Orientation

Hi All--
I won't be taking much time for this post. We have one day in town (today) before going back to orientation at an internet-less location. I'm feeling really frustrated that I can't relay everything that's going on to you all. I feel like I need hours on the computer to do so. There's always so much to write. So on this post I'll keep it brief (in the interest of time) and shoot for writing out more before my next internet visit (which won't be for two weeks).

On Thursday I'll be moving into my first village! In the meantime... orientation is happening. Our schedule is roughly 8AM to 5PM classroom time including lectures and discussions ranging from biology to Swahili to gender issues in country and in the world, to rural village living. It's great to have the Tanzanian teaching partners here with us, too. They share very much insight into the situation in TZ. There are twelve of them (I believe), and many have graduated from university and have done the SIC awareness campaigns before. They're great resources and very fun to be with. I see them as very progressive, vocal TZ citizens.

It's interesting that in the town of Arusha, I actually feel more safe than in many places at home. I've thought about this, and realized that it's because although crime here is targetted at foreigners (and we mzungu (white people) stick out like sore thumbs), it is typically petty theft, and there are very solid ways of protecting yourself. Whereas in the States, the type of crime that we fear is violent. Again, the people here don't want to hurt you: they just want your stuff.

I don't like to leave on that note, but know that this is not a huge part of my experience. I need to go catch a truck back to our site.

I love you all and appreciate your support. I'll post again in two weeks.

Peace,
Carrie :)

Rwanda Tribunals and First Teaching Opportunity

I might jump around a bit in the time-scale, but I wanted to fill you in on a couple of other things I've been experiencing here.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is taking place in Arusha right now. It doesn't cost anything to go watch, and it's walking distance from our hostel (Arusha isn't a very big city). Several of us went the day after we got back from the Safari. I don't actually know a lot about the Genocide, but it sounds to me like the tribunals will be going on for hundreds of years due to the sheer number of accuseds. We turned in our IDs, signed in on a very unprofessional-looking paper notebook with ruler-drawn columns, gave any cameras or recording devices we were carrying, and went through the security check. Once we got to the sitting room we would be watching from, we signed in again, received a headset set to English translation, and sat behind windows showing the room that was supposed to be the courtroom. I expected it to look more like a courtroom I see in the US than it did. Their break ended about fifteen minutes past the time it should have (Tanzania time), and we all rose and were seated to start anew.

Although we were witnessing the testimony of one of the accuseds, I wish I could say that it was very interesting... The general feel I got from that particular trial was that many of the officials were bored, and the procession was very slow. Possibly because they were picking at events that had happened fourteen years ago. At one point we all had some comic relief when the translator used the word "excommunicated" instead of "expelled" (referring to an officer's relation with his former affiliation), and the man on trial made a joke that he was sure that only the Catholic Church was capable of excommunicating its members.

In all, I am glad that I went, and am interested in learning more about the Genocide, as this was not much of an educational opportunity (due to the minuteness of the disputed facts in the larger scheme of the historical event).

On another note, all of the volunteers have now arrived. We start our official SIC program this morning at 11. We all now have our cell phones, too. My number (calling from the US) is: 011-255-786-065-693. It is free for me to receive text messages, so they are very welcome! (It's not free for you, though.)

[I can also receive phone calls for free, but when I'm in the villages I won't be able to charge the battery.]

Swithching gears again, I mentioned before that on the Safari I had--and took--my first teaching opportunity. Marielle was talking to some of the cooks from vaious safari companies stationed at our campsite during lunch on the first day when they asked her to teach them how to use a condom. She came over to the rest of us, resting and reading or writing after lunch, and asked if we had a condom with us. None of us did (the cooks asked why we called ourselves teachers and didn't carry our teaching materials with us), so I suggested we ask the European couple sitting at a table nearby. Fortunately, the were 1. Dutch, and 2. on their honeymoon. In keeping with the stereotype, they joked that they had plenty and gladly gave us one. So it started with Marielle, myself and later with Sarah M, giving a condom demonstration (using the available props: an "ndizi" or banana). From there the three men started asking a plethora of questions. I was very proud to be able to answer all of them. Many of the questions were what our prefield coordinator, Dana, had prepared us for, many of them were somewhat new. But there were many.

The time was approaching that we would be heading back out on a Game Drive, so one of the men (the one with the most questions, the most limited English and the one that seemed to me was the most emotionally disturbed by the AIDS situation in Africa at large) said he would build a campfire that night and wanted us to sit with him and talk more about it.

So that's what happened. Long after dinner and his campfire was made, he came and fetched us from our group bonding session. He and two or sometimes three other men sat around the fire for between two and three hours, late into the night, answering every question they asked us... and covering nearly the entirety of our SIC HIV/AIDS education curriculum (with the exception of mother-to-child transmission through breastfeeding and other STIs), ending with one of the men asking for personal advice about his situation. WOW. I am nineteen years old, this man was twenty five (he seemed much older), and he had respect enough for us (myself and Devon, who were the last to go to bed) to ask us for personal advice. From a completely different culture.

