Our first few days were spent getting oriented. Also, this is our first time visiting Tanzania at this time of year, and it turns out to be the hot season. It took some adjustment before we were really functioning. Finally, the wireless internet at the hostel has not been working; now I am working with a rather slow USB modem, but at least I have a fairly reliable connection. I'm using all of that as my excuse for only blogging for the first time today. Those who know me might point out my natural tendency to procrastination, but that would be an unkind act.
A few highlights of the past week-plus:
Last Sunday Johnson took a group of us down to a Maasai
community located in the middle of TPC, a gigantic sugar plantation south of
Moshi. I am sponsoring the school fees
for Raphael, a secondary student there.
Some other volunteers are sponsoring two girls and a boy from the same
community. I am pretty sure the girls
have a different mother than the boys, but it’s rather confusing. We took all the money for school fees for all
four children, and after Johnson struggled to work out the rather complicated
fee structures of the different schools we handed the money over to the
students’ mothers. They photographed me
handing over each set of fees, so the photojournalistic record will show that I
contributed all the fees for all the students.
Don’t believe it.
Me handing over Raphael's School Fees (That's Raphael next to me).
The whole process took several hours. We intended to go down early in the morning
and to return fairly early so Warren and I could go over to Tumona and set up
our classrooms for the science teacher workshops we are doing next week. Of course we got off about an hour and a half
late, and by the time we got back to Moshi it was getting late and Lukumay could
no longer meet us at Tumona. However, we
did get over to Tumona and Matei met us and let us into our rooms so we could
set up. The new science classroom looks
great, though it needs a few more tables, as well as stools and cupboards. Warren will be in that room; I will be in an
unused classroom which was not ready for me to do anything. However, Warren’s
part of the workshop is a lot more complicated than mine, so it’s good that he
was able to get settled in to his classroom.
On the way back from the Maasai village we got news through
the rumor mill that Monday would be a national holiday. Apparently the 50th anniversary of
Zanzibar’s independence fell on Sunday, but at the last minute the president
announced that the holiday would be celebrated on Monday. Since Tuesday was a major Muslim holiday
(Eid-al-Moulid, or in Swahili, Maulidi, which celebrates the birth of the
Prophet), this made for three days on which most businesses were closed. We were completely unprepared for this, and
it has been a bit of a scramble to get all our necessary arrangements made.
I’m exaggerating slightly, since we really didn’t plan to do
any business on Tuesday, because that was the day we took off on safari. We worked with Bamba Tours, the safari company that Johnson runs (and which largely funds the operations of Foot 2 Afrika - Tanzania). The advantage of working with this company is that Johnson can plan any type of safari, including unconventional ones. The safari doesn't really relate to our work for Foot 2 Afrika, but for friends who are interested, here's a short summary: we left Tuesday and drove to Kenya on back roads; we spent
three nights at the Voyager Ziwani Tented Camp; and we returned on Friday. Highlights included a morning nature walk
outside the camp, which was spectacular for birding, and also included some
close encounters with hippose and crocodiles (small ones). For me, another highlight was the bush-babies resting in the trees. It's uncommon to see them. We also visited a large farm close by the camp, owned by the Kenyatta family. Finally, we spent a day in Tsavo West National Park. The park is beautiful, with interesting volcanic geology and great wildlife.
Pin-Tailed Swallows at the Tented Camp
Hippos in the Pool
We met this crocodile on our walk.
Bush Babies sleep by day and yell by night.
Today was a special day at Tumona -- I'll give it its own post. Monday we start our workshops for science teachers.
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