Well, I've safely made it back to the United States. It was an exhausting, stressful and long journey to get here, including a 24 hour unplanned layover in Nairobi and a 20 hour layover in London - all because our first flight from Zanzibar to Nairobi was delayed four hours because the air conditioner in the cabin wasn't working in our plane. The 24 hour layover in Nairobi felt like it lasted for days, mainly because we spent the whole of it in front of the Transfer Services desk or in the Transfer restaurant trying to rearrange our flights and our missed connecting flights. The feeling when we finally landed in London and then LA was euphoric.
Being back. There are so many different emotions that being home evokes.
Of course, happiness. Three months is the longest I've been away from home, and the challenges we faced in Marurani made the second half of the program feel even longer. Being able to walk around outside and blend into the crowd without people yelling mzungu! or byeeee! at me every five seconds, not having to worry about ordering salads in restaurants, no more starch in my diet!, the freedom to sleep without the constriction of a mosquito net and not having to battle the frogs and cockroaches for my showers and bathroom runs is a wonderful feeling. The comforts and conveniences of home are something I'll never ever take for granted. Plus, it's nice to slide into the warm comfortable relationships of my family and friends again.
Disbelief that the time has gone by so quickly. My "adventures in Africa" are over and now I get to return to my life, return to vet school interviews and Winter Quarter at UC Davis and a real job. Living in another culture and seeing a completely different way of life was an experience. Walking around a supermarket or a shopping mall stands in sharp contrast to walking down a long dirt road in the village, or even walking through the streets in Arusha. I wouldn't say I am a completely different person, three months wasn't enough time to do that, I'm still myself overall... but I would say that I learned a lot in that time - the country, the people I met, the communities we worked in - definitely left an indelible mark on me. Without an iPod, endless hours on a computer or even magazines to entertain me, I spent a lot of time thinking about the bigger pictures in life.
The last two points, I could say no better than Devon, another SIC volunteer who worked in my second village Marurani with me, has said himself below.
REGRET is wishing that I could have done more, knowing that I could have, knowing that I didn't.
PRIDE is knowing that we did make a difference, testing over 700 people, teaching almost 8,000. 700 people who know their status, 8,000 who can protect themselves from the world's deadliest virus.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone.
I wish you the best in everything you do :)
Love,
Stefanie
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Paradise on Earth
Zanzibar is gorgeous. White sands and ethereal out-of-this-world turquoise waters right at the equator. It truly doesn't get any better than this. I spent three sun-soaked days on the beach, split between the North and East Coasts.
Each coast has a different personality. The East is quiet and serene. You can look all the way down the beach to the right, and to the left, and see not a single person. The waters come and go with the tide, but when it's high tide, it's breathtakingly beautiful, as the ocean fades from bright green to turquoise in the horizon. It's so deserted that when we ordered from the hostel, we would have to order two hours ahead of time from the daftari (notebook) menu. After we placed our order, if for example we ordered fish, they would go out and get the fish from the ocean or the pasta from the local duka. Everything was so fresh and delicious. The North, on the other hand, is marked as the prime tourist destination on the island. It's the more popular choice because you can swim at all times of the day (for some reason, it's not affected by tides), there are more options for excursions (we went fishing on a dhow boat - a shortlived trip that was unsuccessful but nonetheless very fun) and by the fact that it's more crowded, it's a round the clock party. The beach front bar, Cholo's, has theme nights where they blast music into the wee hours of the night - while we were there, they had Rock night, followed by Funk night (complete with jazz flute!). The hammocks and dugout canoes provide ample seating to watch the stars, lean back and listen to the music. I don't think I've ever seen so many Europeans in the same place, save for, maybe, Europe.
But now it's time to go home. We are currently in Stonetown, a town that is completely made of stone buildings (go figure). It has its own charm, and reminds me a lot of the south of Spain, with its narrow alleyways that seem to go on for forever. Tonight we are eating at the Forodhani Gardens - an open air market that has different stands that serve up specialities such as Zanzibar pizza, tuna, shark, red snapper, lobster and sugar cane juice with ginger and lemon. Can't wait! Then tomorrow at 4am we head to the airport and fly out to Nairobi, and catch our connecting flight to London. Then home!! Can't wait!! :)
Each coast has a different personality. The East is quiet and serene. You can look all the way down the beach to the right, and to the left, and see not a single person. The waters come and go with the tide, but when it's high tide, it's breathtakingly beautiful, as the ocean fades from bright green to turquoise in the horizon. It's so deserted that when we ordered from the hostel, we would have to order two hours ahead of time from the daftari (notebook) menu. After we placed our order, if for example we ordered fish, they would go out and get the fish from the ocean or the pasta from the local duka. Everything was so fresh and delicious. The North, on the other hand, is marked as the prime tourist destination on the island. It's the more popular choice because you can swim at all times of the day (for some reason, it's not affected by tides), there are more options for excursions (we went fishing on a dhow boat - a shortlived trip that was unsuccessful but nonetheless very fun) and by the fact that it's more crowded, it's a round the clock party. The beach front bar, Cholo's, has theme nights where they blast music into the wee hours of the night - while we were there, they had Rock night, followed by Funk night (complete with jazz flute!). The hammocks and dugout canoes provide ample seating to watch the stars, lean back and listen to the music. I don't think I've ever seen so many Europeans in the same place, save for, maybe, Europe.
But now it's time to go home. We are currently in Stonetown, a town that is completely made of stone buildings (go figure). It has its own charm, and reminds me a lot of the south of Spain, with its narrow alleyways that seem to go on for forever. Tonight we are eating at the Forodhani Gardens - an open air market that has different stands that serve up specialities such as Zanzibar pizza, tuna, shark, red snapper, lobster and sugar cane juice with ginger and lemon. Can't wait! Then tomorrow at 4am we head to the airport and fly out to Nairobi, and catch our connecting flight to London. Then home!! Can't wait!! :)
Friday, December 14, 2007
It's Over? Already?
Yesterday we moved out of our homestay and loaded into the trucks. Closing dinner happened last night (in which I won the paper plate award of Dirtiest Feet - it's not my fault! I promise I washed them every day! It was the bug spray that I applied - it just seemed to make the dirt stick and make it look worse than it actually was. The complete worst part was when people in the village would actually stop me on the road to gawk at how much dirt my feet had accumulated that day)... But anyway, today, I leave Arusha for Zanzibar.
Saying goodbyes have been harder this time around. Saying goodbye to my homestay family was hard - I was a lot closer to them than I was to my past homestay fam, mostly because since we didn't have 10 hour work days in this village, I spent a lot more time at home - even enough time to introduce them to the wonderfulness that is embodied in guacamole and spaghetti sauce. The spaghetti sauce was an adventure, mostly because I've never made it from scratch before (Yeah Prego). In honor of me cooking, mama killed a chicken (meat in the village tends to be limited to goat and beef, chicken is saved only for special occasions) and helped mama de-feather it and cut it into pieces, then cooked it with onion and tomatoes and surprisingly, it tasted really good. The chicken here is so different from the chicken you pick up in the supermarket. It's completely free range. It's not that they spend every single minute of every single day running - they actually don't move a whole lot at all, but it still seems super tough because the chickens are actually muscular. It makes you realize that the chicken in the supermarket must have a highly inactive lifestyle to be so tender. The last few days in my homestay were wonderful. Baba, in addition to having a TV, has a VCR, so we spent our nights watching classics such as The Bodyguard and Enough. All of the extended family crowded in to the living room to watch - TV and VCRs are definitely luxury items in the village. Luckily, my Baba is very well off, so he can afford all these things, in addition to a Tsh 500,000 phone ($500) and Tsh 7 million tractor ($7,000) - the next item on the list is a laptop. The more cows, goats and chickens you own, the wealthier you are. Baba traded two of his cows for the tractor, and a goat can command up to Tsh 40,000. Additionally, he sells beans and maize, which is also very lucrative - so much so that they are building a new, bigger house (with an INDOOR choo!!) next month.
The saddest goodbyes are to the people who live here. Homestay families, friends I've made in the village, and teaching partners. People who will probably never come to visit the United States. And I probably won't be finding myself in Tanzania again anytime soon, if at all.
It's so difficult to face the possibility that in spite of the fact that I find these people to be amazing individuals, I'll most likely never see them again. You would think in a program that lasts 3 months, you would have ample time to get to know every single person on the program and spend more than enough time with each of them. But it has been quite the opposite. I feel myself scrambling at the last minute to express how much they mean to me, and how wonderful I think they are. All those things that I have thought, but never said. Because really, who knows when I may see them next, if ever? In spite of the fact that I have spent so many weekends in Arusha, doing the same old things to the extent that I am bored out of my mind if I spend more than one day here, I find myself wanting to postpone Zanzibar - by a day or two, just to spend just a little more time with them. You would think with white sand palm tree lined beaches awaiting me, I would be itching to get the heck out of here, but I find myself sad. Sad that I didn't take more time to get to know them and sad that my time is up.
Enough of this depressing talk. This week in the village, we experienced what Tanzanians call the "light rains." The rain against the sheet metal roof was deafening. In order to communicate with one another, we had to shout. When it first begins to rain, it's beautiful. The dust shoots up into the air as the rain drops hit it and you have little puffs of brown shooting upward all around you. The smell is amazing as well. I love the smell of rain. It rained for 3 hours. After 3 hours, our main dirt road had turned into a rushing muddy brown river with rapids. The water was up to thigh level and it moved fast. It was impossible for the next few days to navigate the roads without accidentally stepping into a seemingly firm patch of ground, only to find two seconds later that your foot and sandal were completely submerged in the wet mud. One time, three children took pity on Gaby and I as we were thoroughly coated up to our ankles in mud and helped us to clean off the sandals - after they stopped laughing at us, that is. The heavy rains occur around March. Supposedly it rains for weeks straight during that time. I can't even imagine how that would be - everything would be either puddles or rivers and the roads would be completely unnavigatable. I'm glad we will be missing the rainy season, not just because it makes travel difficult, but also because we would never get any teaching done. In the village, community teaching attendance hinges heavily on leadership. If you have supportive village leaders who advertise the teaching and tell the villagers to go, then you will have a successful teaching with high attendance. But with the rains, the village leaders refuse to go out in the rain. Therefore, teachings will have few to no people coming - even if you make posters, tell people verbally and announce it yourself (this happened the past week - luckily, the teaching was rescheduled for the next day, and with no rain, the community teaching was successfully advertised, as 90 people came).
So in an hour, I leave for Zanzibar!! Internet only exists in Stonetown, but we will be staying (hopefully! provided the high tourism season hasn't booked every single place) in Ningwi, on the North shore for the majority of our stay, so possibly the next time you hear from me I will be back in California!!
Saying goodbyes have been harder this time around. Saying goodbye to my homestay family was hard - I was a lot closer to them than I was to my past homestay fam, mostly because since we didn't have 10 hour work days in this village, I spent a lot more time at home - even enough time to introduce them to the wonderfulness that is embodied in guacamole and spaghetti sauce. The spaghetti sauce was an adventure, mostly because I've never made it from scratch before (Yeah Prego). In honor of me cooking, mama killed a chicken (meat in the village tends to be limited to goat and beef, chicken is saved only for special occasions) and helped mama de-feather it and cut it into pieces, then cooked it with onion and tomatoes and surprisingly, it tasted really good. The chicken here is so different from the chicken you pick up in the supermarket. It's completely free range. It's not that they spend every single minute of every single day running - they actually don't move a whole lot at all, but it still seems super tough because the chickens are actually muscular. It makes you realize that the chicken in the supermarket must have a highly inactive lifestyle to be so tender. The last few days in my homestay were wonderful. Baba, in addition to having a TV, has a VCR, so we spent our nights watching classics such as The Bodyguard and Enough. All of the extended family crowded in to the living room to watch - TV and VCRs are definitely luxury items in the village. Luckily, my Baba is very well off, so he can afford all these things, in addition to a Tsh 500,000 phone ($500) and Tsh 7 million tractor ($7,000) - the next item on the list is a laptop. The more cows, goats and chickens you own, the wealthier you are. Baba traded two of his cows for the tractor, and a goat can command up to Tsh 40,000. Additionally, he sells beans and maize, which is also very lucrative - so much so that they are building a new, bigger house (with an INDOOR choo!!) next month.
