Winding Down

So I haven’t written in a while. It seems that most of my entries begin this way, but as Martha would say ‘such is life’. The semester is winding down and it’s a very odd feeling to look back and reflect on my time here, my adventures (those taken and those not) and the lessons I have learned. I can look back and remember walking nervously down the street to class or eating lunch at the AICC or drumming at Makumira early in the semester and it seems so long ago. However, I cannot pinpoint a moment when things changed and when I adjusted, accepted, learned, conformed or anything else.

I've begun writing a longer journal/blog entry. I'm not sure if I will ever put it up here or not. I guess we'll see how it turns out.

I've been spending most of my time these days finishing up assignments, taking final exams and planning the adventures of my last 2 weeks here. I can hardly believe I'll be finished with school by the end of this week! The first group of students heads home on Monday and then I trade my roommate Sarah for Chris on Wednesday. She actually flies out on the plane he flies in on. Our plan is to hang out around Arusha until Sunday when we go to Zanzibar. Hooray! Then we come back from Zanzibar the following Thursday and leave for a safari the next morning. We don't get back from the safari until Monday and we fly out Monday night. It will be a packed 2 weeks, but I'm very excited that I get to show Chris around and enjoy the beauty of Tanzania (my favorite part) one more time before I leave.

We went paragliding last weekend (pictures to come soon). It was beautiful and a really nice day to be hanging out on a hill watching my friends fly high in the sky. I was a little nervous to run down a hill and count on only a piece of nylon fabric, some strings, a bit of wind, a large Danish man and a quick prayer to carry me up into the sky out of the way of thorny bushes and trees, but I had a great time and really loved it.

Things have really calmed down here. I think everyone is very happy to be going home as it has been one crazy semester. I'm trying to balance enjoying my last few days with my friends with being excited about Chris coming with being excited about going home with knowing that I will miss Tanzania a lot. Whew.

I didn't fall off the face of the earth

As you can probably tell, I'm running very behind on updating my blog, but I have been uploading pictures so I guess that makes up for my disappearance from here for the past few weeks. It's been a crazy couple of weeks and I can't possibly go into detail about each of them, so an overview will have to suffice for now. I think the easiest way to organize everything will be to give the link where pictures can be found and then give an explanation of some of the happenings.

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1515420026&k=SXGU35R4U6YMZ1B1RE5YR
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1515420026&k=X6M5556R3Z4MZ1B1RE5YR
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1515420026&k=35F3X2PXU2VMZ1B1RE5YR
These 3 albums are from my spring break trip to Tanga, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar that I've already written about. Sorry I've kept you waiting.

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1515420026&k=36E65WS6VY6MZ1B1RE5YR
This album is from the 2 days after I got back from Zanzibar, before I started classes. I got back from my spring break trip and was beyond exhausted. I wanted to spend the next 2 days before classes sleeping, but some friends from church had invited us to go to some waterfalls below Mt. Kilimanjaro the next day. I decided to go with them and had a great time. The waterfalls were great and we were accompanied by an entourage of children the entire time. The only downside was that we got not one, but two flat tires on our way out, but thanks to the kindness of some passersby and the diligence of our friend Jacob who drove us around, we made it home safe and sound. It was a little disappointing that we went all the way to the trailhead of Kili and didn't even see the top of the mountain as it's covered by clouds about 95% of the time.

The next day we went to church and discovered that the sermon would be cut short because there was going to be a wedding at the end of the church service. A Tanzanian couple that had started coming to this church had decided a few months ago to have their wedding during church so that they could keep the costs low and all their friends would already be there. The ceremony was beautiful and we ate and celebrated afterwards.

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1515420026&k=R4CU5XW4Q6XMZ1B1RE5YR
The next weekend, I went on a homestay that was arranged by our music teacher. We were told that we were going on a Maasai homestay, but learned later that the families we stayed with were Maasai by heritage and called modern Maasai, meaning that their grandparents lived in Maasai villages, but they now live in the city and bridge Maasai culture and modern African life.

Though unexpected, it was interesting and my family was great. I shared a bedroom with my "sister" Regina, her 2 sisters-in-law and her mother-in-law (I think the term in-law means something different here, but I never figured out exactly what it means). The other bedroom held Regina's 2 brothers-in-law and then there was a small living room that connected the two bedrooms. It was a small home, but I never felt cramped or uncomfortable in the space. The bathroom was a short walk through the neighborhood and was shared by her neighbors. I spent about 90% of the time at home eating and during meals, Regina's family would ask me questions about America and of course, Barack Obama. Regina's brother came over for dinner on Sunday night and I was so impressed with his knowledge of American politics and other world news and it turned into one of the most interesting conversations I've had in Africa.

We spent most of Saturday hiking up and down a huge mountain to a waterfall. The waterfall was beautiful, but the hike was pretty exhausting. We had a great time and I loved hanging out with all of our hosts together. I was so tired when I got home, but had a great weekend and plan to go visit my host family again.

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1515420026&k=32DT46V3UWVMZ1B1RE5YR
These photos are from 2 of our photography excursions that we've had so far. The first excursion was a hike to (yet another) waterfall. We walked through a small village outside of Arusha and ended up getting some great shots. We met our guides grandmother who was 102 years old and took pictures around her home and met quite a few children that shouted "Mzungu!", the word for white person, every time they saw us. I've gotten pretty used to this though as it happens almost every time I leave my apartment.

The second excursion was on a nature trail around Lake Duluti and to a game sanctuary and lodge where we saw some animals including the most gigantic porcupines I've ever seen!

