17) Tropical Beaches and the winding streets of Stonetown - yep. The scenery here is be-AUtiful! The beaches are postcard perfect and stonetown is totally exotic. I feel interesting just knowing how to get around here. I'll miss it
18)Juice - tamarind, mango,passion, sugarcane, etc. etc. It's awesome awesome awesome. Fresh juice all the time, dirt cheap. Infact in Swahili my school Mkwajuni is "The Place of the Tamarind trees". Heaven~
And I'm leaving tomorrow! And I'm an RPCV now. A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Boo-ya! I'll see you fools in a few weeks!
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Things I'l miss continued
12) The chickens! - I gotta say it'll be wierd to be walking everywhere, to school, around the house etc, without tripping over chickens. Chickens are everywhere here, mainland, zanzibar, school town, village whatever. A number of times I've had to kick a stray goat or chicken out of my classroom when they've wandered in while I was teaching...so I guess goats and cows get an honorable mention inthis one too. Although to be fair chickens still win out. As eaters of gardens they aren't often a favorite of local volunteers however when no more rooster crows wake me up in the morning you know I'll be feeling like somethin is missing
13) Monkeys! - all the wild monkeys here I will miss you, with bushbaby's gettin an honorable mention. Where would the night be without your hooting my funny looking friends! Monkeys are the local deer here, everyone gets annoyed cause they eat food, cause havoc with crops and carry off bits and pieces every now and then but for me the novelty never wore off. First visit to Pemba the locals tried to sell me a baby monkey in diapers and I gotta say...I was tempted. If but for the Peace Corps rule prohibiting us to own primates...who knows Shujaa you mighta had company!
14)Cheap movies and tv shows - yup the chinese have cornered the market on ripping dvds and tv shows onto video and for a scant 2-5 dollars you too can have a 24 pack of new movies- some good -My friend got "The Dark Knight" before it had left the theatre - some junk like Steven Seigal or Jean Claude van damn movies. Myself I've watched 5 seasons of prison break, 4 seasons of lost and 1 season of desperate housewives and 1 season of heroes (soon 2 as I've just bought another for when I get home). Good times
15) The peace corps floating library - This is that library that all PCVS contribute too when they come. GIven as how we're mostly in the land of few book choices whenever there is a good book it almost always gets passed along, from region to region throughout the country as different volunteers burrow it. A book may travel from Moshi to Zbar all the way down to Mbeya and then back again. Its a well known fact that the actual library in Dar at the PC office that PCVs can donate too has generally nothing good in it cause if it were good, it wouldn't be in there, it would be somewhere else being read!
16) Street food - delicious! Where else to get octopus, calamari, fries and a soda for a few dollars at most. I know it chances being dirtier than the u.s. style food, but its delicious and almost free. Here's to street food
13) Monkeys! - all the wild monkeys here I will miss you, with bushbaby's gettin an honorable mention. Where would the night be without your hooting my funny looking friends! Monkeys are the local deer here, everyone gets annoyed cause they eat food, cause havoc with crops and carry off bits and pieces every now and then but for me the novelty never wore off. First visit to Pemba the locals tried to sell me a baby monkey in diapers and I gotta say...I was tempted. If but for the Peace Corps rule prohibiting us to own primates...who knows Shujaa you mighta had company!
14)Cheap movies and tv shows - yup the chinese have cornered the market on ripping dvds and tv shows onto video and for a scant 2-5 dollars you too can have a 24 pack of new movies- some good -My friend got "The Dark Knight" before it had left the theatre - some junk like Steven Seigal or Jean Claude van damn movies. Myself I've watched 5 seasons of prison break, 4 seasons of lost and 1 season of desperate housewives and 1 season of heroes (soon 2 as I've just bought another for when I get home). Good times
15) The peace corps floating library - This is that library that all PCVS contribute too when they come. GIven as how we're mostly in the land of few book choices whenever there is a good book it almost always gets passed along, from region to region throughout the country as different volunteers burrow it. A book may travel from Moshi to Zbar all the way down to Mbeya and then back again. Its a well known fact that the actual library in Dar at the PC office that PCVs can donate too has generally nothing good in it cause if it were good, it wouldn't be in there, it would be somewhere else being read!
16) Street food - delicious! Where else to get octopus, calamari, fries and a soda for a few dollars at most. I know it chances being dirtier than the u.s. style food, but its delicious and almost free. Here's to street food
Monday, November 24, 2008
What I'll miss
So I had a fabulous last few months (fasted for 10 days this year!! :-) ), saw Lake Nyasa, had a pig roast and Philipinio Karoke night, celebrated Eid, started school, and saw loads of friends, and I thought I'd tell you all about it but I think those'll be stories I'll be happy to share when I'm home. Instead right now I'm contemplating about how in 1 week I'll be leaving Zanzibar forever, and how in just over 1 week I'll be on a plane out of the country-though I'm stopping in Ethiopia and Egypt first before I arrive in America. And with that I'd just like to let you all know what I'll miss about this place, although really one never knows until one leaves the whole story, so maybe this list will be amended as time goes on.
I'll miss....
1) The sun! Yea its hot as *&$# but its also the land of eternal summer where I can never wear a coat, ALL YEAR LONG. I know that in the middle of a michigan winter I"ll be lamenting this.
2) The food. The ice cold fresh juice-tamarind, passion and mango as well as sugar cane, you know I love you, kachori, biriayani, pilau, rice and beans, coconuts etcetcetc. And everything fresh fresh fresh! Its more expensive for the processed.
3) My appreciation for the food. When you have to physically make almost everything you eat and a thing like icecream or chocolate is a real exception not a rule, its amazing how much more delicious things taste.
