I apologize for the hiatus in the blog writing. It’s been a
weird change of events, or I guess a complete change of my life here in
Tanzania. It has taken me some time to adjust and become comfortable with some
things here, but I am ready to share with all of your again. That being said,
you should get out a cup of coffee or glass of wine if you plan to read this
all. I will break it up in hopes of making it easier to follow.
I’ll begin with my travels... It seems like forever ago when I left my
village for Christmas. I started in
Ndanda with the rest of the Mtwara crew and some other volunteers actually
trekked their way to the Deep South to check out Mtwara as well. We made a huge feast of burritos, had a white
elephant gift exchange, lots of Christmas music, a “Christmas tree,” hiked to the spring and swam, got crates of
beer, and I even attempted to make Mom’s amazing sugar cookies (I learned its
best to just wait until next Christmas- hand cutting candy canes in dough that
melts in seconds and takes hours to cook 2 cookies at a time over a charcoal
stove wasn’t my best cooking attempt here).
Overall, it was a great holiday with lots of laughter and fun with some
of my closest friends here. It’s weird
to think that instead of getting amazing care packages filled with goodies and
letters from all of you that I love back home, I will get to spend this next
Christmas back in Cali!
Our Christmas Tree
Making Mom's Sugar Cookies
Sugar Cookie Cake (after cookies took too long)
After Christmas, I headed up to Dar to meet my best friends
in my class to go to Zanzibar Island.
This was the first real touristy thing I have done in Tanzania, so I was
very excited. Within seconds, I wanted to live in Zanzibar forever. It was
beautiful! We stayed in Stone Town which is a section of the island that is a
bunch of winding small alleyways filled with tons of touristy gift items. There are tons of places with coffee and
ginger tea, Rasta guys with huge beanies filled with dreads, artwork, crafts,
clothes, etc. Also in Stone Town, there is a street food area set up every
night called Forodhani Gardens, which has tons of seafood skewers, Zanzibar
pizza, sugarcane juice, falafels, etc. It was amazing food! I even had a
lobster, shark, and barracuda skewer. One night a huge storm hit the island,
which caused huge waves to splash over the wall into the Gardens when we were
all ordering food. That night ended with
Kat and I hiding under a building, enjoying delicious seafood, then running
through the alleyways in the rainstorm until we reach the apartment soaking
wet.
While in Zanzibar, we enjoyed being tourists by doing a
spice tour (which including tasting the spices during the walk, delicious
pilau, a visit to an old slave cave, and a stop at one of the beautiful north
beaches), two all-nighters at Kendwa Rocks (a beach resort that had all-night
parties for the full moon and then New Years, meaning we partied until 7am!),
Prison Island where we saw the giant tortoises having sex ha and swam
(snorkeling couldn’t happen due to the choppy water), boat rides on the small
dhows, snuck into a nice hotel to swim in their pool, stayed at one of the more
secluded east beaches, roof top bar happy hours (which even had gimlets!), and
lots of fun with my best friends here.
Spice Tour
Climbing the Coconut Tree- Spice Tour
Pilau (Rice Dish with Indian Spices) and a Curry Sauce
Old Slave Cave
Dhow heading to Prison Island
Turtles (mating) on Prison Island
Coffee and Ginger Tea
Chilling on an East Beach
Sunset from the Rooftop Bar
NYE
Shore off of Stone Town
Dhows
I continued my fascination with islands by heading to Mafia
Island after our Mid-Service Conference. We heard getting there was extremely
difficult since you have to take a dala dala from Dar to another small town,
then catch a ferry that is extremely rocky and you get sprayed on by the waves.
We were nervous but heard that the horrible ferry experience is totally worth
the main attraction of coming to Mafia Island- swimming with whale sharks!
Fortunately, we actually had a mellow ferry ride and I was even able to sprawl
on the ground with other volunteers and passengers and took a nap. I’ve
concluded that the best way to travel by ferry is by sleeping!