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1515420026&k=34B24VUS3VXMZ1B1RE5YR
These photos are from my trip last weekend to Moshi where we watch the last traditional Chaga music group perform. They were incredible. They wore hats made from Colobus monkeys and played drums that had to be thrown up in the air as they were hit to make the right sound. I ended up getting sick the next morning (outside of a church... delightful), but am feeling better now. We were also taken to Mwika College, a small school off a few very long and bumpy roads that is in the process of becoming an accredited college. A friend of our music teacher's, Pastor Masuki, that teaches music and theology at Mwika showed us around and we spent most of Sunday with his family.

It has certainly been a very busy few weeks. As you may or may not know, the other students and I have been having a lot of issues with our program and its director. I have loved being in Tanzania, but have had more frustrating moments about the program than I would care to count. The executive director of Arcadia's study abroad came to check out the program last week and we had meeting with her where we explained all of our issues. The meeting did not go well, but she arranged a follow-up meeting that went a little bit better and we have more meeting this week, with our program director and some "mediators" to try and solve a semester's worth of problems. Can you sense my optimism? I thought not. Anyway, we'll see how it goes and I'll keep you posted on that. I'm doing my best to ignore the issues of the program and enjoy Tanzania while I can, but hopefully we can fix some of them before I leave.

This past week was made even more difficult by the news that my grandmother, Nannie, was in the hospital. She passed away on Monday night and the funeral was this Saturday. She was 90 years old and lived an incredible life. I wish so badly that I could have been in Indiana with my family, but I was surrounded by my friends here who were nothing short of incredible in their support and understanding.

I have been learning a lot of lessons this semester, most of which have been lessons I never expected to learn in Africa. I'm doing my best to enjoy my time here and challenge myself to go out and do as much as I can in my last 6 weeks here.

Zanzibar!

Ok, so I fixed the link to the pictures on the previous post. It should work now. Anyway, I guess I should continue with my spring break recap as some of you weren't too thrilled that I left you hanging... There will be pictures to come, but Facebook seems to be very unhappy with me right now and won't let me upload pictures.

We checked into our hotel called the St. Monica Guest House which is a part of the Anglican Church in downtown Stonetown. St. Monica's is a huge church and the only church that I saw in Zanzibar which makes sense as Zanzibar is about 94% Muslim. I guess the main attraction of the cathedral is that it was built where Zanzibar's slave market used to be. The slave market was closed in the late 1890's when the slave trade ended and the British immediately began construction on the cathedral.

We got to tour the church the next day as part of our stay there and saw the "chambers" that were under the Guest House. The chambers held the slaves between the time that they arrived in Zanzibar and the time that they were sold at the market. Then we went outside and saw the tree that the slaves were auctioned under (a beautiful tree, ironically). Then we went into the actual cathedral which had beautiful stained glass and a few tributes to David Livingstone, the missionary who named Lake Victoria and is often credited with abolishing the slave trade in Zanzibar. At the front of the church, right in front of the altar, is a circle about 6 inches in diameter that marks the spot where the whipping post stood. It was a very eery experience, especially since a few of the students on my program didn't even know that there was a slave trade in East Africa. I forget sometimes that most people only learn about the North Atlantic slave trade, but I was still surprised that they didn't know that the Arabs had a slave trade as well. Needless to say I, as the resident history major, taught a little bit of African history and even learned a few new things myself.

We also went on a tour of Stonetown and visited the former Sultan's palace and the House of Wonders which was Zanzibar's main legislative building and also the tallest building in East Africa (and the only one with electricity) at its construction. Zanzibar was ruled by Arabs until the 1960s and has the most incredible buildings. As we walked around, it felt like we stepped into the middle east as we tried to navigate through the "labyrinthine" streets as they're often called and rightly so. We stumbled over the hundreds of cats on the island to make our way past the shops filled to the brim with scarves and fabric and find our next site to see. The people wore traditional Muslim clothes and the call to prayer woke us at sunrise every morning (very loud). Most of the architecture in Zanzibar has Arab and Indian influences (even in the Anglican church) and was so interesting. I know that my dad would love the ornate wood carvings and extraordinary architecture. My favorite part of Zanzibar was the way that so many cultures, religions and lifestyles are mixed in one small island and how peaceful everything is there.

Every night, street vendors from all over Stonetown set up in the Forodhani Gardens, a patch of green grass on the edge of the city with the beach on the other side of a brick retaining wall. The food was beyond delicious. We ate beef kabobs, octopus and chocolate and banana "pizza" and drank sugar cane juice (delicious) on the beach and admired the incredible stars. The gardens had the most incredible ambiance with each vendor's table dimly lit by a lantern and locals and tourists laughing and talking about how much they loved this place. I could've eaten every meal there and will definitely be taking Chris there when he comes to visit.

The next day, we went on a spice tour outside of Stonetown. It was so interesting transitioning from the Middle East back to Africa in a few short minutes in our taxi. We arrived at one of the many spice farms and our guide came up and took us around from tree to tree, plant to plant. At the first tree, he grabbed some leaves off of a vine that covered a huge tree. He crumples up the leaves, passes them around and says "smell". We obey and hey asks us what kind of spice it is. We're completely at a loss. He says "ok" and pulls off a small bunch of berries that looked a bit like a raspberry and says, "now guess". We throw out a few ideas and after each one he answers "No, thank you". Finally he says, "You take these and let them dry in the sun and they change from red to black and then you grind them up. Now do you know?". We finally realize and say "black pepper" and he says "aha, yah". I immediately thought of how excited my dad and Hollis would be to learn about black pepper and then I realized that they probably would have known what it was right away.

