Zanzibar

We had a 3-day weekend this past weekend, so all 23 of us ventured over to Zanzibar for a mini-vacation. Zanzibar is a small island 20 miles of the coast of Tanzania. It remains relatively independent, but is actually part of the country of Tanzania. We flew out Friday morning from Kilimanjaro airport and arrived in Zanzibar a little over an hour later. The flight was slightly terrifying since it was my first time on a prop plane, but it was also one of the most beautiful flights I have ever been on. Not only did we get a tremendous view of the Tanzanian landscape but also of the beautiful waters between the mainland and Zanzibar.

Immediately after we arrived in Zanzibar, we all hopped into a bus with our tour guides for the weekend, a few really cool Tanzanian Rastafarians that a guy in our group had met a couple months ago. We drove to a Spice Farm and took a Spice Tour in order to see all of the different spices and fruits that Zanzibar is known for growing. They showed us the leaves, roots and seeds for each tree and had us guess which spice it made. We saw ginger, cardamom, lemongrass, cinnamon, pepper, turmeric (turned my hands yellow for awhile), and many more. They were also growing starfruit on the farm, which really excited me because Ryan and I LOVED when Mom would bring some home from the grocery store. I was very glad that they passed some out for everyone to try. During the entire tour, there was a group of boys who were making necklaces, bracelets, hats, and baskets out of banana leaves and palm fronds. They would rip the leaves into strips and then weave it into really cool patterns. You can see the bracelet and ring that I am wearing in the picture to the left, along with my banana leaf collection basket and a piece of starfruit that was stuck on my forehead for some reason. At the end of the tour, we all sat down and tasted several different teas and lots of different tropical fruits. It was a very appreciated snack since there was no time for lunch in our cramped schedule for the day.

After the spice tour, we took a quick tour of Stone Town, the historic part of Zanzibar where Arabic traders built stone buildings hundreds of years ago. This also used to be a major hub of the East African slave trade, with many thousands of slaves passing through every year. We went into the basement of the buildings where slaves had been held while in Zanzibar. It was a cramped dark space where they would stuff 70-75 women and children. It was not a very happy tour. There was a statue outside that had been built in the memory of the slaves, though it was a depressing statue. There were were four large figures with chains around their neck standing in an opening in the ground. It really disturbed me to see people taking pictures with it.

After our abbreviated Stone Town tour, we got a quick dinner from street vendors at the night market. They had skewers of meat to choose from that they would roast right there for you. I got a skewer of Kingfish, chapati, and a vegetable Zanzibar pizza. To make Zanzibar pizza, they take a small piece of dough, fill it with vegetables/meat, egg and mayonnaise and then fold up the edges. This is cooked on a frying pan until it becomes crispy and golden-brown. It was very delicious and I was disappointed that I did not have time to try the chocolate and banana pizza.

After watching the sunset from a nearby bar right on the water, we drove about an hour north to Nungwi Village, where we were staying at "Romantic Bungalows." After a quick luggage dropoff and shower, we went to a well-known bar named Kendwa Rocks. It was a large place right on the beach with lots of cool seating areas. A few of us even discovered a dilapidated boat on the beach that of course we hopped onto in order to explore and take pictures. The mix of different people that were at the bar was extremely interesting. There were plenty of tourists, from the US, Europe, Mexico, etc. but there were also plenty of locals, including several Maasai wearing their traditional dress. It was very strange to see a European female wearing a short jean skirt and tank top (hugely inappropriate for this conservative area) hanging out with a Maasai warrior. It was definitely the most diverse crowd that I have ever experienced. There was a group of 4 acrobats who did an extensive performance of all different kinds of tricks. I will have to get pictures up of some of their moves because it is too difficult to describe (and I don't have time).

