Zanzibar

After getting back from the mountains, I had only about 12 hours to get my stuff together before we left for Zanzibar on Friday morning. We had to leave our dorm at 5:45am (yet another early start…) in order to get to the ferry in time, which then took two more hours to get us to Zanzibar. If you don’t know, Zanzibar is the main island off the coast of Tanzania which was the final port for slaves leaving from East Africa during the slave trade and was also a main trading point for spices and other goods. Zanzibar today is overwhelmingly Muslim and basically has its own government, although it is still technically a part of Tanzania (they even have their own immigration point when you get to the island). The island is now famous for its historical downtown, narrow “streets” (which are really more like alleyways and you constantly almost get run over by motorbikes), cool doors (made out of wood and intricately engraved), spices, and of course its beautiful beaches.

On Friday after arriving we had breakfast at our hotel and then walked to the beach to jump on a old wooden boat that would take us out to a small, privately owned island called Changuu. The island has a really expensive hotel on it, but you are allowed to go out for the day and spend some time there. The coolest part about the island was that they have a sanctuary for giant tortoises and there are about 50 or so in there! You can walk around right next to them and touch their shells and what not, it was really cool. The medium sized ones were about the size of me if I rolled up into child’s pose and then covered myself in a big shell (if that helps at all haha). Also, right now it is mating season for the tortoises, so we actually saw two pairs of them mating… a bizarre experience to say the least. After seeing the tortoises we basically just hung out on the beach for a while and then headed back to the main island to have lunch. After lunch we did some shopping and wandered around downtown, the area called “Stonetown” which is just a really cool maze of narrow winding alleyways to get yourself lost in. For dinner we went to a really cool local market-type place where a whole bunch of vendors set up tables and basically sell fish shish kabobs of all types.

Saturday morning we started off with a historical tour of Stonetown. First we visited the first Anglican Church on Zanzibar, which was the original place of the slave market and where the slaves were held on the few days before they were sold. The church also had a lot of information and memorials dedicated to Dr. Livingston, who is pretty famous in this area for his work to end the legality of the slave trade in East Africa. Next we went to the “House of Wonders,” which is located in the mansion which was once the home of the sultan who ruled Zanzibar, and is now a huge museum dedicated to all aspects of Zanzibarian history and culture. Walking to the museum we passed through a lot of cool smaller areas historical areas of town and through a few different local markets. Unfortunately, we were running a bit late (because we all got distracted shopping on the walk there) and didn’t get nearly as much time to spend at the museum as I would have hoped, but I guess I’ll just have to go back and visit again.

After the museums and a quick lunch, we left downtown and drove out to a more rural area of Zanzibar to go on a spice tour. Our tour guide took us through two different forest areas and showed us all sorts of plants that are used for spices, medicines, food coloring, etc. We saw the plants that produce cinnamon, jasmine, vanilla, hibiscus, pepper, coffee, henna, quinine, lemongrass, ylang ylang (used to make perfumes), colorings that were used for traditional lipstick/facial makeup, curry, menthol, aloe, and many more. We also got to try a whole bunch of fruits that they picked right off the tree for us, including some regulars (coconut, oranges, mangos, pineapple) and some bizarre ones (jackfruit, breadfruit, a weird type of grapefruit, lychee, and these little spiky circular fruits that I can’t remember the name of). At the end of the tour, our guide took us to a little shop where we could buy all sorts of different regular spices and pre-mixed spice packages… so I will have lots of cooking to do with my new spices when I get home!

After the spice tour ended, we drove two hours outside of town to get to our hotel, which was right on the beach and was beautiful (but completely in the middle of nowhere). We didn’t realized until we got there that it was so isolated and that there was nowhere else to go eat, which proved a significant problem since the meals at the hotel were about $20 per plate! Obviously we are all students and cheap to begin with, but living in Tanzania for a few months makes you even cheaper, trust me. But we let Prof. Senkoro work his magic and chat up the managers until they agreed to make us simpler meals for only $5 per plate… thanks god we had him there. We spend the rest of the afternoon/night relaxing at the hotel, on the beach, and next to the beautifully lit up beachside pool. What a hard life.

