I never really hated school...

When I think back to the times when I thought I hated school, I've realized that is for the exact same reason that I sometimes think I hate school now. I don't mind studying, I love learning new stuff, not a huge fan of 8am classes but I can deal with that, I just hate writing papers. That sounds so terrible because most people I know really enjoy writing and english classes and stuff like that. I love to read, I like to journal/blog, I even like writing letters. But i hate writing papers. There is something about someone telling me that I need to write something for the sole purpose of being graded on it that really gets to me.

As you may have guessed, I'm supposed to be writing a paper right now.

This was just my blog for while I was in TZ but I'm going to use it for other stuff now too! coool.

It is so hard to motivate my stuff to get things done when I have a whole day free. I tend to want to sleep until noon, watch movies, take a nap, and then go to bed. I am trying to get all the things I have at my apartment unpacked today and also write a paper. The paper is less optional since it is due tomorrow at 8am.

Princess Diaries 2

That is my new favorite movie. Go watch it. I watched the first half a week ago, and then finished it yesterday. It is hilarious. (this segment co-written by Jess Macha)

I've been hanging out a lot at the Macha's the past few days. I am going to miss them so much!!! They're my second family. I have been busy making friendship bracelets for Jess and Jonny the past two days!

I'm getting ready to head to the airport this evening. I am scared. I have 30 hours of traveling (by myself) and on top of that I'm leaving my whole life behind here. Its hard to put my finger on exactly what it is that I'll miss. I just like how everything is polepole, laid back, and easy going. Everyplace I want to go is within walking distance, all the people I want to see are just around. I can talk to anyone on the street anytime. I like buying food out of a glass box on the street. I even like washing my own laundry in the bathtub. There are so many things I love here. Going home means going back to the order and the standards of America. I am, however, excited to see family and friends, and eat some good food! The whole thing will be bittersweet.

Tamogotchi Love

My Tamogotchi is in love with Jonny's Tamogotchi...isn't that great?

I spent most of last week in Zanzibar with Claire and Charlotte. It was an AMAZING trip, very relaxing, and lots of fun! We stayed in Dar Es Salaam the first night at a 'nice' hotel. It is funny to think that a smoke detector, a TV with 15 channels, and a real mattress are what make up a nice hotel room; I'll be so easy to please when I get home! We ate at the hotel restaurant and had the second-nicest meal I've had since being here. The chicken had no bones in it!!!! Pretty fantastic. Before we left for the ferry the next day we stopped at SUBWAY!!! Yes, a real Subway franchise in Tanzania. I took a lot of pictures...it looked just like home! On Zanzibar we spent our time at Kendwa beach on the north-eastern coast. We stayed in a bungalow right off the beach and had a beautiful view from our front porch. We also used our amazing bargaining skills to get about $75 off of the price of our room...I guess six months of practice paid off! We enjoyed swimming in the ocean (which is surprisingly warm), laying out in the sun, getting henna tattoos, and eating on a budget (soup for almost every meal!). On Claire's birthday we also went snorkeling! It was really cool, and we found almost all of the fish from Nemo....except for Nemo. Apparently as snorkeling goes, its not the greatest in Zanzibar, but since it was a first time for both of us, we were pretty easily pleased. On the boat trip back from snorkeling, we ran into a storm. I thought it was pretty exciting but some people didn't really seem to enjoy that part. For our last night, we stayed in Stone town and ate at the night market I had been to last time....good as always. The trip home was loooooong, and I got motion sick for the first time in my life! The ferry ride was terrible. After the ferry though, we stopped again at Subway, and things started to look up! We got into Moshi around 9 and went to bed pretty soon after. I don't understand why traveling is so tiring!

Sunday night was the European Championship Final game....Germany vs. Spain. Since Caroline, Claire's roomate, is German, we dressed in the colors of the German flag and painted flags on our faces. Germany lost, but we still had a good time and went out dancing afterwards. I'm going to miss watching the football when I go home. The football games are usually the big social events of the week here...everyone comes out for them...wazungus and locals.

I have been spending the past few days packing, sorting through things, shopping for gifts, and taking pictures. It is so weird to think about going home. I am definitely ready to see family and friends, but not so much ready to switch back to 'American living.' I am going to miss so much about Moshi and the community here.

This won't be the last blog on here...but might be the last one while I am still in TZ!

See ya'll soon!

SUE-vin-EARS

There are some words that I will just never be able to spell... I thought it looked wrong!

I'm so glad to know that people who read my blog actually get an idea of what Moshi is like! Sometimes I do wonder if I'm actually communicating anything helpful or informative!

Today I am trying to get everything sorted to pack. Tonight is my last night in the volunteer house!!! To be honest it is ok with me to be moving out. I really like everyone there, but it is SO crowded and I think it would be nice to have some down time without loads of people around me all the time. Zanzibar is going to be soooo nice...

Coming soon....a letter for those people googling i-to-i or Art in Tanzania! Its gonna be good...get excited.

Time off!!!

Last week was my first week off in a loooooong time. It was really good to have some time to visit other projects, go to the genocide trials in Arusha, and shop for souveigneers. The house has been really different because 26 new people arrived last weekend! I think the chaos in the house might help ease the pain of moving out next week. On Monday I'm heading back to Zanzibar and when I come back to Moshi I'll stay at Claire's for the four days before I leave.

Today I was supposed to go to the Massai village for one night with my friend Zac, but he got sick so our trip has been post-poned. I hope we still get to go...!

Done....

School finished on Friday. It was a kind of sad, low-key day. I miss my kids a lot...

A TON of new people just got here on the weekend. A lot of them seem really nice but it is overwhelming having SO many new ones around. I realized though that I only have about 2 and a half weeks left before I head to Zanzibar again, and when I come back from Zanzibar I only have 2 days before I head home! I was even going through all my clothes and stuff today trying to get rid of things and make room for gifts and souveigneirs.

