day 24

My last African post =[
Yesterday was my last full day in Moshi =[. I packed in the morning and said goodbye to the other volunteers all day. I went out at night and had a really great time. I went with Laura, the British girls, and Edward to a bar just around the corner from TAFCOM. It had neon palm trees and a huge boat in the middle. Laura and I went to the bathroom and, get this, it was a REAL toilet with toilet paper AND soap. It was really very exciting. We were really in the mood for shakeshake (or as we Americans say, dancing), so we left to go to Kool bar. It was still early by normal people (not volunteers with a curfue) standards, so we were the only ones dancing but we didn’t care. I asked them to play some American music and they put on Unbreak My Heart. LOL!
I blew off curfew because it was my last night and went to La Liga, a club. It was just as nice as American clubs with a full bar, stage, neon lights and tv screens. I had a lot of fun. Everyone goes there to just dance, not like at home where everyone is practically having sex on the dance floor.  We were out until about 2:30 am.
This morning I grabbed my stuff and a quick bite before going with Tony and Lauren back to JRO airport. I’m excited to go home and see Dave and enjoy first world comforts again, but I’m also very sad to go. I had a great time with the other volunteers, at Magereza, and exploring Africa. It was my life goal to come here, and now it’s over.

day 22

Yesterday was my last day at Margereza. There was only one mama there so we had one class for each level while the other group played.  I taught matching and shapes. It started raining after porridge time, so we stayed in the porridge room and the mama told stories and sang with the kids. They are very stern but you can see that they really enjoy the kids too. Liz cried when we left.

We had veggie burgers for lunch like we requested and I went into town with Laura and Leah in the afternoon to do some last minute gift shopping and go on the internet. It was super humid and nasty, and I was glad to return to home base for dinner. It always stays so cool there, I think from the concrete and stone buildings. A bunch of the girls and I went out for drinks with Edward after dinner and then out for burgers. I was so excited that my cheeseburger was good.. I STILL have diarrhea every day.  We brought the burgers to Glacier bar which is outside. We sat around a fire pit and a Massai man tried to buy Carissa to marry her. It was funny for a while, but we eventually asked Edward to step in because it was getting a little out of control.

Today I couldn’t sleep so I got up and was packing all morning. A new group of volunteers came, and I gotta say I’m glad I was in my group and not theirs. It’s mostly older adults and a few British women.

day 21

Yesterday I had a great day at placement. I love seeing the kids every day and knowing that I’m helping to teach them new things. I also love knowing that thanks to Liz’s curriculum they are making progress with their learning and building up new information every day. It’s incredibly rewarding.

After placement we stopped by TAFCOM to pick up the orders we placed for the women to sew us. Almost everything came back wrong – they used the wrong fabrics for things, made things the wrong size and not like we asked for… Apparently this has never happened before so I’m wondering if it’s related to me and Mike leaving. I hope not, because most of the stuff that was ruined isn’t for us.

At home base we did our own long written reviews of our time here with CCS (I can’t believe it’s almost over!) Afterwards Liz pulled everyone aside separately and told us about what had happened to a fellow volunteer who left CCS suddenly last week.

This girl had been here with CCS and was near the end of her 12 week commitment and worked at Magereza. One day after lunch she left crying, mumbling about a family emergency, and never came back. It turns out that Liz had caught her stealing cash from her purse while volunteering at Magereza, and when confronted she blamed it on the kids. It’s enough to make you sick. Liz took her back to home base early that day and had meetings with everyone at CCS from Mama Fatuma to the administration in NYC. The volunteer was kicked out, and Liz demanded that they inform her parents about what happened.  I should add that this volunteer just finished high school and met a boyfriend while in Moshi. He is known to take advantage of volunteers sexually and for money. She gave CCS a fake number for her parents, and left to go stay with the boyfriend. When Liz found this out she was furious, but CCS in NYC refused to help her because she is over 18 and they claim no responsibility for her. Liz hired a private investigator to find the parents herself, and called immigration to have the girl deported back to the US (we are all here on volunteer visas, and as she is no longer volunteering she is not allowed to stay in the country). There’s a new rumor going around now that CCS only kicked her out until Liz leaves, and then she’ll be allowed to reenter the program. The whole thing, from the girl stealing to blaming the kids, to the lack of response from CCS to Liz hiring an investigator is so disheartening. I thought that since everyone was here to volunteer nothing like this would happen. I guess that’s what you get when you let your 18 year old daughter leave home for the first time and she goes to Africa generally unsupervised for 12 weeks!

