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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