4)the style - lets face it, zanzibari women as a whole have impeccable taste. As a rule and not an exception their clothes flatter all body types as well as hair. And they are bold too, it looks like a field of flowers sometimes at a party, so many colors everywhere! These people shun brown, black, and blah colors. They celebrate flair in your color choice and classiness in your style. I LOVE shopping here.
5) the attention - this is an I'll miss and I'll look forward to not having as well. I know I'll really look forward to getting less attention in fact, but I also know that when every guy in the room isn't commenting on how amazing I look just a little part of me will be wondering "what's up?".
6)the friendliness - in my apartment bloc practically everyone is so TOGETHER! The kids run in packs..like dogs almost, except much cuter when they are between 2-6 yrs old, and mama's just stand on balconies shouting for so and so to do something. And people come in and out of my place, ALL THE TIME, and really I think they'd view it as if they somehow were being rude if you were alone for too long. And everyone will help you out. Just talk to older folk on the street and they'll loan you things and show you places and give you advice, all for free.
7) The guest culture - its huge here. Guests are so, welcome and its so difficult to live up to somehow when you are a host but its fabulous when you are a guest. Guests are respected and welcomed and people just knock on your door all the time to say hi. And when you are invited out you get treated to the 9's! The poorest of the poor families will make some effort to give you a soda, and biscuits. And everyone always has time to greet you. To give an example, in the states when you are a guest sometimes its appreciated when you offer to help out, because you are relieving them of some duties, like washing dishes etc. Here its almost an insult if you offer to help out because you are the guest and it insinuates that they are not taking care of you properly and can't handle a guest.
8) The packs of kids running around - I don't know what it is but little kids just seem so much freer here. They all run around together in little packs. Its great! And they are adorable when they aren't being whiny, and fairly respectful too. When I arrive with a heavy pack, they want to carry it for me. And every morning without fail they love to greet me as I walk outside (it's a game almost). And every day if I'd let them they'd come in to my house and play around with my stuff and just entertain me and themselves for 3 hrs.
9)The trust - people trust people ALOT more here than in the states. Its so nice to stop being afraid all the time of everybody and have a culture where some things are just taken on trust. For example on busses, when people are getting on they may have alot of packs to carry, so its totally understood and helpful for you to grab there baby for them and hold him till they are situated. Or if there are multiple kids perhaps it'd be very appreciated if you let one of them sit on your lap. I feel like people are searching every nook and cranny in the states for sexual predators etc. I mean you'd never pass your baby down the isle in the states, or ask it to sit on a strangers lap. Here you would absolutely. Also here definately people hitch rides all the time! Its expected, understood culture and people aren't always freaked again for the random chance they'll hitch with an ax-murdering serial rapist. When I say trust I don't mean for all things I just mean within certain limits there is definately an expectation of human decency from strangers that we just don't have in the states, and the fact is that expectation is almost always proved true.
10) Time - this is again something I'll not miss as well as miss. In the states people hate it when you waste their time. Here people don't view time as something to be wasted, its used to benefit people. So there's just alot more understanding and helpfulness when dealing with time and people. It makes you late all the time,but also your relationships with people never really suffer cause somehow you were too busy
11) Lack of fear - I will miss this sooooo much. I would have to say, comparatively to the states, people just are sooooo less afraid of everything, and especially considering the level of crime that supposedly should be here if you take into account the poverty, well its kind of remarkable. I don't know how or why but its just a feeling that permeates you after you are here for a while, that a stranger is probably a decent person. In the states all the time its "don't talk to strangers", "don't touch", "don't get in cars with people you don't know", "don't accept gifts from strangers", all these, don't's! All this fear. And within reason there's total legitimacy to it, but it still creates a culture of fear. You don't even realize how bad it is till its absent, till you feel free to hitch a ride when your gut tells you everything looks on the up and up, and till you are sitting with a random 6 yr old on your lap on a bus, etc. I don't mean to say I'd hitch a ride in the middle of the night in the city, or I'd leave my wallet wherever etc. common sense still applies, but not the fear. And when I meet fellow travelers, I AS A RULE try to hitch a taxi with them, or meet up with them for lunch or whatever. I introduce myself to people I've never met and ask a favor to spend the night in town at the house of a person I've only hung out with once. And ya know what, when this person isn't home, they call a friend to give me the keys to allow me to spend the night at their house. ITS SO NICE, and so warming.
And thats all I got for now cause I gotta run. MOre on this list later. Cheers to everyone and I'll see you all soon!
I'll miss....
1) The sun! Yea its hot as *&$# but its also the land of eternal summer where I can never wear a coat, ALL YEAR LONG. I know that in the middle of a michigan winter I"ll be lamenting this.
2) The food. The ice cold fresh juice-tamarind, passion and mango as well as sugar cane, you know I love you, kachori, biriayani, pilau, rice and beans, coconuts etcetcetc. And everything fresh fresh fresh! Its more expensive for the processed.
3) My appreciation for the food. When you have to physically make almost everything you eat and a thing like icecream or chocolate is a real exception not a rule, its amazing how much more delicious things taste.
4)the style - lets face it, zanzibari women as a whole have impeccable taste. As a rule and not an exception their clothes flatter all body types as well as hair. And they are bold too, it looks like a field of flowers sometimes at a party, so many colors everywhere! These people shun brown, black, and blah colors. They celebrate flair in your color choice and classiness in your style. I LOVE shopping here.
5) the attention - this is an I'll miss and I'll look forward to not having as well. I know I'll really look forward to getting less attention in fact, but I also know that when every guy in the room isn't commenting on how amazing I look just a little part of me will be wondering "what's up?".
