Weekend in Moshi and Hassan’s Graduation

Congratulating the graduate!

This past weekend, Sofia and I, along with many of our friends, made the 90 minute trek to Moshi, a city near Arusha right at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Our friend Hassan’s university graduation ceremony was Saturday, and we all wanted to be there to celebrate with him. 

Many of our friends were driving to Moshi on Saturday, but since Sofia and I are quite adventurous and wanted to be there on Friday night, we decided to take the bus.  I have not had fabulous bus experiences thus far here in Tanzania, and it turns out that the bus to Moshi is only one very small step up from a dala dala.  And they certainly cram as many people as humanly possible onto the bus!  But I did manage to score a window seat with Sofia on my other side, and this bus ride is only 90 minutes compared to the 11 hour bus ride we took to Dar es Salaam, so it was actually kind of fun.  Hassan picked us up from the bus station, and we headed back to his apartment.



Hassan receiving his dipolma



Neither Sofia or I were feeling very well by this time, probably a combination of dehydration (it was like 90 degrees out!) and the very greasy chips mayai that we had for lunch, but we blamed it on altitude sickness from being so close to Kilimanjaro!!  After sharing a giant bottle of water and eating a bit, we were feeling much better and had a very pleasant evening with Hassan and his friends.  But sadly, my undefeated streak in pool in Tanzania ended, but at least Sofia got her first win!

Cutting the cake

Saturday was the graduation ceremony, and despite the fact that Hassan assured us that it would be in English, it was definitely in Swahili.  So, it was a bit boring.  But we survived and were there to congratulate Hassan after receiving his diploma.  After the ceremony, we were invited to his aunt’s house for dinner and cake.  It was a very nice party, and afterward, Hassan, Sofia, and I, along with many of our friends from Arusha (who conveniently missed the ceremony, but arrived just in time for the party!) continued our celebration well into the evening. 



Congratulations, Hassan!!!

School Supplies and Soccer

My favorite baby, Upendo.

Last week was a nice, relaxing week of volunteering for me.  I spent Monday and Wednesday at Good Hope, Tuesday and Thursday at Cradle of Love, and Friday at Jericho Orphanage where my friend Sofie volunteers.  On Monday afternoon, the kids at Good Hope got a chance to see and talk to some students from Chicago via skype (thanks Jessie!).  They really enjoyed getting to see some mzungu students!  I spent lots of time with my favorite baby, Upendo, on Tuesday and Thursday.  Yes, I totally want to adopt her, but no, I won’t really do it!  She is just so sweet!!

Class 4 with their new supplies

Thanks to several people including my mom, grandparents, and my friend Nikki and her students, I had lots of fun school supplies to pass out.  Class four at Good Hope was taking their National Exams last week, so they each received two fun new pencils, a pencil sharpener, and an eraser to help motivate them to do their best!  I also took some pencils, sharpeners, crayons, and colored pencils to Jericho Orphanage because they have almost no school supplies in their preschool classroom.  And I still have lots more supplies to pass out next week!!

Kids at Jericho excited about new school supplies

Good Hope soccer game

All the kids here love soccer, and jump at the chance to play a game with the volunteers.  Last Wednesday, we had a pretty exciting match with the kids, volunteers, friends, and even two of the teachers at school.  The rest of us were spectators, cheering on both teams, and also just enjoying the beautiful weather and getting our hair fixed J

Soccer spectators/Hair Salon

The kids at a live soccer game!

Since the kids love soccer, I thought it would be really fun to take the kids at Good Hope to a real soccer game at the stadium in Arusha.  Yesterday, thanks to a donation from my Aunt Jane, we all boarded a dala dala into town to watch a soccer game.  It was the first time that the kids had ever been to a live soccer game, and they were very excited.  The weather was a bit iffy, but we avoided the rain and even saw a beautiful rainbow at half time!  On the way home, we stopped at the local market for a snack of fresh bananas and oranges…delicious! 



The serious spectators.



With Mount Meru and a rainbow!



Banana snack :)

This week is my last week of volunteering.  I can’t believe how fast the time is flying!  My family will be here to visit in less than one week, and I can’t wait to see them and share with them some of my experiences here in Tanzania!  Then after they leave, it’s three more weeks of traveling adventures for me!!

My favorite meal here, chips mayai and cassava, all for just over one dollar!!

Miscellaneous Tanzania

An African Funeral

Getting ready for the ceremony

Sadly, the grandfather of my friend and roommate died this past week in a village about 2 hours from Arusha.  The funeral was Thursday, and my friend invited me to attend with him, as he thought it would be good for me to experience an African funeral.  I must admit that considering this was going to be a traditional African funeral held in a very small and rural village, I was expecting some unique tribal rituals or songs and dances or something.  But it was a pretty traditional Christian funeral, almost the same as the two I’ve been to in the United States.  I even recognized several of the hymns, including a few of my favorites How Great Thou Art (sung is Swahili) and Blessed Assurance (sung in English).  The minister gave a very passionate message, which I couldn’t understand since it was spoken in Swahili and Chaga, the local language.  But I’m sure it was nice because people were smiling, laughing, and occasionally calling out responses. 

