Safari- AMAZING
I have no words to describe what a life-changing experience that safari was. You all will have to be content to wait until I get home to tell you about it.
Suffice to say, I had an amazing time and couldn’t have enjoyed myself more. All that’s left is to pack and fill the days until I leave! It's getting down to it, and I'm starting to be sad about leaving. As excited as I am to come home and see everyone, there are tons of things I'll miss about my time here.
Those are all my sentimental thoughts for now. I love you all, and once again, thank you for sharing this journey with me. It’s been grand.
Colleen
Ngorongoro
Ngorongoro - Zebra
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Winding Down
Hey All,
So I don't have a lot to write, other than that things here are coming to a close. I have my final exam tomorrow and I leave for my safari on Thursday.
I'm enjoying the slow last few days, and am getting excited to be home.
I don't know if I'll post anything substantial, even after the safari. I will try, but if not, keep an eye on my facebook as I'll be more likely to post pictures there.
Hope all is well with everyone. Thank you so much for sharing this journey with me. It's been an amazing ride. I cannot wait to come home and see everyone,
Love and miss you all.
Less than a week,
Colleen
So I don't have a lot to write, other than that things here are coming to a close. I have my final exam tomorrow and I leave for my safari on Thursday.
I'm enjoying the slow last few days, and am getting excited to be home.
I don't know if I'll post anything substantial, even after the safari. I will try, but if not, keep an eye on my facebook as I'll be more likely to post pictures there.
Hope all is well with everyone. Thank you so much for sharing this journey with me. It's been an amazing ride. I cannot wait to come home and see everyone,
Love and miss you all.
Less than a week,
Colleen
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Next Time, We Should Just Bring Our Helicopter
Day 30 (7/17):
Today, I have faced and dealt with two fears:
1) Being in a motor-vehicle that has tipped over
2) Heights
Let me back up. We woke up this morning around 8 because our bus for the planned water-hike was to arrive at 9:15. Breakfast was the same as always, except tourist high season in Africa has recently picked up, so our hotel is much more crowded than usual. We were all pretty excited for the day, despite the cloudy, rainy, chilly weather that we woke up to. We knew/hoped it would clear up as the day went on.
Godfrey (we thought his name was Geoffrey, and had been calling him that for weeks) picked us up in our usual bus at 9:15 on the dot. We headed out of Arusha and drove for 15-20 before turning off the main road onto a small village road. We squeezed through the village and turned yet again off the road onto a much less crowded but steep dirt road. It had rained the night before, but the ground was pretty solid. Our driver got us all the way out to the camel-safaris and back, so I was confident in his ability to get us up the mountain. We were going to hike around waterfalls that were deep in the forest on the slopes of Mt. Meru. On our way up the rural road that would take us to our hiking point, we were bumping along went all of a sudden the bus heaved to the right and tipped mostly over.
Remember those divots I wrote about that made me so anxious on the way to the camel-safari? Yeah, the front wheel of the bus got stuck in one of those divots, in the mud. EXACTLY the way I feared it would. We were lucky that the part of the road we got stuck on had a high piece of land/path next to it, which is what the bus rested on, otherwise it would have been completely on its side. We all got out and surveyed the damage. The impact of the collision with the road wall had mangled the front right corner of the bus a bit, and other than the back-left wheel being in the air and not on the ground at all, the bus was ok and so were we.
With the help of 14 girls, some village members, Godfrey, and our driver, we were able to get it out of the ditch, but we knew if we tried to continue with it, we would only have a similar problem the further up the road we got, and the more into rural villages we traveled, where the road would surely be less kept. First fear: met, dealt with, and conquered. Our guide, who had met us a little bit earlier, directed us to walk to rest of the way to the starting point. It took us about half an hour to get up to the village where we were intended to start. After feeling shaken up and a little lost, we all were in relatively good spirits by the time we got to our destination. We made a pit-stop for the bathroom at the church, before starting our official hike.
It was still pretty foggy when we started and the mist was sitting on the hills and slopes of Meru. Beautiful, but bad for pictures. We hiked down a slope and through a small bean farm, and continued until we were fully in the forest. It was a nice hike and soon we heard the sound of water. The slope started to get steeper and we knew we were close when we saw the top of the waterfall ahead, but what we didn’t realize was that we would be climbing down a very narrow, very steep path that wrapped around the hill. Our guide had several helpers who assisted us in getting down to the falls, but suffice to say there were many times when I was on my butt for fear of standing up and losing my balance. We all got safely down to the bottom of the falls, and let me tell you, it was worth it. It was only a 40-foot waterfall but beautiful all the same. We were able to climb on the rocks that went behind the falls and have our pictures taken of us behind the waterfall. We spent a lot of time there, taking pictures, and playing in the small pool that the waterfall fell into.
When we had had our fill, our guides directed us back up the hill, but while we were entertaining ourselves with pictures and playing in the water, one of the guys had created footholds in the path so that going up would be easier. And it was. We made it up in less than three minutes, whereas coming down had taken a full ten.
We hiked back to the church and continued on through the village to our second destination. I thought I was dealing with my fear of heights by hiking down the steep hill to the first waterfall. That was NOTHING compared our second hike. We walked along the dirt road for a while, at a relatively steep incline, but it was manageable since we were on the road. Once we turned off the road, however, things got interesting.
Going up the road had been steep and we felt like we were cresting a large hill, and we were pretty much correct. We turned off the road, and through what in the rainy season would have been a corn farm, set on the slopes of the mountain. The soil was very soft and made for comfortable downhill travel. After we got downhill a ways, the path flattened out and we continued on. We started to hear the sounds of water and knew we were getting close to our second location. We broke out of the trees and were treated to a beautiful vista. To the right of us, we saw the slope of the mountain drop sharply, and then rise again on the other side of the river. Ahead, there was a break in the hills and we could see beautiful plains and hills, further in the distance. I glanced ahead after taking several pictures to see where our path was going, and realized we were climbing down the mountain.
I will try to describe this hike as best as possible, but there is really no way to do it justice. Try to check my pictures on facebook for additional reference. Ok, so when I saw that we were climbing down and how high up we were, I started to freak out. I have a (small) fear of heights and am usually able to keep it in check. I make myself go on roller-coasters, I hike when I can, so it’s not a big deal. Not so much in the case. Part of the mountain jutted out over the small canyon, and then the path were taking curved sharply left. I can’t describe it as a path, only as natural footholds that existed on the face of the brush covered hill.
I eased my way down slowly, as was the only was my nerves could handle the experience, and eventually made it down to the river. Getting to the river wasn’t the end destination, we then had to walk upriver to get to the falls. Had the current not been so strong and the rocks so slippery, it would have been fun, but it was hard work and stressful. Most of us had already gotten our feet soaked from the first waterfall, climbing to get behind it, and then wading into the small pool to take pictures, so trying to navigate upriver with our feet completely submerged wasn’t an issue. It was a water-hike, after all.
We finally got to the second water-fall, and once again, totally worth the near-death experience I felt I’d been subjected to. Not only was there a beautiful waterfall that fell into a pool that began the river we’d hiked, but just above the water-fall, back farther in the mountain, was a second waterfall that fed the first. It was breathtaking. We spent a good amount of time there, taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Please, please look at the pictures I posted. They are amazing.
Once again, when we’d had our fill of pictures and waterfalls, we trekked back downriver. Once we crossed the river, we then had to climb back the almost sheer face of the mountain. Climbing up the mountain wasn’t nearly as bad as climbing down, for the simple fact that my line of focus was on the sheer, plant-covered face in front of me. I did, however, climb the mountain on my hands and knees, pulling myself up, with my body flat against the hill. It was stressful, but not being able to see all the empty space I could possibly fall into, and focusing on getting my body to the top helped. We made it to the top, and with the emotional exhaustion and my physical tiredness, I laid down and waited for the others. I caught my breath, and felt proud of myself for not letting my fear take over and restrict me from having an awesome experience like I’d just had.
We trekked back uphill, through the forest, through the corn-farm, and around the mountain back to a compound we hadn’t been to before. There was sat and had our lunch. They served us rice with some type of delicious meatsauce, ugali (the staple food for the region), carrots and green beans, and cooked plantains. After all the hiking we’d just done, and the calories we’d just burned, we were all glad to have a hot, carb-filled meal in front of us.
After lunch we all rested, since by that time it was almost 2:30pm. We were able to wash-up a little bit, but we knew we would all be taking nice hot showers once we got back.
We paid for our hike and for the guides, and then headed back down the road and through the village to get our bus. Apparently it had tried to meet us closer to the village and got stuck in mud again. When we found it, local village men were trying to maneuver it so it could turn around to go back. They were shoveling dry dirt under the tires as it moved. We eventually met it down the road a ways and were able to board it when it was in a position to go the right direction. The only mishap/stressful part of that was the two logging trucks that were also trying to fit down the road and also were just as unsteady in the mud. After many tense minutes, we finally made it to the highway and headed back to Arusha.
We are all exhausted and very ready for dinner and then bed. We have been laughing about our day since we got back and will probably continue to remember what an adventure we had for a good long time.
I know I talked a lot in this post about my stress and dealing with fear, and while I dealt with a lot of internal struggles today, I still had fun. The times I was not fearing for my life climbing down the side of a mountain, I was laughing, and making the best of it. I hope no one who reads this sees the analysis of what goes through my head as me not enjoying what’s happening. Part of enjoying myself and having an adventure is admitting when I’m scared and working through those fears and conquering them. I feel like that has been as very major part of this trip for me…is facing my fears and conquering them.
Shikamo – Maharaba
Love and miss you all,
Colleen
Today, I have faced and dealt with two fears:
1) Being in a motor-vehicle that has tipped over
2) Heights
Let me back up. We woke up this morning around 8 because our bus for the planned water-hike was to arrive at 9:15. Breakfast was the same as always, except tourist high season in Africa has recently picked up, so our hotel is much more crowded than usual. We were all pretty excited for the day, despite the cloudy, rainy, chilly weather that we woke up to. We knew/hoped it would clear up as the day went on.
Godfrey (we thought his name was Geoffrey, and had been calling him that for weeks) picked us up in our usual bus at 9:15 on the dot. We headed out of Arusha and drove for 15-20 before turning off the main road onto a small village road. We squeezed through the village and turned yet again off the road onto a much less crowded but steep dirt road. It had rained the night before, but the ground was pretty solid. Our driver got us all the way out to the camel-safaris and back, so I was confident in his ability to get us up the mountain. We were going to hike around waterfalls that were deep in the forest on the slopes of Mt. Meru. On our way up the rural road that would take us to our hiking point, we were bumping along went all of a sudden the bus heaved to the right and tipped mostly over.
Remember those divots I wrote about that made me so anxious on the way to the camel-safari? Yeah, the front wheel of the bus got stuck in one of those divots, in the mud. EXACTLY the way I feared it would. We were lucky that the part of the road we got stuck on had a high piece of land/path next to it, which is what the bus rested on, otherwise it would have been completely on its side. We all got out and surveyed the damage. The impact of the collision with the road wall had mangled the front right corner of the bus a bit, and other than the back-left wheel being in the air and not on the ground at all, the bus was ok and so were we.
With the help of 14 girls, some village members, Godfrey, and our driver, we were able to get it out of the ditch, but we knew if we tried to continue with it, we would only have a similar problem the further up the road we got, and the more into rural villages we traveled, where the road would surely be less kept. First fear: met, dealt with, and conquered. Our guide, who had met us a little bit earlier, directed us to walk to rest of the way to the starting point. It took us about half an hour to get up to the village where we were intended to start. After feeling shaken up and a little lost, we all were in relatively good spirits by the time we got to our destination. We made a pit-stop for the bathroom at the church, before starting our official hike.
It was still pretty foggy when we started and the mist was sitting on the hills and slopes of Meru. Beautiful, but bad for pictures. We hiked down a slope and through a small bean farm, and continued until we were fully in the forest. It was a nice hike and soon we heard the sound of water. The slope started to get steeper and we knew we were close when we saw the top of the waterfall ahead, but what we didn’t realize was that we would be climbing down a very narrow, very steep path that wrapped around the hill. Our guide had several helpers who assisted us in getting down to the falls, but suffice to say there were many times when I was on my butt for fear of standing up and losing my balance. We all got safely down to the bottom of the falls, and let me tell you, it was worth it. It was only a 40-foot waterfall but beautiful all the same. We were able to climb on the rocks that went behind the falls and have our pictures taken of us behind the waterfall. We spent a lot of time there, taking pictures, and playing in the small pool that the waterfall fell into.
When we had had our fill, our guides directed us back up the hill, but while we were entertaining ourselves with pictures and playing in the water, one of the guys had created footholds in the path so that going up would be easier. And it was. We made it up in less than three minutes, whereas coming down had taken a full ten.
We hiked back to the church and continued on through the village to our second destination. I thought I was dealing with my fear of heights by hiking down the steep hill to the first waterfall. That was NOTHING compared our second hike. We walked along the dirt road for a while, at a relatively steep incline, but it was manageable since we were on the road. Once we turned off the road, however, things got interesting.
Going up the road had been steep and we felt like we were cresting a large hill, and we were pretty much correct. We turned off the road, and through what in the rainy season would have been a corn farm, set on the slopes of the mountain. The soil was very soft and made for comfortable downhill travel. After we got downhill a ways, the path flattened out and we continued on. We started to hear the sounds of water and knew we were getting close to our second location. We broke out of the trees and were treated to a beautiful vista. To the right of us, we saw the slope of the mountain drop sharply, and then rise again on the other side of the river. Ahead, there was a break in the hills and we could see beautiful plains and hills, further in the distance. I glanced ahead after taking several pictures to see where our path was going, and realized we were climbing down the mountain.
I will try to describe this hike as best as possible, but there is really no way to do it justice. Try to check my pictures on facebook for additional reference. Ok, so when I saw that we were climbing down and how high up we were, I started to freak out. I have a (small) fear of heights and am usually able to keep it in check. I make myself go on roller-coasters, I hike when I can, so it’s not a big deal. Not so much in the case. Part of the mountain jutted out over the small canyon, and then the path were taking curved sharply left. I can’t describe it as a path, only as natural footholds that existed on the face of the brush covered hill.
I eased my way down slowly, as was the only was my nerves could handle the experience, and eventually made it down to the river. Getting to the river wasn’t the end destination, we then had to walk upriver to get to the falls. Had the current not been so strong and the rocks so slippery, it would have been fun, but it was hard work and stressful. Most of us had already gotten our feet soaked from the first waterfall, climbing to get behind it, and then wading into the small pool to take pictures, so trying to navigate upriver with our feet completely submerged wasn’t an issue. It was a water-hike, after all.
We finally got to the second water-fall, and once again, totally worth the near-death experience I felt I’d been subjected to. Not only was there a beautiful waterfall that fell into a pool that began the river we’d hiked, but just above the water-fall, back farther in the mountain, was a second waterfall that fed the first. It was breathtaking. We spent a good amount of time there, taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Please, please look at the pictures I posted. They are amazing.
Once again, when we’d had our fill of pictures and waterfalls, we trekked back downriver. Once we crossed the river, we then had to climb back the almost sheer face of the mountain. Climbing up the mountain wasn’t nearly as bad as climbing down, for the simple fact that my line of focus was on the sheer, plant-covered face in front of me. I did, however, climb the mountain on my hands and knees, pulling myself up, with my body flat against the hill. It was stressful, but not being able to see all the empty space I could possibly fall into, and focusing on getting my body to the top helped. We made it to the top, and with the emotional exhaustion and my physical tiredness, I laid down and waited for the others. I caught my breath, and felt proud of myself for not letting my fear take over and restrict me from having an awesome experience like I’d just had.
We trekked back uphill, through the forest, through the corn-farm, and around the mountain back to a compound we hadn’t been to before. There was sat and had our lunch. They served us rice with some type of delicious meatsauce, ugali (the staple food for the region), carrots and green beans, and cooked plantains. After all the hiking we’d just done, and the calories we’d just burned, we were all glad to have a hot, carb-filled meal in front of us.