On Sunday morning, I woke up early in order to go scuba diving with 2 others, Justin and Merete. Merete had made the reservations with a dive shop in Nungwi Village, so we walked over at 9:30, met the Tanzanian dive master, Mr. Fine, who would accompany us and got all of our equipment prepared. Our first dive went to about 17 m and was about 50 minutes long. Visibility was ok, but a little reduced since the sea was choppy and it started raining while we were diving. But we still saw lots of beautiful fish. The current was pretty strong and I could feel it pushing me around even at that depth, which I had not experienced before. It was a drift dive, so the dive master held a rope attached to a float that the boat would follow around. After the first dive was over, we were not looking forward to getting back on the boat since it was still rocking a good amount. But we had to take a 40-minute break before the next dive and it is very necessary to switch to a new air tank, so we did not have much of a choice. It did not take long once we sat on the boat for all three of us to start feeling very seasick. Luckily, the diveshop staff did all of our airtank switches for us while we sat there looking miserable and trying to avoid feeding the fish our breakfast. Once we had moved to the next divesite and it was time to get back in the water, Mr. Fine helped me put my BCD back on as I was reaching the height of my nausea. At this point, I was well aware that I was not going for our next dive with the food in my stomach, so I struggled to lean over the edge with my heavy steel air tank on my back while Justin held on to me so that I would not go overboard. Sorry if that has completely grossed you out, but I felt a thousand times better post-puke. We then hopped in the water and had a wonderful 55-minute second dive!!! We saw a total of 4 sea turtles while we were down which was definitely the most exciting thing for me. Some other highlights were seeing a few octopi, lots of moray eels, some bright green lobsters, tons of lion fish, a huge puffer fish, and lots of other cool fish that I don't know the names of. Needless to see, we were all very glad that we hadn't wimped out of the second dive because we were feeling so miserable in between. As we were heading back to the beach, we sighted a pod of dolphins about 30 meters away. They then dove down into the water because they were able to smell the nearby fishing net, as told by Mr. Fine. We waited around for a few minutes looking for them and then about 10 of them surfaced right next to our boat!! I had never seen so many dolphins up-close in the wild before, so I quickly let out a squeal of delight. It was a perfect ending to a very memorable morning.

We ate lunch and got back right in time for the Dhow sunset cruise that we had planned for the whole group. A Dhow is a type of sailboat used by Arabic traders. I would recommend wikipedia'ing it in order to see a picture. They are really cool looking. The one we rode on was quite large since it ended up having about 30 passengers. It also had an "upper deck" on the back half of the boat that you climbed up a ladder to get to. It gave a wonderful view of the ocean, was a perfect spot for jumping into the water, and was romantically decorated with flowers. And of course we brought a cooler filled with beer, soda, and water along with a bag of cookies and Pringles! After a short trip, the boat anchored so that we could go swimming, snorkeling and ride the two kayaks that the Dhow was tethered to. I just threw on my goggles (which were later lost in the ocean when my kayak was capsized) and swam around, hanging onto the kayaks whenever I got tired.

Once the sun began to set, we all piled back into the boat and they put the sail up. Imagine this: a packed cooler, a group of really fun people including our Tanzanian Rasta friends, a guitar, the sun setting in the African sky, the freedom to spontaneously jump off the top deck of the boat whenever it felt like the right thing to do. It was perfect and totally worth a trip to Zanzibar.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, we headed to a nearby bar where we had paid the "Spice Boys" to prepare a buffet dinner for us. While waiting I played some 3v3 Flip Cup (with very mini cups) with the people sitting across from us. I am ashamed that both of my partners were Dookies, but we were still awesome and we definitely won. There was a LOT of food, all of which was delicious. They had chapati, salad, octopus, squid, prawns, some kind of chicken thing that I didn't have, and heavily spiced rice. I think that my last bite of rice had an entire peppercorn in it which numbed half of my mouth and made me run back to the food to get some chapati to calm it down. It was easy to see where they got the name Spice Boys from. After dinner, we hung out at a nearby bar on the beach and then went to bed relatively early since we were all exhausted by this point.

Monday was a day of small problems building up on each other that culminated in us almost missing our flight back to Arusha. The best part was when we were already running very late and our bus broke down 1 mile away from the airport. We all immediately hopped off, piled into a dala dala and made it to the airport a couple minutes later. We arrived at the airport at about 4:37 (our flight is scheduled for 5). They tried to tell us the flight closed 20 minutes ago but we had called a few minutes beforehand and we garnered enough sympathy for them to let us through. They printed all 23 boarding passes, we paid the random 5,000 shilling airport tax and made it through security by 4:45. We sat down on the plane and it left the tarmac before 5pm. We did not even delay the flight. I was highly impressed. The plane stopped over in Dar es Salaam, which was a 15-minute flight tarmac-to-tarmac. It was the shortest flight of my life. We had to get off the plane, get new boarding passes, go through security again and then get back onto the exact same plane. It did not make much sense, but we just went along with it.