In the next couple of days I'll be relaxing some, doing some shopping, and visiting some other projects. I'm going to my friend Charlotte's womens group tomorrow and we're going to make batiks! I'm also hoping to head back to Kitaa, the orphanage I was originally placed at when I got here. One of my new roomates is at Kitaa, so we can go together.

Its sad that I'm leaving so soon....

Two days :(

Today is my second to last day at school! Claire is coming with me tomorrow to help out and also take pictures of me with the kids on her super nice camera. Hopefully Dave will come too to help. I'm planning to bring balloons, candy, and little goodie bags for all my kids with crayons, pencils, bracelets, etc and then I'm going to do a cake-walk with the alphabet for them to get their goodie-bags. I hope it works out how I envision it!

My kids have been getting stir-crazy at school this week, I think mostly because they aren't learning new stuff anymore. When they get stir-crazy, they get hit a lot more. I have no idea what to do when the teachers start beating the kids...it is probably one of the worst things I've ever experienced. They are babies...why would you ever hit them? Please pray for the teachers to change their discipline methods.

Last week of school....and I'm campsick

I now only have 4 days left with my babies!!! Friday is gonna be really bad....its so heartbreaking thinking I'll probably never see any of them again :(

We're doing fun artsy projects every day this week. Its hard to do that stuff in a big group unless I want it to take up the whole class-time, but since my kids are brilliant, they don't need to learn anymore so we're just having fun this week!

I have a lot of plans for the next month because I'll be free to travel whenever I want. I'm hoping to go next week to our house-guard, Zach's, Massai village for a few days. It will definitely be an experience. For those of you who don't know much about the Massai culture, if you look at any National Geographic about Africa you will probably see some pictures-they wear very bright red and purple and blue pieces of cloth and a lot of beads-they have the stretched ear-lobes with beaded earrings hanging through them-and the kids faces are often covered with flies. Some of the kids get their faces branded with a horse-shoe-shaped brand so that the flies are attracted to those wounds and not their eyes (flies in the eyes can easily carry diseases that will blind them). They live in family villages in huts made out of cow dung...apparently smells pretty bad. Zach's father has three wives and so there are going to be a ton of kids everywhere...he has a LOT of siblings. The animals (cows and goats) often live inside the houses too. On some safaris people spend a night in the Massai villages and most of them say its impossible to sleep. I guess I'll find out for myself......

I'm also planning to head back to Zanzibar with Claire. YAY!!!! I love it there, and hopefully will explore a little more this time!

This coming Saturday Claire and I are going to be in a wedding! Our friend's landlord's brother is getting married and he wants four wazungu in his wedding procession and we were asked to do it! Before the weddings here there is a procession through town with decorated cars and a brass band in the back of a pickup truck, then you go to the actual wedding, and then to a party afterwards. I'm pretty excited except for the fact that our dresses are orange.....

Time to go to school! I am taking loads of pictures this week and will try and post some of them later!

NO MALARIA!!!!

Just had my second Malaria test since I've been here and I am still parasite free!!! That is exciting. Everyone at the house is going to be mad at me though because they all take medicine and still get it. Muahahaha. Anyways, even though it is not malaria, I have been sick this week and missed school yesterday and today :(. At least I have some time to plan my lessons! I started this week off with shapes, and when I drew them on the board, they already knew them! What are the chances.....anyways, time to think of something new!

My kids are all really smart. School is ending on the 30th of May (so soon!!!) and I'm going to try and do some sort of individual evaluation for each kid, but it is really hard when I'm the only volunteer. I have to find some way to distract the other kids while I do one-on-ones with each one. I think all the 6year olds are definitely prepared for primary school next year, and probably most of the 5 year olds as well. That is really good.

Things at the house are exciting as always. We have 17 new volunteers coming this weekend which could be interesting. It does get old welcoming new people so often...all of us 'old' people are kind of tired of it. I think it will be good to have a bigger group though.

Tonight I am going to my first choir practice! There is a choir in Moshi (mostly wazungu) and they are performing on June 7th, so I'm going to sing with them! I miss G&P choir, maybe this will help ease the pain.

Since I have less than two months left here, I think a lot about going home. It is going to be really, really strange and I have very mixed feelings about leaving. There are some things I am really looking forward to, mostly seeing family and friends again. I'm also pretty excited to get a job; I don't like the feeling of not having income, it scares me. I know I'll really miss the spontaneity of my life here, and meeting lots of new people all the time, and speaking kiswahili with random people, and my little kids at school. Going home will just be really wierd and probably kind of stressful.

Ok, so my mom suggested that I write little things whenever I'm online because I don't have time to write long blogs very often...so anyways, here goes.

I was in Zanzibar this past week and it was amazing. I went with my friend Sam from the volunteer house and his brother Tim, and we met this guy Dave on the ferry who was staying with his friend Adam in his apartment so we got free board while we were there! We stayed in Stone Town and it was so cool. The roads are really twisty and narrow and the buildings are really tall and old. Its so hard to describe, but I think everyone should go there. We ate most nights at the street market. It opens at 7 at night and its just a bunch of booths all down the street selling kabobs of wierd fish and sharks and squid and octupus, and also Zanzibar pizzas which are really wierd, but really good. Don't really know what was in them though. We spent a few days on the beach, went on a spice tour, and just hung out. ITs fun traveling here because you always meet really cool people along the way.

Ok, time running out...try and do this again tomorrow or something!

Well, I am officially a terrible blogger. Its so hard for me to make myself sit down and write something that makes sense on here. Anyways, I'll try for an update....