We moved around and in the same fashion, we attempted to guess at the spices. We saw cocoa plants, "lipstick" plant, cardamom, tarragon, ylang ylang, cloves, cinammon, vanilla and many more and then moved on to fruits. Oh my goodness. A lot of you know that I don't usually eat much fruit, but I decided to suck it up and try all the fruit they brought us. That was probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. We had grapefruits, bananas, starfruit, clementines, pineapple and I learned about a new fruit called jackfruit. It's a mix of a pineapple and a banana and is huge. We didn't get to try it, but they sell them in Arusha so it's on my list of things to do before I leave. As I thought things couldn't get any cooler, one of the guys weaved us little baskets out of palm leaves to hold our leaves, spices and seeds and then weaved hats for the boys and necklaces that looked like frogs for the girls. Amazing!

The next day we left Stonetown for Nungwi, a town at the very northern tip of Zanzibar known for its beaches. We quickly checked into our hotel and went straight to the beach. As we walked up we saw a small beachside bar, tucked under some palm trees with hammocks hung between them - basically your stereotypical beach paradise. We set our stuff down and ran out into the crystal clear water. The water was pretty shallow so we kept going out farther in an attempt to find deeper water. Little did we know that tide was still pretty far out because it was only 11:30am. Well, I learned pretty quickly that there is something to be said for waiting until the tide comes in a little more. I stepped on, well kicked actually, a sea urchin and ended up with 5 spikes in my right foot between my toes. I made my way back to the beach in a lot of pain and hobbled up to the bar and asked the bartender if he had a remedy for sea urchins. Lucky for me, he did. He told me he'd be right back with some papaya and kerosene. I sat there, a little nervous about what he was going to light on fire and whether it would be more pain than I was already in and I should just run (or hobble) away. Luckily, he came back quickly and put some juice from the papaya on my foot and then poured a cap full of kerosene and told me to wait 5 minutes and then I could walk around and that the papaya and kerosene would help the spikes come out later. I waited patiently and actually felt much better. I think I still have some spikes in my foot. They're kind of like splinters so it may not have worked completely, but at least it felt better.

The rest of the morning was much more relaxing and we swam and enjoyed the beautiful beach. I had a pina colada that was made from real pineapple and coconut milk and it was delicious. Later that afternoon we went out on a dhow cruise. We went out, anchored and snorkeled for a while. We jumped off the boat and swam around and then put up the sail and went a little farther and then turned around to head back and saw the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. We went back to the beach that night and listened to music and enjoyed our last night on the Indian Ocean. It was an incredible few days in Zanzibar. I just wish we could've spent more time there!

Let the Journey Begin

So I am back from the most packed spring break trip imaginable. It's going to take a long time to tell you all about my trip so I figured shorter entries would be easier. So here goes part 1. I'm even so on top of things that I've uploaded pictures that you can look at after you read. I must say I'm slightly impressed with myself. Anyway, you can find them at http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1515420026&k=33D3ZVSZR5WMZ1B1RE5YR.

We left very early in the morning on Sunday for Tanga. The sun came up right as we were getting to Moshi (the town at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro) and it was beautiful. It’s very rare that you can see the top of Kili as it’s usually covered with clouds so it was very exciting to finally see it.

We got to Tanga later that afternoon and when we were checking into the hotel, my resident director discovered that we didn’t bring our passports with us. We weren’t leaving Tanzania (Zanzibar is part of Tanzania) so we didn’t understand why we would need them, especially if nobody told us. Well she declared that the trip was canceled and that there was no alternative than to turn around and go back to Arusha. We convinced her that that was a really stupid idea and that we should at least try (while also pointing out to her that this might have been something she wanted to mention to us before we left, like maybe on the packing list she gave us that included money, sunscreen and toiletries). Her reasoning for not telling us: “it’s common sense”. And sunscreen for mzungus at the beach isn’t? Ugh.

After a frustrating 30 minutes at the hotel, we went to the Amboni Caves which were straight out of the Goonies. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go watch the Goonies right now and when you get to the part in the cave, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The caves were interesting and had quite a few very tight tunnels that we had to crawl through and there were even some roots that were growing from the top of “ceiling” that we climbed up Indiana Jones style.

The next day we drove to Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania and it was so weird. There was a ton of traffic (ugh) which I completely forget existed and let me tell you, I was not happy to discover it in Tanzania in a bus without AC. Anyway, we went into downtown on our way to the ferry port and I saw a Subway (restaurant) and was completely shocked. It’s going to be very interesting going back to America in June…

So it turns out that ferries are the only thing in this country that happen ahead of schedule so we missed the first ferry and had to wait 2 hours for the next one. It was quite unpleasant as Dar es Salaam is without a doubt one of the hottest places I’ve ever been, but it was nice when we got on the ferry and found that it was more like an airplane than a ferry and we sat in comfortable seats in the AC and watched the Italian Job on our two hour ride. We went up to the top of the ferry as we were departing Dar and again when we were arriving in Zanzibar and had some incredible views.

Apparently the way customs works in Tanzania is as the huge crowd of people are walking toward the gate into the city, the immigration people pull out all the white people and they go through customs while everyone else passes through without a second glance. You’ve gotta love being white in Tanzania. Well, we waited for about 45 minutes while Martha talked with the immigrations people and it wasn’t looking good until our guide who was from Zanzibar and knew all of the customs people got in and within about 2 minutes of him talking with them, we were on our way and in Zanzibar. Hooray!

More Pictures and Cultural Experiences from the Maasai and Wahaya

Ok, so I am finally up to date and have uploaded all the pictures I have taken. Here are the photos from my safari during orientation!

