lot about myself, but it’s just uncomfortable. So I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m complaining a lot and being unfrateful. I’m so grateful to be here. Trust me.
Alright, that’s it. I have a feeling it will be a slow week filled with a lot of the same things so I’ll try not to update unless something super-out-of-the-ordinary happens.
Love and miss you all,
Colleen
Sunday, June 20, 2010
An Official Log of My First Three Days
Day 1 (Fri 6/18):
So while I’m beginning my story with my first day in Arusha (technically night, and that would be Friday, June 18th) I should probably just go over quickly how traveling was. JFK was stressful, for sure. I ended up having overweight luggage. My big green bag ended up weighing 76 pounds. I promise I didn’t over pack. I didn’t even have a hard time closing the suitcase, it was just the things I brought were heavy (medicines, electronics, toiletries). So I attempted to repack and distrubte the weight better between my big blue backpack and my green suitcase, I was still 6 pounds over the 50 pounds weight limit and had to pay $100 to have my luggage classified as “heavy”. Bummer, but also my own fault. I’m not bringing nearly as much stuff back with me anyway. In terms of toiletries and medicines, whatever I don’t use will be throw out or given to someone else. Hopefully that will significantly alleviate my luggage problems.
The flight from JFK to Amsterdam was fine. A lot of the people on the plane were either returning to Amsterdam or picking up a connecting flight to an African country so I met a lot of volunteers, students, and fellow travelers. Delta also fed us really well, the food was not bad for airplane food. Another pleasant surprise.
I had a three hour layover in Amsterdam which wasn’t as bad as I expected (this was Friday morning) and as my boarding time got closer, I found more girls from my trip. There ended up being about 5 or 6 of us that were all on the same flight. The other girls were on the plane, we just didn’t link up with them until we got to Kilimanjaro. The flight down to Africa was amazing. The plane I was on was much nicer than the previous, each seat had its own personal video screen so I spent the 8 hour flight watching movies and looking out the window. At one point I looked out and I realized we were over a desert. I double-checked my flight tracking screen and it confirmed that we were flying over the Sahara Desert. I’ve never been more excited for a desolate stretch of continent in my life. It was so cool. We flew over it for a good two hours, it was so big. Finally we landed in Kilimanjaro, and were picked up by the assistant program director, Frida, and Albert, our bus-taxi man (apparently one of the few taxi drivers that we can actually trust in Arusha).
It was about an hour drive from the airport to Arusha and night had already fallen so visibility was slim. We got to the Arusha Resort Center and had dinner at like 10 pm. The program director, Roland, was there to greet us and he handed out our orientation manuals and room assignments. The complex offers hotel rooms and hotel/apartments for rent. Somehow Arcadia made a deal with the complex to allow us to stay in the hotel/apartments which are nice sized apts. They have a full living room, kitchen, pantry, basic cookware, a bathroom with a toilet sink and shower, and two bedrooms. I share a bedroom with a girl named Libby, who’s really nice and who I get along with really well. The other girl, Emily, is also really cool. She has the second room to herself.
At dinner we each received a mobile phone that we would have for the duration of our stay and Arcadia put 5,000 tanzanian shillings ($3.57) so that we could make a call home and tell our families we’re safe. The phone system only works on “top-ups” which means you put money on the phone, and your calls and texts just deduct from the balance, so it’s easy to use, and its completely commonplace. So that’s nice. It was nice that we had a link to the “outside” world right from the get-go. In the lobby building of the complex (which is walled and has a personal guard service, I hope that eases your mind, Mike!) there is the reception desk and a living room and the dining room where we eat our meals, but there is also an internet café. That entire building has wireless internet, so while others can pay to use the computers in the café, most of us just bring our laptops to the lobby and use the free wireless that’s provided. We just don’t have internet in our apartments which makes it annoying sometimes to have to lug all your laptop stuff to the other building, but I guess considering it’s Africa, I should feel lucky.
