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
Ngorongoro
Ngorongoro - Zebra
Friday, July 9, 2010
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
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
"Come join us! We're snuggling!" ... "Houskeeping?"
Day 11 (6/28):
So not a lot has been going on since Sunday; however, some of you have confessed to me that you keep up on my blog every day. I promise from here on out to update every day or every other day just so you know that I’m safe and doing ok.
Alright, so like I said, Monday dawned and we were SORE. My legs and butt and other areas were not happy that I was putting those muscles to use. For real. Walking to class was a sordid affair. We were all slow and acting like old women on the way. I decided to wear black leggings and my long blue shirt so as nice to have to deal with chaffing jeans. Not fun.
Class was fine, boring, but we had some good conversations. It’s interesting how all of us in the class are similar in a lot of ways. Meaning that we are all strong-minded females who think we know everything there is to know about whatever it is we’ve chosen to talk about. It can get tense. It’s stimulating, though, which is nice.
After class, I went back to the hotel to check email and Libby went to order the cake with another girl in our group for a separate girls whose birthday was the next day.
After she got back from doing errands, Libby, Emily and I decided to head back to the market for more shopping. You definitely have to be in the zone when you go to the market, otherwise they will literally swindle the hell out of you. I didn’t too bad. The things I bought I got for good prices, but I probably could have gotten them for better prices had I been on my game. Ah well, such is life. If it means a little more in their pockets for ugali for their children, what do I care?
After getting back from the market, Libby and I decided to watch 10 Things I Hate About You on her computer. That was a fun, short movie to watch before soccer came on at 5. Her and I really stick to our routine. I think it gives us both comfort to have something set to do every day, especially something we do together. We get a little anxious when things shake up our routine, but we roll with it no matter what.
After dinner, I skyped with my floor partner from last year, Jennie. It was nice to talk to someone not my family. Not that I don’t enjoy talking to my family on skype or email, that’s not the case at all, it’s just nice to have a diversity of people to talk to. Sometimes I feel like I say the same things over and over again with my family and I feel like I get boring.
Once again, after skype, Libby and I watched soccer and then crashed. We were both still pretty tired from camels the day before.
Day 12 (6/29):
Despite those first two nights, I have literally slept like a baby since then, which is amazing. This experience would be SO much harder to deal with if I didn’t get regular sleep and laid awake the whole night. It would suck (sorry for my language, mom). We also have awesome sleeping weather here. It’s a little chilly at night, so its perfect to snuggle under the covers.
Anyway, I was less sore this morning than yesterday, but I definitely think it will take me most of the week not to feel tight, or like I need to stretch frequently.
As I mentioned earlier, it was one of the girl’s 21st birthday in our group, so after class we had the hotel make us lunch instead of dinner because we were going out to dinner later. We had the cake that had been ordered the day before, which was delicious, but not candles unfortunately. I don’t know if its traditional to blow out candles on your birthday cake here in Tanzania. Who knows. Either way, it was really nice.
We all split up and did separate things for the afternoon. Libby, Emily, and I went back to the room and hung out on Emily’s huge bed. Libby and I share a room so we each get a separate twin bed. Emily, however, has the room to herself, and has this huge queen-sized bed. Em was sewing a book cover out of cloth she had bought at the market, to make her boring journal look nicer. Libby and I just laid on the bed and listened to music while she worked on it. At some point we decided we wanted to watch UP, so we called another girl to join us. She said she’s be over soon, so when the door to our apartment opened, we figured it was her. Emily called out, “Come join us! We’re snuggling on the bed!” We then heard a meek voice say, “housekeeping?” and we realized that it wasn’t our friend who’d come in, but the housekeeper to drop of toilet paper and towels, and we’d just invited her to snuggle. We were all pretty embarrassed, which of course made of crack up laughing. I went to face the nice woman, Flora, and accepted what she had brought. As she left, she said “no problems” which only made us laugh harder. We then continued to bring it up and make fun of Emily for it for the rest of the afternoon.