Zanzibar was a wonderful vacation that left us all closer together as a group. We are going on safari this coming weekend!!

Our First Fix!!

Today we went to Mount Meru Hospital for our second group work-day. It was much more organized this time since we knew what to expect and the closet where the hospital keeps all of their broken equipment had been organized. Last week, Alex and I had been shown an OB-GYN operating room that had two heaters, one of which was completely broken and the other which had only one out of two heating elements working. Today we found a spare heater in the equipment closet and after twisting together some wires and sticking them into the power outlet, found out that it was working. We then went to replace the broken heater, but found a newborn baby outside the operating room and thus decided to go back later. We then took a "quick" trip into town to find a hardware store for some needed parts and to eat lunch. We arrived back at the hospital 3 and a half hours later. Luckily, there was not an operation going on this time.

We brought our tool kit into the operating room and opened up the unit, which was a bit trickier than it should have been since it was mounted on the wall above our heads. Once we had it all opened up, we were able to quickly find the problem. Two of the wire connections had come loose so that the heating elements were not receiving any power. So instead of replacing the whole unit, all we had to do was solder the wires back together, which was a little bit of a challenge since we needed to connect to an incredibly rusted screw. It was not a very difficult repair to make, but it felt great to fix a piece of needed equipment in an already under-equipped operating room. I did sneak some pictures of the room, so hopefully I will have those up soon. Next Friday we are going to replace the other heater in the room with the spare that we had found in the closet today. Alex and I then celebrated our first success with a big bottle of cold water. Yummm!

The whole group is going to Zanzibar this weekend! We have off from classes on Monday, so we will get three days there. I am sure that I will have lots of stories once I get back. We have lots of fun stuff planned and we are all really looking forward to it. We have been so busy that we are all ready for a well-deserved break.

Pictures and Cell Phone!

So I have officially received a cell phone!! The local number is 0785058868 and the Tanzania country code is 255. Feel free to give me a call, but it probably won't be cheap. Skype is 30 cents a minute but calling cards are probably cheaper. I don't yet know how to check voicemail on this phone, so I wouldn't recommend leaving a message. But I can receive text messages! Please keep in mind that we are seven hours ahead of east coast time and I am usually sleeping from 10pm - 6:30am. Best times to call are between 7:30-8:30 am and 8pm-9:30 pm my time (12:30-1:30 am, 1pm - 2:30pm EST). Hope to hear from some of you!

I have uploaded some pictures below but am not currently using my laptop, so I don't have all that I would like to show you. More later!


My host mom, Haika, and her 3-year old son, Christian, on a walk by their house. We trekked up a hill in order to visit with another family.





Jenny and I making Chapati on the back patio. The kitchen opens up to this patio, so some food preparation often takes place outside. You can see behind us the banana trees growing in the back yard. I'm not sure if I have mentioned before that Jenny is Haika's sister. She is visiting for a couple weeks since Haika will be taking a couple short trips. She helps out with cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the young'ins.

The picture to the right is from our hike in the Maasai village. You can't see it, but to the right is a view of the city of Arusha.






Alex and I with our LED flashlight that we successively built. Alex will be my partner at the hospital next month.







Alex and I in front of the waterfall during our hike through the Maasai village.









Me, Merete and Lora testing blood pressure cuffs during our first workday at Mt. Meru Hospital on Friday.

I have not been able to post anything for awhile, but I have been trying to keep up by typing up some random thoughts in the evening before I forget them. Therefore, I have a whole bunch of stories or tidbits below to share with you. But it is a lot of words, so you probably shouldn't read it all unless you are my mother and just miss me THAT much! I have attempted to post pictures but did not have success, so I apologize for that. Maybe I will get lucky soon and the internet will have pity on me. I also did not have time to spell check anything so please don't hold it against me.


