the other girls and i often go to lunch at these few cafes in arusha that most other mzungus also go visit. we frequent a handful of them and have started to go quite often now that placement is over. we saw a few days ago that there was a poster for a christmas market just outside of town. we, having absolutely nothing to do, decide to make our way there. with the help of a very friendly local woman we finally found the right daladala to get on and took it about 20 minutes outside of town just past the airport. this landed us right in the middle of nowhere east africa, but we saw a sign that signaled us down a random dirt road and we took that path. we figured it couldnt be too far and just started walking. we do lots of walking so the thought wasn't daunting or strange. we walked for a good 20 minutes and noticed a bunch of other mzungus going that way in nice big land cruisers and then one stopped and a handsome guy with an australian accent asked us if we could use a lift. we aren't the type to typically get into cars with anyone, you just can't do that here, but it seemed nice enough, however we declined and said we were enjoying the walk. 5 minutes later we were still walking and regret began to sink in. but no worries, another car pulled up just after we began to lament our decision and offered to give us a ride. thank god. it was still about another 10 minutes driving like a bat out of hell. the guy was a big time hotel developer from cape town and owns a swanky hotel here in town. he was nice enough to buy our way into the market and proceeded to spend the rest of the time at the wine and cheese bar. but i skip ahead. we pull up to gates with southern accented people taking tickets and wishing us welcome... what the fuck. well dressed white people had taken over the rugby field and suddenly we blended in. i looked around. it was so clean. everything. the grass was cut. there was grass. babies were in strollers. people wore boots and openly talked on their phones and took pictures. we were all stunned. we thought of the christmas market like the maasai market we go to where you literally are pulled into shops, constantly yelled at and promised to only receive "non-mzungu price. rafiki price" while you stare at the same beaded necklace over and over again. it was incredible. we didn't know what to do with ourselves. we were giddy. it was so strange. we spent the day walking thru small shops of boutique safari clothing, beautiful iron and wood working, face painting stations and food booths. we ate wraps with lettuce in them (!!!), drank cold white wine under umbrellas and were graced with a breath taking view of the ever shy mount meru all afternoon. we were able to again hitch a ride not back to town but back to our house! it is crazy. the people were all so nice. just so so nice. we went back today and did exactly the same thing. it was such a good weekend. it was just so strange, i feel weird that i enjoyed it so much. but arusha is a hard city to live in and this strange break from being harassed every moment and disapproving stares and constantly watching my bag and body was very much appreciated. i still cant believe we found that place... i wonder where all the people are on the day to day because because in our house, at 3 restaurants and in the mirror are basically the only places i see white people.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
zanzibar, school closings and happy thanksgiving
so much has happened since my last posting.
i got sick and had to take cipro. it sucked. however am feeling much better.
i went to zanzibar with some 3 very great ladies from canada and one from scotland.
more on zanzibar:
i arrived in zanzibar on a precision air flight only to be engulfed by the butter-consistency humidity that coats the island and met by the girls in a private dala to take us to our lodgings in kendwa - a small town on the north end of the island. it is a beautiful spot with almost no town but pristine white sand beaches. we woke up on our first morning to find sun and a well stocked buffet of mangoes, papaya and hard boiled eggs. it started to sprinkle shortly after we gorged ourself on the plenties of african breakfast cuisine, but we didn't let this deter us in one bit. the rain was warm and the ocean warmer. we spent the morning swimming in the wave-less indian ocean and getting henna on our feet from silk-draped women on the beach. we finished the afternoon off with some sun and happy hour cocktails on the dunes. not a bad first real day in paradise.
the rain was already coming down the next morning when we woke in our treehouse bungalow, but again we didn't let it get to us and sat under canopies of palm leaves and read our books on the beach for house punctuated by quick naps and dips in the ocean. in the afternoon we played volleyball on the beach with some other hotel goers and locals who had just finished a work out at the "gym" (the gym is one set of barbells and a complicated monkey bar set, it looked harder than any work out ive ever done). twas very nice. this puts us at saturday night which is the biggest party night in kendwa and the party was at our backpackers. we had a barbeque on the beach beforehand of lobster, prawns, mahi mahi and so much more fresh fresh seafood. then we danced into the night only to be woken up by perfect sun the next morning. we swam away any reminders of the night before and were having such a good time doing it, we all ended up crispy by the end of the day. it was such a nice place to stay, i even ended up meeting some other kids from the states who we just happened to have mutual friends from school! its a tiny world.