Through a series of strange miscommunications, our friend never actually ended up coming, until we called her, asking what the deal was. By the time she came over and explained what happened, it was ten after six and we had to meet downstairs to catch the taxi-bus to dinner.
The birthday girl, Jami, decided on a Chinese restaurant nearby, called Dragon Pearl. It was a beautiful restaurant. The manager clearly knew how to deal with big groups of Americans and served us personally, making sure we got enough food for everyone without overordering. We ended up taking four take-away boxes back with us, one with rice, one with noodles, and two with dinner-food. I’d say we did pretty well.
Dinner was delicious, and needless the say, the birthday girl got rightfully tipsy. It was her 21st, after all, and she was in Africa. We had the taxi-bus come pick us up and bring us back to the hotel. I am safe and sound in my apartment, writing this blog entry, watching the soccer game with Libby, and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow will be my first day volunteering with one of the Human Rights organizations. I’m excited to see how that goes. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated.
Also! I’ve heard from some people about postcards, which is amazingly fast considering how long I thought it’d take for them to get to everyone. If you already told me you got it, please disregard, if you got it and haven’t told me, however, please let me know! I’d love to hear from you all on what you think of them, and if I should send more.
That’s all for now. Love and miss you all!
Colleen
So not a lot has been going on since Sunday; however, some of you have confessed to me that you keep up on my blog every day. I promise from here on out to update every day or every other day just so you know that I’m safe and doing ok.
Alright, so like I said, Monday dawned and we were SORE. My legs and butt and other areas were not happy that I was putting those muscles to use. For real. Walking to class was a sordid affair. We were all slow and acting like old women on the way. I decided to wear black leggings and my long blue shirt so as nice to have to deal with chaffing jeans. Not fun.
Class was fine, boring, but we had some good conversations. It’s interesting how all of us in the class are similar in a lot of ways. Meaning that we are all strong-minded females who think we know everything there is to know about whatever it is we’ve chosen to talk about. It can get tense. It’s stimulating, though, which is nice.
After class, I went back to the hotel to check email and Libby went to order the cake with another girl in our group for a separate girls whose birthday was the next day.
After she got back from doing errands, Libby, Emily and I decided to head back to the market for more shopping. You definitely have to be in the zone when you go to the market, otherwise they will literally swindle the hell out of you. I didn’t too bad. The things I bought I got for good prices, but I probably could have gotten them for better prices had I been on my game. Ah well, such is life. If it means a little more in their pockets for ugali for their children, what do I care?
After getting back from the market, Libby and I decided to watch 10 Things I Hate About You on her computer. That was a fun, short movie to watch before soccer came on at 5. Her and I really stick to our routine. I think it gives us both comfort to have something set to do every day, especially something we do together. We get a little anxious when things shake up our routine, but we roll with it no matter what.
After dinner, I skyped with my floor partner from last year, Jennie. It was nice to talk to someone not my family. Not that I don’t enjoy talking to my family on skype or email, that’s not the case at all, it’s just nice to have a diversity of people to talk to. Sometimes I feel like I say the same things over and over again with my family and I feel like I get boring.
Once again, after skype, Libby and I watched soccer and then crashed. We were both still pretty tired from camels the day before.
Day 12 (6/29):
Despite those first two nights, I have literally slept like a baby since then, which is amazing. This experience would be SO much harder to deal with if I didn’t get regular sleep and laid awake the whole night. It would suck (sorry for my language, mom). We also have awesome sleeping weather here. It’s a little chilly at night, so its perfect to snuggle under the covers.
Anyway, I was less sore this morning than yesterday, but I definitely think it will take me most of the week not to feel tight, or like I need to stretch frequently.
As I mentioned earlier, it was one of the girl’s 21st birthday in our group, so after class we had the hotel make us lunch instead of dinner because we were going out to dinner later. We had the cake that had been ordered the day before, which was delicious, but not candles unfortunately. I don’t know if its traditional to blow out candles on your birthday cake here in Tanzania. Who knows. Either way, it was really nice.