Anyway, so after moving in and unpacking a little, all of us went to bed. We had to be up at 8 for breakfast the next morning. Libby and I both struggled to sleep, and it was really stressful not being able to call my mom and let her know I was ok. I slept on and off. Partly because I was anxious and stressed and partly because I was homesick and partly because I was getting used to the noises of Arusha and the complex. The first night was hard. I won’t lie. It was really hard.
Day 2 (Sat 6/19):
Saturday started chilly. It was muggy and humid when we arrived the night before but a rainstorm had broken the heat, so I spent the day underdressed in my jeans and t-shirt. I finally figured out how to call home, another of the girls had figured it out, and I was able to connect to the internet before breakfast and update my facebook, send out some emails and all that. We had breakfast (which consisted of eggs, toast, juice, fresh fruit, and tea) and then trooped up the road into the main part of town, through it, and then to the Natural History Museum, where our classroom is located. The grounds of the museum are beautiful. There’s a small gated garden to the left of the entrance where 7-9 tortoises live, with their guards, these two ugly birds that I have no idea what they’re called. They kind of look like ugly flamingos, but with a little bit of vulture thrown in. I’m not sure what they are, but they guard the tortoises fiercely, which is pretty funny. The museum itself is a small whitewashed building with only a few rooms devoted to exhibits, and the last room being the classroom. Behind the building is a small piece of sloping land with a path that eventually leads to the Via-Via café, where apparently everyone who takes classes at the museum eats lunch every day.
The morning was devoted to different program sessions where the director, Roland, had people come and speak on various aspects of Tanzanian life and life in Arusha. They talked to us about money, banking, telephone, the program calendar, the post office and transportation. He also had a girl who had just finished the spring semester program for Arcadia, and fell in love with Arusha so much that she stayed to continue her work, come speak to us. She was our age, which was nice, since she gave us the real low-down on dealing with harassment from the locals, especially as females.
There was another speaker who came, his name was Wayne, and he was a security officer for the UN International Criminal Tribunal Council for Rwanda. That pretty much means that he is head of security and detainment when it comes to the war criminals that are charged for crimes against humanity at the Tribunal Council. He scared us all silly. He described the potential dangers and sticky situations we needed to avoid not only from a professional perspective, he’s been here in Arusha for 16 years, but also from the perspective of a father. He has a 13 year old daughter that he is raising and he has a particular investment in all of our safeties from that, which was nice. Even though we won’t interact with him every day, or maybe not even at all, he gave us free leave to call him on his cellphone at any hour if we felt we were in a dangerous situation. During the talk, he described that he is licensed to carry a concealed weapon not only in Tanzania, but in almost all 50 states and Trinidad (where he is originally from). That made me feel a lot better after having them scare us with all the bad things that could happen to us here. I think it also didn’t help that we were harassed while we were out in the street walking up, and then during the walking tour. Just approached and asked to buy things from street vendors and the like. We are pretty hard to blend in, since we are a group of 17 mostly white females who are clearly tourists.
Nonetheless, knowing we had someone to protect us if we needed it was reassuring. Then a white woman from the local hospital came to talk to us. She was funny too. She was like our pretend-white-mother, and Wayne was pretend-black-father. She and her husband are from the states but do Lutheran missionary/healthcare here in Arusha at the hospital and they have raised a family entirely in the town. The one daughter she brought along actually grew up in Arusha her whole life, and the first time she ever left was last year when we left for college, which was an interesting perspective. They talked to us about malaria and getting testing if we come down with a fever.
They then treated us to lunch at Via-Via and then we went back to the classroom for Kiswahili lessons from Mwalimu (teacher) Almasi. He’s a funny dodgy man. He’s been teaching Kiswahili for almost 25 years to foreigners so he’s really good at it. He gave us like an hour and a half lesson on basic phrases and grammar and then took us on a walking tour of the main part of town. By that time, and since it was a Saturday, everything was closed, but we still got a sense of where the important buildings were, like the post office and the banks, and the phone place where we can put money on our phones.