On Sunday we woke up early and went snorkeling for most of the morning. The coral reef that we went snorkeling to was amazing and there were so many types of really cool, unbelievably brightly colored, huge fish. Plus the coral itself was also pretty amazing. I have done a fair amount of snorkeling in my life, and this definitely was one of the cooler places I have ever gone. Minor detail though: swimming for a few hours in the mid-day summer African sun does not go over well on untan skin. Regardless of the copious amounts of sunscreen that we applied to ourselves prior to snorkeling, all of us are thoroughly fried on our backs and are still in a significant amount of pain… but it was worth it. After snorkeling and lunch, we once again spend the afternoon just hanging out on the beach and I went on a really nice walk down the beach at sunset. There is a lot of rock/coral next to the beach, and on my way back right as the sun was setting, there were a ridiculous amount of crabs scurrying all around in the rocks. I saw at least 6 or 7 different types of them and all different sizes, it was pretty cool.

Yesterday mid-morning we drove back to Stonetown and spent the rest of the morning/afternoon shopping and wandering around. Senkoro ended up booking us on a flight home instead of taking the ferry again because, oddly enough, once you have a residence permit it is actually cheaper to fly than it is to take the boat (this country is extremely weird, I don’t get it at all). Anyways, our plane was almost an hour late so we had to wait in the airport for a while, but it was definitely worth the wait because the plane was awesome. It only fit about ten people (and by that I mean ten very, very cramped people) and was about a twenty minute flight. Not only could we see out over all of Zanzibar and its beautiful beaches, but we were also flying out right at sunset, which made it even more pretty. I’ve never been in a plane that small or flown over such pretty sights, so it was really fun.

Today we were supposed to start classes, but (like usual) things weren’t organized enough to start. We did, however, get our semi-final schedule for the semester, which is beyond amazing. Here’s what it looks like:

Monday: NO CLASSES

Tuesday: 9am-12pm -- Kiswahili

2-5pm African -- Literature

Wednesday: 9am-12pm -- History of East Africa

2-5pm -- Family and Gender Relations

Thursday: 9am-12pm -- African Politics

Friday: NO CLASSES

So Todd (the director from UF) worked it out for us that we have four day weekends every week! I mean having six hours of class two days a week will probably be a little bit painful and having three hours at a time of each class isn’t always the most fun… but I’d still say it’s a pretty great schedule. This schedule will also give me plenty of opportunities to go visit friends in Moshi and travel to Dodoma to figure out my research, which is perfect. I’ll give more of an update about my classes in a few days (assuming they actually start tomorrow like they should). Talk to you all soon

Love,

Lisa

Backpacking in the Usambaras

Let me start off by saying that this was honestly one of my favorite trips that I have ever done. Laura, Tacy and I took the bus to Lushoto (the central town in the Usambara Mountain range) on last Sunday and organized a three day hike through the mountains. We basically had no idea what to expect, but it definitely ended up being better than I copuld have even imagined.

DAY ONE: Lushoto to Lukozi

We left Lushoto first thing in the morning and walked stright up the mountain behind town so that we got a great view overlooking the downtown and surrounding areas. After a little while, we all of the sudden entered an actual rainforest. There wasn't even really an existing trail through half of it, we were just kind of trudging through the rainforest, which was awesome. We saw a bizarre red squirrel with a bright yellow tail and a two horned chameleon (which we got to hold). There were also a lot of colibus monkeys in the forest, but the forest was too dense and we could only hear them most of the time. About halfway through our walk in the rainforest it actually started pouring rain, but it almost made the forest even more exciting to be in. I guess we wouldn't have felt that way if we all didn't have nice rainjackets, but it worked out fine for us. When we finally came out of the forest, we stopped to have lunch right next to someone's house, so the kids all came out and ate lunch with us.

After lunch, we walked past the main university in the area (which was pretty tiny) and then through a beautiful valley. At the end of the valley we came to a village where they were making the traditional beer of the area, which is made from sugar cane. We didn't try any but we did get to see them crushing the sugar cane to make it, which was a very weird/cool process. After that, our guide gave us the option of taking the bus the next part of the way or walking the last two hours of the trip... we had already been walking for about six hours and hadn't slept at all the night before (Laura had been up all night getting sick) so we opted for taking the bus. I know, we took the lazy route, but it was definitely a good call at the time because we were all dying a little bit haha.