6)the friendliness - in my apartment bloc practically everyone is so TOGETHER! The kids run in packs..like dogs almost, except much cuter when they are between 2-6 yrs old, and mama's just stand on balconies shouting for so and so to do something. And people come in and out of my place, ALL THE TIME, and really I think they'd view it as if they somehow were being rude if you were alone for too long. And everyone will help you out. Just talk to older folk on the street and they'll loan you things and show you places and give you advice, all for free.
7) The guest culture - its huge here. Guests are so, welcome and its so difficult to live up to somehow when you are a host but its fabulous when you are a guest. Guests are respected and welcomed and people just knock on your door all the time to say hi. And when you are invited out you get treated to the 9's! The poorest of the poor families will make some effort to give you a soda, and biscuits. And everyone always has time to greet you. To give an example, in the states when you are a guest sometimes its appreciated when you offer to help out, because you are relieving them of some duties, like washing dishes etc. Here its almost an insult if you offer to help out because you are the guest and it insinuates that they are not taking care of you properly and can't handle a guest.
8) The packs of kids running around - I don't know what it is but little kids just seem so much freer here. They all run around together in little packs. Its great! And they are adorable when they aren't being whiny, and fairly respectful too. When I arrive with a heavy pack, they want to carry it for me. And every morning without fail they love to greet me as I walk outside (it's a game almost). And every day if I'd let them they'd come in to my house and play around with my stuff and just entertain me and themselves for 3 hrs.
9)The trust - people trust people ALOT more here than in the states. Its so nice to stop being afraid all the time of everybody and have a culture where some things are just taken on trust. For example on busses, when people are getting on they may have alot of packs to carry, so its totally understood and helpful for you to grab there baby for them and hold him till they are situated. Or if there are multiple kids perhaps it'd be very appreciated if you let one of them sit on your lap. I feel like people are searching every nook and cranny in the states for sexual predators etc. I mean you'd never pass your baby down the isle in the states, or ask it to sit on a strangers lap. Here you would absolutely. Also here definately people hitch rides all the time! Its expected, understood culture and people aren't always freaked again for the random chance they'll hitch with an ax-murdering serial rapist. When I say trust I don't mean for all things I just mean within certain limits there is definately an expectation of human decency from strangers that we just don't have in the states, and the fact is that expectation is almost always proved true.
10) Time - this is again something I'll not miss as well as miss. In the states people hate it when you waste their time. Here people don't view time as something to be wasted, its used to benefit people. So there's just alot more understanding and helpfulness when dealing with time and people. It makes you late all the time,but also your relationships with people never really suffer cause somehow you were too busy
11) Lack of fear - I will miss this sooooo much. I would have to say, comparatively to the states, people just are sooooo less afraid of everything, and especially considering the level of crime that supposedly should be here if you take into account the poverty, well its kind of remarkable. I don't know how or why but its just a feeling that permeates you after you are here for a while, that a stranger is probably a decent person. In the states all the time its "don't talk to strangers", "don't touch", "don't get in cars with people you don't know", "don't accept gifts from strangers", all these, don't's! All this fear. And within reason there's total legitimacy to it, but it still creates a culture of fear. You don't even realize how bad it is till its absent, till you feel free to hitch a ride when your gut tells you everything looks on the up and up, and till you are sitting with a random 6 yr old on your lap on a bus, etc. I don't mean to say I'd hitch a ride in the middle of the night in the city, or I'd leave my wallet wherever etc. common sense still applies, but not the fear. And when I meet fellow travelers, I AS A RULE try to hitch a taxi with them, or meet up with them for lunch or whatever. I introduce myself to people I've never met and ask a favor to spend the night in town at the house of a person I've only hung out with once. And ya know what, when this person isn't home, they call a friend to give me the keys to allow me to spend the night at their house. ITS SO NICE, and so warming.
And thats all I got for now cause I gotta run. MOre on this list later. Cheers to everyone and I'll see you all soon!
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Ramadhan!
Just wanted to say, Happy Ramadhan to all. Its the 2nd day of ramadhan here, and all is well. And just for a little cultural update; What is Ramdhan?
Ramdhan is the 30 days where the prophet Mohommad was in the desert recieving the information in the Koran from heaven and writing it down. It is THE holy month on the muslim religious calender, and is celebrated by fasting. This entails one to neither eat, nor drink anything, from about 4 in the morning till 7 at night. (This is real serious here too, nothing can enter bodily orafices, strict muslims won't bathe or swim during this time, nor will they brush their teeth, nor will married people have sexual relations). Nothing at all enters the body during this time! Then just after evening prayer (magharibi) everyone breaks the fast with a meal called futari. Futari is a celebatory time, like christmas dinner, everyone is welcome at the table, and it sometimes happens that everynight everyone in a village may eat together, (ex. so futari would be at my house one night, and I'd cook massive amounts of food- and the next night at your house where you'd provide all the food). For my area its very common for extended familys to eat together (and friends), but not the whole village. I often get invited to dine with different neighbors, and I usually go. Its great! Afterwords people walk about and talk for a bit, then go to sleep. Everyone then wakes up real early in the morning (3 ish) and eats something , and drinks a whole lot of water and the process starts again.
I did it some last year too, though this year I'll try to go for much longer (though I suspect as I'm traveling to the mainland for a bit I won't make it the whole 30 days). The part thats suprising is that its not really the food part thats difficult, its the water. When you wake up in the morning you HAVE to drink alot of water or you'll never make it. Myself I try to drink at least a liter each morning. You feel like you are swimming but it pays off in the afternoon.
A funny thing that you wouldn't think of though is that when you do drink so much water, and then try to go back to sleep, its somehow difficult to get a good nights rest, as one has to get up frequently to pee.
But anyway. Happy Ramadhan! Love to all!
