Masika – They said it would come. It usually happens about this time of year but with global warming and El Niño going on, no one can really predict the weather like they used to. But then it started coming… really making itself known and its presence felt. Altering landscapes without discretion on its quest for lower ground.
I wake up before dawn from a dream or perhaps just a confused rooster. I can’t remember which. The high-pitched hum of a mosquito harasses me and prevents me from easily returning to my slumber. Even with my poorly patched net hanging from a hook in the ceiling and tucked firmly between the mattress and bed frame, it still sounds like I have company under here besides my blankets and pillows. The hum sounds distant then slowly gets closer and louder. It’s my least favorite sound in the world; that is, besides the sudden silence that often follows after it gets really close, leaving me wondering just where on my face it could be feasting.
After several unsuccessful attempts to rid myself of the damn thing, I concede defeat and give up on trying to fall back asleep. I had to get up early anyway to do a full-day job shadow of Juhudi, but I still had some time before my alarm was set to go off so I lay there reading “Three Cups of Tea” as the rain outside my window continued with no signs of letting up, perhaps making up for lost time in its late arrival. I finally rise and enjoy the warmth of the shower though it doesn’t stream out as fast as the rain falls on the other side of the small glass window. I enjoy one of my own cups of tea before departing later than I had hoped, stepping into the flood on my way to work. Trying a different route than before, I find a daladala packed full forcing me to stand and slowly drip water on the woman I hovered above. Others get on or off; women with the cheap black plastic bags tied tight to their heads making makeshift shower caps to protect their precious plaits and weaves.
I pay my 250 shillings without a hassle and get off to walk down a usually bustling street but today I just walked past crowd after crowd of people huddled under awnings – wishfully thinking they would wait this out and it would let up soon. The two foot deep trenches on either side of the road begged to differ as what I formerly believed to be an excessive canal gaping between the sidewalk and me now proved inadequate as gushing water overloaded the holes where it is supposed to dip under the road briefly but instead flowed freely onto the street. Leaping newborn streams, I continue on my way downhill towards the main searching for the something to tell me where I am. I walk past the bus stand where I’d usually be harassed but only had to tolerate a few Hey!’s and Hello!’s this morning from the people seeking cover. Continuing on, I hop puddles and blacktop creeks before hanging a left and seeing dead ahead the main road at the exact stop I usually get off at. The walk continues and brings a fresh smirk to my face seeing how the essence of advertizing has gotten lost in translation, a discussion continued from the night before and even breakfast (from the soft drink that talks about how most people don’t enjoy it to today’s “QUALITY MEAT PRODUCTS” mini-billboard with a picture of a hamburger and then the caption of “Hamburger”… nothing else.) I shake my head and smile, though see to my left the shell of a former building only one lot away from town’s main drag where only a couple walls with glassless windows remain providing a view of a grassy lot where a pile of burning trash smolders defiantly.
Crossing the main road and passing the row of waiting daladalas brings some more peace as I leave the main part of town behind and the heavy rain has made traffic along this road rather light. Straight ahead I stare at the side of six solemn silos that rise into the sky higher than any building in town and make the Unga Ltd. Area a landmark. They loom, tall and industrious, like a manmade Mt.Meru though they’re the landmark for the south and they’re only visible once you escape the streets of town solidly lined with businesses. I carry on my way, continuing an inner monologue that I would later write down and that you’re reading now, with every step bringing another story.
I search for my next street where I’ll turn left. Is this it? (I’m still new to these parts.) Nah, I haven’t passed the Jesus and puppy posters yet... though they’re not occupying their usually sales spot so perhaps the rain has delayed their arrival to work for the day. Besides, that last road was too much like a road and not enough like the back of warehouses with the abandoned rail line running behind it that I was supposed to turn at. Here it is. I take my left turn and walk down the train tracks, trotting slightly as the steel ties are spread at a distance that shortens my lanky stride. I let my hands sneak out of the sleeves of my orange Columbia Sportswear jacket that is finally getting some use after a couple years after that last pre-college trip to Fred Meyer’s with the parents before leaving for UBC. (That seems so long ago now and like it was another life entirely…) The rain’s let up slightly so I slide my hood off of my head, revealing my blonde hair and the fact of my whiteness that I had been concealing up to that point so as to avoid too much unwanted attention from people whose assumption of the “rich white man” has been motive enough for murder and other violent crimes in this area within recent years (sorry Dad). My identity now revealed in an attempt to just feel a few light drops on my scalp down this home stretch, sure enough…
“Mzungu, mambo?”
