Over Yonder

Tutaonana Baadae

2009-07-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

This will be the last picture I'll be able to post until I reach Arkansas. Being on your own in a foreign country requires, at least in a narcasistic way, that you become proficient at self-portraits. Here's my last.

I'll try to update you from Zanzibar, before I return home August 8th.

I'm sure I will miss Tanzania, but I miss Arkansas more.

Marangu (continued)

2009-07-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

Wedding at the Roundabout

2009-07-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

As we drove back home from the waterfall this afternoon, we ran into a wedding procession at the roundabout by Crisburger/Pub Alberto. They looked like they were having a great time!

Another Weekend, Another Waterfall

2009-07-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

Traveled to Marangu with my housemate Christina and our favorite taxi driver today. I stood a few feet back from the falls and basked in the shadows, the way the sun filtered through the trees, through the water. A bird flew overhead and I thought about those cheezy, laminated ply-board knick-knacks with prayers or bad poetry printed in a fancy font, the kind you find at Goodwill. All these years I'd grown up with this image so that the very idea of a waterfall seemed cliche. No, they were right. But a picture can never do it justice. You must feel the sun beat down on you and be choked by the spray from the falls to see the real beauty in the place.

Kiswahili Sign Language Club

2009-07-26T07:11:00.000-07:00

After Christina met Ephrasia on the street and they figured out that they both understood American Sign Language(Ephrasia is deaf, Christina is hearing), they became quick friends and started getting together every Monday to chat. The invited me to their last get together at Milan's. A lot of Kiswahili Sign Language is similar to American Sign Language, but there's also a lot of differences. As Ephrasia tried to explain the signs to Christina, she finger spelled in Kiswahili so I was totally lost! In the end, we communicated pretty well and it is actually a lot easier for me to interact with Ephrasia than most hearing Tanzanians!

Ephrasia visited Amani last week and the kids really enjoyed meeting her. People with disabilities are often shunned in Tanzania. Many people believe that being deaf means being stupid--that it means you are not capable of contributing to the community or even taking care of yourself. The kids were absolutely amazed that Ephrasia could read their lips and that she understood English. She made a real impact on the kids.

The Hike to Uru

2009-07-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

Footbridge on the way to the waterfall.

There are several small villages in the area. I ran into several young boys who were escorting an incredibly adorable bunny. I asked if I could take their picture and they were excited. I petted the bunny and thought about Heifer International before I asked a question that I already knew the answer to, "Are you going to eat the rabbit?" The boy holding the bunny nodded vigorously and smiled broadly. I had just petted their dinner. So cute, yet so nutritious.

Banana flower

Coffee bush!!!--and giant slug. To give you an idea of proportions, the coffee bean (green in color, just to the right of the slug) is about the size of a cranberry.

Meme Ndizi

2009-07-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

Uru Waterfall

2009-07-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

The Uru waterfall is about a thrity minute drive outside Moshi. I traveled there last weekend with my favorite taxi driver/tour guide, Juma.

Thanks Mom

2009-07-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

My favorite snack, thanks to Mom's care package. Cheetos and tomatoes.

Wildebeest Migration

2009-07-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

The wildebeest migration is an annual attraction in the Serengetti. The wildebeest and zebra migrate together. If you go on safari at this time of year, you will see thousands.

Ambient Lighting

2009-07-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

at The Watering Hole.

KSL (Kiswahili Sign Language)

2009-07-17T08:46:00.001-07:00

Last Monday, I had the chance to meet a Tanzanian who is deaf, a really interesting experience because I studied American Sign Language while doing my undergrad at UALR and have several friends who are deaf. Sign language actually played a big part in my meeting Mr. Salazar, as did poker and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, but that's a whole other thread.

My new roomate, Christina, who is also a special education teacher volunteering for Amani, met Ephrasia on the street. She stopped to say hello while walking along the Double Road--aptly named, the only road in Moshi with a partition between the lanes. She stopped to say "Jambo" and was greeted by Ephrasia with a barely audible "Si Jambo". When Christina asked her to speak up, she explained that she could not and that she was deaf. Before long, they were signing in what I call Swahinglish.

Christina learned ASL (American Sign Language) because it is commonly used with children who cannot otherwise communicate, like one of our children with autism at Amani. Christina had previously spent a length of time volunteering for Amani and was already fluent in Kiswahili when she arrived last month. Ephrasia had graduated from primary school and had attended some secondary school. She is fluent in both Kiswahili sign language and American Sign Language. But get this... she can also lip read in both Swahili and English.

A lot of signs in Kiswahili sign language are the same as in ASL. The sign for poor is similar as is the sign for school, work, and teach. A key difference in Swahili sign language is that numbers are signed with two hands, rather than one.

A local teacher in town, a bartender at The Watering Hole actually, is fluent in Autstrailian sign language. I mentioned to her that I was blogging about my meeting with Ephrasia and she mentioned running into a deaf woman and her mother outside a hotel. She signed hello to the deaf woman, who looked at her puzzled. Her mother explained that two different sign languages are taught in Tanzania—American Sign Language (ASL) and another sign language, we think maybe Swiss. The dual language system is a result of previous volunteers who came to teach in the area. The end result is that, unlike in America, you have a population of deaf citizens who cannot communicate with each other and a deaf community severely lacking in cohesion.

In the U.S., the deaf community has its own unique and established culture. The homecoming at the state deaf schools are big events that people actually come home to attend and deaf clubs where people congregate with their families. In Tanzania, it seems that deaf people are rather on their own.