School is going well still. I've been doing 'body week' this week and last week and its really fun. At the end of most days we do the hokey pokey and I let the kids pick which body parts to do. Their favorites are shoulders (they like to shimmy), stomach, and tongue. Tomorrow I am going to make a giant person-puzzle and give them all a piece and have them put it together. I hope it works, sometimes stuff doesn't go as smoothly as it does in my head!

Two weeks ago a new kid named Amani came to our school, and from the very first day he just cried his eyes out the whole time he was there. It was really hard to teach with him always wailing in the background, and some days the teachers actually had to lock the doors to keep him from running home. I decided I needed to do something about it so one day I just sat and read him a book over and over and over until he stopped crying. Then I let him pass out the pencils to the other kids, which was really funny because he was acting like me and telling them to say thank you when he gave them out. After that he was much calmer, and he hasn't cried at all since then! When I get to school he is always waiting for me in the doorway.

No more time!!!

it's been so long...

...since I've:

-had a long, hot shower (with a shower curtain around the tub!)


-not felt boards under my mattress


-driven a car


-worn nice clothes


-dried and/or straightened my hair


-eaten fast food


-watched AMERICAN football


-written a blog





I apologize for the lack of blogging. Everything here is always so busy, and when I do have down time it is hard for me to think and write creatively. I will give it a go today though.





Last week the kids were on holiday so I didn't have school. I still spent time working at the church and also spent a lot of time being lazy with Claire. Since coming back to school this week, my kids have been kind of wild and hard to teach. Today they were a bit calmer; maybe they will be back to normal by tomorrow.





Today while the kids were writing and drawing, we called them up one at a time to take school pictures. Some of them were terrified, some of them loved the attention, and some of them were just really confused. We're hoping to print and laminate the pictures, make frames for them in class, and then send everyone home with a nice photo for their family. I'm trying to put pictures up on F-book (and here too) but by now I've learned to not really count on it working until I've tried on a few different machines.

Denisi mdogo:

Martha:

Tubia:

Presensia:

Amosi:

YAY!!! Great success...

Those are some of the better ones I got. Will post more later but they took a really long time to upload, so thats it for today!

I've been reviewing with the kids this week, and need to think of something to plan out for next week. I never realized until now how important a fairly detailed lesson plan is...its SO hard to come up with stuff off the top of your head, especially things that are simple enough to be explained to 3-6 year olds who hardly speak any english.



This weekend four of my good friend here are leaving :( We're going out to dinner tonight, and then out to the club tomorrow. I'm going to miss them a lot.



We're still playing a few games of poker a week which is awesome. I love poker. Last night I won my dala-dala fare for today and a few days ago I won lunch. Maybe next week I'll win a safari or something, that would be sweet.

Lost in the bush....

Today's blog is brought to you by: the Little White Truck that Could(almost):

Our trip to Boma on Saturday turned into a much bigger adventure than expected. It was a wonderful day, but reaaaaaally long and a little stressful. We got up really early to leave on Saturday morning, and arrived at Boma around 9:30. Mama Lucy, who runs the orphanage, had asked us to get there early so that we could get an early start. We ended up waiting around for a few hours because the truck that takes the kids places was being repaired. It finally arrived around 12:30, a little white pick-up with colorful handprints all over it and steam seeping out of the bonnet. We piled as many people as possible into the truck; 5 wazungu, 18 Boma kids (some of them close to our ages), Mama Lucy, a random Rasta visitor person, and the driver. We finally left around 1 after squeezing everyone in and starting the car by pushing it forward and backwards over and over. We were told that the springs we were going to were about an hour away, but it took us an hour and a half to get there. The car died at least four times, usually when we went through huge mud puddles, but we were always able to push it somehow and get it running again. It was all worth it when we finally got to the springs. It was a really beautiful place. We played and swam for a long time, and re-loaded into the truck around 4. Once again we couldn't get it started, but this time even pushing it didn't help. Luckily, there was a group of wazungu who were also at the springs, and they were nice enough to help us out. Sophie and I loaded ourselves and 11 Boma kids into the back of one of their cars and they drove us about 15 minutes a way to a little village in the middle of nowhere. We were able to send a tractor from there to go tow the truck and the rest of the kids and volunteers to us. Around 5 they made it back to where we were and luckily the truck decided to start! We somehow made it a little ways in the truck, re-starting it 3 or 4 times, but the last time it stopped, it would not start again. A truck piled 15 feet high with corn stopped and tried to tow us a few times, but the rope kept breaking, and eventually they just kept driving and left us behind. To make a long story short, the people from the orphanage refused to leave the truck but by this time it was dark so we HAD to get back to the main road to catch a bus back to Moshi. The rasta took the 5 of us and we walked about 4k through Massai lands to get to the main road. I have no idea how he knew the way back, especially in the dark. We finally got home around 8, and luckily there was still food out because we hadn't eaten since breakfast. It was exhausting but totally worth it.

Kids piled into the truck:

Sophie and me-can't smile with my teeth anymore :(

Swimming at the springs:

It was sooooooo pretty there!:

On another note.....
I can't believe I'm posting this, but here is my poor, ugly snaggle-tooth:

Just so that doesn't scar you too much, here are some really nice photos from the other night when Claire and I were at a St. Marg's potluck (and I had normal teeth). The sky was BEAUTIFUL all evening.

Adorable child from St. Marg's:

Claire and me:

New pictures are up on facebook too...mostly the same ones though.

Since I've found a computer that works, I'll try and put pictures up on some of my other entries...maybe just the one about Denisi, Precious, etc.

At the volunteer house we made a set of poker chips by flattening bottle caps, and they are awesome. I've played in three TX hold'em tournaments now this weekend and won all three of them (only one for money, unfortunately). I never knew I was good at poker and everyone hates that they are getting beaten by a girl (no other girls here know how to play-thank you Bob, Tim, Ben, and Bart!). Muah-ha-ha!!!

