Change in plans… we never made it to Mt Kilimanjaro although we have vowed to each other that we will make it there before we die. Friday night was the last for several of the volunteers here. We went to a beach bonfire with three of the girls and some locals. We met numerous artists from Bagamoyo. Many of them asked if we would come to their shops to look at their work… promising to lower our prior “mzungu prices” to “rafiki prices” now that we have met (Overcharging because we’re white to decent prices because we are now friends). We have some funny stories from that night which we will share in person when we arrive home…

Saturday morning we took a cab to a fisherman port known as Mbegani (I loved this because it is similar to Megani… which I am referred to quite often here.. they like to throw I and A at the end of many names/words). A boat came and took us to the Lazy Lagoon Peninsula. Ahhhhh…. The Lazy Lagoon J We loved it there! Some things about Lazy Lagoon: The only people occupying the island are those who work and/or are staying at the hotel. There are only 12 Bandas so this place is very low key and quiet. To conserve energy the hotel has power from 6pm-10pm (We were unaware of this prior to booking, thank God we brought a flashlight!) The only security stopping anyone from boating up to the island unwelcome are 2 Doberman Pinschers (one only about 4 months old that was missing an eye) who do more licking than barking. Now on with the story.. As we have previously mentioned we had two goals in AFRICA… 1. To dance with the Maasai which we completed as you know, and 2. Finding a bush baby. Bush babies are tough because they are nocturnal and it is not recommended for us to go traveling through the “bush” in the dark to track down wild species even though we have contemplated this many times…The manager of the hotel informed us that there were bush babies on the island but rare to ever see them. We expressed our need to find a bush baby to the man who escorted us down our 5 minute walk through the “bush” to our banda. After about two minutes into the walk, TWO BUSH BABIES!!!! We have them on tape! Goal 2 completed!!! This guy must have thought we were crazy as we video taped these bush babies for about 5 minutes. Our banda/hut was right on the beach. We were the last hut, hut number 12 which was furthest from civilization and closest to the bush pigs… our new fear. We were informed to not walk at night… bush pigs are not to be taken lightly, they will attack. After a day of sun and fun we headed to the main lodge for dinner. After some drinks and more delicious food we decided it was time to get back to our banda. With bottle of wine and two glasses in hand we set our on our hike back to our hut… As were about to walk outside on the path we stopped as a man with a spear stood in the doorway… hmm.. He said nothing and turned around… We followed as he walked quickly down the dark path to our hut, not speaking and smacking his spear on the ground. He was our protection against the wild bush pigs. We spent Easter Sunday relaxing, eating more delicious food, and spotting monkeys! Usually by the end of our weekend trips we have been ready to go back to our home in Bagamoyo but not after this weekend! Today is Easter Monday here so all the schools and shops are closed. We only have 4 more days of placement and tons of souvenir shopping left to do… hopefully we can fit everything in before it is time to head back to AMERICA!

***Make sure you scroll all the way down…we added several posts!!!***

Today we got Henna tattoos from a local woman. A man named Rasti is coming to our home to do a painting class! He said he can draw for us and then we can paint it… comparable to a “paint by numbers” style. We decided to take Friday off so we are heading to Mount Kilimanjaro tomorrow with several other people. (mom and dad we have not informed you of this yet) Our flight is Thursday at 6pm and we will be there until Monday night!! We didn’t think we would have the opportunity to get up north but since Monday is a no work day because of Easter and we are allowed to take off one Friday we figured why not. We will be staying in Moshi which is the city at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Moshi is also where another cross cultural solutions home base is located so maybe we will meet some volunteers from there. We are planning on doing a day hike up part of the mountain… nothing too crazy! We are hoping to go to the Ngorangora crater. Supposedly it is full of many animals and roads you can drive through to see them. The internet has not been working at the internet café by our house for several days so sorry we haven’t written lately. We will write again when we arrive back in Bagamoyo on Monday!! Hope all is well J

