Bad Day :(

Today wasn’t a great day.

Something that I haven’t loved about CCS is that they aren’t always incredibly organized when it comes to placements.  Watoto Rau, my nursery school, is on break for a week.  Living told Julia and I that we would go to an orphanage during this week. 

Today I was not brought to an orphanage.  Julia and I were taken to a juvenile detention center.  We walked through a gate into a large yard that was surrounded by a barbed wire fence.  My eyes were immediately drawn to these horrifying painted murals on the wall of the solitary building that stood in the center of the yard.  The paintings depicted police handcuffing youth and a shirtless kid being beaten with a switch.  Then, quite randomly, the last mural was of boys and girls playing basketball.  Swahili was written above the paintings, but I can only imagine the translation.

The facility was pretty much a holding center for youth who were in trouble with the law who are waiting to be seen in court.  There was one 10 year old girl and 16 boys ages 10 to 17.  After being shown the depressing dormitory style rooms we were led into a room where the kids were already waiting in small wooden desks facing a chalkboard.   They were instructed to greet us “Good Morning Teacher”.  “Wait, did they just say teacher?” I asked to Deo (the placement director for CCS).  “Yes, this is your class.”  I was honestly really pissed.  Why didn’t he tell us that we would be teaching? Deo left and the rest of the day was full of awkward pauses and miscommunications. Grr.  

Since we had ages 10 to 17 we started out with a free writing session.  Basically we just gave them 10 minutes to write whatever they knew in English.  As it turns out if you were to place them on a spectrum one end would be illiterate and the other would be From 3 English; thus, we started with the good ol’ alphabet.  It was miserable.

After writing letters on the board and a few exercises using numbers 1 through 10 we took a break.  This gave us a chance to ask the juvie center’s director, Wolfgang, a few questions.  We wanted to know what kind of criminal activity qualified a minor for placement in the center.  He replied casually that most are here due to theft, but there are a few rapers (a.k.a rapists).  Grrrreeeeeeaaaaaaat.  One of the weirdest parts about this whole place is that it wasn’t a locked down facility.  Although there was barbed wire around the fence the gate was left open and there weren’t any guards.  I mean, honestly, the kids weren’t aggressive, and I didn’t feel unsafe or anything, but the whole experience was frustrating, unsatisfying, and unproductive.  Although Ebra (our driver) wasn’t coming to pick us up until noon, Julia and I walked back to the home base around 10:45. 

As soon as I got back I went and talked to Moses (program director) about being at a different placement and he was completely fine with it.  He also assured me that I would get the opportunity to go to hospitals and health facilities and observe and assist the staff there soon.  I’m clutching to that grain of hope right now because this feeling of helplessness in a place of so much disparity is weighing on me. Ugh.

Sorry for the downer blog post friends. Ups and downs are the bread and butter of an Africa volunteer.

And yes, I’m looking for sympathy and haikus so have at it!

. 

Exciting Events!

Something interesting happened this weekend!  I’ll start from the beginning.

Friday night a group of  mzungus decided to go out to dinner. We went out to the only Chinese restaurant in Moshi called “Panda Chinese” or something like that.  We were a little nervous to try our luck on Chinese food in Africa, but were comforted when we saw an Asian women writing the evenings specials on a chalkboard as we walked in.  Although the power went out for about a half hour and we didn’t get our food for an hour and half it wasn’t bad!  Not great, but not bad.  The spring rolls were amazing and only cost 800 schillings (60 Cents)!  Overall, a successful food adventure. 