The saddest goodbyes are to the people who live here. Homestay families, friends I've made in the village, and teaching partners. People who will probably never come to visit the United States. And I probably won't be finding myself in Tanzania again anytime soon, if at all.
It's so difficult to face the possibility that in spite of the fact that I find these people to be amazing individuals, I'll most likely never see them again. You would think in a program that lasts 3 months, you would have ample time to get to know every single person on the program and spend more than enough time with each of them. But it has been quite the opposite. I feel myself scrambling at the last minute to express how much they mean to me, and how wonderful I think they are. All those things that I have thought, but never said. Because really, who knows when I may see them next, if ever? In spite of the fact that I have spent so many weekends in Arusha, doing the same old things to the extent that I am bored out of my mind if I spend more than one day here, I find myself wanting to postpone Zanzibar - by a day or two, just to spend just a little more time with them. You would think with white sand palm tree lined beaches awaiting me, I would be itching to get the heck out of here, but I find myself sad. Sad that I didn't take more time to get to know them and sad that my time is up.
Enough of this depressing talk. This week in the village, we experienced what Tanzanians call the "light rains." The rain against the sheet metal roof was deafening. In order to communicate with one another, we had to shout. When it first begins to rain, it's beautiful. The dust shoots up into the air as the rain drops hit it and you have little puffs of brown shooting upward all around you. The smell is amazing as well. I love the smell of rain. It rained for 3 hours. After 3 hours, our main dirt road had turned into a rushing muddy brown river with rapids. The water was up to thigh level and it moved fast. It was impossible for the next few days to navigate the roads without accidentally stepping into a seemingly firm patch of ground, only to find two seconds later that your foot and sandal were completely submerged in the wet mud. One time, three children took pity on Gaby and I as we were thoroughly coated up to our ankles in mud and helped us to clean off the sandals - after they stopped laughing at us, that is. The heavy rains occur around March. Supposedly it rains for weeks straight during that time. I can't even imagine how that would be - everything would be either puddles or rivers and the roads would be completely unnavigatable. I'm glad we will be missing the rainy season, not just because it makes travel difficult, but also because we would never get any teaching done. In the village, community teaching attendance hinges heavily on leadership. If you have supportive village leaders who advertise the teaching and tell the villagers to go, then you will have a successful teaching with high attendance. But with the rains, the village leaders refuse to go out in the rain. Therefore, teachings will have few to no people coming - even if you make posters, tell people verbally and announce it yourself (this happened the past week - luckily, the teaching was rescheduled for the next day, and with no rain, the community teaching was successfully advertised, as 90 people came).
So in an hour, I leave for Zanzibar!! Internet only exists in Stonetown, but we will be staying (hopefully! provided the high tourism season hasn't booked every single place) in Ningwi, on the North shore for the majority of our stay, so possibly the next time you hear from me I will be back in California!!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
News from Home
I got accepted into my first vet school!! Michigan State. It's a relief to finally know that I will definitely be going to veterinary school in the fall.
Last week of living in the village coming up. Then off to Zanzibar!
Last week of living in the village coming up. Then off to Zanzibar!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Two Weeks Notice
It's hard to believe, but I am now less than two weeks away from completing the Fall program! And three weeks away from home!! Life in the homestay is beyond good. Since my family here is more wealthy (aka they own a generator for electricity, a television, a VCR (so as to watch Titanic of course!), and a Tsh 500,000 ($500) phone that can connect to the internet from anywhere - my baba is a businessman - he sells corn, beans and peas that are grown on his shamba (farm) in town), I have been eating mangos and pineapple for lunch and dinner and I LOVE it!
Our days are way less busy in Marurani. In Maroroni, we would be gone from our homestay from 7 in the morning till 6 at night - mostly because we had a full teaching sched (three schools) and extra projects on the side. In Marurani, we have a seminar with our primary school (either Marurani Kati or Umoja) from 9-10am everyday and then during the week, we have one subvillage community teaching and one subvillage community testing. So, our days are much more open. We are working to fill them with more community teachings (possibly the 5 churches, or another community group). We also have soccer practice everyday! From 4:30-6:30. Dustin, one of the American volunteers, has decided to coach the local soccer team, which is composed of 20 or so men. They have been improving by leaps and bounds, and are starting to actually play like a team - they actually pass to one another! Last week Wednesday it was evident that the practice had paid off when they whipped a rival village team 10-0. Our team is actually very young (we have several Std. 5 boys on the team - approx 12 yrs old) and very small. The uproar that went up from everyone in the village watching was crazy, and when the game finished, the crowd rushed the field to surround Dustin and shake his hand. All the men love him - they think he's the coolest thing since sliced bread - because now they actually have a formidable soccer team. Gaby and I attended practice last week. I have never felt more self-conscious in my life, because #1 I was a girl, #2 I haven't played soccer since I was in elementary school and #3 I was wearing workout pants, rather than the socially accepted kanga skirt. Luckily, Gaby was there with me. We touched the ball a whopping three times (woo!). But, at least, we got to fully participate in the conditioning. Since we were wazungu (foreigners), for some reason, the Tanzanians assumed that we were leading them in the sprints and so we raced across the field, and Gaby and I finished first! Although we realized later that it was because they were following us, it was an ego boost at the time.
Last week, we had a long weekend (4 days), so we went to Uganda and whitewater rafted the Nile. The bus ride was 18 hours, and super bumpy (especially if you were in the back of the bus, you got some air as we went over the bumps). We hit a giraffe! - the highlight of the bus ride for sure (the giraffe survived) - an attestment to how crazy the drivers here are - our driver kept going, completely unphased. But the bus ride was worth it. It was a two day rafting trip. Complete with the best food I've had since arriving in Africa, the most hardcore guides (several of the Ugandan kayakers that accompanied us - they would save us whenever our raft flipped over and then would kayak us back to the raft - were actually competing in an international kayaking competition a few days after we left), and Class V rapids, we definitely had several moments of extreme exhilaration and near-death but luckily, everyone survived (although some people got pretty intense bacterial infections - we found that screaming while charging into a rapid usually results in a mouthful of Nile water). The actual power of the water is amazing and HUGE, mostly due to the sheer volume of it. I pride myself on being a strong swimmer, but whenever our boat would flip, I would find myself being pushed around by the currents, whirlpools and force of the water. It was a surreal experience, but also made it the best ever, because your heart was pounding as you counted the seconds until you would surface at the top of the water. We had a raft full of girls, but we were determined to be as hardcore as the other boat. Therefore, before every single rapid we would do our "man cheer," which consisted of paddle pumps, chest jumps, head slams and of course, shouting in deep voices, followed by DO OR DIE! as our battle cry. I think all of our voices went hoarse from it all. Definitely, one of the best experiences here.
Here's to another week in the village. Woohoo! :)
Our days are way less busy in Marurani. In Maroroni, we would be gone from our homestay from 7 in the morning till 6 at night - mostly because we had a full teaching sched (three schools) and extra projects on the side. In Marurani, we have a seminar with our primary school (either Marurani Kati or Umoja) from 9-10am everyday and then during the week, we have one subvillage community teaching and one subvillage community testing. So, our days are much more open. We are working to fill them with more community teachings (possibly the 5 churches, or another community group). We also have soccer practice everyday! From 4:30-6:30. Dustin, one of the American volunteers, has decided to coach the local soccer team, which is composed of 20 or so men. They have been improving by leaps and bounds, and are starting to actually play like a team - they actually pass to one another! Last week Wednesday it was evident that the practice had paid off when they whipped a rival village team 10-0. Our team is actually very young (we have several Std. 5 boys on the team - approx 12 yrs old) and very small. The uproar that went up from everyone in the village watching was crazy, and when the game finished, the crowd rushed the field to surround Dustin and shake his hand. All the men love him - they think he's the coolest thing since sliced bread - because now they actually have a formidable soccer team. Gaby and I attended practice last week. I have never felt more self-conscious in my life, because #1 I was a girl, #2 I haven't played soccer since I was in elementary school and #3 I was wearing workout pants, rather than the socially accepted kanga skirt. Luckily, Gaby was there with me. We touched the ball a whopping three times (woo!). But, at least, we got to fully participate in the conditioning. Since we were wazungu (foreigners), for some reason, the Tanzanians assumed that we were leading them in the sprints and so we raced across the field, and Gaby and I finished first! Although we realized later that it was because they were following us, it was an ego boost at the time.
Last week, we had a long weekend (4 days), so we went to Uganda and whitewater rafted the Nile. The bus ride was 18 hours, and super bumpy (especially if you were in the back of the bus, you got some air as we went over the bumps). We hit a giraffe! - the highlight of the bus ride for sure (the giraffe survived) - an attestment to how crazy the drivers here are - our driver kept going, completely unphased. But the bus ride was worth it. It was a two day rafting trip. Complete with the best food I've had since arriving in Africa, the most hardcore guides (several of the Ugandan kayakers that accompanied us - they would save us whenever our raft flipped over and then would kayak us back to the raft - were actually competing in an international kayaking competition a few days after we left), and Class V rapids, we definitely had several moments of extreme exhilaration and near-death but luckily, everyone survived (although some people got pretty intense bacterial infections - we found that screaming while charging into a rapid usually results in a mouthful of Nile water). The actual power of the water is amazing and HUGE, mostly due to the sheer volume of it. I pride myself on being a strong swimmer, but whenever our boat would flip, I would find myself being pushed around by the currents, whirlpools and force of the water. It was a surreal experience, but also made it the best ever, because your heart was pounding as you counted the seconds until you would surface at the top of the water. We had a raft full of girls, but we were determined to be as hardcore as the other boat. Therefore, before every single rapid we would do our "man cheer," which consisted of paddle pumps, chest jumps, head slams and of course, shouting in deep voices, followed by DO OR DIE! as our battle cry. I think all of our voices went hoarse from it all. Definitely, one of the best experiences here.
Here's to another week in the village. Woohoo! :)
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Putting a Face to the Cause
I had the privilege of meeting Efremu last Saturday. With an energy that is not typical of a man who is 55 years old, he spends his days walking sometimes 8 hours or more per day, visiting people who have HIV/AIDS in the villages of the surrounding Arusha area. He doesn't get paid, and he was never "assigned" this task. He simply believes tupo pamoja (we are here together) and because of this, we should help each other.
He talked to us about how the culture in TZ, and in Africa overall, is centered around community. If one person gets sick, they do not suffer alone - rather, the community pulls together to help them, whether it be by donating food or time to care for them. It was like having one big family - everyone gives help, everyone receives help. However, with increased exposure to Western culture, he noticed that more and more people were becoming dissatisfied with what they had and attitudes have shifted from selflessness to selfishness - today the priority is not to lend a helping hand to your neighbor but rather to use surplus time and resources to get material objects and live like an American. Luckily, although Efremu is always surrounded by the American volunteers and staff of SIC, he still sticks strongly to his beliefs.
Although we only visited 2 patients, it took the majority of the day (from 9:30 to 2:30pm). They are sisters, and they live about a 30 minute walk from central Arusha. Efremu says he sees them at least every other day, selling shoes on the street. They are never apart - even their homes are only a 5 minute walk from one another. It is so fortunate that they have each other - in fact, one sister persuaded the other to get tested for HIV, which is so great, because her CD4 count was still high, so she can take the steps to lengthen her quiet period (the period in which someone who is HIV+ can live with no symptoms of illness), which essentially means that she can live a longer and healthier life. For both of them, their husbands ran away when they found out their wives were HIV+, leaving them with their three children. They only have enough income to rent a single room. When we walked inside, the rooms were crammed with all of their personal belongings. They had one bed which they all shared, a few chairs to accommodate guests, and one coffee table. Because there is so little floorspace, their clothes were hanging from one side of the room to the other on wire lines, and their things were stacked all the way up to the ceiling. The walls were mud that has been compressed to fit between wooden planks and the ceiling was stacked sheet metal. Their entryway was composed of potato sacks laid carefully on top of the mud and they cook inside, which causes a thick smoke to fill the room. Aside from one window, there was barely any sunlight - at night they eat dinner by light of a kerosene lamp.
