Home Again

I have to first apologize to all of my blog followers because I left you hanging. It is true that I arrived home safely last Sunday (Aug 8th) with lots of luggage.

I must back track a bit though because I briefly described the Safari, but I still had a week left of Tanzania. It was a bitter sweet week and therefore kind of difficult to write about not to mention I was hit with my second illness. It wasn't as serious as before, but my symptoms weren't looking good for a couple days, so again I was being closely monitored by my lovely CCS staff.

When we got back from an amazing weekend on safari, we were met with a warm welcome by Edna and the rest of our CCS friends, but there was also a new group waiting to meet us. As much as it was exciting to meet the new group of bleary eyed travelers embarking on their new adventure, we were veterans now, and we missed our friends who had left.  Everyone in the new group seemed very nice and had a surprising amount of energy.

It was my last week of placement, so I wanted to have some fun to leave a lasting impression. We played all kinds of fun games like pictionary and bingo! We also set up a facebook page for Twisuka. On my last day I wasn't feeling very well, but I wanted to say goodbye so I dragged myself down Dar Highway for the last time. They were so sweet. We chatted and took pictures for a bit, then they presented me with a beautiful wood carving of a twiga, my favorite. Although I wasn't doing what I thought I would be doing at this placement, I really grew to love the people I worked with.

My leg after henna

As for the rest of the last week, I spent my time finishing a book, relaxing on the couch, and trying to take in every moment of my experience before I had to board the van to the airport. It was an impossible task. Nonetheless, I tried and in that attempt I had some clothes made out of khangas purchased at the Monday market. I also got henna done on my leg. While I didn't have any sort of design in mind when she started, it turned into a beautiful winding road that reminds me of my journey in Tanzania. Even though I wasn't feeling very well, I sat under the tree and watched this woman free hand this design in under ten minutes. Amazing! The week was pretty much like that. Before I knew it I was getting in the CCS van on the way to the airport. I said goodbye to everyone, watched some crazy people on the way like the guy carrying the fish tank full of fish on his head, and I was on my way to Dubai, JFK, and Orlando.


As much as I would love to share every moment I experienced on this journey, there is no way to put into words what I saw, smelled, tasted, felt, and experienced. I know on some level I have been deeply affected, and I don't think I will really know the depth of that change right away. I have been back now for over a week, and I still have not been able to process everything that I have been through. I am back to work, but I don't feel like I am fully engaged or involved in my work because part of me is still in Bagamoyo or somewhere else entirely. Maybe its jetlag; maybe it's a parasite; but maybe it is the start of something bigger, some kind of change in myself that I won't truly realize until I am able to allow my journey to complete itself. Thank you to everyone who followed me on this exciting ride.

Best Weekend Ever!!

So continuing with my birthday month, I was off on Safari. This was the trip I was most looking forward to, and rightfully so. It was four days of real vacation. The first couple started out a little bit rough with a Bates Motel impersonation hotel called Twiga. The water was brown and a little man made us stay in the dining room to eat "fruits."

This lovely stay was followed the next morning by a 6.3 kilometer hike up a mountain. Yes it was a mountain; I am not exaggerating. I can't wait to post pictures of the waterfalls and steep inclines for all of you people laughing right now. I was huffing and puffing for sure, but I made it to the end! Hooray for me. It was a stunningly beautiful hike through a rainforest though.

Later that day, we stopped at a restaurant somewhere in the middle of nowhere Africa with our driver Sam while getting really excited for our arrival at the tented camp Vuma. Now when I say tented camp I do not mean camping because as those of you who know me well, I don't do camping. This was a luxury tent on a platform with running HOT water and a deck over looking the mountains. It was a truly amazing African experience. Just like the ones you see in the movies. A lovely couple named Cat and Charlie own the place and it was a place you just didn't want to leave. They also had real butter, real coffee, and a full bar, so you really couldn't go wrong. There were even little furry bush babies that would hop onto the balcony of the main dining area and let you feed them.

I could really go on forever about this place and about the safari, but it is better told with pictures. I am also currently making an epic movie called "The Great Migration," which really gives a great feel for what we saw. There were three game drives in total, and we had the most amazing driver. He was able to spot lions out of no where from miles away. I will write more about him and the trip when I have a little more time.

For now, just know that it was an unbelievable experience that I think everyone should do in their life. We were feet away from the most amazing animals in an absolutely beautiful part of the world. Breathtaking!

Time is about up, so I will say lala salaama (sleep well).

Happy Birthday to Me!