we ended up catching a shuttle to stone town that evening. im in love with stone town. it is a unesco protected historical site so everything there is so old and wonderful. one of the girls, lauren, and i spent the day planning how to walk all around the city to see everything and visit every museum we had our eyes on, but only to be contradicted when after visiting a giant catholic church that served as a main slave holding site in the past our church guide offered to show us around all day to wherever we wanted to go for only USD$10. score! im so glad we had him (elvis was his name), because much like venice was, stone town is a maze of cobblestone streets just wide enough for two to easily pass thru and where maps would be more confusion than helpful. we saw it all, painted with local artists, found spices, ate falafel and hummus, and absorbed as much of we could of the vibrant town that is stone town. we topped off the trip with a visit to the night food market, i got a rock lobster spiced pizza, which was essentially a crepe with lobster, egg, spices, and a bit of cheese, cooked to a crisp on both sides and then cut like a pizza. my favorite meal ive had in tanzania. it was so delicious!
the next morning we caught the 7am ferry from stone town to dar es salaam and drove the 10 hours back to the always rough arusha. needless to say, i would have much rather stayed.
i had my last day of school! i got back on tuesday night and went to school that following morning. it was a normal day. the kids had exams the day before so we were just going over their tests and singing songs to fill in the free time. after break one girl started singing under her breath, "no schuul tomarrow no schuul tomarrow", i corrected her and told her this was not the case. she corrected me again. i went outside and asked a teacher, she didn't know. we found the director sitting, doing nothing in his office. he had forgotten to tell us there would be no school. its funny how things work in africa. surprise last day of school! it was so sad and sweet. we walked back into the classroom after talking to the dim director and we told the kids the bad news. some started to cry and others stared with blank look then one kid, derek (the kids call him "dereki") slowly broke out in the hokey pokey, the song i taught them during my first week which has since become our unofficial class song. it was so damn cute. we danced the hokey pokey for the last fifteen minutes of school and then off on the packed bus again one more time. it was good.
i got sick and had to take cipro. it sucked. however am feeling much better.
i went to zanzibar with some 3 very great ladies from canada and one from scotland.
more on zanzibar:
i arrived in zanzibar on a precision air flight only to be engulfed by the butter-consistency humidity that coats the island and met by the girls in a private dala to take us to our lodgings in kendwa - a small town on the north end of the island. it is a beautiful spot with almost no town but pristine white sand beaches. we woke up on our first morning to find sun and a well stocked buffet of mangoes, papaya and hard boiled eggs. it started to sprinkle shortly after we gorged ourself on the plenties of african breakfast cuisine, but we didn't let this deter us in one bit. the rain was warm and the ocean warmer. we spent the morning swimming in the wave-less indian ocean and getting henna on our feet from silk-draped women on the beach. we finished the afternoon off with some sun and happy hour cocktails on the dunes. not a bad first real day in paradise.
the rain was already coming down the next morning when we woke in our treehouse bungalow, but again we didn't let it get to us and sat under canopies of palm leaves and read our books on the beach for house punctuated by quick naps and dips in the ocean. in the afternoon we played volleyball on the beach with some other hotel goers and locals who had just finished a work out at the "gym" (the gym is one set of barbells and a complicated monkey bar set, it looked harder than any work out ive ever done). twas very nice. this puts us at saturday night which is the biggest party night in kendwa and the party was at our backpackers. we had a barbeque on the beach beforehand of lobster, prawns, mahi mahi and so much more fresh fresh seafood. then we danced into the night only to be woken up by perfect sun the next morning. we swam away any reminders of the night before and were having such a good time doing it, we all ended up crispy by the end of the day. it was such a nice place to stay, i even ended up meeting some other kids from the states who we just happened to have mutual friends from school! its a tiny world.