We got back to the Arusha Resort Center, as its formally known, and had some free time before dinner. We get two meals a day, we always get breakfast, and then we get to choose whether we want lunch or dinner, the third meal is on us to figure out. Since its easiest to grab a quick lunch near the classroom, we decided as a group to do dinner at the complex. We eat dinner at 7 pm sharp everyday at this long table. It’s really nice because we all get to sit together and talk and hang out with each other.
After dinner I brought my computer down to the room and spent a good chunk of the night sending out emails and trying to get Skype to work. Rich and I finally managed to skype, which was so nice after not seeing him for a while, and so we chatted until it was time for me to go. They close the internet café at 10pm and then the whole lobby building at midnight so primo communication hours are non-accessible because it’s nighttime here, but afternoon and night at home.
I finished unpacking, took my first shower here (it was cold) and settled into bed to write in my journal. It had been a pretty serious rollercoaster, the entire time I’d been here, and I finally felt settled and clean and ready for a good nights rest. Unfortunately, I did not get that. I fell asleep at around 12:40 am, only to wake up at exactly 1:41 am thinking I’d slept through the night. I woke up and was wide awake. Fortunately, Libby also couldn’t sleep so while she was able to drift off at one point for another hour, we literally spent the whole night talking and playing games on our respective iPods because neither of us could sleep. I finally fell asleep at 6:30 am only to have to wake up out of legitimate sleep at 8 for breakfast. I’m working on 6 hours of sleep since Thursday, so I plan on taking some NyQuil tonight to force my body to shut down. It still seriously thinks we’re on East Coast time. When I fell asleep at 6:30, it was 11:30 pm back home.
Day 3 (Sun 6/20):
In any case, today dawned bright and sunny, the first time I’d seen the sky since I arrived. We had morning orientation some more where we met our instructor and talked about the expectations of the course. We had another Kiswahili lesson before our director took us out for our last free lunch before we have to take care of it ourselves. Most of us spent the afternoon doing the readings for class tomorrow. There are a lot of them. I’ve just been relaxing and trying to not stress too much. This weekend was really crazy for me. I like it here, but it was really hard to accept the fact that most of my time would be spent feeling uncomfortable. I guess that’s part of the experience, figuring out how to thrive and make the most out of this experience and be completely out of my element.
We had a really beautiful view of Mt. Meru today because there weren’t as many clouds covering it. I’m starting to really like it here, and I know I’ll only enjoy it more as time goes on but I definitely am feeling homesick and lonely. The girls in my program are also really nice and supportive. I tried not to show how homesick I was to them, because none of the rest of them showed it, until last night when this one girl, Alex, who saw me start to cry as I got off the phone with my mom and pretty much said that she was in the same place. She was really homesick, and her first night was rough too. It came up later that most of the girls had a sort of rough first night, which made me feel better. Its nice to know that I’m not the silly little kid of the group, homesick for their mom.
Dinner tonight was really nice, we had gazpacho in avacados, then coconut fish, pepper steak, and vanilla ice cream. Yummm. I’m now hanging out in the internet café, hoping my family turns on skype since I will get kicked out around 5pm their time. Oh well. I hope you enjoyed this post. I know it was long but this is generally the way I write, in intense detail.
Love you and miss you all!
Colleen
So while I’m beginning my story with my first day in Arusha (technically night, and that would be Friday, June 18th) I should probably just go over quickly how traveling was. JFK was stressful, for sure. I ended up having overweight luggage. My big green bag ended up weighing 76 pounds. I promise I didn’t over pack. I didn’t even have a hard time closing the suitcase, it was just the things I brought were heavy (medicines, electronics, toiletries). So I attempted to repack and distrubte the weight better between my big blue backpack and my green suitcase, I was still 6 pounds over the 50 pounds weight limit and had to pay $100 to have my luggage classified as “heavy”. Bummer, but also my own fault. I’m not bringing nearly as much stuff back with me anyway. In terms of toiletries and medicines, whatever I don’t use will be throw out or given to someone else. Hopefully that will significantly alleviate my luggage problems.