African birthday was a great success. Despite the fact that I was recovering from a somewhat serious bout of stomach problems, I was well enough to enjoy the day. I spent the morning in bed and wandered up to the main house to fall asleep on the couch on the porch. Success!

I also managed to eat a full meal and enjoy some of the delicious cake that our wonderful kitchen staff made for me. It was beautifully decorated with my name on it, and not only did everyone sing Happy Birthday, but they also sang the Swahili "cut the cake" song that I love so much. The guys danced of course, and it was just a great night. Rounding out this lovely meal were some very appropriate gifts from my fellow volunteers. There was Little Wemba the carved twiga, some chocolate, an Obama/map of Africa Khanga, and an adorable card signed by everyone.

Later we headed off to Hillside so I could have my birthday club soda. I'm crazy I know!

Continuing with my extended birthday month, I will be leaving for Safari tomorrow morning (Thursday) after lunch. I will be gone all weekend, and I am soooo excited to see some simbas and twigas!

I will be taking tons of pictures and will be happy to share them when I return.

Baadaye!

SO SICK!!!

I knew it would probably happen at some point, but it doesn't make it any easier when it does happen. I got sick. Very sick. Luckily, I was home from Zanzibar and in the somewhat comfort of my room at CCS. I will not describe the details of this problem, but just know that it wasn't pretty.

The next morning I stood in the hallway waiting for someone to come out so I could relay a message to someone in charge. Madame Wemba was the first one down the hall. I told her my situation, and within a couple of hours, Didas came to my room with a silver tray of assorted drinks including 2 cokes and juice with fresh limes that he instructed me to squeeze into the juice. He said, "think of me like your mother." I found this incredibly funny, but so sweet. Throughout the day, various people came to check on the "sick dada" I felt very loved. They were all very concerned and wanted me to think about whether I should go to the hospital or not. I opted for not.

So here I am, on my birthday, in Tanzania, sick. Party plans have to be postponed for the moment because I am spending all of my energy trying to get better for the safari on Thursday.

Don't worry everyone I am feeling much better now, and the cipro worked like a charm. Until next time...

Weekend in Zanzibar

Friday July 23rd:

I don't remember much of my English lesson except for conversatio topic strips which they thought were hilarious. They always laugh when I introduce something new. This could be for many reasons one of which that they think I'm crazy. I just want to shake things up a bit. Nothing groundbreaking just a bit different. The lesson went on with some other things grammar included but I have to say my heart just wasn't in it. I was going to Zanzibar today!

After lunch we met up with Kennedy but soon realized that a few of us had forgotten things. Ben especially had a problem because his passport was locked in his room cabinet. Turned out that Andrew his roommate had the key, so Ben took off with one shoe on Ariel's bike "Fairy" and went in search of Andrew. Turns out again that the key was in Andrew's pants pocket on his bed at the summer house the whole time. There was also a small flip flop mishap, but all was good in the end and we got to the port safely.

The ferry ticket transaction was a bit questionable because we all had to sit in the van while Kennedy took our passports to "buy tickets." We speculated that many other things could have been going on and that we all may be stuck in Tanzania indefinitely. Finally after sitting in the sweltering van for much longer than we needed to we got in a "special line." It wasn't actually a line at all. We just got to go ahead of everyone waiting in line because we were with shady Kennedy. We ended up in first class too which was lucky because it was air conditioned and we got to watch old eposides of candid camera. The boat ride was not the most fun ever, very rocky, but two long hours later we were in ZANZIBAR (the original spice island and the hub of slave trade in East Africa).

I could go on for a long time about my excursion to Z-bar, but I have been sitting at the internet cafe for over an hour now and I am exhausted. Let me sum up the weekend like this. We stayed at a nice place called Sunset Bungalows right on the beach. The water was absolutely beautiful and bright blue with really old boats dotting the shore line. We ate pizza and burgers, and we had a fabulous time. Saturday night there was a full moon party which was something to experience. I can tell people about this at another time.

Sunday morning we woke up and headed over to Stone Town to do some shopping and see the sights. I bought a lovely tanzanite necklace and did my fastest jewelry transaction in history. I think I got a pretty good deal too! After a quick lunch and a race to the ferry it was time to go home. We ended up hitting a lot of traffic from Dar to Baga, so we spent a lot of time in the bus/van again. We also had to stop on the side of the road because we thought we hit something. Turned out it was a "rubber" as our driver called it. I'm thinking it was some sort of belt, but we kept moving. It was a really great weekend, and it is getting me really excited for safari next weekend.

Traditional Healer and then some

I am very sorry that I have not posted in about a week seeing as how it is now Tuesday the 27 (my birthday!) and I went to see the healer last Tuesday. Time really is flying. Let me backtrack.

The healer was not as exciting as I hoped he would be. We had to sit in a hot hut on hard benches or at least an hour while Zik translated while an old man fell asleep in a chair. Highlights of the talk included lots of powders that cured all sorts of ailments that I have never heard of. Apparently they just wander into the forest and find some plants and bark to grind up. One of those snazzy powders can cure 150 different things. Amazing. Not really. What I did enjoy though was the part about the witchdoctor putting or taking hexes off of people. When I told Douglas at placement where I had gone he just laughed and told me it was all fake and they they just do it for money. Oh well no potions for me!

Wednesday July 21st:

Today's English lesson went really well because I think I found a balence between what I want to do and what they are used to. We started with me using a map to describe location, and since they are totally fascinated by geography this went over very well. Then we spent some time with possessives which also went quite well considering it is grammar and I really dislike teaching grammar. Overall, it was a good couple of hours.

On the way home I saw several broken down trucks, but one was particularly funny because it was missing tires, up on blocks, and instead of cones or a hazard triangle or two to warn people, they were using branches with leaves to mark every couple of feet in front of and behind the truck. Also today in class we had a sheep vs. ship conversation. There is not much difference in sound for an English language learner then throw wool into the equation and we have massive confusion. But all was well because Lucas explained wool as what cows and goats have.

Today Douglas was also looking quite spiffy in shirt, tie, and pinstriped pants. This is not normal Tanzanian attire, but it turns out that he had to go to the land office to prove that he owned a piece of land because the government wanted to build something there. He needed to go trade his land for a new piece of land and pay the difference or something like that. The reason for the nice clothing was so he didn't have to wait in the office all day. Apparently it worked because he was back and really proud of himself before I left class. He explained corruption in the government and that you need to dress well in order to get welcomed into the office because they think you have money.

That night, I helped Robert and the chefs at CCS cook dinner. Of course I didn't do this by myself lots of other volunteers got in on the action too. We made chapati which was very time consuming but a lot of fun. I also peeled cucumbers which was also exciting. I opted not to peel the tomatoes with the knife for personal safety reasons.

Another side note, later that night while at Hillside there were bats in the hut type thing we were sitting under. Just another fun part of Baga.

Thursday July 22nd:

Placement went well with my computer lesson, and I got to leave early to work on some research. I wasn't very successful in finding other small handicraft groups around the world. I'm thinking that most of them don't have websites like that group I am currently working with, so if anyone knows of any groups I can network with that would be awesome.

After giving myself a guilt trip, I decided to skip my last Swahili lesson in order to do some things around town. My first stop was Ras'T's studio when I decided to commission a painting. He wasn't there, but Moyo was, so he will be working on my giant painting of a long list of things I wanted included. I even managed to get a twiga included :o) It's my new favorite animal. I then went over to Pili's shop at AMAP where I got my measurements taken so she could turn my Khanga's into a dress and a skirt that I can hopefully wear when I get home. I also found out the meanings of these lovely phrases. The red and black one means "live good to be good," and the purple one is something along the lines of "your work is going unnoticed." Being a teacher I know that phrase very well. They seemed to fit nicely. All of that should be done in about a week.

All of that was exhausting so Amber, Sheila, and I decided that it was time for a beverage so we headed to the New Millenium by the fish market. After going home and having a very enjoyable and actually somewhat warm shower we had a carb loaded dinner and it was off to Hillside for a show. The full Zawose family was performing. Apparently we just saw a few of them the week before. They definitely didn't disappoint. They were in full Khanga even the Obama one made an appearance. They love Obama here it is just too funny. Throughout the show they pulled us all up to dance. I ended up hopping around stage with a chubby kid for quite a while in an effort to keep my shoes on. I did manage to keep my shoes on, but I looked crazy (chizi) doing it. It ended up being a lot of fun, but I was pretty exhausted.

Computer lesson

Today was my second computer lesson, and I really enjoy these because it is so much fun to watch grown men get so excited about my laptop. Today we reviewed how to type, save, highlight, and spellcheck. Our new items were fonts including size and color. It is great how we all huddle together on a bench in front of the screen. There were 5 of us including me, so it is a challenge for everyone to see. The older gentleman from the other day even came back and asked to join my computer class on Thursday. Hooray more students.

I am in between placement and lunch now, and after lunch we have my favorite...Swahili lesson. I am really not a fan. After that though we are going to a traditional healer to do I don't know what, but it should be really interesting.

Stay tuned for my next post....I may come home with some sort of love potion or a cure for chicken mosquito bites :o)