When we got to Lukozi, we brought our stuff to the hotel (if you could even call it a hotel...) and then went back to town to explore the market a bit. Lukozi is a much smaller town that Lushoto, but it's very busy because it has a big downtown market with a lot of fresh fruit. The fruit here in Tanzania is so so so much better at home to begin with, but it was even more fun up there because they have fruits that we don't get in Dar (like peachs, pears, apples, and berries). Unfortunately, I got very sick to my stomach that night and didn't really get to sleep at all, which was probably a result of some of that delicious fruit that I guess I didn't wash quite well enough. I was fine by the morning though, so I kept going with the trip and it wasn't a huge problem.

DAY TWO: Lukozi to Rangwi

Started off immediately uphill and again climbed the mountain right beside town. Then, followed the back side of the mountain down, through a small village (where the kids followed us the whole way) and then back up the mountain on the other side of the village. We actually met a group of three women carrying buckets on their head who were also walking to Rangwi, so we all started off the walk together. They, however, lost us fairly quickly since we kept stopping to take pictures of the beautiful view of the mountains around us! We then went on to climb to the top of the higher mountain beside the one we had just finished, which ended up having an even more amazing view. At few points, the trail that we were on would end up on a small cliff and have only about ten feet in either direction, so you could look out to both sides and see the wonderful view of endless valleys and mountains. The mountains are all covered by terrace farming as well as little villages and homes. I asked our tour guide if this was the longer/more scenic route to Rangwi since it seemed pretty out of the way, but he said that it is actually the only walking path there is between the two towns and is the fastest route.

After reaching the top of the third mountain (which was a bit painful), we finally started the downhill section of the day. We walked down the back of the mountain and then started through the farmlands. We were literally walking right throuhg peoples' crops and their backyards. We picked pears directly from the trees to eat while we walked, kids would run after us, adults would stop farming to talk to us; it was wonderful. The walk from the bottowm of the mountain to Rangwi took another 2 hours or so, but it felt so much shorter because there were so many people and it was so exciting to walk through. We finally arrived in Rangwi around 3pm, but we never actually went to the town of Ragwi (which I'm not sure really exists). We stayed at a beautiful nunnery in the middle of nowhere where the nuns farm for a living and keep a guest house for anyone passing through. They made us a wonderful home-cooked meal and even heated up water for us to use to bathe (the first hot shower I've had in a month)! It was a great place to spend the rest of the afternoon/night relaxing.

DAY THREE: Rangwi to Mtae

After leaving the nunnery we walked again through some villages and farmlands before reaching a HUGE man-made pinew forest. The forest had been planted by the Germans for timber when it was their colony, and is still running as a lumber business today. The pine forests are beautiful, but look extremely unnatural next to the rest of the countryside because of their extreme uniformity. We walked through the pine forests for an hour or two and even got to see some men cutting down the wood for lumber. Because they obviously don't have big machines here, the men had made a contraption to hold the giant logs up, and then two of them at a time were using a saw the size of my body to cut apart the logs. It was pretty amazing, but a job that definitely never want to have!

After leaving the pine forest, we walked along a main road for a little while and through a few small towns. We stopped in one of the villages to buy pottery from an old lady who makes it to sell in the market. We literally showed up at her house and she just spread out her stuff all around her backyard... it was some pretty beautiful pottery. After leaving her house and walking further along the main road though, I was starting to think that the third day maybe hadn't been worth it and we should have just done two days (because my back hurt from my backpack and I didn't think we would get to see anymore). Right as I was thinking that though, we randomly turned a corner and all of a sudden came upon the most spectacular view we had yet to see. We had reached the end of the Usambara Mountains and they suddenly fell off into plains for as far as we could see. We could also see a large lake to one side (which I can't remember the name of), which separates the Usambaras from the Parre mountains which are the next range. We stopped to eat lunch with that view in front of us, and then continued along that main road the rest of the way to Mtae, which was on a cliff at the end of the last mountain.

