This is Africa...

After wrestling with this newfangled blogging  technology, I am finally ready to enter my first post with a meager 10 minutes left at the internet cafe, Hot Bread Shop.  I will attempt to journal my overseas adventures from  Africa and beyond, and hopefully keep those who are interested informed of my experiences!

Okay, I caved-- just bought one more hour, to do this thing right!

I am  coming to the end of my first week in Tanzania.  I am volunteering around the Arusha region with NGO Global Service Corps, helping with sustainable agriculture based projects.  It has been an intense week... life here is dramatically different in what seems to be every way possible from what I am used to.  However, this is the best part about traveling!  Experiencing new ways of living, learning new ideas, forming new relationships, and maybe even learning a new language... pole pole... (slowly!)

I arrived on Sunday night at Kilimanjaro Airport.  It had been a long journey of nearly 30 hours and I was glad to have arrived!  I was greeted by a far off lightning storm that offered glimpses of my new country, which was otherwise shrouded in  mysterious darkness.  After being picked up by a GSC staff member, we made our way to Center House Hostel.  I could make out people walking along side the road (which quickly turned from pavement to dirt), a group of donkeys, scattered buildings and lots and lots of sky.  It was the shortest 45 minute drive I've ever been on.  When we arrived at the hostel,  I was shown to my room, where I would only stay for my first 3 days of orientation, before moving into my homestay.  It was simple: Concrete floors and walls, a bed with a mosquito net, a sink with a small square mirror, table and chair, and an unsanded, unfinished, wobbly plywood closet with beads of dried sap on the outside.

I think I woke up every 2 hours or so that night.  I was hyper sensitive to sounds-- plus, a downpour began shortly after I arrived, which contributed to the noise.  (Thus begins the rainy season!)  I got up easily at around 6am,  sorted through some of my things, and had breakfast at the dining area in the hostel.  Black tea ("chai"), with white toast and an egg.  This was the routine for my first few days.  I would be picked up after that and taken to the GSC office, where I had Swahili lessons, followed by various introductory sessions with staff.  My program only includes 3 Swahili lessons, so I am planning to follow up with my teacher, Godson, for some private lessons once I get a little  better situated.

On Wednesday, I finally met my homestay family.  The matriarchs of Tanzanian families typically go by Mama, followed by their last name, or the first name of their first born child.  Mama Chaulla met me at the Hostel and we shared a soda while waiting for the taxi to take us home (it was raining--  again).  Mama Chaulla has 6 adult children, and as far as I can tell, lives with her granddaughter Karen and her parents.  I say I can't tell for sure because lots of  family members are in and out all the time!  They are all so nice and welcoming to me.  Karen is 13 and speaks English very well.  She also loves the fact that I speak Spanish, so we frequently spend our evenings exchanging Spanish lessons for Swahili lessons.  She asked me last night if I had any English storybooks for her to practice English with, so  I offered her what I could-- a few Rolling Stone magazines.  (Thanks, Dan!)  I told  her they'd be a little  hard, but she loved the pictures of musicians and celebrities.  She's a big Nicki Minaj fan.  She especially loved the Ralph Lauren cologne samples. 

Mama reminds me so much of my Grandma Lorene.  It's really comforting actually... if I think about it too much, it nearly brings me to tears.  She is a short woman with similar facial features, very sweet and welcoming, and humms to herself while  putzing around the house in exactly the same way Grandma used to.  She has a similar sense of humor, too.  It is customary to call  out, "Hodi" before entering a house, which asks if you may enter.  The response, then, it "Karibu!", "Welcome!"  One night I was helping with dinner (chips and beans... like chili fries!  Yum!!) and Mama's adult son and daughter were knocking in the rain, calling, "Hodi, Hodi!"  She casually responds, "Hapana!  Hapana!!"  Which means, "No!!"  Then giggles to herself and continues chopping potatoes.

There was some drama at the house, though.  The homestays are required to provide volunteers a room with a lock, so before I left the house on my first day there, I contemplated whether or not it would be necessary to also lock my luggage.  I decided not to, but took note of the way that the zipper got caught on a scarf inside my suitcase as I closed it.  Well, when I returned home, my room was still locked... but I immediately noticed that the zipper to my suitcase was nicely zipped all the way around, caught on nothing.  Shit!  I looked around inside.  50,000 Tanzanian shillings missing, as well as a big bag of Luna bars and vegan jerkey I had brought from  home.  I felt SO uncomfortable, and so upset.  I called Daphne at the GSC office, and she asked to speak to my mama.  Mama was shocked.  She explained that the last volunteer lost the spare key to the room long ago, so there was  only one.  It simply was not possible.  She poured me some tea and we sat together and tried to figure out what happened.  Mama Chaulla has been hosting volunteers for many years, and there has never been a problem, so this was quite troubling.  She was so upset.  I knew she had nothing to do with it, and I really liked the family, so I decided to stay under the condition that the change the lock.  We both seemed to understand that we were both sorry for the trouble.  She insisted on paying me back the money that was missing, but I said no.  The next day, on my way out, I found a Luna bar wrapper and a vegan jerkey wrapper on the ground in the complex.  Bastards!  I showed Mama, and she felt terrible.  I'm quite sure that the last volunteer lost the key because someone (perhaps one of the many kids in the complex?) took it.  But,  I now have a new key, but I also lock my luggage while I'm not home.

As for volunteering, I began my BIA training toward the end of this week.  (That's Bio-Intensive Agriculture, and organic method of farming that helps to increase yield and thus increase food security)  I had a few classroom sessions with William, a teacher at a local farming/livestock institute, and got to do some practical work at the GSC demonstration plot with another trainer, Ediltruda.  She is an incredible woman!  Sweet, positive, happy to teach, and incredibly  strong and hard working.  The first day in the field we made a compost head, and our second  day we dug a 7 meter long garden bed.  That means, dug the entire bed one-foot deep to help loosen and airate the soil, in addition to adding compost.  That is astonishingly hard work!  Ediltruda made me and my fellow volunteer Ebony look like chumps!  Hey, I welcome the opportunity to be humbled... and I'm sure it won't be the last.  My arms are aching and sunburnt today.  Come on milk box muscles!!

I now have to close as I am running out of time.  Next week we are doing a follow-up in a nearby village, where we'll camp for the week because it won't be practical to return to Arusha each day.  I will plan to update again next weekend.  Thank you to all who have sent me love and encouragement through Facebook and email, it means a lot to me!  Until next time...  Kwaherini!