Mafia is beautiful! It is much less touristy than Zanzibar,
and still has the amazing white sand beaches, boats, islanders, etc. We stayed at a lodge that was on a beach
cliff so had an amazing view of the coast and was a quick walk down to the
water. It was relaxing since there weren’t so many people there, although when
we swam in the ocean, it would soon be a main attraction for the local children
to come and practice English and show off for us.
We scheduled a trip with a guy and the next morning my
friends and I were off in a small boat just for us. There were two other boats on the water
looking for the whale sharks to swim with too, and when it became too crowded
our guy took us further out so we could have more opportunities to get close.
And when I say close, I mean literally swim right next to them. It was crazy!!!
They would pull the boat close and yell JUMP!!! It was really intimidating to
jump pretty much on top of or right in front of a 15 foot shark and then swim
hard to try and keep in line with it as it skimmed the surface of the water
with its huge mouth open filling it with plankton. They seemed totally
uninterested in us and only concerned with feeding, and although they moved
majestically, their intense body size made it an exhausted swim race for us as
we attempted to swim parallel to them. There were 2 sharks that we kept
following with the boat and jumping out of to swim with. This was such an
amazing experience!
So… while the other girls headed back to Dar, James and I stayed an extra day to do it again! So worth it! The guy who took us out before offered to take us again for free! This time we went later and had 3 sharks all to ourselves. It was awesome!! We brought some drinks on the boat and chilled until sunset after we were exhausted from swimming with the sharks. I am not really sure why I ever left Mafia (especially since the morning we left it was raining and the ferry couldn’t come to shore so we had to walk through waves with our bags on our heads, board small boats with pushy passengers scrambling on, then get taken to the ferry and pass out on a slightly wet and muddy floor), but the guy with the boat promised he’d get me a job with them if I come back ha! And maybe I’ll go back in September when the humpback whales migrate through Mafia Island.
Views from the Lodge
Whale Sharks!
Mangroves and the Lodge Hidden Behind the Greenery
Now, I’ll get to the title of this blog- the “Homeless
Journey.” I’ll write more later on why I
became homeless after being pulled from my site, but will continue describing
my travel experiences during my approximately month long in limbo period
between sites.
I started by heading up to Same in Kilimanjaro region to
meet up with two other volunteers that were within walking distance from each
other, Jeff and Autumn. Jeff literally
lived on a mountain side. It was amazing views of everything below and a
completely different climate from the hot and humid Mtwara, Dar, and Islands I
am used to. I was freezing!! I slept with a scarf, leggings, sweatshirt, and a
huge blanket. To go anywhere, you had to literally climb your way up or down
since all the “paths” were along the mountain side. I don’t know how I only
slipped once after it had rained and the path was wet. While I was at Jeff and
Autumn’s sites, we did a lot of chilling, swam in the river near his house
(which was more of like an ice bath), played soccer and frisbee with the vijana
(youth), hiked up to a taller peak where we were able to see Kilimanjaro in the
distance, drank warm beer at a bar between their sites, dreded Jeff’s hair for
an entire day, and eventually made the long car ride trek down the mountain
side (with my body so squished that I felt like my rib cage was going to snap
from the pressure on either side of me). In Moshi, I enjoyed hanging out at coffee
shops, which I didn’t realize how much I miss doing that in the States! I got
to eat delicious Indian food, pizza, an omelet, and lots of coffee drinks! We
also went to a cool outdoor night club and hung out with a bunch of other
volunteers in the area.