We all split up and did separate things for the afternoon. Libby, Emily, and I went back to the room and hung out on Emily’s huge bed. Libby and I share a room so we each get a separate twin bed. Emily, however, has the room to herself, and has this huge queen-sized bed. Em was sewing a book cover out of cloth she had bought at the market, to make her boring journal look nicer. Libby and I just laid on the bed and listened to music while she worked on it. At some point we decided we wanted to watch UP, so we called another girl to join us. She said she’s be over soon, so when the door to our apartment opened, we figured it was her. Emily called out, “Come join us! We’re snuggling on the bed!” We then heard a meek voice say, “housekeeping?” and we realized that it wasn’t our friend who’d come in, but the housekeeper to drop of toilet paper and towels, and we’d just invited her to snuggle. We were all pretty embarrassed, which of course made of crack up laughing. I went to face the nice woman, Flora, and accepted what she had brought. As she left, she said “no problems” which only made us laugh harder. We then continued to bring it up and make fun of Emily for it for the rest of the afternoon.
Through a series of strange miscommunications, our friend never actually ended up coming, until we called her, asking what the deal was. By the time she came over and explained what happened, it was ten after six and we had to meet downstairs to catch the taxi-bus to dinner.
The birthday girl, Jami, decided on a Chinese restaurant nearby, called Dragon Pearl. It was a beautiful restaurant. The manager clearly knew how to deal with big groups of Americans and served us personally, making sure we got enough food for everyone without overordering. We ended up taking four take-away boxes back with us, one with rice, one with noodles, and two with dinner-food. I’d say we did pretty well.
Dinner was delicious, and needless the say, the birthday girl got rightfully tipsy. It was her 21st, after all, and she was in Africa. We had the taxi-bus come pick us up and bring us back to the hotel. I am safe and sound in my apartment, writing this blog entry, watching the soccer game with Libby, and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow will be my first day volunteering with one of the Human Rights organizations. I’m excited to see how that goes. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated.
Also! I’ve heard from some people about postcards, which is amazingly fast considering how long I thought it’d take for them to get to everyone. If you already told me you got it, please disregard, if you got it and haven’t told me, however, please let me know! I’d love to hear from you all on what you think of them, and if I should send more.
That’s all for now. Love and miss you all!
Colleen
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Do You Think The Camel Takes Visa?
Day 9 (6/26):
We were scheduled to do a camel-safari today, but when we woke up, it had rained through the night and it was still pretty muggy out. It does this every day, so most of us had no doubts that it would clear up before noon, the girl who had sort of taken charge of organizing the excursion, however, went ahead and postponed it for the next day (Sun). We were all pretty disappointed since then we had nothing to do all day. We mostly lazed around and did small things. I read for a while, Emily did laundry (we hand-wash our clothes) and Libby worked on her research paper.
We eventually went to the Peace Research Center so that we could access internet because the rain had cut it out for us in the resort. We stayed there until noon, and then Libby and Emily and I headed back. We stopped at the grocery store on the way. Emily needed snacks, and I needed something to drink other than water in the apartment.
It was a slow day, so by the time lunch-time rolled around, I was tired of doing nothing so I ventured to the other apartments and found people interested in eating. We went into town for lunch, at Africafe. After that we went back to the apartment and literally just hung around until soccer started at 5. We watched the game until dinner.
After dinner most of the girls came back to our apartment for cards and just hanging out. We listened to music and drank banana wine, it was a lot of fun. We watched USA v. Ghana at 9:30 and suffered when they lost after a hard-fought game.
Day 10 (6/27):
We woke up this morning and already at 9am the sun was out. We knew today would be a good day. We ate breakfast and when our taxi-bus arrived, all piled into it.