Night on the Town:

We went to Via Via, a bar and restaurant in downtown Arusha on Thursday evening. It is a large enclosed space with outdoor and indoor seating. We ate dinner here and then stayed to hear the band that started playing at 9. The host father of one of the other EWH-ers is in this band, which is why we decided to go. It was really nice to get out and be able to hang out with the whole group, especially since the location of my homestay keeps me slightly isolated. It is also nice to go to a bar where you can get two beers (they had a BOGO sale on Serengeti) for about 2 bucks. And my plate of spaghetti with pesto was only about $5. We left in two groups, an early and late group, and I left at 10pm with the early group since I felt guilty knowing that my host parents were probably worrying and waiting up for me. The minibus dropped me off right in front of the door, which is defnitely necessary at night. It is not far from the main road, but there are not street lights as there are at home and it gets very dark and potentially dangerous.

Food {Chakula}:

For breakfast, my host family usually makes very thin "egg pancakes" made from egg, water, milk, salt and sugar. This mixture is poured into a pan to make a thin layer. After a short while, it is flipped over in order to cook the other side. I am definitely planning on making these at home. It seems so easy and tastes so good. You can roll them up and just pick them up and eat them. There are always hard boiled eggs on the table at breakfast and also toast (with butter and pineapple jam). Sometimes we also have "sausages," which are really just plain hot dogs. And of course, we always have chai (tea) with breakfast.

I pack my lunch everyday with a mixture of breakfast items and usually a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. TCDC hosts tea-time for the entire center, employees and students, everyday at 10 am and 4 pm. Everyone takes a 30-minute break to enjoy coffee, chai, or hot chocolate. It is a wonderful concept that we all want to bring back to the US. It makes TCDC feel more like a community than a workplace or a school.

For dinner, we usually have the following:
-rice/spaghetti/ugali, sometimes more than one of these
-a creamy red stew with vegetables and beans/meat
-a sauteed mixture of chopped-up spinach and onions
-slices of avocado

The stew that we have most days is made from a creamy coconut milk. My family has this contraption that you sit on that has a sharp grater attached. Your body weight holds it down while you grate the inside of the coconut. I tried to do this without much success. Wini took over for me after she saw how inept I was. You then add hot water to the coconut. It gets mixed around a bit and then you squeeze the moisture out of the coconut and put it inside. This milky liquid is what is added to the stew. If only I could find an easier way of grating coconut, I would love to do this back home.

Jenny, my host mom's sister who is visiting, showed me how to make the stew one evening. It was surprisingly simple, since it is such a delicious dish.
-sautee onion, green pepper, and carrot
-add kidney beans
-add half of coconut cream
-boil, add rest of coconut cream
-add salt, seasoning to taste

Jenny and I also made Chapati on Sunday night, which I had only had once before and really enjoyed it. But I have decided that there is too much work involved and it does not have enough nutritional value, so I will not be making this at home. Sorry! First, you make a dough with flour, water, oil, salt and sugar. You knead this and add flour until it is the perfect consistency and your arms are too tired to keep going. Then you break the dough up into little balls. Each of these little balls is rolled into a flat circle with a rolling pin, coated with oil, rolled up like a cigarette, twisted into a cinnamon-bun looking formation and then packed down. Once you are ready to fry the chapati, you re-roll each of the dough formations into a circle and then put it into the pan with oil. I am not sure why all of rolling and twisting and then rolling again was necessary. It seemed to me that it was just extra work. Maybe they were playing a trick on me.

Any hot beverage that is served here is scalding hot. When I pour tea, I have to wait awhile in order for it to cool enough for me to be able to drink it without burning my tongue, which obviously happens a lot because I am impatient. And I sure do love the Masala tea that they serve at tea time (flashback to India), so it is hard for me to wait to enjoy its deliciousness. Also, milk is always served hot. And it is always fresh milk, probably with its full fat content. We have this occassionally at my house and I have grown to really enjoy it, especially with some drinking chocolate added to it.


Cultural Tourism:

On Saturday, the whole group went to a nearby Maasai Village for a "cultural tourism" program. We walked through a Maasai village where they do lots of farming (this Maasai tribe has settled down, traditionally they move around with their cattle to different grazing locations). There were banana trees and coffee plants growing everywhere and an abundance of beautiful flowers. I have been so surprised at how much vegetation grows in this entire region. It is not at all like the dust-coated dry season that I experienced in Malawi. It rains almost every night, but thankfully not usually during the day. The village that we toured had a beautiful waterfall that we got to experience after a precarious down-hill hike in the mud. We were then invited to go inside of a traditional Maasai home. They are large round dwellings made from cow dung and ash. There is an area sectioned off inside of each one where the cows sleep at night, both for their protection and to keep the inside warm. The father of this particular family was no longer alive, so the family was making its living off of this "cultural tourism" program and by allowing people to enter their home. After a lengthy hike through the village, we met the village chief who explained how their cultural tourism program works and its history. They keep logbooks of all of the visitors that they come, the fees that they pay and any donations that they collect. Every month, they have a village meeting that all of the adults attend (~700) in order to hear the community's income and decide how they should spend it. We were able to see a secondary school in the village that was just opened in 2007. However, they are still adding more classrooms, as there are way too many children for the current buildings. After the official "program" was over, a bunch of us chose to take a hike up a nearby hill/small mountain. It was steep but not very far and we were able to see a wonderful view of Arusha. I was very proud of myself when I was able to point out strawberry plants just by looking at the leaves (thanks to my American mother). The hike was a good warmup for a small group of us who are thinking of climbing Mount Meru next month. Meru is a mountain right next to Arusha, of which we had a wonderful view during our hike though it extended past the clouds, that is about 4,500 meters high. It takes three days to climb but does not require a lot of technical skill. You have to take an armed guide with you in order to show the way and to protect you from animals. More news on whether I will take on Mt. Meru later.


My Typical Weekday:

6:30 am - wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, drink tea
7:05 am - leave with Haika to catch the TCDC shuttle
7:30 am - arrive at TCDC, use the computers while no one else is there yet
8:00 am - many more people arrive and the internet gets much slower, I get much more frustrated
8:30 am - start Kiswahili lessons
10:00 - 10:30 am - TEA BREAK!!
12:30 pm - lunch time
1:30 pm - lecture from Nelson, a retired engineer, on a specific medical device (uses, how it works, common problems, ways to fix it), with many random stories thrown in and usually a video that is completely off-topic
2:30 pm - start working on the lab for the day (i.e. building an LED flashlight or variable power supply, lots of practice with soldering)
4:00-4:30 pm - TEA BREAK #2!!
5:30 pm - finished with class for the day, though we often finish our lab early, a small group of us usually goes for a run after we are finished
~6:00 pm- get driven home by Kisanji, our Tanzanian coordinator, or I take a dala dala home
7:00 pm - eat dinner then sit around talking with my family, do my homework, take a shower
10:00 pm - usually asleep or getting pretty darn close to it, I am always exhausted at night

Tour of the Farm:

In the backyard of our house, we have banana trees and coffee plants growing, but I did not realize today how far back the yard spread to and the fact that it is a full-fledged farm (well, a mini farm). My host father, Adam, gave me a personal walking tour of it. It was a muddy trek since it rains quite often here, but it was definitely worth it. They grow mainly banana trees {mgomba} and coffee {kahawa} but also corn {mahindi} and beans {maharagwe}. I must say that I had never seen coffee or beans growing before I came to Tanzania, so I am happy that I finally know what the plants look like. There were several streams running through the farm that they use for irrigation. There were also lots of boldly colored flowers dotting the farm. I would guess that they were growing on about an acre of land, though it is hard to say since it wasn't a perfect square nor was it organized as American farms are.

The Hunt for Cake:

One of the other participants, Adam, unfortunately a Dookie, turned 19 on Monday, so Justin and I decided to venture into town on Sunday in search of a birthday cake. We weren't sure what to expect since birthdays obviously aren't as big of an ordeal here, but we were confident that we would find some sort of dessert that would help us celebrate Adam's birthday. Other than getting almost lost walking to the center of town (the clocktower) from the dala dala stop, the trip was a huge success. There are a few places in town that I knew sold cake, but many stores are closed on Sunday, so we actually only had one possibility. Fortunately, we found the Naaz Hotel relatively easily and, to our delight, there was cake. They had three small cakes of different colors with decorative flowers on top and one larger one that had a little bear figurine holding an "I Love You Sign." Since we were feeding 25 people, we bought all three smaller cakes for a total of 30,000 Tanzanian shillings, which is about $25 or so. We then asked some locals that we had made friends with where we could buy candles and they led us to a nearby shop where we easily found a pack of birthday candles for under $1. We were so pleased with ourselves for finding everything that we needed that the dala dala ride back home was much more pleasurable and cheerful than usual. The town was much quieter since it was Sunday and we were not harassed nearly as much as usual, so it was a great experience all around.