After lunch we all rested, since by that time it was almost 2:30pm. We were able to wash-up a little bit, but we knew we would all be taking nice hot showers once we got back.
We paid for our hike and for the guides, and then headed back down the road and through the village to get our bus. Apparently it had tried to meet us closer to the village and got stuck in mud again. When we found it, local village men were trying to maneuver it so it could turn around to go back. They were shoveling dry dirt under the tires as it moved. We eventually met it down the road a ways and were able to board it when it was in a position to go the right direction. The only mishap/stressful part of that was the two logging trucks that were also trying to fit down the road and also were just as unsteady in the mud. After many tense minutes, we finally made it to the highway and headed back to Arusha.
We are all exhausted and very ready for dinner and then bed. We have been laughing about our day since we got back and will probably continue to remember what an adventure we had for a good long time.
I know I talked a lot in this post about my stress and dealing with fear, and while I dealt with a lot of internal struggles today, I still had fun. The times I was not fearing for my life climbing down the side of a mountain, I was laughing, and making the best of it. I hope no one who reads this sees the analysis of what goes through my head as me not enjoying what’s happening. Part of enjoying myself and having an adventure is admitting when I’m scared and working through those fears and conquering them. I feel like that has been as very major part of this trip for me…is facing my fears and conquering them.
Shikamo – Maharaba
Love and miss you all,
Colleen
Friday, July 16, 2010
Leap and the Net Will Appear
Days 27-29 (7/14-16):
Hello all,
Sorry for the grouped post this time. I don’t have a whole lot to update on since this week has really just been the winding down of my program. I turned in my paper on Thursday night (by email) and I had my last day of class today.
I’ll just give you a run-down of what the rest of my trip looks like, since it will begin to pick up pace again starting tomorrow:
Sat 7/17: Hiking the waterfalls around Mt. Meru
Sun 7/18: Skyping with my family for my brother Patrick and his wife Katie’s birthday!!!!!
Mon 7/19: Visiting the Africa Court of Human and People’s Rights, touring and meeting with officials
Wed 7/21: Final Exam!
Thurs & Fri 7/22 & 23: SAFARI at Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara
Sat 7/24: Hike around the bottom of Mt. Kilimanjaro
Sun 7/25: Final dinner with the girls
Mon 7/26: Flight from Kilimanjaro Int’l to Amsterdam @ 8:30 p.m.
Tues 7/27: Arrive in JFK @ 7:40 pm – I’M HOME!
It’s going to be a fun next ten days, so I’m pretty excited.
I promise to post something more substantial after the water hike and maybe on Sunday.
Love and miss you all!
Colleen
Hello all,
Sorry for the grouped post this time. I don’t have a whole lot to update on since this week has really just been the winding down of my program. I turned in my paper on Thursday night (by email) and I had my last day of class today.
I’ll just give you a run-down of what the rest of my trip looks like, since it will begin to pick up pace again starting tomorrow:
Sat 7/17: Hiking the waterfalls around Mt. Meru
Sun 7/18: Skyping with my family for my brother Patrick and his wife Katie’s birthday!!!!!
Mon 7/19: Visiting the Africa Court of Human and People’s Rights, touring and meeting with officials
Wed 7/21: Final Exam!
Thurs & Fri 7/22 & 23: SAFARI at Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara
Sat 7/24: Hike around the bottom of Mt. Kilimanjaro
Sun 7/25: Final dinner with the girls
Mon 7/26: Flight from Kilimanjaro Int’l to Amsterdam @ 8:30 p.m.
Tues 7/27: Arrive in JFK @ 7:40 pm – I’M HOME!
It’s going to be a fun next ten days, so I’m pretty excited.
I promise to post something more substantial after the water hike and maybe on Sunday.
Love and miss you all!
Colleen
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Sunshine and Research Papers
Day 25 (7/12):
Today starts our fourth week here, and our last week of classes. Isn’t that crazy? It’s still mind-blowing to me that I’ve been here for three full weeks. Wow.
After such a fun-filled and exciting weekend, getting back to class was kind of a let down. We’re winding down our discussions and starting to think about our final exam. The term paper is due on Friday, and everyone is starting to feel the crunch of editing, revising, and getting that done.
I, like the committed and wonderful student I am, hadn’t really started working on the paper. It’s interesting that with how little there is to do here, I seem to find myself with a million little tasks that prevent me from buckling down and banging it out. All joking aside, I started working on it, reading the research I’d collected and forming a structure for my paper.
My thesis statement reads: “This paper aims to explore the idea that patriarchal cultural norms and values take precedence in East Africa and Tanzania and supersede, undermine, and restrict the basic human rights afforded to women by the abovementioned international, continental, and national charters. We also seek to use the United Republic of Tanzania’s Constitution and Law of Marriage Act of 1971 as an example of what rights are and are not protected for women within an East African country.” I think it’s a solid thesis statement.
I’m proud of it and excited for my professor to read it and grade it. Other than spending the afternoon avoiding and then working on my paper, I didn’t do a whole lot. Emily and I had a really good, deep discussion at one point. I really like talking to her, and Libby. A lot of the way we think is really similar, and at the same time I feel like there are enough differences that I’m always learning from them.
After dinner, I went over to Alex and Katy and Katie’s apartment. Rachel, Jenny, Amran, Katie, Alex and I watched the first half of Freedom Writer’s. Rachel and I were pretty tired and ready for bed so we agreed we’d finish it the next night.
I got back to the apartment and just hung out with Libby until bed. We talked and laughed a lot about silly little things. It’s a fun atmosphere in E4.
Day 26 (7/13):
I figured that without the internet, I might be able to focus a little better on my paper in class. Obviously I still paid attention, but I was able to get a large portion of my first draft written and I feel good about it.
After class I went to lunch with Katy and we talked about boys and the trip and just life in general. She’s another person I’m really glad I met while here. I feel like a large part of what makes this trip so worthwhile are the people I’ve met and the friendships I’ve made.
We got back and decided to work on our paper’s together in the computer lab in the lobby building, but that didn’t work out because the internet was unbearably slow. Katy got frustrated and just decided to make use of the fast, shady, internet that she gets in her apartment. After struggling with the internet in the lab, I followed and spent the afternoon working on my paper with Katy and Katie. It is insane how spoiled I am with lightning fast internet at home. I don’t think I’ll ever complain again about how slow I might think it is!
After getting 95% of my draft done, I couldn’t write any more and went back to my room. I tried to read some more Chronicles of Narnia, but fell asleep. I’ve never napped while here because it wasn’t worth compromising possibly an entire night of sleep just for a little while during the day, but the nap I took was awesome. It was soooooo restful. I got up around 6:15 and had a glass of wine with Emily. We chatted until dinner and then headed down together.
Libby had been at the Center all day working on her paper and didn’t get back until right before dinner. Afterwards, all three of us went back to the apartment, and while Libby worked out, Emily and I switched off reading chapters of Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe out loud to each other.
After doing that for a little while, I decided to go finish Freedom Writer’s with Rachel and Jenny. Such a good movie. We finished the movie and headed back to our respective apartments.
I was a little nervous about not being able to fall asleep, but with a little help from my handy “sleep” playlist on my iPod, I was fine.
Love and Miss you all!
Colleen
Today starts our fourth week here, and our last week of classes. Isn’t that crazy? It’s still mind-blowing to me that I’ve been here for three full weeks. Wow.
After such a fun-filled and exciting weekend, getting back to class was kind of a let down. We’re winding down our discussions and starting to think about our final exam. The term paper is due on Friday, and everyone is starting to feel the crunch of editing, revising, and getting that done.
I, like the committed and wonderful student I am, hadn’t really started working on the paper. It’s interesting that with how little there is to do here, I seem to find myself with a million little tasks that prevent me from buckling down and banging it out. All joking aside, I started working on it, reading the research I’d collected and forming a structure for my paper.
My thesis statement reads: “This paper aims to explore the idea that patriarchal cultural norms and values take precedence in East Africa and Tanzania and supersede, undermine, and restrict the basic human rights afforded to women by the abovementioned international, continental, and national charters. We also seek to use the United Republic of Tanzania’s Constitution and Law of Marriage Act of 1971 as an example of what rights are and are not protected for women within an East African country.” I think it’s a solid thesis statement.
I’m proud of it and excited for my professor to read it and grade it. Other than spending the afternoon avoiding and then working on my paper, I didn’t do a whole lot. Emily and I had a really good, deep discussion at one point. I really like talking to her, and Libby. A lot of the way we think is really similar, and at the same time I feel like there are enough differences that I’m always learning from them.
After dinner, I went over to Alex and Katy and Katie’s apartment. Rachel, Jenny, Amran, Katie, Alex and I watched the first half of Freedom Writer’s. Rachel and I were pretty tired and ready for bed so we agreed we’d finish it the next night.
I got back to the apartment and just hung out with Libby until bed. We talked and laughed a lot about silly little things. It’s a fun atmosphere in E4.
Day 26 (7/13):
I figured that without the internet, I might be able to focus a little better on my paper in class. Obviously I still paid attention, but I was able to get a large portion of my first draft written and I feel good about it.
After class I went to lunch with Katy and we talked about boys and the trip and just life in general. She’s another person I’m really glad I met while here. I feel like a large part of what makes this trip so worthwhile are the people I’ve met and the friendships I’ve made.
We got back and decided to work on our paper’s together in the computer lab in the lobby building, but that didn’t work out because the internet was unbearably slow. Katy got frustrated and just decided to make use of the fast, shady, internet that she gets in her apartment. After struggling with the internet in the lab, I followed and spent the afternoon working on my paper with Katy and Katie. It is insane how spoiled I am with lightning fast internet at home. I don’t think I’ll ever complain again about how slow I might think it is!
After getting 95% of my draft done, I couldn’t write any more and went back to my room. I tried to read some more Chronicles of Narnia, but fell asleep. I’ve never napped while here because it wasn’t worth compromising possibly an entire night of sleep just for a little while during the day, but the nap I took was awesome. It was soooooo restful. I got up around 6:15 and had a glass of wine with Emily. We chatted until dinner and then headed down together.
Libby had been at the Center all day working on her paper and didn’t get back until right before dinner. Afterwards, all three of us went back to the apartment, and while Libby worked out, Emily and I switched off reading chapters of Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe out loud to each other.
After doing that for a little while, I decided to go finish Freedom Writer’s with Rachel and Jenny. Such a good movie. We finished the movie and headed back to our respective apartments.
I was a little nervous about not being able to fall asleep, but with a little help from my handy “sleep” playlist on my iPod, I was fine.
Love and Miss you all!
Colleen
Monday, July 12, 2010
Tengeru & Lake Duluti
Day 23 (7/10):
It’s pretty hard to sleep in here on the weekends, no matter how much we may want to. Libby and I got up around 9:30 and had breakfast. Libby and Emily had plans to go over the “bad bridge” to find a Barclay’s Bank, which was rumored to have an ATM that had American money. The bad bridge is one bridge in town that we are told to stay away from. The embankments on either side are steep and a lot of robberies happen there. There are regular police patrols on the bridge to keep people safe, but it’s still not so great. It was a Sunday, however, and Arusha is much quieter on the weekends, so they decided to brave it. I was being a worry-wart, and told them to call me when they were safely back across the bridge so that I knew they were ok.
I did the email thing and then went to the market with two girls in my group Amanda and Jenny. We all wanted to take the fabric (congas) we’d bought and have them made into wrap skirts, and we knew there was a tailor somewhere in the craft market. We found her and haggled her price down to 5,000 shilling each for the skirts (we’d already bought the fabric so it was just a matter of hemming and shaping it into a skirt). After we dropped off our fabric, we did some more shopping. We made friends with some of the shop owners, in particular, one man named Jacob and his compatriots nearby. It was fun talking to them and learning Swahili while they polished a chess set that Amanda had bought. People here are so friendly and hospitable. It’s really nice. They even asked us what our favorite music was, and then when we reciprocated the question, they told us they liked R&B musicians, such as Celine Dion. It was funny, to say the least.
We had lunch at the hotel today, instead of dinner, because our program director, Roland, was taking us out to dinner later that evening. Lunch was good, and afterwards, my two roommates, Jenny, Amanda, and myself all piled into a taxi with Geoffrey to go back to Shanga for shopping. Geoffrey is so awesome; he and Albert both are trustworthy and great. Albert is closer to middle age, and Geoffrey is much younger, like mid-twenty's. He owns the taxi company that we use, and he and Albert are our main drivers. We love them.
Shanga was beautiful as always, and while I forgot my Visa card (they take American money and cards) I was able to pick up a few things that had been on my list for people with the little bit of cash I still had. I plan on going back with my card and really splurging.
When we got back to the hotel, we only had about an hour and a half before we were supposed to leave for dinner. I finished up the emails that I’d started before going to the market, and Libby worked out. When I went to go get dressed and ready, she did the email thing.
Since we were going out to a place called Maasai Camp, which we were forbidden to go to unless we had Roland with us (which we did last night), we all wanted to dress up. None of us were really trying to impress anyone; I think we just wanted an excuse to look and feel pretty after wearing only semi-clean clothes for the past few weeks. Suffice to say, I looked good! Lol
I wore a black scoop-neck t-shirt with the blue and green floral wrap skirt I bought at WEECE the day before, high-waisted, over black leggings, and had on the new sandals I’d bought at the market. We all looked really nice.
We piled into the bus and on the way picked up the graduate students who’d just arrived the night before. Roland was taking us to dinner because the graduate students had just arrived and he wanted to take all of us out so we could eat and mingle with them.
We were all blown away when we got to Maasai Camp. It was a really cool place, it was a wide open restaurant with a dance floor, two bars, a pool table, a mounted TV with the World Cup on, of course, and the rest of it was just tables. There were so many of us that we had to sit at two tables, so most of the girls in my group sat at one table, and Amanda and I decided to be social and sit with the grad students and Roland, Geoffrey, and Albert. There were 5 grad students from Arcadia with us. Three of them grew up in the Philly area, and two were from other states. They all went to a variety of undergrad schools. It was really nice to hang out and talk to people who knew my area. It was also kind of cool to be the “experienced” one who told them all the tips and stuff. After three weeks of feeling like I was floundering, I’d finally met people who, having only been there less than 24 hours, had no idea what was going on. It definitely helped my ego a bit, I have to say.
It was a really fun night. We drank, and ate, and danced. I can absolutely see why they would ask us not to hang out there often or without supervision, because while it was quiet and tame while we were there (7-10:30), we could only imagine the craziness that must ensue later in the evening. A lot of the tension that had been in the group was diffused after the night was over also. Once everyone got a chance to just dance and be silly, I think it definitely mended some bridges that had been smoldering.
Once we got back to the hotel, safe and sound, we hung out watching the end of the 3rd place World Cup game, and then went to bed.
Day 24 (7/11):
We woke up for an early breakfast today, around nine. Geoffrey was scheduled to pick us up around ten for a day trip to Tengeru for cultural tourism. We piled into the bus and drove less than twenty minutes outside of Arusha when we got to the sign marking the place.
We waited at the main road for our guides to come and show us how to get to the actual compound since it was back a ways from the road. The only downfall of driving off the main road is that many to all of the other roads are dirt, pitted, and rocky. That means that our bus is in constant motion and what I perceive to be in danger of tipping over. I doubt the validity of that fear, but a lot of times it’s an anxious experience, driving down dirt roads. Nothing has ever been as bad as the roads to the camel-safari and my blood pressure has been pretty reasonable on any trips since, but it’s still a little nerve-wracking.
We arrive at Tengeru and pull into a small grassy driveway with a gate that leads onto a pretty lawn. We unload from the bus and are greeted by three women, singing a traditional welcome song in the dialect of the Meru people (the people who reside on the slopes of Mt. Meru). The song was beautiful and rhythmic. After they greeted us, we were welcomed into the compound and sat in a loose circle on various carved chairs and stools. We were served lemongrass and ginger tea as we were debriefed on what our day would look like.