It was a long, bumpy, dusty ride out of Arusha. We spent two hours in the bus, and out into sparse, barren, Serengeti plain. Most of the roads are only half finished, mostly you’re driving over bumpy, gravelly, rocky terrain. This was my first experience doing a drive like that, and I have to say, I will never complain about potholes the same way.
I sort of have this irrational fear of tipping over while in a car. I know that sounds silly, but if you had seen the roads. They are elevated, obviously, so that rain water can wash away, but the divets on each side of the road aren’t paved like the road is. And sometimes they are seriously deep. Meaning, that if one tire were to slip off the road and into the divet, the entire taxi-bus would be in danger of tipping over. It was stressful to say the least. Definitely not what I was expecting. When we finally pulled off the main road, it got worse.
There is nothing out there. When I say nothing, I mean nothing. It’s beautiful landscape. There is really no comparison to the Serengeti landscape, but it is hard to feel miniscule and pointless when driving through it. We would occasionally pass a Maasai village, or see little shepherd children herding their goats or sheep. Every time we passed a child or villager, they waved. There is an insane amount of friendliness and hospitality displayed by the Maasai people that we don’t receive in the city.
By the time we drive down into and up out of, again, our third riverbed, my anxiety level was through the roof. I didn’t know where we were. We were in the middle of nowhere, two hours outside of the city, with nothing but a bus full of 12 white girls and our bus driver and two guides with us. To say that I felt alone and insignificant is an understatement. I came close to a panic attack because of it.
We finally pulled into the Mkuru Camel Camp at around noon, having left the resort at 10. There were three low buildings and no camels. Not knowing anything about how this day would work and whether we would be able to leave in time to get back before it got dark, I was stressed. I’m saying all of this because it’s a blog and I’m supposed to be truthful. Not to deter anyone from doing this. Keep reading. It gets better. We sat at tables in one of the buildings which was open-air and waited for instructions. We were told that we would be taken up into the foothills a little ways and meet the Maasai people firsthand, in their village.
The Mkuru Camel Camp essentially is a cooperative organization that works with the local Maasai village. Tourists are allowed to come and meet the people and take pictures, learn about the Maasai culture, and then take a camel-back ride to some local caves. The point of this is to raise awareness and support of the Maasai people, and to maintain a sustainable goal in tourism.
We were told on the way to the village that the people were preparing a celebration. There was a circumcision to take place for the girls of age, and they were preparing a feast for the occasion. When females in the Maasai culture (and some other tribal African cultures) come of age, they undergo a procedure of female circumcision. The clitoris and labia are altered/removed so that sexual intercourse is for the sole purpose of producing children. While this probably sounds horrible and barbaric, its part of the rite of passage to becoming a woman with these people, and a cause for celebration. Any uncircumcised woman is not eligible for marriage, and therefore will most likely die because she cannot support a family without a husband.
The children in the village were especially adorable. We were told that a local NGO from Italy was camped nearby and helping them dig wells. The kids knew “ciao” from the Italians, so all they shouted as we took pictures of them and interacted with them was “ciao”. It was adorable.
After touring the village we returned to the main compound where we started and ate lunch. They provided us with rice (as usual) and vegetables and meat in sauce. They also provided ugali, which is a staple-food to the East African region made of something similar to cornmeal.
By the time we were finished our lunch, our camels were saddled and ready. At this point I’d calmed down slightly, because the organization where we were was legit and because they knew to have us on the road with enough time to get back before dark.
Me and Libby shared a camel named Lillian. She was pretty ornery, but only because she was one of the few females in the group, and apparently did not enjoy being pulled away from her male suitors. The safari was two hours. One hour ride to the caves and one hour ride back. We landscape, as I said, was beautiful. There is no way I can describe to you how vast it was. I have never felt smaller in my life. The caves they took us to were really a dried up dam leftover from the German colonists. Since there was no water (rainy season was over) local baboons had taken up residence in the upper reaches of the caves and parts of the gorge. It was pretty incredible, since the gorge gave us a splendid view of the plateau below us. We took a million pictures and then hopped back on our camels to ride back.
