POA KICHIZI KAMA NDIZI!
(according to locals thats the swahili equivalent to "what up dog")
So now that im at the internet cafe after my placement i feel like i can spend a little more time updating you on whats going on and elaborate on some stuff.
I wanted to mention how RIDICULOUSLY SMALL our bathroom is in our bedroom--- although its nice that we have our own bathroom (we are in the summer house; the main house has one bathroom to share between everyone, and has no a/c) it is so tiny that the shower is right in front of the toilet. the entire bathroom is roughly a tad bigger than an airplane bathroom, with a place to shower, like i said right in front of the toilet. its hard to explain without pictures, but i will post them later... its really interresting. we also have a "badayo" im not sure what that means exactly but itsl ike a little spray hose meant to wash your privates...? and i should probably mention that we have no hot water. at all. which you would think would be fine since its so hot in africa, but the water is ice cold! not cool.
as for the safari im going on, i have time to explain it now! i planned it for 9 of us. we all leave tomorrow (friday) after our placements at 1:30, a driver comes to pick us up to take us four hours to a national park. i forget the name-- but it begins with an m... when i get back ill be sure to let you know which one it was. once we get there, our driver (he does everything! hes even staying with us) is guiding us on an afternoon safari. as for saturday, we are going on an early morning AND afternoon safari, changing hotels for the night (so we are staying in two different ones each night) and going on a morning safari again on sunday before coming back to the home base on sunday afternoon. I'm really excited because i was able to negotiate our safari trip price from 600$ a person to 200$! i'm not afraid to bargain so i guess thats why i was put in charge of planning it by my friends, ha. the 200$ includes EVERYTHING, too- transportation, hotels, food, and safari park fees for the entire weekend. the only thing it doesnt cover is water/drinks--- go figure--- so our park guide said he would stop at a shoprite (YES, they have one here, about 2 hours away in the city) to get whatever supplies we need before we really get on our way. i forget if i mentioned this in my last post--- but previous volunteers went to this safari and said elephants came up to their table while they were eatting dinner--- so i cant WAIT to go!
I will be planning a trip to zanzibar island for next week soon, which will be really fun because we are all allowed to take next friday off of our placement to leave on thursday night. the hotels and everything there are really cheap--- like 60$/night--- so thats cool. plus they have american food! all of us girls are excited to feel a little more at home there when we go, since its a tourist island and has resorts, etc.
A funny thing about my placement is that my main mentor--- not pascall, but marie--- considers me asian [OF COURSE]. she keeps asking me if i have a chinese or japanese parent, because of my eyes--- she never believes me when i tell her i dont! its really funny. she is also trying to teach me swahili, so whenever i need to ask for supplies--- mostly for the crafts and posters i am making to use as teaching aids--- i have to use the swahili terms, and i have to say them correctly. its actually pretty helpful!
The other day, i did some local shopping. I was able to get this AMAZING hand painted picture on a tarp type fabric of two zebras for 15000 shillings--- 15$ us---- bargained down from 25000! i want to get it framed when i get home so i can display it in my apartment. i always bought two different fabrics for 7000 shillings--- 7$ us---- to be made into a bag and a dress to bring home. they are both traditional prints, one has swahili written on it which says "marraige is for everyone"... haha, figures i get that one ! but they are both beautiful and im excited that i was able to purchase them. im going today to other shops to look for little gifts to bring back home for everyone!
haha oh, and i think my favorite part of africa is that they LOVE obama here--- the first thing a tanzanian said to me, when i got off the plane was, "who you voting for??? OBAMA???" they hate bush and mock him constantly, but always shout "obama!" at the volunteers. its great! i feel right at home! ha
Im going to head back to my homebase now because i think my friends are waiting for me--- talk to you later!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Im HERE!
MAMBO!
