So Kibanda was intense, and I must admit that I was not prepared for what I saw/experienced. I went to a couple villages when in Pakistan, but never stayed in one. We stayed in Kibanda for 3 days, and people were very hospitable & sweet, but so extremely poor. Most people just live in little deteriorating mud huts without electricity. Kristi & I were lucky bc her former host family has an extra room so we were able to share a bed in the extra room, but we also shared the room w rats & roaches. Ewww!
We went w Baba Salam (her host father) to see his farmer- 3ish acres where he & his wife/kids plant corn, oranges, casava, etc- all by hand, which is their sustenance for the year. We also watched Muhammed, their oldest climb a really tall coconut tree to get nazi (coconuts). And Mwamaima (Baba Salam & Mama's niece whose parents died of malaria) took us down to the water hole where we fetched water & learned to carry the buckets on our heads. I'lll post pics at some point when I'm at the right facilities to do so.
We're leaving Dar at the crack of dawn tomorrow to go to Mtwara, a beach town near Kristi's village, to relax a little. Not sure what kind of access we'll have there, but will post when I can.
Loves!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Habari za asubuhi (News of the morning)
Mambo!
Hallo, hallo. I made it to TZ yeterday afternoon & things are super groovy. It's so lush & beautiful. Birds chirping, butterflies, an open blue sky, and a nice coastline. Of course, there's also the uglier side- lots of mosquitos, pollution, and poverty. But people are extremely friendly, & don't miss a chance to say, 'Karibu!' (welcome!) when ever I walk by.
I'm so impressed by Kristi since she didn't know a word of Swahili last time I saw her but is now rapidly conversing with the locals without a problem. Makes me want to take off for a couple years to go to a village somewhere (ideally in South Asia) & get the full emersion experience.
Me, Kristi, and her friend Bill (another PeaceCorps Volunteer) stayed in a hostel here in Dar es Salaam last night, but we're catching a bus this afternoon to Kibanda (right outside of Muheza) to visit the family who hosted Kristi her first 2 months in TZ. It will be about a 5 hr bumpy ride, but I actually enjoyed riding the public bus around Dar yesterday & today. Seeing the cattle shoot to cram into the packed bus was quite the adventure in & of itself.
Oh! The clothes I brought weren't the best for here (hot, humid, conservative), though I did stick within the guidelines of what Kristi said to bring (cotton shirts, skirts/capris longer than knees, etc). But showing legs (even the lower half) isn't good in the village, so Krsiti let me borrow a sexy maroon moomoo of her's that is so comfy & cool. I wish I had thought to bring my Mexican moomoo, but that's ok- I'll acquire 1 or 2 here. We are at the Peace Corps office right now using the computer lab before heading off, & there is a box of clothes that PC volunteers left behind for anyone to take, so I scored a kanga (basically a big piece of cloth women wear) & local skirt/shirt set that fits perfectly. At some point I'll find a place to be able to post pics & videos I take.
I'll be out of commission for the next several days since we'll be in the village, but will text Caty from my phone once I get a sim card this afternoon so she can be in touch should it be necessary (calystaspence@gmail.com).
Hope everything is going well for everyone.
Love & all that peaceful goodness!
P.S. Thanks for the comments. =)
P.S.S. I did take a peak at your emails but don't have time to respond before catching that bus. thanks for the emails & will be in touch when I can.
Hallo, hallo. I made it to TZ yeterday afternoon & things are super groovy. It's so lush & beautiful. Birds chirping, butterflies, an open blue sky, and a nice coastline. Of course, there's also the uglier side- lots of mosquitos, pollution, and poverty. But people are extremely friendly, & don't miss a chance to say, 'Karibu!' (welcome!) when ever I walk by.
I'm so impressed by Kristi since she didn't know a word of Swahili last time I saw her but is now rapidly conversing with the locals without a problem. Makes me want to take off for a couple years to go to a village somewhere (ideally in South Asia) & get the full emersion experience.
Me, Kristi, and her friend Bill (another PeaceCorps Volunteer) stayed in a hostel here in Dar es Salaam last night, but we're catching a bus this afternoon to Kibanda (right outside of Muheza) to visit the family who hosted Kristi her first 2 months in TZ. It will be about a 5 hr bumpy ride, but I actually enjoyed riding the public bus around Dar yesterday & today. Seeing the cattle shoot to cram into the packed bus was quite the adventure in & of itself.
Oh! The clothes I brought weren't the best for here (hot, humid, conservative), though I did stick within the guidelines of what Kristi said to bring (cotton shirts, skirts/capris longer than knees, etc). But showing legs (even the lower half) isn't good in the village, so Krsiti let me borrow a sexy maroon moomoo of her's that is so comfy & cool. I wish I had thought to bring my Mexican moomoo, but that's ok- I'll acquire 1 or 2 here. We are at the Peace Corps office right now using the computer lab before heading off, & there is a box of clothes that PC volunteers left behind for anyone to take, so I scored a kanga (basically a big piece of cloth women wear) & local skirt/shirt set that fits perfectly. At some point I'll find a place to be able to post pics & videos I take.
I'll be out of commission for the next several days since we'll be in the village, but will text Caty from my phone once I get a sim card this afternoon so she can be in touch should it be necessary (calystaspence@gmail.com).
Hope everything is going well for everyone.
Love & all that peaceful goodness!
P.S. Thanks for the comments. =)
P.S.S. I did take a peak at your emails but don't have time to respond before catching that bus. thanks for the emails & will be in touch when I can.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Preview of Addis Ababa
I finally made it to Addis (the locals pronounce it 'Adees'), but will be here longer than the planned couple hour layover before going on to Dar. Flight from DC was delayed bc the plane was coming from Rome, which was late bc of volcanic ash. I missed my connecting flight to Dar by 5 hours, and the next one doesn't go until tomorrow. So Ethiopian Air put me (and 2 van-loads of nice Africans connecting to different places who also missed their flights) up at a nice hotel for the night.
I made it! Me outside of the Addis airport. And, yes, I did chop off more hair. I'm not too fond of it at the moment, but didn't want to grow a mullet over the next 3 months...
I made friends with quite a few people on the long flight here: a woman and her kids from Uganda (living in Rwanda), a guy from a village in Kenya who is studying in Kansas, a girl & her little niece from Nairobi, Kenya who have family in Maryland, and a guy who lives in Virginia who is from Addis (and coincidentally knows a lot about water issues here & is planning to email me some material).
Loading the bus.
The clouds broke as soon as we got into the van. It's so lush and green here- I love it!
It's already late afternoon here & raining outside, so I'm deciding weather I should go out into the city for a preview, or take what I can see from my balcony as enough for the night. I'll give Livy (someone who went to school w my friend Jamie who now lives in Addis) a call in a bit to see if logistics of getting together would be a hassle or easy-peasy & go from there.
Addis Ababa- view from front of Hotel Riviera. You can't tell much in this shot, but the city is very hilly.
4 star hotel.
Room balcony.
This view is great. The rain hasn't stopped a group of teenagers from playing soccer in the muddy field (which they are sharing w horses, donkeys cows, and some sort of wildebeast thing) behind the hotel.
View.
Field/soccer game/livestock. Maybe this will be one of my research sites.
Feeling so sleepy all of a sudden.. Maybe I'll just take a little nap.... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I made friends with quite a few people on the long flight here: a woman and her kids from Uganda (living in Rwanda), a guy from a village in Kenya who is studying in Kansas, a girl & her little niece from Nairobi, Kenya who have family in Maryland, and a guy who lives in Virginia who is from Addis (and coincidentally knows a lot about water issues here & is planning to email me some material).
The clouds broke as soon as we got into the van. It's so lush and green here- I love it!
It's already late afternoon here & raining outside, so I'm deciding weather I should go out into the city for a preview, or take what I can see from my balcony as enough for the night. I'll give Livy (someone who went to school w my friend Jamie who now lives in Addis) a call in a bit to see if logistics of getting together would be a hassle or easy-peasy & go from there.
This view is great. The rain hasn't stopped a group of teenagers from playing soccer in the muddy field (which they are sharing w horses, donkeys cows, and some sort of wildebeast thing) behind the hotel.
Feeling so sleepy all of a sudden.. Maybe I'll just take a little nap.... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Off to Africa
Hello all! It's been a couple years since I've written here. But, this is my Adventure's Abroad blog, and since I hadn't been abroad in a while, there was really no reason to write here. But I'm heading off to my 4th continent on Thursday, so have taken the liberty to inform you all about what the heck I'm up to this time.
Where in Africa? Why?
Ok. So I'm skipping the country on Thursday heading to a new world (for me) to spend 3.5 weeks in Mtwara, Tanzania, where I'll visit my best friend from high school, Kristi, who is in the Peace Corps there. She's staying in a village in the Southeastern corner of the country, and is teaching English to kids, educating about HIV/AIDs, and is working on some permaculture projects. Other than the kids who speak a little bit of English, I don't think I'll be able to communicate much with the villagers other than making gestures and faces- ha haa. But Kristi's been there for about 10 months now, and speaks Kiswahili well enough, I think. I'm just looking forward to seeing Kristi, taking a much needed break from books and word documents, and getting over the culture shock of such a different place. There, my shower water bucket-carrying techniques won't be for saving water and sculpting my guns as is here in the desert of Arizona, but will be used out of necessity in the village with no water conveyance infrastructure. This experience will be quite the eye-opener, I think.
After those few weeks, I'll head to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for 2 months to do my summer fieldwork for my masters research. I'll be studying the farmers who use highly polluted water to irrigate their crops because there is very little water treatment, and the ways in which they work to safeguard their interests (i.e. mitigate health risks and maintain their livelihoods).
Here's a little something related to the topic:
http://www.gadaa.com/AkakiRiver.html
Since I'm leaving in a couple days, I better get back to finishing up the billions of pages of final papers to write. But more on my research and travel plans to come.
Loves to all.
Where in Africa? Why?
Ok. So I'm skipping the country on Thursday heading to a new world (for me) to spend 3.5 weeks in Mtwara, Tanzania, where I'll visit my best friend from high school, Kristi, who is in the Peace Corps there. She's staying in a village in the Southeastern corner of the country, and is teaching English to kids, educating about HIV/AIDs, and is working on some permaculture projects. Other than the kids who speak a little bit of English, I don't think I'll be able to communicate much with the villagers other than making gestures and faces- ha haa. But Kristi's been there for about 10 months now, and speaks Kiswahili well enough, I think. I'm just looking forward to seeing Kristi, taking a much needed break from books and word documents, and getting over the culture shock of such a different place. There, my shower water bucket-carrying techniques won't be for saving water and sculpting my guns as is here in the desert of Arizona, but will be used out of necessity in the village with no water conveyance infrastructure. This experience will be quite the eye-opener, I think.
After those few weeks, I'll head to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for 2 months to do my summer fieldwork for my masters research. I'll be studying the farmers who use highly polluted water to irrigate their crops because there is very little water treatment, and the ways in which they work to safeguard their interests (i.e. mitigate health risks and maintain their livelihoods).
Here's a little something related to the topic:
http://www.gadaa.com/AkakiRiver.html
Since I'm leaving in a couple days, I better get back to finishing up the billions of pages of final papers to write. But more on my research and travel plans to come.
Loves to all.
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