The flight from JFK to Amsterdam was fine. A lot of the people on the plane were either returning to Amsterdam or picking up a connecting flight to an African country so I met a lot of volunteers, students, and fellow travelers. Delta also fed us really well, the food was not bad for airplane food. Another pleasant surprise.
I had a three hour layover in Amsterdam which wasn’t as bad as I expected (this was Friday morning) and as my boarding time got closer, I found more girls from my trip. There ended up being about 5 or 6 of us that were all on the same flight. The other girls were on the plane, we just didn’t link up with them until we got to Kilimanjaro. The flight down to Africa was amazing. The plane I was on was much nicer than the previous, each seat had its own personal video screen so I spent the 8 hour flight watching movies and looking out the window. At one point I looked out and I realized we were over a desert. I double-checked my flight tracking screen and it confirmed that we were flying over the Sahara Desert. I’ve never been more excited for a desolate stretch of continent in my life. It was so cool. We flew over it for a good two hours, it was so big. Finally we landed in Kilimanjaro, and were picked up by the assistant program director, Frida, and Albert, our bus-taxi man (apparently one of the few taxi drivers that we can actually trust in Arusha).
It was about an hour drive from the airport to Arusha and night had already fallen so visibility was slim. We got to the Arusha Resort Center and had dinner at like 10 pm. The program director, Roland, was there to greet us and he handed out our orientation manuals and room assignments. The complex offers hotel rooms and hotel/apartments for rent. Somehow Arcadia made a deal with the complex to allow us to stay in the hotel/apartments which are nice sized apts. They have a full living room, kitchen, pantry, basic cookware, a bathroom with a toilet sink and shower, and two bedrooms. I share a bedroom with a girl named Libby, who’s really nice and who I get along with really well. The other girl, Emily, is also really cool. She has the second room to herself.
At dinner we each received a mobile phone that we would have for the duration of our stay and Arcadia put 5,000 tanzanian shillings ($3.57) so that we could make a call home and tell our families we’re safe. The phone system only works on “top-ups” which means you put money on the phone, and your calls and texts just deduct from the balance, so it’s easy to use, and its completely commonplace. So that’s nice. It was nice that we had a link to the “outside” world right from the get-go. In the lobby building of the complex (which is walled and has a personal guard service, I hope that eases your mind, Mike!) there is the reception desk and a living room and the dining room where we eat our meals, but there is also an internet café. That entire building has wireless internet, so while others can pay to use the computers in the café, most of us just bring our laptops to the lobby and use the free wireless that’s provided. We just don’t have internet in our apartments which makes it annoying sometimes to have to lug all your laptop stuff to the other building, but I guess considering it’s Africa, I should feel lucky.
Anyway, so after moving in and unpacking a little, all of us went to bed. We had to be up at 8 for breakfast the next morning. Libby and I both struggled to sleep, and it was really stressful not being able to call my mom and let her know I was ok. I slept on and off. Partly because I was anxious and stressed and partly because I was homesick and partly because I was getting used to the noises of Arusha and the complex. The first night was hard. I won’t lie. It was really hard.
Day 2 (Sat 6/19):
Saturday started chilly. It was muggy and humid when we arrived the night before but a rainstorm had broken the heat, so I spent the day underdressed in my jeans and t-shirt. I finally figured out how to call home, another of the girls had figured it out, and I was able to connect to the internet before breakfast and update my facebook, send out some emails and all that. We had breakfast (which consisted of eggs, toast, juice, fresh fruit, and tea) and then trooped up the road into the main part of town, through it, and then to the Natural History Museum, where our classroom is located. The grounds of the museum are beautiful. There’s a small gated garden to the left of the entrance where 7-9 tortoises live, with their guards, these two ugly birds that I have no idea what they’re called. They kind of look like ugly flamingos, but with a little bit of vulture thrown in. I’m not sure what they are, but they guard the tortoises fiercely, which is pretty funny. The museum itself is a small whitewashed building with only a few rooms devoted to exhibits, and the last room being the classroom. Behind the building is a small piece of sloping land with a path that eventually leads to the Via-Via café, where apparently everyone who takes classes at the museum eats lunch every day.