Ramdhan is the 30 days where the prophet Mohommad was in the desert recieving the information in the Koran from heaven and writing it down. It is THE holy month on the muslim religious calender, and is celebrated by fasting. This entails one to neither eat, nor drink anything, from about 4 in the morning till 7 at night. (This is real serious here too, nothing can enter bodily orafices, strict muslims won't bathe or swim during this time, nor will they brush their teeth, nor will married people have sexual relations). Nothing at all enters the body during this time! Then just after evening prayer (magharibi) everyone breaks the fast with a meal called futari. Futari is a celebatory time, like christmas dinner, everyone is welcome at the table, and it sometimes happens that everynight everyone in a village may eat together, (ex. so futari would be at my house one night, and I'd cook massive amounts of food- and the next night at your house where you'd provide all the food). For my area its very common for extended familys to eat together (and friends), but not the whole village. I often get invited to dine with different neighbors, and I usually go. Its great! Afterwords people walk about and talk for a bit, then go to sleep. Everyone then wakes up real early in the morning (3 ish) and eats something , and drinks a whole lot of water and the process starts again.
I did it some last year too, though this year I'll try to go for much longer (though I suspect as I'm traveling to the mainland for a bit I won't make it the whole 30 days). The part thats suprising is that its not really the food part thats difficult, its the water. When you wake up in the morning you HAVE to drink alot of water or you'll never make it. Myself I try to drink at least a liter each morning. You feel like you are swimming but it pays off in the afternoon.
A funny thing that you wouldn't think of though is that when you do drink so much water, and then try to go back to sleep, its somehow difficult to get a good nights rest, as one has to get up frequently to pee.
But anyway. Happy Ramadhan! Love to all!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
COS Conference and The Persian New Years
Oh-la all, sorry haven't written in a while! Just thought I'd relate some of the interesting events of the past couple weeks in order to entertain. First though, gotta say, its all true. Not a stretching of events. And I know that if I were me back in the states I would think I was pulling my leg. Not so!!.
So the Persian New Year in Makunduchi on Zanzibar is an event for all to behold. This year me and almost all of my Zanzibar compatriats decided to check it out full scale (saw it last year but missed some stuff), and especially with one of us undercover as a villager in the south, we were golden on the who what when's. This also turned out to be a great time to send off in style two great PCVs Don, and an honorary-Zanzibari at heart-Jess. Don you are no longer a part of Broke-back Pemba! And I shall miss talking sports with you and playing yahtzee and UNO! Have a great one.
Anywho after a great time at the full moon-party (yep it was a party weekend!) we trekked down south with the help of Kiparo's taxi and some killer bargaining by an unnamed accomplice. The next morning we nursed some hangovers with Chai, and then omba'd a lifti (hitched a ride) down to the coast by literally standing on the side of the road and flagging down cars. This lifti was the back of a pick-up truck. All right by me! The lifti even drove us straight to the site of the main event, the banana whipping.
Yup! Folks from all over the south had formed teams to celebrate persian new year, and in an area a field of sorts was set up, with a few teams fighting at a time while the other teams circled in running parade format chanting things like "we're gonna beat you till you look chinese". The teams on the field would go back and forth a bit, one team gaining ground, another losing it, while spectators looked on, from the outside inside and all over. Yes a huge TIA (This is Africa). Its wonderful. Of course this is not a sterile event where teams are cordoned off into an area. There are spectators getting accidently mixed up in fighting here if they aren't careful. And by fighting I mean each team wins by beating the crap out of the other team with banana stalks. No one got seriously hurt as far as I know...teams back off when its too much. But really there were like a couple thousand people there, watching and fighting, and when one team backed up cause they were losing ground spectators had to frantically run backwards or risk getting caught up. As one of my friends commented "the most dangerous thing about this whole scenario is probably the people running away from the fighting". And I have to agree, think about all the extremely crowded congested people situations you've been in and how dangerous it is for numerous people at once to begin screaming and running. Mob scenario anyone?!
But yea, so that added a whole level of excitement, but anyhow in total the whole situation was just so ridiculous and hilarious that I had a wonderful time. Me and Jess too ran the parade route with groups of ladies who followed the teams, chanting and singing. And got some hi-LAR-ious picks of certain PCVs who joined in the whipping. Jess got herself some serious supporters from the ladies who were excited to see a girl join in. Also got some good picks of people just tricked out for the fights. They were wearing all sorts of homemade gear, from football helmets to self made cone-head helmets with slits for eyes. And one great pick of a guy who came in with the trunk of a banana tree instead of just a stalk for the whipping.
Anyhow after a bit with the banana stick whipping the festivities continued to the house burning. In this part of the ceremony a house which has been recently built is lit on fire and the local wizard (witchdoctor) is within when this happens. This serves double purposes. First it tells you the quality of your wizard, second, the state of the crops. So the wizard was escorted to the house, then we ladies started running in circles chanting and the men came forward with torches and set the house on fire. The wizard made it out, no worries which means a) He was a real wizard -if he doesn't make it out it means he wasn't a real wizard so the village is better off anyway b) the crops will be well this year.
So all's well that ends well eh? Anyway afterword we went up to the fair grounds and had street food (fried food) and wandered around a bit. Played some GHEtto carnival games...and chilled on the beach a bit. An all around event.
COS conference though just finished and that was really great as well. We were put up in Arusha at the Arusha national Park in a hotel inside it. It was rather safi, but also quite cold for my liking. During the conference we learned about all the things we'll have to deal with at Close Of Service. Learning about resume's and health care plans and etc. Also picked up some knowledge about PC jobs and networking which I love. Got to talk to the second in command at the embassy about foreign service jobs, he was a former PC volunteer and they had an RPCV panel (returned peace corps volunteer panel) to help volunteers be able to talk to people who'd been through the process. Also there was a lady from the World Food Program and another lady who'd just worked for loads of different NGO's and was now running her own business in Tanzania. But the funnest part was of course, as always, seeing volunteers. It was the last time we'll be together before we leave and we had a wonderful prom-yagi where I got a fabulous dress made and for the first time ever, I was PROM QUEEN!! yay! And Jeremy, my date, was Prom King. He looks like a porn-star on his facebook photo, its a picture of his white suit. Unfortunately my camera is flipping out and I was not able to take my own picture though hopefully I'll get some from others. I'll bring the dress back for sure at least.