Amani

2009-07-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

This is not Amani Children's Home. This is a weird building along the road to my house. We're not certain what it is. Amani is the Kiswahili word for peace. Laura thinks it's a speakeasy because it sometimes smells like alcohol at night. All I know for sure is that they do not sell Vodacom phone credit, because I've looked everywhere.

Laundry Day

2009-07-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

That is all.

Ngorogoro Crater

2009-07-09T08:09:00.000-07:00

I'm so embarassed! I'm firing my stylist...

Woo pig sooie!!! Yes, Dean Rutherford, I did call the hogs. They call warthogs safari antenaes because their tails point straight up when they run. If they are in tall grass, it is all of them you can see.

Mission Accomplished

2009-07-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

A week or so after I first arrived in Moshi, I heard about a Kenyan woman who offered hour-long pedicures for 5000 Tanzanian Shillings, about $4. Upon hearing this glorious, if somewhat surreal news, my roomate Laura and I immediately decided to have a pedicure party, less to enjoy polished toes, but more to bask in the glow of the elusive. We would have someone paint our toes while we watched girly movies and ate cookies.

This provided me with a wonderful challenge. I would somehow, within the bounds of Tanzania, locate a copy of Steel Magnolias--the first movie I ever watched on VHS home video (with my Mom, sister Holly, and Aunt Emma in the old house on Cole Lane). Having little else to occupy my free time, a little scavanger hunt was just the thing to stave off complete and engulfing homesickness. I knew that there was someway to locate a copy, even here.

I looked around with the usual suspects, the pirated DVD dealers. I'm against pirated DVDs on general principle, but was willing to overlook my opposition for the good of the cause... but to no avail. You can find 20 movies on one disc, but they apparently never include 1980s film starring Dolly Parton. I later turned to my favorite cab driver ("Hapana, pole sana, dada")and then to the local 'guy who can get anything'--including the power turned back on during an 'outage'. No. After traveling to Arusha and still coming up empty handed, I didn't think my dream would come true.

Ah, but dreams do come true when you happen to mention said dreams to wonderful friends like my own Mr. Salazar! It's kind of like cheating, but since I didn't ask for it, it still counts and I still get points. It arrived just in time for Laura's going away on Sunday.

Best. Care package. Ever.

2009-07-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

Compliments of Mr. Salazar...

Among the treasures: Sugar-free Hazelnut Coffeemate, pepperoni, M&Ms, a copy of The Economist (from May), & Burt's Bees lip balm.

Maasai Boma

2009-07-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken around the Manyara area while I was on safari a few weeks ago. The Maasai (also Masai)are most well known for their plaid fabrics, bright colors, and pierced ears. It is said, and they will tell you, that they subsist wholly on cow products--milk, blood, and meat. I've heard that they draw the blood from a vein in the neck and clot the wound with mud, to preserve the life of the cow for future sustinence. A friend that has stayed in a similar Maasai village, however, has told me that they do indeed eat vegetables, which answered a lot of questions we had about, among other things, scurvey.

While they do live 'closer to nature' than most, they are more capitalist than they appear. They charge $10 (American) to enter the village. They do a quick performance, including the well-known jumping routine, before escorting you into the "market"--the inner fence which is covered by hand-made jewlery and artifacts. Make no mistake, they make good money and have their business plan down pat.

mortgages

2009-07-09T07:07:00.000-07:00

There isn't really such a thing as a morgage in Tanzania. People start buildings and work on them as their finances allow. I think there is a distinct possibility that there are more incomplete houses in Tanzania than houses with roofs.

Someone told me that a presidential candidate went around to many of these such houses, marking them with a an "X", promising that if he got elected, each of these houses would be finished. I don't know who the candidate was, or even it's a true story, but the promise didn't come to fruition.

The above structure is on the corner, about 75 ft. from my house. We use it as a landmark when giving directions to our house, which has no address. We call it "the church without the roof", but we're really not sure what it was intended to be.There's a small courtyard in the back that looks to be intended as a sanctuary, where people let their goats graze.

Kili with Sunflowers

2009-07-09T06:51:00.000-07:00

Mommy Dearest

2009-07-06T03:13:00.000-07:00

My dearest mother insists on forwarding my emails to her entire address list, including family I haven’t seen in about 15 years. Here’s what you’re missing…

Hi Momma!

Sorry it’s been so long since I have written. Things have been busy around here and I don’t get to use the internet very often.

First, an update on Amani…

I’m trying to finish up my project with Amani Children’s Home. I’m working on a project to foster relationships with churches, schools, & businesses which will hopefully lead to cultural enrichment as well as diversified fundraising resources. Individual contributions—our bread and butter—are way down over the same time last year. The last figure I heard was a 50% decrease.

Belts are tightening here--literally. There was a really short rainy season so many fields failed to produce much corn. These are subsistence farmers that eat what they grow and if it doesn’t grow… they don’t eat. The rest of the year will be rather slim for area communities. I’m betting that the number of children served by Amani is bound to increase, since families won’t be able to feed their children. Amani’s monetary resources are dwindling, just as the need for contributions increases.

We figured out the situation with the power outages. Tenesco, the local utility, makes scheduled cuts every Tuesday and Thursday. Because it is run on hydro-electric, and because they’ve had such a mild rainy season, they’re forced to make scheduled cuts for the sake of conservation. The cuts, however, are lasting longer than they did before. As it becomes even drier, I’m sure we will see an increase in the cuts.