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1515420026&k=56DT6XTXUYYMZ1B1RE5YR

I suppose I should update you on what I've been up to since my last real post. I leave for Zanzibar on Sunday for my spring break trip! We will travel from Arusha to Tanga (5 hours) on Sunday and visit the Amboni Caves. On Monday, we will travel from Tanga to Dar es Salaam (another 5 hours) and then take the 2 hour ferry from Dar to Zanzibar. We will spend Tuesday in Stone Town (Zanzibar's main city) and visit slave trade sites around the city and go on a spice tour. Zanzibar is a spice island and I've heard the tours are very cool. Wednesday will be beach day. Yes! Thursday, we will head back to Dar and then drive up to Bagamoyo and visit another slave site and then spend the night in Dar. Friday, we will drive 10 hours back to Arusha, yuck! It will be a week full of driving, but I think it will be worth it and I am so excited for this trip after the week that I have had.

I've been taking midterms and working on projects all week which is so lame, but I'm almost finished. I spent most of yesterday afternoon and this morning running around like a crazy person trying get all of the shots I needed for my photography midterm before it started raining/got dark, but I finished! I have to turn in a project on the conflict in Uganda for Peace and Conflict Resolution Issues and take a midterm for Social and Economic Issues tomorrow. The Ugandan conflict project has been a lot of work because the conflict's been going on for 20 years and is super complicated, but at least it's interesting and it's not a project I would normally get to do.

Last Friday, I visited a school for Maasai girls and it was absolutely incredible. The school system in Tanzania consists of free primary school (grades 1-7) and then secondary school (8-12) that can be public or private (both have fees though). The school I visited, called the Emusoi school, is a secondary prep school, because many students fail their secondary school entrance exams. Secondary schools are very competitive because spaces are so limited. Before primary schools became free, there was room in the secondary schools, but now that there are so many more students, there isn't room for all of them. The free primary school initiative is relatively new and most primary schools are overcrowded, because of the increase in attendance after the schools became free, and many kids don't get the education in primary school that they need to move on to secondary school. That's where Emusoi comes in. Many of the girls are completely illiterate and innumerate upon arrival and the teachers usually have one year to catch them up. This reminds me a lot of my High School Practicum at Trinity where I tutored a student in science so she could pass TAKS (Texas' standardized test) and graduate. The only difference is that my student could read and write and add and speak English... Let's just say I have a lot of respect for Emusoi's teachers.

Emusoi is also a school specifically for Maasai girls. The majority of these girls have run away from home in order to avoid being married off (the girls are between 13 and 16 years old) and some of the girls that live on campus are attending secondary schools, but can't go home or they will be married. Most of the girls don't speak English or very much, which is yet another problem as all secondary schools are taught in English. The main reason they never learned English is that primary schools are taught in Swahili, even though the Maasai don't speak Swahili, but Maa. So the girls that get to go to school have to learn Swahili and then learn English from Swahili in a classroom with up to 200 other primary school age children with one teacher. Needless to say, the system is flawed.

Emusoi is very small, only 2 classrooms for about 90 girls, but seems like a really great place. We arrived at the end of their school day and came into the classroom and Kate, on of the directors of the school, introduced us and told the girls we would be playing outside with them. Their faces lit up and Kate asked them if they could show us how they could count and they went around the room counting off from 1. Each girl looked so proud and so excited to show what she knew as she shouted out 14! 15! 16! Then Kate asked them if they would show us some songs they knew. They sang us some songs in English that they knew like "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes".

Then Kate sent us outside with 85 girls running behind us with 2 soccer balls. All of my years of camp could never have prepared me for entertaining 85 teenage girls with 2 soccer balls. We were a little overwhelmed at first as they all looked at us with excitement about what we were going to do. We attempted to teach them how to play freeze tag, but that was pretty difficult as they don't speak English and we don't know any useful Swahili words. It ended up as a "run away from the white girls" game for about 30 seconds, but they liked to touch us too much so it faded quickly. Anyway, we ended up in a huge circle and kicked the ball around for a while, but eventually ended up in smaller circles where the girls taught us some songs and dances. They taught us traditional Maasai songs and how to do this crazy dance where you jump up and down and move your shoulders back and forth "like a kuku" (chicken) as one of the girls told me. I'm sure I looked like a complete idiot, but it was so fun.

After an hour or so, it started to rain so we ran under the porch and the girls taught me how to count to 10 in Maa. I don't remember any of it, unfortunately, but I do remember the Maasai song they taught me. This girl named Namnyaki, who was 13 and probably one of the youngest around, had a pen and wrote "I love you" on her hand and turned it around and showed it to me. I almost died. She was so sweet. Then she asked me to spell my name on her hand so I did and then the other girls passed the pen around and wrote their names on their hands to show me how they could spell. They were all so beautiful and I cannot wait to go back to see them after Zanzibar.

My other exciting cultural event happened on Tuesday at Makumira University (the school where we go to music class). We had a group from the Wahaya tribe who live near Lake Victoria come and perform for us. They drummed and sang and danced. It was beyond cool. Then, out of nowhere, one of the dancers comes up to me, grabs my hand and pulls me up to dance with her in front of everyone. Most of you know that I am not a dancer, nor have I ever claimed to be, but that does not seem to deter anyone here from trying to teach me. I danced with them for a minute or two and then snuck back to my seat. A few songs later, they grabbed some of the other students (and me, again) to dance some more. The professor that organized the visit is also planning a weekend homestay in a Maasai village for the weekend after we get back from Zanzibar and possibly one with the Chaga tribe that live on Kilimajaro. It looks like things are really starting to pick up and I'm getting to spend a lot more time doing fun cultural things and less time in the classroom. Hooray!

Pictures!

Better late than never, right? You should be able to see these pictures on Facebook from this link even if you don't have a Facebook account. Let me know if you have any issues and I'll find a new way to share my pictures.