Zanzibar

On Friday we left for Zanzibar!! Eight of us took a dala dala (van/taxi) to the ferry in Dar es Salaam. We had heard horror stories about the ferry and how everyone is throwing up everywhere... luckily this was not the case on the way there. After about a two hour ride we arrived in Stone Town, Zanzibar. Stone Town’s architecture is a beautiful fusion of Arabic, Indian, European, and African influences. After docking, we were attacked by numerous taxi drivers, peanut salesmen, and local street people that honestly thought they were tour guides. They would be walking alongside of you pointing at buildings, mumbling stuff, and then asking for money for their services. “Verrry nice room for you, very nice, very cheap, you want… I take you there” or “You need taxi… how many of you, 8? Here fit in my 4 door sedan” or “Hey nuts, you want nuts, very good price, cheap for you beautiful ladies”.. It was exhausting. One man followed us all the way to the “Night Market”. Finally after about 100 HAPANAS… GO AWAY (hapana = no) he left us alone. The Night Market is where we stopped for dinner. It consists of many vendors that cooked right at their stands on the street by candle light. We enjoyed Zanzibar Pizza which is nothing like American pizza. It was amazing!! It was more like an omelet wrapped in thin dough then fried. Our one roommate Mary (from Washington DC) met, who we believe, will be her future husband. They met and through talking realized that they live on the same block in DC. Sparks were aflyinnnggg!! Love found in Africa!! They took a picture together and exchanged emails… we’ll see what happens! Next it was time to find a cab to the northern part of the island where our hotel was. Back to the war zone we went to find a taxi. Finally after haggling for roughly 45 minutes we were on our way. Two hours, a heated conversation in Swahili between our driver and a police officer, and a ride down what seemed to be a deserted dirt road in the dark, we made it to Kendwa Beach. While the others went to sleep, we decided we would head to the bar and chat with some locals. We taught them about bears, boxers (the dog), and American History. One man was telling us about his black dog, Jack, he had as a young child. He said he was best friends with Jack and they did everything together. Christine tried to compare that to Tim with Philly. She said did you ever eat from his bowl or pee outside with Jack? Utterly confused he responded, “Why would I pee on Jack???”(you have to imagine it with an accent). We tried to explain that our little brother would mimic our dogs every move but we finished that topic leaving him still quite confused. The next morning we went to the beach. The water was crystal clear! It was a very relaxing day. Then it was time to prepare for the Full Moon Beach Party! We had two goals during this beach party: 1. Find a Bush Baby (we still don’t know exactly what this is but we hear it kinda looks like a koala bear). 2. To dance with the Maasai (The Maasai is a native tribe in Tanzania and apparently frequenters of the beach bar at our hotel; tribal garb, knives, sticks, fanny packs, and all). We had heard that the Maasai hunt and catch lions so we figured we would meet them, dance a little, then convince them to hunt us down a bush baby. But we only accomplished one goal. The first one we met immediately fell head over heels in love with Christine. The first one I (megan) met breathed on me and I almost gagged in his face..time to discard and find a new one. Christine’s had little rhythm but thoroughly enjoyed twirling her. She would twirl then he would twirl… the whole time he had the goofiest smile on his face. After I almost threw up from the first guy I told C that we had to go to the bathroom and try and get away. We thought we were in the clear when we left the bathroom to head back to the bar. We were wrong. Christine’s came flying out of the crowd after her. She pretended like she didn’t see him but it didn’t work. The bartender we had met the night before said we could stand behind the bar so they couldn’t approach us. After standing there for a couple minutes we realized Christine’s was just sitting by the bar looking as though he was about to cry with his head down. He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t dance anymore (huge language barrier!) Pretty much the only common word was dance and beer. C felt bad so we went back over to sit with him…. His face lit up once again! This is when my #2 Maasai man came into the picture. So there we were… sitting Maasai #2, Megan, Christine, and her Maasian. Christine’s presented her with a necklace she could wear for the evening and she gave him a shell. Maasai #2 told me (megan) that our relationship could be like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie… He kept pointing at himself saying “brad” then pointing at me saying “Angelina”…. Repeating over and over. They never found us our Bush Babies..Sadly we had to break their hearts once again as we headed off to bed. We left early Sunday morning and headed back to Stone Town where we had several hours to walk around. We went to the Slave Trade tour which we have two pictures of. One picture shows a room in the basement of a building where they kept up to 50 men at a time. There was another room that held up to 75 women and children. There were still chains hanging from the walls. You could hardly stand up in the space. The slaves were left there for three days. This is how they tested who was the strongest therefore could be traded for more money. There were a lot of small winding streets in the middle of the town that reminded us of Rome. It was easy to get lost which we experienced for a short amount of time until we found the coast again. When we arrived at the port to get on our ferry back home we realized this ferry looked a little different…..(not in a good way..) We took our seats and after about 30 minutes the ride became a little rough. They began handing out “sick bags” to all the passengers. This is when I-Pods came in handy! We put our headphones on and turned them up to block out the sound of puking passengers. Everyone got of the boat feeling pretty sick, only one of our group members lost it… All and all we loved Zanzibar!!

