So we arrived in Moshi last Friday, which was pretty exciting. We took a bus and it was only like an hour from Arusha, which was pretty nice. We got a spectacular view of Mt. Kilimanjaro on the way. We settled into Kilimanjaro Backpackers Hotel, which has ceiling fans that the man room thoroughly enjoyed (Don't ask why). David also celebrated our arrival by shaving his "facial hair." Everyone was very excited. The next day (Aura's 19th birthday!) we took a trip over to Amani Children's Home, where we were going to be volunteering for the next week. We met Joe... we're not exactly sure what his job is, but something along the lines of volunteer coordinator/supervisor/communications director.. well anyways he showed us around and introduced us to the staff and the many children. He also informed us that we would be playing a "friendly" football (soccer) game against the Amani children (mzungu vs mwafrica) on monday. For Aura's birthday celebration, the event planners (Kate and Lihi) planned a dinner to indotalian (an indian and italian restaurant combined!). The food was delicious and Aura looked oh so pretty with her birthday crown and earings. After dinner we surprised her with a chocolate cake, which did not last too long, as andrea, aka the chocolate queen, was strategically sitting next to her.
Sunday was a free day to walk around town and experience firsthand the ferocity of the street sellers. Their relentless effort combined with our desperate need led to a massive economic boost for the moshi community (especially omar and the bag ladies). We also had to accomplish a quick scavenger hunt where we learned all about Moshi. We learned that Mt. Kilimanjaro is 5,895 meters tall, being the tallest mountain in Africa, and the only place where there is snow all year long in Africa. We also learned that apparently Moshi is a city not a dinosaur. We were astonished, but we quickly recovered and enjoyed the day.
Monday was the big game, which we lost spectacularly 10-8. Despite the loss, the game was tons of fun and we were all thoroughly exhausted even though the children were unfazed.
Tuesday-Friday were spent at Amani in either the morning or afternoon playing with kids, teaching english, cooking, and helping in the art room with Libby, Joe's wife. Each day we were there we got to have one meal with them (lunch or dinner) using only our hands, and it wasn't even easy finger food, it was like rice and beans! It was an experience though...
We got to bond with the children daily, practice our swahili, and experience their limitless energy. Saturday (today!) we were given another free day to get ready for free travel. We were all sad to say goodbye to the kids (we're pretty sure Kate kept one) but felt our time was greatly appreciated. It was pretty stressful planning for free travel, but everything looks great now. We have chosen to go to Kigamboni first, which is on the coast of Tanzania and a part of Dar Es Salaam. We are taking an 8 hour fun filled, action packed, exotic adventure on a bus at 7 in the morning tomorrow, but we will still be able to experience the beach when we get there. We will be camping on the beach and enjoying the ocean. The girls have decided to finally shave for this big event, hence the purchase of the chainsaw. The leg hair will be greatly missed, but also saved and mailed home. Expect a large package! (Clear some room in your garage).
On friday we are leaving Kigamboni and swimming to zanzibar, we all bought shark repellant with a discount considering the large purchase. We will arrive in Stone Town but we have chosen to stay in the north in Kendwa, which is said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in Zanzibar. (it's also very manly). We hope to all survive and have lots of fun. When free travel is over we will be heading back down to Stone town for SCUBA DIVING!
Moshi was great, we bought most of the town.
Matt and Lihi signing out! Kwaherini!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
last day bangata/pete o'neal
soo before we start talking about UAACC(united African alliance community centre), the place we are staying at right now we have a couple of things to add to Camilles and Auras last post,regarding last night and day at Bangata.
we could start describing the last 48 hours at the village as pretty "eventful". We wake up the morning of the 4th, with Curry and Zik having to tell just a minor incident that took place the night before..Apparently, at around 12pm at night, Zik found himself cooking some chilly(which by the way was amazing) when suddenly, he hears two huge bangs at the door and 4 huge black men storm into their house armed with full sized machetes and hammers. Zik, caught with a cooking knife and a mop in hand, Curry still deep asleep, safe and sound in her room(there are too many details, we cant really write about) to make the story short, Zik successfully pulled one of the machetes out of the aggressors hand and scared them off, unfortunately, men made off with his ipod, speakers and phone whilst throwing stones at Zik as they left (just to make sure he wasn't gonna hunt them down). no harm done, everyones safe and sound and this just added a little of excitement to our home stays experience..the episode definitely left no room for doubt that we are in very competent hands..
Next morning, after having heard the story, we prepared our good bye meal for our host families. Rice got over cooked and looked like Ugali(a white paste made out of corn), but it still tasted deeeelicous! we had chapati,tomatoes with olive oil and salt, salads, beans and Ziks hot chilly which had gone through too much by the time it was served..lunch was a great success, Matt and Andrea even delivered two short thank you speeches in Kiswahili form which the parents all had a good laugh out of, but still appreciated it very much!
At the moment, as said above, we are staying a the UAACC, the UAACC is a program run by Pete Oneal. Pete was the founder of the Kansas City chapter of the Black Panthers. He led the movement against prejudice and policed the police, but not only that he was a large part of the community by teaching kids and helping the community. He has now extended what he was doing in Kansas City to Arusha, Tanzania. The reason why Pete has come to Africa was because he was brought up on flimsy charges of carrying a shotgun across state lines and faced up to 3 years and prison and instead of being brought up on false charges that would keep him from helping and protecting his community, so he went to Africa with his wife when he was 30 and his wife was 19 and they have been here ever since. Now he runs the UAACC and provides clean water for the surrounding area and classes for the local children. There is also a orphanage were he provides school and housing for young kids without the means to go to school or even have a proper home. he also runs a hostel for kids like us and it is one of his primary sources of income. He is an amazing man that does nothing but try to help us for example on last Thursday we were invited by Mzee (which is a sign of respect in Swahili and means, "old man") Pete to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Now when we got to UAACC we were not expecting anything special alot of the usual, rice and beans and such, but just lots of it, but to our amazement and jubilation there was a REAL turkey and stuffing and gravy and mashed potatoes and everything it was truly amazing and so good and apparently he prepared everything himself, and it was delicious.
ssooooo well be updating as soon as were in Moshi and know what were doing..in a while crocodile.Kwaherini, Andy and Kevin
we could start describing the last 48 hours at the village as pretty "eventful". We wake up the morning of the 4th, with Curry and Zik having to tell just a minor incident that took place the night before..Apparently, at around 12pm at night, Zik found himself cooking some chilly(which by the way was amazing) when suddenly, he hears two huge bangs at the door and 4 huge black men storm into their house armed with full sized machetes and hammers. Zik, caught with a cooking knife and a mop in hand, Curry still deep asleep, safe and sound in her room(there are too many details, we cant really write about) to make the story short, Zik successfully pulled one of the machetes out of the aggressors hand and scared them off, unfortunately, men made off with his ipod, speakers and phone whilst throwing stones at Zik as they left (just to make sure he wasn't gonna hunt them down). no harm done, everyones safe and sound and this just added a little of excitement to our home stays experience..the episode definitely left no room for doubt that we are in very competent hands..
Next morning, after having heard the story, we prepared our good bye meal for our host families. Rice got over cooked and looked like Ugali(a white paste made out of corn), but it still tasted deeeelicous! we had chapati,tomatoes with olive oil and salt, salads, beans and Ziks hot chilly which had gone through too much by the time it was served..lunch was a great success, Matt and Andrea even delivered two short thank you speeches in Kiswahili form which the parents all had a good laugh out of, but still appreciated it very much!
At the moment, as said above, we are staying a the UAACC, the UAACC is a program run by Pete Oneal. Pete was the founder of the Kansas City chapter of the Black Panthers. He led the movement against prejudice and policed the police, but not only that he was a large part of the community by teaching kids and helping the community. He has now extended what he was doing in Kansas City to Arusha, Tanzania. The reason why Pete has come to Africa was because he was brought up on flimsy charges of carrying a shotgun across state lines and faced up to 3 years and prison and instead of being brought up on false charges that would keep him from helping and protecting his community, so he went to Africa with his wife when he was 30 and his wife was 19 and they have been here ever since. Now he runs the UAACC and provides clean water for the surrounding area and classes for the local children. There is also a orphanage were he provides school and housing for young kids without the means to go to school or even have a proper home. he also runs a hostel for kids like us and it is one of his primary sources of income. He is an amazing man that does nothing but try to help us for example on last Thursday we were invited by Mzee (which is a sign of respect in Swahili and means, "old man") Pete to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Now when we got to UAACC we were not expecting anything special alot of the usual, rice and beans and such, but just lots of it, but to our amazement and jubilation there was a REAL turkey and stuffing and gravy and mashed potatoes and everything it was truly amazing and so good and apparently he prepared everything himself, and it was delicious.
ssooooo well be updating as soon as were in Moshi and know what were doing..in a while crocodile.Kwaherini, Andy and Kevin
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Safari Adventures
Hey guys its Camille and Aura and we have some great stuff to tell you about. The Serengeti and the Ngorongoro crater were amazing. We started heading to The Serengeti from Mwanza it was a long jeep ride but we got to the front gate and ate lunch. During lunch monkeys came so close to us that we could almost touch them we got loads of pictures and it made everyone ready to see African Wildlife. As we rolled into the Serengeti every ones eyes were peeled ready to see a lion. Wildebeest were there to give us a warm welcome. There were Millions of Wildebeest and Thompson Gazelles and many other animals. When we saw our first lion it was amazing. So we rolled on to our camp site and ate a great meal and went to sleep early because we were eager to see an african sunrise apart from the city. It was well worth waking up at 5:30 in the morning because as the sun was rolling high Giraffs were a hundred yards away walking past our camp hinting that tday was going to be a great day. We started by a great breakfast and packed our daypacks and embarked on our Safari. We saw tons more Wildabeest and then a massive elephants. Then as lunch was creeping near David needed to use the bathroom and walked to a tree getting out of our vehicle and Omar our guide sternly told him to get back to the car because lions were sleeping under the very tree that he was going to pee behind.
Then we finished up at the Seringeti and a long dusty ride took us to the beautiful Ngorogoro crater. We stopped on the way to explore a village of Massai warriors and learned much of their culture. Then we made camp on the summit of one of the many moutains that surrounds the crater. After camp we drove into the crater. Our vehicle's breaks gave way and we almost plumited to our death but yet again Omar and his experiance saved us again. We waited until nightfall and went back to the camp where we found kevin aura and david on their sides sick. so we put them all in the sick tent and thus started the sick tent trek. others to join were camille and andrea, andrea getting the hard end of the stick when she got a temperature of 104.
The last day of the trek we ended up in a beautiful campsite right outside of lake natron. a lake we have now dubbed the endless lake of flamingo shit... where was the water? then tanzanature tours took us to arusha where we stayed two nights at backpackers hotel, exploring the city. aura camille matt jessie and david went to go visit omar and omari's homes, two of the guides. it was a lot of fun and prepared us for the stay in bengata.after our pretty uneventfull stay in arusha we all made our way to our host families in bengata. bengata is a small town outside of arusha that is right below mount meru and is what seems to be the birthplace of dust. kate has proved the persistence of this dust by wearing socks and closed toed shoes and still finding the pesy little buggers in her toes. we cant write from everyones point of view but it seems that the families are kind, welcoming, and fun. i know that i will deffinatly miss my family when i leave. the only downfall to being in homestays is that we miss the group life. although we do see each other at our daily swahili classes we find ourselves missing each other a lot. mama frieda and all of the tomito household have been very kind, making us lunch and allowing us to use their facilities for classes and are spectacular halloween party.
oh yes we had a halloween party. kate was a super hero. jessie a butterfly. david hucklberry finn... we all knew what he really was.... kevin was matt. matt was kevin. camille was a fairy. lihi was an earth child. andrea was a caterpillar. aura was trinity.. orignially she was an italian boy but when she put on matt's sunglasses the resemblance was so bizarre that we all decided she had to be trinity. thanks to camille's moms care package halloween was a blast. also thanks to lihi's majestic bats and jessie's doodling abilities..
our project in bengata was to teach form four children. david and lihi taught english. jessie rachel and clairen are teaching geography. andrea and i did sex ed. matt and kate did math. aura and kevin did history. it was a struggle but there were many good moments like when students screamed "condoms" and when a student took matt to the side and asked him for help. a few of the students had trouble teaching due to constipation issues leading to one particular person having to get it digitally removed.
tommorow we are going to meet pete o'neil a former black panther who is now exiled in tanzania.
Then we finished up at the Seringeti and a long dusty ride took us to the beautiful Ngorogoro crater. We stopped on the way to explore a village of Massai warriors and learned much of their culture. Then we made camp on the summit of one of the many moutains that surrounds the crater. After camp we drove into the crater. Our vehicle's breaks gave way and we almost plumited to our death but yet again Omar and his experiance saved us again. We waited until nightfall and went back to the camp where we found kevin aura and david on their sides sick. so we put them all in the sick tent and thus started the sick tent trek. others to join were camille and andrea, andrea getting the hard end of the stick when she got a temperature of 104.
The last day of the trek we ended up in a beautiful campsite right outside of lake natron. a lake we have now dubbed the endless lake of flamingo shit... where was the water? then tanzanature tours took us to arusha where we stayed two nights at backpackers hotel, exploring the city. aura camille matt jessie and david went to go visit omar and omari's homes, two of the guides. it was a lot of fun and prepared us for the stay in bengata.after our pretty uneventfull stay in arusha we all made our way to our host families in bengata. bengata is a small town outside of arusha that is right below mount meru and is what seems to be the birthplace of dust. kate has proved the persistence of this dust by wearing socks and closed toed shoes and still finding the pesy little buggers in her toes. we cant write from everyones point of view but it seems that the families are kind, welcoming, and fun. i know that i will deffinatly miss my family when i leave. the only downfall to being in homestays is that we miss the group life. although we do see each other at our daily swahili classes we find ourselves missing each other a lot. mama frieda and all of the tomito household have been very kind, making us lunch and allowing us to use their facilities for classes and are spectacular halloween party.
oh yes we had a halloween party. kate was a super hero. jessie a butterfly. david hucklberry finn... we all knew what he really was.... kevin was matt. matt was kevin. camille was a fairy. lihi was an earth child. andrea was a caterpillar. aura was trinity.. orignially she was an italian boy but when she put on matt's sunglasses the resemblance was so bizarre that we all decided she had to be trinity. thanks to camille's moms care package halloween was a blast. also thanks to lihi's majestic bats and jessie's doodling abilities..
our project in bengata was to teach form four children. david and lihi taught english. jessie rachel and clairen are teaching geography. andrea and i did sex ed. matt and kate did math. aura and kevin did history. it was a struggle but there were many good moments like when students screamed "condoms" and when a student took matt to the side and asked him for help. a few of the students had trouble teaching due to constipation issues leading to one particular person having to get it digitally removed.
tommorow we are going to meet pete o'neil a former black panther who is now exiled in tanzania.
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