They planned on giving us a tour of the compound initially, and then we were to hike 2 miles through the forest to the coffee farm they owned, learn about the harvesting of the coffee, come back and see how it is processed into the drink, have lunch, and then go hiking by Lake Duluti.
Within the compound is a small open-air lounge with chairs and couches and small tables for eating. We would eat lunch there later. As we toured, they showed us the small stalls that held two adult cows and a baby cow that they owned. The cows were smelly, but they explained that the reason the cows and enclosure might be smellier than normal is because they harvest the manure. In many cases, cow dung has high levels of methane gas. Instead of spending lots of money on industrial fertilizer, they harvest the dung, and process it for use. The methane gas goes to light the burners they use to cook food and to make light and the filtered feces is made into natural fertilizer that is better for the soil than industrial fertilizer. With the natural stuff, it enriches the soil and ensures that they are able to farm on that piece of land longer. Industrial product strips the soil of its nutrients and makes it arid in a short period. They also said that the biogas (methane) that they harvest from both of the adult cows provides enough fuel for use from morning to night. It was amazing.
Throughout the tour of the compound, our guides Noel (male) and Joshua explained that the cultural tourism company they run (that we were then receiving a tour through) goes to benefit the community. All proceeds go towards farm equipment, or various projects within the community to empower the people. They also sell handicrafts to the tourists that pass through, which generates good income.
After we toured the compound, we were led into the forest and hiked for two miles until we got to the coffee farm. Two children from the compound accompanied us, and because they were there, we picked up other village children as well. One in particular, Carol, took a liking to me and my roommate Emily. She had a beautiful face and a wonderful spirit. She picked up some English words quickly and then taught us Swahili words in return. I won’t talk about her as if we were the first tourists she’d met, or that she liked us in particular, but just being in contact with a child who was so open and willing to accept us was really nice. After a while she stopped giving attention to Emily and focused a lot more on me. I know that’s a silly thing to feel good about, but there are some people who children gravitate towards, and I’ve never really been one of those people. I’m good with kids, to be sure, but they never just come to me like to do to others, so the fact that she put her little hand trustingly in mine and stayed with me for most of the day made me feel so special. All the other girls were saying how she’s claimed me as her property and other funny little jokes, but it was just nice to interact with children again. It’s a need that you don’t really recognize as being deficient in until it’s fulfilled.
After visiting the coffee farm and learning about the way the plants grow, we hiked back to the compound, a different way. It was nice to see the scenery and to just experience hiking on the slopes of Mt. Meru in general. We got back and rested for a few minutes, and then they brought out a woven tray full of coffee beans. Our guides explained that after the beans are removed from the berries, they must then be husked of their outer shell. To do this, they have what looks like a carved wooden stool, but with a big divot in the middle of it. They poured the beans into the hole and then used an almost four-foot wooden stake (not pointed, but rounded at the bottom) to crush the husks off the bean. Before roasted, coffee beans are sturdy beans, so pounding them repeatedly with this several-pound stave didn’t crush them, only created enough movement and friction to loosen and remove the husks.
After sifting the husks off the beans, we then put them into a clay pot that was heating over a small fire and stirred the beans while they roasted. If they are not stirred constantly, they will burn, as we soon found out. All of us wanted a go at stirring the roasting coffee beans, and we quickly learned that the exchange between each girl needed to be quick in order for the beans to be constantly moving.
After roasting them to sufficient darkness, we moved the beans back into the wooden stool turned mortar/pestle and were then able to crush them using the wooden stave until the were ground the way we wanted them. The ladies who greeted us when we first got there took a break from making lunch and sang a traditional rhythmic working song as Joshua and Noel pounded the roasted beans into powder. We sifted the powder through a sieve just to make sure it was fine enough, and once it was, we scooped the powder into a large pot of boiling water and made coffee. Let me tell you, I do not drink straight black coffee, and the black coffee I’ve had here in Africa has made me think I could possibly drink it when I get back home. It’s THAT good.
When we finished enjoying our freshly made coffee, Mama Gladness (I promise you, that’s her name) came out with hot water, lemon soap, and warm towels for us to wash up with before lunch. Our meal consisted of rice (as always), chapatti (a flat bread that’s cooked and kind of looks like a tortilla), and three-four different dishes/sauces. One was a beef sauce, another was a creamy corn sauce, a third had plantains in it, and the fourth had chickpeas as the main ingredient. We had water to drink, and bananas for a little sweet. For dessert, they brought out an avocado, orange, and passion-fruit smoothie for us all to try. Delicious.
Throughout lunch, we’d heard these small mewing noises, and we figured it was some farm animal on the compound (the cows and roosters had been going all morning) but what one of the other girls found out when she went to the bathroom was, there were week-old puppies hidden in the bushes near the water-closet. They were all piled on top of one another and sleeping and making small puppy noises. I have to say, I seriously weighed the pros and cons of trying to get an unvaccinated animal past customs. I let go of the idea, but it was considered. They were beyond cute.
Once we’d finished lunch and digested a little bit, played with Carol and her friend Norie, we were told that the last part of our day was about to take place. We all had to pile into the bus and we were going to hike up to sacred caves on the rim of Lake Duluti.
I was sadder than I expected when I had to leave Carol with her Grandma Gladness at the compound. Seriously, only Carol had attached herself to me, and Norie had attached herself to my friend Katy. We were the only two girls in the group to really make a connection with the children and I was sad to leave her behind. Clearly, the girl was not suffering in any way with the life she lived. She got to meet tourists a lot who gave her water from their water bottles and let them play with their cameras, and when there weren’t tourists, there was Mama Gladness and Joshua and Noel. This girl did not seem to be wanting for anything, but it was sad to say goodbye nonetheless. I do feel blessed (and I don’t use that word lightly) that I made a connection like that on this trip. It was very healing for me.
We drive once again on the bumpy, rocky, pitted road, crossed the main road (paved) and turned again onto another bumpy, rocky, and pitted road. We ended up at Lake Duluti which means The Lake That Swallows. Apparently, there is volcanic activity in the middle of the lake, which goes as deep as 600-700 meters. Whatever pressure the bottom of the lake exudes, creates a small whirlpool affect, whereas if someone were to fall in, they would be sucked down to the bottom of the lake. Suffice to say, canoeing was out of the question once we heard that. Our guides tried to reassure us that we could just canoe around the rim of the lake, but none of us were having it. We were ok with hiking.
The hike was fun and steep and only slightly challenging. It made me excited to get home and start hiking more regularly. Our destination was sacred caves that the local religious and tribal people utilized as a prayer spot. They weren’t very deep, more like small outcroppings in the cliff-face, with only a small space of path between the edge of the hill and the cave, but it was moving nonetheless. People wrote letters on paper and stuffed them into the crags of the cave, and there were tarps and old blankets for those that wanted to use to space to meditate overnight and to go somewhere quiet to pray. We were all pretty dirty and gross, so I’m not sure I felt the full affect of the holiness of the place, but there was absolutely something peaceful and soothing.
We hiked back to our bus and made it back to the hotel with time to spare before dinner. After dinner I skyped with my mom and Brian, and then a little bit afterwards with Rich. I miss everyone so much. Skype makes life away infinitely more bearable. I swear.
When I got off the computer, I joined my roommates to watch the epic final match of the World Cup game between Netherlands and Spain. I was rooting for Holland, but Spain won after 120 minutes of hard-fought and evenly matched play. There were even a small amount of fireworks outside when the game was over which was nice.
I just showered and finished this blog post. I am EXHAUSTED. We did a lot this weekend, and I have to be up for class tomorrow. I probably won’t be able to post this until after class, but that’s just as well.
I love and miss you all!
Thanks for reading, and what do you think of the new layout?
Colleen
It’s pretty hard to sleep in here on the weekends, no matter how much we may want to. Libby and I got up around 9:30 and had breakfast. Libby and Emily had plans to go over the “bad bridge” to find a Barclay’s Bank, which was rumored to have an ATM that had American money. The bad bridge is one bridge in town that we are told to stay away from. The embankments on either side are steep and a lot of robberies happen there. There are regular police patrols on the bridge to keep people safe, but it’s still not so great. It was a Sunday, however, and Arusha is much quieter on the weekends, so they decided to brave it. I was being a worry-wart, and told them to call me when they were safely back across the bridge so that I knew they were ok.
I did the email thing and then went to the market with two girls in my group Amanda and Jenny. We all wanted to take the fabric (congas) we’d bought and have them made into wrap skirts, and we knew there was a tailor somewhere in the craft market. We found her and haggled her price down to 5,000 shilling each for the skirts (we’d already bought the fabric so it was just a matter of hemming and shaping it into a skirt). After we dropped off our fabric, we did some more shopping. We made friends with some of the shop owners, in particular, one man named Jacob and his compatriots nearby. It was fun talking to them and learning Swahili while they polished a chess set that Amanda had bought. People here are so friendly and hospitable. It’s really nice. They even asked us what our favorite music was, and then when we reciprocated the question, they told us they liked R&B musicians, such as Celine Dion. It was funny, to say the least.
We had lunch at the hotel today, instead of dinner, because our program director, Roland, was taking us out to dinner later that evening. Lunch was good, and afterwards, my two roommates, Jenny, Amanda, and myself all piled into a taxi with Geoffrey to go back to Shanga for shopping. Geoffrey is so awesome; he and Albert both are trustworthy and great. Albert is closer to middle age, and Geoffrey is much younger, like mid-twenty's. He owns the taxi company that we use, and he and Albert are our main drivers. We love them.
Shanga was beautiful as always, and while I forgot my Visa card (they take American money and cards) I was able to pick up a few things that had been on my list for people with the little bit of cash I still had. I plan on going back with my card and really splurging.
When we got back to the hotel, we only had about an hour and a half before we were supposed to leave for dinner. I finished up the emails that I’d started before going to the market, and Libby worked out. When I went to go get dressed and ready, she did the email thing.
Since we were going out to a place called Maasai Camp, which we were forbidden to go to unless we had Roland with us (which we did last night), we all wanted to dress up. None of us were really trying to impress anyone; I think we just wanted an excuse to look and feel pretty after wearing only semi-clean clothes for the past few weeks. Suffice to say, I looked good! Lol
I wore a black scoop-neck t-shirt with the blue and green floral wrap skirt I bought at WEECE the day before, high-waisted, over black leggings, and had on the new sandals I’d bought at the market. We all looked really nice.
We piled into the bus and on the way picked up the graduate students who’d just arrived the night before. Roland was taking us to dinner because the graduate students had just arrived and he wanted to take all of us out so we could eat and mingle with them.
We were all blown away when we got to Maasai Camp. It was a really cool place, it was a wide open restaurant with a dance floor, two bars, a pool table, a mounted TV with the World Cup on, of course, and the rest of it was just tables. There were so many of us that we had to sit at two tables, so most of the girls in my group sat at one table, and Amanda and I decided to be social and sit with the grad students and Roland, Geoffrey, and Albert. There were 5 grad students from Arcadia with us. Three of them grew up in the Philly area, and two were from other states. They all went to a variety of undergrad schools. It was really nice to hang out and talk to people who knew my area. It was also kind of cool to be the “experienced” one who told them all the tips and stuff. After three weeks of feeling like I was floundering, I’d finally met people who, having only been there less than 24 hours, had no idea what was going on. It definitely helped my ego a bit, I have to say.
It was a really fun night. We drank, and ate, and danced. I can absolutely see why they would ask us not to hang out there often or without supervision, because while it was quiet and tame while we were there (7-10:30), we could only imagine the craziness that must ensue later in the evening. A lot of the tension that had been in the group was diffused after the night was over also. Once everyone got a chance to just dance and be silly, I think it definitely mended some bridges that had been smoldering.
Once we got back to the hotel, safe and sound, we hung out watching the end of the 3rd place World Cup game, and then went to bed.
Day 24 (7/11):
We woke up for an early breakfast today, around nine. Geoffrey was scheduled to pick us up around ten for a day trip to Tengeru for cultural tourism. We piled into the bus and drove less than twenty minutes outside of Arusha when we got to the sign marking the place.
We waited at the main road for our guides to come and show us how to get to the actual compound since it was back a ways from the road. The only downfall of driving off the main road is that many to all of the other roads are dirt, pitted, and rocky. That means that our bus is in constant motion and what I perceive to be in danger of tipping over. I doubt the validity of that fear, but a lot of times it’s an anxious experience, driving down dirt roads. Nothing has ever been as bad as the roads to the camel-safari and my blood pressure has been pretty reasonable on any trips since, but it’s still a little nerve-wracking.
We arrive at Tengeru and pull into a small grassy driveway with a gate that leads onto a pretty lawn. We unload from the bus and are greeted by three women, singing a traditional welcome song in the dialect of the Meru people (the people who reside on the slopes of Mt. Meru). The song was beautiful and rhythmic. After they greeted us, we were welcomed into the compound and sat in a loose circle on various carved chairs and stools. We were served lemongrass and ginger tea as we were debriefed on what our day would look like.
They planned on giving us a tour of the compound initially, and then we were to hike 2 miles through the forest to the coffee farm they owned, learn about the harvesting of the coffee, come back and see how it is processed into the drink, have lunch, and then go hiking by Lake Duluti.
Within the compound is a small open-air lounge with chairs and couches and small tables for eating. We would eat lunch there later. As we toured, they showed us the small stalls that held two adult cows and a baby cow that they owned. The cows were smelly, but they explained that the reason the cows and enclosure might be smellier than normal is because they harvest the manure. In many cases, cow dung has high levels of methane gas. Instead of spending lots of money on industrial fertilizer, they harvest the dung, and process it for use. The methane gas goes to light the burners they use to cook food and to make light and the filtered feces is made into natural fertilizer that is better for the soil than industrial fertilizer. With the natural stuff, it enriches the soil and ensures that they are able to farm on that piece of land longer. Industrial product strips the soil of its nutrients and makes it arid in a short period. They also said that the biogas (methane) that they harvest from both of the adult cows provides enough fuel for use from morning to night. It was amazing.
Throughout the tour of the compound, our guides Noel (male) and Joshua explained that the cultural tourism company they run (that we were then receiving a tour through) goes to benefit the community. All proceeds go towards farm equipment, or various projects within the community to empower the people. They also sell handicrafts to the tourists that pass through, which generates good income.
After we toured the compound, we were led into the forest and hiked for two miles until we got to the coffee farm. Two children from the compound accompanied us, and because they were there, we picked up other village children as well. One in particular, Carol, took a liking to me and my roommate Emily. She had a beautiful face and a wonderful spirit. She picked up some English words quickly and then taught us Swahili words in return. I won’t talk about her as if we were the first tourists she’d met, or that she liked us in particular, but just being in contact with a child who was so open and willing to accept us was really nice. After a while she stopped giving attention to Emily and focused a lot more on me. I know that’s a silly thing to feel good about, but there are some people who children gravitate towards, and I’ve never really been one of those people. I’m good with kids, to be sure, but they never just come to me like to do to others, so the fact that she put her little hand trustingly in mine and stayed with me for most of the day made me feel so special. All the other girls were saying how she’s claimed me as her property and other funny little jokes, but it was just nice to interact with children again. It’s a need that you don’t really recognize as being deficient in until it’s fulfilled.
After visiting the coffee farm and learning about the way the plants grow, we hiked back to the compound, a different way. It was nice to see the scenery and to just experience hiking on the slopes of Mt. Meru in general. We got back and rested for a few minutes, and then they brought out a woven tray full of coffee beans. Our guides explained that after the beans are removed from the berries, they must then be husked of their outer shell. To do this, they have what looks like a carved wooden stool, but with a big divot in the middle of it. They poured the beans into the hole and then used an almost four-foot wooden stake (not pointed, but rounded at the bottom) to crush the husks off the bean. Before roasted, coffee beans are sturdy beans, so pounding them repeatedly with this several-pound stave didn’t crush them, only created enough movement and friction to loosen and remove the husks.
