Brussels
Chocolate...waffles...beer...pissing statues (seriously), this place rocked. We had a huge surprise when we arrived at our hotel (brought by the Kazimyster) and walked right into Bob and Margie. We knew they were heading to Europe, but had no idea they would meet us in Brussels. We stayed up late and talked about our trip, the engagement, yada yada. We spent the next day exploring the city with Bob and Margie, met up with Kazi and his son Sammy, had a yummy dinner, and watched Ghana beat the US in an Irish pub. Oh well....
Took a train early next morning to get to Amsterdam (Bobby wanted to arrive as early as possible). Half way on the train I realized we made our first mistake on the trip...we (me) forgot to empty the safe. 2 passports and a camera. Whooops. Thank gawddd for Kazi and Sammy, who showed up the next day with the passports and camera in hand, and turned right back around on the train to Brussels (THANK YOUUU).
Amsterdam
After a 3 hour train ride, we took a cab to our hotel where Bobby and I were "upgraded, free of charge" to an apartment. While Bob and Margie had a nice modern hotel room, Bobby and I were given a two story, 70s esque apartment in a different building (we had to lug our bags up 5 very steep stairs that rivaled my sorority house in Lanc). Very cool. We met up with Bobby's british bud Sam Mitchell and his gf Rose. We walked around the city a bit, checked out some shops, and then headed back to the hotel where we awaited the "surprise," my parents. Had dinner, explored the city some more, and the local culture, I guess. haha. Ummm...yeah it was nice seeing the family and catching up. Glad we had this nice little break with the adults to take care of everything! The city was great, left several days later to fly straight to Kilimanjaro Airport.
Tanzania
Bobby and I were in the very last row possible in KLM, which we wouldn't have minded except we were worried about being the last through passport control. False, we were the first through it (the unloaded through the back, woooooo, love Africa). Got through control okay, bags came, kind of skipped customs, and we were met outside the gates by Bruno and Eliza, from TVE (our volunteer company here). It was about 8 pm at this point, and we were wiped. We were driven straight to our homestay, about an hour away from the airport. We pulled off the main road (covered in pot holes) and onto and even worse side road. We bumped our way to our house, which was surrounded by a huge wall, and metal painted gate that says "Mother Weather's school and day care." We pulled through and into the drive way. The house is two stories, blue, and very nice. There were 9 other volunteers there (one left the next day); 4 irish, 1 scottish, 2 australian, and 2 americans (not including us).
The house was previously an orphanage for children, but Mama Weather (whom we call Mama) was diagnosed with bladder cancer, and since then most of the children are staying at different places. It is also a day school. There are two class rooms adjacent to the building, as well as one right downstairs in the house (if we don't go to work till late we are woken up at 7 30 but kids screaming, playing, and singing). You walk into the house through the kitchen (very spacious), into a tiny room used as a nap room for the children, into a classroom, and up the stairs. There are three bedrooms for volunteers upstairs, one dorm style with bunkbeds (where we slept the first night), one double bed (where we slept for two weeks), and one big queen bed (where we've slept for the past two weeks). Each room has a bathroom with a normal toilet (yessssss, its rare) and a bath. Two of the rooms (ours) have hot water, yet the showers do not work so we bucket shower (fill up a big bucket with hot water, and use a smaller bucket to dump it on you). You never get really too clean. I don't think I'll ever get all the dirt out of my toe nails, but at least the water is hot.
We really got along well with everyone at the homestay. Two of the girls had been there for several months now, and the Irish Clan (and one Scott) arrived the same night as us. Living in the house also was Ibrahim, an orphan who's bibi (grandmother) didn't pick up one day and has lived at the house ever since. He's six and adorable, speaks pretty damn good english, and all of us volunteers spoiled him rotten from the beginning. About 10 days in another orphan, Mickey, started staying at the house again. His twin sister has several cognitive disabilities, and his grandparents can't afford to take care of him as well. The boys are great, and we play soccer a lot with a majority of the school kids once they are done.
Our first day we had orientation, not much to say about, but we learned more about the area and how we would get to our placements, as well as security issues (can't walk around at night, must take taxis as night, do NOT take boda bodas, which are motor bikes, watch out for pick pocketers on the dalla dallas). We took our first dala dala, which is a public transport van that runs from Arusha to different areas. There is a driver and a person that collects money. One ride to town normally costs about 200 tsh (tanzanian shillings, 1,400 tsh=1 USD), but its more depending on how far you are going. People pack into the dalas like none other; our first day 10 of us jumped into one that was already jam packed, and we counted 34 people in a van that should normally fit about 20, not even. There is no such thing as personal space here; people sit on each other, grab each other, and do what ever is possible to be comfortable. Many people stand in the dalas and hunch over other people. On our first day I was smooshed up against an older man, who gave me a look, put his arm around me, and it only seemed natural to lean in and get comfy. Haha.