Burial in the Banana Trees

There were a few differences, however.  First, the ceremony was held outside in the yard of their home among lots of banana trees, the main source of income and food for the village.  Second, he was buried not in a church cemetery, but just a few yards from the home next to other family members who had gone on before him.  The actually mixed up cement and buried the casket during the funeral while a choir sang what seemed like traditional songs in Swahili and Chaga.  Finally, family members put wreaths and flowers on top of the grave, and continued back to the house for a delicious meal.  It seemed like nearly the entire village was in attendance, and there was enough food for everyone with some the spare!  I felt a little awkward taking pictures, but I did manage to snap a few with the permission and encouragement of my roommate.   

Biking for Tanzania

Last night, I attended a presentation by a man named Elvis from Arusha.  He is an avid biker, and he spoke about his recent bike trip from Cairo to Cape Town for the Tour de Afrique and also about his next bike trip, Chile to Kili, where he plans to bike around the world to raise money for schools in Tanzania and also for the Conservation Resource Center.  I think it is such a cool idea, and I am kind of jealous!  If you want more information, you can check out his website at www.chiletokili.com.

Six dollars of produce

The Market

Grocery shopping is always an interesting experience here in Arusha.  I typically like to get most of my things at the ShopRite because it is a “normal” grocery story with items marked with prices.  However, for produce, the best place to go is definitely the market!  However, to get the best prices, a white girl like myself cannot go alone.  At the market, along with many other places in Arusha, there is a local price and a mzungu (white person) price.  So I usually try to make sure my roommate is with me for all produce shopping!  It is shocking to me how cheap produce is, compared with how expensive other things are.  As you can see in the photo, we bought all of this produce for $6!!  However, gas here is about as expensive as it is in the US, which is crazy when you think of the standard of living here compared with the US.  And I went to the grocery story last night and bought two small bags of miniature candy bars and toilet paper, and paid almost $20!!  I suppose it is good for me that produce is so cheap and candy is so expensive!  Unlike Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love I am definitely not gaining any weight here!!  If anything, I’ll need to buy smaller clothes.

Laundry

Well, I am becoming quite an expert on washing my own clothes.  Yesterday, I noticed that I was down to my last pair of clean underwear, so it was necessary to wash clothes again today (underwear is now about the only thing that I won’t wear multiple times).  I went through my rather large pile of previously worn clothes (I don’t call them dirty clothes anymore because that would imply that they need washing, when many of them simply don’t!) and smelled each individual item to determine if it really needed washing or not.  And I didn’t even consider washing the pants, those are totally fine for another two weeks (possibly another six weeks!).  I ended up folding about 2/3 of the clothes and putting them back into my suitcase and only washed a very manageable load of mostly underwear and a few t-shirts and tank tops J

Halloween, Volcanos, and Lots of Books!!

Making Paper Jack-O-Lanterns

It’s been a very fun week so far at Good Hope!  Monday was Halloween, and I was sad to find out that nobody celebrates here!  I wasn’t able to locate a single pumpkin!  But a person can always find candy!  Also, in the many school supplies that were donated, I was able to find orange and black construction paper, scissors, and glue to make our own improvised jack-o-lanterns!  The kids had a great time, and they turned out very cute (although all extremely similar to my example since that is pretty much the only one the kids had ever seen!).  And of course, they enjoyed their candy.  What kid doesn’t love Halloween?

Volcano!!

When my friend Sally was here a few weeks ago, she started a volcano project which I finally got around to finishing up for her today!  Since baking soda was not to be found anywhere in Arusha, we had to do an eruption substitute….coke and m&m’s!  The eruption was a bit weak, but honestly, I was surprised that that combination even worked at all.  The kids still enjoyed it, although I think they were wishing that I would have brought extra coke and m&m’s for a snack J

The one thing that I really wanted to bring this year was a new book for every student at the school.  Books are relatively expensive here.  The school itself has very few book, and almost none of the children have books at home.  So before I left, my mom, dad, and sister Kellie teamed up to buy over 100 picture books for the kids at Good Hope!  I have been waiting to pass them out just in case my mom had a last minute change of heart and decided to visit to pass them out herself.  I have been very excited myself to pass them out because I know how much the children love books, and they did not disappoint me!  They were so excited to get to choose whichever book they wanted (and I really had to limit trading because they loved them all!), and kids were coming up to me for the rest of the day thanking me.  There were even kids who brought their books outside for recess to continue reading!

Choosing Carefully

Reading :)

More Reading!