Kiswhaili Translations of the Day:
Hatari - danger (my host father taught me this, definitely an important word to look for on signs)
Ajabu - something incredible (can be an exclamation)
Shamba - farm
Jirani- neighbor
Nina swali. - I have a question.

Yesterday, my incredibly cute Kiswahili teacher, Ritha, told me that I would make a good African woman and housewife. I am going to take it as a very nice compliment.

Familia Yangu

This post is going to be dedicated to my current host family because they are wonderful and they deserve to be recognized.

Haika, ~mid-30's?, mother. Haika works at TCDC, the training center where we have all of our classes. She is a secretary in the marketing department, so I travel to TCDC with her every morning, which results in my arrival at 7:30 (classes start at 8:30). She speaks English pretty well, so she is my personal translator whenever I am at home. She is extremely sweet and caring and takes such good care of me. She worries about me just as much as Mama Haac does at home, if you can believe that!

Adam, ~37, father. Adam also works at TCDC, as an electrician. He was on a retreat in Kenya with many of the TCDC employees until Sunday evening, so I haven't spent as much time with him yet. But so far he seems like a big teddy bear. He is a pretty big guy with a huge smile. He speaks a good amount of English, but really challenges me to speak in Kiswahili. On Monday night, we sat in the living for over an hour, while the electricity was out (a common occurrence) with him asking me questions slowly in Kiswahili. He would translate the words that I didn't understand so that I could add them to my ever-growing list of Kiswahili words.

Jimi, 17, son/brother. Jimi speaks English very well since he attends a school where everything is taught in English. Students get punished if they do not speak in English. He is taking an exam in about a month that determines where he will go for college/university. I was looking at his biology question/answer review book, and they really cover a wide variety of subjects. Jimi meets me at the entrance to our neighborhood every evening, where I am dropped off after classes. He is my protector whenever we go out. It is nice having someone in the family who is close to my age so that I can see what life is like for him. He will be going back to school in a couple of weeks (he stays in a dormitory there), but he will probably come home on the weekends to hang out with me. :)

Colin, ~9, son/brother. Colin is in school and speaks some English but not enough for me to have full conversations with him. He usually helps to translate words when I am talking to Christian. He is pretty shy and quiet, but I am sure that I will get to know him better in the coming weeks.

Christian, 3, son/brother. Christian is a real cutie. Our house never gets boring when Christian is there. I love when he bursts out singing songs that he has learned in school, such as Baa Baa Black Sheep or Twinkle Twinkle. It is hilarious to hear how he pronounces all the words. I gave him a kids' book of animal names that Mom found at Goodwill and he LOVES looking at it with me. I teach him the English words and he teaches me the Kiswahili words. He comes up to me and says "Jili!! I want elephant book!". It is so darn cute.

Wini, ~17, girl with a troubled past that has come to live with my family. Haika told me that her parents could not take care of her when she was born, so she was given to the neighbors. They took care of her up until about a year ago, when they said that they could no longer support her. Haika told me that Wini was very upset and suicidal, so Haiki brought her to live with her family. Haika loves everyone, and I am pretty sure that she would open up her home to anyone in need. The woman that Wini grew up with passed away last weekend, so Wini left this mornign to go to Moshi for the funeral. Wini does not speak much English, so it is difficult for us to communicate. I have started to learn more Kiswahili, so I know how to say some things, at least enough to be polite and ask a few questions. She attends school some days, but she does a lot of the cooking/cleaning/chores in the house. Yesterday I arrived home to find my stack of dirty laundry gone, only to find all of the clothes cleaned, ironed and folded on my shelf. I definitely did not expect them to do my laundry (I was going to pay to have it done at TCDC), so it was a huge surprise. Though I feel very guilty that she took the time to do that, I have not yet figured out how to handle the situation.

Mary, ~18, "nanny". So Mary was introduced to me as the nanny, but I have not seen her perform much child care. I think she is more like a "house helper." She also does a lot of the cooking, cleaning, etc. She speaks limited English, so we do a lot of communicating through smiles.

We also have 2 dogs who live outside of the house for security. I don't really see them much, but I definitely hear them at night when they bark outside of my window. Thankfully, it doesn't usually last for long.