There was a 4th of July party at The Watering Hole on Saturday and I ran into a couple of young women from Arkansas, so that was really nice. The owner is a Tanzanian of German descent, but his wife is from Texas. She had the kids all decked out in red, white, & blue. We gave away a free treats to anyone who wore an Obama kanga.

Kangas are pieces of cloth about a meter and a half long which are usually worn as skirts, but can be used for a multitude of purposes. You often see women carrying them as satchels or as baby carriers, strapped across their backs. Kangas are worn all around East Africa. Obama is very popular around this area since his father was Kenyan. There are also kangas that feature the face of President Bush that were produced when he visited the country last year, but I haven’t actually seen one.

One of the most interesting things about Tanzania is the mix of cultures. I am often asked where I am from. This was surprising at first, I figured people would simply assume I was American because I spoke English. Silly me! Many of the Westerners (mzungus) are German. There are also many Australians, British, and French ex-patriots and volunteers. They all speak English.

What I found really interesting is that I have met several “mzungu” that speak English with an accent (German or Indian) but that were born here. I thought my tour guide was born in India because he spoke English (perfectly, I might add) with a clear Indian accent, but he was born in Tanzania. The man that runs the Watering Hole speaks in English with a definite German accent, but was born here. His children, too, speak English with a German accent.

I had a conversation with a gentleman a few nights ago, a fellow mzungu, at least by appearance. He works in the coffee industry and is a trained coffee and tea taster. If you know me at all, you know I was immediately fascinated by this guy! I had heard him mention Pakistan and I asked him if he was from there. No, he said, he was a fourth generation East Africaner. His grandfather was a public servant and a speech writer for President Julius Nyerere—basically our Washington, the first President of the newly independent nation. His grandfather had died writing a speech for Nyerere and the President was so touched by this, his grandfather was the first civilian to be given a state funeral. He noted, with a hint of bitterness, that he had once been reported to immigration and detailed all the trouble associated with proving he was Tanzanian. Upon hearing his frustration, I thought of my American friends who have neither white skin nor black skin. One friend, who is an Air Force officer of Filipino descent, often gets asked where he is from. America, he responds. No, they clarify, where is your family from. Pennsylvania, he says.

I returned from safari last week and it took me a few days to get settled back in. It was truly a wonderful, once in a lifetime experience, but if I ever tell you that I’m going on a five-day long trip where I sleep in a tent with another person and share an unattended latrine with 50 other campers… please stop me. There were six of us, two volunteers and a few of their friends and family that shared the car. We visited three parks: Manyara, Serengeti, and Ngorogoro. I got a few pics, but will steal more from a safari mate who had a great camera with a telescopic lens. We saw “everything”. A safari is largely gauged by whether or not you see the big five: lions, buffalo, rhino, cheetah, and elephants. We saw it all plus hundreds of zebras and wildebeests which we caught in migration. Also on the trip, we visited a Maasai village and Olduvai Gorge, home to the oldest human fossils ever unearthed.

The weather here has been amazing. It’s around the mid-70s during the day and I don’t think it’s hit 85 since I’ve been here. I so greatly miss Arkansas, but am dreading returning to the August heat. I will require many, many blue snowcones—discolored teeth be damned. I will post a few more pics at the end of the week, but I can only upload them at The Watering Hole, which is only open on weekends. They’re the only place in town that has wi-fi and it’s too dangerous to use a USB in the internet cafes in town--they all have viruses.

'Til next time!!

jkh

Celebrating Independence Day Abroad

2009-07-04T10:08:00.001-07:00

At the Watering Hole this evening, celebrating the Forth. I've been feeling a little down, but perked up when a group of Americans from CCS, a local volunteerism cooridination organization, walked in. Turns out two of them were from Arkansas! Meet Lauren & Catherine Cupp...

Above, the ubiquitous Obama Kanga. This is probably more a symbol of Tanzania than America. They. Are. Everywhere.

Safari pics

2009-07-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Christmas in June

2009-06-23T01:14:00.000-07:00

In my work with Amani Children’s Home, my focus is on furthering the organization’s sustainability through diversification of fundraising efforts. Can I get some love for diversification?

If you know James Mitchell, I’m sure you know all about Amani’s great Christmas card program and if you live in Little Rock, you probably either bought them, received them, or both. They were a huge success last year and Arkansas really showed its support for Amani.

This year, Amani is hoping to have a great fundraiser, but could use a little help. Individual contributions have been down significantly, as they have just about everywhere, and the printing costs can be expensive—around $2,000. As a result, Amani is hoping to find a printing company that would be willing to partner with Amani and assist in the effort or a donor who can help with the cost.

Know anyone who would like to help? Send me a note to jennifer@amanikids.org or joe@amanikids.org.

Random Notes on Tanzanian Life

2009-06-22T00:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been bad about posting lately. I've wanted to wait until I could upload pictures, but haven't been able to get a good enough connection. I know you've been on the edge of your seat, awaiting my next post. Here's a little something for being so patient...

-Bring your own toilet paper or prepare to be disappointed. I’ve quickly learned which facilities are likely to have TP and western toilets.

-Coffee’s a big export item, but no one here drinks it. Instead, people drink mostly chai but sometimes drink “Nescafe” or “Africafe”—the horrible, icky freeze dried crap Americans got conned into some years ago.

-The Watering Hole is popular because it is the only place in town that offers Wi-Fi and the price is cheap. Also, they serve cocktails using ice made from boiled water as well as the most American burger in town. There’s no sign, just a blue light outside the gate where you must be allowed entry by the guard.

-Shop keepers and most in the market will charge foreigners ( aka “mzungu”) exponentially more than local Tanzanians. I’ve been quoted prices five times what other would be charged. I ask people that have been here for a while what they think I should pay before I buy anything without a price tag.

-Tanzania is a conservative society and extremely pluralistic in regard to religion. In Moshi, Christians probably outnumber Muslims. There may be some minor conflicts, but I have never heard of such. From all I’ve heard and witnessed, everyone gets along.

-I’m lucky enough to own a water heater which is attached to the shower head in the bathroom. There’s no stall for the shower, it just drains into the “squat” toilet. We have a separate bathroom with a western style toilet because we’re living the high life.

-Tanzanian songs last twice as long as the average American song. I do not find this to be a good thing. P Squared, a set of twins from Kenya, plays on the radio about 50 times per day. I am also not very keen on this. Shania Twain and Gloria Estefan are also big here. Again…

-There are more pirated DVDs in Moshi than there are mosquitoes in Stuttgart, AR. Particularly popular are Prison Break and Lost. Compilation DVDs are also popular. They feature an artist such as Brad Pitt and put all his films on one disk. They are sometimes mistaken however, and will include Leonardo DiCaprio by mistake. Apparently these come from China; I hear most of them have Chinese subtitles.

For a good rundown on the day to day of an Arkie in East Africa, you can’t beat Michael Hodson’s blog. Please go visit and add him to your blog roll. I haven’t really been able to take the time to blog the minutiae (otherwise known as “the interesting stuff”), so you may benefit from a gander over there.

http://mobilelawyer.blogspot.com

Updates

2009-06-21T23:10:00.000-07:00

#1) I have located two sources of food which offer items that include neither rice nor beans. Success! I ate not one bean or grain of rice on Saturday and was full as a tick. The pizza at Milan's and mishikaki (grilled meat) at Taj Mahal have ensured I will gain back any weight lost in previous weeks. I also located the aptly named "The Coffee Shop" and ordered something that more or less resembled a cappucino.

#2) Until Saturday, I had been too occupied by the threat of malaria to remember to be scared of insects & snakes. Thanks to the giant tarantula spotted in the proximity of my flip-flop clad feet, that is no longer an issue. I now scan the floor for potential threats about once every thirty seconds. After the initial threat had subsided (it ran behind the fridge), the very mean Germans took the opportunity to share every story they had collected regarding flies that lay eggs under your skin & a monitor lizard that ate their neighboors dog.

#3) I'm leaving on safari on Thursday. What a great birthday present! I'll be visiting one of the most famous game reserves in the world, including a trip to Ngorangora crater.

Turning 28 in Tanzania

2009-06-21T23:08:00.000-07:00

The only way to properly celebrate one’s birthday in Moshi is by playing poker at a speakeasy and eating soul food. We’re celebrating my birthday tomorrow instead of today, since that’s the group’s regular poker night. I kept backing out in previous weeks due to other obligations, but figure I’ve got no good excuse not to play on my birthday. Olaf, the German with the winning streak, will be absent so I will have to wait until sometime next month to take him down.

The menu for tomorrow’s affair is as follows:
1st course: Salted tomatoes & fried okra
2nd course: Macaroni & Cheese
3rd course: Fried hot dogs on white bread with mayonnaise

Accompanying libations will include Coca-Cola & Fanta Orange.

Kili

2009-06-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

Walked out the door Thursday to this...

It was the first time I'd seen it so clearly in the morning. I opened the gate to walk to work and stopped dead in my tracks. Turned right back around and grabbed my camera. Kili is the kind of mountain you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley--large, imposing, haunting. The photo is taken on the road between my home and Amani--hence the corn. My camera absolutely doesn't do it justice.

Here's a nice view from the road to The Watering Hole.

The Office

2009-06-13T10:01:00.001-07:00

In Tanzania, there's bars on every window, but no screens... don't know why. Makes mosquito aversion more challenging. Nice view though.

UACS friends, please note the postcards on the table...

Just Desserts

2009-06-09T05:29:00.000-07:00

Those beautiful, smiling pictures were taken well before the onslaught of a rather severe bout of dyspepsia erased the guacamole-induced smile from my face. Both Laura and I were sick as dogs for the past few days, but (disclaimer) cannot blame Bollate with 100% certainty. I was in agony for several days and it was so much worse since I was away from home. My phone refused to send text messages, so I could not even complain to friends and family half a world away.

When I finally began to feel slightly normal, I thought about the children I’d visited with in Arusha. We’d decided that it was, perhaps, a virus. Had I caught it from one of the kids? Are the kids ill now? The thought of suffering through such a sickness on the street is unbearable. Bathrooms are inaccessible and there’s no good place for a child to clean himself; something so contagious would spread like wildfire under those conditions. Already malnourished, as all of the children are—each and every one, a virus like that has the power to kill a child.

Bollate: The Best Mexican Food North of Kili

2009-06-06T10:09:00.001-07:00

Random Arusha

2009-06-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

Four weeks in, I fail to be surprised by randomness such as manequins with 1980s hairstyles wearing hot-pink, faux fur coats. What would be considered odd in Arkansas is down right common place here.

Dora, on the other hand, caught me a little off guard as she offered free samples of candy at the entrance of ShopRite. It wasn't until she greeted me with a very masculine, Tanzanian accent that I felt, again, at ease.

ShopRite is hard to explain, but I'll try. It caters to, almost exclusively, the roughly 40k expats that reside in Arusha (compared to about 200, maybe, in Moshi). Due to the location of the Rwandan tribunal in Arusha, there was a huge influx of expats to the city. They sell red grapes at 15000/kilo--even I couldn't justify that. They had cupcakes and one kind of coffee creamer. I was a very happy camper.

The Streets of Arusha

2009-06-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I made an overnight trip to Arusha with the Amani street educator, Godfrey, to learn how he works with kids and the conditions in which they live. Amani special education teacher and roomate, Laura, tagged along for the ride. The trip to get on the bus at Moshi depot was harrowing in itself, as touts surrounded us, yelling, and with no concept of personal space. We finally jumped on the emptiest bus, even though we knew it wouldn’t leave for a bit, just to get away from the worst of them.

After a ride of about an hour and a half, we met up with Godfrey and booked a room in the same hotel in which he usually stays when in Arusha. He usually works with the kids til later in the night and buses don’t run late enough to get you home and, even if they did, you wouldn’t want to take them. It’s largely unsafe to travel at night. I heard that in the 1980s, before it was paved, the Arusha-Dar es Salaam highway was in the Guiness Book of World Records for being most dangerous road in the world. Adventure!

We went to the streets twice that night, once in the early evening, the second time later, around 10:00 p.m. At first we saw few children and Godfrey explained it was because it was still early—they were out on their own scouting for food. They congregate together again at night and sleep in small camps.

In an effort to engage the kids, Godfrey invited a group to play a card game. We sat on the ground of the Arusha bus depot and shuffled the cards. I think it was called “six card”, but I’m not certain. All that I know for sure is that my newbie’s luck held and I won the first round by accident. As the game went on, I saw several children sucking on small plastic bottles. I saw Godfrey’s hand move quick as lightning trying to grab the bottle, but the kid was faster. “When it’s cold outside and they have nothing to eat,” said one volunteer, “the kids sniff glue to sleep.”

Substance abuse is very prevelant among the kids and, as we spoke to them, several of them sucked on plastic bottles hidden behind their coats, which contained glue or some other inhalant. Substance abuse and dependence seems to be the most prevelant reason why children refuse assistance. Even some of the younger children, as young as nine, have admitted to using heroin—oblivious, as children are, to the danger of dirty needles.

Godfrey is wonderful at his job; I can’t think of anyone better suited for it. He roams different streets throughout the metropolitan areas, searching for children in need. Though his kindness and sincerity is obvious, he has a sort of emotional detachment which allows him to relate to the children on their level, while maintaining his own sanity. He is known among the long-term street survivors and I very often heard him greeted as “teach-ah”. One by one, Godfrey coaxes them to Amani.

We took a break and got some traditional African food before returning to the kids. We met up with a larger group of children now, back at the bus depot. Godfrey announced that he would buy a round a chai and bread, if the kids were hungry, and the number of children instantly doubled. When I stopped to count, 16 children gathered around waiting to be poured chai from a street vendor.

Later, as we continued around the city by car, we came upon the same group of children with which we’d played cards earlier in the evening. Several of the boys were talking to a man. Godfrey asked the driver to pull over. When the man saw Godfrey approach, he scurried away in quick fashion. Sexual predators also inhabit the dark streets of Arusha and know how to get what they want for cheap. I haven’t been so very mad at a single man in a very long time. Try as I might, I would never want to forget, but I can’t see the man’s face in my mind—it’s just a blur of shadows.

(I have made it a personal policy not to post any pictures of children with their names in any post. Due to the conditions in which we found them, I have further elected not to post pictures that clearly show the children’s faces.)

My House

2009-06-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

This is where I live, in a rural suburb of Moshi. I sit on the couch every morning and stare out the window looking into the front yard as I drink 1.5 pots worth of coffee before walking to work. The top pic is my front yard. It is small but the flora is beautiful. The pic below is the view from the road leading to my house. Everyone in my neighborhood grows corn.

Half-Cake

2009-06-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

Every month Amani has a top to bottom scrub down, in which every staff member and child participates in cleaning every inch of the building. Even the executive director scrubs the floors. I helped the girls in their dorm and then found myself wandering around looking for another job. I was ready to give up and get back to my postcards when I wandered out to the kitchen and and saw the chefs busy at work.

They were getting ready for the next day's field trip. The kids would go to a nature center and learn about all the native animals.The chefs were working to prepare snacks for the next day. They were making popcorn and something nicknamed half-cake. The recipe is evidently half mdazi (a slightly sweet, deep-fried bread)and half-cake. I did made her promise to give me the sized-down recipe later! I liked it, but not enough to eat 200 of them.

While most cooking is done in a half-covered kitchen which is connected to an open-air dining hall, these treats are cooked outside so as not to burn down the nice, brand new building. All cooking at Amani uses a type of charcoal that comes in log form.

Two Arkies, a Yankee, and a German walk into an Indian restaurant…

2009-06-01T01:36:00.001-07:00

Little Rock’s a small town. You can go to the local Kroger and run into your congressman or to Wal-Mart and see your high school principle. You can’t help but run into every living soul at Wal-Mart whether you really want to or not—it’s just the nature of our city. Turns out Moshi is much the same.

Last week, my brother, John, pointed me toward Michael Hodson’s blog. After spending time in the world of Arkansas law and politics, Michael decided to take a one-year trek around the globe, but with one caveat: he would make this journey without getting on any planes and without making prior reservations. Through the wonders of Facebook and obscure familial connections, I was able to meet up with Hodson who is preparing to climb Kilimanjaro while passing through Tanzania on the East African leg of his journey. I was fascinated by his ambitious itinerary and, after two weeks in Tanzania, was irrationally excited about meeting a fellow Arkansan on foreign soil. I have been suffering from a kind of southern accent deprivation.

I hadn’t realized how much I missed home until we were sitting at dinner talking politics and he began trying to explain former President Clinton’s brand of political charisma to my North Carolinian housemate. As a kid in high school, Michael had met the Governor in a receiving line at an event and they spoke for a few minutes. When running for the Presidency several years later, the two met for a second time when Hodson was asked by his boss to pick the Governor up at the airport in the wee hours of the morning. The future President, bright eyed and smiling at 1:00 a.m. bounced off the plane and, upon seeing him for only the second time in many years, walked right up to Michael, calling him by his first name, and asked how his father was doing and if he still worked at “_____”. I’ve heard a hundred of these stories if I’ve heard one and exactly how he does it is a mystery to me.

It was great to catch up with an Arkie, if one in name only. I fear we may have lost him. Hodson appears to have gone metric and has started using words like “Celsius”. If you happen to be in Sudan or Nova Scotia—wherever he’s going next—try to feed the man some biscuits & sausage gravy before he forgets how to spell ‘sooie’.

Security

2009-06-01T01:35:00.001-07:00

Security systems around Moshi are pretty interesting. I believe the only windows I have seen without bars were on the upper stories of some hotels in town. It is also not uncommon to have a guard. Laura and I employ a guard, Marti, who lives in a small building out back. He doesn’t pace the perimeter or anything; more than anything, he’s paid just to be around because a person’s presence is the biggest deterrent. A while back, some friends that had previously scoffed at the idea of employing a guard came back from a long weekend to find their home broken into and almost everything, including their mattress was taken. They later hired a security guard and installed a panic button which works on radio frequency.

Both the front and back entrances of our house include a separate steel door, which fastens by a thick padlock. The site where the padlock is fastened is encased by a metal frame, making it all but impossible to destroy the lock. The interior wooden doors are locked using skeleton keys, which are very common in this area. Each of the interior door jambs also include three sets of braces designed to hold 2 x 4s, which would make ramming the door very difficult.

The exterior of the house is surrounded by a brick wall and locked gate. Atop the wall are a series of broken glass bottles, which appear to have been set into the concrete. This type of cheap barbed wire is also very common in this area.

A German, an Australian, and an American walk into a bar…

2009-05-26T04:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday was my first visit to The Watering Hole, an establishment which caters to Moshi’s ex-pat population and is managed by my boss’s wife, Libby. The place is particularly popular among Westerners because it is the only place in town you can get a drink with ice made from boiled (purified) water. While we call it a bar, TWH is also a restaurant that offers some great food for those jonesing for a taste of home. Ovens aren’t very common in Moshi, so it’s THE place to come for a brownie, banana bread, or even quiche. The “cheeseburger” is about the closest thing you can get to an American burger in Tanzania. The Watering Hole is a personal haunt, however, because it is the only place in Moshi where I can access the internet to upload pictures! Unlimited internet is available at TWH for 1500 TSH/day (about $1.15).

Also at TWH on Sunday were Claire, the lovely Australian bartender, and Olaf, German poker shark. To the locals, we are all the same—mzungu—and because we communicate to each other in English, it was easy to forget that we are from such diverse backgrounds until Olaf went looking for the dust bin, Claire showed him the rubbish bin, and I saw them looking at a trash can.

Rethinking Voluntourism

2009-05-26T04:25:00.000-07:00

My office job doesn’t lend itself well to blogging in a way that some other projects might. I sit in an office all day with a couple of computer programmers and IM my boss in the next office over as I evaluate their current marketing tools—not exactly what you think of when someone tells you they’re flying half-way around the globe to volunteer in Africa.

But maybe it should be.

When I first showed up at Amani last week, I was introduced into an office I would share with two young men, Matthew and Jared, who were having waaaay more fun at work than any computer programmers I’ve ever seen. As it turned out, one of them was on vacation.

Matthew Todd, the husband of Amani Children’s Home executive director Valerie Todd, is a pretty well-known programmer. While at a conference a while back, Matthew put out a call for volunteers. Amani needed a data base but could not afford the expensive man hours needed to design the system, so Matthew used the conference to invite volunteers to come to Amani and work on the project. Several people took him up on the offer, one of whom is Jared. With permission from his employer, he was allowed a short leave of absence to volunteer at Amani. He used his vacation time and took a few weeks off without pay, but was able to keep his insurance and will resume his position upon his return.

I’ve heard of a lot of people coming to Africa for a few weeks to work on small service projects, but this level of voluntourism is all too rare. Digging latrines or building schools is great but, as Matthew put it, “that is all stuff people here can do.” Technological ability, however, is very rare here and in enormous demand.
With so many companies asking people to take voluntary (or not) sabbaticals, I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t a good opportunity for some companies to allow those with specialized skills some time off to do good work.

So, um…. What the heck are you doing in Tanzania?

2009-05-25T05:40:00.000-07:00

To fulfill my course work with the Clinton School of Public Service, I am completing my International Public Service Project (IPSP) with Amani Children’s Home in Moshi, Tanzania. My project is a little different from most African service projects you may hear about. Instead of digging toilets or teaching English, I’m working in an office on a sustainable fundraising project.

Since it was founded in 2001, Amani has experienced enormous and well-managed growth. They’ve gone from a two room house with six kids, to a new, large, well-planned facility that can hold more than 100 children, which is already nearing capacity. Among the non-profits I’ve become acquainted with, Amani is far and away the best managed and forward thinking NGO I’ve seen in the area. While they’ve also done a great job fundraising, Amani has not been exempt from the recent worldwide economic turmoil. Individual donations have dropped 50% from this same period of time last year, while their financial need has only continued to grow.

This is where I come in. I am working with Amani to diversify their income by reaching new donors and encouraging previous donors to give again. Specifically, I am working to modify and expand Amani’s Partner Schools Program to include churches and businesses.

Intrigued? Check out Amani’s website http://amanikids.org to find out more about Amani and their unique fundraising efforts.

Lesson 4: Dining on a Budget

2009-05-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

So, dining options in Moshi are pretty limited. You can get something that resembles a hamburger at a few restaurants in town and there's a place that offers something called a pizza, but more closely resembles cardboard and ketchup. Luckily, however, there are several wonderful Indian establishments. One of my favorites (and cheapest!) is Milan's. The "Taste of India Lunch" is, I think, whatever they have laying around the back. It costs about $2.70. Add a coke for about $0.40

First Photo of Mount Kilimanjaro

2009-05-24T07:33:00.001-07:00

I live in a rural area of town called Catalina. We are surrounded by small subsistance farmers, small "dukas" (shops,) and medium income housing (i.e. indoor toilets, electricity, & security gates).

I'm about a 15 minute walk from Amani Children's Home. To get to the highway where the daladalas run, it's about a 25 minute journey.

Mt. Kilimanjaro plays hide & seek on most days. Especially during the rainy season, the summit is often covered by clouds. This is the first time I was able to catch a pic. Luckily my roomate Laura was along so I got to be in the photo as well...

Use Your Imagination

2009-05-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

...because it's almost impossible for me to post pictures. :-( I'll try to add one or two a week, but the internet connections here are sketchy.

"The daladala is never full..."

2009-05-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

Today, I took my second trip on a daladala. A daladala is a form of public transportation, a vehicle roughly the size and shape of a mid-size van. The daladala has three rows of seats along with two bucket seats in the front. A one-way trip will cost you 300 TSH (about $0.20).

While waiting for our ride, Laura shared with me a local proverb: “The daladala is never full.”

After waiting for about 10 minutes, we were ready to jump on the first daladala into town. As the door slid open, however, I wondered if it was really possible to fit anything more inside. Even though the front row was occupied by a large bag of bananas, a large bag of corn, and a large number of rather sad looking chickens, we still squeezed at least 18 people into the remaining seats. Standing next to the door, I had to exit several times as people got on and off.

As the lady carrying the large load disembarked, I stood along the road and silently counted chickens. Apparently Laura had done the same. I came up with a conservative estimate of between 20 and 30, but Laura insists there were more like 50. The chickens, alive but sullied, were bound together by their feet in groups of what I think was five and she thinks was ten. Our debate waged on until, while waiting for our driver at the Oryx, Laura pointed out that the clouds had parted. For the first time since I arrived six days earlier, the clouds had dispersed, revealing the summit of the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro.

Lesson 3: Shopping on a Budget

2009-05-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Largely, I haven’t wanted to leave the house by myself, except to walk to work. My Swahili is poor and (despite having heard otherwise) most locals don’t know Kiingereza (that’s “Swahili“ for English). Until I learn a bit more, I’m not jumping on the daladala alone, lest I end up in Nairobi. Given that, my shopping options are limited. Being sick of starches, however, I had to break out of the house and get some of the fresh produce I knew could be had from the local women who set up shop in front of the dukas (small shops) along the Arusha-Dar es Salaam Highway, at the end of our dirt road.

Before leaving the house, I had asked my housemate what I should expect to pay for a few items. I don’t think you can call what I did haggling. I think the ladies were maybe just tired of my broken Kiswahili and agreed to take whatever price I was suggesting. This was true for all except one man who was selling grilled corn. He grinned and readily changed the price from mia mbili to mia oja—a 50% price cut from 200 to 100 TSH (Tanzanian Shillings). Not yet quick with the currency conversion, it wasn’t until I returned home that I realized I had only paid the precocious man seven cents.

After making the rounds, I made it back to the house with three tomatoes, three bananas, two Cokes, and an ear of corn that had been cooked over a fire. All of this for just right at $1.00, American. At home, this would have cost between $4.20 and $5.00.

To be fair, the corn turned out to be almost inedible—not quite the grilled corn you find at Riverfest. After remembering the scary looking pile of burnt fish (where’d he get fish in the middle of Tanzania??) that was sitting next to the man, I figured I’d been too mean to the chickens & maybe they were hungry. Here Pot Pie…

Made it to Moshi

2009-05-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

My flight got into JRO about 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. I was greeted by my new housemate Laura and her favorite driver, Juma. Once in the car and off to the house, I remember one essential aspect of travel in Tanzania—cars drive on the left side of the road, not the right!

Once at home, I was greeted by what I would come to find as an almost nightly event—power failure. We fumbled around the house & I unpacked by candle light. After a good nights sleep, I awoke at 4:30 a.m. the next morning after being woken up by Laura’s roosters—Shug & Wheezy. After being woken up by these cocky roosters several mornings in a row, I have renamed them Kiev & Pot Pie. Laura only thinks this is moderately funny and the roosters don’t seem to get the joke at all.

In the morning, Laura would assist me in taking my first trek into Moshi proper. We gathered a few essentials and I picked up what anyone who knows me, knows I must have: a coffee pot. The next morning, as I prepared to start my first day at Amani Children’s Home, Flat Stella joined Laura and I for breakfast.