Abby

My tooth and other things

Yesterday I went to a really beautiful waterfall and we got to jump off of a 25 foot cliff and when I hit the water my jaw smacked shut and I chipped off about a quarter of the outside corner of my front right tooth. It didn't hurt when it happened and it still doesn't hurt much, but it does look ugly. I'm hoping to have it at least temporarily fixed on Wednesday. Once again, this computer isn't working for picture uploading, but as soon as I find one that does...!

School has been going really well for the past few weeks. It is always slow work teaching young kids, but I do think I'm seeing progress. This past week we started to teach colors and on Tuesday we dyed their porridge green which they really liked! We also played the game 'red light-green light' which they now love, but luckily they haven't yet figured out that its a race; the casualties will be high when they do- they are all pretty competitive.

This weekend is a 5-day weekend (which is why I wasn't at school yesterday) and has been nice and relaxing so far apart from the tooth drama. Tomorrow I'm hoping to go to Boma orphanage for the day with my friend Sophie. Boma is a very poor orphanage with around 70 kids who live there. Quite a few of them were abandoned because of learning or physical disabilities. The conditions are quite bad and there isn't a lot of supervision of the kids. They don't have many beds and 6-8 kids usually share just one. A lot of the volunteers who aren't assigned to the Boma project still go there some days to help out. While I was in Nairobi, a group from the house went and cleaned and painted all the dormitories, donated new mattresses, and put up mosquito nets on all the beds. Boma was a project that Zak and Hayden helped out with a lot, and so at Hayden's funeral the family asked for donations for Boma rather than flowers. A friend of mine, Aaron, who is from Seattle but living here for a year, is doing a project to help Mama Lucy (the head of the orphanage) get out of debt and become more fiscally responsible, and he is handling all the money from Hayden's friends and family.

Abby

The babies...

The youngest kids in my class (as far as I can tell) are Denisi, Precious, Julius, and Presensia. They are supposedly all 3, but it wouldn't surprise me if they are even younger than that.

Denisi and Precious have been at school the whole time I've been there. Precious is in love with Denisi, and some days he loves her back, but some days he breaks her heart. Young love is so hard. Some of Denisi's hobbies include eating his socks, climbing trees, chasing crickets, and rolling on the floor. Some of Precious's hobbies are wandering around the classroom while we're trying to teach, trying to always sit next to Denisi, being chubby and adorable, and rolling on the floor.

Denisi playing-note the chewed sock and Precious in the background:

Precious:



Denisi spinning on the floor (blurry because of how fast he is moving):

Precious showing her love for Denisi:

Julius and Presensia are both fairly new to the classroom and are still very shy. Julius tries to never smile, but if you make faces at him, he usually can't help it. Presensia is quickly making friends with the older girls but is, I think, still slightly confused about why she is in school. Neither of them has a very long attention span (surprise surprise).

Julius:

Kili Marathon!!!

Sunday was awesome. It was the day of the Kilimanjaro Marathon, half-marathon, and 5k. I ran in the 5k, and it was my first race ever, but definitely not my last! A whole group of i-to-iers ran in Skydive t-shirts for Zak and Hayden which was really cool. My friend Nick ran the half and was the first Mzungu to finish; he was ridiculously fast. Nodd, Chris, and our Massai, Zac, also ran the half. A lot of us ran in the 5k, but we split up quite a bit because everyone had different speeds. I ran with Claire's roomate Chris and we finished in 28 minutes!!! I was really excited because I am a slow runner (10min miles usually) and I haven't run more than 1.5 miles since I've been here (and I haven't run at all since the beginning of February!). Anyways, it was just a really good time, and I can't wait to run more when I get home!

I don't have time right now, but I am going to start blogging about the kids in my classroom, individually. I'll work on that next time though!

Abby

Nilienda Nairobi, rafiki mgonjwa

That is my broken kiswahili explanation of why I was gone for two weeks, "I went to Nairobi, sick friend." I think it got the point across. I went back to school on Wednesday, and it has been SO good to see my kids again. There are also kids that walk with me on segments of my trip to and from school, who I finally got to see again! I was scared they wouldn't wait for me since I'd been gone so long! Its so good to be back in Moshi.

A lot of people have been asking about the way the school is run, what the kids are like, how it is different from schools at home, etc, so here we go....compare and contrast!

In schools at home, there are about 15 kids (in my experience) in a preschool/kindergarten classroom- Here my class has around 25 students

At home kids wear what they want to school- Here, every age of school-child, from the youngest to the oldest, wears a uniform. They look really cute on the young ones, but tend to look much more awkward as the kids get older.

In the preschool where I worked at home, there was a HUGE emphasis on accepting any sort of marking on paper as a positive step towards writing, no matter how accurate the letters were- Here the emphasis is too often placed on writing the letters correctly, rather than understanding the correlation between writing, reading, speech, and the sounds that each letter makes in a word. (this is a big pet peeve of mine if you couldn't tell)

At home kids wear shoes in the classroom- Here they don't. I love teaching bare-footed.

At home if a kid falls on the playground, they bawl, and demand a band-aid- Here, when poor little Denisi knocks out his four front teeth, he is sent to squat by the water basin and rinse his mouth out, while the teachers ask him if he thinks he will still be able to eat ugali for dinner. (He is doing fine now!)

All the little girls at home have bows and ribbons in their hair- Most of the girls here have their heads shaved (just like the boys). I'm glad they wear uniforms because it can be really hard to tell them apart!

At home my preschool classroom was divided into sections for different parts of the day e.g. circle time, snack, playtime, crafts, etc.- Here we have only one space with three benches and a blackboard. Planning is more difficult in such a small space, but since the resources are so limited, much of every activity is already done on the blackboard.

Children at home raise their hands to answer questions- Here the answers are shouted in unison, and when I try to signal that I want someone who knows the answer to raise their hand, everyone raises their hands in imitation of me.