Anyway thats all I got for now. Hope all is well in the U.S. and I CAN"T WAIT to see you all when I get back. Current plans put me back in the U.S. hopefully at Detroit Airport on 23rd Dec. maybe can get a flight back to gaylord??? Don't know yet what people's plans are for Christmas and New Years but I hope to see everyone!!!
Love much
Sarah
So the Persian New Year in Makunduchi on Zanzibar is an event for all to behold. This year me and almost all of my Zanzibar compatriats decided to check it out full scale (saw it last year but missed some stuff), and especially with one of us undercover as a villager in the south, we were golden on the who what when's. This also turned out to be a great time to send off in style two great PCVs Don, and an honorary-Zanzibari at heart-Jess. Don you are no longer a part of Broke-back Pemba! And I shall miss talking sports with you and playing yahtzee and UNO! Have a great one.
Anywho after a great time at the full moon-party (yep it was a party weekend!) we trekked down south with the help of Kiparo's taxi and some killer bargaining by an unnamed accomplice. The next morning we nursed some hangovers with Chai, and then omba'd a lifti (hitched a ride) down to the coast by literally standing on the side of the road and flagging down cars. This lifti was the back of a pick-up truck. All right by me! The lifti even drove us straight to the site of the main event, the banana whipping.
Yup! Folks from all over the south had formed teams to celebrate persian new year, and in an area a field of sorts was set up, with a few teams fighting at a time while the other teams circled in running parade format chanting things like "we're gonna beat you till you look chinese". The teams on the field would go back and forth a bit, one team gaining ground, another losing it, while spectators looked on, from the outside inside and all over. Yes a huge TIA (This is Africa). Its wonderful. Of course this is not a sterile event where teams are cordoned off into an area. There are spectators getting accidently mixed up in fighting here if they aren't careful. And by fighting I mean each team wins by beating the crap out of the other team with banana stalks. No one got seriously hurt as far as I know...teams back off when its too much. But really there were like a couple thousand people there, watching and fighting, and when one team backed up cause they were losing ground spectators had to frantically run backwards or risk getting caught up. As one of my friends commented "the most dangerous thing about this whole scenario is probably the people running away from the fighting". And I have to agree, think about all the extremely crowded congested people situations you've been in and how dangerous it is for numerous people at once to begin screaming and running. Mob scenario anyone?!
But yea, so that added a whole level of excitement, but anyhow in total the whole situation was just so ridiculous and hilarious that I had a wonderful time. Me and Jess too ran the parade route with groups of ladies who followed the teams, chanting and singing. And got some hi-LAR-ious picks of certain PCVs who joined in the whipping. Jess got herself some serious supporters from the ladies who were excited to see a girl join in. Also got some good picks of people just tricked out for the fights. They were wearing all sorts of homemade gear, from football helmets to self made cone-head helmets with slits for eyes. And one great pick of a guy who came in with the trunk of a banana tree instead of just a stalk for the whipping.
Anyhow after a bit with the banana stick whipping the festivities continued to the house burning. In this part of the ceremony a house which has been recently built is lit on fire and the local wizard (witchdoctor) is within when this happens. This serves double purposes. First it tells you the quality of your wizard, second, the state of the crops. So the wizard was escorted to the house, then we ladies started running in circles chanting and the men came forward with torches and set the house on fire. The wizard made it out, no worries which means a) He was a real wizard -if he doesn't make it out it means he wasn't a real wizard so the village is better off anyway b) the crops will be well this year.
So all's well that ends well eh? Anyway afterword we went up to the fair grounds and had street food (fried food) and wandered around a bit. Played some GHEtto carnival games...and chilled on the beach a bit. An all around event.
COS conference though just finished and that was really great as well. We were put up in Arusha at the Arusha national Park in a hotel inside it. It was rather safi, but also quite cold for my liking. During the conference we learned about all the things we'll have to deal with at Close Of Service. Learning about resume's and health care plans and etc. Also picked up some knowledge about PC jobs and networking which I love. Got to talk to the second in command at the embassy about foreign service jobs, he was a former PC volunteer and they had an RPCV panel (returned peace corps volunteer panel) to help volunteers be able to talk to people who'd been through the process. Also there was a lady from the World Food Program and another lady who'd just worked for loads of different NGO's and was now running her own business in Tanzania. But the funnest part was of course, as always, seeing volunteers. It was the last time we'll be together before we leave and we had a wonderful prom-yagi where I got a fabulous dress made and for the first time ever, I was PROM QUEEN!! yay! And Jeremy, my date, was Prom King. He looks like a porn-star on his facebook photo, its a picture of his white suit. Unfortunately my camera is flipping out and I was not able to take my own picture though hopefully I'll get some from others. I'll bring the dress back for sure at least.
Anyway thats all I got for now. Hope all is well in the U.S. and I CAN"T WAIT to see you all when I get back. Current plans put me back in the U.S. hopefully at Detroit Airport on 23rd Dec. maybe can get a flight back to gaylord??? Don't know yet what people's plans are for Christmas and New Years but I hope to see everyone!!!
Love much
Sarah
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Chilly weather! Its crazy but its down to 70's and sometimes 60's here and I get a little chilly sometimes. I know I know, hot and beautiful to everyone else. What can I say.