After sifting the husks off the beans, we then put them into a clay pot that was heating over a small fire and stirred the beans while they roasted. If they are not stirred constantly, they will burn, as we soon found out. All of us wanted a go at stirring the roasting coffee beans, and we quickly learned that the exchange between each girl needed to be quick in order for the beans to be constantly moving.
After roasting them to sufficient darkness, we moved the beans back into the wooden stool turned mortar/pestle and were then able to crush them using the wooden stave until the were ground the way we wanted them. The ladies who greeted us when we first got there took a break from making lunch and sang a traditional rhythmic working song as Joshua and Noel pounded the roasted beans into powder. We sifted the powder through a sieve just to make sure it was fine enough, and once it was, we scooped the powder into a large pot of boiling water and made coffee. Let me tell you, I do not drink straight black coffee, and the black coffee I’ve had here in Africa has made me think I could possibly drink it when I get back home. It’s THAT good.
When we finished enjoying our freshly made coffee, Mama Gladness (I promise you, that’s her name) came out with hot water, lemon soap, and warm towels for us to wash up with before lunch. Our meal consisted of rice (as always), chapatti (a flat bread that’s cooked and kind of looks like a tortilla), and three-four different dishes/sauces. One was a beef sauce, another was a creamy corn sauce, a third had plantains in it, and the fourth had chickpeas as the main ingredient. We had water to drink, and bananas for a little sweet. For dessert, they brought out an avocado, orange, and passion-fruit smoothie for us all to try. Delicious.
Throughout lunch, we’d heard these small mewing noises, and we figured it was some farm animal on the compound (the cows and roosters had been going all morning) but what one of the other girls found out when she went to the bathroom was, there were week-old puppies hidden in the bushes near the water-closet. They were all piled on top of one another and sleeping and making small puppy noises. I have to say, I seriously weighed the pros and cons of trying to get an unvaccinated animal past customs. I let go of the idea, but it was considered. They were beyond cute.
Once we’d finished lunch and digested a little bit, played with Carol and her friend Norie, we were told that the last part of our day was about to take place. We all had to pile into the bus and we were going to hike up to sacred caves on the rim of Lake Duluti.
I was sadder than I expected when I had to leave Carol with her Grandma Gladness at the compound. Seriously, only Carol had attached herself to me, and Norie had attached herself to my friend Katy. We were the only two girls in the group to really make a connection with the children and I was sad to leave her behind. Clearly, the girl was not suffering in any way with the life she lived. She got to meet tourists a lot who gave her water from their water bottles and let them play with their cameras, and when there weren’t tourists, there was Mama Gladness and Joshua and Noel. This girl did not seem to be wanting for anything, but it was sad to say goodbye nonetheless. I do feel blessed (and I don’t use that word lightly) that I made a connection like that on this trip. It was very healing for me.
We drive once again on the bumpy, rocky, pitted road, crossed the main road (paved) and turned again onto another bumpy, rocky, and pitted road. We ended up at Lake Duluti which means The Lake That Swallows. Apparently, there is volcanic activity in the middle of the lake, which goes as deep as 600-700 meters. Whatever pressure the bottom of the lake exudes, creates a small whirlpool affect, whereas if someone were to fall in, they would be sucked down to the bottom of the lake. Suffice to say, canoeing was out of the question once we heard that. Our guides tried to reassure us that we could just canoe around the rim of the lake, but none of us were having it. We were ok with hiking.
The hike was fun and steep and only slightly challenging. It made me excited to get home and start hiking more regularly. Our destination was sacred caves that the local religious and tribal people utilized as a prayer spot. They weren’t very deep, more like small outcroppings in the cliff-face, with only a small space of path between the edge of the hill and the cave, but it was moving nonetheless. People wrote letters on paper and stuffed them into the crags of the cave, and there were tarps and old blankets for those that wanted to use to space to meditate overnight and to go somewhere quiet to pray. We were all pretty dirty and gross, so I’m not sure I felt the full affect of the holiness of the place, but there was absolutely something peaceful and soothing.
We hiked back to our bus and made it back to the hotel with time to spare before dinner. After dinner I skyped with my mom and Brian, and then a little bit afterwards with Rich. I miss everyone so much. Skype makes life away infinitely more bearable. I swear.
When I got off the computer, I joined my roommates to watch the epic final match of the World Cup game between Netherlands and Spain. I was rooting for Holland, but Spain won after 120 minutes of hard-fought and evenly matched play. There were even a small amount of fireworks outside when the game was over which was nice.
I just showered and finished this blog post. I am EXHAUSTED. We did a lot this weekend, and I have to be up for class tomorrow. I probably won’t be able to post this until after class, but that’s just as well.
I love and miss you all!
Thanks for reading, and what do you think of the new layout?
Colleen
Friday, July 9, 2010
My Hovercraft Is Full Of Eels
Day 20 (7/7):
So a lot of us have been trading books within the group, and I was able to get my hands on a copy of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which I had planned on picking up at the airport on my way here, but was only able to find the second two books. In any case, I have been reading it voraciously.
After class today a bunch of us headed to the Peace Center to do research and to meet with our volunteer coordinators. We did that and discussed small arms proliferation with out guy. It was a pretty interesting conversation, considering the differences in gun laws between the United States and Tanzania and the amount of illegal small arms and light weapons that are trafficked into and through the country.
By the time Libby and I left the Center, we were starving. We hit up Bamboo for some samosas and went back to the hotel. Emily and Libby took a walk to find a pharmacy, since the high content of tomatos and other fruits in our diet had given her canker sores, but the town was closed since it was a national holiday.
I read a lot while they were gone, and I got pretty sucked into the book. When they got back, Libby and I hung out and talked in my room. After a little bit, Emily started cracking up and called us into her room. She had been researching basic Swahili phrases to try to improve her speaking skills, and the website, duly named Useful Swahili Phrases, was what she was looking at. She asked us to look at the list of phrases and see if there was anything strange. We scanned the list and saw things like No, Thank You, and Police! and other normal useful phrases. Second from the bottom, however, we found the discrepancy. Right below, Happy Birthday! was the phrase : My hovercraft is full of eels, with the Swahili listed as: Gari Langu linaloangama lemejaa na mikunga. We cracked up about that for a good little while, and then decided to cross check it with GoogleTranslate, we stuck the Swahili translation into GoogleTranslate and this is what it produced: My car is dominated by midwife linaloangama. Priceless. We had fun with that for a good long time.
At around 6, Libby and I met up with our two group members, Amanda and Maureen about a group discussion we had to outline for the following day. Instead of having regular lecture, Charles assigned everyone into groups of four or five and then gave each group a question to explore and bring ready to discuss the following day. Our question was, “How does the diversity of beliefs and values affect the universality of human rights.” We liked the question a lot. It didn’t take us long to jot down some talking points, and then some possible discussion questions if we need to get things going with the class. All-in-all, successful meeting.
After dinner, our friend Alex came over to our apartment to watch the Spain v. Germany world cup game with us. We all hung out on Emily’s huge bed and just sat around, listened to music, and talked about life. It was nice.
Day 21 (7/8):
So class today: as previously mentioned, instead of class we had group discussion projects. Our group went first and we rocked that joint. It was awesome. We definitely set the standard high for the rest of the groups, and we hadn’t even bothered with a PowerPoint like some of the other groups did. All we needed were some talking points, and that got us going with our conversation, which in turn spurred the class to jump in. It felt really good. We talked a lot about how corruption within African governments need to be seriously stifled and that bringing in leaders that know the sustainability of investing in their people would be a huge turning point. I mean, we obviously discussed our question too, that’s just a point I specifically remembered from later in the discussion. We were all pretty pleased with the outcome.
During the break, I tried to get money out of an ATM near our class and failed. I was able to pull money out after class though, at a different machine. Right after class we had lunch at the hotel (we usually have dinner) since we were going to Via-Via later that night for dinner and music. Lunch was good.
At around 2 o’clock, Albert (the trustworthy taxi driver) came and picked me and Libby and Emily up to go to a place outside of town called Peace House. Emily was here for two weeks before she came to Arusha in a town called Iringa, in southern Tanzania. She worked with a Christian youth group and volunteered at a similar place to Shanga (read earlier blog posts), called Neema. They also employ physically handicapped people and empower them through work and respect. From there Emily came to the Arcadia program here in Arusha, and for two weeks after the program ended she would be staying at Peace House, which was only 20 minutes outside of the city. Peace House is run by the Lutherans and is basically a scholarship-based boarding school for high school students in Tanzania whose family has been affected by AIDs. The application process is long and difficult (I don’t even feel like explaining) but believe you me, the people they accept to live there are completely deserving. The school year goes from January to May and then from middle of July to December.
Peace House is located on 100 acres of land owned by the Lutheran Church. All the buildings are open and airy and beautifully spread out across the grounds. They are able to house 250 students, all the teachers, all the staff, and they still have room to spare. That’s unusual with volunteer work in Africa since most places don’t have enough space for what they want to do. Let me tell you guys, if I said before that I didn’t think I could ever fall in love with Tanzania, I was wrong. I could do it here. Just walking around the grounds was amazing. It made me realize that it’s not the people I dislike or the landscape, it’s really just being in the city and the restrictive feeling I have of not being free and independent to move about as I please. Being out in the country a littler further, away from the city, made me understand that there is totally a chance I could fall in love with the country. They say on a clear day you can see Mt. Longido, Mt. Meru, AND Mt. Kilimanjaro. Amazing.
I’m not going to lie, I was super jealous that Emily got to stay and volunteer with them. It was just so quiet and…peaceful, lol. I’m sure it’s more noisy and full of life when the students aren’t on their break, but still. I can just imagine living there and volunteering and being happy. I don’t know. Definitely something to look into for after college or maybe for part of grad school.
We got back from Peace House and did our own thing until dinner. We got ready to head out around 7:30 and then we all trooped up to Via-Via for dinner. That’s the restaurant set in the gardens behind our classroom. It was really nice and all the trees had lights in them. The food took forever, but that’s Africa for you. In the meantime they had a band who just played instrumental music while we were there. It was pretty cool.
Day 22 (7/9):
Today we had a field trip into Moshi, a city about 90 km away from Arusha. We were going to visit the Women’s Education and Economic Center (WEECE) location, since we had representatives come visit our class and talk to us about the organization last week.
We had to wake up earlier than normal (6:30 am) to get breakfast and catch the bus by 7:30. It only takes about an hour to drive to Moshi, and the views on the way are splendid. You get closer to Kilimanjaro as you drive, and on a clear day I’m sure it’s really beautiful. Our morning, however, was cloudy and cold, so we didn’t get to see the mountain.
We arrived at WEECE around 9 am and spent the morning meeting with the head coordinator, a funny, brash, large woman named Mama Valeria. She was amazing. She showed us around the facility and then had us gather in the tiny classroom to hear her story. She grew up playing with her brothers, and whenever her mother would call her away from play to do “woman’s work,” Valeria would question it. She would always ask why the boys got to ride the bicycle and why she had to work. She told us that either her mother would beat her for asking questions like that, or give her a vague answer that didn’t really satisfy her. By the time she reached 7th grade, her parents only had money to send her brothers on to secondary school and not her. She would go to the convent nearby a lot to pray, and became close with the nuns there. They asked her why she wasn’t in school, and she told them it was because her parents couldn’t afford the school fees for her. They asked her if they paid the fees, would she like to go to school? She replied yes, of course.
What followed were chance encounters mixed in with Valeria’s own drive to change social norms and break everyone’s expectations of her as a female. She got amazing grades in high school and was awarded a scholarship to study Women and Development in Nova Scotia, Canada.
She came back to Tanzania and worked for a while, raising her son as a single mother, and though she had fulfilled many of her goals and fulfilled expectations that she had set for herself, she laid her future plans aside to raise her son. Unfortunately, when he was a teenager, her son died in an accident on the way to school. The strength of this woman is incredible. Instead of lying down and giving up, she thought to herself “God must have loved him more than I did” and accepted whatever plan God had laid out for her. She realized that her life path was directing her back to working with women and development. It was after the accident that she founded WEECE. For a refresher on what it is (or if you just haven’t read that far back in my blog) WEECE is an organization that educates women on problem-solving, self-esteem, decision-making, basic economic principles, how to run a small business, computers, and various other skills that they are not able to learn anywhere else. The small compound where WEECE is located has two offices, a classroom, and a very small hostel where the students live. A lot of the women that come are divorced and struggle to make a living since the law in Tanzania says that women can’t own anything.
WEECE provides the women with a small amount of capital to start up the business, and then sees that the business succeeds. WEECE has 100% loan repayment. Not only do they empower women, but they give them the tools to succeed in a society that doesn’t see the value in them.
(www.weece.org)
The organization doesn’t always work with divorced women, some of the women are married and have supportive husbands who help them through the process. It was a funny discussion, towards the end, since Mama Valeria went off on a tangent about Tanzanian/African men. She is by far the most God-fearing woman I’ve met so far, but she candidly spoke about why female genital mutilation is wrong (it allows the men to have a subservient wife back in the village, while they go to the city and pay for prostitutes, marry other women, and squander the money on alcohol and billiards), how men don’t understand that they don’t show women love, but they need them all the same, and how the education of women is the key to empowerment.
It’s funny that education is a recurring theme as to what will turn African countries around. It was also interesting because this woman was not the picturesque feminist that we think of in the United States. She was a home-grown Tanzanian woman who saw inequality, called it out, and worked with women in the community to turn things around.
If you remember a few blog posts ago, from the camel-safari, how I was talking about that I didn’t feel like it was my place to judge the Maasai people for circumcising their females since it was part of their culture and they considered it a celebration, and a right of passage into woman-hood. It kind of blew my mind to meet a strong woman in Tanzania who saw the flaws in such a tradition and condemned it as an act of oppression.
After she had talked to us for a while, she had us walk around the neighborhood with her and meet a bunch of the local women who had started small businesses with WEECE. These women had shops selling anything from a groceries, to a hair salon, to selling hot food. Most of them were married and the breadwinner of the family, and the money they made with their business was sending their children to school. One of Mama Valerie’s good friends and the secretary at WEECE, Mama Tedi, runs her own pig business and makes enough money to send all three of her children to university, AND she’s married.
We visited Mama Tedi’s pig farm last of all, which was really fun, even if it was smelly. The pigs were adorable and the pictures we took were awesome.
After seeing the pigs, we stopped and had packed lunches on the bus, before hitting our final stop of the day in Moshi. Our last stop was a small shop called Kwera. Kwera is the Swahili word for weaver bird, and the shop sold beautiful hand-woven products as well as jewelry and wax candles and other things. After we shopped (endorsing the business was a must) we were able to see their workshop. They have three different looms, one of which was in use (I’d never seen someone literally weaving something before) and then several different sewing machines and craft tables. It was pretty cool, and the women working were all really welcoming and friendly.
We left Moshi around 2pm and got back to Arusha around 3. We were all pretty tired from a full morning and early afternoon, so a lot of people just went to take naps. I wrote this blog post and I think I’m going to work on my paper before dinner.
Tomorrow: back to Shanga for shopping.
Sunday: Tengeru, cultural tourism hiking and visiting a coffee plantation.
Love you, Miss you,
Colleen
So a lot of us have been trading books within the group, and I was able to get my hands on a copy of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which I had planned on picking up at the airport on my way here, but was only able to find the second two books. In any case, I have been reading it voraciously.
After class today a bunch of us headed to the Peace Center to do research and to meet with our volunteer coordinators. We did that and discussed small arms proliferation with out guy. It was a pretty interesting conversation, considering the differences in gun laws between the United States and Tanzania and the amount of illegal small arms and light weapons that are trafficked into and through the country.
