road trip planz

the route:

the breakdown:

Brooklyn weekend

Last weekend I celebrated my basically non-existent spring break by visiting Alice’s new apartment in Brooklyn. There was a lot of wandering around and basking in the sun mixed with some old Germans friends.

road trip of the south

A few friends and I are planning a road trip of the South right after graduation. Here is a tentative list of our destinations:
Washington, D.C.
Chinkiteak
Beaufort, NC
Charleston, SC
Savannah, GA
Atlanta, GA
Birmingham, AL
New Orleans, LA
Baton Rouge, LA
Memphis, TN
Nashville, TN
Mammoth Cave National Park, KY
Hodgenville, KY
Bardstown, KY
Louisville, KY
Frankfort, KY
Lexington, KY
I’m hoping to get a good mix of history, kitsch, and scary backwoods encounters. We’re going as budget as possible, crashing with friends where we can, bringing a cooler, etc. We only have two weeks, and a lot to fit in. It should be interesting!

my thoughts since returning home

When I came back from Moshi I was so emotional I cried on the plane. I was happy to be coming home and so sad that it was ending. I was completely determined to return, and hoped I could within the year. While I would still love to go back, I am now thinking of it more realistically and with some distance. If I can go back to Africa I would like to go for several months, maybe two or three, and visit multiple places including Moshi. I would like to see the west coast and South Africa while I’m there.
When I went to Moshi I was expecting a level of culture shock. I can honestly say I didn’t really experience that shock until I came home. The poverty I saw did not surprise me, and I think that’s because I have seen it on TV and was expecting it. I had hoped, though, that it would have jarred me just a little. I hope I’m not too jaded. What I found most difficult to deal with was my return home. To go from living in such poverty to such luxuries like a toilet and a stocked refrigerator in one day was difficult for me to process. Each time I bought something I calculated its value in Tsh and thought of how much food it could provide to Margereza. It made me feel very guilty all the time. This lasted about a week, until I readjusted to my normal life.
I would never go to another CCS program, but I don think that they are an excellent resource for very specific types of volunteers. It is a great way to see and volunteer in a third world country where one might not be comfortable just venturing off to on their own. You are exposed to lots of cultural events and the language, however I did feel sometimes that those were the priority and that volunteering was an afterthought. This, I suppose, depends on the staff at your home base and the other volunteers. I think CCS is good for young, unexperienced travlers who need some hand holding from the visa process to the retun flight home. It’s also good for those looking to volunteer with a level of comofort when they return home. I often felt guilty returning to such nice accomodations, but it was also a welcome refief on some long and more challenging days.
Traveling to Moshi was a once in a lifetime experience, and I will never forget it. I am still in contact with some of the volunteers, and I hope to do more international volunteering in the near future.

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.