we ended up catching a shuttle to stone town that evening. im in love with stone town. it is a unesco protected historical site so everything there is so old and wonderful. one of the girls, lauren, and i spent the day planning how to walk all around the city to see everything and visit every museum we had our eyes on, but only to be contradicted when after visiting a giant catholic church that served as a main slave holding site in the past our church guide offered to show us around all day to wherever we wanted to go for only USD$10. score! im so glad we had him (elvis was his name), because much like venice was, stone town is a maze of cobblestone streets just wide enough for two to easily pass thru and where maps would be more confusion than helpful. we saw it all, painted with local artists, found spices, ate falafel and hummus, and absorbed as much of we could of the vibrant town that is stone town. we topped off the trip with a visit to the night food market, i got a rock lobster spiced pizza, which was essentially a crepe with lobster, egg, spices, and a bit of cheese, cooked to a crisp on both sides and then cut like a pizza. my favorite meal ive had in tanzania. it was so delicious!
the next morning we caught the 7am ferry from stone town to dar es salaam and drove the 10 hours back to the always rough arusha. needless to say, i would have much rather stayed.
i had my last day of school! i got back on tuesday night and went to school that following morning. it was a normal day. the kids had exams the day before so we were just going over their tests and singing songs to fill in the free time. after break one girl started singing under her breath, "no schuul tomarrow no schuul tomarrow", i corrected her and told her this was not the case. she corrected me again. i went outside and asked a teacher, she didn't know. we found the director sitting, doing nothing in his office. he had forgotten to tell us there would be no school. its funny how things work in africa. surprise last day of school! it was so sad and sweet. we walked back into the classroom after talking to the dim director and we told the kids the bad news. some started to cry and others stared with blank look then one kid, derek (the kids call him "dereki") slowly broke out in the hokey pokey, the song i taught them during my first week which has since become our unofficial class song. it was so damn cute. we danced the hokey pokey for the last fifteen minutes of school and then off on the packed bus again one more time. it was good.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
chasing waterfalls
me getting the board ready for a class on the parts of a plant
this is just the afternoon baby bus with Anniken in the backseat too. there are about 3 times as many kids in the morning squeezed into this little van.
this is dereki, hes a trouble maker but so cute.
last weekend we went to moshi and did a waterfall hike. we had to trek thru banana fields to get there.
moshi waterfall!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
a day in the life
6:00 AM: wake up to my alarm clock or Andrea coming in and telling me i've slept in too late. roll out of bed to eat a slice of white bread with jam and drink a cup of joe
6:30 AM: out the door with Anniken and Andrea. walk up the street to where the "bus" comes and picks us up with only a few students in the bus which is actually a minivan that would normally fit 8 people. we fit about 30 small children into the damn thing. bounce down the road. pick up a few more kids.
7:00 AM: get out of the bus around a banana patch and walk with 3 other teachers thru a maze of funny shack houses, bananas and cement gardens. the walk is just over 45 minutes. mzungu is yelled at almost every corner. mzungu means white person. we are just the only white people on that side of town. ive never seen another there yet.
7:45 AM: arrive at school. sit and watch the students play on the "swing set". the swing set is a bar with chains on it that the kids tie together and then sit on their backpacks as a cushion. many play animals in the grass in front of the school.
8:00 AM: the kids all line up and do morning exercises, tell stories to the school in english, sing their school song and pray. then we all go into class and start teaching. they learn english, math, science, vocational skills, handwriting, and kiswahili.
8:30 AM: the kids from the bus arrive and being to catch-up.
10:15 AM: break time. the kids get a cup of porridge and we teaches leave the class to enjoy a cup of sugar tea and either 2 massive fried mendazi rolls each or 4 pieces of white bread each. its too much but we can't say no. it would be too rude. class starts up again at 11.
12:15 or 12:30 PM: we get into the bus again with the baby school and head back to down town. we are dropped off at a dala stop and catch a dala back to down. the trip takes about 25 minutes. we either take it to the dala station and catch another to go home for lunch with mama or we then get off and walk to get lunch at another spot in town. then we nap or read.
we could stay until 4 and get home at 6 but normally we just do the mornings because the kids mainly do kiswahili after class and one of the employed teachers teaches that due to our lack of swahili.
once home we normally now run up and down mama's driveway, nap, read or go to the internet cafe. its a nice way to end an always hectic morning.
6:00 PM: mama serves dinner. it is always good. it is always a lot but what can you do. its africa.
then we normally read more. talk. talk to people on skype.