The night was incredibly rewarding, and I would love to go into more detail, but I won't now. I must get off the computer and experience this wonderful place!

I think starting today I will have significantly less internet access, so I wanted to give you all as much information and description as possible before getting down and dirty.

"The service you do for others is the rent you pay for the time you spend on Earth." -Muhammad Ali

And it begins... Please continue to know with me health and peace.

Love,
Carrie

Just a Quick Update

Mambo Vipi!

I won't give a play-by-play of the Safari like I had originally intended to do... I'll just write a little while I still have the luxury of internet access before the program starts.

So, here's the big picture of my trip at this point, for those of you who don't know: Tomorrow (Saturday) my program starts officially. We'll be having our opening dinner together with all the volunteers (the 4 stragglers will be arriving tonight), staff and teaching partners (the Tanzanians who are our age, college educated or in the process of being educated, who will be teaching alongside us in the villages). From then on our two-week orientation will begin. We'll be staying at a nearby Agricultural College while having a Swahili intensive course and intense teaching and HIV/AIDS courses. The idea is that they teach us a LOT so we can teach a little (but still be able to answer the tricky questions or provide more information to those who can digest it). After that, we'll each be moving in with our teaching partners to our first village for five weeks, doing our magic, and moving on to another village for five weeks--doing the same thing--before the program end.

I've been told that the villages are in Maasailand and that some of them will be Maasai villages. I'm not sure how that works, but information gets to us a little late and sometimes broken around here. Maybe if I end up in a Maasai village I can take photos of them without having to pay... >_> :P

As for lifestyle, I'm still under the impression that most of us volunteers won't have running water or electricity, but we do have weekends off to come into Arusha, visit hospitals and patients with AIDS, or visit orphanages (which comes HIGHLY recommended by a friend of mine who just returned from TZ). On those weekends I may have the oporunity to use the internet, depending on 'the plans'.

In town, people (especially the 'flycatchers') know us as American volunteers and constantly see us as a selling opportunity. I've decided that saying "hapana, asante" (no thank you) does not serve me as well as just making eye contact and waving my hand, 'no', because I have to say it so much... and it has started becoming an unconscious mantra, even when I'm fishing for something to say in Swahili to a friend or friendly person.

Many of us girls picked up the skirts we'll be teaching in today from the tailor's. I feel more belonging in the town wearing one of them, plus it's not so hot as wearing pants (it's beginning springtime here).

Finally, I want to thank everybody who just joined the blog-readership and for each and every one of you who is thinking of, and treating and praying for and with me. I value your support.

Baadae,
Carrie

Day 3: Safari

My third day in Tanzania, my first day on Safari. For months before arriving in TZ, many of us on my flight over have been talking about what to do in the week and a half we had in country before program start. So on September 15th, six of us decided to go on a four-day/three-night safari to both the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater within Tanzania. There is so much I want to tell you about it, but I will save it for my next post(s). It was incredible for the scenery, the wildlife, the camping, and our first teaching opportunity with some of the safari guides and cooks, which was incredibly rewarding and very moving. I am so ready to accept this role as an HIV educator, as I did some time ago.

[Note: To be clear, donation money is not going for my personal travel.]

Until next post.
Love and Light,
Carrie :)
Healthy, centered and excited.

September 15th, Day 2 in Arusha

I woke up in the night several times (which is not uncommon for me, even at home), but was quite awake at midnight. I managed to go back to sleep until around five AM and was wide awake at 5:40. Pretty good for my first morning in the 11-hour time difference! I got up, took a cold shower and we all headed over to the main building at Center House to eat the price-included breakfast. We entered the eating room with places set, sat down, and a very sweet woman brought out a plate of bread for each of us, followed later by a plate of eggs and a basket of bananas.

We later met the coordinators (Dana and Romy) and Sarah (a volunteer) who took us to the market (I don't remember the name of it, but I'll be returning to it often) where we split up in buddies to peruse and to pick fabrics (the girls) for the skirts we would be having made for our volunteering and living in the more-traditional-than-Arusha villages. Stefanie (a UCLA volunteer) was my buddy, and we looked at about 70 different fabrics at different shops for our skirts. You'll see photos of them later. The highlight of the market trip was when we played with some kids. At first, they're paralized by their curiosity and shyness, even if we say "Jambo" or "Mambo" (the more casual version, to which you respond, "Poa", or cool.) With an young man's help, we got the kid to open up a little, while a group of about six little kids around the age of 5 came up around us and grabbed our hands. They started pulling us in all directions, jumping up and down, shouting, "Mzungu, mzungu, mzungu!" (Swahili for 'white person'). One was curous about the sunglasses on my head, so I let him take them and put them on (Aviators, no other) before the other kids grabbed them and each put them on and pozed while Stefanie and I complimented, "Poa!" [One of the kids looked like he had an eye infection, though, and I'm being conscious of taking good care of my body and healthy while here, so I've since disinfected them but still not worn them. I have other sunglasses for the meantime.]

All the volunteers met up again at a store called Shop Rite (like a Wal-Mart) to eat lunch at a restaurant called Milk and Honey, a place with pretty good prices (you can eat for under 4,000/=, or less than four dollars) and more authentic food. I had a chicken curry dish, as well as my first opportunity to use a ground-level choo (toilet)!

After lunch, we went to Naaz, the tailor's to get measured for skirts, handing over our fabrics and describing what we wanted and proceeded to go our separate ways. When I stopped with some other volunteers in McMoody's we met more summer program volunteers, a few of which are undertaking a HUGE sideproject of establishing an orphanage!

While at McMoody's, we heard a brass band playing in the street, coming our way. The coordinators who were there said it was a wedding (which happen on the weekends). But when I stood out on the stoop of the store and watched it all go by, I discovered that it was not a wedding at all: it was, sure, and band marching, students of many ages marching in their uniforms, and a procession of cars (about 20-30) that bore signs saying, "Modern Driving School". Only in Tanzania would the driving school take over the entire road, parading to promote safety on the roads.....!

After hitting up the ATM again and taking a cab back to the hostel (a good idea instead of walking), we all got ready for the cab that was supposed to pick us up at 6PM to take us to Meru House, where we would be eating dinner. [Meru is the name of the Mountain next to Arusha.] The cab didn't come for a loong time, so we walked in a group out to the corner to catch our own. Turns out, the cab that Dana called to have pick us up showed up an hour late, by which time we had already arrived at the restaurant by other cabs. This was our first experience of Tanzanian time. I am still building at apetite for the food (which isn't bad), so I only had some garlic Naan and some of other people's dishes.

That night, we were planning on going to the fourth annual "Earth Dance" to Give Peace a Dance, but I didn't because at that point my body shut down. It was definitely time to sleep.

Karibuni! (Welcome, you plural)

Welcome, all, to Arusha!

When we arrived in Arusha in the early afternoon and met Ericka Mackey, the volunteer program coordinator in country. I was very surprised at how young she was! We loaded ourselved and our luggage into the SIC truck (with absolutely no room to spare--a trend that would continue throughout my experience, I see so far), and the carted us to Center House, a very peaceful Catholic Secondary School--with nuns that supposedly serve beer--that would be our hostel for the beginning of our trip. We put our stuff down in the rooms of five and got ready to head out for dinner.

I will describe Arusha: It is very much a poor, third-world city. It's very dirty and not well maintained, and the air smells like burning trash and car emissions. (The smog that comes out of the back of the cars is literally a black cloud. Wow.) Women dress mostly in skirts or traditional dresses, while the men done a largely Western wardrobe in slacks and a collared shirt. The people are very nice, yet it is labeled as dangerous here, not becuase they want to hurt you--because they don't--but because they want your stuff. So I'm learning to carry very few things and no valuables with me, becuase if someone wants my stuff, I've learned through another volunteer to give everything up. So better to not have much at all, and not carry much of a bag so as not to attract attention. For this reason, I have not yet taken any pictures of Arusha. I may take some from the inside of a cab later, but not yet. On the flip side, the people are friendly and acknowledge each other. I have been waved to more here so far than I have in the last three years of my life, and I don't feel like it's because I'm white. Now, we do also have the "flycatchers" that, because I'm white, will constantly try to sell me something. Bartering skills are valuable. And you get used to saying, "Hapana, Asante" and not feeling rude or guilty. But the most dangerous thing the city--to me--is the cars. Pedestrians have NO rights! There are no crosswalks, not always a sidewalk, and no one stops or slows down for you. Especially if you're white or not saavy.

[Becuase of a recent incident, we are not allowed by SIC to walk around alone, and not allowed walking in any size of group at night. Fortunately, the cabs are about 2,000/= per ride (less than two dollars) which we split amongst us.]

First thing, we went to an ATM to take out TZ shillingi. I was not expecting to encounter any problems, after our UCLA coordinator, Dana, told us every day that we needed an ATM card WITH A VISA LOGO, and I planned accordingly. But the first tree or four times I tried, it declined my request. Frustrated, I walked out and met with them and gave Romy (the other Stanford coordinator) the "bad" news. Long story short... went back later that hour with Dana and realized that I was asking for the rough equivalent of $1 from the ATM, not having counted the zeros on the screen right! Naturally, it wouldn't give me that little, and in fact, my bank has a minimum withdrawal for me of $100 anyway. Hakuna Matata! (There's no problem!)

We all ate at a restaurant called McMoody's, which, we were told, would be a kind of central location in Arusha for the SIC volunteers. It was. We ran into some of the summer program volunteers as they came in on a usual stop. During the course of dinner, we all became very tired, due to jet lag, of course. Many of us ordered a good pizza, and I got used to having to constantly buy bottled water for the time before our program starts, as well as check the contents of my food for any iffy ingredients (i.e. fresh tomatoes w/ skin). Finally, as we were crashing on the table, we took a cab back to Center House and all fell asleep around 7PM.

The first of many posts today: Road to Arusha

Hello All--

I have not posted for a few days because I have not been in town. I'll get to why in this post. For now, I will be spending a lot of time on the net so I can better give you a picture of what it's been like. So I may revisit some things I started describin g in my last post.

Where to start??

I'll start with the road from Nairobi to Arusha, again. So we took off on this road to see our first sights of Africa (from the ground, and in daylight). The road is paved, but has a plethora of potholes, no traffic lanes or painted lines (it's basically a two-way road, one lane for each direction), on which the car you're in should be on the left side of the road. I've found that the cars in Tanzania only abide by that as a suggestion, with much of the time spent passing other cars and coming VERY close to the oncoming traffic! If necessary, people will drive off the side of the road a bit to allow room. I have seen no crashes so far. So you LA drivers: be thankful your fellow drivers are sweet.

We stopped at the border on the Kenya side and then over on the Tanzania side to show our residence permits, passports and be shuffled back only the bus.

Along the road (on both sides of the border) we passed through many vilages with brightly colored buildings, clothing worn by the people, bananas (all green) sold on the side of the road, other fruit, crafts (many of which were tourist-oriented paintings and jewelry). Also along the side of the road we saw many Maasai people. If you don't know, these are the people belonging to the tribe (Maasai, what else) that has actively resisted modernization or change of culture. And yet they have a reputation of charging you to take photos of them (which is true). They are the people you've seen photos of wearing brightly colored fabrics draped like robes (in red, purple or the occasional blue pattern), an abundance of beaded jewelry, many varied and stretched piercings and typicaly carry spears. They live around their cattle, which they highly value. On the side of the road we would see mostly men or a range of children from very small to adolescence with a herd of cattle, sheep, goats or cross-backed donkeys, sometimes accompanied by a dog. They would watch us as we drove by, watching them, too.

What boggled my mind was that we would often see one person in what you and I would call the "middle of nowhere", walking, alone, and not see anything for miles before or miles after. Where are they walking to? Where do they LIVE? Or they would be sitting on the side of the road in the same manner. Just sitting. Not looking unhealthy or devastatingly poor... just like this was normal. Sometimes the children would put their hands out as we passed by, apparently asking for a gift or money. Only once on the whole road did the driver stop and give two kids each a bottle of water, to which they smiled graciously and waved jubilantly.

As for the scenery, it was mostly open, savannah-like terrain. To be expected.

First Post!

Hi All-- Here goes for my first post from Africa.

First of all, all is well. Also, the internet is quite slow and somewhat costly, but just about everything else here (Arusha) is not either of those things. The trip so far has been... wonderful, joyful, miraculous and chaotic! The first flight to London I was on with Devon, Ashley, Sarah and Nathan (four fellow UCLA volunteers), and we had an emergency stop in Denver to fix a small electrical fire with one of the personal tv sets. Firemen in spacesuits came onboard to check it out, and this added a good two hours to that flight (we were not able to get off the plane).
London Heathrow went well, as did the flight from there to Nairobi with the four other volunteers who joined us.
In the Nairobi airport I met three Swedes! Who knew? A sign to me that it's home and we're all connected. One was a young woman f\visiting her sister who lives here, and the other was an older man and his wife who live in TZ six months out of the year. I talked to him about Sweden, what we're doing here, he gave me a heads up about some things as well as the nature of Arusha, Building with Books and such. He was on our shuttle from the airport to the place where we changed buses for the long ride to Tanzania, too. When we split up I gave him my blog address and web site of BWB because of his interest in building schools in TZ.
The several-hour ride down the Nairobi-Arusha road was also chaotic. The bus was very small for how many people were on it, and the road had an abundance of potholes, which we avoided by crossing over to the wrong (right) side of the road, dodging oncoming traffic or running other cars off the road (only once or so... it was fine). Along the road we saw many Maasai people in their mostly purple and red robes, sticks, cattle, goats and sheep.

I must cut out now. Time is running out.

More Later! I love you all.

Love. Carrie

Mailing Address

Many people have been asking about a mailing address while I'm in country. While I will likely be out in the bush, things can be sent to:

P.O. Box 15024
Arusha, TZ

Getting ready, ready ready!~
Carrie