I just wrote an entire post and of course, I go to publish it and it gets deleted. Since I am not going to retype the whole thing, here is the general gist of things:
PLANE RIDE
Long and awkward- the food was terrible but there were touch screens in our seats so we could listen to music, watch tv or movies on demand... it made the 20 hour plane ride a lot easier.
DUBAI
I was only in the air port for about an hour, but it was weird because it was also a mall...? I didn't see the city but it was REALLY hot there, I think hotter than Africa!
AFRICA
BEAUTIFUL! The Indian ocean is barely a ten minute walk from my homebase, and we aren't staying in a town so much as it is a village. We were told we would be staying in a middle class neighborhood, but clearly the US and Tanzania have extremely different ideas of what middle class means! Its safe, so no worries there, but its all dirt roads and severely run down concrete and mud houses with no electricity. Luckily our house does have electricity and is very nice, our rooms even have air conditioning! I have one roomate, her name is Katie, she's from Connecticut and just graduated from Bucknell with an engineering degree. she's really nice. Although there are 47 volunteers, I am mostly sticking with my friends from Monmouth University, so there about 8 of us. We are all having tons of fun, but some of the other girls are extremely homesick because they miss their boyfriends. I don't have this problem. At all.
MY PLACEMENT
I am volunteering at Bagamoyo Living Arts Center, (BLAC for short.) Its a vocational school for women, Mama Pascall, who is my mentor, teaches women from around the area skills like basketweaving, textile making, and different fabric decor to sell for profit to generate their own income. I originally thought I would be working with textiles since I am a fashion merchandising major, but I am actually putting my business knowledge to use by developing a marketing class for this program since they don't have anything of the kind here at all--- and i mean, if women are developing products for income, they need to also learn how to sell them! So during my three weeks here, I will be developing a 24-week sylabus to teach different groups of women marketing and general business skills, so the volunteers after me can continue working with the women in strengthening these areas.
TIME
The interesting thing about Tanzania is that they work on tft, or tanzania flexible time--- so basically doing anything on a schedule is impossible. For instance, I was supposed to be at my placement at 830 this morning- but wasnt picked up until 10! and a lot of the time, when the CCS staff says fifteen minutes, they really mean an hour. It's crazy.
LOCALS
The locals here are extremely friendly, and are always greeting us as we cruise around the village. The children are especially amazing... the first day we were here a little boy ran up to me and latched on to my leg and wouldnt let go! All children here love the volunteers and try to talk to us (which is always fun because of the langauge barrier, although they are actually helping us with swahili so its very entertaining). They also dance and sing around us, its amazing. They are all very sweet, everyone keeps warning me not to bring one home! haha.
INTERNET
My access is generally very limited- the internet cafe here consists of only three working, extremely old, extremely slow computers in a run down shack. Split betwwen 47 volunteers, its not easy to get a lot of time to contact home, which is why I havent been able to blog or even email much. Luckily, my placement, although it is very rundown itself- has wireless internet and a laptop, which I am using now. I dont know how often I will be able to update my blog since I am only generally using it to do research for my marketing strategies, but I will try to stay in contact as much as I can. I won't be able to post any photos until I get home, so I apologize for that, but let me tell you- I have a million already, and they are all really great, So I will be sure to make them available as soon as I get home- I just dont feel comfortable uploading them here.
ACTIVITES
We are taking swahili lessons 3x a week, which is very helpful. CCS sometimes plans things but generally we are on our own- So this weekend, my friends and I are going to a safari, and next we will be at zanzibar. I'm pumped!
WEATHER
Itys hot here, but no where near what I expected. Its a very different kind of heat, less humid, but typically sunny- but of course, and I type this, it just started POURING! I guess thats understandable since this is the last week of monsoon season, ha. But overall the days are hot but the nights can get pretty cool, which is nice.
EVERYTHING ELSE
... will have to wait for another post because I only have one hour left at my placement and I need to get working.
ASANTE for reading!
(OK, i just wanted to practice some swahili. sorry.)