These are my pictures from my first month or so in Tanzania. They are from my apartment so you can see where I live, the Center so you can see where I have class, a few places we went during orientation and from the women's retreat I went on last weekend. I'm going to try to add the pictures from my safari tonight so those should be up soon.

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1515420026&k=45A3QWQYU32MZ1B1RE5YR

I passed the one month mark

So last week, like most weeks here, flew by. We started our final section of the Contemporary Issues course called Peace and Conflict Resolution Issues. Our professor is a Somali who teaches at the University of Georgia, but is here doing research on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). I'm sure you can imagine my excitement when I found out that not only did I have an actual professor for this topic, but that he would really be focusing on Rwanda and the ICTR, which was one of the main reasons I chose this program. We'll be going to a trial this week and it's about time as I've been next door/in the building of the ICTR almost every day since I've been here and have yet to go to a trial.

Now despite my first impressions of my professor, I have had a few issues with him. He really enjoys being sarcastic and making comments about white people, particularly Americans, and their stupidity and ignorance. Now, don't get me wrong. I'll be the first to tell you about the general ignorance of Americans, but he has to understand the peculiarity of his audience. We are 8 college students (all from respectable Universities) that chose to study in Africa instead of Europe or Australia because of our interest in Africa's people, politics, conflict, history, etc. Needless to say, most of us were a bit offended when he refused to concede that not all Americans are ignorant and concerned with sucking as much money out of a place as possible. I've come to learn that he says a lot of things that he means only in jest, but I think that dealing with him has prepared me for future encounters with people that assume that because I am an American, I care solely about money and nothing about people.

On a different note, I went to a women's retreat this weekend with about 30 other ladies from the church that I went to last weekend. Rose and Alainna (2 girls from the program) came with me and we had a great time. We had a little car trouble on the way there, but I was unfazed as I seem to be drawn to people with cars that have hidden problems and break down in the middle of nowhere (Texas, Virginia or Africa). Anyway, a very nice man pulled over to help and discovered that the radiator had hakuna maji and towed us (with a nylon rope) about 10 miles to the police checkpoint where he convinced the police to let us leave the car there overnight. Luckily we were with 2 Canadians that are fluent in Swahili and could communicate with our new friend, Dominic, and the police. One of the Canadians told us later that we never would have been able to convince the police to watch the car if we hadn't had a man with us, so we're very thankful for Dominic.

We made it to the retreat and stayed at this awesome tented camp outside of Lake Manyara National Park. Lake Manyara used to be a huge lake, but has almost completely dried up. On the bright side, this dried lake bed and what's left of the lake provide a sweet habitat for African wildlife. The lake has a lot of flamingos and the dry part hosts wildebeest, zebra and occasionally, lions. We stayed outside the NP, so we missed most of the animals because the Maasai bring their cattle across the dried lake bed and scare the other animals away. It would have been cool to see some wild animals, but it was nice to pay only $100 for 2 nights of lodging and food for the whole weekend.

It was so nice to get out of Arusha for the weekend. There aren't any regulations on vehicle emissions here so the air is noticeably cleaner outside of the city and it was nice to have some fresh air. Although I love the people on my program, spending 24 hours/day with the same 7 people would drive anybody crazy. It was so great to not only meet new people, but to hear their stories of living here. A few of the women grew up here with missionary parents and some were the missionary parents, but most are here working for NGOs and missions. Some of them moved here before I was born and needless to say, they have seen the Africa that I am longing to know. I have been feeling lately that I'm getting a very watered down version of Africa. I think Arcadia is trying to make us as comfortable as possible, but I didn't come all this way to be comfortable. I realized last weekend that I'm going to have to make things happen for myself so that I can get a more accurate picture of Africa. I think I definitely met the right people this weekend that can make that happen and I feel much better. They had some incredible stories that would take far too long to share here, but if you'd like to know, send me an email and I'll tell you. Anyway, we had an incredible weekend and I feel very refreshed.

I got a ride home from the retreat with a different lady because the car I rode there in was broken. She wasn't planning on going through town so I got dropped off with another lady named Kendra who said that her husband would pick us up and they could drop me off at the apartment. Well when we met Kendra's husband, he had her kids with her (Josiah, age 5; Isaac, age 3 and Caris, 9 months) and had planned a picnic to the Snake Park. So I went with them to the Snake Park and saw huge pythons, cobras, crocs and all kinds of other scary reptiles. We also went through the Maasai museum and rode camels. I rode with Josiah as he thinks I am quite cool (I think college girls are hard to come by here). Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it made me miss the Browns and Swayzes a lot.

On the home front, my friends are in Colorado on spring break, my family is entertaining the Olejkos, Chris is recording as usual and I'm wishing I could be with all of them. I tried to articulate last night that I'm "happy missing" people now and not "sad missing". I'm not sure exactly how to explain it, but basically I miss people, but know at the same time that I'm experiencing some incredible things here and this is where I'm supposed to be so. I guess it's easier to miss people when there's a point to being away.

A New Day

So I'm not really sure where to begin. I really should update more often so I don't write a novel every time. We went on two "excursions" for class this week. On Tuesday morning we went to Mali Hai Clubs of Tanzania which is an environmental management and conservation organization that works to educate Tanzanian students about the environment. We visited the poaching office and learned about how poachers are caught and what happens once they are. There were about 25 safari vehicles parked outside the office that we found out had been confiscated from poachers.