Camel-riding, I’d have to say, is infinitely better than horse-back riding. Horses tend to be more sociable, I guess, but they are also more flighty, and less sure-footed. Camels are mean, and gross, and nasty, but I never felt unsafe on top of the camel, and I was a good 12/13 feet in the air, and my sight level.
We got back, paid the $35 USD and headed back around 4pm. It was a good day overall. This trip only goes to show how embarrassingly uncomfortable I sometimes am outside of my comfort zone. I freak out. Its something I need to work on. By the time we were on the camels and I had a time-frame I was fine, but the entire time in the Maasai village I was upset and anxious. I think its one of those things where some people are afraid of small spaces, I definitely was wigging out with all the open, empty space.
Like I said, the experience was amazing and I am so glad I did it. I was even able to have fun when we were doing the camel-riding. I just need to be able to roll with the punches and adapt a little bit better and a little more quickly.
When we finally got back to the hotel, we were all caked in dust and dirt from the road. I wrote this blog before dinner and my roommates showered. I’m going to shower all the dirt off me when the hot water comes back, hopefully.
Tomorrow is back to class and normal things in Arusha. No more safari-adventures until next weekend!
Love and miss you all
Colleen Claire
We were scheduled to do a camel-safari today, but when we woke up, it had rained through the night and it was still pretty muggy out. It does this every day, so most of us had no doubts that it would clear up before noon, the girl who had sort of taken charge of organizing the excursion, however, went ahead and postponed it for the next day (Sun). We were all pretty disappointed since then we had nothing to do all day. We mostly lazed around and did small things. I read for a while, Emily did laundry (we hand-wash our clothes) and Libby worked on her research paper.
We eventually went to the Peace Research Center so that we could access internet because the rain had cut it out for us in the resort. We stayed there until noon, and then Libby and Emily and I headed back. We stopped at the grocery store on the way. Emily needed snacks, and I needed something to drink other than water in the apartment.
It was a slow day, so by the time lunch-time rolled around, I was tired of doing nothing so I ventured to the other apartments and found people interested in eating. We went into town for lunch, at Africafe. After that we went back to the apartment and literally just hung around until soccer started at 5. We watched the game until dinner.
After dinner most of the girls came back to our apartment for cards and just hanging out. We listened to music and drank banana wine, it was a lot of fun. We watched USA v. Ghana at 9:30 and suffered when they lost after a hard-fought game.
Day 10 (6/27):
We woke up this morning and already at 9am the sun was out. We knew today would be a good day. We ate breakfast and when our taxi-bus arrived, all piled into it.
It was a long, bumpy, dusty ride out of Arusha. We spent two hours in the bus, and out into sparse, barren, Serengeti plain. Most of the roads are only half finished, mostly you’re driving over bumpy, gravelly, rocky terrain. This was my first experience doing a drive like that, and I have to say, I will never complain about potholes the same way.
I sort of have this irrational fear of tipping over while in a car. I know that sounds silly, but if you had seen the roads. They are elevated, obviously, so that rain water can wash away, but the divets on each side of the road aren’t paved like the road is. And sometimes they are seriously deep. Meaning, that if one tire were to slip off the road and into the divet, the entire taxi-bus would be in danger of tipping over. It was stressful to say the least. Definitely not what I was expecting. When we finally pulled off the main road, it got worse.
There is nothing out there. When I say nothing, I mean nothing. It’s beautiful landscape. There is really no comparison to the Serengeti landscape, but it is hard to feel miniscule and pointless when driving through it. We would occasionally pass a Maasai village, or see little shepherd children herding their goats or sheep. Every time we passed a child or villager, they waved. There is an insane amount of friendliness and hospitality displayed by the Maasai people that we don’t receive in the city.
By the time we drive down into and up out of, again, our third riverbed, my anxiety level was through the roof. I didn’t know where we were. We were in the middle of nowhere, two hours outside of the city, with nothing but a bus full of 12 white girls and our bus driver and two guides with us. To say that I felt alone and insignificant is an understatement. I came close to a panic attack because of it.