We came back to the home base, but it was only 8 o’clock on a Friday night so we made the hop, skip, and a jump across the dirt road over to the Mzungu Bar.  The Mzungu bar is right next to CCS and I’m sure we account for 90% of their business (therefore justifying the name).  Really, it’s just a tent pitched over a few plastic chairs in someone’s backyard, but it’s nice to go and get a coke or a beer and relax with your fellow volunteers when you don’t feel like venturing into town. Once we had all gotten comfortable, one of the girls suggested we play a game that works well in groups that are just getting to know each other.  Basically, someone comes up with a statement such as “Most likely to be attacked by a lion while in Tanzania” or “Most likely to get arrested while we’re in Africa”.  You get a few seconds to think about it and then the person who made the statement does a count down, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1”.  At the count of 1 everyone has to point to the person they think that statement describes best!  It was a blast and it was a fun way to get to see what kind of impression people have of you.  Of course, you have to take the game light heartedly and I wouldn’t suggest playing if you don’t have a good sense of humor. 

We were about a group of 12 girls and no doubt with all the pointing and laughing drew a little bit of attention to ourselves.  One Tanzanian man asked if he could join and we pushed our plastic chairs together to make room for him around the makeshift tree stump tables.  Throughout the game we learned his details.  His name is Ben, he’s a doctor, he’s done research in Toronto, and he is currently working on a medical research project in Tanzania.  Sarah, a Toronto native who studies Global Health was sitting next to Dr. Ben through most of the game and they must have chatted about their studies for awhile.

 The next morning as well sat drinking our coffee in our pajamas in the common area someone yelled for Sarah saying someone was looking for her at the gate.  She knew it was Dr. Ben and insisted that I came with her because I was studying health too.  I was a little hesitant considering I was in pink flora pj shorts, but she talked me into it!  As it turns out Dr. Ben was looking for research assistants for his current project!  He works in the pediatric department of a hospital in town here and is doing neonatal research in relation to HIV/AIDS!  He said he could train us and we would collect data from urban and rural communities using surveys, and interviews with tape recorders, etc.  This is honestly the most exciting thing that has happened since I’ve been here!  He told us we have to write letters of intention to the head of the peds department and the head of the hospital, but he thinks it should work fine! 

As amazing as this all sounds, Sarah and I are being cautious.  How can you not be skeptical when you meet a “doctor” in an outdoor, backyard bar?  We want to make sure that he is legitimately who he says he is.  We went to an internet café to look up the hospital he works for and they do have research department involved with pediatrics. Dr. Ben said he would stop by on Monday to talk to our Program Director (Moses).  This is honestly so exciting!  I can’t imagine how incredibly it would be to be apart of research on HIV/AIDS in Tanzania!  I’ll keep you all updated!

Silly Mzungu

Mzungu is a Swahili word all of the volunteers here are becoming more and more familiar with everyday.  People shout it as we pass, our students call us it, and numerous restaurants and bars use it in their title.  A mzungu is a white person.  The more appropriate translation is actually “foreigner”; however, I’ve also heard it translated as “one who is perfect” and according to my Tanzanian cultural guide book, literally translated, mzungu means “one who walks in circles”.

Although mzungu is mostly thought of as foreigner, it’s a term that’s almost strictly reserved for westerners.  I am definitely a mzungu.  I get lost, I can’t speak Swahili, I NEED sunscreen, I love to wear shorts that show my knees, and I can’t understand why a diet coke is so hard to find!

 At first I thought it was kind of derogatory, but I hear it so often that I’ve abandoned any ideas of being irritated with it.  In fact, the volunteers around here have really adopted the term and we now throw it around quite loosely.  A common phrase you can hear around the home base goes, “how would I know, I’m just a silly mzungu!”  Or when anyone does or says something pretty American or first world you might get a reply of “you’re such a mzungu.”  Making it into a joke has somehow made everyone much more comfortable with the idea that we are all obviously, and inescapably mzungus for the next few weeks.   

