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.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
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!
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!
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