I just wrote an entire post and of course, I go to publish it and it gets deleted. Since I am not going to retype the whole thing, here is the general gist of things:
PLANE RIDE
Long and awkward- the food was terrible but there were touch screens in our seats so we could listen to music, watch tv or movies on demand... it made the 20 hour plane ride a lot easier.
DUBAI
I was only in the air port for about an hour, but it was weird because it was also a mall...? I didn't see the city but it was REALLY hot there, I think hotter than Africa!
AFRICA
BEAUTIFUL! The Indian ocean is barely a ten minute walk from my homebase, and we aren't staying in a town so much as it is a village. We were told we would be staying in a middle class neighborhood, but clearly the US and Tanzania have extremely different ideas of what middle class means! Its safe, so no worries there, but its all dirt roads and severely run down concrete and mud houses with no electricity. Luckily our house does have electricity and is very nice, our rooms even have air conditioning! I have one roomate, her name is Katie, she's from Connecticut and just graduated from Bucknell with an engineering degree. she's really nice. Although there are 47 volunteers, I am mostly sticking with my friends from Monmouth University, so there about 8 of us. We are all having tons of fun, but some of the other girls are extremely homesick because they miss their boyfriends. I don't have this problem. At all.
MY PLACEMENT
I am volunteering at Bagamoyo Living Arts Center, (BLAC for short.) Its a vocational school for women, Mama Pascall, who is my mentor, teaches women from around the area skills like basketweaving, textile making, and different fabric decor to sell for profit to generate their own income. I originally thought I would be working with textiles since I am a fashion merchandising major, but I am actually putting my business knowledge to use by developing a marketing class for this program since they don't have anything of the kind here at all--- and i mean, if women are developing products for income, they need to also learn how to sell them! So during my three weeks here, I will be developing a 24-week sylabus to teach different groups of women marketing and general business skills, so the volunteers after me can continue working with the women in strengthening these areas.
TIME
The interesting thing about Tanzania is that they work on tft, or tanzania flexible time--- so basically doing anything on a schedule is impossible. For instance, I was supposed to be at my placement at 830 this morning- but wasnt picked up until 10! and a lot of the time, when the CCS staff says fifteen minutes, they really mean an hour. It's crazy.
LOCALS
The locals here are extremely friendly, and are always greeting us as we cruise around the village. The children are especially amazing... the first day we were here a little boy ran up to me and latched on to my leg and wouldnt let go! All children here love the volunteers and try to talk to us (which is always fun because of the langauge barrier, although they are actually helping us with swahili so its very entertaining). They also dance and sing around us, its amazing. They are all very sweet, everyone keeps warning me not to bring one home! haha.
INTERNET
My access is generally very limited- the internet cafe here consists of only three working, extremely old, extremely slow computers in a run down shack. Split betwwen 47 volunteers, its not easy to get a lot of time to contact home, which is why I havent been able to blog or even email much. Luckily, my placement, although it is very rundown itself- has wireless internet and a laptop, which I am using now. I dont know how often I will be able to update my blog since I am only generally using it to do research for my marketing strategies, but I will try to stay in contact as much as I can. I won't be able to post any photos until I get home, so I apologize for that, but let me tell you- I have a million already, and they are all really great, So I will be sure to make them available as soon as I get home- I just dont feel comfortable uploading them here.
ACTIVITES
We are taking swahili lessons 3x a week, which is very helpful. CCS sometimes plans things but generally we are on our own- So this weekend, my friends and I are going to a safari, and next we will be at zanzibar. I'm pumped!
WEATHER
Itys hot here, but no where near what I expected. Its a very different kind of heat, less humid, but typically sunny- but of course, and I type this, it just started POURING! I guess thats understandable since this is the last week of monsoon season, ha. But overall the days are hot but the nights can get pretty cool, which is nice.
EVERYTHING ELSE
... will have to wait for another post because I only have one hour left at my placement and I need to get working.
ASANTE for reading!
(OK, i just wanted to practice some swahili. sorry.)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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