By the time Libby and I left the Center, we were starving. We hit up Bamboo for some samosas and went back to the hotel. Emily and Libby took a walk to find a pharmacy, since the high content of tomatos and other fruits in our diet had given her canker sores, but the town was closed since it was a national holiday.
I read a lot while they were gone, and I got pretty sucked into the book. When they got back, Libby and I hung out and talked in my room. After a little bit, Emily started cracking up and called us into her room. She had been researching basic Swahili phrases to try to improve her speaking skills, and the website, duly named Useful Swahili Phrases, was what she was looking at. She asked us to look at the list of phrases and see if there was anything strange. We scanned the list and saw things like No, Thank You, and Police! and other normal useful phrases. Second from the bottom, however, we found the discrepancy. Right below, Happy Birthday! was the phrase : My hovercraft is full of eels, with the Swahili listed as: Gari Langu linaloangama lemejaa na mikunga. We cracked up about that for a good little while, and then decided to cross check it with GoogleTranslate, we stuck the Swahili translation into GoogleTranslate and this is what it produced: My car is dominated by midwife linaloangama. Priceless. We had fun with that for a good long time.
At around 6, Libby and I met up with our two group members, Amanda and Maureen about a group discussion we had to outline for the following day. Instead of having regular lecture, Charles assigned everyone into groups of four or five and then gave each group a question to explore and bring ready to discuss the following day. Our question was, “How does the diversity of beliefs and values affect the universality of human rights.” We liked the question a lot. It didn’t take us long to jot down some talking points, and then some possible discussion questions if we need to get things going with the class. All-in-all, successful meeting.
After dinner, our friend Alex came over to our apartment to watch the Spain v. Germany world cup game with us. We all hung out on Emily’s huge bed and just sat around, listened to music, and talked about life. It was nice.
Day 21 (7/8):
So class today: as previously mentioned, instead of class we had group discussion projects. Our group went first and we rocked that joint. It was awesome. We definitely set the standard high for the rest of the groups, and we hadn’t even bothered with a PowerPoint like some of the other groups did. All we needed were some talking points, and that got us going with our conversation, which in turn spurred the class to jump in. It felt really good. We talked a lot about how corruption within African governments need to be seriously stifled and that bringing in leaders that know the sustainability of investing in their people would be a huge turning point. I mean, we obviously discussed our question too, that’s just a point I specifically remembered from later in the discussion. We were all pretty pleased with the outcome.
During the break, I tried to get money out of an ATM near our class and failed. I was able to pull money out after class though, at a different machine. Right after class we had lunch at the hotel (we usually have dinner) since we were going to Via-Via later that night for dinner and music. Lunch was good.
At around 2 o’clock, Albert (the trustworthy taxi driver) came and picked me and Libby and Emily up to go to a place outside of town called Peace House. Emily was here for two weeks before she came to Arusha in a town called Iringa, in southern Tanzania. She worked with a Christian youth group and volunteered at a similar place to Shanga (read earlier blog posts), called Neema. They also employ physically handicapped people and empower them through work and respect. From there Emily came to the Arcadia program here in Arusha, and for two weeks after the program ended she would be staying at Peace House, which was only 20 minutes outside of the city. Peace House is run by the Lutherans and is basically a scholarship-based boarding school for high school students in Tanzania whose family has been affected by AIDs. The application process is long and difficult (I don’t even feel like explaining) but believe you me, the people they accept to live there are completely deserving. The school year goes from January to May and then from middle of July to December.
Peace House is located on 100 acres of land owned by the Lutheran Church. All the buildings are open and airy and beautifully spread out across the grounds. They are able to house 250 students, all the teachers, all the staff, and they still have room to spare. That’s unusual with volunteer work in Africa since most places don’t have enough space for what they want to do. Let me tell you guys, if I said before that I didn’t think I could ever fall in love with Tanzania, I was wrong. I could do it here. Just walking around the grounds was amazing. It made me realize that it’s not the people I dislike or the landscape, it’s really just being in the city and the restrictive feeling I have of not being free and independent to move about as I please. Being out in the country a littler further, away from the city, made me understand that there is totally a chance I could fall in love with the country. They say on a clear day you can see Mt. Longido, Mt. Meru, AND Mt. Kilimanjaro. Amazing.
I’m not going to lie, I was super jealous that Emily got to stay and volunteer with them. It was just so quiet and…peaceful, lol. I’m sure it’s more noisy and full of life when the students aren’t on their break, but still. I can just imagine living there and volunteering and being happy. I don’t know. Definitely something to look into for after college or maybe for part of grad school.
We got back from Peace House and did our own thing until dinner. We got ready to head out around 7:30 and then we all trooped up to Via-Via for dinner. That’s the restaurant set in the gardens behind our classroom. It was really nice and all the trees had lights in them. The food took forever, but that’s Africa for you. In the meantime they had a band who just played instrumental music while we were there. It was pretty cool.
Day 22 (7/9):
Today we had a field trip into Moshi, a city about 90 km away from Arusha. We were going to visit the Women’s Education and Economic Center (WEECE) location, since we had representatives come visit our class and talk to us about the organization last week.
We had to wake up earlier than normal (6:30 am) to get breakfast and catch the bus by 7:30. It only takes about an hour to drive to Moshi, and the views on the way are splendid. You get closer to Kilimanjaro as you drive, and on a clear day I’m sure it’s really beautiful. Our morning, however, was cloudy and cold, so we didn’t get to see the mountain.
We arrived at WEECE around 9 am and spent the morning meeting with the head coordinator, a funny, brash, large woman named Mama Valeria. She was amazing. She showed us around the facility and then had us gather in the tiny classroom to hear her story. She grew up playing with her brothers, and whenever her mother would call her away from play to do “woman’s work,” Valeria would question it. She would always ask why the boys got to ride the bicycle and why she had to work. She told us that either her mother would beat her for asking questions like that, or give her a vague answer that didn’t really satisfy her. By the time she reached 7th grade, her parents only had money to send her brothers on to secondary school and not her. She would go to the convent nearby a lot to pray, and became close with the nuns there. They asked her why she wasn’t in school, and she told them it was because her parents couldn’t afford the school fees for her. They asked her if they paid the fees, would she like to go to school? She replied yes, of course.
What followed were chance encounters mixed in with Valeria’s own drive to change social norms and break everyone’s expectations of her as a female. She got amazing grades in high school and was awarded a scholarship to study Women and Development in Nova Scotia, Canada.
She came back to Tanzania and worked for a while, raising her son as a single mother, and though she had fulfilled many of her goals and fulfilled expectations that she had set for herself, she laid her future plans aside to raise her son. Unfortunately, when he was a teenager, her son died in an accident on the way to school. The strength of this woman is incredible. Instead of lying down and giving up, she thought to herself “God must have loved him more than I did” and accepted whatever plan God had laid out for her. She realized that her life path was directing her back to working with women and development. It was after the accident that she founded WEECE. For a refresher on what it is (or if you just haven’t read that far back in my blog) WEECE is an organization that educates women on problem-solving, self-esteem, decision-making, basic economic principles, how to run a small business, computers, and various other skills that they are not able to learn anywhere else. The small compound where WEECE is located has two offices, a classroom, and a very small hostel where the students live. A lot of the women that come are divorced and struggle to make a living since the law in Tanzania says that women can’t own anything.
WEECE provides the women with a small amount of capital to start up the business, and then sees that the business succeeds. WEECE has 100% loan repayment. Not only do they empower women, but they give them the tools to succeed in a society that doesn’t see the value in them.
(www.weece.org)
The organization doesn’t always work with divorced women, some of the women are married and have supportive husbands who help them through the process. It was a funny discussion, towards the end, since Mama Valeria went off on a tangent about Tanzanian/African men. She is by far the most God-fearing woman I’ve met so far, but she candidly spoke about why female genital mutilation is wrong (it allows the men to have a subservient wife back in the village, while they go to the city and pay for prostitutes, marry other women, and squander the money on alcohol and billiards), how men don’t understand that they don’t show women love, but they need them all the same, and how the education of women is the key to empowerment.
It’s funny that education is a recurring theme as to what will turn African countries around. It was also interesting because this woman was not the picturesque feminist that we think of in the United States. She was a home-grown Tanzanian woman who saw inequality, called it out, and worked with women in the community to turn things around.
If you remember a few blog posts ago, from the camel-safari, how I was talking about that I didn’t feel like it was my place to judge the Maasai people for circumcising their females since it was part of their culture and they considered it a celebration, and a right of passage into woman-hood. It kind of blew my mind to meet a strong woman in Tanzania who saw the flaws in such a tradition and condemned it as an act of oppression.
After she had talked to us for a while, she had us walk around the neighborhood with her and meet a bunch of the local women who had started small businesses with WEECE. These women had shops selling anything from a groceries, to a hair salon, to selling hot food. Most of them were married and the breadwinner of the family, and the money they made with their business was sending their children to school. One of Mama Valerie’s good friends and the secretary at WEECE, Mama Tedi, runs her own pig business and makes enough money to send all three of her children to university, AND she’s married.
We visited Mama Tedi’s pig farm last of all, which was really fun, even if it was smelly. The pigs were adorable and the pictures we took were awesome.
After seeing the pigs, we stopped and had packed lunches on the bus, before hitting our final stop of the day in Moshi. Our last stop was a small shop called Kwera. Kwera is the Swahili word for weaver bird, and the shop sold beautiful hand-woven products as well as jewelry and wax candles and other things. After we shopped (endorsing the business was a must) we were able to see their workshop. They have three different looms, one of which was in use (I’d never seen someone literally weaving something before) and then several different sewing machines and craft tables. It was pretty cool, and the women working were all really welcoming and friendly.
We left Moshi around 2pm and got back to Arusha around 3. We were all pretty tired from a full morning and early afternoon, so a lot of people just went to take naps. I wrote this blog post and I think I’m going to work on my paper before dinner.
Tomorrow: back to Shanga for shopping.
Sunday: Tengeru, cultural tourism hiking and visiting a coffee plantation.
Love you, Miss you,
Colleen
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Hakuna Matata
Day 18 (7/5):
It’s Monday and we’re back to the old grindstone. Class was the same as usual. After being pleasantly surprised with how quickly my batch of postcards had gotten to their recipients the first time, I decided it was a good call to send out a second batch. During the break in class, I went with Libby and Emily to the bookstore and picked up postcards and stamps.
After class, Libby and Emily went to the Center to check email and do research. I came back to the hotel and checked email. Then, feeling hungry, I decided to reheat some of the pizza leftover from Pepe’s. The way the kitchen is set up, along the back wall of the apartment is a set of windows with the sink and metal drainboard on either side, below it. On the counter top is a microwave with a toaster on top of that, and below are cabinets and drawers for pots, pans, and silverware. Against the wall, to the left when you enter, is a small wooden stand where the convection oven sits, on top is an electric tea kettle. The convection oven has two burners on the top of it, but since we’d never used the oven, we just left the kettle there when we boiled water. Gathering some ingenuity, I figured out how to turn the convection oven on to preheat for the pizza. What I didn’t realize, however, was that along with turning the oven itself on automatically, it also turned the burners on top of it on, automatically. I had left the kitchen while it was preheating to write my postcards and after a while noticed a funky smell. I went to investigate, only to find that the plastic pegs that were attached to the bottom of the electric kettle had almost completely melted down from being directly on the hot burner. I reacted quickly and pulled it off, but the smell of cooking plastic is still in our apartment. I was able to turn off the burners so that only the oven was on, but I freaked myself out nonetheless. The kettle is fine, the pegs got the worst of it, but I’m definitely doing a more thorough inspection of any type of machinery next time, before I attempt using it.
About the time my pizza was done reheating and I was eating happily was when Emily and Libby got back from the Center. Libby hadn’t been feeling well so she was pretty much in until dinner, but I wanted to send out my postcards and go to the grocery store before everything closed for the day. Libby went with me and after dropping the postcards off in the mailbox, we hit the grocery store for Cassava chips, chocolate ice cream, wine, and juice. A successful trip in every aspect.
After getting back, Libby worked out and Emily and I talked on my bed for a while. Libby would join intermittently, in between exercises. A little before dinner, Emily and I cracked open the wine and had a glass. I know it’s silly, but it really is nice being able to by a bottle of wine and have a glass here, before dinner. I kind of like that freedom.
Dinner was good, we had fried rice, fish in coconut sauce, and chocolate samosas for dessert. Afterwards, I checked email quickly before Libby needed to get on. Her and I watched the HP7 movie trailer and then I just hung out while she did whatever she needed to do on the internet. I talked to Alex and Katy a lot, and we read up on the blog of a girl who had been here for the spring semester, and compared her experience to ours.
A lot of the things she said about three months in were things we were feeling right now, about harassment and feeling trapped and homesick. It was nice to know that someone else had felt that way, but also made me feel like a baby for complaining after only having been here for several weeks, and she had toughed it out for several months.
In any case, Libby and I headed back to the apartment and read. I’m reading the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, lent to me from another girl in the group. It’s really good, I’m enjoying it a lot.
Around 11:30 Libby and I decided to go to sleep, and we switched off the lights and continued talking, as per our nightly routine. About halfway into a story I was telling about a family tradition, we thought we heard Emily (who’d been in bed for several hours) make some noise. I thought it either sounded like her crying or saying “Mom” and Libby couldn’t tell what she was saying. Either way, it freaked me out. The lights were out, and I wasn’t brave enough to get up and make sure Emily was ok. We lock our apartment every night, and the complex we live in is secure, I just got myself worked up for no reason. It didn’t help that there was a little wind that was rattling the panes of glass in my window and waking me up every time I got close to sleep. Eventually, after not being able to handle the idea of laying awake for the entire night again, I woke Libby up and had her go with me to close all the windows and curtains and close the doors so that the wind didn’t slam them closed. She was a good sport and humored me. I fell asleep almost immediately after we did that. Thank god.
Day 19 (7/6):
Today dawned cloudy, and unfortunately stayed cloudy and chilly most of the day. We’ve been lucky with really good weather here for a solid week and a half, two weeks. It was only a matter of time before it got chilly or rainy again. I’m just glad I’m not at home right now, in the 101 degree weather with humidity out the wazoo.
Class today was a bit different because we had speakers. The first speaker, from Heifer International, came and spoke from 9 to 11. He was awesome. His name was Mr. Msangya and he gave a really good presentation. I already had a little bit of background knowledge about the organization, but this presentation only opened my eyes to the amazing work it does more.
The basic premise behind Heifer International, for those of you who don’t know (for those of you who do, feel free to skip ahead), is that it is a primarily donor-based organization, as most NGOs are. The donations go towards an animal, and once enough money has been accrued for the value of that animal, it is sent to a third-world family. The beautiful thing about the organization is that they don’t just plop a cow in a village and leave, any family or village that is granted livestock from Heifer International (is first assessed for need) and then key members of the community are sent to a local Heifer International office location for 14 day training. They train them in being able to grow fodder for the livestock, and are given seeds. They are trained in the various uses of the animal, from reproduction to milking, depending on the species, and the various ways the community can make money off the animal. Once the animal has had multiple offspring, that animal is fair game for immediate consumption. In its essence, the organization is amazingly sustainable.
It also works on a community level and fosters commitment and obligation to ones neighbors. Every community or family that signs a contract to receive an animal or group of animals from HI, must sign, as part of the contract, a clause stating that the first offspring of the animal is given to a needy neighbor in the community. The impact of this is that even if HI only directly deals with a certain number of people or communities a year, the contract they make with their beneficiaries ensures that the “passing of the gift” continues.
Of course, with any organization, there are challenges, but HI is surprisingly prepared for most of them and thinks of innovative ways to combat those challenges. For one thing, the people they target and who need their assistance the most live in rural areas, and those people depend on the daily activities they complete to keep them alive (collecting water, taking care of crops). If a beneficiary cannot come out to the city for training, either they can’t afford the travel expense, or they can’t afford to leave their home village for that length of time, HI arranges for in-village training to take place.