There is so much difference and I think I covered a lot of the main ones, but keep the questions coming if you have any!

Instead of a daladala them today, I just want to write a question that I was asked, VERY seriously, while waiting for the daldala yesterday. "Do you think Tupac is really dead?" I told him yes. I don't think he agreed.

Abby

R.I.P.

I apologize for the long, long gap between blogs, but the past (almost) two weeks has been kind of crazy for me. Its also kind of hard for me to write about this, because it has been really an upsetting experience, but here we go.....

Two of my very good friends here are skydivers named Hayden and Zak. I met them the first day that I was here, and hung out with them practically every day since then. They are both amazing people, very kind, and so much fun to be with. On Wednesday, Feb 13th, they went up in their plane with two other people (Baraka, the pilot, and Sian, a tourist) and the plane died and crashed. Baraka was killed instantly, but Hayden, Zak, and Sian were retrieved from the plane still alive. They were taken to the hospital in the back of a police car because there was not a way to get an ambulance to the scene. Hayden died as they were doing tests at the hospital. Zak and Sian made it. Sian was air-lifted to Nairobi on that Thursday morning, and I went on the medical plane with Zak to Nairobi on Friday afternooon. The hospital in Nairobi is AMAZING and very shortly after arriving there, both were in stable condition. In Nairobi, I stayed with a family that used to go to my church in Moshi, and they were really wonderful to me. It was still lonely though, and really hard to handle seeing Zak and Sian in such bad shape. Zak became concscious on Monday, and was able to nod and shake his head and recognize me as well as recognize names that I mentioned, which was very encouraging. Claire, Adam, and Sinead came up to Nairobi on Tuesday afternoon, and that really helped me out too. Both Zak and Sian are doing very well now. Both have undergone multiple surgeries, and will have long recovery times, but will eventually live normal lives again.

That was a very brief overview of what happened, but it would take wayyyyy too long to write all the details in. Today Emma, a good friend of mine from i-to-i as well as Hayden's girlfriend, had to answer Zak's first questions about what happened to Hayden and Baraka. Please pray that the news won't hinder Zak's recovery, as it has been very hard for him to take. Also pray for all the families and friends involved in this situation. It is so hard to understand why such amazing people have their lives cut short. Everyone at my house has been so amazing and supportive to me througout this and I am so thankful for all of them. While I was in Nairobi there was a beautiful memorial service for Hayden at the airport. All the kids from Boma orphanage (70 of them) came and sang a song (Zak and Hayden always spent time helping out there), Emma and Nodd got to go up in Babu's plane (he's a good friend of our boys), and everyone released helium balloons into the sky at the end. Sometime next week, Emma, Nick, and I will go up in Babu's plane to a picnic spot that he once took Zak and Hayden too for our own smaller memorial.

Sorry that this was depressing. On a happier/funnier note, Maggie gave me the wonderful idea of listing daladala themes on here. I'll try and post one on each entry. Just to explain, the daladalas (see previous entries for a description) all have wierd themes to them with strange slogans.

Seen on a daladala in Nairobi: Baby Exodus
-who knows what it means...pretty creepy...really funny

Abby

Oops

Well, the picture of my whole class appears to be missing, I'm really sorry about that. I was able to see it yesterday so I don't know what happened. I was planning on putting up more pictures now but the internet at this cafe is too slow and there is also no USB in this computer. Polepole right?

The clothes that most of my kids wear are their uniforms. They are mostly green checkered but some of the kids have blue uniforms, and some have no uniforms at all. There are two kids in my class who are very, very poor and the only food they get each day is the school porridge. One of them, Martha, has a mother who is mentally disabled and has no idea where the father is. Three or four of the children are orphans. One of my favorite kids, Patrick, acts up a lot, and the teachers, Flora and Romoy, say it is because his dad is in jail. That was all pretty depressing, sorry. On a happier note, the children all seem very happy when they are at school.

Pictures coming soon (once again).....

Abby

I got the pictures to work!!!!

Waiting in line for us to check their copy books.

This is the kids working on their writing in their copy books. The school is in a church so they don't have desks, they just use the benches.

This is my class at Njoro ^^. This is not the picture where I was dancing behind Emma. Aren't they lovely though?!?!?


I think that posting pictures only works on certain computers. I will spend a long time posting more on Saturday, but here is a small taste!

A day in the life....

I am officially going to be working at Njoro kindergarten for the rest of my stay here! I am so excited! This week has been really, really busy and is kind of how the rest of my time here will be. We leave the volunteer house at 8:30 and walk to Njoro which takes about an hour and a half. The route is really nice and there are little kids all along the way, so we get lots of encouragement and high fives during our walk. When we get to Njoro, the kids are usually starting their writing exercises, and so they bring us their copy books to correct and we give them more material to copy. After a bit its our turn to teach. This week we have been doing a lot of games with animals in them. All of the kids love to act like animals. We've also been teaching them songs like the ABC song, and Old McDonald. Yesterday I taught them how to play 'Duck Duck Goose' but somehow by the end it had turned into 'Duck Duck How-are-you, big kids run in circles while the little ones roll in the grass' but they had fun, so I consider it a success. Before we leave school, the teachers always give us tea (SO good) and a little snack which is nice. I don't know if I would make it home without that!

After school is over, we walk, as fast as we can while dragging 2-5 children on each arm, to the daladala stop to catch it to town. I will try and take a picture of the daladala because I'm not sure that words can really describe it (I will try though). A daladala is cheap public transport in the form of an ancient VW-esque bus. I honestly have no idea how they keep running day after day, and am also now sure that there are no emissions tests here. There are 3 rows of seats, not including the front, and as many people as possible are crammed into each row. The 'conducter' hangs out the window to look for potential passengers, and bangs the side of the bus when we need to stop and pile on more people. I really enjoy riding the daladala every day; it is quite an experience (one that everyone should have)!