In the afternoon we had a traditional dance presentation. It was a group of drummers and two male and two female dancers. I loved the music and the male dancing was impressive. The girls didn’t do much besides swaying their hips to the rhythm. The guys were doing all kinds of crazy jumps and near acrobatic moves. At the end they pulled us up to dance with them, and it was really fun.

Afterwords we drank a few bottles of wine together in the CCS courtyard (a violation of a major policy, but I don’t think any of the staff are going to challenge Liz on anything until she leaves). After dinner Edward picked up me, Mike and the sisters. He left us at a bar and we had a great time. Back at CCS we took a ton on rapid-take pictures to commemorate Mike’s last night.

day 20

Today at Magereza I taught the letters B & C (how to write them, words that start with them..) and the concept of more and less. The letters went OK but they really struggled with more and less. I was having trouble moving them from the concept of big/small to more/less, but I really love going there every day. The daily routine is something like this: the kids walk to school on their own either from within the prison or from nearby homes. They play together on a slide or swings until we arrive, and then we play with them. They line up in two groups based on age and ability in front of the school doors, where they sing a song and their hair and nails are inspected by the teacher for cleanliness. (I find this ironic because each kid only has one outfit that they wear every day, and they are always filthy. Their nails, though, are generally clean.) There are two lessons a day, English and math. The lessons are dictated by the volunteers, and I have heard that before Liz came and established a curriculum there was no structure at all. They have most likely repeated a few basic lessons over and over with each group of new volunteers. There is a break between lessons where they are served lunch. Lunch is a watery porridge with very little nutritional value. It is served out of a large bucket, like one used to hold paint. The students line up for their turn, and the teacher scoops it out for each child. They push and fight for the best sports in line, because only the first kids finish in enough time to get seconds. (Here is a link to the video Liz’s organization, Lee Oneness, made about the food crisis and features Margereza: http://www.leeonenessfoundation.com/.) After the second lesson the classes end and the kids play until the volunteers leave. When we leave, they go home.

On the walk home I got stung by a big bee and it swelled up a lot. It’s weird, because I’m not allergic to bee stings at home. Back at home base we had a delicious lunch of leek soup and crusty bread. I can’t wait to stop having diarrhea! Also, I figured out today that I can call Dave from the CCS phone, but he can’t call me. This is slightly inconvenient as each phone card only lasts 5 minutes, so I have to buy a bunch and keep entering the information every time the minutes run out.
The batik man (Sam) came to the home base in the afternoon and he taught us how to make paintings. We each made a small one, and it took about two hours. Some of us tried to draw our own pictures, which he thought was very funny. Mine was coming out really nicely, but then at the end I rushed and made the black parts bleed. It’s still cool, though.