The morning was devoted to different program sessions where the director, Roland, had people come and speak on various aspects of Tanzanian life and life in Arusha. They talked to us about money, banking, telephone, the program calendar, the post office and transportation. He also had a girl who had just finished the spring semester program for Arcadia, and fell in love with Arusha so much that she stayed to continue her work, come speak to us. She was our age, which was nice, since she gave us the real low-down on dealing with harassment from the locals, especially as females.
There was another speaker who came, his name was Wayne, and he was a security officer for the UN International Criminal Tribunal Council for Rwanda. That pretty much means that he is head of security and detainment when it comes to the war criminals that are charged for crimes against humanity at the Tribunal Council. He scared us all silly. He described the potential dangers and sticky situations we needed to avoid not only from a professional perspective, he’s been here in Arusha for 16 years, but also from the perspective of a father. He has a 13 year old daughter that he is raising and he has a particular investment in all of our safeties from that, which was nice. Even though we won’t interact with him every day, or maybe not even at all, he gave us free leave to call him on his cellphone at any hour if we felt we were in a dangerous situation. During the talk, he described that he is licensed to carry a concealed weapon not only in Tanzania, but in almost all 50 states and Trinidad (where he is originally from). That made me feel a lot better after having them scare us with all the bad things that could happen to us here. I think it also didn’t help that we were harassed while we were out in the street walking up, and then during the walking tour. Just approached and asked to buy things from street vendors and the like. We are pretty hard to blend in, since we are a group of 17 mostly white females who are clearly tourists.
Nonetheless, knowing we had someone to protect us if we needed it was reassuring. Then a white woman from the local hospital came to talk to us. She was funny too. She was like our pretend-white-mother, and Wayne was pretend-black-father. She and her husband are from the states but do Lutheran missionary/healthcare here in Arusha at the hospital and they have raised a family entirely in the town. The one daughter she brought along actually grew up in Arusha her whole life, and the first time she ever left was last year when we left for college, which was an interesting perspective. They talked to us about malaria and getting testing if we come down with a fever.
They then treated us to lunch at Via-Via and then we went back to the classroom for Kiswahili lessons from Mwalimu (teacher) Almasi. He’s a funny dodgy man. He’s been teaching Kiswahili for almost 25 years to foreigners so he’s really good at it. He gave us like an hour and a half lesson on basic phrases and grammar and then took us on a walking tour of the main part of town. By that time, and since it was a Saturday, everything was closed, but we still got a sense of where the important buildings were, like the post office and the banks, and the phone place where we can put money on our phones.
We got back to the Arusha Resort Center, as its formally known, and had some free time before dinner. We get two meals a day, we always get breakfast, and then we get to choose whether we want lunch or dinner, the third meal is on us to figure out. Since its easiest to grab a quick lunch near the classroom, we decided as a group to do dinner at the complex. We eat dinner at 7 pm sharp everyday at this long table. It’s really nice because we all get to sit together and talk and hang out with each other.
After dinner I brought my computer down to the room and spent a good chunk of the night sending out emails and trying to get Skype to work. Rich and I finally managed to skype, which was so nice after not seeing him for a while, and so we chatted until it was time for me to go. They close the internet café at 10pm and then the whole lobby building at midnight so primo communication hours are non-accessible because it’s nighttime here, but afternoon and night at home.