When I get to town, I head straight to the church and eat lunch there with the Macha's (the pastor and his family). After we eat I get to work doing whatever it is that is needed that day. My work at the church is pretty varied which is nice. Dinner is at half seven, so I try and make it home around six to shower and relax a bit before I eat. The days here are very long, but also very enjoyable.

Aunt Carol, to answer your question about the kengas, they are about a yard long (I think) and you wrap them around you kind of like a bath towel. I will bring one home for you!

I'm still trying to work out how to put up pictures on this blog. We took a class photo on Tuesday, and it came out really well. Emma took the photo on her really nice camera, and I danced on a bench behind her to get the kids to smile (or laugh, really). I will try and post it ASAP.

Out of time!

Abby

Sometimes people staring at you ALL the time gets old.....

.....but I will never get tired of the kids here! They are so sweet. They just run up to you and grab your hands and walk with you and stare at you and it is so endearing. I can only say so much to them because they don't speak much english and I don't speak much swahili (yet) but we still have fun. I like to dance when we pass shops with music and they like to laugh at my dancing. Pretty great.

Anyways, with all the i-to-i drama about placements, etc, I am not 100% sure that I will be able to continue my work at the church. I am fighting too though, and so is the pastor, David. I should know something about it by tomorrow. I've also asked to be moved to a new placement because all of my Kitaa kids are at school in the afternoon except the two little ones who take a nap. I plan to go back to Kitaa though at least every other weekend to visit and take the kids out places. My new potential placement (which I really really want, but it might not fit my schedule)is at Njoro kindergarten. Two of my friends, Aimee and Emmma, are working there now, but they will both be gone within a fortnight. I went with them this morning and met the teachers and the kids and I LOVED it. I will be able to do my own teaching/lessons for about 45 minutes every day! I know that I will be able to help them out so much which is awesome! The kids are lovely, smart, and hilarious. This placement is about an hour and 20 minutes walk from our house, but on the way home we can catch a Daladala which cuts off about 40 minutes and is very cheap. If I can move my church work to the afternoon then I will definitely stay at Njoro. That should also be sorted out by tomorrow.

I am going to start studying swahili A LOT. I can't wait to be able to talk to everyone here. I love Tanzania.

Times up, more later!

Abby

T.I.A.=This is Africa

TIA is a pretty commonly used acronym around here. Here are some examples of situations in which you would use it:

1. We go out to eat in fairly large groups every thursday night. The average waiting time for our meal is about 2 hours.
2. You have to specially request 'baridi', or cold drinks because everyone likes to drink their soda and beer warm.
3. Today some kids on their way to school walked with me, stared at me while walking, held my hands, and kept reaching up to stroke my hair.
4. Last night at the Falcon I set my phone and drink on the curb for about 30 seconds and when I looked back to get them, only my soda was left.
5. No one here wears deoderant.
6. Today I'm wearing a kenga, a piece of fabric wrapped around my waist and tucked in. I am paranoid that it will fall off while I'm walking down the street.
7. All the women here carry massive loads of fruit on their heads.
8. Mzungu get ripped off a lot.

Yesterdays plans didn't really follow through because there was a massive rainstorm during the night. I ended up just going to my usual church because it was much closer, and didn't take the kids swimming. I think I'll try again next week.

The communication between our in-country coordinators and the volunteers has been very poor. There was a lot of drama this weekend and semi-threatening e-mails were sent to all the volunteers claiming that our staff and their lawyers had been meeting with the government and some of the volunteers might get kicked out of the program and the country b/c they didn't go on safari with the 'art in tanzania' crew. Everyone was pretty upset about the situation (it was all very passive agressive) and tonight we are going to have a volunteer meeting to figure some stuff out and then approach the coordinators about it. I hope we can fix everything up and that things don't get more blown out of proportion.

I'm so glad that a lot of people seem to be reading this!!! Let me know if you have any topic requests!

Abby

Lazy Saturday.....wake up in the...morning?

Marta (and maybe others), I hope you get the title reference of this blog. Mr. Pibb and red vines = CRAZY DELICOUS!

The weekends are much-needed here. During the week days I feel like I am always headed off to a project or to meet people or to run errands. Most nights my friends have to drag me to the Falcon to socialize because I'm so tired. A lot of the volunteers are here for 2-5 weeks so they don't have as many inhibitions about running themselves into the ground because soon enough they'll be back at home recuperating. We do manage to have really nice, relaxing weekends here though. I'm at the internet now, and in a while we're heading to the pool at Keys hotel. The plan is to stay there all afternoon and sleep on a raft in the pool. Its really nice to just lay there and not move or think. One of our Massai guards, Zach, is going to come to the pool at some point so I can teach him how to swim! After the pool I'm heading to Zac and Hayden's for a bit to do some slacklining(!!!) and then I'm going to Claire's for dinner. If I have energy after such a strenuous afternoon, I might go to Glacier, a nightclub/bar with live music, and hang out for a bit....maybe.

Tomorrow I'm going to a new church because one of the volunteers is singing a solo! Someone told the pastor she had a nice voice, and he insisted. Not many of the volunteers here seem to hold religous convictions, but everyone has been going to this church for the experience, and the church has been translating the service for them. I think its been really good and brought up some good discussions.

Tomorrow afternoon I am going to take my kids swimming!!! I'll let you know how it goes if we all survive!

Abby

For the pessimists....

If you thought I would get Malaria within a week, tooooooo bad. You lose.