They live extremely simply because they have to - the shoe business is not very profitable - yet they are so openly giving. During our visit they demanded that they share their food with us, even though they have so little. As part of the AIDS patient visits, SIC has set aside part of the budget to give volunteers Tsh 10,000 ($10) to spend on the HIV+ patients we visit to help them in any way we decide. Many families barely have enough to eat, and these families were no different. However, when the families found out we were students, they were so hesitant to tell us what they needed. Efremu would ask them, "Do you have rice? cooking oil? soap?" and they would reply, "No." But they didn't want us to buy them anything. It was so rewarding to walk with them to the duka and give them the things they needed and have them look at you with so much gratitude in their faces when they said "Nashukuru sana" (I am very thankful).
It really put a face to the cause. So much of our work here is Prevention, so it is not often that we do meet people who are HIV+. The experience was so powerful. To know that through education, we can prevent situations similar to these from happening. I spent much of this week thinking about it.
And finally, to end, a very cute/funny text message from my baba. To give some background, I left the house without getting breakfast (because we had teaching and I couldn't wait any longer for it to arrive) and I wasn't going to return until 2:30.
"I felt embarassed as mama Sam told me that u didnt took ur breakfast bcos th bread was late. It is a long run begining frm morning till 230 without it. Plse come back4ur breakfast on 10. Tell them that u got head-ache and u need2come home immidiately 4 pain reflief tablets. -baba Sam"
He talked to us about how the culture in TZ, and in Africa overall, is centered around community. If one person gets sick, they do not suffer alone - rather, the community pulls together to help them, whether it be by donating food or time to care for them. It was like having one big family - everyone gives help, everyone receives help. However, with increased exposure to Western culture, he noticed that more and more people were becoming dissatisfied with what they had and attitudes have shifted from selflessness to selfishness - today the priority is not to lend a helping hand to your neighbor but rather to use surplus time and resources to get material objects and live like an American. Luckily, although Efremu is always surrounded by the American volunteers and staff of SIC, he still sticks strongly to his beliefs.
Although we only visited 2 patients, it took the majority of the day (from 9:30 to 2:30pm). They are sisters, and they live about a 30 minute walk from central Arusha. Efremu says he sees them at least every other day, selling shoes on the street. They are never apart - even their homes are only a 5 minute walk from one another. It is so fortunate that they have each other - in fact, one sister persuaded the other to get tested for HIV, which is so great, because her CD4 count was still high, so she can take the steps to lengthen her quiet period (the period in which someone who is HIV+ can live with no symptoms of illness), which essentially means that she can live a longer and healthier life. For both of them, their husbands ran away when they found out their wives were HIV+, leaving them with their three children. They only have enough income to rent a single room. When we walked inside, the rooms were crammed with all of their personal belongings. They had one bed which they all shared, a few chairs to accommodate guests, and one coffee table. Because there is so little floorspace, their clothes were hanging from one side of the room to the other on wire lines, and their things were stacked all the way up to the ceiling. The walls were mud that has been compressed to fit between wooden planks and the ceiling was stacked sheet metal. Their entryway was composed of potato sacks laid carefully on top of the mud and they cook inside, which causes a thick smoke to fill the room. Aside from one window, there was barely any sunlight - at night they eat dinner by light of a kerosene lamp.
They live extremely simply because they have to - the shoe business is not very profitable - yet they are so openly giving. During our visit they demanded that they share their food with us, even though they have so little. As part of the AIDS patient visits, SIC has set aside part of the budget to give volunteers Tsh 10,000 ($10) to spend on the HIV+ patients we visit to help them in any way we decide. Many families barely have enough to eat, and these families were no different. However, when the families found out we were students, they were so hesitant to tell us what they needed. Efremu would ask them, "Do you have rice? cooking oil? soap?" and they would reply, "No." But they didn't want us to buy them anything. It was so rewarding to walk with them to the duka and give them the things they needed and have them look at you with so much gratitude in their faces when they said "Nashukuru sana" (I am very thankful).
It really put a face to the cause. So much of our work here is Prevention, so it is not often that we do meet people who are HIV+. The experience was so powerful. To know that through education, we can prevent situations similar to these from happening. I spent much of this week thinking about it.
And finally, to end, a very cute/funny text message from my baba. To give some background, I left the house without getting breakfast (because we had teaching and I couldn't wait any longer for it to arrive) and I wasn't going to return until 2:30.
"I felt embarassed as mama Sam told me that u didnt took ur breakfast bcos th bread was late. It is a long run begining frm morning till 230 without it. Plse come back4ur breakfast on 10. Tell them that u got head-ache and u need2come home immidiately 4 pain reflief tablets. -baba Sam"
Friday, November 16, 2007
From Maroroni to Marurani
New village stats:
Group size - 10 (4 Americans, 2 Brits, 4 TZ teaching partners)
Village pop - 2,000
# of subvillages - 3 (Juu, Katikati, Cusini - translation = high, middle, south)
# of schools - 2 (Shule Msingi na Umoja - two primary schools)
# of weeks before "summer" break - 1
time spent walking to school - approx. 1 hr and 15 mins (Umoja is 1 hr away, Msingi is 15 mins away)
# of churches - 4 (Muslim, Baptist, Lutheran (2))
Homestay stats: 2 people (Alex, one of the Brits and I) with one room and one bed. I stay with the diwani of the ward (Ward Elected Counselor) and he is amazing - he speaks really good English and is fascinated by everything American, so he loves to ask us questions and get our opinion on many different topics, including long distance relationships, George Bush, and romantic comedies (he is a fan of Titanic).
So we've spent a week in our new village. It is SO different from Maroroni. Maroroni was spread out - you would walk 10-15 minutes within seeing one house or even one person. However, in Marurani, it's a completely different story. We have one main street, and there are so many houses, one next to another. You walk and greetings abound with every step (since that's how it is here, every time you pass someone, you have to greet them, either with a hi, how are you? or a how have you been since the morning? or how is your work? how are your cows?). It feels so much more like a community when you compare it to the desolate open plains that composed Maroroni. The street is tree-lined (the trees are MANGO TREES!!) and there is just so much more activity. This area gets more rain than Maroroni and it's closer to Arusha, which means that it is comparatively, more wealthy. Many of our homestays have generators for electricity and televisions, as well as a pikipiki (motorbike) in addition to their bicycle. Their increased income is reflected in the food we are served as well. I have never tasted better quality meat (in Tanzania) since arriving here (my family is Masai, so they are very particular about their meat - we get goat meat regularly but it is REALLY good when my mama cooks it) and I get tomato and onion salad at every meal here (as opposed to one a week for a treat). Furthermore, many of the homestays have fruit platter (as opposed to one banana per day).
Since the schools had national exams this week, we actually haven't started teaching, and now only have one week of formal classroom instruction before the schools are let out for summer break. Luckily, we have 1 1/2 hours of class time every day, so we should be able to get through the bulk of the curric, but I hope we can find enough community teaching opportunities to fill the void that classroom teachings usually fill. We have seminars set up with them for two weeks after, as many students are required to come back to work on the school (ie, clean it) during their break time, so hopefully we will still be able to work with many of our kids, as I feel like a week is hardly enough time to get to know them, or to have them get to know us.
There's really not much to say, as this week was mostly spent getting to know our community and walking around (although we did do 3 community teachings for the 4 days that we were there BOOYAH!) More later. Kwa heri!
Group size - 10 (4 Americans, 2 Brits, 4 TZ teaching partners)
Village pop - 2,000
# of subvillages - 3 (Juu, Katikati, Cusini - translation = high, middle, south)
# of schools - 2 (Shule Msingi na Umoja - two primary schools)
# of weeks before "summer" break - 1
time spent walking to school - approx. 1 hr and 15 mins (Umoja is 1 hr away, Msingi is 15 mins away)
# of churches - 4 (Muslim, Baptist, Lutheran (2))
Homestay stats: 2 people (Alex, one of the Brits and I) with one room and one bed. I stay with the diwani of the ward (Ward Elected Counselor) and he is amazing - he speaks really good English and is fascinated by everything American, so he loves to ask us questions and get our opinion on many different topics, including long distance relationships, George Bush, and romantic comedies (he is a fan of Titanic).
So we've spent a week in our new village. It is SO different from Maroroni. Maroroni was spread out - you would walk 10-15 minutes within seeing one house or even one person. However, in Marurani, it's a completely different story. We have one main street, and there are so many houses, one next to another. You walk and greetings abound with every step (since that's how it is here, every time you pass someone, you have to greet them, either with a hi, how are you? or a how have you been since the morning? or how is your work? how are your cows?). It feels so much more like a community when you compare it to the desolate open plains that composed Maroroni. The street is tree-lined (the trees are MANGO TREES!!) and there is just so much more activity. This area gets more rain than Maroroni and it's closer to Arusha, which means that it is comparatively, more wealthy. Many of our homestays have generators for electricity and televisions, as well as a pikipiki (motorbike) in addition to their bicycle. Their increased income is reflected in the food we are served as well. I have never tasted better quality meat (in Tanzania) since arriving here (my family is Masai, so they are very particular about their meat - we get goat meat regularly but it is REALLY good when my mama cooks it) and I get tomato and onion salad at every meal here (as opposed to one a week for a treat). Furthermore, many of the homestays have fruit platter (as opposed to one banana per day).
Since the schools had national exams this week, we actually haven't started teaching, and now only have one week of formal classroom instruction before the schools are let out for summer break. Luckily, we have 1 1/2 hours of class time every day, so we should be able to get through the bulk of the curric, but I hope we can find enough community teaching opportunities to fill the void that classroom teachings usually fill. We have seminars set up with them for two weeks after, as many students are required to come back to work on the school (ie, clean it) during their break time, so hopefully we will still be able to work with many of our kids, as I feel like a week is hardly enough time to get to know them, or to have them get to know us.
There's really not much to say, as this week was mostly spent getting to know our community and walking around (although we did do 3 community teachings for the 4 days that we were there BOOYAH!) More later. Kwa heri!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
MOMBASA
The trek to Mombasa: 15 hour overnight bus (Arusha --> Nairobi --> Mombasa) arriving at 7am Friday morning, 20 min dala dala - basically a van that has many seats drilled into the flooring which serves as a bus (called matatu in Kenyan swahili) to the port, 10 min ferry ride across to Likoni island, 30 min matatu to Tiwi Road, then 15 min taxi ride to Twiga Lodge on Tiwi Beach.
So picture a deserted beach with white sand that's super fine and soft and water that's blue and turquoise with the palm tree leaves rustling in the breeze.
That is Tiwi Beach.
We stayed in cabanas with thatched roofs that had an ocean view. Only about 150 yds from the beach, we had the luck of coming in the tourist offseason and in addition to landing an amazing price (the equivalent of $7/night), we had the entire place (and beach) to ourselves. I traveled with four of my girl friends on the program, and we spent our days lying on the beach, floating in the ocean and eating mangos with lime juice drizzled on them (we bought 5 mangos, one watermelon and 3 limes for $2 on the side of the road as we drove up to the lodge). I was in heaven, mostly because I haven't seen the beach (or even a swimming pool) in six weeks, which is altogether WAY too long for me.
Mombasa the city is a loud, crowded, and bustling atmosphere. It is much more Muslim than Arusha (as we realized when we got our impromptu 4am wakeup call with the sirens going off in the mosques), and much more developed, which makes sense for a port city. Although they all speak Swahili, English is the language of choice, you regularly see brand new cars driving down the streets and $6 will get you 600 Kenyan shillings vs 6,000 TZ shillings.