We finally pulled into the Mkuru Camel Camp at around noon, having left the resort at 10. There were three low buildings and no camels. Not knowing anything about how this day would work and whether we would be able to leave in time to get back before it got dark, I was stressed. I’m saying all of this because it’s a blog and I’m supposed to be truthful. Not to deter anyone from doing this. Keep reading. It gets better. We sat at tables in one of the buildings which was open-air and waited for instructions. We were told that we would be taken up into the foothills a little ways and meet the Maasai people firsthand, in their village.
The Mkuru Camel Camp essentially is a cooperative organization that works with the local Maasai village. Tourists are allowed to come and meet the people and take pictures, learn about the Maasai culture, and then take a camel-back ride to some local caves. The point of this is to raise awareness and support of the Maasai people, and to maintain a sustainable goal in tourism.
We were told on the way to the village that the people were preparing a celebration. There was a circumcision to take place for the girls of age, and they were preparing a feast for the occasion. When females in the Maasai culture (and some other tribal African cultures) come of age, they undergo a procedure of female circumcision. The clitoris and labia are altered/removed so that sexual intercourse is for the sole purpose of producing children. While this probably sounds horrible and barbaric, its part of the rite of passage to becoming a woman with these people, and a cause for celebration. Any uncircumcised woman is not eligible for marriage, and therefore will most likely die because she cannot support a family without a husband.
The children in the village were especially adorable. We were told that a local NGO from Italy was camped nearby and helping them dig wells. The kids knew “ciao” from the Italians, so all they shouted as we took pictures of them and interacted with them was “ciao”. It was adorable.
After touring the village we returned to the main compound where we started and ate lunch. They provided us with rice (as usual) and vegetables and meat in sauce. They also provided ugali, which is a staple-food to the East African region made of something similar to cornmeal.
By the time we were finished our lunch, our camels were saddled and ready. At this point I’d calmed down slightly, because the organization where we were was legit and because they knew to have us on the road with enough time to get back before dark.
Me and Libby shared a camel named Lillian. She was pretty ornery, but only because she was one of the few females in the group, and apparently did not enjoy being pulled away from her male suitors. The safari was two hours. One hour ride to the caves and one hour ride back. We landscape, as I said, was beautiful. There is no way I can describe to you how vast it was. I have never felt smaller in my life. The caves they took us to were really a dried up dam leftover from the German colonists. Since there was no water (rainy season was over) local baboons had taken up residence in the upper reaches of the caves and parts of the gorge. It was pretty incredible, since the gorge gave us a splendid view of the plateau below us. We took a million pictures and then hopped back on our camels to ride back.
Camel-riding, I’d have to say, is infinitely better than horse-back riding. Horses tend to be more sociable, I guess, but they are also more flighty, and less sure-footed. Camels are mean, and gross, and nasty, but I never felt unsafe on top of the camel, and I was a good 12/13 feet in the air, and my sight level.
We got back, paid the $35 USD and headed back around 4pm. It was a good day overall. This trip only goes to show how embarrassingly uncomfortable I sometimes am outside of my comfort zone. I freak out. Its something I need to work on. By the time we were on the camels and I had a time-frame I was fine, but the entire time in the Maasai village I was upset and anxious. I think its one of those things where some people are afraid of small spaces, I definitely was wigging out with all the open, empty space.
Like I said, the experience was amazing and I am so glad I did it. I was even able to have fun when we were doing the camel-riding. I just need to be able to roll with the punches and adapt a little bit better and a little more quickly.
When we finally got back to the hotel, we were all caked in dust and dirt from the road. I wrote this blog before dinner and my roommates showered. I’m going to shower all the dirt off me when the hot water comes back, hopefully.
Tomorrow is back to class and normal things in Arusha. No more safari-adventures until next weekend!
Love and miss you all
Colleen Claire
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