I finished unpacking, took my first shower here (it was cold) and settled into bed to write in my journal. It had been a pretty serious rollercoaster, the entire time I’d been here, and I finally felt settled and clean and ready for a good nights rest. Unfortunately, I did not get that. I fell asleep at around 12:40 am, only to wake up at exactly 1:41 am thinking I’d slept through the night. I woke up and was wide awake. Fortunately, Libby also couldn’t sleep so while she was able to drift off at one point for another hour, we literally spent the whole night talking and playing games on our respective iPods because neither of us could sleep. I finally fell asleep at 6:30 am only to have to wake up out of legitimate sleep at 8 for breakfast. I’m working on 6 hours of sleep since Thursday, so I plan on taking some NyQuil tonight to force my body to shut down. It still seriously thinks we’re on East Coast time. When I fell asleep at 6:30, it was 11:30 pm back home.
Day 3 (Sun 6/20):
In any case, today dawned bright and sunny, the first time I’d seen the sky since I arrived. We had morning orientation some more where we met our instructor and talked about the expectations of the course. We had another Kiswahili lesson before our director took us out for our last free lunch before we have to take care of it ourselves. Most of us spent the afternoon doing the readings for class tomorrow. There are a lot of them. I’ve just been relaxing and trying to not stress too much. This weekend was really crazy for me. I like it here, but it was really hard to accept the fact that most of my time would be spent feeling uncomfortable. I guess that’s part of the experience, figuring out how to thrive and make the most out of this experience and be completely out of my element.
We had a really beautiful view of Mt. Meru today because there weren’t as many clouds covering it. I’m starting to really like it here, and I know I’ll only enjoy it more as time goes on but I definitely am feeling homesick and lonely. The girls in my program are also really nice and supportive. I tried not to show how homesick I was to them, because none of the rest of them showed it, until last night when this one girl, Alex, who saw me start to cry as I got off the phone with my mom and pretty much said that she was in the same place. She was really homesick, and her first night was rough too. It came up later that most of the girls had a sort of rough first night, which made me feel better. Its nice to know that I’m not the silly little kid of the group, homesick for their mom.
Dinner tonight was really nice, we had gazpacho in avacados, then coconut fish, pepper steak, and vanilla ice cream. Yummm. I’m now hanging out in the internet café, hoping my family turns on skype since I will get kicked out around 5pm their time. Oh well. I hope you enjoyed this post. I know it was long but this is generally the way I write, in intense detail.
Love you and miss you all!
Colleen
Saturday, June 19, 2010
The Eagle Has Landed
Hey All!
I am here and safe and sound. Two days of traveling took a toll but I'm fighting the jet lag and jumping in head first. It is roughly 8 am where I am, and it is Saturday 6/19. (Happy Birthday, Bubba!).
Arusha is really nice. Africa is definitely different than I expected, but then again I'm not sure what expectations I had anyway. I like it so far. The first night was hard and I'm feeling significantly homesick but I hope/know it will pass and I'll get used to life here for the next 5 weeks.
I can't update too much right now, I will try to update in more detail later when I have some more free time but for now, Jambo! And I love you all.
Colleen
p.s. feel free to leave a comment, I could really use the love right now :]
I am here and safe and sound. Two days of traveling took a toll but I'm fighting the jet lag and jumping in head first. It is roughly 8 am where I am, and it is Saturday 6/19. (Happy Birthday, Bubba!).
Arusha is really nice. Africa is definitely different than I expected, but then again I'm not sure what expectations I had anyway. I like it so far. The first night was hard and I'm feeling significantly homesick but I hope/know it will pass and I'll get used to life here for the next 5 weeks.
I can't update too much right now, I will try to update in more detail later when I have some more free time but for now, Jambo! And I love you all.
Colleen
p.s. feel free to leave a comment, I could really use the love right now :]
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Testing
This is a test-post, to see how this blogging thing works.
This will be my main form of communication and updating while I'm in Africa, so I want to make sure it's easy to use and easily accessible.
What do ya think?!
Oh, right, and I'm at my one week mark!
June 17th, here I come!
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