Placement thus far

These pictures are of the kids from our placements. Sadly, they have a two week spring break so Friday was our last day with them L The class picture of the kids in maroon uniforms are from Megan’s placement. The blue are Christine’s. On Friday we both went to Christine’s placement for play day. We took the kids to the beach. Typically, it’s a 5 minute walk but with 70 kids under the age of 7 it takes about 20. Last Friday we took them to the beach too. I assumed this week would be like the last; all the kids take off their shoes and socks, run around in the sand and get their feet wet. Then at the end we (the teachers) try to figure out whose shoes and socks are whose, why one has two left shoes on, and where each shoe’s match is. Well, this week the kids decided to take off all their clothes. Now, not only were we trying to match the kids with their shoes and socks, we were trying to match them with their skirts, jumpers, shorts, shirts, and underwear. Talk about chaos and dysfunction!

Our former placements have a two week spring break so on Monday we started at our new placements. I (Megan) am at a school called AMAP (African Modern Art Project). The school is run out of a man and wife’s backyard. The wife sews for the community (which is where we are getting our skirts and dresses made). The money she receives goes towards the school they started for street children. Many of these children arrive to school with an empty stomach. Some never received dinner the night before. They all come from poverty and many from neglectful homes. Yesterday was by far the most challenging day for me. There are roughly 50 kids at this school, 1 teacher (the man who owns it), and 5 volunteers. During our attempt to teach these children, they were hitting each other with rocks, flipping the benches over, punching, biting, kicking, pinching… I tried to stop one fight by yelling HAPANA… ACHA (NO, STOP) all they did was mock me, laugh in my face, and continue on. I was smacked about three or four times… I turned around at one point and a child about 4 years old is holding a knife pointed toward his chest… It was quite a frustrating day. Many of these kids know that one way to get the attention they want is to act out, even if that means the response is negative, it is still a response. I was able to see first hand that those who act out the most are the one’s who are in need of not only one on one attention and but nurturing as well. Today we took them to the beach and had a completely different experience. I made it my goal to work closer with the “trouble makers” and focus on positive reinforcement. I taught several how to catch and throw a Frisbee. They collected dead crabs and several were carrying them in their shirts.. it was disgusting. Tomorrow we will be back in the classroom so who knows what will happen… should be another adventure! The one picture is the backyard where AMAP school is held. It is their bathroom, play area, and classroom… quite different from America.

Christine will be updating about her placement at another time... internet problems

The Beach at Bagamoyo

So while it is so very nice to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner prepared for us at our home, we needed a break. We had been told that the Travelers Lodge has the best food in Bagamoyo and it is right on the beach so we decided to head there after placement on Thursday. This was our first time swimming in the Indian Ocean!! (Pri, we waved to your people as requested… they say hi). The water was incredibly warm although not as clear as we had expected. After the beach we headed to the restaurant where we had fried calamari (Tim it was not as good as Sovana) and crab meat with melted cheese along with some much needed beverages.

Traditional African Music

Last Wednesday we went to the bar behind our house where we watched a local family of musicians and dancers perform their original songs. Many of the routines have been passed down from generation to generation along with all of their handmade instruments. We quickly found out that they like to put the “mzungus” on the spot… (mzungu = white people). We were pulled up during several performances.. Couldn’t quite shake it like the natives. We are hoping to buy their CD before we leave.

Bagamoyo and Cooking

Here are two pictures of our home in Bagamoyo. The third is a picture of us during our traditional African cooking lessons taught by our in-home cooks. This is where we were introduced to our new found love…. Chapati. It is sort of like a thick crepe and tastes good with anything put on top. We wrote down the recipe with high hopes of being able to reproduce this when we arrive back home.

Quick Shoutout

Happy Birthday Mama!! We miss you much!! Hope you have a wonderful day :) WE are thinking of you!!

Safari!