The other day we went on a field trip to a few different places.  We stopped at a Boabo tree, which is the biggest tree in Africa and can have a diameter as large as 49 ft!  It was raining so we all stayed in the vans to listen to the cultural and historical significance of the tree, a speech delivered by our driver.  As we sat in the 13 passenger van on this side road by a huge tree we must have drawn some attention to ourselves because suddenly the face of a local Tanzanian woman was pressed up against the wet foggy window.  She peered in at us and we watched as her mouth formed the word “mzungu” in a whisper.  Let me tell you, I felt like a mzungu in a zoo!  Soon we peaked the interest of a few more locals and we had several pairs of eyes quite focused on the mzungu display inside the vans.  Other than the diameter, I honestly can’t tell you anything else about the Boabo tree because I couldn’t stop nervously laughing!  Ooohhh, memories! 

Today I took my camera to Watoto Rau.  I would hold the camera up and get myself and the kids in the picture.  They love seeing themselves in the pictures so you always have to turn the camera around to show them.  My students, Majeliwa in particular, would laugh and say “mzungu” when I showed him the pictures of us! As if I didn’t realize how incredibly white I am in the sunlight next to a bunch of Tanzanian children without someone pointing it out!  Like I said, you just have to get over it.  I’m a mzungu and there’s no getting around it. 

 This is Yokshan (right next to me) and Zena (and I think Imakalata in the backgroud).  Total mzungu.

 

Brayson and I (and I think Sharon on the side). You can see the brick building which is our school house behind me. 

Mosquitoes SUCK....And So Does Malaria

Sad news.  One of the volunteers came down with Malaria :( She is a 24 year old form Canada.  It’s quite a bummer because she’s only here for 3 weeks and malaria really wears you down.  It’s frightening because she was talking all of the necessary precautions and she still got sick.

Everyone here is on malaria medication.  Some you must take daily and some are only weekly, but both have an array of side affects.  Hoping to avoid nausea and sun sensitivity (for obvious reasons) I chose to take the once weekly medication.  The only unfortunate side affect of this medication (at least for me) has been the intense, vivid, and mostly unpleasant dreams.  Sometimes they aren’t necessarily scary or horrible, but they’re never good.

 For example, last night I had a dream that Grand Forks was being invaded by vampire zombies.  I got on an evacuation plane and it was attacked and had to land on I94 (because we were headed to the cities).  Somehow I ended up in the basement of a bakery with other survivors and we had to fight off zombies with bread knives.  The worst part was that most of the zombie vampires were people from my real life!  Eventually I was convinced by my zombie friends that if I let them bite me and turn me into a vampire they wouldn’t eat me.  As it turns out, I was immune to becoming a vampire.  I somehow escaped and joined a gypsy camp of survivors who lived in RVs. Honestly, the dream goes on and on, but I’m sure that I’ve weirded you all out enough and that you get the idea. Imagine having these types of dreams like every other night. It’s really not fun.

Even though I hate these vivid horror-filled monster dreams, it’s a side affect I’m willing so suffer to avoid malaria.  I also consistently roll about 2 layers deep in 30% deet mosquito spray and sleep with a net over my bed.  The mosquito spray sucks.  It really does.  I can always smell it and seems to aid the dirt in clinging to my skin even more efficiently.  However, I kind of like sleeping with the mosquito nets.  It’s really cozy.  Not only is it keeping the mosquitoes away, but I know that there are no lizards or spiders crawling over me as I sleep!   The depressing bit about all this is, that I still have gotten plenty of bites.  Not a horrible amount all at once, but spread out over the last few weeks they’ve added up.  

Not much I can do about it, but keep sending me good vibes people!  Comments please! I miss everyone!

Safari Summary

Hey everyone! Just got back from Safari so I thought I’d fill you in!

Safari was amazing! 

After placement and lunch on Friday, 16 of the volunteers were picked up in a convoy of Toyota Land Cruisers and off we went!  We stopped in Arusha (the big city about an hour away from Moshi) to pick up some snacks from a grocery store that somewhat resembled an American style grocery store.  They amazingly had Pringles and Cadburys!   

We got going again.  Our next stop was an hour or so down the only paved road for miles.  As we went along our guide suddenly pulled over and said “look to your right”.  I would have never noticed that 20 feet away from the road were 3 elephants just snacking on some trees!  We weren’t even in a national park or anything yet! I’m telling you, Africa is wild!