So all's well on this end of the woods. Overall. Just getting done with a meeting in Dar (peer support and diversity network) which has been alot of fun. It makes you really realize how you respond to things when you realize what are good ways to talk to people who are hurting or frustrated. Did you know "why" questions are the wrong ones to ask? Never use "why" if at all possible.
We talked about that, and open ended vs. close ended questions (used to keep a person talking instead of eliciting only a "yes" or "no" response). Also the danger of not giving advice but getting a person to think of it themselves. As well the need to be careful not to couch advice in a question. ("Did you think about calling her to talk"...etc.) Its real interesting.
But Zanzibar power crisis, still mostly continuing, though hopefully soon over I believe. Its really been an interesting month because the power has been out for most of it (except when I came to Dar). You see Zanzibar gets its power from the mainland via an undersea cable and about a month ago that cable fried where it connects to the overland cables, and screwed up a power station. So its been a month of electricity-less adventure. What has it involved? Night time lanterns and candles, day time its as usual. Except very little computer use. For water, yours truly has been a'carryin it. Yup. There's a well about 1/3 kilometer down a path where all locals and yours truly have been getting water. It has a stick across center and you throw a small bucket tied to rope down to the bottom, then pull up the bucket and empty it into your big bucket, and repeat until your big bucket is filled. And for going home, well, thats just lugging as usual. I gotta tell ya, using a well though, that can seriously build up your arms if you do it alot. Just pulling up water from the bottom! - depending on how big your container is. And also, this whole bucket on your head thing, really really smart actually. It saves a ton of effort if you can do it right~ big if on my part. BUT I finally carried it on my head without spilling it too! Wooho! Though I still had to use my hands for balance this was a significant step forward. Hopefully there'll be electricity by the time I get back though...but really not sure. Apparently stonetown has power now, but in the villages, with power out for so long, people have been vandalizing and stealing cables, so even with power restored it might not reach. And I'm a ways out of stonetown. We'll see.
Dar is good for time being and so are most volunteers I saw. Its getting crazy but in less than a month and a half I'll be headed to my close of service conference (cos conference). We feel so old! Naw. Its great. I'm ready though. In Dar I got to meet alot of the newer volunteers. The 1st year health and education and environment group. Its been really quite nice. I like to expand my circle of people. And they are all really great! I love it. Also the new trainees for health and environment have arrived, there's like 48 of them! Neat right?! They are now in training doing there level best I'm sure to be happy healthy newbies! Also fun stuff, just yest, was at the Ymca and ran into a guy who had just arrived in dar es Salaam that day and he was headed to Zanzibar to be working their for a few months . So cool right?! I love just meeting folks on the street. Anyway, (and this would be REALLY intimidating to me) he arrived alone and is staying for a few days in Dar alone! Eeek. Anyway, we totally invited him to hang out with us and he did and it was great. So yea, I'm psyched to meet new friends. (To compliment the recent one I made on the islands in town) But everyone's leaving in August! Yuck. Seriously. People come and go SO quick it seems.
On other notes I have to say, this situation in Zimbabwe to me, is....completely unbelievable. NO ONE is taking responsibility. NO one. I'm sorry but GET OVER IT to all the african leaders out there who still remember Mugabe and want to respect his glory days. HE IS A HEINOUS MURDERING RAPING POWER HUNGRY PSYCHOTIC DICTATOR. Seriously!?!?!! South African leadership is absolutely disgusting, and I'm not just talking about Thabu Mbeki. Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, seriously grow up. Give a shit. They have 3 MILLION percent inflation, the highest ever in the history of the world (it was the highest ever when it was 155,000% inflation and now it, 80% un-employment, and one of Mugabe's most recent moves has been to kick out the food-aid organizations and all NGO's (NGO stands for non-governmental organization which is basically what all aid groups are who aren't directly affiliated with a certain country like for example USAID). According to many aid workers who left this was because he didn't want any outside witnesses to the mutilation he's perpretating to the country-side. According to Mugabe this is because all the NGO's have been campaigning for the opposition. Broken legs/faces/bodies etc of opposition supporters. And deaths and disappearences. And arrests. Apparently much of the rural country side has torture camps where locals are "educated" on the correct way to vote. Also the UN. Not helping. And US and UK EU groups, I'm sorry I feel like we're all implicated too. Why aren't we there? Cause lets face it, it does not directly threaten us nor does it offer our capatalistic system any incentive. (no oil/gold/super wealth in the area). I'm afraid I'm really quite cynical enough to believe that after this blows over if anyone mentions it, it'll be to wonder why we weren't there earlier and how we can stop this from never stopping again, and in the meantime the next one will come up. But seriously, I think despite the cultural issues, its the African countries leaders who need to say it first. They need to. They have needed to months ago.
Anyhow enough on horrific situation in Zimbabwe and how horrified I am by the world response to it.
Hope you all are well. Congrats mom!! I heard and saw the pictures on the horses. I love it! Angel loves babies! how amazing. I even had a dream about a little black baby horse the other day. Also fun stuff, I went to the movies last night, for the first time in a year and a half and saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The 3rd indiana jones is still by far my favorite, but I had a good time, and really, I feel like if there was every a time to see Indiana Jones, its in a theatre if you can. So yea. Good times.
But thats all I got for now. Best of luck to everyone at home, I can't wait to see y'all again. Its 21 months away here and counting. Love!
So all's well on this end of the woods. Overall. Just getting done with a meeting in Dar (peer support and diversity network) which has been alot of fun. It makes you really realize how you respond to things when you realize what are good ways to talk to people who are hurting or frustrated. Did you know "why" questions are the wrong ones to ask? Never use "why" if at all possible.
We talked about that, and open ended vs. close ended questions (used to keep a person talking instead of eliciting only a "yes" or "no" response). Also the danger of not giving advice but getting a person to think of it themselves. As well the need to be careful not to couch advice in a question. ("Did you think about calling her to talk"...etc.) Its real interesting.
But Zanzibar power crisis, still mostly continuing, though hopefully soon over I believe. Its really been an interesting month because the power has been out for most of it (except when I came to Dar). You see Zanzibar gets its power from the mainland via an undersea cable and about a month ago that cable fried where it connects to the overland cables, and screwed up a power station. So its been a month of electricity-less adventure. What has it involved? Night time lanterns and candles, day time its as usual. Except very little computer use. For water, yours truly has been a'carryin it. Yup. There's a well about 1/3 kilometer down a path where all locals and yours truly have been getting water. It has a stick across center and you throw a small bucket tied to rope down to the bottom, then pull up the bucket and empty it into your big bucket, and repeat until your big bucket is filled. And for going home, well, thats just lugging as usual. I gotta tell ya, using a well though, that can seriously build up your arms if you do it alot. Just pulling up water from the bottom! - depending on how big your container is. And also, this whole bucket on your head thing, really really smart actually. It saves a ton of effort if you can do it right~ big if on my part. BUT I finally carried it on my head without spilling it too! Wooho! Though I still had to use my hands for balance this was a significant step forward. Hopefully there'll be electricity by the time I get back though...but really not sure. Apparently stonetown has power now, but in the villages, with power out for so long, people have been vandalizing and stealing cables, so even with power restored it might not reach. And I'm a ways out of stonetown. We'll see.
Dar is good for time being and so are most volunteers I saw. Its getting crazy but in less than a month and a half I'll be headed to my close of service conference (cos conference). We feel so old! Naw. Its great. I'm ready though. In Dar I got to meet alot of the newer volunteers. The 1st year health and education and environment group. Its been really quite nice. I like to expand my circle of people. And they are all really great! I love it. Also the new trainees for health and environment have arrived, there's like 48 of them! Neat right?! They are now in training doing there level best I'm sure to be happy healthy newbies! Also fun stuff, just yest, was at the Ymca and ran into a guy who had just arrived in dar es Salaam that day and he was headed to Zanzibar to be working their for a few months . So cool right?! I love just meeting folks on the street. Anyway, (and this would be REALLY intimidating to me) he arrived alone and is staying for a few days in Dar alone! Eeek. Anyway, we totally invited him to hang out with us and he did and it was great. So yea, I'm psyched to meet new friends. (To compliment the recent one I made on the islands in town) But everyone's leaving in August! Yuck. Seriously. People come and go SO quick it seems.
On other notes I have to say, this situation in Zimbabwe to me, is....completely unbelievable. NO ONE is taking responsibility. NO one. I'm sorry but GET OVER IT to all the african leaders out there who still remember Mugabe and want to respect his glory days. HE IS A HEINOUS MURDERING RAPING POWER HUNGRY PSYCHOTIC DICTATOR. Seriously!?!?!! South African leadership is absolutely disgusting, and I'm not just talking about Thabu Mbeki. Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, seriously grow up. Give a shit. They have 3 MILLION percent inflation, the highest ever in the history of the world (it was the highest ever when it was 155,000% inflation and now it, 80% un-employment, and one of Mugabe's most recent moves has been to kick out the food-aid organizations and all NGO's (NGO stands for non-governmental organization which is basically what all aid groups are who aren't directly affiliated with a certain country like for example USAID). According to many aid workers who left this was because he didn't want any outside witnesses to the mutilation he's perpretating to the country-side. According to Mugabe this is because all the NGO's have been campaigning for the opposition. Broken legs/faces/bodies etc of opposition supporters. And deaths and disappearences. And arrests. Apparently much of the rural country side has torture camps where locals are "educated" on the correct way to vote. Also the UN. Not helping. And US and UK EU groups, I'm sorry I feel like we're all implicated too. Why aren't we there? Cause lets face it, it does not directly threaten us nor does it offer our capatalistic system any incentive. (no oil/gold/super wealth in the area). I'm afraid I'm really quite cynical enough to believe that after this blows over if anyone mentions it, it'll be to wonder why we weren't there earlier and how we can stop this from never stopping again, and in the meantime the next one will come up. But seriously, I think despite the cultural issues, its the African countries leaders who need to say it first. They need to. They have needed to months ago.
Anyhow enough on horrific situation in Zimbabwe and how horrified I am by the world response to it.
Hope you all are well. Congrats mom!! I heard and saw the pictures on the horses. I love it! Angel loves babies! how amazing. I even had a dream about a little black baby horse the other day. Also fun stuff, I went to the movies last night, for the first time in a year and a half and saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The 3rd indiana jones is still by far my favorite, but I had a good time, and really, I feel like if there was every a time to see Indiana Jones, its in a theatre if you can. So yea. Good times.
But thats all I got for now. Best of luck to everyone at home, I can't wait to see y'all again. Its 21 months away here and counting. Love!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Victoria Falls and the Like
So finally got a few pictures of the school up there, though alas my camera has run out of batteries so no more. But yes, those are pictures regarding my school, working on the desks.
As to the rest, I just wanted to say, about Victoria falls. I had a great time!~ Anyway, me and jeremy hopped on the train down south 2 days later, and had a nice relaxing ride down to Zambia. It was my first train ride and I had an awesome time envisioning scenes from the orient express! Ha. Especially when we went in a tunnel and when we came out of the dark I half hoped for someone to have been mysteriously dead, or some jewels to have been stolen.
Anywho on the way we hooked up with a British man and a Canadian girl. They were great, and hilarious and had the best travel plans EVER. When we asked where they were headed they said "our eventual destination is Johannesburg (South Africa)". How perfect is that?!Really. Just pick a place and somehow, train/plane/automobile arrive.