Coming into Mtae, the road was like the mountaintop had been the day before where you could see out in both directions, excpet this time it was even more gorgeous. Our hotel was this little shack right in town (which was just one tiny strip of stores) and looked out over the rest of the town and the plains in the distance. We hung out at the hotel for a little and rested, and then walked through town to do some looking around for a while. It is a beautiful quaint little town with even more amazing views... I could definitely move there! Our guide then took us to a secret little lookout behind the town dispensary where we watched the sun set over the end of the mounatins and the plains in the distance. I can't even begin to describe how spectacular it was, we never wanted to leave!

After the sun set we went to dinner in town and then right back to the hotel to go to bed at around 8:30pm. We hadn't really realized it at the beginning of the trip, but it turned out that there were no buses that leave from Mtae in the afternoon and they only leave first thing in the morning. The buses that start in Mtae are the same daily buses that run from Lushoto to Arusha or to Dar each day, so they have to be in Lushoto to pick up their passengers by 7:00 am. The problem with that is that Mtae is about 3 hours from Lushoto.... so we had to get on the bus at 4am in order to get to Lushoto, where we had just enough time to get breakfast before gtting on our bus home to Dar. It was a bit unnerving being on the bus at 4am and driving along frighteningly twisty mountainside roads in the pitch black, but it was an experience nonetheless.

On the whole, the trip was so amazing because it was so far from being a touristy trip. We were walking through villages on roads that the locals use and taking all sorts of back routes... it never felt like we were just there to be tourists and we always felt welcome. The culture and the views were both simply wonderful. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Anyways, sorry for this being so long but I thought the details were necessary... I am actually in Zanzibar right now so back to the beach for me! I'll write about Zanzibar too when I get home in a few days. Miss you all

Love,
Lisa

Change of Plans

On Wednesday night I went to teach at the woodcarvers again, and this time we taught a real lesson. We were teaching the different between either/or and neither/nor, when one of the carvers made the sentence "I don't know either I can go or not." We corrected him and said it should be "whether I can go or not," but when asked why, neither Mary nor I could explain it. You never realized how much you don't know about the English language and how weird it is until you get stuck with questions like that...

Because this was our last week of intensive Kiswahili, we had an oral exam yesterday and a written final exam today. Both parts were kind of terrible. First, they didn't tell us about the oral exam until the morning of so we had no time to prepare or study for it at all. Then, it wasn't even with our professor or our TA's, it was each of us alone with three other Kiswahili professors who we have never met before. Not to mention that these professors don't teach beginner Kiswahili, they teach our equivalent of English major classes (i.e. Kiswahili literature and other such classes). They asked questions so quickly and with vocab that we hadn't really learned so it was a challenge to even understand what they were asking, let alone answer the questions. I studied a lot an figured the written exam today would be a lot easier, but it turned out to almost be worse. I am not sure why they decided to put on it what they did since it didn't represent what we have learned at all, but oh well.

Just like I had predicted, it turns out that our classes and professors are not yet fully organized to start classes on Monday, so we will have a week off before our classes start (supposedly now on the 23rd). We already have a group trip to Zanzibar with Professor Senkoro planned for next weekend, so we only have until Thursday to do some travelling on our own. A few of us decided we want to go do some hiking in the Usambara Mountains (the really gorgeous mountain range that I saw from the Dar-Moshi bus ride), so we are going to leave Sunday morning to go to Lushoto, the central city of the Usambara Mts, and play it by ear once we get there. I even ran up and down the 8 flights of stairs in my dorm bunch of times last night to get my hiking boots worn in and ready... I can't wait!

Love,
Lisa

Weekend at the University

First of all, I finally got to post pictures and these were requested by my mom... so here is a bit from my room. One of the distance pictures on the left is the view from my balcony, and I know it is small but if you look closely you can see the Indian Ocean in the distance. The other is a picture out the end of the hallway looking out over campus at a few of the dorms nearby (yes our hallway does just open up to the outside at the end of it). You can kinda see from these pictures what I meant about the campus being half in the middle of a forest... its very weird, but beautiful nonetheless. The two pictures on the right are my room from two angles (the matching posters were already there when I got here). The side with the plain green sheets and the bigger net is my side, the other side is my rommate Ashengai's side. To the right of her bed is where first the door out to the balcony is and then further over to the right is her desk and then her closet. On the picture of my side, the two doors in the middle is my whole closet, which is literally bigger than my closet at Lehigh (it's pretty nice)!