At around 6pm we veered off the paved road onto a dirt road in a small town.  A little while later we turned off the dirt road onto a (for lack of a better explanation) dusty trail toward a Maasai village.  The Maasai are just one of the tribes that live in Tanzania.  They are known for being brave warriors and the Maasai men used to have to hunt and slay a lion to enter into manhood.   The village contained about 12 huts surrounded by a fence made of thorny tree branches.  When we first arrived only the women and children were around because the men were out herding cattle.  When they returned, one of the Maasai tribesmen showed us the inside of his hut.  Honestly, it was horrible. These people live so so primitively! I understand that it’s all that they’ve every known and they’re perfectly happy, but it’s still hard to imagine people live like that. 

The hut itself was made using a frame of sticks covered in a mixture of soil, water, and dung.  Later on, I was talking to some of the girls about the huts and they were talking about all the cockroaches on the walls and ceiling…my skin was instantly crawling!  Honestly, had I known that I was walking into a den of cockroaches, well, I mean I wouldn’t have even gone in!  I also learned that the Maasai drink a mixture of cows blood and milk…sick.  In fact, the large majority of their diet is milk, meat, and blood. 

The kids in the village loved to have their picture taken!  That was the only English word they knew – “Pictah Pictah!”  After you took their picture they would run towards you and grab your arms in order to see themselves on your display screen.  I will definitely have to post some pictures of them!

We finally arrived at our camp site and were pleased to find out how nice it was!  Budget camping wasn’t roughing it at all!  It was 2 people to a tent and there were actually beds in the tents! Not even cots, BEDS!  On top of that, we had running water, showers, and there was electricity in the picnic area.  We had an awesome dinner followed by a bonfire and boxed wine (yes, oddly enough, even Africa has boxed wine)!  Honestly, it felt more like a weekend at Maple Lake than a safari campsite in Tanzania!

We woke up bright and early the next morning, ate breakfast and jumped in the Land Cruisers.  I had just turned my iPod to “The Circle of Life” when we crossed into the Ngoragora Crater National Park and immediately to our right was a whole fleet of baboons!  The rest of the day only got better!  We were 200 meters down in this crater surrounded by steep walls watching nature with binoculars!  Some of the time the animals got so close to the car I could probably touch them…with a longish stick.  We saw zebras, warthogs, flamingos, cranes, wildebeests, buffalos, giraffes, hippos, hyenas, ostriches, gazelles, a black rhino, an elephant, some other monkeys, lions, and a cheetah!  It was an amazing day and just like The Lion King!

The next morning we drove to the Terangeri National Park for some more safari!  Mostly, we just saw tons and tons of elephants!  I saw baby elephants, mama elephants, teenage elephants, and so on.  We also saw zebra, gazelle, ostrich, and more monkeys.  The only thing I didn’t see was a leopard, but I think I’ll live!  On the way back to Moshi we stopped once again in Arusha and had the opportunity to take a camel ride!  Naturally, I took that opportunity!  What I learned is that camels are sort of huge-ish and not that friendly. 

After the camel ride we headed for the home base.  The real cherry on top of the whole weekend was the view of Mt. Kilimanjaro on the way back!  Since I’ve been in Moshi there has been too much cloud coverage to see the peak and this was my first real sight of it!  It was honestly a perfect weekend, but I was exhausted!  I think I went to bed at 9:30, maybe for the first time since I was in elementary school. 

In conclusion, as requested by an anonymous commenter, here is a haiku about safaris:

Hippopatamus

Why are you so elusive?

 Binoculars please!

Watoto Rau

According to an email I received a few days before I left the states I would be working at a nursery school called “Watoto Rau” which translates into “Rau Kids”. Rau is a village right beside Moshi.

