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.