So over the weekend we went to Mukumi National Park for a safari!! After a 5 hour interesting car ride we arrived at our destination. The first animals that welcomed us were baboons and giraffes which is where the 48 hour photo shoot began. Between the two of us we probably have over 400 pictures of the same 10 animals…We drove through the park to our campground. This is where we realized we were going to be sleeping in a zoo only with no cages… On Saturday morning we woke up around 6:45, ate breakfast and then set out on our morning drive. Our group managed to anger a group of elephants which led to the largest elephant heading towards the car that our other group members were in. The driver had to put the car in neutral and rev the engine in order to make it back off. We think we have it on tape… Out of all the animals the elephants were the only one that showed extensive frustration towards us… the hippos didn’t care much for us either but they were too lazy to get out of the mucky water which consisted of their food and “dung”. During night two I (Megan) woke up around 3am to a thumping noise which occurred every 2-3 seconds… Since I am known as the “dramatic” one in our family, I figured I would wait to make sure this was something worth waking Christine for. For those who have seen Jurassic Park…. when the dinosaur footsteps start and the water is shaking in the glass... that is what this felt like. After about 5 minutes I realized they were really close so I woke C up and told her I think there are a bunch of elephants outside the tent. Sure enough we hear the elephants make their usual noise so at this point I’m scared and all Christine can think about is how she has to go to the bathroom. Of course… while there are wild elephants outside the tent, Christine decides she can’t wait any longer and goes outside. I couldn’t let her go alone and we figured our park ranger with his AK47 and flashlight was on duty watching to make sure we weren’t attacked. When we stepped out of the tent the fire was out and there was no ranger in site…oh great! Then we heard a tent unzip and out rolled our ranger… he had been sleeping…what a ranger he was. We said to him, “Tembo Tembo!!” (tembo means elephant in Swahili) He replied… “Yeah, Tembo” (He spoke no English). So happily we awoke for our 6am morning drive. This was the first time since we have been in Africa that sweat wasn’t pouring profusely from us… we actually were able to wear sweatshirts!! It was very quiet and the sunrise was beautiful! Definitely a great way to end our safari…. until we attempted to drive home. First the other car got stuck in the mud for about 45 minutes. ** Mind you it is now about 95 degrees, we are in the “bush” (where the animals are roaming freely,) no air-conditioning, and we are collecting rocks to shove under the tires of a jacked car. After we got it out, the car drove about 15 feet when they realized something was wrong with it. Luckily, Twiga (meaning giraffe in Swahili), our driver, was a mechanic and fixed it in about 30 minutes. So finally… on the road to home! Two hours into the ride we were pulled over by the highway patrol for speeding. Three hours into it we are on an unpaved road… possibly the most bumpy road we have ever been on, when a man on a bike kept peddling up to the window yelling something. We realized that the other car was no longer behind us. Their car got a flat tire. So there we were again… sweating... and standing on some road in the middle of no where - just waiting. Something we learned while teaching at the schools here is that you need to be resourceful so we found a pile of rocks and sticks and played baseball to waste time. Monday we had placement and then went to a Batik making class. We created our own design on a piece of fabric, then outlined it with hot wax and then dyed it. The process is more in depth than that but overall that’s how it works. Today (Tuesday), we just finished placement and we are sitting outside where we eat. It is raining pretty heavily which is a good thing… cools it off… but now our clothes on the line are soaked again. We have lunch at 1pm, Swahili lessons at two, then off to see the witch doctor/traditional healer at 3. Hopefully they won’t cast any spells on us… Hope you all enjoyed the photos!!! It only took us an hour to get 13 photos up!! We will write again soon J

Back from Safari

We were not eaten by any animals over the weekend... some close calls though... we are in the process of writing about it and hopefully we can add some photos as well!!

We rode in our first BIJAJI

March 18, 2010

Our placements:

Christine: I am at a church-run nursery school with children ages 3-7 called KKKT. It is one of the more “organized” schools in Bagamoyo. They start the day by lining up by class (they are split up into three classes by age) and sing a couple songs (in Swahili) followed by the Tanzanian national anthem. Then they split into their classes and each day they learn a different subject according to what day of the week it is. My first day I helped teach the English alphabet and the second day the English alphabet and drawing. The kids are adorable! They all wear little uniforms (that by the end of the day are unbuttoned, half untucked, and a couple don’t have their shirts or shoes on at all). They love hugging me and hanging on me. My first day I had so many hanging on me that I almost fell over and smushed a few. Subsequently, I learned the words for “stop”, “no”, and “one at a time” that proved very effective for my second day. The second day started off (of course) with lots of hugs, groping (this is a perfect word for what they do), and high fives. Then one gave me a flower and I put it behind my ear. They thought this was so funny, so I then had about ten kids picking handfuls of flowers and shoving them under my headband and in my ponytail. When I got back to our house Meg told me I looked like I ran through a bush. Tomorrow is game day so hopefully that will wear them out!

