Karibu

View off porch of Mt. Meru

Here in Tanzania the national language is Swahili. I have been trying to pick up on it is as much as I can, but its been tough to communicate with the locals. All of it sounds the same to me and once someone tells me what something means in Swahili I seem to forget it a few minutes later. I know I am going to have to practice a lot more to not be considered a wazungu (foreigner). But one word that I have heard a lot is Karibu. It is used to say “your welcome” or “you are welcome”. Most often used as a welcome into a store, school, home, or on the street as a welcome to Tanzania. The people here treat one another with respect or as a family member. It has helped me feel invited and comfortable.

As a volunteer we stay on campus in a very nice volunteer house. We all have our own rooms that are pleasant. There is a kitchen, and a living area with a bookshelf filled with great books to read.  The best part about our house is the porch with an amazing view of Mt. Meru. If we are lucky and it’s clear we can see the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro to the right of it. My housemates are Chris, Julian, and Simon. All are very nice and we live together well so far.

            Every month the students have to take government standardized tests. The have spent all of this week taking the tests and studying. So for this week we have been doing lots of manual labor in the garden and maze field. Much of the work has been planting food and slashing weeds with a jembe that has given me some pretty big blisters to work around. Next week I will be starting my work in the classroom as a tech teacher. I am excited to get to know the kids better and let my hands rest from all of the fieldwork.

Replacing a water tank

            Because the students have had testing they have been busy. The students each day get up at six and are in class all day getting breaks for meals and study time. The students are all very excited to learn and know this is a huge opportunity for them. It is common for the students to wake up at 2 am to study for an hour then go back to bed for a few hours. All the students here know English and are taught in English so they all are excited to see us around campus to practice conversation. In free time the kids love to run, play soccer, volleyball, rugby, and netball. Sometimes we will bring the Frisbee out and the kids love to play with it. The kids here are great and they are going to make time here exciting.

Karibu- your welcome/ you are welcome in Swahili

Wazungu- foreigner in Swahili

Jembe- garden tool with long shaft and blade like a hoe

Maze- corn

Ugali- flowered corn that is mixed and cooked in water until thick mashed potato consistency with no flavor

Kande- beans and maze mix

Once again the Internet has not been working well so it’s been difficult to upload all of the photos I have taken so far. I know it would be nice to have some visuals.

"A whole new world"

“A whole new world” – princess Ariel from Disney’s Little Mermaid. That quote applies to my journey to Tanzania so far. The movie is about a mermaid who has lived underwater her whole life but gets the opportunity to get legs and live on land and gets to experience a whole new world. And that’s how I feel. I feel like a merman who has suddenly been given legs and put into a different way of life with new experiences every day. So far my experience has involved a couple long flights, very little sleep, awkward language barriers, no cell phones, power outages, and great people.

KIA Lodge room

To get to Tanzania I had to take two long flights. Both flights were about eight hours one from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, and the next Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro airport. Amsterdam airport was like a gathering place for everyone around the world. With jet lag in effect my flight from Amsterdam to Kilamonjaro I slept the whole way even though my flight was from 12 pm to 9 pm. So by the time I arrived I was wide-awake. Landing at Kilimanjaro I was very excited. Thanks to the advice given to me by my aunt Sue and uncle Scott I was able to overcome the chaos and confusion of getting a visa at the airport that everyone else had. I also was able to overt staff trying to get me to pay extra for my luggage sneaking past as many others were preyed upon to pay extra. From here I spent a sleepless night at a beautiful hotel with a foggy view of Mt. Kilamonjaro, Africas tallest mountian

The next morning Chris (new friend traveling to Peace House with Me) and I got picked up to go to Peace House. The drive was about an hour and a half to the campus. Along the way we drove through Arusha, one of Tanzania’s largest cities, here I really got to see why Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. The best way I could describe it would be the Minnesota State Fair. People are everywhere waiting around, selling food, and doing just about anything to make a few cents. There is also lots of trash. But here there are no garbage trucks to pick up trash. It all goes onto the ground or into the open sewage. When someone decides to clean up they will throw it into a creek or more commonly burn it.  As you can imagine it smells very bad, especially mixed with the fumes from the hundreds of large trucks and motorbikes that are coughing out clouds of smoke.

Just past Arusha on an elevated area is Peace House. It is a very beautiful campus filled surrounded by large trees farmland and an amazing view of Mt. Meru. Here I will be spending my three months in a nice volunteer house with Chris Boll, and Julian (last name I need to find out). I am very excited for this trip and I know that these merman legs will soon feel normal.

PS I will try to post weekly and try add pictures here and on facebook but its hard to upload here with very bad internet and unreliable power.