Kiswahili Translations of the Day:
Mimi ninapenda kunywa bia. - I like to drink beer.
Shaglabagla - confusing (this is the funniest word that I have encountered thus far)
mshumaa - candle (learned this while the power was out)
Simama - stand up, Kaa-sit down, Ruka - jump, Tembea - walk (all of these words are used in a song, it is quite fun)
mhandisi- engineer

Time to start class. Love you all!

Wikiendi kwanza

I can't believe that I have only been in Tanzania for 3 full days! I have been completely melded into Tanzanian culture to an extent that I did not expect. There is not another EWH-er within walking distance, I don't really know the area, and I am not yet comfortable taking the dala dalas (vans used for public transport, a very interesting experience) by myself, so on the weekends it really is just me and my host family. I feel as if I am at the perfect distance outside of my comfort zone.

So I will tell you about my typical Tanzanian weekend {wikiendi}. On Saturday, my host brother, Jimmy (probably not the correct spelling), who is 17 years old and speaks great English, took me into downtown Arusha, a large nearby city, via dala dala. If you saw a dala dala, you would think that its max capacity is probably about 15 people, but no matter how many people are riding in a dala dala, it is never "full" and the driver will try to convince you to get in no matter what. It becomes quite comical when you see people cramped in and some hanging outside of the door, holding on for dear life. But we waited until one came that did not already have people packed in like sardines. Our first stop was a large market, which I expected to be a souvenir/craft-type market but found that it was the second-hand clothing market. Since it was my idea to go to the market, I bought a long sleeve shirt that may come in handy and a pair of comfy black flats (for church). We then headed to a restaurant for lunch, where I had a delicious veggie pizza, and then to ShopRite and a bookstore, where I bought an English-Swahili dictionary. They are very difficult to find in the US. All of the EWH-ers had planned to meet up in downtown Arusha at the clocktower at 3 and somehow everyone made it. I am not sure that I would have without Jimmy's help crossing the streets. Drivers here do not yield to pedestrians. We all walked to a huge produce market where we were quite the spectacle, as there is rarely so much white skin in one place in Tanzania. It was definitely more enjoyable when I was just walking around with Jimmy. It made it much easier to blend in, a little bit at least. By the time we got home in the evening, we were so tired from walking around all day in the sun. I slept very soundly {kulala fo fo fo = dead asleep} on Saturday night, which was my first night that I was really able to sleep well since I got here. It must be a sign that I am adjusting to my very different life!

And then, of course, Sunday morning was time for Church {kanisa}. My family is Lutheran and attends a church that Mama Haika has been going to since she was a child. Near the beginning of the service, I stood and introduced myself and said where I am from {Jina langu ni Jill. Ninatoka Marekani}. By the way, my name is pronounced Jilly by most people here because it is very strange for a word to end with a consonant. It was slightly nerve-wracking speaking in Kiswahili in front of so many people (maybe about 100 ppl at the service), but I am getting much better! The first half of the service consisted of a lot of standing, kneeling, and singing {kuimba} along with the choir. The pastor then read a passage from the bible and then talked about it for about 30 minutes. Mama Haika whispered the translation of much of it to me, so I was able to get the gist. There was a lot of talk against witch doctors and how they go against God and do not help people; they only cause more suffering. I really enjoyed listening to him talk and trying to pick out words that I know, guessing what he was talking about. I discovered that this church has a 2-round offertory. I was very confused when it was time to walk up again to put money in the basket. I just followed along. At the end of the service (less than 2 hours), a man in an old wheelchair spoke to the congregation, asking for help so that he can buy new wheels for his wheelchair. I spoke to my Mama about this later, and she said that disability is a huge problem here because handicapped people are not able to work and will probably not get married, so they have no access to money. There are no social services as there are in the US. The most interesting part of my Church experience was at the end after everyone walked outside. They started auctioning off items such as a container of milk, five avocados, a few stalks of sugar cane, or a cooking pot. Members of the church who don't have money to contribute to the offertory bring items such as these instead. They then hold this auction after the service in order to turn the items into money for the church. It was really great to watch.