Megan: I’m volunteering at a church-ran nursery school as well called KLPT. My classroom consists of 3-4 year olds and a teacher named Gracie. Gracie knows as much English as I do Swahili (minimal). We find ourselves attempting to speak to one another and laughing because we both have no idea what the other is saying. I lucked out though because she is very passionate about teaching which is enjoyable to observe. Today I taught my first lesson on animals and nature. It was definitely a challenge but I made it through. The kids are adorable and call me “mwalimi (Swahili for teacher)megana”. The day began with the children singing their ABC’s about 30 times in a row but only go to G then they would start from the beginning. So after 2 ½ hours of lessons on their ABC’s, they sang the ABC’s again and only made it G… They dance along to several songs they sing throughout the morning which might be one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. Once class is dismissed it is time for porridge. During porridge time I am attacked by children left and right requesting high fives and fist pounds as they attempt to ask me questions in which I have no idea what they are saying. So far I love it though J

Yesterday we took a trip to the Bagamoyo Secondary School which is age 14 and up. Students are asked to pay around 35,000 Tanzanian Shillings a term (2 terms a year) to attend schooling which is about $30 USD and many cannot even afford that. Around 600 boys and only 49 girls currently attend the school… a MAJOR problem facing Tanzania today is funding the education of women. We want to start a foundation…

Today we were supposed to have sports day but boycotted considering we sweat even when sitting in the shade so we opted to walk along the coast of the Indian ocean to two different beach bars/resorts. We enjoyed a Kilimanjaro Lager.. not bad! Tomorrow we are going on a safari until Sunday!!! Wish us luck!! We have been trying to upload videos but it supposedly it takes over an hour to do so and we haven’t had the patience to sit in the internet café for an unknown amount of time. We will write again on Sunday!! Lala salama!! (sweet dreams)

WE MADE IT!!

Hello to our followers!!! We made it!

We arrived in Dar es Salaam yesterday around 3:30pm here, 8:30am Pennsylvania time. Usually it takes roughly two hours to get from the airport to Bagamoyo… not in our case. After about 1000 “speedy bumps”, 200 close call accidents, no air-conditioning, and much traffic Didase delivered us “safely” at our home at 8pm. When we arrived we were welcomed by our fellow volunteers along with some of the house staff. “Paulina” had saved us a plate of food containing pasta, rice, cucumber salad, and something else. We are sharing a room with two Mary’s (three if you’re counting Christine). Megan has been placed on the top bunk with not much airflow. Christine has been placed on the bottom which made her feel claustrophobic… especially with a mosquito net encasing her. Not the best night of sleep.. for Meg. Hoping for better tonight. This morning began with some more sweat … supposedly we will get used to this. We were served breakfast at 6:30am …. Crepes, hot dogs, watermelons, and a biscuit. While the others went to their first day of placement, we had our Orientation with Zik (the senior program officer). We learned some of the rules than received directions to our scavenger hunt. We were sent by foot alone into the town to two places. First was the post office where we had to find out how much it would cost to send a letter, a package, and a post card to the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Let’s just say Rosetta Stone Swahili did not prepare us all too well. Next we were off to the Fabric store (this may sound very exciting to you Susie) for us this was complete confusion. We had to find a “kanga”, barter for a better price, and bring it back to Zik. They asked for 6000 Tanzanian Shillings, we said we only had 5000… they gave us what we thought was a “kanga” since we had no clue what that word meant. They must have not liked our “bartering” because they did not give us a “kanga”… they gave us a pretty bed sheet. Zik informed us that what they did was not nice. From what we understood, a kanga is a decorated piece of fabric that has a phrase in Swahili written on it. In Bagamoyo having the newest and most hip phrase on your kanga is a big deal. They are also used to express oneself so if a women knows her man has been messing around on her.. he may come home to her wearing a kanga that says your actions are making my heart bleed… or something like that instead of actually saying it. They are also used to carry around a woman’s baby. People arrived back from their placement and spoke of some horror stories that went on in the classrooms… we will let you know how ours goes tomorrow. We had lunch than met with our placement representatives. Christine: Mine were both you and spoke little English.. they said “I’m so happy, hap hap happy to have you”. Megan: One of mine was young and the other was old and they didn’t seem hap hap happy to have me.. maybe I misunderstood because of the language barrier but my meeting was filled with a lot of awkward silence. Then we had a Swahili course for an hour. After everything this man taught us.. he would start laughing. We are looking forward to more classes with him. Next we went to visit a large extended family of musicians who live in a compound like setting. We were introduced to many of the family members and were shown all the instruments they create by hand. We have a video of them performing but I am not sure how long it will take to upload so that may have to wait. It was awesome though! Then they served us with peanuts and Chai tea. All the little kids were so cute and loved having their picture taken. We have some of those as well which we will share with you. We bought a prepaid cell phone in town which we tried to reach our parents to let them know we’re alive and they didn’t answer. We just finished dinner.. more rice, pasta, cucumber salad, and watermelons. So we leave you now.. still sweating.. we will write more soon about placement and whatever else we find fun!

Today was not a good day.... You shouldn't even be reading this right now because we should be in the air.. a little more than half way to Dubai... but we're not. The following video will explain: