On campus again!

We got back from Moshi on Monday. The week away was a nice break and very relaxing. Mama Macha is an American woman who married a Tanzanian and has been living here ever since. Despite the fact that he died four years ago she has continued to reside here. Most of her time is spent in Dar, but her husband is from a village just north of Moshi where his families land is - which is where she took us.

I am really sad that her husband is already dead because I would love to meet the man that married this woman. She is absolutely crazy (I say that with lots of love!)! She has an amazingly loud personality with has an infinite number of stories to tell - and there's no stopping her. I have a really hard time distinguishing whether she is serious or joking, which can make for some interesting conversations... Half the time I think she is serious, but I can't help from laughing anyway! I'm not quite sure how Chris' family met her, but I'm so glad that they did!

From the beginning I knew that our trip was going to be good. On the bus ride to Moshi Liz and I had been talking about how we had to get a ride in the back of a truck at some point before we left the country. About half an hour later we get off at our stop and as we're stepping off the bus Mama Macha points out our ride - a pick up truck! I almost peed my pants!

We must have been a ridiculous sight - 10 white kids piled in the back of a pickup driving up the mountain. It's a pretty common mode of transport here, but not one frequently used by wazungu...

We got there just as the sun was setting which is prime time to sneak a peak at Kili. The peak of the mountain is almost always covered by clouds during the day, so you have to try and catch it at either sunrise or sunset when the clouds are briefly burned away.

(I present to you Mt. Kilimanjaro...)

The family that Mama Macha rents her condo from in Dar es Salaam is also from this area and owns a hotel which sits at the base of one of the hikes for Mt. Kilimanjaro. Friday we went to go visit their place and hike up the gate for the national park. Aaand as friends of the family we were all offered special rates for accommodations at the hotel and fees for the climb - good people to keep in contact with!

After spending time at the base the group dropped me off at the bus stop where I caught a bus heading to Arusha to visit my cousins Kris and Rebecca. It was a short visit but I'm really glad that I had the chance to see them both. Kris heads back to the states next month but I may try and get back to Arusha and visit Rebecca and their son Nate later on.

We spent two weeks in the Arusha area at the begining of the trip but didn't actually see much of the city so dinner Friday night was especially sweet. We went to a place that is Indian restaurant by night and an auto parts store by day... amazing!

Saturday Kris and Rebecca dropped me back off with the group and we spent two more days relaxing in the hills before returning to Dar.

Campus is slowly filling up with more and more students as we get closer to the start of classes.
The days have been pretty busy with journaling and other assignments due for my program, along with having to work out rooming. Because we want Tanzanian roommates all of us living together have had to spread out.

Unfortunately I got the short straw and had to switch rooms. I got bumped from 7th floor to 2nd which means I have less of a hike everyday, but I also loose the view from my balcony and the amazing breeze... Liz and I are the only ones that had to move down and we've decided that it means that we're going to end up with the coolest roommates. It's only fair right?

Two weeks

Sorry is has taken me so long to update! I just got back from two weeks of vacation during which I didn’t have computer access.

After we finished up our month of Kiswahili classes our group was given two weeks of independent travel time. I went west and south with four other girls: Liz (Olaf), Sara (Luther), Stacey (Concordia) and Wendy (Concordia).

We started in Iringa – which is probably my favorite city of all of the places that I have been to so far. The city itself is beautiful (and clean! although I’m not sure how because I could never find a trash can...), not too big, not too small and not too touristy.

(Me and Liz looking out over town)

I was amazed by the way that we were treated. Normally when shopping in Tanzania there is a wazungu (white person) tax added onto all purchases (some places more than others) but all of the prices that we were quoted in Iringa were fair! I did absolutely no bargaining which is just ridiculous.

So often you meet amazingly friendly people, but you aren’t sure how genuinely interested in you they actually are. It was such an amazing feeling to be welcomed in by shop keepers eager to meet and talk with you, but not looking to rip you off. Needless to say I spent LOTS of money...