day 19 - Arusha

Today was balls.
Mike, Leah and I went to TAFCOM for children’s day, and when we got to the office the door was locked. We called Jonas and left a note, and when we couldn’t get through to anyone we tried to get a taxi to take us to another volunteer placement. We saw Jonas outside, and he told us there was a miscommunication with CCS and he thought we weren’t coming today. He said we were welcome to come upstairs, but then practically ran up the stairs to get away from us. It was obvious that he was mad at us and didn’t want us to follow, so we called John to get a ride to Tulanie to volunteer instead. While we were waiting for John Mike ran into Nie. They were talking for a few minutes on the other side of the street, and then John pulled up. She spoke to him angrily in Swahili, then went up to the office in a huff without even looking at Leah or I. I was both angry and disappointed in the way those interactions went.
When we got to Tulanie there were no kids there. We were lead to their school, where we were told they spend their mornings. Leah and I went to a classroom with 4-7 year olds, and Mike went to the room with the older kids. The rooms were very small with two window holes and a door frame, a chalkboard, and two wooden benches. There were two teachers, who were older girls who also live at the orphanage. They were teaching the children letters and numbers by saying them and having the children repeat them. I taught a little, and the kids really liked tracing letter cards I brought with their fingers. We took a break so the kids could play, and I taught them duck duck goose. We went back inside to practice recognizing numbers on flash cards. When we were about to leave I saw Rose, and I talked to her about the letter. I told her it was very sweet and I was flattered that she wrote it for me, but also that I could not pay for her to attend school. I had a great time teaching the kids, but at the same time was filled with this overwhelming sadness because of the conditions they live in and deal with on a daily basis.

Back at home base we had lunch before heading out to Arusha for the afternoon. It is usually a full day trip, but we only went for half a day because the Rwanda tribunal was closed for the holiday season.
We first went to a Massai market, but there were no Massai. It was a long string of alley-like passages made from vendors and their tents of goods. They were mostly selling wood carvings, jewelry, and paintings. I bought lots of things, both for presents and for myself. The vendors were very pushy. One man was pressuring me to buy something and when I began bargaining his friend pulled a curtain down over the entrance to his tent. He kept pressuring me to bargain, and when I said I was no longer interested he moved closer to me and grabbed my arm. He was very intimidating, but I pushed his arm off me and yelled ‘don’t touch me’ in the most confidant voice I could muster. He let go, and I bolted out of there and back to the CCS van. I was so angry I was shaking. I heard that he did that to a few other girls too.

After the market we went to a commercial strip so that we could buy Tanzanite. From before we even got out of the van me were following us and trying to lead us to different stores. They were very aggressive and annoying. After looking in a few stores I bought two pieces – one loose stone and one set in a gold pendant. Both are AA of AAA quality, and the total came to $475 USD. Buying took forever because my credit card wouldn’t go through. The store owner stayed open late for us so they could bring a machine from his other store. While we waited he let us go into his private office where he showed us some of his most valuable gems. He even lets us hold a piece of Tanzanite worth 4 million USD! Everyone was mad at us by the time we got back to the van because we held them up waiting for the machine.

We got back here at 7:30, scarfed down dinner, and everyone is already in bed now. It’s only 8:30, but we’re totally exhausted.

day 18

Today I started volunteering at Magereza, a school set within a prison. There were about 20 students and I led the advanced students in numbers (addition) and English (my name is..). Tomorrow will be my last day at TAFCOM and I will be at Magereza for the rest of the week. Magereza usually expects about 90 kids per day.

Folgence talked to Nie while we were gone, and he said that she was frustrated and wondering what she did wrong that was causing us to not continue volunteering with TAFCOM. Mike offered to speak to her directly tomorrow to make sure our views are heard.
I got a letter today from Rose, a girl I met at Tulanie orphanage. It was a very sweet note until the end, where she asked me to give her money for school. I feel like such a fool for believing that she really was just interested in being friends with me. I don’t want to rush to blame her, though, because I know kids here are often taught how to befriend mzungus and then beg for money for the orphanage. I will write back to her and explain the CCS policy and why I cannot give her anything, but that I still plan to return for another visit this week.

I was able to email Dave a few times today, and I finally figured out how to have people call me here. I hope I’m able to hear from him soon!
Later in the day…
This afternoon I did laundry and went to a Swahili lesson. Later I went into town with the sisters and was finally able to talk to Dave online. I also found a phone card after trying four different stores, but I later realized I only paid enough for 5 minutes of talk time. I’m planning to stay in tonight and relax.

Zanzibar, Day 3

Checking out yesterday took more than an hour, so by the time we got to Stone Town it was around 2 pm. We had lunch but only had time to walk around a few streets. There were some cool things in the stores. I got a few spice packages as gifts to take home. Our plane to Moshi was delayed, but luckily our connecting flight from Dar was held for us. We got back to home base around 10 pm.