On Sunday, we had the luck of finding a bus that only took 7 hours vs. 15 (more direct route), and now (Monday morning) I am mentally prepping to move into my new homestay!! Next weekend, I will let you know how movein and my first week in my new village goes. Until then, kwa heri!
So picture a deserted beach with white sand that's super fine and soft and water that's blue and turquoise with the palm tree leaves rustling in the breeze.
That is Tiwi Beach.
We stayed in cabanas with thatched roofs that had an ocean view. Only about 150 yds from the beach, we had the luck of coming in the tourist offseason and in addition to landing an amazing price (the equivalent of $7/night), we had the entire place (and beach) to ourselves. I traveled with four of my girl friends on the program, and we spent our days lying on the beach, floating in the ocean and eating mangos with lime juice drizzled on them (we bought 5 mangos, one watermelon and 3 limes for $2 on the side of the road as we drove up to the lodge). I was in heaven, mostly because I haven't seen the beach (or even a swimming pool) in six weeks, which is altogether WAY too long for me.
Mombasa the city is a loud, crowded, and bustling atmosphere. It is much more Muslim than Arusha (as we realized when we got our impromptu 4am wakeup call with the sirens going off in the mosques), and much more developed, which makes sense for a port city. Although they all speak Swahili, English is the language of choice, you regularly see brand new cars driving down the streets and $6 will get you 600 Kenyan shillings vs 6,000 TZ shillings.
On Sunday, we had the luck of finding a bus that only took 7 hours vs. 15 (more direct route), and now (Monday morning) I am mentally prepping to move into my new homestay!! Next weekend, I will let you know how movein and my first week in my new village goes. Until then, kwa heri!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Last week in the village!!
Things are moving with breathtaking speed.
So our week started out early. VERY early. So like I mentioned earlier, we had met with the church leaders of the village. During that meeting, we planned four church teachings, 2 on each Sunday. So last Sunday, in order to get to church on time (10am) we had to wake up at 5:30 AM, taxi to the Moshi-Nairobi road, catch a Coaster heading out to Moshi and convince them to drop us off at Kikatiti, 45 minutes later arrived in Kik. So Kik is a 2 hour walk from Maroroni. By some stroke of amazing luck, we found a car that happened to be going that way. In exchange for Tsh 8,000, got a ride to Maroroni central, and then walked 1 1/2 hours to the church in Nazaretti and arrived 10am on the dot. It was a very rushed and semi stressful journey, and I can't believe we made it. Unfortunately, our teaching partners did not have the same luck, so it was actually all for naught, because our Swahili skills are not quite up to teaching par. But so it goes. Everything and everyone here seems to run on "Tanzania time." For everyone who knows me at home, it would seem that TZ time would be quite convenient for my schedule, as I always seem to be running late. But it is quite ironic, because I am actually the most punctual in my group right now (HAH everyone from san ro!). The most valuable thing I've learned here has been patience. The acquisition of that state of zen where you just wait and have to say hamna shida (no problem). For example, when our secondary school teachers are being uncooperative and forces us to cram 200 kids into one 40 minute slot because they are behind in their teaching. Or when we plan to leave by 7am to do our 1 hour walk to school to get there on time and mama doesn't bring out the chapati until 7:20. Or having to wait over an hour for a community teaching to start. I am slowly getting better at taking that deep breath and letting it go.
So one of the sustainable programs that SIC runs is called Peer Educators. We educate students to lead programs in their classrooms to ensure that HIV education continues in the schools after we leave. They are also a resource that their peers can use to ask questions, and the eventual hope is that they will stimulate behavior change in their generation. It has been a very frustrating program, because national exams started this week, so many of our Peer Educators cannot get trained, or since many of them have to go home to work on the shamba (farm) or make dinner, have only an hour to give after school (and we are supposed to work with them for 20 hours). Luckily, Upendo (field officer) will be training them after we leave, but I want to do so much with them, because they are the most important thing, since they are sustainable. We were working with them one day and we had them practice public speaking. For many of the girls, even saying their name is a struggle. They would hide their face, or look at the ground, or giggle a lot. I guess actually, it's not too different from when you were first learning how to speak in front of a group. They range in age from 17-28. (28 is the outlier, most of them are 17-20). But we have been working with them all week, and they have taken amazing strides. I am so proud of them. To teach, it is so important that they are able to be knowledgeable and an authority in their class. They will have to speak with confidence. They are the cream of the crop of their school (the two best students from every class), yet they needed so much work to encourage them to speak decisively and voice their opinions in front of their peers. We led them in a discussion over if men are better leaders than women. Immediately, the discussion shifted to leaders in the family. It is interesting because they never even touched on leaders in a different setting other than the family. Their vision of ultimate leadership is leading in the family. Or maybe that is because that is the only example of leadership that they experience in their day to day lives. We went in a circle and talked to them about what they would like most to be when they grew up. There were only four options that got repeated over and over. Soldier, pilot, police woman/man and teacher. I wonder if that is because those are the only options they know. Would there be a greater diversity if more options were readily available to them?
This week we finish teaching, and next week is only four days long (really, 3). We have Makiba's Community Day on Monday and then our Community Day on Wednesday. Tuesday will most likely be used to prep from Wed's community day. Since we are the central village, we are heading it up, and I am SO excited. We will be opening with our primary school kids (read: CUTEST kids EVER) singing the national anthem, TZ, TZ. And then we have our secondary school kids performing! We have two raps and two songs (completely originally made up by the kids) and then a skit!
Today is super busy because we are working on extra projects. We need to draw up information for the dadas group (for them to have new topics to discuss and have the info to bulk out their arguments) and we are also making a FAQ, Mother-specific pamphlet (talking about Mother to Child transmission) and a General Info pamphlet. Expect an update next week talking about how our Community Day went. Wooo!
- Stuff / Evie
(see below for an explanation)
So our week started out early. VERY early. So like I mentioned earlier, we had met with the church leaders of the village. During that meeting, we planned four church teachings, 2 on each Sunday. So last Sunday, in order to get to church on time (10am) we had to wake up at 5:30 AM, taxi to the Moshi-Nairobi road, catch a Coaster heading out to Moshi and convince them to drop us off at Kikatiti, 45 minutes later arrived in Kik. So Kik is a 2 hour walk from Maroroni. By some stroke of amazing luck, we found a car that happened to be going that way. In exchange for Tsh 8,000, got a ride to Maroroni central, and then walked 1 1/2 hours to the church in Nazaretti and arrived 10am on the dot. It was a very rushed and semi stressful journey, and I can't believe we made it. Unfortunately, our teaching partners did not have the same luck, so it was actually all for naught, because our Swahili skills are not quite up to teaching par. But so it goes. Everything and everyone here seems to run on "Tanzania time." For everyone who knows me at home, it would seem that TZ time would be quite convenient for my schedule, as I always seem to be running late. But it is quite ironic, because I am actually the most punctual in my group right now (HAH everyone from san ro!). The most valuable thing I've learned here has been patience. The acquisition of that state of zen where you just wait and have to say hamna shida (no problem). For example, when our secondary school teachers are being uncooperative and forces us to cram 200 kids into one 40 minute slot because they are behind in their teaching. Or when we plan to leave by 7am to do our 1 hour walk to school to get there on time and mama doesn't bring out the chapati until 7:20. Or having to wait over an hour for a community teaching to start. I am slowly getting better at taking that deep breath and letting it go.
So one of the sustainable programs that SIC runs is called Peer Educators. We educate students to lead programs in their classrooms to ensure that HIV education continues in the schools after we leave. They are also a resource that their peers can use to ask questions, and the eventual hope is that they will stimulate behavior change in their generation. It has been a very frustrating program, because national exams started this week, so many of our Peer Educators cannot get trained, or since many of them have to go home to work on the shamba (farm) or make dinner, have only an hour to give after school (and we are supposed to work with them for 20 hours). Luckily, Upendo (field officer) will be training them after we leave, but I want to do so much with them, because they are the most important thing, since they are sustainable. We were working with them one day and we had them practice public speaking. For many of the girls, even saying their name is a struggle. They would hide their face, or look at the ground, or giggle a lot. I guess actually, it's not too different from when you were first learning how to speak in front of a group. They range in age from 17-28. (28 is the outlier, most of them are 17-20). But we have been working with them all week, and they have taken amazing strides. I am so proud of them. To teach, it is so important that they are able to be knowledgeable and an authority in their class. They will have to speak with confidence. They are the cream of the crop of their school (the two best students from every class), yet they needed so much work to encourage them to speak decisively and voice their opinions in front of their peers. We led them in a discussion over if men are better leaders than women. Immediately, the discussion shifted to leaders in the family. It is interesting because they never even touched on leaders in a different setting other than the family. Their vision of ultimate leadership is leading in the family. Or maybe that is because that is the only example of leadership that they experience in their day to day lives. We went in a circle and talked to them about what they would like most to be when they grew up. There were only four options that got repeated over and over. Soldier, pilot, police woman/man and teacher. I wonder if that is because those are the only options they know. Would there be a greater diversity if more options were readily available to them?
This week we finish teaching, and next week is only four days long (really, 3). We have Makiba's Community Day on Monday and then our Community Day on Wednesday. Tuesday will most likely be used to prep from Wed's community day. Since we are the central village, we are heading it up, and I am SO excited. We will be opening with our primary school kids (read: CUTEST kids EVER) singing the national anthem, TZ, TZ. And then we have our secondary school kids performing! We have two raps and two songs (completely originally made up by the kids) and then a skit!
Today is super busy because we are working on extra projects. We need to draw up information for the dadas group (for them to have new topics to discuss and have the info to bulk out their arguments) and we are also making a FAQ, Mother-specific pamphlet (talking about Mother to Child transmission) and a General Info pamphlet. Expect an update next week talking about how our Community Day went. Wooo!
- Stuff / Evie
(see below for an explanation)
oh-em-gee it's november already
Welcome to November. How did that happen?
Week 3.
So, Swahili is a rather hard language, because there are so many words that are very very similar. And usually, the words that you need to use/use often are very similar to words that are quite inappropriate. For example, umelewa (you have been drunk?) vs. umeelewa (you have understood?). Or, in the case of the other night. Boyfriend vs. vagina friend. We were teaching sexual reproduction, so the words were fresh in my head and instead of saying rafiki wanaume I slipped in uke (vagina) instead. And since we were struggling to remember, when it popped into my head I shouted it. Go figure. That made for a very awkward family moment in our living room.
Another awkward, and quite scary moment in my opinion, was when I got locked in the choo. So the choo is a hole in the ground and it's a separate shack from the rest of the house (in terms of the aroma that exudes from it, this is a good thing, trust me). You have a door that you can swing close and I guess I was too zealous in my swinging because I jammed the door shut. Luckily, Gaby was outside talking on the phone, so she saved me from being attacked by all of the cockroaches (who live down in the hole of the choo and will climb up to say hi when they see you come in the door).
Enough of awkward Stefanie (or Stuff, or Evie - my new name for the next village, because even Stuff is hard for people to remember) stories and on to what's been happening in the village.
Our village is very religious. One of the tasks that we are supposed to do is to take a condom survey, in which we talk to the dukas (shops) and ask them if they will sell condoms, and if they won't, would they be willing to? The goal of this is to give them a box free of charge and then, if they get customers asking for it, they will be encouraged to stock it on their own. Anywho, so we go around to all of the dukas in maroroni and all of them pronounce themselves to be "Reborn Again." All of them use the same exact expression and have no interest whatsoever in stocking condoms. Ever. Which presents a problem, because how are we going to teach about the importance of condoms if we cannot even offer them to the people after we leave? Luckily, we found that the dispensary would be willing to stock them, so that's one place, but it's frustrating. I wonder to what extent community attitudes influenced the dukas' decision not to stock condoms - for example, for fear of being ostracized as the duka that sells condoms (and therefore, that implies that you would be all for premarital sex, which it doesn't), they wouldn't want to be the first one to stock them. Community attitudes really influence people's actions here, especially in terms of behavior change. Our biggest challenges are educating people to become more open to condom use as an alternative (not the only) choice to protect against HIV and to reduce the stigma/misconceptions surrounding HIV/AIDS. We had a meeting with the church leaders on monday, and we talked about the fact that we teach about the ABKs (Acha Kabisa - abstinence, Baki Mwaminifu - be faithful and Tumia Kondom - use a condom). Initially, they wanted us to only teach A and B, but later, thankfully, they admitted that there are some "bad apples out there," so teaching about K is equally important.
In terms of misconceptions, a popular one is that the people spreading HIV are the ones who know they are infected and are intentionally spreading it. So they should be separated from everyone else and do not deserve to live. We were teaching at a church this week and one of the women proclaimed that if anyone that she knew got AIDS and died, she would not attend their funeral. And that she wished that ARVs sped up the death of people with AIDS. However, I'm sure she wouldn't have said that if someone within her family had HIV. People here distance themselves from the problem. They don't understand that the majority of the people spreading HIV are not even aware that they have it, and doing it completely unintentionally. If people start realizing that HIV DOES happen to people like them, maybe that will encourage them to make behavior change.
This week we had our first testing day (siku ya upimaji). I am officially HIV - ! To encourage our kids at the secondary school to get tested, we told them that we would be testing right alongside them. It was an amazing turnout. Usually testing days average 30-40 people. We had 92. I feel like this had to do with the fact that we pushed testing the day before when we taught in our secondary school. We talked to them about HIV testing, telling them about the process, and what to expect and the fact that regardless of if you know it our not, HIV is not something that just goes away. By knowing, you can take steps to protect the people you love and also to lengthen your life. But if you don't know, then you can't take these steps. I was so happy to see so many of our students. Not only because this sets them up for a pattern of testing and re-testing throughout their lives, because now they have gone through the process once, but also because they are a high risk group. Because there is only one secondary school in the area, many of our students live a 5-hour walk away from the school, or sometimes even more. In order to get home, some of them will be tempted to exchange sex for transportation or even for food if they live in Maroroni by themselves. The other day, we went to visit some of our students. They lived in this rundown shack, with two rooms. The beds were hard, with a thin thin layer of foam. They used one bed for studying and one for sleeping. There was hardly enough space to move around and they had decorated with empty soap and shampoo and lotion bottles hanging from the ceiling. They had to cook dinner on their own, and only had enough money for a few dried sardines and a tomato. They confessed that they usually go to bed hungry. And then they talked about how if you sleep with a man, he will give you rice for dinner. Rice, something that we will waste by throwing into the air in weddings and something we consider so simply and so cheap, is a luxury item for them. And they would sleep with someone, possibly unprotected, just to get some for their next meal. It was truly depressing.
On a brighter note, we have started a dadas (sisters) group in our village. It was set up in hopes of giving them a support network in which they could confide in one another and have the confidence to voice their opinions (something that women here and NEVER asked to do). We are also trying to provide them with a connection to the nurse in the village, opportunities for future careers (if that is something they want to do) and the starting point to think about behavior change. They are the future of their communities and this community in particular could use some more open-minded people. We have had four meetings so far, in which we have elected a committee. Our meetings consist of the girls teaching a topic for 30-40 minutes (practice in public speaking and confidence) and then a discussion topic that is related to what has just been taught. The last meeting the girls led themselves. They chose the topic of bride price and dowry and ways to eliminate this practice in their community. I was really proud of them. We are going to try to visit them even when we move away to the next village.
Week 3.
So, Swahili is a rather hard language, because there are so many words that are very very similar. And usually, the words that you need to use/use often are very similar to words that are quite inappropriate. For example, umelewa (you have been drunk?) vs. umeelewa (you have understood?). Or, in the case of the other night. Boyfriend vs. vagina friend. We were teaching sexual reproduction, so the words were fresh in my head and instead of saying rafiki wanaume I slipped in uke (vagina) instead. And since we were struggling to remember, when it popped into my head I shouted it. Go figure. That made for a very awkward family moment in our living room.
Another awkward, and quite scary moment in my opinion, was when I got locked in the choo. So the choo is a hole in the ground and it's a separate shack from the rest of the house (in terms of the aroma that exudes from it, this is a good thing, trust me). You have a door that you can swing close and I guess I was too zealous in my swinging because I jammed the door shut. Luckily, Gaby was outside talking on the phone, so she saved me from being attacked by all of the cockroaches (who live down in the hole of the choo and will climb up to say hi when they see you come in the door).
Enough of awkward Stefanie (or Stuff, or Evie - my new name for the next village, because even Stuff is hard for people to remember) stories and on to what's been happening in the village.
Our village is very religious. One of the tasks that we are supposed to do is to take a condom survey, in which we talk to the dukas (shops) and ask them if they will sell condoms, and if they won't, would they be willing to? The goal of this is to give them a box free of charge and then, if they get customers asking for it, they will be encouraged to stock it on their own. Anywho, so we go around to all of the dukas in maroroni and all of them pronounce themselves to be "Reborn Again." All of them use the same exact expression and have no interest whatsoever in stocking condoms. Ever. Which presents a problem, because how are we going to teach about the importance of condoms if we cannot even offer them to the people after we leave? Luckily, we found that the dispensary would be willing to stock them, so that's one place, but it's frustrating. I wonder to what extent community attitudes influenced the dukas' decision not to stock condoms - for example, for fear of being ostracized as the duka that sells condoms (and therefore, that implies that you would be all for premarital sex, which it doesn't), they wouldn't want to be the first one to stock them. Community attitudes really influence people's actions here, especially in terms of behavior change. Our biggest challenges are educating people to become more open to condom use as an alternative (not the only) choice to protect against HIV and to reduce the stigma/misconceptions surrounding HIV/AIDS. We had a meeting with the church leaders on monday, and we talked about the fact that we teach about the ABKs (Acha Kabisa - abstinence, Baki Mwaminifu - be faithful and Tumia Kondom - use a condom). Initially, they wanted us to only teach A and B, but later, thankfully, they admitted that there are some "bad apples out there," so teaching about K is equally important.
In terms of misconceptions, a popular one is that the people spreading HIV are the ones who know they are infected and are intentionally spreading it. So they should be separated from everyone else and do not deserve to live. We were teaching at a church this week and one of the women proclaimed that if anyone that she knew got AIDS and died, she would not attend their funeral. And that she wished that ARVs sped up the death of people with AIDS. However, I'm sure she wouldn't have said that if someone within her family had HIV. People here distance themselves from the problem. They don't understand that the majority of the people spreading HIV are not even aware that they have it, and doing it completely unintentionally. If people start realizing that HIV DOES happen to people like them, maybe that will encourage them to make behavior change.
This week we had our first testing day (siku ya upimaji). I am officially HIV - ! To encourage our kids at the secondary school to get tested, we told them that we would be testing right alongside them. It was an amazing turnout. Usually testing days average 30-40 people. We had 92. I feel like this had to do with the fact that we pushed testing the day before when we taught in our secondary school. We talked to them about HIV testing, telling them about the process, and what to expect and the fact that regardless of if you know it our not, HIV is not something that just goes away. By knowing, you can take steps to protect the people you love and also to lengthen your life. But if you don't know, then you can't take these steps. I was so happy to see so many of our students. Not only because this sets them up for a pattern of testing and re-testing throughout their lives, because now they have gone through the process once, but also because they are a high risk group. Because there is only one secondary school in the area, many of our students live a 5-hour walk away from the school, or sometimes even more. In order to get home, some of them will be tempted to exchange sex for transportation or even for food if they live in Maroroni by themselves. The other day, we went to visit some of our students. They lived in this rundown shack, with two rooms. The beds were hard, with a thin thin layer of foam. They used one bed for studying and one for sleeping. There was hardly enough space to move around and they had decorated with empty soap and shampoo and lotion bottles hanging from the ceiling. They had to cook dinner on their own, and only had enough money for a few dried sardines and a tomato. They confessed that they usually go to bed hungry. And then they talked about how if you sleep with a man, he will give you rice for dinner. Rice, something that we will waste by throwing into the air in weddings and something we consider so simply and so cheap, is a luxury item for them. And they would sleep with someone, possibly unprotected, just to get some for their next meal. It was truly depressing.
On a brighter note, we have started a dadas (sisters) group in our village. It was set up in hopes of giving them a support network in which they could confide in one another and have the confidence to voice their opinions (something that women here and NEVER asked to do). We are also trying to provide them with a connection to the nurse in the village, opportunities for future careers (if that is something they want to do) and the starting point to think about behavior change. They are the future of their communities and this community in particular could use some more open-minded people. We have had four meetings so far, in which we have elected a committee. Our meetings consist of the girls teaching a topic for 30-40 minutes (practice in public speaking and confidence) and then a discussion topic that is related to what has just been taught. The last meeting the girls led themselves. They chose the topic of bride price and dowry and ways to eliminate this practice in their community. I was really proud of them. We are going to try to visit them even when we move away to the next village.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
End of week 2
When I think about the fact that we only have five weeks total in our village (before we move to the next one) I get so blown away by how quickly time is moving. Only three weeks left! Today was one of our most busy, but also most AMAZING weeks in the village yet. Food was a little bit strange. A week's rundown of what mama served us for breakfast: plain rice, then chips (french fries), then cold boiled sweet potato, then bread (finally, something normal), then peanuts. It led us to the conclusion that our family does not distinguish between food that is appropriate for breakfast vs. dinner. But usually, we only need to talk to mama about what we would like, and then she is happy to oblige. It's definitely time for a talk.
Aside from food, in terms of teaching, things are going swimmingly. We taught all five of our subvillages in three community teachings (over 200 people!). For our community teachings, they usually last 2-3 hours and we have had an average of 50 people per teaching. One of my favorites this week was our mamas teaching. We have a dispensary for the whole ward (encompassing three villages) of Maroroni. On this particular day, the dispensary was receiving a shipment of vaccinations for the babies so mamas from all over the ward were walking up to 3-4 hours to make sure their baby did not miss out on this opportunity. So we had the rare chance to teach 50 mamas, which is very rare, since mamas usually stay at home, cleaning the house or preparing the next meal. The nurses were so completely supportive about our teaching that they refused to give out vaccinations until we had finished presenting our entire curriculum. So we had all of the mamas' undivided attention, especially when we talked about mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
When I teach, it's crazy because I begin to realize how many misconceptions and false information that is being spread about HIV transmission. Especially in the parts of our village that are far away from everything else. We teach at Nazaretti, which is an hour walk away from the town center. We played a scenario game in which we told the kids to respond to HIV transmission scenarios by saying Ndiyo (it is possible)/Hapana (no)/Labda (maybe). HALF of our 50 student class believed that you could get HIV by sharing food with someone. And HALF also believed that you couldn't get HIV by having unprotected sex. There were also some students that believed you could get HIV by being bitten by a mosquito. It just feels so good to explain to them that they can't, and why they cannot. It's great to realize that by providing correct information, I am working to eliminate the stigma that exists here. Maroroni as a ward (we got the results of a survey study that was conducted prior to our arrival) has A TON of stigma. Many of the adult community members have the information, but still refuse to get tested/use a condom/take any precautions to prevent the spread of HIV. People believe that HIV+ people should be marked and kicked out of the village, and that if you are HIV+, it's better just to die. There are several individuals who SIC knows of who are HIV+ (we have a field officer who stays in the village and visits HIV+ village members to give them support and advice), but they are so scared that other people will find out, that they refuse to meet with other HIV+ individuals. Yet, I feel like it is so important for them to have a support group, especially if they are in a community with an atmosphere full of stigma. For that reason, one of the side projects I am working on is a dadas (sisters) group. We have our first meeting this Wednesday. We will be selecting girls from our secondary school classes to meet and talk about pertinent issues (ie. preventing unwanted pregnancy). Eventually, my hope is that they will form a support network for one another, in which there is no stigma between them, so they can create an environment in which HIV+ indiv can come out publicly, or they can tackle gender issues and feel empowered. Obviously, these end points are very far away, but at the very least, I would like them to build a sense of community and trust between one another.