We ended that day buying necessities at Shoprite, a grocery store in an extremely westernized strip mall (where I am right now at the internet), bought a few soccer balls for our school and the school at the home stay. We had "social night" with the volunteer group, where everyone in the organization goes to one of the volunteer houses and have a bbq. As we were walking towards the house, we saw 4 kids playing with a sack as a soccer ball. We couldn't help ourselves and gave them one of the balls. Although we left the v.h. late that night, one of the Australians staying at our house left earlier and said there were about 30 kids playing with the ball, and all the parents laughing and watching them!!
Placement-POSA
We were placed at two different locations, POSA (Positive Steps in Arumeru) for two weeks, and St. Dymphina's Special Need School for two. POSA is located in Usa River (pronounced uhsah, but supposed to be named after the USA rivers, hmmm). For us to get there, we have to jump on the yellow dala dala outside our homestay and take it to Manzini, where we get off and catch a green dala up to our next stop (Ngunga). It takes about 20 minutes to get to Manzini, but about 45 minutes on a good day to get to Ngunga. We always meet a local in Manzini called Ali, who takes us by the hand and puts us on the right dala, and usually one that is empty. Once in Ngunga, we walked 2km down a dirt road to our school.
POSA is a school for orphans in the local area, aged 2-7, whose parents had died from AIDS. They either live with family members or with strangers who took them in. Bobby and I went to several of the kids' homes while we were with them, and I can't even describe the conditions without tearing up. These kids are so happy, so sweet, so damn FUNNY and wonderful, and they have absolutely nothing. No parents, many share a bed with several family members, many don't have medicines to fix tiny problems that we get taken care of right away. The homes are made out of cow dung with metal roofs. Three of the kids have HIV, but they are lucky to get medicine for free. The director of the organization also is living with HIV, and POSA has a outreach education program for people living in the area with HIV and their families. On a public holiday we visited a home of a man living with HIV, and he told us how he was feeling and how he lost hope. It was horrifically sad...
When we first walked in to the class on our first day we were met by Johnny, who speaks pretty decent english, and he was teaching the children because the teacher was having family problems (we didn't have a teacher for about a week). The classroom is built outside with trees (no concrete), there are no desks, no tables, no chairs, only a blackboard and a mat where the students sit. We were astounded that 2 year olds were placed together with 7 year olds, but the organization doesn't have the money to pay for another teacher or to rent out a legit class room. We were thrust into teaching the first day, to our shock. The kids eat porridge (ugi) around ten, play for an hour, and then are in the class room for another hour. We at first thought it wasn't enough time for school, but we later found out that once kids move on from POSA they start kindergarten, so really its like a pre-school.
The kids are absolutely gorgeous. I can't even tell you how much Bobby and I talk about them, how many pictures and videos we've taken. I wish I could find someone to sponsor or adopt all of them (you can't adopt in Tanzania unless you've been here for three years...damnit). Since they are pretty much preschool age we are working on all the basics; colors, abcs, body parts, numbers. Attention span seems to be a big issue, but once the teacher came back we were able to split up the younger kids and older kids so that worked much better. After our first day (a Friday) we had all weekend to decide what we would teach and what we would do. We made posters (they had none) and made up a few songs (I'm massively creative in Tanzania, no joke).
The kids call us Teacher Bob and Teacher Samantha (you have to hear them say Teacher Bob, its makes me chuckle every time). Every morning when we walk into class they say "Good morning teacher (or sometimes Brother and Sister)." We respond "good morning how are you?" "WE are find thank you teacher!"
There are so many funny stories with these kids I can't even begin to tell them all, and there is so much more to talk about Tanzania I'll have to move on. The pictures and videos really do speak for themselves (will be updated shortly once home on Monday).
I have about 8 minutes left in my session, so I will conclude (for now) that Tanzania is wonderful, I can totally see myself coming back here again, for a longer period of time, and probably working at the same placements. I'll update about other adventures (placement number 2, masai village, visiting Kitoi's family, and other cultural stuff) once we get back into the states. For now, kwaheri, we are running to the photo shop where we have printed out pictures of all the kids and we are giving them out tomorrow! Should be exciting, but we're sad its our last day at placement! Ninakupenda!
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