Zanzibar, day 2

I had a lot of fun yesterday. We rented two jet skis and had them out for an hour. There are no speed limits or anything, and Mike went cruisin’. I was screaming and clinging to his life jacket and loving it. We went out really deep and got a lot of air on waves. We only ever fell off when we stopped to talk. The funny thing about falling was that it was a pretty busted jet ski with no emergency stop key, so if you fell off the motor kept going and it could get away from you. We had to swim after it a few times, but luckily it went very slowly. There were little things in the water that sting you a little as you swim, and I kept thinking about sharks and getting really freaked.

After a quick lunch we went to our sunset cruise, which was actually a creaky old wooden boat. To get to the boat you had to walk down a huge flight of stairs into the oncoming waves, swim to the ladder and climb up, all while holding your gear above your head to keep it dry. Me and Courtney made the Australian guy who checked us in carry us out to the boat because she was scared and I can’t really swim. He asked us if we had any questions, so I asked if there were sharks in this area of the ocean. He gave me a look and asked again if we had any questions. When he realized I was serious he said there weren’t. We were pretty sure he hated us.

We boated out to the coral, which was actually dark and ugly. You couldn’t see much, but some fish did come very close to us. We kept getting stung by those little water things, so we got back in the boat early with our guide (who we were pretty sure was on drugs) and napped on the waves. It was lovely.
We went to Zed for dinner, and it was wonderful. The presentation was awesome and everything was fantastic. We each had a four course meal for $25 plus drinks, and we were loving the first world comforts again. At the end of the meal Mike got really sick, and Carissa and Lauren had to walk him home. It turns out he was dehydrated and he was better the next day.

The sisters and I went back out for some drinks, and we were lucky to stumble on the ‘best bar in town’. There were about 15 people there, and more than half of them were locals trying to mack it with the mzungus. We tried ignoring them for a while, but it just got miserable and we left around when the bar was closing. On our walk home one of the gates to pass through the hotel area was locked and everything was very dark and deserted. We found someone to unlock the gate to let us through, and we linked arms and walked by the dark doorways and buildings. Carissa was tipsy and talking too much, and Courtney and I kept trying to get her to be quiet and put down the beer she was carrying. We were walking quickly along the beach and then saw a man following behind us at a distance. We were practically running by the time we reached a hotel with lights near the beach, but I didn’t feel safe until we were almost at our rooms again. That walk was one of the scariest moments of my life.
Now we are trying to check out and spend some time in Stone Town before heading back to Moshi, but the front desk is trying to tell Mike we owe $300 for New Years Eve. Good thing he kept his receipt!

Zanzibar, day 1

Yesterday was so relaxing. Me and the sisters went for breakfast near 10 and then we all spent the day sunbathing. It is the softest beach I have ever been to, and the water is clear and beautiful. It was almost too warm to swim in in the morning but as the day went on it became very refreshing. I put on SPF 70 about 100 times but I still got some blotchy burns. I got my hair box braided by some locals under a deck. I don’t really like it.. I think it makes me look like a man. For lunch we went to this place that looked good, but as soon as our food came out there were flies EVERYWHERE. If you weren’t swatting at your plate for even a second your food would look black from all the bugs landing on it. We were walking around the restaurant for a while in circles trying to eat so the flies couldn’t land on our plates, and then we tried getting foil from the kitchen to cover part of our plates. Neither really worked, and we ended up wrapping our food and taking it back to the hotel to eat. By the time we re-opened it we had lost our appetite and laid by the pool. Everyone else at the restaurant was a tourist but none of them seemed to mind the bugs at all. I thought that was pretty strange. After taking a nap by the pool we went to dinner. The food was only OK, but we were on a balcony over the water and there were no flies, which made it nice. Today we are sun bathing again but I am fully clothed. Later we will jet ski, snorkel on a sunset cruise, and have a nice dinner at Zed.