Another key aspect of the sustainability of the projects is the health and well-being of the livestock and animals. Part of the training is basic veterinary care for their animals, but there is only so much someone can learn about the anatomy of the animal they’re receiving in 14 days, especially if they are illiterate. HI fights this problem by employing trained Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) who travel within the region, going to villages that have received HI livestock and making sure the animals are well-cared for, and if any of them have fallen sick, caring for them and getting them healthy again. Each beneficiary who goes through training is also given a basic Animal Health kit that should assist them with minor problems.
HI is all about working with the environment and making sure every project they engage in is sustainable. If a village that is chosen asks for a cow, but that region experiences regular droughts, HI gives them a camel instead, so that the animal they receive is well-suited to the climate and has a better chance of survival with the community. As I said before, the beneficiaries are also given seeds and trained in planting fodder for livestock, even if the region is a zero-farming region.
Innovative ideas are used with this organization, which makes it dynamic. They give some of the communities bees and train them to be beekeepers. Beeswax is highly valuable in many parts of the world, as is honey. With milk, eggs, honey, and other sellable products like that, not only does the community receive assistance and income, but they also gain a way to produce a product that is individually and solely theirs, and a product that they can be proud of. It is as much about empowering people as it is helping them survive. HI is also really good with follow up and is generally transparent as an organization all around. Specifically, they assess communities and determine whether there is a need for HI to come and assist, they interview the villagers, they take pictures, they spend several days with them to see what their routine is and how far they walk for water every day. Once a village is granted assistance, every six months HI checks in to make sure that the “passing the gift” condition of the contract is being met, and how the animals are doing. After 5 years of HI checking in regularly, and the community is deemed sustainable, HI only checks in every few years to maintain the meticulous records they keep.
The last thing I’ll mention about HI before I move off my pedestal about it, is that they target sensitive topics and peoples in their efforts to alleviate poverty and end hunger. They empower women, and provide communities with gender-equity-based tasks and projects for them to complete. They work with communities of orphans and grant them livestock based on their age and ability level, mainly, they give them dairy goats, which are low maintenance animals that bring in income with their milk. They also help disabled and albino communities, specifically within Africa, because they are so strongly stigmatized and ostracized on this continent.
The bottom line is that I love the organization and wish I could seriously work for them. Unfortunately, the local office in Arusha was not accepting any volunteers this summer, bummer, but it still made me want to get involved when I got back to the States. Good stuff.
After the first speaker was over, we had our usual half-hour break, and we all trooped down to Bamboo Café for a quick samosa. Samosas are these awesome fried triangles that have meat and vegetables and are spicy and they are SUPER cheap. We had some of those and then we headed back to the classroom.
Charles, our professor, lectured for a little less than an hour, and then our second speaker of the day came. His name was Donald Deya and he was the CEO of PALU or Pan-African Lawyers Union. He rocked. He was young and passionate and loved what he presented about. He made continental African law and the various organizations that govern and hold judiciary positions on the continent accessible and easy to understand. He also made the problems facing Africa as a global player interesting, and mostly attainable. I really liked hearing him speak. I felt like I learned more about the dynamic of African law and it’s governing organizations in the hour and a half he was there than the whole time I’d been here. I was pleased, to say the least.
After class I came back to the apartment and I’m happy to report that I finally had a bowel movement! After going out to eat on Saturday, I had three different, horrible cases of diarrhea. In an effort to stop the problem, I took Immodium. What I didn’t realize was how effective Immodium is. I hadn’t pooped in three and a half days, and I was starting to get worried. Thankfully, my bowels did their thing and I feel much more back to normal.
Other than having an awesome poop, I didn’t really do a lot today. I always seem to have small secretarial things to do on my computer or with my checkbook. I finished the last of my laundry. Had a glass of wine. It was a nice day.
After this, I’m going to dinner, and then watching the first semi-final game of the World Cup. Libby and I are super-stoked. We’ve been kind of lost without soccer every day to keep us occupied. In any case, that is what has been going on recently. More updates soon!
Love and miss you all,
Colleen
It’s Monday and we’re back to the old grindstone. Class was the same as usual. After being pleasantly surprised with how quickly my batch of postcards had gotten to their recipients the first time, I decided it was a good call to send out a second batch. During the break in class, I went with Libby and Emily to the bookstore and picked up postcards and stamps.
After class, Libby and Emily went to the Center to check email and do research. I came back to the hotel and checked email. Then, feeling hungry, I decided to reheat some of the pizza leftover from Pepe’s. The way the kitchen is set up, along the back wall of the apartment is a set of windows with the sink and metal drainboard on either side, below it. On the counter top is a microwave with a toaster on top of that, and below are cabinets and drawers for pots, pans, and silverware. Against the wall, to the left when you enter, is a small wooden stand where the convection oven sits, on top is an electric tea kettle. The convection oven has two burners on the top of it, but since we’d never used the oven, we just left the kettle there when we boiled water. Gathering some ingenuity, I figured out how to turn the convection oven on to preheat for the pizza. What I didn’t realize, however, was that along with turning the oven itself on automatically, it also turned the burners on top of it on, automatically. I had left the kitchen while it was preheating to write my postcards and after a while noticed a funky smell. I went to investigate, only to find that the plastic pegs that were attached to the bottom of the electric kettle had almost completely melted down from being directly on the hot burner. I reacted quickly and pulled it off, but the smell of cooking plastic is still in our apartment. I was able to turn off the burners so that only the oven was on, but I freaked myself out nonetheless. The kettle is fine, the pegs got the worst of it, but I’m definitely doing a more thorough inspection of any type of machinery next time, before I attempt using it.
About the time my pizza was done reheating and I was eating happily was when Emily and Libby got back from the Center. Libby hadn’t been feeling well so she was pretty much in until dinner, but I wanted to send out my postcards and go to the grocery store before everything closed for the day. Libby went with me and after dropping the postcards off in the mailbox, we hit the grocery store for Cassava chips, chocolate ice cream, wine, and juice. A successful trip in every aspect.
After getting back, Libby worked out and Emily and I talked on my bed for a while. Libby would join intermittently, in between exercises. A little before dinner, Emily and I cracked open the wine and had a glass. I know it’s silly, but it really is nice being able to by a bottle of wine and have a glass here, before dinner. I kind of like that freedom.
Dinner was good, we had fried rice, fish in coconut sauce, and chocolate samosas for dessert. Afterwards, I checked email quickly before Libby needed to get on. Her and I watched the HP7 movie trailer and then I just hung out while she did whatever she needed to do on the internet. I talked to Alex and Katy a lot, and we read up on the blog of a girl who had been here for the spring semester, and compared her experience to ours.
A lot of the things she said about three months in were things we were feeling right now, about harassment and feeling trapped and homesick. It was nice to know that someone else had felt that way, but also made me feel like a baby for complaining after only having been here for several weeks, and she had toughed it out for several months.
In any case, Libby and I headed back to the apartment and read. I’m reading the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, lent to me from another girl in the group. It’s really good, I’m enjoying it a lot.
Around 11:30 Libby and I decided to go to sleep, and we switched off the lights and continued talking, as per our nightly routine. About halfway into a story I was telling about a family tradition, we thought we heard Emily (who’d been in bed for several hours) make some noise. I thought it either sounded like her crying or saying “Mom” and Libby couldn’t tell what she was saying. Either way, it freaked me out. The lights were out, and I wasn’t brave enough to get up and make sure Emily was ok. We lock our apartment every night, and the complex we live in is secure, I just got myself worked up for no reason. It didn’t help that there was a little wind that was rattling the panes of glass in my window and waking me up every time I got close to sleep. Eventually, after not being able to handle the idea of laying awake for the entire night again, I woke Libby up and had her go with me to close all the windows and curtains and close the doors so that the wind didn’t slam them closed. She was a good sport and humored me. I fell asleep almost immediately after we did that. Thank god.
Day 19 (7/6):
Today dawned cloudy, and unfortunately stayed cloudy and chilly most of the day. We’ve been lucky with really good weather here for a solid week and a half, two weeks. It was only a matter of time before it got chilly or rainy again. I’m just glad I’m not at home right now, in the 101 degree weather with humidity out the wazoo.
Class today was a bit different because we had speakers. The first speaker, from Heifer International, came and spoke from 9 to 11. He was awesome. His name was Mr. Msangya and he gave a really good presentation. I already had a little bit of background knowledge about the organization, but this presentation only opened my eyes to the amazing work it does more.
The basic premise behind Heifer International, for those of you who don’t know (for those of you who do, feel free to skip ahead), is that it is a primarily donor-based organization, as most NGOs are. The donations go towards an animal, and once enough money has been accrued for the value of that animal, it is sent to a third-world family. The beautiful thing about the organization is that they don’t just plop a cow in a village and leave, any family or village that is granted livestock from Heifer International (is first assessed for need) and then key members of the community are sent to a local Heifer International office location for 14 day training. They train them in being able to grow fodder for the livestock, and are given seeds. They are trained in the various uses of the animal, from reproduction to milking, depending on the species, and the various ways the community can make money off the animal. Once the animal has had multiple offspring, that animal is fair game for immediate consumption. In its essence, the organization is amazingly sustainable.
It also works on a community level and fosters commitment and obligation to ones neighbors. Every community or family that signs a contract to receive an animal or group of animals from HI, must sign, as part of the contract, a clause stating that the first offspring of the animal is given to a needy neighbor in the community. The impact of this is that even if HI only directly deals with a certain number of people or communities a year, the contract they make with their beneficiaries ensures that the “passing of the gift” continues.
Of course, with any organization, there are challenges, but HI is surprisingly prepared for most of them and thinks of innovative ways to combat those challenges. For one thing, the people they target and who need their assistance the most live in rural areas, and those people depend on the daily activities they complete to keep them alive (collecting water, taking care of crops). If a beneficiary cannot come out to the city for training, either they can’t afford the travel expense, or they can’t afford to leave their home village for that length of time, HI arranges for in-village training to take place.
Another key aspect of the sustainability of the projects is the health and well-being of the livestock and animals. Part of the training is basic veterinary care for their animals, but there is only so much someone can learn about the anatomy of the animal they’re receiving in 14 days, especially if they are illiterate. HI fights this problem by employing trained Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) who travel within the region, going to villages that have received HI livestock and making sure the animals are well-cared for, and if any of them have fallen sick, caring for them and getting them healthy again. Each beneficiary who goes through training is also given a basic Animal Health kit that should assist them with minor problems.
HI is all about working with the environment and making sure every project they engage in is sustainable. If a village that is chosen asks for a cow, but that region experiences regular droughts, HI gives them a camel instead, so that the animal they receive is well-suited to the climate and has a better chance of survival with the community. As I said before, the beneficiaries are also given seeds and trained in planting fodder for livestock, even if the region is a zero-farming region.
Innovative ideas are used with this organization, which makes it dynamic. They give some of the communities bees and train them to be beekeepers. Beeswax is highly valuable in many parts of the world, as is honey. With milk, eggs, honey, and other sellable products like that, not only does the community receive assistance and income, but they also gain a way to produce a product that is individually and solely theirs, and a product that they can be proud of. It is as much about empowering people as it is helping them survive. HI is also really good with follow up and is generally transparent as an organization all around. Specifically, they assess communities and determine whether there is a need for HI to come and assist, they interview the villagers, they take pictures, they spend several days with them to see what their routine is and how far they walk for water every day. Once a village is granted assistance, every six months HI checks in to make sure that the “passing the gift” condition of the contract is being met, and how the animals are doing. After 5 years of HI checking in regularly, and the community is deemed sustainable, HI only checks in every few years to maintain the meticulous records they keep.
The last thing I’ll mention about HI before I move off my pedestal about it, is that they target sensitive topics and peoples in their efforts to alleviate poverty and end hunger. They empower women, and provide communities with gender-equity-based tasks and projects for them to complete. They work with communities of orphans and grant them livestock based on their age and ability level, mainly, they give them dairy goats, which are low maintenance animals that bring in income with their milk. They also help disabled and albino communities, specifically within Africa, because they are so strongly stigmatized and ostracized on this continent.
The bottom line is that I love the organization and wish I could seriously work for them. Unfortunately, the local office in Arusha was not accepting any volunteers this summer, bummer, but it still made me want to get involved when I got back to the States. Good stuff.
After the first speaker was over, we had our usual half-hour break, and we all trooped down to Bamboo Café for a quick samosa. Samosas are these awesome fried triangles that have meat and vegetables and are spicy and they are SUPER cheap. We had some of those and then we headed back to the classroom.
Charles, our professor, lectured for a little less than an hour, and then our second speaker of the day came. His name was Donald Deya and he was the CEO of PALU or Pan-African Lawyers Union. He rocked. He was young and passionate and loved what he presented about. He made continental African law and the various organizations that govern and hold judiciary positions on the continent accessible and easy to understand. He also made the problems facing Africa as a global player interesting, and mostly attainable. I really liked hearing him speak. I felt like I learned more about the dynamic of African law and it’s governing organizations in the hour and a half he was there than the whole time I’d been here. I was pleased, to say the least.
After class I came back to the apartment and I’m happy to report that I finally had a bowel movement! After going out to eat on Saturday, I had three different, horrible cases of diarrhea. In an effort to stop the problem, I took Immodium. What I didn’t realize was how effective Immodium is. I hadn’t pooped in three and a half days, and I was starting to get worried. Thankfully, my bowels did their thing and I feel much more back to normal.
Other than having an awesome poop, I didn’t really do a lot today. I always seem to have small secretarial things to do on my computer or with my checkbook. I finished the last of my laundry. Had a glass of wine. It was a nice day.
After this, I’m going to dinner, and then watching the first semi-final game of the World Cup. Libby and I are super-stoked. We’ve been kind of lost without soccer every day to keep us occupied. In any case, that is what has been going on recently. More updates soon!
Love and miss you all,
Colleen
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Birds. Or flying goats? But the sound is definitely coming from the sky
Day 16 (7/3):
Weekends are primetime for us to go on excursions, as you probably have realized from our camel-safari last weekend. We had discussed the night before, about going to Arusha National Park today, which has hiking trails and animals to see. It’s also right between Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru, so the view is spectacular. The cost to get into the park, however, is pretty hefty. It’s $55 USD to get in, and have a park ranger guide you, which is a requirement. They carry a gun in case an animal tries to attack you. Then there is the car service to drive the 30 minutes out to the park and back. Some of the girls, including myself, were not as enthusiastic about spending the money to go to the park since we were going on a paid safari at the end of the trip anyway, where we’d see the same animals. We figured the girls who wanted to go would go, and then if it turned out to be extra-spectacular, anyone who wanted to go could go on Sunday.
Those who stayed behind, which included me and my two roommates, woke up lazily around 10. We decided to rouse ourselves up to go to the ATM, since Emily and Libby needed money for the week. Apparently most people get paid in Arusha on Saturdays, but it also seems to be the case that a lot of the ATMs don’t get refilled before the weekend starts. It pretty much means that we walked around to every ATM we could find in the nearby five-block radius, and only two were open. One had an outrageous line, and the other had a less outrageous line. It’s kind of dicey to try to extract money from the ATMs when there are a lot of people around, or the line is long and a lot of people can see that you’re a white tourist going to pull money out. There are also townspeople that will try to direct you to the bank or ATM, and then ask you for money after you come out for helping direct you there. Needless to say, I was pretty comfortable with the fact that I didn’t need to pull money out, and that I’d be able to do it when there was a more even distribution of ATMs. Em and Libby were able to get money without any harassment, which was nice, and we went across the street to the bookstore since they both needed postcards and stamps.
When we got back from those errands, Emily had a skype-date with her parents, but the power in the apartment was out. We meandered around our apartment for 20 minutes before deciding that we needed to do something other than mope around with the power out. We got our stuff together and decided to go to the craft market to buy gifts and hope that by the time we got back, our power would be back on.