Yesterday we had a meeting with our “mentors” or the staff we will be working with at our placements. My meeting was with Kileo and Living. Kileo is a 23 year old Rau native who now goes to school in Leeds during the year and comes back to Tanzania in the summer. Living is also a Rau Native and wants to attend a college for computer technology within Moshi. Although they are so young, Kileo and Living are the founders of Rau Kids. Since Kileo is leaving for Leeds on Thursday, it will just be Living, Julia (an 18 year old volunteer from Kansas), and I for the rest of placement. Living is the only teacher at the school even though he is only 21 and isn’t a professional. It is very much a grass-roots kind of organization. I was informed that the kids were ages 3 to 6 mostly and that they wear uniforms. 32 kids are enrolled in the nursery school although attendance is variable. The building they use was someone’s house, but he lets them use it because he doesn’t live there anymore.

Today was the first day we actually went to Watoto Rau. The Cross-Cultural Solutions (CCS) van pulled up in front of a cement rectangle with a tin roof that was about equivalent in size to my bedroom back home. Julia turned to me and whispered “Where is it?” I pointed in the direction of the gray brick in front of us. There were a few kids in the front playing soccer in the dirt along side of a smoldering fire burning debris and leaves just a few yards away.

Living was outside so we went to greet him and see our new classroom. There is no bathroom, electricity, or running water. I’m definitely prepared to hold it until I’m back at the home base. Our light source is the sun, which has a hard time shining through the one small window garnished with metal bars that was carved out of the cement. I guess I’m just glad it’s not the rainy season. The letters of the alphabet have been drawn on individual sheets of paper and hung up around the room. The A is falling off the wall and the D and Z are missing. There is some form of chalkboard in the front of the room that just looks like black paint on the wall, but it works. To put it simply (if you haven’t got the picture already) it’s a bleak classroom for anyone, especially 3 to 6 year olds

Class is supposed to start at 9, but very few kids have arrived so we just let the ones who have play outside. Its 9:30 and we finally decide to start with about 12 kids. The lesson today is numbers. We count from 1 to 10 in English and Swahili using a picture book. While the kids are learning in English, I am right along side them trying to pick up Swahili. The language barrier makes things much tougher than I had anticipated. The kids obviously don’t care because they are just excited to receive attention, but I can’t stand not being able to talk to them.

I think Watoto Rau is going to be a challenge. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes!

First Few Days

I AM HERE!

The last two days have been orientation and seriously packed full of overwhelming culture-shock. In other words, there have been lots of up and downs!

The flights went smoothly, although they took forevvvveeeeeerrrr. I had a 3 hour layover in Addis Ababa and it sucked. On my way back I have a 6 hour layover…from 8pm til 2am! That is a ridiculously long time to spend in an airport in any case, and much more ridiculous when that airport is in Ethiopia. I’m nervous to be there at night that long by myself, but whats done is done I suppose. Hakuna Matata as they say in Tanzania (yes, they really say that!!)

The first night here we went out to a bar…wow, wasn’t expecting that at all. I knew there was a large Muslim population here so I assumed that I would be on a 9 week cleanse…as it turns out, that will not be the case. Moshi even has their own brew of beer called “Kilimanjaro” and banana wine as well!

The first place we went was called Glacier Bar. It was an outdoor bar covered by a roof of palm leaves (or at least that’s what it looked like) with a dance floor surging with at least 100 or so people. Age doesn’t seem to be much of a factor in the night life of Tanzania. I saw a 1 year old sitting at a bar stool and every other age group on up from there. What was interesting was that not many people were drinking. They were all just there to dance. Tanzanian’s love to dance and they’re good too! They call dancing “shakie shakie”! I was surprised at the mix of music. That night I heard everything from local Tanzanian music to Lady Gaga’s “poker face”. They even played Eminem! Proving that even white rappers can make it in Africa! How is it possible that American pop culture has managed to percolate its way through rural Africa and yet most houses don’t have electricity?