We have our first testing day this thursday. We have taught many people, and emphasized the importance of testing (the first 7 years that you have HIV, people feel completely healthy, so in order to stop the spread of HIV, people need to know their status). It is still very early in the game to have a village testing (the date was set by the mwenye kiti, or village chairman), but luckily, we have another testing the very last day that we are in the village, called Community Day. Community Day is for the whole ward, but it is hosted in our village because we are central.
Currently, I am typing from Moshi (near the base of Kili). We spent one of the most wonderful weekends here. The atmosphere is much more laid back and relaxed from the hustle and bustle of Arusha and the prices are much more reasonable here (only about 4-5,000 Tsh vs. 10,000 Tsh in Arush) - 1,000Tsh = $1. Plus, it's located only 30 min away from Marangu. Marangu is a beautiful, lush, green village with TONS of hiking and TONS of waterfalls. Today we hiked to two waterfalls. Generally, to get around you need a guide, which we hired on the street. We got a wonderfully challenging and hilly hike for three hours for only 5,000Tsh. It was such a great deal and it reminded me quite a lot of Hawaii. We passed banana trees (there are three types of bananas - one for eating, one for cooking (like plantain), one for making banana beer!), coffee bean plantations and got to smell peppermint, lemon and mango leaves. Plus, our guide even gave us a huge stick of sugar cane halfway through the hike. It was a much needed vacation from the city and I miss it already. But hopefully, we will be coming back soon. It was so gorgeous and the waterfalls had vines which you could swing on to get under the waterfall. Now, we are going to a bar to watch the rugby finals. England vs. South Africa. Needless to say, Gaby is stoked. Talk to you in a week!!
:)
Stefanie
(or Stuff, as my family calls me - they can't for the life of them learn how to say my name properly! Even the teaching partners, who speak pretty fluent English, cannot - to them, I am Stefan. sigh)
Aside from food, in terms of teaching, things are going swimmingly. We taught all five of our subvillages in three community teachings (over 200 people!). For our community teachings, they usually last 2-3 hours and we have had an average of 50 people per teaching. One of my favorites this week was our mamas teaching. We have a dispensary for the whole ward (encompassing three villages) of Maroroni. On this particular day, the dispensary was receiving a shipment of vaccinations for the babies so mamas from all over the ward were walking up to 3-4 hours to make sure their baby did not miss out on this opportunity. So we had the rare chance to teach 50 mamas, which is very rare, since mamas usually stay at home, cleaning the house or preparing the next meal. The nurses were so completely supportive about our teaching that they refused to give out vaccinations until we had finished presenting our entire curriculum. So we had all of the mamas' undivided attention, especially when we talked about mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
When I teach, it's crazy because I begin to realize how many misconceptions and false information that is being spread about HIV transmission. Especially in the parts of our village that are far away from everything else. We teach at Nazaretti, which is an hour walk away from the town center. We played a scenario game in which we told the kids to respond to HIV transmission scenarios by saying Ndiyo (it is possible)/Hapana (no)/Labda (maybe). HALF of our 50 student class believed that you could get HIV by sharing food with someone. And HALF also believed that you couldn't get HIV by having unprotected sex. There were also some students that believed you could get HIV by being bitten by a mosquito. It just feels so good to explain to them that they can't, and why they cannot. It's great to realize that by providing correct information, I am working to eliminate the stigma that exists here. Maroroni as a ward (we got the results of a survey study that was conducted prior to our arrival) has A TON of stigma. Many of the adult community members have the information, but still refuse to get tested/use a condom/take any precautions to prevent the spread of HIV. People believe that HIV+ people should be marked and kicked out of the village, and that if you are HIV+, it's better just to die. There are several individuals who SIC knows of who are HIV+ (we have a field officer who stays in the village and visits HIV+ village members to give them support and advice), but they are so scared that other people will find out, that they refuse to meet with other HIV+ individuals. Yet, I feel like it is so important for them to have a support group, especially if they are in a community with an atmosphere full of stigma. For that reason, one of the side projects I am working on is a dadas (sisters) group. We have our first meeting this Wednesday. We will be selecting girls from our secondary school classes to meet and talk about pertinent issues (ie. preventing unwanted pregnancy). Eventually, my hope is that they will form a support network for one another, in which there is no stigma between them, so they can create an environment in which HIV+ indiv can come out publicly, or they can tackle gender issues and feel empowered. Obviously, these end points are very far away, but at the very least, I would like them to build a sense of community and trust between one another.
We have our first testing day this thursday. We have taught many people, and emphasized the importance of testing (the first 7 years that you have HIV, people feel completely healthy, so in order to stop the spread of HIV, people need to know their status). It is still very early in the game to have a village testing (the date was set by the mwenye kiti, or village chairman), but luckily, we have another testing the very last day that we are in the village, called Community Day. Community Day is for the whole ward, but it is hosted in our village because we are central.
Currently, I am typing from Moshi (near the base of Kili). We spent one of the most wonderful weekends here. The atmosphere is much more laid back and relaxed from the hustle and bustle of Arusha and the prices are much more reasonable here (only about 4-5,000 Tsh vs. 10,000 Tsh in Arush) - 1,000Tsh = $1. Plus, it's located only 30 min away from Marangu. Marangu is a beautiful, lush, green village with TONS of hiking and TONS of waterfalls. Today we hiked to two waterfalls. Generally, to get around you need a guide, which we hired on the street. We got a wonderfully challenging and hilly hike for three hours for only 5,000Tsh. It was such a great deal and it reminded me quite a lot of Hawaii. We passed banana trees (there are three types of bananas - one for eating, one for cooking (like plantain), one for making banana beer!), coffee bean plantations and got to smell peppermint, lemon and mango leaves. Plus, our guide even gave us a huge stick of sugar cane halfway through the hike. It was a much needed vacation from the city and I miss it already. But hopefully, we will be coming back soon. It was so gorgeous and the waterfalls had vines which you could swing on to get under the waterfall. Now, we are going to a bar to watch the rugby finals. England vs. South Africa. Needless to say, Gaby is stoked. Talk to you in a week!!
:)
Stefanie
(or Stuff, as my family calls me - they can't for the life of them learn how to say my name properly! Even the teaching partners, who speak pretty fluent English, cannot - to them, I am Stefan. sigh)
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Long past due
Well, it has been forever and a day since I've last posted. I have been getting supplementary applications for vet school while here, so I have been spending much of my internet time filling them out. Last weekend I filled out an app for Michigan State and this weekend I had Ohio State. It has been interesting definitely trying to fill them on from internet cafes in Arusha but luckily, the internet connection hasn't been too slow and I haven't had too much writer's block so I've been able to complete them successfully. The only issue is the fact that they only give you 10 days to complete the supplementary application and I always seem to receive them in my email only a few days before the due date. MSU was understanding, so hopefully OSU will be too.
So this past week I moved into my homestay in the village of Maroroni! It's about an hour outside of Arusha. Driving here is crazy. There is no such thing as multi-lane highways here. Everything is one lane, so if you are behind a very slow truck, you have to pass them by driving into the side of opposing traffic. Since our SIC truck is definitely one of the faster cars here, we end up weaving through the lanes pretty quickly. The road to my homestay is all dirt and rocks. Similar to the Safari, it's super bumpy, but also fun. Luckily I'm not that tall, so I never have to worry about bumping my head on the top of the truck. To describe our town, I would say it's similar to Arizona. They have no cactus, but to begin with, there's very little vegetation. It's very dry and dusty, with only a few shrubs growing every so often. It is usually comfortable in the mornings and evenings, although you hardly need a jacket, and very very warm in the afternoons. My homestay is the farthest away from the center of village, so my roomie Gaby (she's from England, about 30 minutes outside London and I love her!) and I have to walk about 45 minutes to get from home to two of the schools where we teach at. We have three schools in total - two are near the center of two, one is another hour's walk away. We have two primary schools (ages 8-12) and one secondary school (13-20 years old). So on Tuesdays and Thursdays we end up walking for a total of four hours. Although when it drizzles in the morning it can be aggravating, I love our walk. We are able to pass many people and exchange greetings and introduce ourselves. With every single person, you must say your greeting (either Shikamoo for elders or Mambo), then ask Habari... (how is morning/work/afternoon/day), then shake their hand. My homestay family doesn't speak any English, so I have definitely been practicing my Swahili.
We have four American volunteers (Joey from Claremont, Carrie from UCLA, Gaby and I) and two Tanzanian teaching partners (Fatuma and Jonas). We usually split into two groups of three because generally, they try to schedule two classes for the same time - then we are able to teach the most people efficiently. Usually Gaby and I wake up to get out of the house by 7am and then start teaching. We teach from 8am to about 3pm each day and then eat lunch and spend a few hours lesson planning as a group. We then head back home and have dinner with the family, an event that never ceases to be fun/interesting/challenging. My family lives in a brick house, with cement floors and a metal roof - by most standards, upper middle class. My baba is a business man. When we tried to ask him what kind of business, he said many words in Swahili that I did not know, so I'm just going to leave it at that. My mama sings in the choir then comes back to cook our dinner, which has been fabulous. I will describe food later. Mama and baba have five children, one girl Glady, that lives in Arusha, and four boys - Godlisten (we call him Goddy, but isn't that an interesting name??), Alan (he is getting funded by a donor through World Vision to attend secondary school), Frances, and one more. Honestly, there are so many people in the house, it's very difficult to get names straight. Because Goddy is married (he's 22!), so his wife and 3 month old son, Weiss live in the house. And then Mama has a friend who also lives in the house with her two children - Bri and a 10 month old, Angel. It's so strange, but Mamas take on the names of their firstborn. For ex, Mama is Mama Glady, then there's Mama Angel, and Mama Weiss. We also always have visitors who always take the chance to stop by and observe the wazungu (foreigners). There are four rooms in the house, one of which Gaby and I share, and then also two outside buildings made of brick in which more family members can stay. Goddy is currently building a new house of brick for his family. Next week, he promised to show us how to make bricks and help, which I am very excited about!
Mama is an excellent cook. My least favorite dish is not even that bad - it's banana stew. Although the bananas are plantains, so they taste like potatoes. We have also had ugali (stiff porridge) and mchicha (kale), beans and chapati (like tortillas), potato and nyama wa ng'ombe (beef) stew, wali (rice), makonde (corn and bean stew) and cabbage. It's very straightforward eating. It's nice, because you know that there are definitely no preservatives or artificial anything in the food, but it also can make it not as flavorful as the food back home. Therefore, Gaby and I have purchased garlic salt to help give it an extra kick. With every meal we also get ndizi (banana) and sometimes machungua (oranges). One night Gaby and I got a nice surprise though. Mama had been asking what we liked to eat and we told her, not expecting to ever eat them. But the next night we got PASTA!! with TOMATO!! and AVOCADO!!. It was SO exciting, we actually squealed. The next night she made chips (fries) too! So we've been spoiled definitely.
Mama always makes us clean our plates, always motioning that she wants us to eat more. This becomes sometimes problematic when she decides to serve us seconds herself, but it is very cute of her. The worst thing I've had to eat yet has been warm milk. Mama gave us fresh milk, which was very warm and very lumpy and we definitely had to drink it and pretend to enjoy it. I'm not the biggest milk drinker so I ended up chugging it to avoid thinking about it too much. Luckily, I've been able to share all these experiences with Gaby, so I've had the best time, in spite of many awkward situations.
It's definitely time to get going, as I have spent WAY too much time this weekend on the computer. Luckily, OSU is my last supplementary application, so I won't have that problem in the near future. I hope you all are doing well and email me! I want to see how you are doing!