9:00 PM: we are normally in bed by now passing out. this day wears me out every time. its nice tho.
6:30 AM: out the door with Anniken and Andrea. walk up the street to where the "bus" comes and picks us up with only a few students in the bus which is actually a minivan that would normally fit 8 people. we fit about 30 small children into the damn thing. bounce down the road. pick up a few more kids.
7:00 AM: get out of the bus around a banana patch and walk with 3 other teachers thru a maze of funny shack houses, bananas and cement gardens. the walk is just over 45 minutes. mzungu is yelled at almost every corner. mzungu means white person. we are just the only white people on that side of town. ive never seen another there yet.
7:45 AM: arrive at school. sit and watch the students play on the "swing set". the swing set is a bar with chains on it that the kids tie together and then sit on their backpacks as a cushion. many play animals in the grass in front of the school.
8:00 AM: the kids all line up and do morning exercises, tell stories to the school in english, sing their school song and pray. then we all go into class and start teaching. they learn english, math, science, vocational skills, handwriting, and kiswahili.
8:30 AM: the kids from the bus arrive and being to catch-up.
10:15 AM: break time. the kids get a cup of porridge and we teaches leave the class to enjoy a cup of sugar tea and either 2 massive fried mendazi rolls each or 4 pieces of white bread each. its too much but we can't say no. it would be too rude. class starts up again at 11.
12:15 or 12:30 PM: we get into the bus again with the baby school and head back to down town. we are dropped off at a dala stop and catch a dala back to down. the trip takes about 25 minutes. we either take it to the dala station and catch another to go home for lunch with mama or we then get off and walk to get lunch at another spot in town. then we nap or read.
we could stay until 4 and get home at 6 but normally we just do the mornings because the kids mainly do kiswahili after class and one of the employed teachers teaches that due to our lack of swahili.
once home we normally now run up and down mama's driveway, nap, read or go to the internet cafe. its a nice way to end an always hectic morning.
6:00 PM: mama serves dinner. it is always good. it is always a lot but what can you do. its africa.
then we normally read more. talk. talk to people on skype.
9:00 PM: we are normally in bed by now passing out. this day wears me out every time. its nice tho.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
african foods: the good, the bad and the fried
my african mama is making me fat. i swear. the portion sizes she serves up are not only massive but fried mostly. its delicious, do not get me wrong, but how does one go about telling a very generous african woman and proud cook that you just cannot eat all that she makes. if you know me, you know that i am not shy about my food intake and love food (including the majority of african dishes now added to the list) however i am thinking that for the life of me i would love it if i didn't have to eat something fried for just one day of being in tanzania. legitimately i eat something fried for almost every meal of every day and my body does not want that. i dont want that. its good but i just dont eat fried food that much. also mama keeps coming into the kitchen when we are eating and telling us we must not like her cooking and that she must be a bad cook due to our birdlike intake of her cooking. it is delicious but to eat the portions mama eats herself would be undesirable to say the least. it would probably be easier to deal with if we didn't have to eat FOUR meals a day, but because we are volunteers people want to show us that we are appreciated and give something to us. for example at school the teachers give us two massive fried dough balls roughly the size of my fists or bigger which we have no choice but to eat both and all of it because otherwise it is essentially a slap in the face to the teachers, the cooking and the school. it is the same principle with mama as to why we cant eat smaller portions. its a huge dilemma in the house and none of us know what to do: not eat as much and have mama be actually angry at us or eat it all and feel nasty...? bah! #whitegirlproblems
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
safari
there are elephants behind me
this is lake manyara national park. it was our first day of safari and the sun beat down on us like it was tanzania in the summer time... the shade provided by the 92' land cruiser we blasted thru the countryside in was not sufficient
there arent naturally camels in tanzania but this maasi man explained to us that they were given to his family as a gift from a british family who lives on some maasi land
a good spot to have lunch before the storm
wildebeest crossing
no zoom
no zoom
going into ngorongoro crater on day 4. nothing but wild life down here
camping on the crater rim and waking up to a mist-laden crater below us
maasi women welcoming us to their village
making new friends
maasi warriors jump and grunt to display their strength to the maasi women
maasi warriors running across the open ngorongoro to relieve the young boys that normally watch the cattle and donkeys as a massive african storm sets in
giraffes literally just chilling on the side of the road
dirty, wind burnt, tired but not wanting to leave a moment early
the safari crew
Thursday, November 3, 2011
4 weeks and counting
feeling so dizzy and stuffy but i can't be because i am going on safari tomorrow! counting my lucky stars to get better. bedtime is going to be so early tonight, although it is normally pretty early here because mama goes to bed really early and im exhausted. its a really nice compliment to the rowdy crew i had at salty's (that i obviously love), but its just nice. oh my word, im going to dose myself with some benedryl and pass out i hope!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
TANZANIA!