“Poa. Vipi?”
“Poa. Mzuka?”
“Mzuka mwingi. Za asubuhi?”
“Poa.”
Not that bad… Friday’s walk with a drunk man and the other man later on that walk would prove to be worse. I turn off one mud road that had been the topic of conversations about too much dust in the air when carves drive by during the previous days and down to another, more narrow and rocky mud road where my final destination wait just ahead. Continuing my quick pace, thinking I was a little late and wanted to see what a whole day is like for my boss, I walk through the front door and greet the few children who were able to navigate the monsoon and make it to the classroom. I was thinking a couple days prior and even the night before that it would be cool to beat Juhudi to work on this Wednesday morning because that would make a good impression and it turns out that I did even when I thought I was late and was slowed by the rain. I have an unfair advantage though, I thought, as he has been talking about some severe stomach pains lately. Still, time to start my day…
Welcome everybody to my blog, or “Karibu” as we say here in Tanzania. I’ve moved things around a bit once again mostly just to signal that a change has occurred and so I’m officially moving my blog and my mind out of that transitional phase and into this new, and possibly final, phase. I’ve now officially entered the internship phase, you could say and I’ve been in Arusha for almost two weeks already at the time of writing this. (It is probable that any blog posted will be typed up at a different time and then published once I take my computer somewhere to get internet.) I’m doing this inaugural post to just serve as a reference of background information for what I’m doing now and also to contextualize all of the following posts, so here is the primer for the rest of my time here in Tanzania…
As I mentioned, I am doing an internship now instead of continuing on at the University of Dar es Salaam for the academic year as I had planned. There’s a wealth of older blog posts to explain that decision and tell that whole story, so now’s not the place but if you didn’t already know, you can just look back at all of those old stories. I am really excited to have this opportunity to continue my time here in Tanzania though while also doing something else that is productive and educational. My internship is through IE3 which operates under the Oregon University System and actually has an interesting history as well as hundreds of really cool international internships throughout the world. Feel free to check out their website if you’re interested in learning more about them (http://ie3global.ous.edu). I am also fortunate enough to be getting 12 University of Oregon credits for this (so long as I complete the required assignments that are part of getting internship credit) which allows me to keep my fulltime student status, though just barely, but it’s better than losing health insurance and all of that other stuff. I’m pretty sure that’s true at least, but I may come home to find another reality.
This internship is also through a Washington D.C.-based NGO called Visions in Action which places volunteers in various locations in Liberia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and probably a few other places as well for durations of 6 or 12 months usually (http://www.visionsinaction.org/). They have set something special up with IE3 though I think so my time is for 12 weeks which is short for a VIA volunteer, but still longer than the usual 10-week program that many internships follow. So I am living in the VIA volunteer house (which I’ll explain briefly), had an orientation done through VIA and also have some additional responsibilities to them but since I have completed the orientation, they are mostly here for support and to provide the housing. There are a lot of things I could say about Visions and there’s already been quite a lot that has gone on in the past two weeks due to my partnership with them and the in-house volunteer coordinator person they have here actually resigned somewhat due to some drama revolving around my orientation, but that’s a long story for another time I guess. However, that is going to make the rest of my time here somewhat interesting, but I don’t want it to distract from what I’m really here to do. I actually got to meet the founder and Executive Director for VIA last week as he scheduled a trip to all of the different sites in Africa and there are once again a lot of things I could say about Visions, though I just don’t know where to start. In a lot of ways, it’s really good but there are also a lot of reasons for me to question the organization. At least they provide the housing though and that’s not going to change.
I’m living in a house just on the outskirts of town in a fairly decent neighborhood though we do have a noisy bar as a neighbor (still better than the church back at UDSM though as of this point.) I love the house and it has a nice little front lawn complete with an avocado tree (these things are falling and probably will kill one of us) and has a nice secure fence and gate. The inside of the house is spacious with a wide-open living room and high ceilings. I have my own room and own bed which I actually fit in well though there is no desk in there and the mosquito net has about 15 makeshift duct tape patches. We have our own kitchen as well complete with a refrigerator and some gas stove tops. It is hard to get used to cooking for myself again, especially as the foods available here are much different than what I cook at home and I seem to hardly be in the house very often. Still, all in all it is an incredibly nice, comfortable set up that I am so glad to be in and there’s even hot water!
It’s hard to explain who I live with because I am now the only person actually still associated with Visions in Action that lives in the house since the other person who was here to be a link between me and VIA has quit. There are two other tenants that I am pretty sure will be here throughout my stay here – Åsa, a Swede and the former VIA coordinator person who has been here for probably a year-and-a-half or more but has since found other work or another volunteer position and Jacquelyn, a former Visions volunteer who actually just finished volunteering with the same organization I am with now in January but is now starting a new pre-primary school elsewhere in town. Jacquelyn’s brother has also been visiting for a long time now and still will be around for about a month I think and there are two other people who were living on some of the other beds around the house but moved out, at least for a few days, while the Executive Director was in town so it didn’t look like we were housing a bunch of randoms… like we kind of are. Other than that, there is Stephanie who just quit so I don’t know how much longer she’ll be around but I really can’t tell you for sure just what the situation will be like in a week. Like I said though, I really like it and I am very satisfied with the way things have been going so far.
I guess I should talk about the actual internship I’m doing here, shouldn’t I? Well I think I’ve kind of talked about it before when I was just finding out about it but I’ve learned quite a bit more about it since I actually got here and got started. I’m writing this on Monday, March 22nd after having what I’ll consider my first real day there though even that’s not entirely accurate as I was in there three times last week. Still today was the day where we did all of our planning and stuff so I can actually tell you what the plan is and what I’m going to be expected to do for the duration of my time here. Before I get into that though, I should talk a little bit about the organization.
Elimu Community Light was started over 10 years ago in response to high crime rates in the Daraja Mbili neighborhood, an area south of the main Arusha town and where I now work. “Elimu” means education in Swahili and it is meant to serve as a metaphorical guiding light for the community that it serves. Unfortunately, the primary acronym used for the organization is ECOLI which I have gotten over since I’ve actually started saying/writing it 50 times daily and you will probably have to do the same if you are going to continue reading this blog as I anticipate it will come up a lot. ECOLI was founded by Juhudi Mbwambo, my boss/mentor there who I have been working closely with and will probably be working with throughout my time there. His solution to the perceived degeneration of his community was to start a pre-primary school that does early childhood development as this is a fundamental period in life and if handled properly, can pay great dividends as a person progresses. The Elimu Community Light Children’s Unit (ECOLICU) started not long later and is the main program run under ECOLI, though they are somewhat like separate entities. You can check out the website here: http://www.ecolicu-tz.org/ which will explain a lot though the English used is obviously Tanzanian. As of now, there are currently three ECOLICU schools that fill a community need for these kids to be in school and as far as I know do not charge anything for their tuition. These kids often may just wander the streets or do God knows what during the day if they weren’t there but this gives them a place to go where they can fulfill their hunger to learn.
ECOLI, unfortunately like most other NGOs and nonprofits, faces major limitations in funding. The goals and potential projects/programs remain frozen due to budget insufficiencies and Juhudi, a man who I have described as inspirational, driven, and one of the hardest working people I will ever meet, has actually been volunteering his time for the last five years. The only income that the organization really has comes from its teacher training program, in which a total of four separate classes meet two times each week to get training in early childhood care and development (ECCD or ECD without the “care”) and this is not even enough to afford rent or the ability to pay ECOLICU’s teachers in a timely or regular way. ECOLI embraces a spirit of volunteerism and has such a powerful and necessary role in the community that others are able to see the need for an organization like it so somehow it has been around for more than 10 years now. Still, the goals and other projects of ECOLI are still grounded and their plans cannot take flight unless some new forms of funding come about. That’s where I come in.
My primary role with ECOLI will be to work on planning and development of the organization which actually aligns perfectly with my minor I’m aiming for in nonprofit administration at U of O. This is a daunting task that I’ll admit I have my fears about, but Juhudi’s dedication has really inspired me and this is a really good time in my life where I feel motivated and ready to try my absolute hardest on this. Also, as much as I miss home and can’t wait to go back, I feel like I have such a short time left here and there’s a lot of work for me to do if I want to accomplish my goals so I don’t really have time to worry about whether or not it’s within my potential to accomplish these things, I’ve just gotta do my best. As of right now, I know that there is a lot I don’t know about this topic and what I have learned does not apply in this foreign context as much as it does back in Eugene where those fundraising strategies are more feasible. I’ve got to do a lot of research and learn a lot of things in a short amount of time because I want to make an impact here or at least plant some seeds that will grow even after I’m gone.
I think I’m kind of losing my point here of just providing an introduction to this new chapter in my life as an intern here in Arusha as the rest of my blogs will be more for specific stories and such but there’s just so much to say here that hasn’t yet been said. I am very busy here with this new life set up I have which I am really happy about and will make time pass really fast, though it does mean that I may not be able to post blogs that often as I am also limited in my ability to access internet, more so than when I was back in Dar. I just want to say welcome, once again, and I hope I am able to get on here from time to time to share some experiences and keep you all up to date on my life as well as just what life is like in the city that lies halfway between Cape Town and Cairo (and was also ranked by Lonely Planet as the 8th worst city in the world… Detroit was #1). This looks like it’s much more the experience I had in mind when I chose to go abroad and things are already going even better than I had hoped (and I had high hopes) so it’ll be interesting to see where this all ends up. I hope you enjoy reading any ensuing posts and feel free as always to say hi to me in one form or another or even ask any questions.
I’ve finished traveling and am now in my new home for the next few months here in Arusha. I’ve come across some down time so I figure I can sit and type up a little bit about the trip I just went on with Dylan. To read the pre-departure notes, go back a couple posts and I think it’s there. I really had a blast though and it was great because I’ve never done anything like that before. I wrote some journals throughout but mostly I was just taking bullet points of the significant events and I’ll share some highlights. I hope you enjoy.
Day 1 – Hop a Train – 19 February
After having a farewell dinner/pool party for our program that got us back to UDSM in the late evening, I spent the rest of my night packing and trying to study which took me late into the night which was mostly sleepless anyway. My last final exam did not go flawlessly and I got out later than I had hoped so I had to head back to my room and pack away the last few things in a frenzy. We stop by Ken’s office, get our $40 deposit back from our rooms and watch the seconds tick by as we think we might miss our train. We finally made it to the train though right on time thanks to our bajaji driver (though he did start going the other way entirely for a minute). We should have known better though and we waited for a couple hours before the train actually left. Overall, was just so relieved to be out of that place and done.
We got a first class cabin which only has 4 bunks and we’re sharing with a guy who’s from Tacoma where his wife is a professor at University of Puget Sound but is on sabbatical so they’re living in Zanzibar for a year with their two young sons. He spent pretty much the whole time with his family in the next cabin over and got off before the night so we essentially had the place to ourselves and enjoyed some beers. The train tracks go right between SelousGamePark and MikumiNational Park so we get to see some gazelle, warthogs, giraffes, huge birds, etc. right as the sun was going down.
Day 2 – Arrive in Mbeya – 20 February
I wake up in the middle of the night to what I think is some crazy problems the train is having but I think it just has to go one foot/minute when it climbs this hill or something. I went back to sleep and woke up cold which was a foreign feeling after spending so much time in Dar es Salaam (a sign of a new era). We get in to Mbeya later than expected, but it gave me time to finish reading Siddhartha which I started the night before though we didn’t really have time to do much besides wander town. We get some good food and then just go back to our hotel room which has a TV and cable so we spend the rest of the night mesmerized as we catch up on things like the olympics, Haiti, and even got to see The Simpsons and Sanford & Son… we just watched for hours because it had been so long since we’d really done that and it was just unreal.
Day 3 – Getting to Malawi – 21 February
We head out the next day and get on a coaster heading south towards the Malawian border. The Tanzanian police had stops about every 10-15 minutes along the route to get bribes or something, I’m not sure. As expected, it takes longer than expected and the border town was just complete madness. We changed some cash over with the random dudes selling Malawian Kwacha and ride on the back of bicycles to the border crossing. Everything goes well there and then we walk into Malawi where some random car pulls up that supposedly will take us to the nearest town though it didn’t look like a taxi. Along the way, the guy literally fills the trunk of the car with corn – like just ears and ears of corn, so much so that he can’t close the trunk so they have to take some out – and we have some lunch before catching a mini bus (what Malawians call daladalas) to take us to Mzuzu, the nearest big town that’s supposed to have an ATM. We get in after sundown and taxi cab jackals try to get us to pay the equivalent of $40 to take us to this town on Lake Malawi where we want to get the next morning to take the ferry. We almost fell for it to, but thankfully did not.
Day 4-6 – The Ferry – I think I’ll just stop doing it like this from now on
We take another mini bus the next day to a town on Lake Malawi called NkhataBay and there we find out the ferry doesn’t leave until something like 7 or 9 in the evening so we have all day to just hang out. We meet some guys who sell art and stuff to tourists and also try to sell us Malawi Wowie. The ferry eventually gets moving though there were no seats or anything for us so we just sat on deck and looked at the stars – glad that the rain had stopped. I end up staying up for what is essentially the whole night and they keep trying to force us to go down to second class (which is what we got tickets for) where it’s standing room only. It was pretty shitty though I did get to meet a sergeant in Malawi’s military and he was actually pretty cool. The next couple days were just long and slow though the scenery was very nice (like most of Malawi, actually). We met a University of Oregon alum and some peace corps volunteers who we actually ran into a day later. It was nice to get off and walk again though in the end and we started making our way to Lilongwe (Malawi’s political capital and probably second biggest city) by mini bus. One ride was pretty bad though and I had to share my valued foot/leg space with some chickens (and I swear there was a duck in there too).
Lilongwe
This was our planned destination and after arriving we really didn’t have any further plans. We couch surfed at this really nice place with a lady from Malta who was also hosting these other two British guys (really cool dudes that we got along with pretty well) as well as two ladies who were Swedish or Dutch or something. We go out that first night to this place where all the expats go to and it’s the first time in a long time where I truly felt like I wasn’t a minority and it really messed with my head. The next day I was actually pretty confused and stuff but I got over it eventually. Lilongwe is a bizarre place and it’s like split into two cities which we saw a little bit of both. I don’t know at what point this was, but we decided to go to Zambia because the visa fees were $50 and we just got our deposits back from the dorms which were about the same price so we got bus tickets from Lilongwe to Lusaka. We had to leave early in the morning and I didn’t feel like losing more money so I turned down the invitation to head to the casino with everyone else at the house. I wake up a couple hours later to Dylan throwing a big stack of money at me that he all won because he hit his lucky number (27) on the only round of roulette he has ever or will ever play in his life. I end up watching an awful movie with the Brits and then getting one hour of sleep before we had to head out. The cab driver never shows up though and doesn’t answer his phone so we start walking down the road hoping not to miss our bus and fortunately we get there right on time and don’t even have to wait around.
On to Zambia – 26 February
We sleep a little before reaching the border and when we get there we start going through the motions without a hitch except that Dylan tries to change money over with this one guy and who becomes convinced that Dylan took his money from him. The police have to get involved and the guy is yelling in another language while this other pastor guy who got on our bus was preaching and also yelling at the same time. It was Armageddon and I had the aisle seat so everything was just going off all around me. The police guy believes Dylan easily thanks to these other Zambian guys who stepped in to give us a hand and were really cool. The rest of the day was just a long bus ride through a cool forest area that was mostly uninhabited except for the wild bird that flew out and broke our windshield. Once again, we arrive in the dark so we don’t really get to see the city at all or do much but go to our hostel. Once there, we reevaluate our plans and know that we want to see Victoria Falls but also want to take the train back to Tanzania. We end up deciding to go early the next morning to Livingstone which you should check out on google maps just because it’s right by like four different countries.
Livingstone – 27 and 28 February
On the road to Livingstone I have a great realization that I do actually like Tanzania and just Africa in general more than I knew and that I could actually live here after all. I thought a lot about Tanzania and Dar especially on this trip and I learned a lot of things and felt a lot of different emotions but I’m just overall satisfied and happy with things right now and have been since about this time. To keep things brief, we made it to Victoria Falls and paid the $10 each to get in which is probably the best ten bucks spent on the entire trip. That place was really cool and I mean it. I don’t have many good up close photos because it’s just so incredibly wet and also so massive that photos when you’re near just don’t capture how massive it is. I had my mind set on bungee jumping off of this bridge there when we got there that day but the maximum price I had determined was lower than what they listed so it would have been cool to say I bungee jumped there (I’m allowed to do one douche bag thing every once in a while) but it just wasn’t worth it so I’m going to try to do something else cool with the money I saved there instead.
Back to Lusaka… briefly
Our couch surfing connection doesn’t work out so we had to stay at some godawful hostel back in Lusaka and we have to decide whether to take the Tuesday train and not spend enough time in Zambia or the Friday and spend too much while missing other opportunities in Tanzania. This hostel sure helped convince us to just get out of there and although I wish I would have seem more of Zambia and stayed longer, we had too much calling us back to Tanzania. We got up early to at least walk around the city a little bit before heading to catch the train and it’s just fascinating to see how other places are and how they’re different from Tanzania. I’m wondering if their ability to speak English is important or their proximity to South Africa or if they just have less corruption/better management or if we just didn’t see the right things or a combination or what but Zambia seemed a lot less poor/more developed/logically operational than anywhere in Tanzania. Even on the train back, there were less people trying to sell us things through the window and once we crossed back into Tanzania, there were just little children begging for food and/or money all along the tracks. Just so many thoughts running through my mind throughout this whole trip and it was really good to get this new perspective.
Back in Tanzania
Dylan wanted to stay in the same place in Mbeya so I didn’t protest though it wasn’t as magical this time and not all the channels came through. The next morning, I couldn’t get the warm water to work though Dylan could so I had to freeze a bit and then immigration officers came knocking at our door which we handled somehow. My current residence status is… questionable, let’s say so I’m trying to be very careful right now.
Iringa
We had to the city of Iringa (in the region by the same name) from Mbeya and get dropped off right into God unleashing an ocean of rain which let up slightly as we headed into the actual town part. I really liked the city there though and we spent two nights at this weird little inn where they only had single rooms open but they were cheap so it was fine and I spent the night in my own room for the first time in a long time (though now I have one here in Arusha.) The building next door was a mosque though and my window faced that direction so I was roused at 4:45 AM for the call to prayer and spent the next hour listening to their service or something. The next day we went to this cool valley site called Isamila or something that had formed by the limestone layers being eroded and leaving cool pillars and stuff. The clouds had more to say than our tour guy and we kept hearing very worrisome and powerful thunder as we trekked down this river bed, expecting a flash flood any second. We got lucky here I guess too. Headed back to town and just checked it out a bit before leaving the next day to head back to Dar at last.
Homeless at home – back to Dar es Salaam – 6 March
As seems to be the trend, we didn’t make it to where we were going until after dark, later than expected but at least it was a place we already knew. It was warm (everywhere else we had been on the entire trip had been in the rainy season) and it felt good to be back to the city which I think we both legitimately missed. We stayed at a place near campus that Dylan knew that was cheap and had air conditioning… a huge bonus. Over the next couple days we walked around downtown, met our friend’s parents, saw some Tanzanian friends that were still in Dar, got to take photos on campus and just relaxed a bit even. We moved out of the hotel and in with our friend Dan who had held onto our bags for us while we traveled. The next couple days were busy and hectic but good as I got to see my roommate one last time. He is one cool dude and I’m really glad that I got to live with him and know him. I also got to teach a couple more times and I’m also really glad that I got to get to know those guys as well. I got my bus tickets to head out to Arusha on Wednesday and ended up going out with Dan on that last night. We went to this swanky club where the girls were good looking, though the place was too nice (nicer than any club I’ll ever go to again) and it was just taking itself too seriously. It wasn’t my scene and even Dan wasn’t enjoying it so we wound up at his home away from home… the Las Vegas Casino. I proceeded to lose all my money though I was fortunate enough to have enough for a cab to get me to the bus station in the morning. Then they charged me for having excess baggage and I got on the bus with only 700 shillings (maybe 52 cents) to hold me over for what turned out to be like a 10 hour bus ride. My Swahili got me some free fruit at the place we stopped for lunch and even upon arriving in Arusha, my new home, I still could boast having that 700 shillings… and hunger.
So now here I am at my new home for the next 12 weeks. This is essentially the conclusion to that last chapter on my life and I’ll some change things here and post an introduction to the new chapter so stay tuned.
Overall Notables:
- Went by Bajaji, rail, daladala, mini bus, coaster, and coach buses. We wanted to ride in the back of a truck and rent motorcycles but this just never happened.
- First time in a land-locked country (both Malawi and Zambia are)
- The number of countries I’ve been to is now up to 7 (though technically it’s 10)
- We spent most of our time without any map our guidebook which was kind of cool but probably meant more headaches and ripoffs
- Rode the entire Tanzania Zambia Rail line
- I saw a laundry machine for the first time since I left home
- Victoria Falls is supposedly one of the seven natural wonders of the world
- Successfully fasted on several occasions (living on mostly bread and multivitamins the rest of the time)
- First time couch surfing
- Survived a very long time on very little different pieces of clothing
- I more than doubled my count of warm showers taken since arriving (now where I live we have hot water though so that’s just a remnant of another era)
- The actual times I took showers or changed clothes were few and far between… as were places that actually had toilet seats (…just don’t ask…)
Looking back on all of this that I typed up, it doesn’t really get the grasp of what traveling here was really like but more just says what happened. The truth is that every day I could have written something twice as long as this just for that day alone and what it was like. I’ve got a million stories just from those two-and-a-half weeks and they probably will never all be told but one day I’d like to be able to share them though it’s going to have to come just in conversations when we’re hanging out. I’m still not sure how to think about this trip though it was very important and now that I’m here in Arusha where I’ll remain for the rest of my time in Tanzania, I feel refreshed, prepared, and in the right mindset to do this.
Well my travels are over and I arrived in Arusha on Wednesday which means tonight I break my near-month-long streak of not sleeping in the same bed for more than 2 consecutive nights. The journey was good though, very good and I have countless memories and new experiences. I learned a lot about myself, my beliefs, my capabilities and just got a new perspective on a lot of things. Unfortunately, I can't get my photos off of my memory card, though I haven't reached panic mode on that yet. I just haven't had a chance to settle down or found much downtime in over a month now and it looks like I have at least a few more days to a whole week before I get that opportunity. Keep checking though because I'm going to post an explanation of everything that I will be doing here for this new internship phase. If the calendar stays the same, then I will officially finish twelve weeks from today which seems like too short of a time, but who knows?, I'll probably be eating my words six weeks from now. I don't officially start until sometime next week though so then the ball will really be rolling. As for right now, we're going through the orientation process and there is some adjusting on my part that needs to be done, but I'm sure it's not as drastic as it is for volunteers who come in directly from North America or Europe.
I appreciate everyone who reads this and will be trying to get some more frequent and thoughtful posts up here once I get my situation settled.