The markets were not the only place I lost money in Iringa though - another awesome attraction was Neema’s Craft Workshop. Neema’s is a facility that provides people who have physical disabilities with education and training in a variety of art crafts which are then sold in an adjoining gallery. It is the only facility of its kind in the country which made it even more amazing!

We took a tour of the workshop itself and got to see people working on weavings, jewelry design, paper making (using either maize leaves and elephant dung) and bead making using recycled glass. All of which totally suckers you into spending lots and lots of money in the shop – I loved it!

After three days in Iringa we headed to Tukuyu. The town of Tukuyu was far less warm and friendly but just as beautiful. Stacey, Wendy and I spent one of our days climbing Mount Rungwe, which is a dormant volcano and the 3rd largest mountain in Tanzania. The majority of the hike was through the rain forest and amazingly beautiful but unfortunately when we got to the top we were in a cloud and didn’t get much of a view.

(Tukuyu)

After Tukuku we spent 5 days in a row traveling. Most often our schedules consisted of waking up at 5, spending all day on a bus, getting off and trying to find a hostel, trying to find somewhere to eat and then crashing in bed. We moved from Tukuyu to Mbeya, Mbeye to Songea, Songea to Tunduru, Tunduru to Masasi, and Masasi to Kiliwa Masoko.

(In Masasi we celebrated Liz' birthday with chocolate and Apple Fanta!
Left to Right: Stacey, Sara, Me, Liz and Wendy)

When we finally reached Kiliwa Masoko we stopped to spend one whole day there soaking in the sun and swimming in the ocean before returning to Dar.

(Baobab trees on the beach in Kiliwa Masoko!)

We have now experienced the full range of transportation in Tanzania! In town the public transport buses are daladalas. Daladalas only seat something like 15 people but I think the maximum number that we have counted in one at a given time is 29 (this number does not include live chickens which often accompany us also) - because the only law pertaining to them is that the door must be closed.

This rule however does not apply to coach or coaster buses... but only the most expensive lines actually adhere to restrictions on numbers of passengers. Our trip from Mbeye to Songea was on a full 45 seat coach bus – with 20 something extra passengers standing in the aisle! All of us sat through a nine hour ride with either someone in their lap or crouched over and around them. Personal space is not really a concept understood here...

After a long, hot and overcrowded ride to Songea we went to book our tickets to Tunduru and decided that we would take the back five seats of the next bus – thinking that that way we would all be together, we wouldn’t have to worry about people crowding us and Sarah (who is 6 feet tall) could have the middle seat and leg room.

What we didn’t think about was the fact that the back row usually has less leg room than the rest of the bus (which already isn’t enough leg room for anyone over 5’5’’...) or the fact that we had just chosen to sit in the back of the bus on the road that our guide book calls “easily the worst road in the country”. Kids in elementary school fight over the back seats on the school bus for a reason - it gets the best bumps. Ooops!

So we’re impossibly squished into the back row and riding on the worst bus that I have ridden on so far. The window in the back didn’t seal so tons of red dust kept pouring in – staining our bags and clothes. Three of our seat cushions weren’t secured to their frames and kept moving with every bump and one of them kept sinking further and further into the floor as we drove so that by the end of the trip Stacey was a full 3 inches below the rest of us!

Despite all of the problems with the bus I do think that it somehow magical because it was able to defy all laws of physics! We were flying down horrible unpaved roads and full of dips and turns! At one point I turned to the group and told them that I had had a really enjoyed meeting them and traveling around Tanzania but that I didn’t think we were going to make it... I was convinced that I was either going to smack my head on the ceiling of the bus or that we were going to tip over!

Thankfully we survived – although not without bruised bottoms and knees and sore backs. Never again will I complain about leg room on an airplane or pot holes! Coming back to campus has been luxurious in comparison to all of the places we have stayed and things that we have experienced in the past two weeks!

We have another two weeks before classes are supposed to start and a family friend of Chris’ has invited us to stay at her place in Moshi, which happens to be on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro! We leave on Tuesday to go relax up north for a couple days and then return to campus on the 22nd to get ready for the Tanzanian students to come back!