tanzania is the new kenya!
just arrived in arusha two nights ago. its a town about an hours drive in a dalla dalla (a big van) from the mouth kilimanjaro international airport. the flights were uneventful but i have to say flying from joburg to nairobi during sunset and seeing mount kilimanjaro was like nothing ive ever seen before. it was spectacular. i arrived late to
mama liz's. i know i will fit in well because you call any women who are older or who are responsible for you, "mama". :) the second thing i noticed other than how different it was from cape town was the amount of english spoken is slim to none. within the first minute of being picked up from the airport by my placement leader, Jessica, she inquired into my Swahili background.. the kids I am working with apparently know almost no english and I will have to communicate with them in either body movements or Swahili... should be interesting. all i know how to say now is "mambo"- "whats up" and the replay "poa" which means "cool" then i can say "sante" which means thanks. i will definitely need to work on that but i was given a list of about 100 words that i should work on learning so i will have to try my best because school starts tomorrow at 8 and goes till 3 every day. this 7 hour school day is sandwiched by 2 hour long bus rides to get to school in the first place. thank god two of the other girls at mamas
house are going with me. it wasn't so hard as i thought it would be much worse. there were 4 classrooms and today i mainly just watched the 5 year old classroom and the 6 year old class room. today we taught them how to sew... i'm not qualified but i try. anyway, more later. my new african mama is so nice and seems to take very good care of us girls. there are 5 of us living there with just mama and her grandbaby emmanuel. she seems like a good mama :) anyway i am already planning on doing a 4 day safari this coming weekend! im soooo excited apparently it is just amazing! one of the girls who lives at my house says she cried twice on the trip because it was just that good. OH! also im thinking of going to see the Rwanda trials tomorrow! they apparently end on friday! i was talking with some girls that said they went and it was so cool and enlightening.
mama liz's. i know i will fit in well because you call any women who are older or who are responsible for you, "mama". :) the second thing i noticed other than how different it was from cape town was the amount of english spoken is slim to none. within the first minute of being picked up from the airport by my placement leader, Jessica, she inquired into my Swahili background.. the kids I am working with apparently know almost no english and I will have to communicate with them in either body movements or Swahili... should be interesting. all i know how to say now is "mambo"- "whats up" and the replay "poa" which means "cool" then i can say "sante" which means thanks. i will definitely need to work on that but i was given a list of about 100 words that i should work on learning so i will have to try my best because school starts tomorrow at 8 and goes till 3 every day. this 7 hour school day is sandwiched by 2 hour long bus rides to get to school in the first place. thank god two of the other girls at mamas
house are going with me. it wasn't so hard as i thought it would be much worse. there were 4 classrooms and today i mainly just watched the 5 year old classroom and the 6 year old class room. today we taught them how to sew... i'm not qualified but i try. anyway, more later. my new african mama is so nice and seems to take very good care of us girls. there are 5 of us living there with just mama and her grandbaby emmanuel. she seems like a good mama :) anyway i am already planning on doing a 4 day safari this coming weekend! im soooo excited apparently it is just amazing! one of the girls who lives at my house says she cried twice on the trip because it was just that good. OH! also im thinking of going to see the Rwanda trials tomorrow! they apparently end on friday! i was talking with some girls that said they went and it was so cool and enlightening.
what i cannot stress enough is the heat. as you bounce down the road packed into a dalla dalla the beads of sweat that collect on my brow and drip down my spin is significant. if the diet mama is providing wasn't almost entirely carbs and friend fruit i would be loosing a ton in water weight. however, no such luck. ill try to upload pictures soon.
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