Tuesday, March 16, 2010

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!


5 comments:

  1. wow...so much in such a little amount of time!! It was great talking to you both yesterday!1 Enjoy your adventure...get me one of those kangas....love you

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  2. AMAZING!!! been stalking you both for 2 days (my new fav thing to do)...glad to know you are safe! I love that your Swahili teacher laughs at you everytime he teaches you something...Hes probably teaching you awful things to say...and im glad they are giving you peanuts Megan! Im sure that makes you happy....Have fun! love you!

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  3. I think I like Zik the best. You should bring him back with you. I need more friends.

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  4. Uncle Rich says, Koombya! (does that mean anything?) Meg/Christine if you have any free time please see if you can find any tall athletic boy's (must be taller than 6'-6" and less than 15 yrs. old) to take home. Be careful & have fun!

    Uncle Rich

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  5. Love you Ladies!!! How was the safari? Christine, did you take NAtional Geographic worthy Photos? This could jump start your career!!

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