The NEW Year

December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas!! After days of trying to figure out where Hannah was we arrived in Iringa to go to Ruaha National Park. But of course Hannah called the minute we arrived at the nicer hotel and me and Jenna were attempting to go snorkeling. She was just lucky that it was starting to rain. So we picked up Hannah and began our vacation.

We saw some SWEET animals today, which is good considering Hannah and Jenna have been in country less than 1 week and saw all the animals on the way to Iringa and I slept the entire ride through Mikumi National Park. (this is an 8-10 hour ride, with 1 hour in the park) So anyways we saw: Impala, Elephants, waterbuck, Hippo, Lions, Giraffe, Crocodiles, zebras, and lots of really cool birds that I cannot remember the names of. Cannot wait until tomorrow. And now we are staying at the coolest hotel ever, I feel extremely rich. We have our own cottage on the river with the coolest bathroom/ shower ever. (don’t worry, we took lots of pictures)

January 9, 2011

So I have been on a whirlwind for the last month and a half. First I went to seminar in Morrogorro and got to hang out with all of my friends for 2 whole weeks and then Hannah and Jenna came to visit. After that a girl whose parents both served in PC came and stayed with me for a little bit and now I am back in the village by myself. (not sure how I feel about this yet)

Seminar was great, although when I first got there I was really overwhelmed because I went from not having a single person to hang out with, to 40 different people to hang out with along with electricity and internet. It was so overwhelming. It was great though, every day we went to seminar from 8 to 5 and then we got to do whatever we wanted. I ate a lot of really good food. Lots of pizza.

I came home one night to our house flooded because a tap was left open. (they periodically turned the water off, so you never knew if the water was on or not) this also left my room a disaster zone, especially because I left a lot of books on the floor. I then was walking home one night with 2 friends and one of them got robbed. It sucked, never even saw it coming. The guy just grabbed her purse which was around her wrist and ran. One lucky guy, he got 2
phones and a camera.

After seminar, Hannah and Jenna came to visit which was awesome. More awesome after Han actually got here. The weather seemed to be a large inconvenience for me. But she finally got here and we were able to start our vacation. After Han got here we boarded a bus and went to Iringa which is a 10 hour bus ride with a little stretch through Mikumi National Park. I slept most of the ride but Jenna and Han stayed up and saw all kinds of animals. (it figures that I have been in country for 6 months and have seen none, while they have been here 2 days and have already seen them all. They thought that was hilarious) We spent a day walking around Iringa before going on safari. It was awesome, we then stayed in the park for Christmas Eve and it was great. We ate dinner in a tree house and had hippos eating dinner outside our little cottage. Jenna thought this was awesome, me and han opted for bed instead. The next morning we also walked by a hippo. He was really close, only to find out later that a park ranger was killed by a hippo in a walking tour the a few weeks ago. Good thing we choose a car. We saw lots of cool animals. We saw lion, lions eating hippos, crocodiles, giraffes, zebras, ostriches, hippos, elephants, lots of birds and lizards, and tons of Impala. (impala are like the buffalo of Yellowstone) After safari, where somewhere along the way Jenna gained a friend in the form of a tick we headed to my village. It was a little weird being back especially knowing that I was going to be leaving right away again, but everyone was awesome and really happy to see me. I showed them around my village and they met all the villagers and children. They also learned to cook ugali, eat with their hands, use a choo, wash clothes with their hands, carry water on their heads, and wear traditional African clothing. They said they loved it and thought my house and everything was a lot better than I was saying. I still stand by my words, especially since they were only here a few days, After my village, we headed back to Dar for some beach time. It was awesome. We stayed at a great place that had an amazing view and great food. We went snorkeling and I am sad to say I didn’t enjoy it all the way. I swallowed more salt water than I think I have ever in my life. I did see some cool fish but I think I liked it better in Hawaii. I also think I might actually really enjoy snorkeling in Little Whitefish lake the best. (who would have thought that) We did see a turkey fish, which was really cool. But it was still really fun. It is amazing how intense the sun is, I think we used more sunscreen in a few days than we use all year in Michigan. It was a great trip, I had so much fun hanging out with Jenna and Hannah. Having Jenna around made me ask myself again why I ever left steamboat, I think this a question that will be asked the rest of my life.

You will be happy to know that between all of us, we took over 1000 pictures, most of them being Jennas. It is also interesting because depending on whose pictures you are looking at, it looks like only 2 of us went on vacation. I will try and put the pictures up soon.
Sorry this is pretty much word vomit, there is just too much to say at the moment.

January 10, 2011

I still have lots more to tell you. I guess I should start with when I arrived home the story that the children in my village told me after I asked about a car that was driving through the village. Cars drive by on the main road fairly regularly but this car was driving on the foot path. So this is the story and before I begin, I am fine. On Dec.31 at around dusk my neighbor went to the store that is like 100 feet from her house to buy something. She didn’t lock her door but made sure that it was latched. She returned to find that it was open and that a thief was in her house. She yelled and a neighbor came with his machete and hit the thief in the neck, back, arm, and leg. The thief was then taken to the hospital where he died a few days later. The thief was a guy from our village, who I think I bought charcoal from. He lived next to my friend Jessica. Although this is a horrible story, I think that this is also a good thing because it tells would be thieves to not FUCK with my neighborhood. (sorry for the language) I still feel very safe in my house and everything, I always lock my doors and shut them when I leave to go into the village and at dusk. The only thing I do not understand about this, is why did nobody touch my house or try and get in. I have been gone off and on for like the last 1, I just don’t understand. I am very, very thankful that this did not happen to me, if this would have, I am pretty sure that I would either be on a plane home right now or living with a family in the village. Also you can tell life is just different here because everyone talks about the incident as if they are saying what they just had for dinner. There is no emotions or anything, it is very matter a fact.

But again, everything is fine, so don’t worry. Although I have to say I am a little jumpy more than normal sometimes now. I now have a bat to add to my household friends as well as a few sparrows that make lots of noise on my roof to the point that you might actually start to believe a person is on my roof. I also found out today that I am home to a few nests of wasps. The worst thing about this, is that I just cleaned and now I have to get all the nests down which means more cleaning.

Han brought me some m and m’s. I opened the bag today and am happy to announce that I have not eaten the entire bag yet. I am hopping I can make it last at least a few days if not a week.

Also reading a James Patterson book that Aunt Diane gave to me. It is really good. I have never read any of his stuff before, but I really like it.

I have a meeting with the government tomorrow to go over my seminar and possible projects, I am interested to see how this goes. I have also realized that I am not going to be able to do all the projects that I was hoping to do. There just is not enough time.

January 11, 2011

As usual I got up early this morning to meet with a villager only to have him come 2 hours later. Oh how I love it when people are late, especially when I get up extra early. Anyways I went with him to his house to help him plant trees only to find out that he didn’t get the trees yet. Did I mention that he lives an hour away by bike. So I am at his house and we are talking about projects. The last volunteer gave out a lot of money, much of which he benefited from. And he asks about buying things, so I go into my whole shpil about how I am here to educate and not give out money. I am not sure this went over well but I think he understands now. So on the way back it starts to rain and then it pours. I think I found myself in one of the biggest rain storms I have ever been in. I could not see 1 foot in front of me, it was horrible. All the villagers were huddled in houses, but I was already soaked so I just walked the rest of the way home. They all got a good kick out of this.

I then tried to have a meeting with the government about my work, to have no one present within the office. I feel like things are going to start very, very slowly. But hopefully everything turns out well. I also made posters to hang in the village office that explain what my role is here and what my counterparts role is as well. Hopefully this helps straighten out some of the confusion.

Also finished the James Patterson book. It was great. I now am still trying to get through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not sure how long this is going to take, I know that you all said it was great but I am having a hard time getting into it. I also have started to freak myself out with the book, so this now might be a book that is only read during the day time. I really want to finish it soon though.

Also if anyone was wondering, I have not finished the m and m’s yet. I am really proud of this at the moment. I am also craving a bagel with cream cheese right now, which really sucks because there is no way in hell that I will be eating one of these before I get back on US soil. Hopefully I can be eating one in May. (Trying to get home for 2 weeks in May for Han’s graduation and the Old Kent 5 K)

Also I hear Auburn won. That is awesome.

On other random notes, Grandma my dad told me about Grandpa so do not worry about having to have that conversation with me. I think this is a really good thing. Maybe now you can come visit me in Tanzania or even better go to Poland and hang out with Leonia.

January 12, 2011

I am finally learning to sleep in. I didn’t get up until 8 today but I did have Jessica walk by at about 6 and say good morning. Surprisingly I heard her. So I am not sure if 8 actually counts.

I then spent most of the morning doing laundry and planting my tomato plants. I kept going back and forth about where to plant them. I finally decided on inside my courtyard. This decision was helped by a 7 year old that told me that I planted them outside someone would steal them. I decided I didn’t want to have to deal with that can of worms. But I do find it interesting that in a country where the first thing that they tell you is how peaceful the country is, they sure talk a lot about thieves. I just don’t get it, everyday I think I have a conversation about thieves and to make sure everything is in my house at night. They don’t even want me to leave anything in my courtyard. It is exhausting. It is also interesting because in Grand Rapids, I definitely don’t live in the best neighborhood, yet I leave stuff out all the time in my backyard without having to worry. I really like that. Also if Tanzanians are so concerned with theft, what do they do about their farms. There is no way that they can keep an eye out on all that land.

I have been playing a dice game (Aunt Diane gave it to me, thanks) with the children in my village and still am not sure how to explain the rules and how the game works. They are slowly getting part of it, little by little. It is so foreign to me that these kids have never seen die before or have no clue what a pair or small straight are. I cannot even fathom as to how to teach them because it is so second nature to me. I am so thankful that I grew up playing games with the family and at the cottage. I am hoping that by the time I leave here, they will have a grasp of it. I was also thinking it could be fun for the carpenters in the village to make wooden dice.

Also, almost finished with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. You were right it does get really good at the end, but I half to say it sure takes a long time to reel ya in, I definitely would have stopped reading the book if it wasn’t for all of you people telling how good it was. That and the fact that I am in the middle of Africa with nothing better to do, except maybe my homework and think of a research project. It is interesting how I still manage in the middle of nowhere to put homework off.

January 13, 2011

So today I almost found myself in the middle of another full on tsunami. I was just about to leave J2’s house when she said to wait. I said ok but I was really thinking, it is not going to rain. Not 1 minute later there was a huge downpour. It was insane. I am so happy that I was not soaked this time. Although after the rain stopped I was on my way home and almost fell like 10 times. I am pretty sure I am going to take a really big fall in the next week and be covered from head to toe in mud. I am not looking forward to this. I was also walking home and a group of kids came running out of nowhere and into the village. I kept walking but then noticed that everyone was watching them. Apparently a dog needed to die. My guess is rabies but I don’t know. Anyways guess how they kill it, the school kids (primary school that is) run after the dog with sticks and beat it to death. Very humane wouldn’t you say. Surprisingly this doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.

I went to a seminar on corruption today, and was able to make out exactly one word today. Corruption. I think my Swahili is getting worse. There were about 30 people at the seminar so that was good, hopefully this will cut down on the amount of corruption in the village. But who knows. The seminar was held in a church, I find that very interesting.

I finished both the m and m’s and The Girl with the Dragon tattoo today. Both we awesome.
I forgot to tell you, the last night I was in Dar es Salaam, I stayed with an American family that works for the Embassy. It was like being back in the US, it was crazy, they had a real kitchen and everything. They also had air conditioning. I think had one of the best night sleeps ever, but it didn’t last long because I had to be up at 4:30. But I now understand a little more how people can live here for long periods of time. I also talked to their daughter, she lived in Tanzania for 10 years and didn’t know any Swahili. That is so weird to me, but I also understand because she lived in little America here.

January 14, 2011

I just realized that there is snow in Michigan right now and that it should be the middle of winter. This is not a good realization. This will be my first winter in like 10 years where I was not skiing at least 1 time a week. This is very sad. Oh I so wish that there was somewhere to go skiing here, but of course that would require snow. Jenna I think you are going to be able to beat me when we get back, no contest every time. This makes me really sad, although I plan to one day beat you again.

As usual I was suppose to have a meeting today only to find out that the entire office had
left without telling me that it was canceled. So far this week, we are 0 for 3, hopefully next week goes better. At this rate if I get anything accomplished while I am here it will be a feat. I am going into town on Monday to talk to some people about chickens, bees, and farming. Hopefully this all goes well. I also need to start thinking about a research project. I really have no idea where to even begin. I thought that having a choice would make it so easy, not true. The exact opposite has happened. Now there is just too much to choose from, it is like picking a major all over again.

I made bagels today. And if I do say so myself they are delicious. I am very pleased with them. Now if I only had some cream cheese to go with them. I think I am going to try and toast it tomorrow on the stove with some butter, not as good as cream cheese but a close second.

My friend Claire is coming tomorrow. I am really excited. I have started to realize that I do not mind living in the village, I just wish I had someone to talk to who knew English and I also wish I could have people live with me. I can hear all the neighbors at night talking and that is one thing that I miss. Talking to people before I go to bed and when I wake up in the morning. It would be really nice to have someone here. But oh well. I think if I could just have mornings like at the cottage with everyone, everyday that would be the best. So if you could make that happen that would be great.

Claire just got back from the UK so we are going to try and make sushi. Not sure how this is going to work yet, but it should be really fun trying. I also made beans today. They were great, I am pretty sure it was the gigantic spoonful of salt that did the trick. I am becoming really addicted to salt in my food and sugar in my chai, these are definitely not good habits to pick up.

This is another random thing. (aunt Joyce, Aunt Suzzette, and Grandma) You will all be happy to hear that I wear sunscreen everyday without fail now. A girl told me that she has seen her skin age in the year that she has been here. That was enough to scare the crap out of me so now I wake up every morning and put a lot of sunscreen on. I also wear a hat and glass a lot. I am pretty classy.

I was blowing out my stove today and the flames wouldn’t go out. They instead came back at me. Luckily I had my glasses on because I really thought that I had lost some eyelashes. But they all still seem to be there.

January 16, 2011

My friend Claire came yesterday and it was great. Her, me, and Paul made some spicy peanut sauce and sat around and talked. It was a great evening. I almost forgot I was in the village. We made bagel sandwiches that were awesome. I think this will be something I will be making a lot in the future. It reminds me so much of home and my mom and dad and skiing.
Me and the kids are working on new handshakes and in this, they have decided to try and teach me the packing a dip motion. It is unbelievable, all the kids can do it. If they only knew what they could use it for.

Jenna I finished My Maasai Life. I thought it was alright. I really don’t like her writing style or how she talks about her family, but it was an alright book. I can see why you liked it, it does have a lot of similarities to my experience (another reason why I might not find it that interesting).

So I have encountered my first bought with corruption. Apparently there is a villager that
has been saying that him and me are working on a cow and pig project together and that they need to give him 5,000 shillings (this is a lot for a family) and then they will have animals by next month. ( This is definitely not the case.) I was alerted to this yesterday when my neighbor came and asked me about it and then Jessica told me that some villagers have asked her about it too. I really don’t know how this guy thought he could get away with this. I have now constructed a poster that I am going to put on my door telling the villagers of the projects I am currently working on. Hopefully this will end some confusion and prevent at least a little corruption, we shall see. (that is if my sign doesn’t get stolen)

January 18, 2011

So my neighbor asked me to go to his farm yesterday because he wanted to show me what he was planted and see if I thought it would be good to plant tomatoes after the corn was done. I told him that I really don’t know anything about tomatoes but that I would come and look still if he wanted. He told me that was fine and said that his farm was far so I would need my bike. To me far is like 1 hour bike ride, nope this was a solid 2 hour bike ride through gorges with lots of mud. And it one point there were no farm or anything. At this point I was thinking “god I really hope we are going to his farm” I have been reading way to many murder mysteries at the moment. So we finally get there and when we go to leave I get a flat tire and we cannot find the whole to fix it. It took us 4 hours to get back. Making me the most tired I think I have ever been. I was really worried that I was going to pass out because I only had a handful of raisins and only brought one water bottle because I thought I would be back pretty early still. We left at 6 and didn’t get back until 1. It was a very long day.

I then went into town to meet up with Claire, Yue, and Randi. It was really fun. We sat around and talked and then made Sushi and carmenl corn. Claire had brought seaweed back from home and Randi got a package in the mail with smoked salmon so we had awesome sushi. ( it was supper easy to make too, so was the carmel corn.)