While at Glacier Bar I met a girl from the UK. She was easy to pick out seeing as she was the only other “muzungo” (or white person) in the bar. She had just finished climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and was staying in a hostel in Moshi. I couldn’t believe she was doing all this traveling by herself! She was from Edinburgh, Scotland, which I’ve actually visited a handful of times. Between that and our combined travels we had plenty to talk about! By the end of the night we knew quite a lot about each other and made sure she added me to her iPhone telling her that anytime she travels to the states she has a place to stay in Minnesota!

We went to tour a village called Rau on Monday. We got to see the inside of some women’s homes and stopped at a few other places in the village. At one destination we were offered homemade beer out of a giant plastic cup. Being the good sport I am I did take a sip. My mouth was immediately invaded by a bitter, pungent, yeasty substance that looked like pond water and left something to be desired in the way of texture. As I picked grit out of my teeth I began to wonder where exactly it was brewed… It’s been 24 hours and I haven’t gotten sick yet so I’m considering the experience a victory!

Swahili is the national language of Tanzania. As it turns out my limited vocabulary all stems from the classic Disney film, “The Lion King”. Here is a short lesson of words that you already probably know in Swahili, but probably didn’t know what they meant:
Simba – Lion
Pumbaa – Pig
Rafiki – Friend
Asante Sana (from the nonsense song Rifiki sings) – thank you very much
I was sad to find out that Mufasa, Zazu, and Nala don’t actually mean anything.

Speaking of simbas and pumbaas, I’m going on a Safari this weekend! I along with 16 other volunteers are signed up for this weekend excursion with a company called Prestige (which continually reminds me of the movie Stepbrothers)! We leave on Friday after our placements and head for Ngorongoro Crater. Since the large majority of the group are college students with limited funds we are signed up for budget camping! This means I will be staying on a cot in a screened in hut/tent thing on the edge of a crater just outside the boarder of the Serengeti full of lions, elephants, hyenas, rhinos, leopards, and probably other things that I don’t want to know about. For the past few days volunteers have been sharing stories they’ve heard about people being eating by wild animals because they left food in their tents, or went outside after nightfall. I don’t think I’ll be getting much sleep on Safari, but hakuna matata!

I'll post more soon! Hopefully with pictures!

Pre-Africa Thoughts

Hello Everyone!

Most of you who will be reading this already know who I am. For those of you that don’t, my name is Abby and I’m a senior at the University of Minnesota Duluth. I am majoring in Health Education with a community concentration.

This is a blog about my experiences as I intern in Tanzania. In order to fulfill my degree requirements I must complete an internship for credits. I knew I wouldn’t be happy sitting behind a desk somewhere in Duluth, so this led me to an organization called Cross-Cultural Solutions. They are a non-profit organization with no political or religious affiliations that run volunteer placements all over the world.

I was motivated to intern abroad because I just really wanted evidence to put on my resume that proves I’ve actually done something! On a professional level, I expect to gain valuable lessons in cultural competency, being flexible and open, and working in an environment with limited resources. On a personal level, I expect to gain an experience that will set the tone for my future life endeavors.  I hope to gain reassurance that non-profit work abroad is truly where my interests lie.
   

Tanzania is on the south eastern coast of Africa, right below Kenya.  I will be stationed in Moshi, which is right next to the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa!  I will be staying at the home base, just 2 kilometers out of town.

                                                                                           

My placement is with a children’s center for ages 3 to 6.  Honestly, at this point in time, I hardly know much more than that, but there will be plenty to come!

I hope to fill this blog with not only my experiences as an intern, but also the whole cultural experience that comes along with living in Africa for 3 months! I look forward to becoming familiar with the land, people, food, dress, language, values, and traditions and passing them on!
 

I’ll try to post on my blog as regularly as possible, but as of right now I don’t exactly know how often or easy internet use will be.  I hope I can keep you all up to date with my happenings!  Please feel free to leave me comments! Thanks for reading!