So this weekend was the first weekend since students have been on campus that we have not gone away for a trip. Although the trips are always fun and we still have a few left, it was nice to have a weekend to relax around campus and get some stuff done in Dar. On Saturday morning I went by daladala to the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) to meet with one of Professor Senkoro's family members, Prof Mbwette, who is going to help me with my research over the summer. For those of you who don't know, I guess I should give a (very) brief synopsis of what I mean by my research. My partner from school and I won a social entrepreneurship award from Lehigh to do research in Tanzania in order to possibly start up our own NGO (non-governmental orgnization). The idea for the organization is to promote sustainable water acces in rural areas of Tanzania by adding a heavy education aspect to the basic idea of building of wells. In order to start up the NGO (which I hope to do after graduating next year), Jason and I will be doing research this summer of wells that have been broken down (why they broke, why they haven't been fixed, other probelms with the wells, etc.) and with wells that are still functioning and why they are. That is a very very basic rundown... so I guess if you want any more details you can email me and ask. Anyways, Prof Mbwette is now the Vice-Chancellor of the Open University of Tanzania, but in school he had studied engineering and water purification. After graduating he did a lot of work with water companies and eventually has worked with the national water board as well. It was coincidence that we met when Prof Senkoro took us all out to dinner, but he is an amazing contact for me to have. We talked all about my proposal, how to register an NGO most efficiently, where I should do my work, etc. He also gave me the information for the head of University of Dar es Salaam's Water Insititute, who is a former student of his. I know exactly where the institute is and have been wanted to visit it but did not know who to speak to when I went there... so now I have the president's cell phone number! I can't even believe how much I lucked out. This seems to be a great start so far, so I'm very excited.

After leaving the OUT, I took the daladala back part of the way and then decided to walk home because it was a nice day. I stopped on the way back at one of the big markets because I really wanted to buy a khanga (the patterned fabrics that people use as aprons basically) that has Obama's face on it because I think they are pretty funny. When I asked how much it was, however, the seller told me it was Tsh 20,000 just because I'm white and she thought I was a tourist! (Tsh is the equivalent of like $18 and a khanga should cost no more than Tsh 5,000). It was ridiculous! I obviously didn't buy it, but it was funny to see how much some people try to jack up the prices just because they think they can.

On Saturday night a few of us went to the mall to go see a movie. There are only 4 theaters in the mall, but they are actually really really nice. We saw Bolt (the cartoon about the dog) which turned out to be really cute. When the lights turned on at the end we were all talking for a few minutes and finally one person said "Oh wow, I completely forgot we are in Africa right now." It was so true. Although it was really touristy of us to go to the movie, I must admit it was pretty nice to just be Americans again for one night.

Sunday midday I went to visit Mussa's family again (the professor who is studying at Lehigh right now). I ended up spending the whole day there, and it's starting to feel like my own little Tanzanian family. Mussa's wife taught me how to make pilau (spiced rice with meat and vegetables) and we cooked for much of the morning. We had a huge lunch all together and then watched Mrs. Doubtfire, which Ibu (the older son who is about my age) had borrowed from one of his friends. I really love spending time with the family because Ibu is the only one who speaks any English and he is pretty shy, so almost the whole time I try to speak in Swahili. Because Mama Ibu (Mussa's wife) doesn't know any English, she never looks at me like I'm dumb when I speak really slowly and in not always correct Swahili. It's quite the challenge, but I really like it and it's so helpful. I think I am going to go back again next weekend and Mama Ibu prmised to teach me how to cook chapati (a type of bread that is eaten here all the time).

This week is our last week of intensive Kiswahili, and starting on Monday we should have all of our five classes; however, who knows if that will ever actually happen on time. I don't think I have seen anything happen on schedule since I got here a month ago, so I would be surprised if this did! Either way though, we have class all week and then a big final exam on Friday. I can't believe I have already been here 5 weeks, time goes by so quickly. Miss you all lots.