The market was really fun. You have to go in there with the right mind-set and set prices that you want to get and be firm, and be able to walk away if you can’t make the sale for the price you want. It’s pretty intense, but other than my first purchase of a few purses, which I was probably low-balling anyway, I was able to barter down to all of the prices I had listed for myself. I was pretty proud of myself, and I knocked off a good amount of items on my list. I was pleased.
After market shopping, a bunch of us went to Bamboo Café for lunch. We had wide variety of food, going from French toast to crepes to samosas and spring rolls. It was delicious food and cheap. Definitely a favorite spot to eat for us in the group.
I checked my email when I got back from lunch and since it was my clumsiness that had officially put Libby’s computer out of commission, I’ve been letting her use my computer whenever she wants/needs it.
I had a card (rummy) date with this girl Katy in our group, so I met up with her and Emily in Katy’s apartment and we played a game of rummy with soccer on in the background. I won the game, naturally (lol) and then we got ready for dinner.
The girls who had gone to Arusha National Park had gotten back by then so we were able to hear how it went and see some of their pictures. They had an amazing time. It was about a 30 minute drive outside of Arusha (on relatively smooth roads, apparently) and when they got to the park, they hiked for four hours. They saw zebras, giraffes, lots of baboons, dik-diks, and other wildlife. They didn’t see any big cats or hyenas, but they said the views were amazing and it was especially good for some of the girls who really like to hike in our group.
After dinner, I had a skype-date with my family. I was able to see my mom and Brian and even Bubba. It was very good to be able to see them, after having only been in contact with them through email for the past two weeks. After I got off with my family, I skyped with Kelsey for a bit and had a surprise chat with Rich. He and I didn’t get to talk for very long since he was getting ready for a nap before work, but we’re scheduled to skype tonight, so it was ok. Talking to everybody made me kind of sad, only because it reminded me of how much I miss them.
When I got back to my apartment I wrote up a long email to the executive board of Contemporary Issues, my club at school, about getting ready for the fall and the different programs we have lined up.
Libby and I watched Spain v. Paraguay and the craziness that ensued, and had fun. We went to bed a little before midnight.
Day 17 (7/4):
Today, Libby and I planned on getting up around 9:30/10 so that we could catch breakfast, since we had missed it yesterday and were starving by lunch. Emily went to church with a few other girls in the group. We had breakfast and then came back to the apartment and wanted to watch a movie, but since Libby’s computer was o.o.c., we would only be able to use either Emily’s iPod or computer. We texted her and she gave us the go-ahead, so we watched Mean Girls on her iPod. Someone in the group had made a Mean Girls reference in a joke earlier in the week and we were all jones-ing to watch it.
By the time we finished Mean Girls, Emily returned from church and we just hang around and chatted for a while. I decided to start washing clothes while Emily and Libby went to check email. I got through my underwear and socks when we had to leave for lunch.
A lot of the girls celebrate 4th of July pretty regularly so a lot of them were bummed that we were missing it and wanted to find some American comfort food to make up for it. On the way to Dragon Pearl last week, we saw a sign for a restaurant that made pizza and we all stored it away for later use. We had Albert pick us up in the bus and take us to Pepe’s for lunch. It was amazing. They had dinner-plate sized pizzas with various different toppings and flavors. It wasn’t exactly like pizza at home, but it was close enough, and it was good. It was also a really beautiful restaurant. We’re finding that since the weather here is so nice and beautiful, the dining places utilize the free light and open-air style. They also had a wood-burning stove that they cooked the pizzas in. It was awesome.
We got back from lunch and everyone split up to do different things before dinner. I did laundry and wrote this blog, Libby read, and Emily worked on her research paper. We were talking about it at lunch today, and we realized that this week is our middle week of 5 weeks. After this week is over, we’ll only have two weeks left here. Isn’t that crazy? It feels like it’s going by really slowly, but in actuality, it’s flying by.
Weekends are primetime for us to go on excursions, as you probably have realized from our camel-safari last weekend. We had discussed the night before, about going to Arusha National Park today, which has hiking trails and animals to see. It’s also right between Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru, so the view is spectacular. The cost to get into the park, however, is pretty hefty. It’s $55 USD to get in, and have a park ranger guide you, which is a requirement. They carry a gun in case an animal tries to attack you. Then there is the car service to drive the 30 minutes out to the park and back. Some of the girls, including myself, were not as enthusiastic about spending the money to go to the park since we were going on a paid safari at the end of the trip anyway, where we’d see the same animals. We figured the girls who wanted to go would go, and then if it turned out to be extra-spectacular, anyone who wanted to go could go on Sunday.
Those who stayed behind, which included me and my two roommates, woke up lazily around 10. We decided to rouse ourselves up to go to the ATM, since Emily and Libby needed money for the week. Apparently most people get paid in Arusha on Saturdays, but it also seems to be the case that a lot of the ATMs don’t get refilled before the weekend starts. It pretty much means that we walked around to every ATM we could find in the nearby five-block radius, and only two were open. One had an outrageous line, and the other had a less outrageous line. It’s kind of dicey to try to extract money from the ATMs when there are a lot of people around, or the line is long and a lot of people can see that you’re a white tourist going to pull money out. There are also townspeople that will try to direct you to the bank or ATM, and then ask you for money after you come out for helping direct you there. Needless to say, I was pretty comfortable with the fact that I didn’t need to pull money out, and that I’d be able to do it when there was a more even distribution of ATMs. Em and Libby were able to get money without any harassment, which was nice, and we went across the street to the bookstore since they both needed postcards and stamps.
When we got back from those errands, Emily had a skype-date with her parents, but the power in the apartment was out. We meandered around our apartment for 20 minutes before deciding that we needed to do something other than mope around with the power out. We got our stuff together and decided to go to the craft market to buy gifts and hope that by the time we got back, our power would be back on.
The market was really fun. You have to go in there with the right mind-set and set prices that you want to get and be firm, and be able to walk away if you can’t make the sale for the price you want. It’s pretty intense, but other than my first purchase of a few purses, which I was probably low-balling anyway, I was able to barter down to all of the prices I had listed for myself. I was pretty proud of myself, and I knocked off a good amount of items on my list. I was pleased.
After market shopping, a bunch of us went to Bamboo Café for lunch. We had wide variety of food, going from French toast to crepes to samosas and spring rolls. It was delicious food and cheap. Definitely a favorite spot to eat for us in the group.
I checked my email when I got back from lunch and since it was my clumsiness that had officially put Libby’s computer out of commission, I’ve been letting her use my computer whenever she wants/needs it.
I had a card (rummy) date with this girl Katy in our group, so I met up with her and Emily in Katy’s apartment and we played a game of rummy with soccer on in the background. I won the game, naturally (lol) and then we got ready for dinner.
The girls who had gone to Arusha National Park had gotten back by then so we were able to hear how it went and see some of their pictures. They had an amazing time. It was about a 30 minute drive outside of Arusha (on relatively smooth roads, apparently) and when they got to the park, they hiked for four hours. They saw zebras, giraffes, lots of baboons, dik-diks, and other wildlife. They didn’t see any big cats or hyenas, but they said the views were amazing and it was especially good for some of the girls who really like to hike in our group.
After dinner, I had a skype-date with my family. I was able to see my mom and Brian and even Bubba. It was very good to be able to see them, after having only been in contact with them through email for the past two weeks. After I got off with my family, I skyped with Kelsey for a bit and had a surprise chat with Rich. He and I didn’t get to talk for very long since he was getting ready for a nap before work, but we’re scheduled to skype tonight, so it was ok. Talking to everybody made me kind of sad, only because it reminded me of how much I miss them.
When I got back to my apartment I wrote up a long email to the executive board of Contemporary Issues, my club at school, about getting ready for the fall and the different programs we have lined up.
Libby and I watched Spain v. Paraguay and the craziness that ensued, and had fun. We went to bed a little before midnight.
Day 17 (7/4):
Today, Libby and I planned on getting up around 9:30/10 so that we could catch breakfast, since we had missed it yesterday and were starving by lunch. Emily went to church with a few other girls in the group. We had breakfast and then came back to the apartment and wanted to watch a movie, but since Libby’s computer was o.o.c., we would only be able to use either Emily’s iPod or computer. We texted her and she gave us the go-ahead, so we watched Mean Girls on her iPod. Someone in the group had made a Mean Girls reference in a joke earlier in the week and we were all jones-ing to watch it.
By the time we finished Mean Girls, Emily returned from church and we just hang around and chatted for a while. I decided to start washing clothes while Emily and Libby went to check email. I got through my underwear and socks when we had to leave for lunch.
A lot of the girls celebrate 4th of July pretty regularly so a lot of them were bummed that we were missing it and wanted to find some American comfort food to make up for it. On the way to Dragon Pearl last week, we saw a sign for a restaurant that made pizza and we all stored it away for later use. We had Albert pick us up in the bus and take us to Pepe’s for lunch. It was amazing. They had dinner-plate sized pizzas with various different toppings and flavors. It wasn’t exactly like pizza at home, but it was close enough, and it was good. It was also a really beautiful restaurant. We’re finding that since the weather here is so nice and beautiful, the dining places utilize the free light and open-air style. They also had a wood-burning stove that they cooked the pizzas in. It was awesome.
We got back from lunch and everyone split up to do different things before dinner. I did laundry and wrote this blog, Libby read, and Emily worked on her research paper. We were talking about it at lunch today, and we realized that this week is our middle week of 5 weeks. After this week is over, we’ll only have two weeks left here. Isn’t that crazy? It feels like it’s going by really slowly, but in actuality, it’s flying by.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Just a day in the life
Day 15 (7/2):
It’s interesting the kind of affect certain discussions or topics can have on a person. For example, today in class, we were discussing the empowerment of the poor in developing countries, and practical implementation tools to empower the people. Specifically, we were talking about ways to show governments that their poor populations are the vehicles of development, without taking advantage of them and exploiting them for cheap labor. The conversation turned towards what method we thought was best in terms of stimulating a third world country into development. Someone brought up education as the most basic way to stimulate a government or society into beginning development. Without educated people, a country does not have the basis or foundation for any kind of growth.
I’ve never wanted to be a teacher. Ever. It has never crossed my mind that I would be good at it or that I would even enjoy it. I don’t think I’m meant to be a teacher and I feel very strongly that only those who have a knack for it should train to be teachers. In any case, this discussion about education in developing countries brought out a passion for education as a system. I found myself raising my hand over and over again when someone would try to argue for other methods of stimulating development, arguing that, as always, development leads back to the education of the people. Without it, the people have nothing for themselves. I don’t know if my career will ever take me into education, I surely hope not, but I’ll be interested to see how my passion for good education systems in developing countries will manifest itself in my goals.
On the one hand, I am sort of against the idea of untrained foreigners going into third world countries and teaching English. It rubs me the wrong way. Half the volunteers who do that are not even trained to teach. They just decide they want to go and “help the needy”. That’s nice and all, but you’re not helping the children of whatever rural village you decide to grace with your presence and completely interrupt whatever style of teaching they’d been exposed to previously, and changing things up on them. I feel like not enough attention is paid to the quality of education that teachers receive, which in turn affects the quality of education the students receive. Not only are there not enough teachers in third world countries, but there is also a stigma against becoming a teacher here. Specifically, if you got bad grades in primary school and high school, you were really smart enough to go to the University, so you just go through a 6-month crash course for teaching. It’s kind of like a fall-back when you find out you’re not really good enough to go to college, here. How sad is that? That the only people becoming teachers in African countries are those that are stigmatized as the bottom of the barrel? I don’t know.
I know I’ve been ranting for a while on one topic, and whoever is reading this probably doesn’t care about my views on the faulty education system in this world, but it really got me going today. I feel like my initial reaction is to get a masters in education, and open quality teacher’s schools in African countries, but then I hit a roadblock…well, several actually. First, I don’t want to teach! Second, who am I, as a white female from the United States, to come in and reform the education system of an entire country? Like, who do I think I am? The education system should be reformed by the people of whatever country. By the people or the government, so that cultural norms, traditions, holidays, and nature of the children should be taken into account. That’s the other thing that’s bothersome, these 6-month “crash courses” for teachers more than likely do not have any kind of extensive subject matter on different learning styles. So not only are they training teachers with low morale to begin with, they are then putting them in a classroom with only one teaching style for however many children there may be in the classroom. The entire system sucks. It needs to change.
I think I’m done ranting for now, but like I said before, I am interested to see how my passion for education will manifest itself in future goals. I like that I’m learning these things here. Things about myself, for sure, but also about what I want to do with my life. It’s nice to have an environment where I am not only forced to, through experience, narrow down the paths my life should take, but also what I can take and my own sense of self. The experience here is definitely teaching me a lot.
After the incident with Hurepi yesterday, and after reporting it to Frida, our program directors set up another meeting with the guy who coordinates it to try to figure things out. We had Albert take the group of us in two cabs over to the offices. After hearing the story from the two girls that had gone the day before, the place where the offices ended up being was nowhere near where the guy said it was. Aside from the distance it was, it was back from the road and in no way identifiable from the other buildings around it. The man who runs Hurepi, Peter, came to meet us when we pulled up. He apologized profusely for what happened the day before and said that we wouldn’t have to go to the offices from then on. He was glad we came to see where the offices were, but he would prepare work for us to do at the Center and he would meet us there several times a week to discuss our progress. We finished talking to him about a schedule for the next week and then Frida directed us out of the office onto the road. We had our first experience with the Dala-Dala which are the local form of public transportation. They are these little buses that are rickety and have their own names appliquéd on the windshield. Names like, “No Good Intenshions” or “Glory 2 God” or “Speedy Bullettt”. It’s pretty interesting, to say the least, but also a super cheap way of getting around town.
They dropped us off a ten minute walk away from where we live. We had to pass the local market on our way back, and I realized something sort of important. I think it marks the growth I’ve made and the trust I’ve cultivated with the people here, but I didn’t feel anxious at all, like I did the first time we went to the market. I think it also helped that I had literally nothing valuable on me. So added to the fact that I have become more comfortable with the language, I have also taken to only having a bag when I really need it, so when I go out I don’t feel like I have anything to lose because I have nothing of value on my person. It’s weird, but good.
We got back ok and Libby and Emily decided to watch Harry Potter. I worked on my computer and puttered around. When 5 o’clock rolled around, our friend Amran came over and we watched the soccer game.
We showed up to dinner to be served this delicious carrot and potato soup, followed by, get this, spaghetti and meat sauce. You literally have NO idea how happy we all were. They must have heard us saying that we wish we could have had an American style dinner for 4th of July. Whether they heard us or not, dinner was amazing.
Right now I’m skyping and just answering emails. More tomorrow!
Love and miss you all!
Colleen
It’s interesting the kind of affect certain discussions or topics can have on a person. For example, today in class, we were discussing the empowerment of the poor in developing countries, and practical implementation tools to empower the people. Specifically, we were talking about ways to show governments that their poor populations are the vehicles of development, without taking advantage of them and exploiting them for cheap labor. The conversation turned towards what method we thought was best in terms of stimulating a third world country into development. Someone brought up education as the most basic way to stimulate a government or society into beginning development. Without educated people, a country does not have the basis or foundation for any kind of growth.
I’ve never wanted to be a teacher. Ever. It has never crossed my mind that I would be good at it or that I would even enjoy it. I don’t think I’m meant to be a teacher and I feel very strongly that only those who have a knack for it should train to be teachers. In any case, this discussion about education in developing countries brought out a passion for education as a system. I found myself raising my hand over and over again when someone would try to argue for other methods of stimulating development, arguing that, as always, development leads back to the education of the people. Without it, the people have nothing for themselves. I don’t know if my career will ever take me into education, I surely hope not, but I’ll be interested to see how my passion for good education systems in developing countries will manifest itself in my goals.