View from the Hike- Kili is Hidden in the Middle
Tree at the Peak
Some Cool Flowers Along the Way
View Down the Mountain
From Moshi, I then headed to my friend Kat’s site, since
Mtwara was off limits due to the riots that broke out over the fuel issue
(Peace Corps had volunteers remain at village sites, and no one could enter in
Mtwara region for a few days until it was safe to travel again). Kat lives in Manyara region. We stayed in Babati for a night then headed
to her village. It was great to see how her
service as a health volunteer differed from mine (and many other environment
volunteers) since she works closely with her health clinic. Usually health and environment projects
overlap and don’t differ much, but it was cool to see how integrated Kat was
with her village clinic. She did a health lesson, condom demonstrations, helped
with the baby weighing and vaccinations, and assisted in pregnant women’s
check-ups. And she does this 3 times each week. The nurses showed me how they
measure the women’s bellies, listen to the babies heart beat, and determine how
many months along the women are. With
Kat, I also got to watch a ZINDUKA practice (a program with Grassroot Soccer
that utilizes games and sports to teach about health education- more on this
later as it is my major project with the NGO I’m working with) which was fun to
see since I have been interested in doing a ZINDUKA program since we got
introduced to it at a training a year ago.
Kat and I hiked to Rachel’s site which is about 3 hours away
and has beautiful views! It was pretty cold on the way and very muddy. I had sandals on that kicked the mud up onto my
legs and back so pretty much turned into a mud monster. I borrowed a beanie and
Kat said I had truly resembled a homeless person now. Ha! The hike was
beautiful though and Rachel’s site was really cute. She made us pineapple
upside down cake (it’s amazing what some volunteers can make with a charcoal
stove and make-shift oven of pots).
Hiking to Rachel's in the Rain
Sunflowers :)
Found a Friend on the Walk- Tanzanians thought we were wizards
Mango Upside Down Cake
Rachel, Kat, and I (looking like a bum)
Kat's Kittens
Trail Back to Kat's
From Kat’s and Rachel’s sites, I headed to Maria who isn’t
too far away in Kondoa. She met me in
town and then we headed to her village. Like Kat, she lives next to the clinic
and pretty much runs the baby weighing there. Most clinics are way understaffed
so one nurse or health care provider will work hours with baby weighing,
vaccinations, pregnancy check-ups, births, and any other typical treatment and
medications. The secondary school in Maria’s village also had an environmental
speech day for their club so that was cool to watch many students talk about
various environmental topics. Kat joined
us at Maria’s site the next day and then Kat and I headed to Chuck’s village.
Sunrise on the Bus to Maria's
Baobab Tree
Chuck, Kat, and I were all in the same home-stay village so
we’ve remained close. Chuck lives near Kiteto and lives in a village with many
Maasai. Kat made sure to request a
complete introduction to Maasai culture and Chuck certainly set it up. Right off
the bus we took to get to his village, we walked to a Maasai boma (compound)
his friend lived in, were invited into his home, and served milk. I am not huge on milk to begin with, but this
milk was stored in a gourd for hours, maybe days?, and therefore becomes sour
and chunky- which they love! As does Chuck! Not Kat or I…it was difficult due
to the texture more than anything. Kat resorted to distracting the family from
not being able to drink it by taking pictures. I tried a few more sips and
luckily Chuck drank it all for me. So gross!!!
From there, we went into the cow and goat pen. I got to hold a baby goat since I told
Chuck’s friend how cute they are. He also showed me how to milk a cow, which is
harder than I thought it would be! Then some men grabbed a cow and held it down
on the ground while another man shot its neck with an arrow. They use a special arrow that opens the cow’s
neck vein to allow the blood to pour, and I mean pour, into a gourd. Then, when the gourd is full, they stick a
leaf on the opening and the cow goes back to the heard only a little shaken up
but overall unharmed. It seems like so much blood, but I guess to them it’d be
like getting your blood drawn. After the
gourd is filled, they mix it up with a stick to have all the coagulated blood
form on the stick. Then the huge group of children scramble to fight over who
gets to eat the coagulated blood and scarf it down. It was kind of a disturbing
image, but they love it! Then we all sat down with Chuck’s friend and he poured
us huge cups of warm blood to drink. I
thought it would be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever consumed, but it turns
out, drinking blood is a lot easier than drinking chunky sour milk! It was kind
of like warm salt water, but only a bright red color. I saw a kid chugging a
cup of blood and when he finished he had a blood mustache. We all thought this
was funny so of course had to replicate it for pictures. Yup…I felt like a
vampire!