Love,
Stefanie
So this past week I moved into my homestay in the village of Maroroni! It's about an hour outside of Arusha. Driving here is crazy. There is no such thing as multi-lane highways here. Everything is one lane, so if you are behind a very slow truck, you have to pass them by driving into the side of opposing traffic. Since our SIC truck is definitely one of the faster cars here, we end up weaving through the lanes pretty quickly. The road to my homestay is all dirt and rocks. Similar to the Safari, it's super bumpy, but also fun. Luckily I'm not that tall, so I never have to worry about bumping my head on the top of the truck. To describe our town, I would say it's similar to Arizona. They have no cactus, but to begin with, there's very little vegetation. It's very dry and dusty, with only a few shrubs growing every so often. It is usually comfortable in the mornings and evenings, although you hardly need a jacket, and very very warm in the afternoons. My homestay is the farthest away from the center of village, so my roomie Gaby (she's from England, about 30 minutes outside London and I love her!) and I have to walk about 45 minutes to get from home to two of the schools where we teach at. We have three schools in total - two are near the center of two, one is another hour's walk away. We have two primary schools (ages 8-12) and one secondary school (13-20 years old). So on Tuesdays and Thursdays we end up walking for a total of four hours. Although when it drizzles in the morning it can be aggravating, I love our walk. We are able to pass many people and exchange greetings and introduce ourselves. With every single person, you must say your greeting (either Shikamoo for elders or Mambo), then ask Habari... (how is morning/work/afternoon/day), then shake their hand. My homestay family doesn't speak any English, so I have definitely been practicing my Swahili.
We have four American volunteers (Joey from Claremont, Carrie from UCLA, Gaby and I) and two Tanzanian teaching partners (Fatuma and Jonas). We usually split into two groups of three because generally, they try to schedule two classes for the same time - then we are able to teach the most people efficiently. Usually Gaby and I wake up to get out of the house by 7am and then start teaching. We teach from 8am to about 3pm each day and then eat lunch and spend a few hours lesson planning as a group. We then head back home and have dinner with the family, an event that never ceases to be fun/interesting/challenging. My family lives in a brick house, with cement floors and a metal roof - by most standards, upper middle class. My baba is a business man. When we tried to ask him what kind of business, he said many words in Swahili that I did not know, so I'm just going to leave it at that. My mama sings in the choir then comes back to cook our dinner, which has been fabulous. I will describe food later. Mama and baba have five children, one girl Glady, that lives in Arusha, and four boys - Godlisten (we call him Goddy, but isn't that an interesting name??), Alan (he is getting funded by a donor through World Vision to attend secondary school), Frances, and one more. Honestly, there are so many people in the house, it's very difficult to get names straight. Because Goddy is married (he's 22!), so his wife and 3 month old son, Weiss live in the house. And then Mama has a friend who also lives in the house with her two children - Bri and a 10 month old, Angel. It's so strange, but Mamas take on the names of their firstborn. For ex, Mama is Mama Glady, then there's Mama Angel, and Mama Weiss. We also always have visitors who always take the chance to stop by and observe the wazungu (foreigners). There are four rooms in the house, one of which Gaby and I share, and then also two outside buildings made of brick in which more family members can stay. Goddy is currently building a new house of brick for his family. Next week, he promised to show us how to make bricks and help, which I am very excited about!
Mama is an excellent cook. My least favorite dish is not even that bad - it's banana stew. Although the bananas are plantains, so they taste like potatoes. We have also had ugali (stiff porridge) and mchicha (kale), beans and chapati (like tortillas), potato and nyama wa ng'ombe (beef) stew, wali (rice), makonde (corn and bean stew) and cabbage. It's very straightforward eating. It's nice, because you know that there are definitely no preservatives or artificial anything in the food, but it also can make it not as flavorful as the food back home. Therefore, Gaby and I have purchased garlic salt to help give it an extra kick. With every meal we also get ndizi (banana) and sometimes machungua (oranges). One night Gaby and I got a nice surprise though. Mama had been asking what we liked to eat and we told her, not expecting to ever eat them. But the next night we got PASTA!! with TOMATO!! and AVOCADO!!. It was SO exciting, we actually squealed. The next night she made chips (fries) too! So we've been spoiled definitely.
Mama always makes us clean our plates, always motioning that she wants us to eat more. This becomes sometimes problematic when she decides to serve us seconds herself, but it is very cute of her. The worst thing I've had to eat yet has been warm milk. Mama gave us fresh milk, which was very warm and very lumpy and we definitely had to drink it and pretend to enjoy it. I'm not the biggest milk drinker so I ended up chugging it to avoid thinking about it too much. Luckily, I've been able to share all these experiences with Gaby, so I've had the best time, in spite of many awkward situations.
It's definitely time to get going, as I have spent WAY too much time this weekend on the computer. Luckily, OSU is my last supplementary application, so I won't have that problem in the near future. I hope you all are doing well and email me! I want to see how you are doing!
Love,
Stefanie
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Safari!
Mambo! Vipi! (to which you would respond "Poa" or cool).
Well, I ended up going on a Safari (which in Swahili means trip) for four days to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. It was pretty last minute... we decided maybe two days before we wanted to go. Luckily, that wasn't a problem at all.
The Land Rovers picked us up from our hostel, where we met our drivers, James and Yona and our cook, Alex. Since there were six of us going, we had to take two cars, which worked out nicely because then we had a good amount of space and everyone had a window. Our drive to the Serengeti took 8 hours. The ride was very dusty (when we finished we were dusted from head to toe in red dirt) and bumpy (think Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland) but the scenery was gorgeous. Serengeti in Swahili means "endless plain" and it definitely was that. When you looked out on the horizon, it was so flat and vast. You could see for miles. We passed many Maasai (a very colorful and beaded indigenous cultural group here that maintains the Maasai traditional way of life. They spend a lot of time grazing their goats and cattle and do not really partake in any modern technology). The most exciting part of our trip was when we saw our first animal - giraffes! They ran across the road in front of us. They are so lanky that you would think their movement would be awkward and gangly, but it was actually very graceful and beautiful. I am really happy we chose to go when we did, number one because it will be the rainy season very soon, but since it isn't yet, every day was beautiful and sunny and number two, because since it is Springtime here there are so many babies! They were all too cute.
Here is a list of the animals that we saw. Since our guides' first language was not English, I am not sure if some of these names are correct:
Jackal, ostrich, giraffe, zebra, Grand Gazelle, Thompson's Gazelle, lion, cheetah, hippo, vulture, babboon, heartbeest (cousin to wildebeest), imapala, topi, warthog, Redbill Oxpecker, Marabu Stork, Golden Blue (bird), Buffalo weaver (bird), Vivid monkey (Spider monkey look alike but smaller), Egyptian Goose (looks like a duck), Sacreded Ibis, Black-backed Vulture, Black-backed heron, Dik dik, Sandy Grouse, Cape Buffalo, Red Buck, Village weaver (bird), Lilac-breasted Roller (bird), Common Waterbuck, Leopard, Wildebeest, Hornbill (Zazu!! from LionKing), mongoose, elephants, Flamingo, Crown Crane
It was so fun! For our trucks, the tops of them either popped up or popped off so we could stand up and feel the rush of the wind on your face as we drove through the park looking for animals. Luckily, both the Serengeti and Ngorongoro have a lot to see, so we would never have to drive far before we could stop and take pictures/observe them. The first time we drove into the park we saw lions!! (lion in swahili is simba!) There was an entire lion pride sitting on a large rock (made me think of Pride Rock). There were four females, three cubs and one male. The cub was too cute. He was trying to watch his dad up by pulling at his mane. There were many times during the Safari when I thought of the Lion King. We even ended up singing songs from it several times. Before I went on my safari, I thought that the big cats (lions, leopards and cheetahs) would be the hardest to see, but we actually saw a lot of them. We saw two lion chases, one time chasing two warthogs, the other was zebra. Both were unsuccessful but amazing to watch. It was something you would see on Discovery Channel, but it was right there, right in front of you. The warthog chase was especially exciting because the lion chased the warthogs right toward our car, so we got "front row seats." I couldn't believe how easy it was too see animals up close. Several times when we saw giraffes, zebra, wildebeest and even lions they would be within an arm's length or two. In the Serengeti, we had Cape Buffalo about 5 feet from our tent, grazing. So we went to sleep with the sound of their munching in our ears. Seeing the animals so close was wonderful for me, since I brought a camera with limited zoom. I was so happy that my camera battery lasted for the entire four days, although barely. It died right as we were driving out of the Ngorongoro crater (our last stop).
So our days on the Safari would consist of chai or breakfast at 7am (bread and the MOST AMAZING peanut butter, eggs, coffee/tea and fresh fruit), then a game drive, chakula cha mchana (lunch) at 12ish and then chakula cha jioni (dinner) around 6pm. Our meals were mostly rice or potatoes or pasta with vegetable medley (vegetables with a red curry sauce). It was good. And then for dessert we would have ndizi! The last night as a special treat, we had ndizi pudding.
The nights here are suprisingly baridi sana (cold). The days haven't gotten super hot yet, although I heard that they will soon. The safari really gave us a taste for what our homestays would be like, as there was no running water and only a choo (hole in the ground) for a toilet. However, unlike our homestays they did not provide us with boiled water to pour over ourselves, so we got pretty dirty. It really wasn't worth changing clothes, so I wore the same outfit for the entire week. Needless to say, the shower that I had when I got back was one of the best in my life.
So now I am back in Arusha, showered and clean and we have two more days left before our program and orientation starts! Almost all of us have arrived now, from Claremont, Stanford, UCLA, Arizona State and the U.K. We have already taken a trip to the market (basically an open-air farmer's market held every day with fruits, vegetables, beans and rice as well as fabrics, clothes and shoes) to purchase fabric to make skirts. Here in town pants are acceptable but they also mark you as foreign. So in the effort to integrate myself into the culture here, I am very excited to get my skirts back from the tailor. We can pick them up tomorrow. The fabric patterns here are so vibrant and always have such a great contrast in colors. Today we are going to the United Nations building where they are holding trials for those who
committed genocide in Rwanda. It is only going on for a few more weeks, so I'm excited we get to catch the tail end of it.
Okay, since there are only six computers in this internet cafe and only two internet cafes in Arusha, I should get going so someone else can use the computer.
Kwa heri rafiki yangu! (goodbye my friend)
Stefanie
Well, I ended up going on a Safari (which in Swahili means trip) for four days to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. It was pretty last minute... we decided maybe two days before we wanted to go. Luckily, that wasn't a problem at all.
The Land Rovers picked us up from our hostel, where we met our drivers, James and Yona and our cook, Alex. Since there were six of us going, we had to take two cars, which worked out nicely because then we had a good amount of space and everyone had a window. Our drive to the Serengeti took 8 hours. The ride was very dusty (when we finished we were dusted from head to toe in red dirt) and bumpy (think Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland) but the scenery was gorgeous. Serengeti in Swahili means "endless plain" and it definitely was that. When you looked out on the horizon, it was so flat and vast. You could see for miles. We passed many Maasai (a very colorful and beaded indigenous cultural group here that maintains the Maasai traditional way of life. They spend a lot of time grazing their goats and cattle and do not really partake in any modern technology). The most exciting part of our trip was when we saw our first animal - giraffes! They ran across the road in front of us. They are so lanky that you would think their movement would be awkward and gangly, but it was actually very graceful and beautiful. I am really happy we chose to go when we did, number one because it will be the rainy season very soon, but since it isn't yet, every day was beautiful and sunny and number two, because since it is Springtime here there are so many babies! They were all too cute.
