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.

week 2, day 1

Yesterday was really fun. At placement we went on home visits, and visited four different homes. Back at the office I updated client profiles. I couldn’t really eat lunch even though I was starving because looking at and smelling the food made me nauseous. I haven’t had one normal bowl movement since arriving at CCS.
After lunch I had my individual feedback session with Folgence and Mama Teo and I expressed my concerns about the program and especially the allocations of the program fee. In the afternoon we split up into two groups. One group went to a lecture on Women’s Empowerment at WEES and the other went to the Tulanie Orphanage to play with the kids. I went to the orphanage and had a really great time. We got in a circle and sang some children’s songs in both Swahili and English. The kids really loved us and I was happy to finally feel connected to clients and useful. Two girls especially liked me, a 10 year old and a 14 year old, Rose. They both made me cards. Rose’s card said we were sisters and that she loved me and would I please come back before I go home. I hope we can go back to volunteer there another afternoon.
I had trouble eating dinner again, and afterwards Mama Teo talked to us as a group about how CCS spends our money, because I guess it came up a lot in feedback. I’m glad she addressed it, but I’m still not totally satisfied by her answers. At 8 Mike, the sisters, Edward and I went out to Glacier, a garden bar for some beers. We realized Mike’s camera can take like 15 shots in quick secession, so we had fun with that for a while. I tired buying chicken fingers at the bar but I still couldn’t eat. I wouldn’t exactly call what I got chicken fingers, though. After Glacier we went to Kool Bar, and Courtney said it looked like it belongs on the Jersey shore. We danced to some Reagae music and it was a lot of fun.
Now we are driving to our first stop on a day trip to a Chagga village and then a waterfall where we can go swimming. We were told to pack torches and swimming costumes.

day 5 - christmas eve

Last night some volunteers went to Kinderoko (?) with Edward for a few beers. Kinderoko is a bar on top of a tourist hotel. We went at night, but apparently there is a fantastic view of Kili during the day, especially at sunset.

TAFCOM today wasn’t very productive, but I had a good time. Mike went to an orphanage for the day because he was frustrated by the lack of work to be done at TAFCOM. When I got there Jonas (one of the founders) invited Namen (another volunteer) and I to coffee. We had really great conversation, and Jonas has some really great goals for TAFCOM. I get the feeling that they really on past and current volunteers for a large amount of their funding, but that when volunteers go home they aren’t always good with following through on their promises to send funds. I gained a new level of respect for Jonas after our conversation; everything he does is aimed at somehow improving TAFCOM and the lives of it’s clients, and his dedication really shows. I wish I could take a more active role in helping TAFCOM achieve their goals. When we returned to the office I went to the internet cafe to make some basic budget sheets for TAFCOM to use. I hope that they will actually use them, and that they will help them secure more permanent funding in the future. We left placements a bit early today to leave for safari!!!

On another note, I had to use the bathroom at TAFCOM today and got a BIG surprise. The toilet in Africa… omg. Ceramic holes. In an office building. I took my pants all the way off because I was afraid of peeing all over myself. How disgusting.

 

(The brown is mud by the way. No worries there.)