I have been really really busy lately, and not had much time to go to the internet. On a normal day I get up around 6:30 and go running (well, on a good day), eat breakfast, shower, and am at the church by 8:30. It's about a two-mile walk there. At the church I send a lot of e-mails out, type up the pew sheets, type up meeting minutes, etc. I'm there every morning for 4 hours working and then I get FREE lunch (saving lots of $$) and leave by one to walk to Kitaa, which is an hour away. I stay with my watoto (children) at Kitaa for around 3 hours and then head home. I'm always exhausted at night, I think its because I'm walking so much in the heat. Dinner is at 7:30, then people socialize either at the Falcon Crest (bar out the back door) or on the balcony of the big house. I try and go to bed pretty early, like around 10:30, but that doesn't usually happen.

Last weekend a HUGE new batch of volunteers arrived (2 Americans!!!), about 35 people. Our house is full now and I have 4 new roomates. My original roomate, Rachel, is gone now, and I really miss her. My new roomates are really nice. One of the Irish girls was a camp counselor at a YMCA camp in Maryland which is awesome. We sang camp songs together this morning. Right now I'm really excited to meet all the new people, but I don't know if I'll even bother by the end of my time here if they keep coming in such big waves! Dinner is chaotic (and the first few nights there was not enough food!) but we've gotten into a pattern now so its calmed down.

On Saturday, my friends Emma and Aimee are going to come with me to Kitaa, and we're going to take my kids to the pool! Some of the hotels will let the orphans swim for free, which is really good of them. I told my kids yesterday and they are really excited! Hopefully I can teach them how to swim!

It is really hot here.

RIP Heath Ledger :(

-Abby

A volcano erupted on my friends...

True story. Everyone is OK, but they all have lots of cuts and scrapes and ripped trousers from sliding down as fast as they could possibly go. There were five people from I-to-I on the safari this weekend and on the last night they climbed up a volcano at 2am to be at the top for sunrise. They saw smoke coming out but their guides said that they were good to go. When the volcano erupted everyone was kind of spread out and at different elevations, all very near the top. The guides screamed at them to start running and since they were all spread out, the people who were lower down thought that the others were all dead because they couldn't see them. Vega and Helena, a couple on their honeymoon, were closest to the top, and their legs are really torn up from the slide down. When it erupted the guide they were with said, 'Today, we die'. Not very comforting! There were huge rocks and tons of ash flying past them, and it really is a miracle that everyone was OK in the end. Luckily the lava flowed down the other side of the peak. That mountain is now closed (it had apparently erupted the week before as well!).

Yesterday a big group including myself took a day off from our projects to go to Arusha, a city about an hour from Moshi. We went to hear part of the Rwandan trials that have been going on for a VERY long time now. We got to hear a witness being cross-examined. We couldn't figure out if it was for the prosecution or the defense, but it was interesting to hear nonetheless. He was a French guy who was a general stationed in Rwanda. He seemed to have known a lot of people in high places and also to have tried many times to ameliorate the situation there, but all his plans and ideas kept falling through. We didn't get to see the man who was on trial.

I am going to be working at the church every morning of the week except for Thursday. I will be doing stuff like filing, record keeping, typing, printing, copying, and folding the liturgies, and designing and updating bulletin boards with member interviews and Sunday school work on them. I am really excited to start tomorrow! Thursday's, I think, will be my internet/errands/laundry mornings. This morning I did my laundry for the first time, by hand, and it took quite a while, I think around 3 hours. I won't be letting it build up that much anymore! It was fun today but I can see it getting old pretty fast!

I miss everyone!!!! Much love!

Abby

St. Margaret's Church

I've found a church, which is so exciting! It is called St. Margarets, and it is affiliated with the Anglican church but the service is non-denominational. There were around 40 people (sidenote:I am a really bad estimator) at the service, mostly mzungu, and I felt very at home and comfortable. The service was pretty short, but they have a slightly different kind of service on each Sunday of the month, and this on was the 'Short Family Service' so I think there will be more of a sermon on other weeks. After church I met a LOT of people (I wish I had a better memory for names!) including the pastor David, his wife Elaine, and a guy named John from Iowa who is student teaching at the international school, and some other random people. Everyone was so nice and welcoming! The Pastor and his family invited me over and then gave me a lift to the potluck. In the car on the way I was telling them that I was looking for a morning project that was not on the other side of town, and coincidentally they have been praying for someone who can help in the office doing 'administrative work' for the church! I am going to meet with David tomorrow and try to work out a schedule. I would love to be able to work at the church in the mornings and at the orphanage in the afternoons! It was great to find such a good church community so quickly!

Kitaa Hope Orphanage

Kitaa is about a 25 minute walk from the volunteer houses, and is the only placement on our side of town. It is run by an independently wealthy woman, Mama Esther, and as orphanages go, it is very nice. Each child has their own bed (although I've heard they still like to pile together to sleep), if they are old enough they go to school, and they have a lot of toys available to them (not very nice toys, but toys none the less). I have not seen all of the kids together yet, but I've met 9 of them and I think that is all there are. They are beautiful, energetic, smart, funny, and full of personality. I have only been there for a few hours each day because I was meant to go in the morningtime only, but have now been switched to the afternoon. I will be looking for another project to work with in the mornings, but since Kitaa is so far from the rest of them it might be hard to get from place to place quickly enough. We have played a lot of card games (which I always lose since I don't know the rules), played ball, and just hung out. I am going to start planning some more structured activites (at least for some days) next week. I am also hoping to take them swimming if another volunteer is available to go with me. Some of the hotels will let orphans in for free! At this point I feel comfortable with the kids and I know they like me (they climb all over me all the time!) but I sometimes feel at loose ends because it is so unstructured. And now here is what you've all been waiting for....pictures!!! I am terrible at remembering to take them, so this is a very limited sample, but here they are.

Edit: Ooooook so if anyone knows how to post pictures on blogspot, let me know, that would be great. I apologize for being technologically impaired.

Moshi means smoke

I think the reason that this town is named Moshi is because of the clouds that are around Kilimanjaro for most of the day. I guess its possible that they are referring to the smoke from the rubbish piles being burned, but not very likely.