Here is a list of the animals that we saw. Since our guides' first language was not English, I am not sure if some of these names are correct:
Jackal, ostrich, giraffe, zebra, Grand Gazelle, Thompson's Gazelle, lion, cheetah, hippo, vulture, babboon, heartbeest (cousin to wildebeest), imapala, topi, warthog, Redbill Oxpecker, Marabu Stork, Golden Blue (bird), Buffalo weaver (bird), Vivid monkey (Spider monkey look alike but smaller), Egyptian Goose (looks like a duck), Sacreded Ibis, Black-backed Vulture, Black-backed heron, Dik dik, Sandy Grouse, Cape Buffalo, Red Buck, Village weaver (bird), Lilac-breasted Roller (bird), Common Waterbuck, Leopard, Wildebeest, Hornbill (Zazu!! from LionKing), mongoose, elephants, Flamingo, Crown Crane
It was so fun! For our trucks, the tops of them either popped up or popped off so we could stand up and feel the rush of the wind on your face as we drove through the park looking for animals. Luckily, both the Serengeti and Ngorongoro have a lot to see, so we would never have to drive far before we could stop and take pictures/observe them. The first time we drove into the park we saw lions!! (lion in swahili is simba!) There was an entire lion pride sitting on a large rock (made me think of Pride Rock). There were four females, three cubs and one male. The cub was too cute. He was trying to watch his dad up by pulling at his mane. There were many times during the Safari when I thought of the Lion King. We even ended up singing songs from it several times. Before I went on my safari, I thought that the big cats (lions, leopards and cheetahs) would be the hardest to see, but we actually saw a lot of them. We saw two lion chases, one time chasing two warthogs, the other was zebra. Both were unsuccessful but amazing to watch. It was something you would see on Discovery Channel, but it was right there, right in front of you. The warthog chase was especially exciting because the lion chased the warthogs right toward our car, so we got "front row seats." I couldn't believe how easy it was too see animals up close. Several times when we saw giraffes, zebra, wildebeest and even lions they would be within an arm's length or two. In the Serengeti, we had Cape Buffalo about 5 feet from our tent, grazing. So we went to sleep with the sound of their munching in our ears. Seeing the animals so close was wonderful for me, since I brought a camera with limited zoom. I was so happy that my camera battery lasted for the entire four days, although barely. It died right as we were driving out of the Ngorongoro crater (our last stop).
So our days on the Safari would consist of chai or breakfast at 7am (bread and the MOST AMAZING peanut butter, eggs, coffee/tea and fresh fruit), then a game drive, chakula cha mchana (lunch) at 12ish and then chakula cha jioni (dinner) around 6pm. Our meals were mostly rice or potatoes or pasta with vegetable medley (vegetables with a red curry sauce). It was good. And then for dessert we would have ndizi! The last night as a special treat, we had ndizi pudding.
The nights here are suprisingly baridi sana (cold). The days haven't gotten super hot yet, although I heard that they will soon. The safari really gave us a taste for what our homestays would be like, as there was no running water and only a choo (hole in the ground) for a toilet. However, unlike our homestays they did not provide us with boiled water to pour over ourselves, so we got pretty dirty. It really wasn't worth changing clothes, so I wore the same outfit for the entire week. Needless to say, the shower that I had when I got back was one of the best in my life.
So now I am back in Arusha, showered and clean and we have two more days left before our program and orientation starts! Almost all of us have arrived now, from Claremont, Stanford, UCLA, Arizona State and the U.K. We have already taken a trip to the market (basically an open-air farmer's market held every day with fruits, vegetables, beans and rice as well as fabrics, clothes and shoes) to purchase fabric to make skirts. Here in town pants are acceptable but they also mark you as foreign. So in the effort to integrate myself into the culture here, I am very excited to get my skirts back from the tailor. We can pick them up tomorrow. The fabric patterns here are so vibrant and always have such a great contrast in colors. Today we are going to the United Nations building where they are holding trials for those who
committed genocide in Rwanda. It is only going on for a few more weeks, so I'm excited we get to catch the tail end of it.
Okay, since there are only six computers in this internet cafe and only two internet cafes in Arusha, I should get going so someone else can use the computer.
Kwa heri rafiki yangu! (goodbye my friend)
Stefanie
Friday, September 14, 2007
Salama tu
I have learned, after being in Arusha for only about a day, that there are many different ways to say the same thing. When first saying hello, Hujambo is most common greeting, Jambo is used for tourists, Shikamu is used for someone older and I believe Mambo is the hip greeting, used for friends. Then for asking "how are you?" you can use habari za asubuhi or habari za mchana (how are you this morning/afternoon). In response to this, you can say nzuri (good), nzuri sana (very good), vsuri sana (very well), or salama tu (at peace). There are many others that I have not mastered yet, for example, I'm awesome - but I forget the swahili translation. I like salama tu. It is very much the mode of thought that I want to master while here. The most common form of transportation here is walking, which is great because it gives you time to think. Most of the time I spend my walking hours being amazed that I am finally here. It is surreal to hear Swahili all around me, be the only Asian in the whole city and know that shortly, I will be living in a homestay in the countryside. The only downside to walking is crossing the street, because walkers do not have the right of way here and no traffic lights/stop signs, so often you have to dash across the street when there is a small break in the constant stream of cars.
The exchange rate here is 1000 t0 1. Yesterday we had dinner, and it was $6, a moderate amount to spend in Arusha - mostly because it was food that you can get back in the U.S. In an attempt to make myself feel better for eating pizza - something that I could easily get back in the States, I ordered Chicken Tikka pizza, which was very interesting. Another girl ordered banana pizza. Today we are going to a place that serves traditional Tanzanian food (thank goodness) and it should cost no more than $4. We will also be having skirts made!! And planning a 4day safari to the Serengetti and the Ngorogoro crater.
Now it's time to walk back to the hostel so we can buy the fabric at Masaai market. Gwaheri (bye!). You can also say Badaaye (later!)
The exchange rate here is 1000 t0 1. Yesterday we had dinner, and it was $6, a moderate amount to spend in Arusha - mostly because it was food that you can get back in the U.S. In an attempt to make myself feel better for eating pizza - something that I could easily get back in the States, I ordered Chicken Tikka pizza, which was very interesting. Another girl ordered banana pizza. Today we are going to a place that serves traditional Tanzanian food (thank goodness) and it should cost no more than $4. We will also be having skirts made!! And planning a 4day safari to the Serengetti and the Ngorogoro crater.
Now it's time to walk back to the hostel so we can buy the fabric at Masaai market. Gwaheri (bye!). You can also say Badaaye (later!)
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
countdown: 9 days
Africa. The anticipation for this trip began all the way back in January of this year. From being interviewed and accepted to the program, to working to gain the support of my parents, to striving to raise the money, Africa has never been far from my thoughts. I have talked about this trip to everyone it seems. Yet whenever I talked about it, my departure and September seemed so far away. There were so many other things that required my attention: graduating, vet school applications, my swim lesson company closing down - and so although I would talk about Africa, and prep for my trip by getting vaccinations and medications, never did it so clearly become a reality until this moment. The excitement is building as well as a small knot of nervousness at the prospect of leaving all that is comfortable and familiar. Now it is time to plunge into the unknown being hardly proficient in Swahili. The crash course that we receive at the two-week orientation will help, for sure, however, it will definitely be interesting trying to get around. What I really need to do is get over my pride and put myself out there. Even if I look like an idiot at first, I feel this is really the best way to improve. By practicing and by messing up.
Anyway. 9 days. Such a short time to get everything done. Looking at that number in front of me is causing a few butterflies to appear in my stomach. The prospect of having everything settled in that short period of time is intimidating. Furthermore, while in-country, I will have to fill out two supplementary applications for Michigan State and Ohio State (granted I pass the first common application cut) and register for classes at UC Davis for Winter Qtr. The plan was of course, to have everything completed, but Michigan and Ohio want to screen their applicants first. And Michigan wants theirs back in 5 days of me receiving it. Oh well, I will deal with that when I reach it.
More updates as I begin to get my life into order. I just moved out my apartment in LA, so now I have to sort through all of the boxes to re-pack my clothes for Africa.
Anyway. 9 days. Such a short time to get everything done. Looking at that number in front of me is causing a few butterflies to appear in my stomach. The prospect of having everything settled in that short period of time is intimidating. Furthermore, while in-country, I will have to fill out two supplementary applications for Michigan State and Ohio State (granted I pass the first common application cut) and register for classes at UC Davis for Winter Qtr. The plan was of course, to have everything completed, but Michigan and Ohio want to screen their applicants first. And Michigan wants theirs back in 5 days of me receiving it. Oh well, I will deal with that when I reach it.
More updates as I begin to get my life into order. I just moved out my apartment in LA, so now I have to sort through all of the boxes to re-pack my clothes for Africa.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
swahili, finances and medications
Since my date of departure is steadily approaching, it's about time to start to get my life in order.
- Plane Ticket - Purchased. Virgin Airways, with one-stop in London, then landing in Nairobi. Luckily (or unluckily), Nairobi is a very unpopular destination, due to its somewhat dangerous reputation - thankfully mostly at night, which we will be avoiding with our 6am arrival time - therefore, we were able to secure a really good price on our flight! Only $1400 after taxes, which is about $600 less than I had expected to spend. What's even better is I'm traveling with a group. We will arrive Sept 13th, about a week before our program starts, which should give us some time to adjust to the country, have skirts made (yay! - this means picking your fabric and being measured and then having it handmade for you) and possibly do some traveling pre-orientation/training.
- Medical insurance while in country - Purchased.
- Immunizations - As of today, for the most part taken care of. Did you know that malarone (a malaria medication) is $10 a pill. And you take this daily. I am going to be in the country for 105 days. I almost had a heart attack when I did the quick math. Thankfully, with health insurance, it worked out, because I just ended up purchasing an entire bottle (100 pills) for $20. phew. Luckily, I also got the majority of my shots earlier in the quarter for Nicaragua, so I only had to get Polio booster and Yellow fever.
- Program fee - the last huge expenditure. $2600. Luckily, the cost of this is somewhat decreased when you add in my donations from my birthday party fundraiser, graduation and friends and family donating :) I hope to make up the rest of it through this summer (swim lesson instructor!) and when I get back.
- Swahili - lastly, I figure since I will be in the country for such a long time, really the best way to get comfortable quickly is when you are able to have basic communication skills. Therefore, I have been learning swahili on my own. It's progressing... very slowly. I wish I had a class and instructor because then obviously, I would work harder, but at least I will have a bit of a foundation before I get thrown in. So far, I know how to greet someone, ask how they are doing, ask for directions, ask if you would like to eat/drink something, and say I want/know/speak. I have a long way to go. I miss Spanish, it definitely wasn't as hard - probably has to do with the fact that I took Spanish for six years.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Hujambo! (hello!)
habari gani? (how are you)
Africa. Right now, even at two months and counting, it seems so far away. It probably has to do with the GRE I still have to take, the vet school applications I still have yet to submit and the class I have to finish before I become an official college graduate. Yet, probably even after all of this is finished, it probably won't really hit me until I'm about to board the flight to Nairobi from London that I will be spending 11 1/2 weeks of my life in Africa. 11 1/2 weeks of a completely different lifestyle than I have ever experienced. I can't even begin to imagine what it will be like. I'm excited for the unknown though. Especially after talking to SIC veterans. I'm so lucky. To be able to even take a trip like this. To have, what I think will be the experience of a lifetime. So to document every moment, and so I can keep in touch with all of you, I will be blogging while in Africa (we get weekends to come into town where there are internet cafes). Thanks to Mr. Kugizaki for the suggestion :)
Africa. Right now, even at two months and counting, it seems so far away. It probably has to do with the GRE I still have to take, the vet school applications I still have yet to submit and the class I have to finish before I become an official college graduate. Yet, probably even after all of this is finished, it probably won't really hit me until I'm about to board the flight to Nairobi from London that I will be spending 11 1/2 weeks of my life in Africa. 11 1/2 weeks of a completely different lifestyle than I have ever experienced. I can't even begin to imagine what it will be like. I'm excited for the unknown though. Especially after talking to SIC veterans. I'm so lucky. To be able to even take a trip like this. To have, what I think will be the experience of a lifetime. So to document every moment, and so I can keep in touch with all of you, I will be blogging while in Africa (we get weekends to come into town where there are internet cafes). Thanks to Mr. Kugizaki for the suggestion :)
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