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!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
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!
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!
Monday, March 16, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)