Love,
Lisa

More Malaria Drama and the Woodcarvers Market

On Wednesday I went to the clinic to get tested for malaria once again just to make sure that the last medicine I had taken worked properly. After getting the test done, I went in to speak to the doctor and he said that now I had 3 malaria parasites (that's one more than I had before)! I obviously started berating him with questions about how that could be possible and why the medicine would have not worked AGAIN even though I feel completely fine. He wasn't answering my questions very thoroughly and I was starting to freak out a little, for good reason if you ask me. After literally a full five minutes of me throwing questions at him, the doctor said "Oh I'm just kidding, they didn't see any malaria parasites. You're fine, I just wanted to see how you'd react." I was completely dumbstruck. I mean I know that I am in Africa and the hotpitals here aren't great, but still... I don't think I've ever met a doctor who joked (and especially for that long) about a somehwat life threathening disease. It was ridiculous. I walked out of the office half relieved and half about to scream at him. Anyways, the good news is that I am finally clear and don't have malria anymore... I just wish the doctor hadn't tried to be funny about it.

The past two nights (Thursday and Friday) I have gone to the woodcarvers market at Mwenge to teach English and I'm really starting to like it a lot. The first few days of the week are usually lessons, and at the end of the week we do discussions. The past two days we did discussions on politics and corruption and Kikwete's goverment (the current president). Even though the woodecarvers' English is by no means perfect, it's really interesting to here what they have to say on topics like that (when you can understand the point they are making).

The other day I actually walked around the woodcarvers market for the first time during the day when it is open. By the time we get there to teach at night, around 7pm, the whole martket is shut down. It was pretty cool to walk around during the day since it is a lot bigger than I had expected, but I also ran into a little bit of trouble while I was there. While walking around the market, a bunch of the men there were calling me Mwalimu (teacher) and talking to me, so everyone there kind of knew I had taught there recently. A group of men on the far side of the market approached me and started begging me to come teach them instead of the other group because they have 30 students and no actual teachers. When I asked about why they couldn't just join our class, the men said they didn't feel comfortable working with the men we teach because they are from a different tribe. In the market there is one big sqaure with stores on all sides, but what I hadn't realized is that there are two very different tribes that work at the market. Apparently the tribes don't really get along with one another, which is unusual anywhere in Tanzania so I was even more surprised to hear of it in the middle of a city. I didn't really know what to tell them because I feel bad that they don't have teachers but I wouldn't ditch the other men to teach them either... I didn't really know what to do. Hopefully eventually we can get them to combine their classes, but who knows.

This weekend we aren't going anywhere, just hanging out around the university istead, which will be nice for a change. We will go to Zanzibar on our next trip in two weeks, but until then just lots more studying Kiswahili and relaxing on campus. I'll write again soon.

Love,
Lisa

Home Sweet Home Moshi and Finally Seeing Lions!

There are a few American students that we have made friends with who are left over from the U of Florida and other programs from last semester. We have made pretty good friends with three of them—Julie , Amanda, and Joe—but unfortunately none of them are staying the whole program this semester because of the messed up schedule. Joe and Amanda are just hanging out in Dar es Salaam for a while longer and then travelling around, but Julie is headed to Uganda for next semester instead. Thursday night was our last night to see Julie, so we threw her a mini party on the roof of our dorm. The roof is basically a finished floor that they just decided not to put a roof on, so it’s really nice up there… and we even splurged to buy cheese for the occasion haha. Julie has showed us around Dar a lot since we got here and been really great to hang out with, so it was sad to see her go.

On Friday morning we left for our trip to Arusha. As soon as we left Dar I talked to Prof Senkoro and convinced him to let me stop off in Moshi for part of the weekend before meeting up with the group in Arusha (Moshi is on the same bus route, about an hour closer to Dar than Arusha). For those of you who don’t know specific names, Moshi was the town that I lived in this summer when I volunteered, so there were lots of people and places that I wanted to visit. The bus ride there was a bit painful and long—about 8 hours to Moshi—but it is a beautiful drive, so that makes it at least a bit better. Half of the time is spend driving through the Usambara Mountain range, which is a spectacular area of the country… don’t worry I have plenty of pictures like always.