After Mali Hai, we went to MWEDO which stands for Maasai Women's Development and Empowerment Organization. The Maasai are a tribe that lives in Kenya and Tanzania and are one of the most well known tribes in Africa. The Maasai are known historically as warriors (think Africa's Spartans) and for their resistance to change and modernization. More recently they've been known for their use of FGM (if you don't know what that is, look it up because I'd rather not explain it here) and many NGOs are working (mostly unsuccessfully) to stop the practice and encourage education for Maasai children. The Maasai are a pastoralist tribe and the children are often forced to work/mind the cattle instead of attending school so many groups, like MWEDO, are working to sponsor Maasai children and work with Maasai leaders to help them understand the benefits of education. Anyway, at MWEDO we learned about their meetings with Maasai elders, their sponsorship program and their craft and jewelry store. MWEDO runs a fair-trade shop with beaded jewelry, crafts and shoes that are made by Maasai women and the women get 80% of the price. The stuff there is much cheaper than the crafts sold on the street so I'm sure I'll be going back to buy some gifts for you lovely people back home. Oh, they have monkeys that live on the grounds too so that makes it an even cooler place.

The rest of the week was spent doing homework, filling out applications for Trinity's MAT program and researching apartments back home which by the way is ZERO fun here. For some idiotic reason, a lot of apartment websites use fancy flash players that take forever to load and make me very frustrated. Thank goodness I have friends in San Antonio to help me out. Oh, I also did laundry this week. Yes, I washed all my clothes by hand in a bucket and they are clean, but a little crispy because we have to lay them flat on the shelves in our pantry. Oh well, TIA...

The end of this week was a little rough. I was not in the best mood on Friday because it had been a very long week and was really hot outside. Needless to say I was very homesick. Things got better on Friday night though and I went out with friends from the program. On Saturday, things went downhill again. Some people in our program don't get along very well so we had to have a group sit down and try to figure out what each of us could do to make the situation better. I'm sure the problems aren't over, but hopefully we'll be able to ease tensions or it's going to be a very long semester. Things turned back around last night though when I got to talk to my parents on the actual phone (not on skype) for 30 minutes and then with Alex for another 30 minutes. It was really great to catch up with them without interference from the internet. I also got to talk with my roommate, Leslie, for a while too and really felt better. The goodness continued through the night and followed us to church this morning.

Some of the girls went to a dance class on Tuesday and met a woman from California who works for an NGO here and she invited them (and the rest of us) to come to church with her family this morning. A group of 6 of us went and it was so great. The woman, Tammy, introduced us to her family (husband and 4 kids) that have lived here for 3 years and in Kenya for a few years before that. We also met a few other people that were so loving and inviting and I had such a great time. This church is called the Visitor's Church because so many people are here for only a few months at a time. It was mostly white people that are volunteers and missionaries, but they were from all over the world and there were also a fair share of Asian and African people. Worship was led by an American woman and her South African husband. A couple of us really loved it and I'm sure we'll be coming back every weekend we can.

It's really incredible how God has worked in the past 24 hours to restore me and my thoughts. I was able to re-focus this morning and really listen for the first time since I've been here. It became very apparent to me that God has big ideas for me and wants to change me this semester. I don't like that I had to be removed from my comforts (friends, family, foods and general amenities from home) and come half way across the world for this to become apparent to me, but I'm just glad I'm beginning to figure these things out. I'm not sure where I'm going, but that only makes this whole thing more exciting.

A friend of mine sent me a list of questions that will probably be turned into future blog entries. She definitely has the gift of asking the right questions, but not for her own curiosity, but my self discovery. I am confident that they will help me process this crazy place better than I ever could on my own. If anyone else has any specific questions, I'm sure you aren't the only one who's curious so feel free to email me or comment below. I'm missing home, but now feel a lot more secure here and confident in the road that has been set out for me.

Let The Rains Begin!

It's officially been two weeks since I arrived in Tanzania and I'm pretty settled in now. Part of me feels like I've been here for months and the other part knows full well that I don't know anything. I'm going to take pictures around the city this afternoon... I know I've said this before, but my camera is kind of obvious and I'd rather not show it off. I think I'm just going to hop on a dala-dala and hope it's not full so I can take some pictures out the window.

I guess I should elaborate on the dala-dalas. They are Tanzania's version of the "shared taxis" that are found in most developing countries. They cost about 500 Tanzanian shillings (less than 50 cents) vs. a regular taxi that costs about 5,000Tsh. Dala-dalas are basically these vans that have a few rows of very small seats and could probably fit about 15 people at max comfortably. Anyway, there is a man that hangs out the sliding door to spot people that need a lift and then he stuffs as many people as possible in the dala-dala and collect their money. Now dala-dalas have no clear routes. They have them, but there are no signs. They aren't marked in any way that would tell you where it was going so it's always an adventure, because you never know for sure which one you should take. Oh, they're also covered with pictures of Barack Obama, Bob Marley and rappers like Jay-Z and Ludacris.

I rode in one for the first time last week with my friend, Matt, who's been here for 4 months and his first comment was "Wow! This one's not too full." There were 32 people in the dala-dala (I counted) and we had to stand on the side hunched over, looking down on the people sitting below us. Now, I'm sure you'd think that any sane person would say they'd just pay the 4 extra bucks for a regular taxi, but I really love the dala-dalas.

We rode one to Makumira University this week for a music class. The dala-dala stop was a few minutes walk from The Center (where I take classes) in the opposite direction than we usually travel. We were followed by a crowd of children smiling and waving at us. I'm really not sure if they'd ever seen this many white people walking together, but regardless, they thought it was very entertaining. Don't get me wrong, it's not just children that are entertained by us. Alainna and I were walking home from the Center last weekend and we were serenaded twice as we walked down the street by random men saying "whitey-people! whitey-people!" in a sing-songy voice. They just thought we were so funny so they stood up and did a little jig as we kept walking. Anyway, back to the dala-dala. We hop in (very snugly) and this man walks up to the sliding door and pulls out his phone and starts taking our picture! Now, it's not like people here have never seen white people. There's loads of tourists here, but they never ride on dala-dalas so I think we were just a sight to see.