The next day we went to a little soko (market) that the
Maasai villagers set up. There were tons of tire sandals, vegetables, and shuka
(the bright colored sheets they wear).
Apparently, the colors of the shuka represent age and gender and certain
layering are done for marital status.
For instance, a lot of the younger men wear red colored shuka and women
wear blues and purples. I forget the
exact colors and combinations, but I believe the young unmarried girls only
wear one color, maybe purple. I forget,
but it is all very cool how they adhere to age and gender customs. Later, Chuck’s “family” also gave us lots of
fresh milk (not sour chunky milk), a milk and corn porridge type meal, and
pasta and meat. I think I ate more protein in 2 days than my entire service!
The next day we went to a big market day in another village over. This is where most people see their cows and
goats, beads for the traditional Maasai jewelry, shuka, and tons of typical
market food (fruits, veggies). There is
an area where they roast goat meat on sticks over fires and a bunch of beer
huts or food huts. We had a beer and
later got rice and goat meat, not the huge pieces and legs at the roasting area
though (I guess a bunch of people will go in on a large portion of meat
together). It was an awesome experience
of Maasai culture in a very non-touristy way, unlike when they build up a
portrayal of Maasai culture for safari trips or whatever. After a couple days
with Chuck, Kat and I headed to Dodoma and then she returned to her village.
Learned a New Way to Carry Water
Inside the House
Chuck's Friend
Baby Goats
Step 1: Tie the Cow's Neck and Hold Him Down
Step 2: Shoot it with an Arrow
Step 3: Collect the Blood
Step 4: Close off the Opening with a Leaf
Step 5: Stir the Blood and Give the Coagulated Blood to Kids
Step 6: Cheers!
Step 7: Blood Mustaches
Market
Goat Roast
I stayed with Kathryn in Dodoma, who is extending with World
Food Program, but lived in Mtwara region before. I was great to see how her life differed than
the village life as an extension volunteer since I have been strongly
considering extending a third year to gain work experience with NGOs. And, as
it turned out, Peace Corps put me in touch with an organization called Project
Concern International (PCI). Since I had
less than a year of service, and the site they were setting up to move me to in
Mtwara was no longer possible due to the rioting in the area, it would have
been difficult to move regions and start up another site in a village and be
productive with only a few months. Peace Corps knew I was interested in
extending so offered me the option of meeting with PCI to possibly begin an
extension type job for the remaining of my service. I’ll write more on that later, but I was
excited to just have a home after so much traveling so headed up to Mwanza to
meet the PCI Country Director.
I stayed with my friend Alli and Jessica, who are extension
volunteers in Mwanza. I actually met
Alli back in my first 2 months for our volunteer shadow week during pre-service
training. The meeting with PCI went
really well and I was excited to receive the experience I wanted to gain in a
third year early; however, still very torn to leave my village. While in Mwanza, I got to experience the city
and checked out their big used clothes market, food market, some nice hotels
with roof top bars and views of Lake Victoria, and I even laid out in a bikini
at a pool at one hotel! Such a different life style from the village that’s for
sure! After a weekend in the “big city,” I returned to Dar (one full day bus
ride to Dodoma, another 7 hours bus ride to Dar) and then headed to the village
to move out.
Views of Lake Victoria
Mwanza is also called Rock City
Growing up, I have always been interested in the homeless
life. I would joke with my mom, and
sometimes seriously consider, living the life of a homeless person to see what
it is like. I have always found stories of homeless people to be unique and
enjoyed working at a homeless shelter in SB.
But after weeks of traveling from one place to the next (now over 3
months), and not having somewhere to call home, I can safely say I never want
to be homeless again. However, during
this limbo period, I was able to visit some amazing places, see 8 sites and the
experiences of many of my friends in Peace Corps, and really learn what it’s
like to live out of a backpack! It was a
pretty great homeless journey.