I arrived in Moshi at about 5:30 pm (after leaving Dar at 9:00 am) and walked to the Kinderoko, the main hotel in town. There were multiple people that said I would be able to stay with them when I came to visit, but I didn’t find out until really late that I would be coming to town and I felt bad throwing myself at someone on that short of notice. The first thing I did when I got to the hotel was to walk up to the rooftop restaurant/bar to see the view of Mt. Kilimanjaro that there always is up there. The view was even better than it had been last time I was here because it is much clearer this time of year. Soon after, Ibrah came to pick me up at the hotel to go to dinner. Ibrah was the program director of the volunteer program that I did in Moshi. Seeing Ibrah was really, really fun and it was great to catch up. I got to hear all about what he’s doing now (no longer working at CCS and in the process of starting his own volunteer company). The plans for his new company may be a little overambitious… but I hope they work out for him. And for those of you who know Ibrah, would you really expect anything else? Haha

Saturday morning, I had breakfast on the roof of the Kinderoko (you really can’t get enough of the view) and then went to the TAFCOM office to meet up with Nie and her husband, the founders of the NGO. TAFCOM (Tanzania Action for Community Development) is a local NGO that does mainly HIV/AIDS support in the Moshi area. At the end of my time in Moshi in June, I had gone on home visits with TAFCOM and ended up informally adopting a family that was made up of a woman and her three children, all of whom suffer from HIV/AIDS. Since June, I have been sending a little bit of money every month in order to help Asia, the mother, start up her own small business selling tomatoes, and to pay for the oldest son, Abubakari, to go to primary school. A few months ago the youngest of Asia’s three children passed away from and AIDS related disease, but the others are doing well. It was great to see Nie again and to meet her husband (who hadn’t been in town when I was here last), and they told me all about how the organization is going and their plans for future expansion. Nie also thanked me profusely for deciding to “adopt” Asia and her children, because I was the first in what is now a fairly long string of volunteers to do the same. Unfortunately, Asia and the children were out of town visiting their family for the holidays, so I could not see them this trip. When I return to Moshi next, Nie said she will make sure to arrange to take me there.

After Leaving TAFCOM, I checked out of my hotel and got picked up once again by Ibrah. I had really wanted to see Peter, the driver from my volunteer program who I was very good friends with (he took me to the hospital twice while I was in Moshi and always took care of me… he was basically my Tanzanian Dad), but I wasn’t sure if he was working that day. By complete coincidence, Ibrah and I ran into Peter driving around a current CCS volunteer, and I surprised him. When he saw me, Peter ran out of his car and gave me the biggest bear hug ever. He had such a huge grin and was so so so excited to see me, it was wonderful. I had always told him that I would be back within the year, but I hadn’t really given him much warning. We only had a few minutes to talk because he was on work, but it was so great to see him and I promised to call when I was coming to town next.

Ibrah then took me to see the new house that he is building, which will eventually include a fairly large house for himself and two back apartments to be rented out/used for his company’s volunteers. Right now, however, only one of the back apartments is finished (where he is living), and the rest is basically just the structure and some rubble. The picture at the top is of me and Ibrah at his house. Afterwards, we went to get a late lunch together and he took me to the bus station to catch a daladala to Arusha. There are so many other places I would have liked to visit, but unfortunately I just didn’t have time, so I guess I’ll just have to go back again sometime soon! It completely felt like home being back there though, I miss Moshi a lot.

On Sunday morning, we left the hotel in Arusha to go on a one day safari to Taragire National Park, which is about 2 hours outside of Arusha. I wasn’t too excited at first because I have already been on a few safaris and this park didn’t seem as nice as the others had been, but I ended up having a wonderful time. We actually got to see 8 lions (!!!), which was very exciting for me because lions were the one thing I hadn’t seen last time I was here. We also saw a bunch of cool birds that I haven’t seen before… including one crazy one that I’m going to post a picture of and someone will have to try to figure out what it is for me! Also, while on the safari we were parked next to a group of women and I saw that one of them had a CCS t-shirt on. We started talking, and it turned out that they were all from the CCS Karanga house (the one that I lived in this summer) and one of them was even teaching at Kilimahewa, the school where I worked! Overall, the safari turned out to be a much bigger success than I had expected, and it was a great closing to an amazing weekend... the only thing that could have made it better would have been to magically transport home and not have had to take another 8 hour bus ride home haha.

Sorry for such a long blog this time! Oh and I promise to post more pictures when the internet is faster and it doesnt take 20 minutes per picture.

Love,

Lisa