We made it to Makumira for our music class. I'm not actually enrolled in this class, but the professor allowed a few of us to come and learn about traditional African music. I learned drum beats and learned how to play the amadinda (like a giant xylophone) and had so much fun. It started pouring while we were in class for the first time since I got here. Let the rains begin! It has rained every day since then and I still love it. It smells so fresh and it's so cool that the sun shines while it's raining so there's usually a giant rainbow after. Amazing!

I also went to a dance class this week. Our teacher, Tina, is from Madagascar and seriously looked, sounded and acted like she came from some sort of magical land where she lived in a tree. She would explain the steps and instead of asking us if we had any questions she would say "yes yes yes no yes yes yes?" very quickly and scurry off to turn on the music. Our class was outside on a covered patio at sunset and we did all sorts of dancing from traditional African moves to yoga-esque to some distant relative of the electric slide. Anyway, we had a great time and met some new people, which is always nice.

The night life here is very exciting, but it’s unfortunate that we have to take a taxi anywhere after 6:30 which leaves us in our hotel "compound" on most week nights. Matt took us out last weekend to this place called Via Via on Thursday night and then to this place called Maasai Camp on Saturday and we had a great time, though some of our group had a bit too much fun. Anyway, Matt went back to England yesterday so we're on our own exploring the rest of the nightlife that Arusha has to offer (and daytime stuff too, for that matter). I'm sure we'll figure it out. We have so far, as everyone is so nice and helpful here. One of the guys in my program, Josh, has befriended this Tanzanian named John who wants to take us to a waterfall on the side of Mt. Meru tomorrow. It's an 8 mile hike there, so it should be interesting but I'm just glad to be getting out and seeing the beautiful landscape that surrounds Arusha.

Lessons Learned

So, a lot has happened since I posted last week and have already learned many lessons on how things work in Tanzania.

1. Hakuna Matata. I knew before I came that 'hakuna matata' was Tanzania's motto, if you will, and I assumed that this was just a phrase and not commonly used in general conversation. Totally wrong. It's used all the time, especially by the men that sell crafts on the street, and even graffitied on walls. In case you've never seen the Lion King, hakuna matata means no worries in Swahili and really does describe Tanzanian life well. Most things happen about 10 minutes after they were scheduled too. People smile all the time and greet random strangers on the street with handshakes and usually hold your hand for up to a few minutes after you shake hands. It may sound awkward to hold hands with a complete stranger, but it doesn't bother me at all. It's actually really nice that everyone is so laid-back and comfortable.

2. Hapana Asante. Now, I normally consider myself to be a pretty savvy person and can usually get by without making a complete idiot out of myself. I have no idea why it didn't occur to me that it would be a bad idea to buy something on the first afternoon I was here. I guess, in my defense, the men that sell things on the street are very smart. They approach you and say, "hey how are you?" and talk to you for a few minutes about where you're from, why you're in Tanzania (most white people are here for safaris), how long you're staying, etc. Then they teach you some Swahili phrases and casually pull out their art, craft or other object with African animals or Masai warriors on it and say the Swahili word for the picture. They go from piece to piece saying twiga (giraffe), temba (elephant), simba (lion), etc. Then they ask you to pick your favorite. This is the point where I realize they aren't just being typical Tanzanian friendly.

So the first day I arrive, I'm walking with Sarah and another girl named Alainna and a guy approaches me and then a couple others approach the other girls. There are about 5 different guys hanging out and talking to us, 2 of them showing their art work, when all of a sudden there are, no kidding, 20 guys around us all shaking hands, saying hello, and vying for our attention. I look down at Alainna and she looks completely overwhelmed and Sarah is just calmly talking to one of the guys. One of the guys explains that if we go to his shop, he'll make everyone stay outside so we go with him. I bought a bracelet made from coffee beans (for way too much, I have now learned) and we made our way through the crowd and one of the guys that was walking along with us explained that if you simply say hapana asante (no, thank you), they will leave you alone, because not only is Tanzania a very friendly place, but a very polite place and it is considered very rude to keep hassling someone who has politely said "no, thank you".

I suppose these are the main lessons I have learned since arriving and I'm sure there will be many more to come. We've been very busy these past few days and it's quite overwhelming to think of how I'll update you in one entry without writing a novel, so I'll try to condense and you can email me for further details if you are so inclined.

As part of our orientation we visited the United African American Community Center which is in a small village outside of Arusha. The community center is owned by Pete and Charlotte O’Neal, an African American couple from Kansas City that moved to Tanzania 30 years ago. Pete was (and is still, I think) a member of the Black Panther party and he and Charlotte were forced to leave the States in the early 70s for Algeria. After a few years in Algeria, they moved to Tanzania and fell in love with the relaxed, easy-going and respectful culture.

They began building the community center about 10 years ago for the youth of their community and it now includes a children’s home, classrooms, an art studio, a recording studio(!), pavilion, visitor housing, water tank and a house for the O’Neals. It was such a cool place. There was graffiti or a mural on nearly every surface outside, large statues in the grass, a dog with dreadlocks that matched Pete and Charlotte’s (I couldn’t make this up if I tried), all in this lush, green environment. So cool.

Warning: The next part of this entry may cause you to sing songs from the Lion King or have very strong urges to watch the movie immediately.