On the one hand, I am sort of against the idea of untrained foreigners going into third world countries and teaching English. It rubs me the wrong way. Half the volunteers who do that are not even trained to teach. They just decide they want to go and “help the needy”. That’s nice and all, but you’re not helping the children of whatever rural village you decide to grace with your presence and completely interrupt whatever style of teaching they’d been exposed to previously, and changing things up on them. I feel like not enough attention is paid to the quality of education that teachers receive, which in turn affects the quality of education the students receive. Not only are there not enough teachers in third world countries, but there is also a stigma against becoming a teacher here. Specifically, if you got bad grades in primary school and high school, you were really smart enough to go to the University, so you just go through a 6-month crash course for teaching. It’s kind of like a fall-back when you find out you’re not really good enough to go to college, here. How sad is that? That the only people becoming teachers in African countries are those that are stigmatized as the bottom of the barrel? I don’t know.
I know I’ve been ranting for a while on one topic, and whoever is reading this probably doesn’t care about my views on the faulty education system in this world, but it really got me going today. I feel like my initial reaction is to get a masters in education, and open quality teacher’s schools in African countries, but then I hit a roadblock…well, several actually. First, I don’t want to teach! Second, who am I, as a white female from the United States, to come in and reform the education system of an entire country? Like, who do I think I am? The education system should be reformed by the people of whatever country. By the people or the government, so that cultural norms, traditions, holidays, and nature of the children should be taken into account. That’s the other thing that’s bothersome, these 6-month “crash courses” for teachers more than likely do not have any kind of extensive subject matter on different learning styles. So not only are they training teachers with low morale to begin with, they are then putting them in a classroom with only one teaching style for however many children there may be in the classroom. The entire system sucks. It needs to change.
I think I’m done ranting for now, but like I said before, I am interested to see how my passion for education will manifest itself in future goals. I like that I’m learning these things here. Things about myself, for sure, but also about what I want to do with my life. It’s nice to have an environment where I am not only forced to, through experience, narrow down the paths my life should take, but also what I can take and my own sense of self. The experience here is definitely teaching me a lot.
After the incident with Hurepi yesterday, and after reporting it to Frida, our program directors set up another meeting with the guy who coordinates it to try to figure things out. We had Albert take the group of us in two cabs over to the offices. After hearing the story from the two girls that had gone the day before, the place where the offices ended up being was nowhere near where the guy said it was. Aside from the distance it was, it was back from the road and in no way identifiable from the other buildings around it. The man who runs Hurepi, Peter, came to meet us when we pulled up. He apologized profusely for what happened the day before and said that we wouldn’t have to go to the offices from then on. He was glad we came to see where the offices were, but he would prepare work for us to do at the Center and he would meet us there several times a week to discuss our progress. We finished talking to him about a schedule for the next week and then Frida directed us out of the office onto the road. We had our first experience with the Dala-Dala which are the local form of public transportation. They are these little buses that are rickety and have their own names appliquéd on the windshield. Names like, “No Good Intenshions” or “Glory 2 God” or “Speedy Bullettt”. It’s pretty interesting, to say the least, but also a super cheap way of getting around town.
They dropped us off a ten minute walk away from where we live. We had to pass the local market on our way back, and I realized something sort of important. I think it marks the growth I’ve made and the trust I’ve cultivated with the people here, but I didn’t feel anxious at all, like I did the first time we went to the market. I think it also helped that I had literally nothing valuable on me. So added to the fact that I have become more comfortable with the language, I have also taken to only having a bag when I really need it, so when I go out I don’t feel like I have anything to lose because I have nothing of value on my person. It’s weird, but good.
We got back ok and Libby and Emily decided to watch Harry Potter. I worked on my computer and puttered around. When 5 o’clock rolled around, our friend Amran came over and we watched the soccer game.
We showed up to dinner to be served this delicious carrot and potato soup, followed by, get this, spaghetti and meat sauce. You literally have NO idea how happy we all were. They must have heard us saying that we wish we could have had an American style dinner for 4th of July. Whether they heard us or not, dinner was amazing.
Right now I’m skyping and just answering emails. More tomorrow!
Love and miss you all!
Colleen
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Where is the rice?! Why do we have no rice?!
Day 13 (6/30):
The mornings have become routine here. After our break at 11:30, our program director Roland had two speakers come to talk to us about their organizations. The one woman was an intern for the Tribunal Court, and the other was a friend of hers from a local Women’s Advocacy organization called WEEC. I don’t remember what each letter meant, but they essentially worked in the Kilimanjaro region with women from local villages to empower them and allow them to be in charge of the money they earn from the small businesses they begin. The organization was started by a large, brash, Tanzanian woman, and the lady who came to talk to us runs the sister organization in Boston that raises money for the Micro-loans that WEEC gives out. It was a pretty neat program, since it’s all about empowerment and allowing the women to be in control of the business they run and the money they make.
After the presentation we all headed back to my apartment and had leftover Chinese from the night before. SO GOOD. From lunch we headed up to the Peace Research Center to meet with the man from one of the volunteer organizations (Hurepi) about setting up a schedule for the week. He talked about us doing human rights education programming, like learning to build programs for human rights education in primary schools. Teaching children about basic human rights. It was pretty cool. We split up the days so that everyone would get an equal amount of days.
When I got back to the apartment later that afternoon I decided to do laundry. There are two ways of doing laundry here, either you wash it by hand, or you pay to have the hotel wash your clothes. It’s expensive to have them cleaned so I figured I’d take a shot at washing my own clothes. Despite the actual physical labor involved, which I didn’t expect, I kind of liked it. We have a pantry closet in the kitchen for dry foods, but we don’t use it, so the slatted shelves are perfect drying racks for clothes. I boiled a couple kettles of water and poured it into this large plastic basin we were given. I let my clothes soak in the water with soap I brought (camping soap, specifically for travel) and then used this big wooden spoon I found to stir it. After I let it soak for a while, I pulled out each piece of clothing one by one and scrubbed it under cold water in the sink. I wrang it out and hung it up. I was pretty proud of myself to say the least. It was hard, though, when I folded all the dry clothes this morning because the pile was teeny-tiny. I thought I’d done so much more, but I really hadn’t washed that many clothes. Oh well, it was a good learning experience.
Back to Day 13. In the middle of doing laundry I had music on, and when I was soaking my clothes I would work on my gift list on my computer. Unless you’re on your A-game here, they will swindle the heck out of you, so I broke down the things I wanted to buy in specific trips with specified prices I wanted to barter for. I love organizing my life.
After spending the afternoon doing housework, essentially, I got on the internet and was able to check out my brother’s wedding pictures. They were amazing. It made me so happy to look at them, not only because it meant the internet here was fast enough for me to load the pages, but also because it was nice to relive such a fun night.
After dinner I chatted with two girls in my group, Katy and Alex, and we were able to joke about the whole camel trip and how anxious and crazy I was on the bus ride there. It was pretty funny. I got to be the person who freaked out the most, so Katy and Alex could just laugh at me because they knew someone was more freaked out than they were. We were cracking up about it for a good twenty minutes.
By the time I got back to my room, Libby and I decided to do a huge music swap, so we did that for most of the rest of the night. I have almost all of Jay-Z’s music now. All of it. And The Roots. I’m very excited, to say the least. I have 600 new songs to listen to. Yeah!!!
After music trading, we both showered and then headed to bed. It was a pretty low-key night.
Day 14 (7/1):
Today dawned kind of cloudy, it had been really sunny outside for the past few days. Breakfast and class were the same as usual. During the break I talked to my professor about the research paper we have to write. He helped me narrow down my topic to doing domestic violence in the household. I’m pretty excited about it.
When we were leaving the classroom, we were told we had a speaker coming at 2 that we didn’t know about and we all freaked out because we hadn’t had much notice and we had all been working really hard this week to get the volunteering situation set up. We then learned that we had a KiSwahili lesson the following day, again during volunteering hours. Everyone freaked out but the self-appointed leader of the group said she would go and talk to our program director about giving us notice and stuff. I decided to forego volunteering in favor of the speaker. Roland and Frida set these speakers up for us for a reason and I would have felt bad not showing up when these people donate their time.
The speaker was good, she came to talk to us about a volunteer organization that helps women in the community with legal aide and the rights they have in their marriages. They do really good work, but they don’t receive any governmental funding, it’s all donor-based money.
The two other girls who were volunteering at Hurepi decided to go there instead of seeing the speaker. They were going to walk the few kilometers and see where it was and just figure it out in general. The man from Hurepi had told us the day before that it was safe to walk, so we trusted his judgment. Apparently not. The girls walked for almost an hour, through town, being followed by multiple groups of men and boys, and they didn’t even find the place. They called the man from Hurepi and he must have gotten frustrated with them because he hung up on them. It was a pretty dicey situation, I’m not going to lie. I was really happy that I decided to see the speaker instead of going with them. It would have freaked me out. They were really freaked out when they got back. They ended up calling one of the cab-drivers we can trust, Albert, and pretty much as soon as he heard where they were, he said he would pick them up immediately. Albert was literally a life-saver in that situation and I’m glad we have him around. He rocks.
In any case, they were safe, but they definitely will not be repeating that experience again.
After hearing their story, we went grocery shopping. I picked up croissants for my nutella. My favorite breakfast treat. We hung around the apartment for the afternoon. I cleaned up my music selection and organized it, and Libby and Emily just hung out and traded music between them.
Emily had bought a bottle a wine and stuck it in the fridge earlier in the afternoon so we could have a glass of wine before dinner. I accidentally knocked over the wine glass with my computer which splashed all over Libby’s Mac. I went into instant panic mode. I freaked out and then once we had gotten it reasonably dry, we went back to the grocery store so that we could get rice to let it sit in overnight. I’m hoping that will work at removing any moisture from under her keyboard. She took it in stride though, and apologized for the millions of apologies I gave her. I’m lucky to have such easy-going apartment-mates. That was pretty much our excitement for the day, pretty much. The wine on the computer and the Hurepi incident. Things are exciting here, but that’s pretty much my status report.
I’m going to head out and do some reading tonight.
Love and miss you all!
Colleen
The mornings have become routine here. After our break at 11:30, our program director Roland had two speakers come to talk to us about their organizations. The one woman was an intern for the Tribunal Court, and the other was a friend of hers from a local Women’s Advocacy organization called WEEC. I don’t remember what each letter meant, but they essentially worked in the Kilimanjaro region with women from local villages to empower them and allow them to be in charge of the money they earn from the small businesses they begin. The organization was started by a large, brash, Tanzanian woman, and the lady who came to talk to us runs the sister organization in Boston that raises money for the Micro-loans that WEEC gives out. It was a pretty neat program, since it’s all about empowerment and allowing the women to be in control of the business they run and the money they make.
After the presentation we all headed back to my apartment and had leftover Chinese from the night before. SO GOOD. From lunch we headed up to the Peace Research Center to meet with the man from one of the volunteer organizations (Hurepi) about setting up a schedule for the week. He talked about us doing human rights education programming, like learning to build programs for human rights education in primary schools. Teaching children about basic human rights. It was pretty cool. We split up the days so that everyone would get an equal amount of days.
When I got back to the apartment later that afternoon I decided to do laundry. There are two ways of doing laundry here, either you wash it by hand, or you pay to have the hotel wash your clothes. It’s expensive to have them cleaned so I figured I’d take a shot at washing my own clothes. Despite the actual physical labor involved, which I didn’t expect, I kind of liked it. We have a pantry closet in the kitchen for dry foods, but we don’t use it, so the slatted shelves are perfect drying racks for clothes. I boiled a couple kettles of water and poured it into this large plastic basin we were given. I let my clothes soak in the water with soap I brought (camping soap, specifically for travel) and then used this big wooden spoon I found to stir it. After I let it soak for a while, I pulled out each piece of clothing one by one and scrubbed it under cold water in the sink. I wrang it out and hung it up. I was pretty proud of myself to say the least. It was hard, though, when I folded all the dry clothes this morning because the pile was teeny-tiny. I thought I’d done so much more, but I really hadn’t washed that many clothes. Oh well, it was a good learning experience.
Back to Day 13. In the middle of doing laundry I had music on, and when I was soaking my clothes I would work on my gift list on my computer. Unless you’re on your A-game here, they will swindle the heck out of you, so I broke down the things I wanted to buy in specific trips with specified prices I wanted to barter for. I love organizing my life.
After spending the afternoon doing housework, essentially, I got on the internet and was able to check out my brother’s wedding pictures. They were amazing. It made me so happy to look at them, not only because it meant the internet here was fast enough for me to load the pages, but also because it was nice to relive such a fun night.
After dinner I chatted with two girls in my group, Katy and Alex, and we were able to joke about the whole camel trip and how anxious and crazy I was on the bus ride there. It was pretty funny. I got to be the person who freaked out the most, so Katy and Alex could just laugh at me because they knew someone was more freaked out than they were. We were cracking up about it for a good twenty minutes.
By the time I got back to my room, Libby and I decided to do a huge music swap, so we did that for most of the rest of the night. I have almost all of Jay-Z’s music now. All of it. And The Roots. I’m very excited, to say the least. I have 600 new songs to listen to. Yeah!!!
After music trading, we both showered and then headed to bed. It was a pretty low-key night.
Day 14 (7/1):
Today dawned kind of cloudy, it had been really sunny outside for the past few days. Breakfast and class were the same as usual. During the break I talked to my professor about the research paper we have to write. He helped me narrow down my topic to doing domestic violence in the household. I’m pretty excited about it.
When we were leaving the classroom, we were told we had a speaker coming at 2 that we didn’t know about and we all freaked out because we hadn’t had much notice and we had all been working really hard this week to get the volunteering situation set up. We then learned that we had a KiSwahili lesson the following day, again during volunteering hours. Everyone freaked out but the self-appointed leader of the group said she would go and talk to our program director about giving us notice and stuff. I decided to forego volunteering in favor of the speaker. Roland and Frida set these speakers up for us for a reason and I would have felt bad not showing up when these people donate their time.
The speaker was good, she came to talk to us about a volunteer organization that helps women in the community with legal aide and the rights they have in their marriages. They do really good work, but they don’t receive any governmental funding, it’s all donor-based money.
The two other girls who were volunteering at Hurepi decided to go there instead of seeing the speaker. They were going to walk the few kilometers and see where it was and just figure it out in general. The man from Hurepi had told us the day before that it was safe to walk, so we trusted his judgment. Apparently not. The girls walked for almost an hour, through town, being followed by multiple groups of men and boys, and they didn’t even find the place. They called the man from Hurepi and he must have gotten frustrated with them because he hung up on them. It was a pretty dicey situation, I’m not going to lie. I was really happy that I decided to see the speaker instead of going with them. It would have freaked me out. They were really freaked out when they got back. They ended up calling one of the cab-drivers we can trust, Albert, and pretty much as soon as he heard where they were, he said he would pick them up immediately. Albert was literally a life-saver in that situation and I’m glad we have him around. He rocks.
In any case, they were safe, but they definitely will not be repeating that experience again.
After hearing their story, we went grocery shopping. I picked up croissants for my nutella. My favorite breakfast treat. We hung around the apartment for the afternoon. I cleaned up my music selection and organized it, and Libby and Emily just hung out and traded music between them.
Emily had bought a bottle a wine and stuck it in the fridge earlier in the afternoon so we could have a glass of wine before dinner. I accidentally knocked over the wine glass with my computer which splashed all over Libby’s Mac. I went into instant panic mode. I freaked out and then once we had gotten it reasonably dry, we went back to the grocery store so that we could get rice to let it sit in overnight. I’m hoping that will work at removing any moisture from under her keyboard. She took it in stride though, and apologized for the millions of apologies I gave her. I’m lucky to have such easy-going apartment-mates. That was pretty much our excitement for the day, pretty much. The wine on the computer and the Hurepi incident. Things are exciting here, but that’s pretty much my status report.
I’m going to head out and do some reading tonight.
Love and miss you all!
Colleen
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