So when we got off the train, since we were headed in the same direction we traveled together by bus...another exciting adventure in bribing and lying which I won't relate due to length...to Lusaka (the capital of Zambia). Since it was late those folks spent the night there but me and Jeremy decided to just finish the haul and continued on (another 7hr bus ride) to Livingstone-where Vic Falls is.
We slept in the next day and just walked around the town. Then the day after we took the free bus out to the falls. It was...BEAUTIFUL . The kind of place where pictures don't do it justice, though I do have some online. When Livingstone first arrived there he said "scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight". Really is an apt description. Anyhow we hiked around there all day, taking pictures of baboons, and falls, etc. Awesome.
Next day we did a full day thing called gorge swing/abseiling/rappeling/ziplining. It was 4 activities in one package, along with lunch included and free drinks (free beer too!. Only in Africa would you be offered a free beer before jumping off a cliff. God bless.) Those pictures also online on my facebook site...thats www.facebook.com, and then look for Sarah Springsteen. The gorge swing was scary as hell...it included a 54 meter free fall. But awesome. We had a great time.
Trip back was again a bit frantic...BUT we made the train (only JUST). I ended up taking the train all the way back to Dar es Salaam, and again I liked it. My butt (wowowo in slang swahili...pronounced woah woah woah...awesome right?! :) ) gets so freaking sore sitting all day so I just LOVE trains now. You can sleep. You can eat. You can walk around, no worries! Jeremy lives in Mbeya so he got off there so we even got to have one of those classic train moments where you wave goodbye, running backward in the train trying to still see them, while sticking your hand out the window! Ha. I love it.
Also on the way back on the train ran into another interesting character (traveling is chuck FULL of interesting folks!) Anyway he quit his job and is toolin around Africa, and has been for like 3 months now. Had a great conversation and learned lots about traveling in Egypt. He actually didn't take a cell phone with him on purpose. Wanted to be gone from all that. So he talks to people on email when he gets to a new place. Cool huh?
Anyway, life besides that is well. I feel more rested now. I am in Dar again though like 2 weeks later as the new islands representative of the Peer Support and Diversity network (PSDN). I'm happy, hanging out with other PCVs, enjoying the food and city life. Here all has transitioned into the rainy season so everything looks kind of damp and muddy at the moment and it rains alot. Fortunately I don't live in an area where bridges are flooded out and roads are impassable but I know other PCVs do. So kudos to them!
Anyhow, hope everyone is well. Miss you all, and can't wait to see you again!
As to the rest, I just wanted to say, about Victoria falls. I had a great time!~ Anyway, me and jeremy hopped on the train down south 2 days later, and had a nice relaxing ride down to Zambia. It was my first train ride and I had an awesome time envisioning scenes from the orient express! Ha. Especially when we went in a tunnel and when we came out of the dark I half hoped for someone to have been mysteriously dead, or some jewels to have been stolen.
Anywho on the way we hooked up with a British man and a Canadian girl. They were great, and hilarious and had the best travel plans EVER. When we asked where they were headed they said "our eventual destination is Johannesburg (South Africa)". How perfect is that?!Really. Just pick a place and somehow, train/plane/automobile arrive.
So when we got off the train, since we were headed in the same direction we traveled together by bus...another exciting adventure in bribing and lying which I won't relate due to length...to Lusaka (the capital of Zambia). Since it was late those folks spent the night there but me and Jeremy decided to just finish the haul and continued on (another 7hr bus ride) to Livingstone-where Vic Falls is.
We slept in the next day and just walked around the town. Then the day after we took the free bus out to the falls. It was...BEAUTIFUL . The kind of place where pictures don't do it justice, though I do have some online. When Livingstone first arrived there he said "scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight". Really is an apt description. Anyhow we hiked around there all day, taking pictures of baboons, and falls, etc. Awesome.
Next day we did a full day thing called gorge swing/abseiling/rappeling/ziplining. It was 4 activities in one package, along with lunch included and free drinks (free beer too!. Only in Africa would you be offered a free beer before jumping off a cliff. God bless.) Those pictures also online on my facebook site...thats www.facebook.com, and then look for Sarah Springsteen. The gorge swing was scary as hell...it included a 54 meter free fall. But awesome. We had a great time.
Trip back was again a bit frantic...BUT we made the train (only JUST). I ended up taking the train all the way back to Dar es Salaam, and again I liked it. My butt (wowowo in slang swahili...pronounced woah woah woah...awesome right?! :) ) gets so freaking sore sitting all day so I just LOVE trains now. You can sleep. You can eat. You can walk around, no worries! Jeremy lives in Mbeya so he got off there so we even got to have one of those classic train moments where you wave goodbye, running backward in the train trying to still see them, while sticking your hand out the window! Ha. I love it.
Also on the way back on the train ran into another interesting character (traveling is chuck FULL of interesting folks!) Anyway he quit his job and is toolin around Africa, and has been for like 3 months now. Had a great conversation and learned lots about traveling in Egypt. He actually didn't take a cell phone with him on purpose. Wanted to be gone from all that. So he talks to people on email when he gets to a new place. Cool huh?
Anyway, life besides that is well. I feel more rested now. I am in Dar again though like 2 weeks later as the new islands representative of the Peer Support and Diversity network (PSDN). I'm happy, hanging out with other PCVs, enjoying the food and city life. Here all has transitioned into the rainy season so everything looks kind of damp and muddy at the moment and it rains alot. Fortunately I don't live in an area where bridges are flooded out and roads are impassable but I know other PCVs do. So kudos to them!
Anyhow, hope everyone is well. Miss you all, and can't wait to see you again!
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