Moshi is a fairly small town, but also a very busy one. Our volunteer houses are in an area called Soweto, which is about a 20-25 minute walk from the 'downtown' shops, restaurants, and markets. The volunteer projects are scattered throughout different parts of Moshi. My orphanage is about a 20 minute walk from home, while others are walking over an hour to get to theirs. The whole town seems fairly stereo-typical to me. The shops are little one-roomers and when you walk in, everything is behind counters and you point to what you want to look at or purchase. Outside on the sidewalks there are venders sitting on the ground selling shoes, fruits, vegetables, and jewelry. There are also a lot of men with sewing machines on the sidewalks. You can buy fabric, bring it to them, and then pick up your clothing item the next day. Three girls from my house and myself have just had skirts made and I am very excited to wear mine. The fabrics are beautiful. Everything here is very inexpensive. Venders get excited when they see Nzungu walk by and will try to call us over to their booths or stores, and often raise their prices (until we bargain them back down). Deli Chez and The Coffee Shop are two restaurants that we frequent. We have met there around lunchtime every day so far. The menu at Deli Chez has many different options including Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, and American foods. Everything has tasted very good so far. Yesterday I had a toasted Banana and Bacon sandwich, and I recomend it! At the roundabouts in town, lots of businessmen hang around. These are usually boys around my age who will relentlessly advertise whatever junk they are selling, especially if you humor them and chat. They try to sell things at about %400 profit, but are very offended when you let them know that you know it is a rip-off. One of them got very angry with me when I told my friend that it was a rip-off, and accused me of ruining his business. I tried to make it into a joke, so now we are rafiki. It was an interesting experience.

I really do love this town. Everything is pole pole (laid back, basically) and there is not a lot of rush to get anything done at any certain time, which is very different from home. The people are very friendly, and the kids looooove to talk to the nzungu (and I love to talk to them!). Today as I was walking to town, two little boys came up to me and I asked them 'How are you?' and one of them kissed my hand! It was adorable. Today was my first day walking places alone, but I felt very comfortable and safe. I have not encountered or heard of many bad people here.

My friend Hayden (he works for a skydiving company and is from the UK) has Malaria....I hope I'm not next!

The traffic here is insane, the opposite of pole pole. I think that cars change these people's personalities. I might need to change my quiz to 'How long until I am hit by a car' because it may be more likely than malaria!

Kwa Hari, Abby

Hellow everybody arround the world

Like the title? It came up when I put my cursor in the title box and I thought it was fitting. And funny.

To answer my mom's question about my bed, it is very comfortable and has a mosquito net draped around the whole thing. It is kind of like a princess bed.

Claire is with me right now, we have once again run into each other at the internet cafe. I am way to distracted to write now.

Coming soon.......details about Moshi!!! And my project!!!

Volunteer House

Ok, since its hard to know where to start and I'm always running out of time, I'm just going to pick a topic each time and talk about it. Let me know if there's anything you particularly want to hear about (other than the obvious ones like my project)!

There are two i-to-i volunteer houses, a big one and a little one, connected by a windy garden-y thing in the backs of the houses. I am staying in the smaller house and am rooming with an Aussie named Rachel for the time being. She is only here for two more weeks, and new groups of volunteers come in fairly frequently, so my roomates will differ a lot. There are 4 bedrooms in my house, three of which have bathrooms with showers! I would need about 5 showers a day to get rid of all the dust. Jackie, Ceci, and Emmy are the three house cleaners/cooks that I know so far, but there are others around who are also helping out. They cook delicious breakfasts and dinners every day as well as washing the floors every day to clear the dust. Probably the coolest thing at the house is the Massai warriors that guard the gates 24 hrs a day. Zach is my favorite guard; he loves talking to the volunteers and is always happy to see you. Yesterday he became the first Massai with a facebook account! The houses are very clean and much nicer than I had expected. The big house has a beautiful second floor balcony where you can get a perfect view of Kilimanjaro in the mornings and evenings. The balcony is where we have our group meetings, which will happen every other week.

Out back of the house is the Falcon Crest Hotel, which is really just a bar with some nice outdoor seating. It is one of the main spots we hang out at in the evenings. There are so many volunteers here right now that we take up most of the tables. Around 17 new volunteers arrived yesterday and Saturday. The majority of them are from the UK, and so far I am the only American. Everyone is really nice and fun to talk to. I really really love it here!

I did start at my project today, but I am out of time so that will be something to write about in a couple days (I'm sure by then I will have more to say too!).

-Abby

Rushed...once again!

I'm back in an internet cafe with less than 5 minutes left again. I have been doing so much in the past couple days! Yesterday while I was out with Rachel we went around 'downtown' (I have no idea if thats what they call it) and did a little shopping and I tried to familiarize myself with the area. It is very stereotypical-looking to me; all the shops are tiny, the streets are crowded with people, men sew with foot-powered sewing machines on the sidewalks, and the cars will run you over if you don't move fast enough. I love it. The children are adorable. They look at you and point and say 'Nzungu!' or sometimes 'Good Morning' regardless of the time of day.

AHHH no time left!!! More later!

I AM IN TANZANIA

Yes, I am in Tanzania, but I only have 6:39 remaining on my computer time, so this will be brief.

After around 24 hours of flying and airports, Claire and I made it safely to JRO airport where we split up and went to our respective volunteer houses. The flights went smoothly besides having to buy a new ticket in Nairobi because they claimed we didn't have one. But I am safely here now. I am in an internet cafe with a girl from Australia named Rachel who I am sharing a room with. She has been very helpful in giving me tips and answering all of my questions. We have been out shopping today and I am trying to get a phone in order so that I can contact Claire and other volunteers around Moshi. Sorry that this is so short, I will write much more later!