On Sunday afternoon, I went for a walk with Mama and my brother, Christian, who is 3 years old. The area in which we are living is very scenic, with Mount Meru close by and Kilimanjaro off in the distance, though it is only visible on clear days. There is lots of greenery, much of which is banana {ndizi} trees and coffee {kahawa} plants. We walked up a steep hill to a friend's house, where running water is not available because of its location. Every day {kila siku}, they carry 5 pails of water up the hill (it was not an easy climb). Though their house was in a beautiful location with a nice patio outside and passion fruit growing in the yard, I would not want to combat that hill every day. We sat inside for awhile talking to 3 other adults (and drinking tea, of course). Well, they talked while I mostly attempted to listen and contributed a few words in Kiswahili every now and then. I have found that the hardest part for me of being immersed in another culture is not being able to communicate effectively with everyone. It is very easy to become frustrated when everyone around you is speaking a language that you can't understand. It definitely makes me feel quite incompetent. However, the amount that I have learned in just 2 days is astounding.

Sorry, no time for Kiswahili words of the day. More later!

Karibu Tanzania!!

I have successfully made it here in one piece! The long trip was quite enjoyable, thanks to the multitude of free movies on the plane {ndege}, a seemingly constant supply of food {chakula} and the wonderful company of twenty other EWH-ers who I met up with along the way. My arrival in Kilimanjaro airport was seamless after purchasing a $100 visa, the presence of both my bags (still have a perfect record of no lost baggage!!), and a breeze through "customs". We then drove to TCDC, the training center in Usa River where we will have our classes, in order to drop off the medical equipment that we all had a suitcase filled with. And then I met up with my wonderful host family!!!

I was immediately greeted with a huge hug by Hiaka, my host mother {mama}. Her husband {maume}, Adam, and three-year old son, Christain, were also there offering lots of warm smiles. We drove back to their home, which is back in a nice neighborhood, where each house is more like a compound with a gated entrance. I was quickly greeted by a puppy running around outside and the rest of the children who live here. I am still trying to discern exactly whose kids are whose (Adam and Hiaka both had previous children) and their names and ages, but I am working on it. More on the family later.

I have a room all to myself here with 2 beds (in case anyone wants to come visit!), a desk, and shelves to put all of my stuff on. I am living in luxury! It is very nice, though unexpected, that I have ample space to myself. Soon after I arrived, we had a delicious meal of rice, some kind of fish with a creamy sauce on it, and ugali (this is the same as nsima for all you Malawi-ers) with a spinach relish. Ugali is a white patty made from maize and flour, a very common African staple. I am not sure if they know that I am a vegetarian, but I am definitely not going to say anything. I have vowed to eat whatever they give me.

We start our Kiswahili and Engineering classes at TCDC this morning. Hiaka works as an administrator at the training center, so we will travel there together. Although my host family speaks English very well, I really want to try to have some conversations in Kiswahili. It is so hard to resist taking the easy route and just speaking in English {Kiingereza}, but I am determined.

Love and miss you all lots! Hopefully, I will get some pictures up very soon!

Translated Words of the day (requests accepted):
golf - gofu (that's for you, Dad)
chicken(s) - kuku
cucumber/s - kitango/vitango
How are things? - Habari gani?
Fine. - Nzuri.

P.S. In case you haven't noticed, I can't help but randomly give you the Kiswahili translation of words as part of my practice. Maybe you can learn {kujifunza} some too!

Pre-Departure Preparations

I can't believe that I am actually leaving for Tanzania tomorrow! I have been looking forward to this trip for months and it is finally here. In case you aren't familiar with what I will be doing for the next 2 months, here is a brief overview of the program.

I will be working with a group of about 25 people called Engineering World Health through Duke University (http://ewh.org/). For the first month, we will undergo intensive Swahili language training and technical training on how to fix and use medical equipment in developing countries. Then we will travel to our host hospital and spend a month working to install donated equipment, fix any broken equipment that the hospital has and to making sure that the staff has the knowledge necessary to both use the equipment and prevent future problems with it.

I will be staying with a host family during the entire trip, which I am really looking forward to. Hopefully I will be able to pick up enough Swahili to carry on a half-decent conversation! I am planning on updating this blog (my first one!) with details of all the adventures that I have and all of the people that I meet while I am in Tanzania. I will be checking my email fairly regularly so feel free to email me at hjillian@email.unc.edu.

Kwaheri (goodbye in Kiswahili)!!