The next morning we went on a safari to Tarangire National Park about 2 hours southeast of Arusha. Tarangire has more elephants per square kilometer than anywhere in the world (aka my mother’s dream). It was incredible. I had heard that the Texas hill country looks like parts of Africa and that actually was a pretty accurate statement. However, it’s really just the hills, the grass and the streams that look like Africa. The trees and certainly the animals are way cooler here. Tarangire is also known for its huge baobab trees which are hundreds and even said to be thousands of years old. They’re also the type of tree that Rafiki from the Lion Kings lived in, in case you were wondering. Anyway, the safari was fun, yet dusty and we saw zebras, ostriches, warthogs, lions (from very far away), lots of elephants, impala and giraffes, dikdiks (the smallest species of antelope that are about the size of my cat, Bean… not Peetie), baboons, vervet monkeys, waterbuck and a lot of overly outfitted safari goers. I'm not really sure why people think it's necessary to dress entirely in khacki with large boots and hats when on safari in a vehicle or even on a walking safari for that matter, but they do. People were even dressed like this on the plane and we arrived at 10pm.

We started class on Tuesday, which I was actually very excited about. My teachers are great and very enthusiastic, though occasionally hard to understand. I really like my international law professor. He's a lawyer from Malawi and does a lot of work for the UN. I’m excited to see the way the rest of the semester unfolds and how these courses go as it’s difficult to tell right now and I’m really excited for my first photography class tomorrow.

I’m going to try to take some pictures around Arusha soon so you can have an idea of what it’s like here. The only problem is that my camera isn’t as discreet as I’d like it to be and I’m trying to avoid looking like a stupid safari-ing tourist (and being hassled). We’ll see how it goes. Also, I have a Tanzanian phone. The number is +255 788 403 204. It’s free for me to receive texts and phone calls and costs me about 10 cents to send texts and about 35 cents/minute to call. Also, here is my address if you’d like to be my penpal!

Melendy Mathis

c/o Martha Niko

P.O. Box 2771, EAC Close

Nyerere Center for Peace Research

Arusha, Tanzania

I Made It!

I made it safely to Tanzania last night with ZERO flight and baggage issues. Incredible!

I sat next to this incredible woman on the flight from Austin to Detroit. She's from Austin and was going to Tanzania too. I was completely shocked. I mean really, what are the odds? She's been to Tanzania many times so she told me all about Arusha, Zanzibar and everything else I wanted to know about what I could expect in Tanzania. It could not have worked out better. I was really upset when I boarded the plane and was feeling very unsure about this whole thing, but after talking to her I was able to remember all the things I have to look forward to here and exactly why I'm coming all this way.

It turns out that she was coming back to Tanzania this time to climb Kilimanjaro. Now, a lot of people asked me if I planned to climb it when I got here. I can now say with absolute certainty that I will not be climbing Kili on this trip (we'll save that for another East African adventure). First of all, I thought packing for 4 months in Tanzania was hard. She's here for 3 weeks and had to pack for 5 different climates because you go from Rainforest to Arctic and everything in between on Kilimanjaro. No, thank you. Second, it's really expensive. She said she spent about $1000 on equipment in Austin and then is still renting all of the "Arctic weather stuff" like sleeping bags, jackets, etc. Crazy.

Anyway, my new friend was on a later flight from Detroit to Amsterdam so I flew on that one by myself. Literally, I had my own row to spread out on which was so nice. The airport in Amsterdam is absolutely the most insane airport I've ever seen. Apparently, it's 7 miles from one end to the other so I'm very thankful I had a short (15 min) walk from one gate to the other. I met a girl from my program in Amsterdam and we get along really well. She loves music as much as I do and we get to choose our roommates so we're going to live together too.

The flight to Kilimanjaro Airport was long and I really wish we would have gotten window seats. If you every fly to Africa, get a window seat. We flew right through the Ionian Sea and over Greece. Then we went over Egypt and down through Sudan and Kenya.

It was nice and breezy and about 85 degrees when we got off the plane. We got our visas and made it through customs quickly, got our bags and were met by our driver, Tau, and one of the program directors, Ethel. It was about a 45 minute drive from the airport to Arusha, where we stayed the night at this nice hotel where I had my own room with a huge four poster bed (complete with mosquito net).

We met our resident director Martha this morning and she and Ethel brought us to our apartment. They have taken such care to plan every detail for us. The apartment restaurant has prepared a menu just for us. They've seriously covered everything. I am going to be SO spoiled this semester. Our apartment is about the size of the average 2 bedroom apartment back home, but the bedrooms are a little bigger. We're sleeping 2 to a room, so Sarah and I will have more roommates when they arrive tonight. We're in the apartment's internet cafe now. The internet is pretty fast and this apartment complex is really nice.

I am so glad to be here, but I know that I will miss home terribly. I'll try to post pictures soon so you can see this BEAUTIFUL place.

Welcome!

So, the trip is rapidly approaching and I am becoming increasingly more anxious about it. I received a class schedule and list of the program participants this week and have gotten to know a few them via facebook. Everyone that I've talked to is very excited to be going and seems really nice.

My classes this semester will be Kiswahili (the language spoken throughout East Africa), Contemporary Issues in East Africa, International Law and Photography. The Contemporary Issues course is the main course and is split into four sections covering peace studies and conflict resolution issues, human rights and gender issues, social and economic development issues and environmental management issues. I'm really excited for my photography course, because I have a very nice digital SLR that I've been waiting to use (and understand how it works). I'm also a little nervous about swahili as the only words I know are jambo (hello), mzungu (white person/man who contains his farts), simba (lion) and hakuna matata (no worries)... the last two are courtesy of the Lion King.

I have yet to begin packing but have a ridiculous list so I hope to start tomorrow or Sunday. I leave Wednesday and fly from Austin to Detroit to Amsterdam and meet up with another girl from my program and we'll fly to Kilimanjaro Airport together. I know it will be a crazy 2 days, but hopefully smoother than my last attempt to go to Africa.

I guess that's all I have for now as I'm still stateside. Hopefully the next entry will be more exciting.