International Departures

2009-05-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

My plane left Little Rock on time and I’m currently killing time at the Atlanta International Airport. I’m heading to Amsterdam in a few hours and from Amsterdam will proceed on to Kilimanjaro. I will arrive in Tanzania about 7:45 Wednesday evening—about 24 hours after leaving home.

Based on appearances alone, one might guess I was leaving Atlanta on a C-130, the large waiting area around gate E30 being populated predominantly by soldiers heading overseas. As the nearby airport TV blares a mix of news, devoting more time to an embattled Miss California than it does to the change of military leadership in Afghanistan and the death of five soldiers to friendly fire in Iraq combined, I know better than to ask where they are going or for how long. “Thanks for your service” is all I said to the two young men closest as I stood to board my flight.

Lesson 2: Dress for Success

2009-05-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

After weeks of torrential rains, almost all of the rain boots have disappeared from retail stores in Little Rock. I finally found these at a shoe store in west Little Rock. It was either this or brown with pink polka dots. Fitting I guess…

Fashion Tips

2009-05-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I got an email from my soon-to-be housemate & fellow Amani volunteer Laura in which she shared a little fashion advice: rain boots are this season’s ‘must have’. I must have missed that in the last issue of Tanzanian Vogue. Even though Dr. Jehan Raheem, who spent several years there, warned me of the rainy season and advised me to bring a slicker, I had successfully repressed this unwanted knowledge.

The rainy season in Tanzania lasts from approximately late March to late May. A friend at Amani described the annual event this way: “The rainy season is where all the dust in the air turns to mud… lots and lots of mud.” So much for Toto’s romanticized notions…

Lesson 1: Minimizing Homesickness

2009-05-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

I never thought I’d miss summer in Arkansas. After cursing August in Arkansas for 27 years, I welcomed the opportunity to spend the summer in a place where it’s winter in July. Despite being very close to the equator, a friend of mine that did her Peace Corps service in Tanzania told me, “It gets chilly in the mornings. You need to bring a sweater.” More beautiful words have never been spoken.

While I’ve spent months preparing to work in Moshi, all I can think of are all of the wonderful things I’m going to miss here in Arkansas. In the weeks before I depart, I’m trying to soak up as much of home as I can. I’m also exporting as much of home as I can. I can’t pack up Riverfest, jazz all night long on KUAR, or the banana pudding at Kitchen Express, but I can take…

unpronounceable Vietnamese noodles from Sam’s Oriental Store on University Ave. I stopped by yesterday & picked up about a dozen of the yummy/indestructible packages intended to serve as insulation to fill in the gaps in my suitcase.

2/$1.00 and ridiculously better than Top Ramen, these have become a staple of my diet. I initially grabbed every one they had on the shelf but, feeling a little selfish, I put a single package back in the bin. A few minutes later I heard another patron loudly complain, "There's only one left!" and then ask the owner to get him an entire case from the top of the shelf. Apparently I'm not the only one.

Academics for the Surreal World: Lessons on Living Like a S.O.B.

2009-05-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

At the Clinton School, students partake in a series of core courses in addition to three large public service projects which comprise a full third of the UACS curriculum: the Practicum, International Public Service Project (IPSP), and Capstone. Core courses such as Decision Analysis, Law & Ethics, and Communications serve to provide students with a foundation on which they develop their field projects. Students further their expertise in chosen areas through a wide range of electives offered at universities throughout the U of A system.

Perhaps the most interesting lessons, however, are those learned as a student at the intersection of high-profile academia and normal life in Little Rock. Clinton School students are afforded an embarrassment of intellectual of riches and interesting opportunities, all of which must be balanced with writing papers, attending classes, & navigating financial aid.

During an average week, a student at UACS may:
-Learn a few more words in Swahili/Italian/Spanish/Chinese
-Color a paper doll (aka Flat Stanley) at the Governor’s Mansion
-Spend 15 hours working on their Practicum project in Marvel/Newport/West Memphis
-Introduce a world leader, TV host, or football player at the Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture Series
-Win another kickball game with the S.O.B.s (Students of Bill)
-Watch a classmate (or be the classmate) on KARK/ NBC Nightly News/Miss USA

However, the student must also likely:
-Maintain long-distance relationships with spouses, children, & friends on different continents
- Read hundreds of pages worth of text books & case studies in prep for class
-Wake up at 4:00 a.m. to study for the grilling by Dean Rutherford
-Go to sleep at 4:00 a.m. after working on their IPSP work plan for Joe
-Make lunch out of the left over hors d’oeuvres from the previous evening’s reception for ______
-Figure out how to make student loans cover rent, food, & gas

The extraordinary nature of matriculation at the Clinton School combined with the banalities of real life offers students a truly unique educational opportunity: Academics for the Surreal World. As my months in Tanzania pass, I'll try to share a few of the pearls of wisdom that have rolled my way over the past year.

Adam Penman as President Clinton and John Memmer as Dean Skip Rutherford, Halloween 2008

Amani Children's Home

2009-04-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

Amani Children’s Home is dedicated to the protection of Tanzania’s most vulnerable population: street-children and AIDS orphans. It is estimated that there are 2.5 million orphaned children in Tanzania.

Since its founding by Tanzanians in 2001, Amani has rescued hundreds of children from the perils of life on the streets, where they face a high risk of HIV transmission, malnutrition, and abuse.

Amani, which means “peace” in Swahili, provides healthy food, education, counseling and medical care for every child who turns to us for help.

Please visit the Amani Children's Home website at http://www.amanikids.org/