Babati, Tanzania

For the past two weeks I've been in a small city in Northern Tanzania called Babati. We left Arusha to come here for our orientation training. It's halfway between Arusha and Dodoma (the capital) and for over half the drive we were on a dirt freeway. The lack of infrastructure here amazes me. And Tanzania is one of the more developed African nations. It was so weird that a main road to their capital wasn't paved! It's amazing the things we take for granted.

While here we've gotten to know our Tanzanian teaching partners very well. It's so cool to talk to them about Tanzania and they are very interested in learning about the US as well. Things I've discovered: They've never seen sidewalks meant for pedestrians, the average monthly income of a teacher is $300 dollars. A "well off" doctor makes between $1200-1500 a month. The rent I pay in Seattle astounds them; they thought I meant for a year instead of a month. Most of them have never been outside Tanzania and I guess it would be really hard to when you're only making $300 a month. A ticket to the US is like six months of work for them. And most of them have several "girlfriends" or "boyfriends" although I couldn't quite figure out if they meant what I thought or if that was just how they referred to friends. When I told them about my boyfriend at home they asked about his other girlfriends and didn't really understand that he had no other ones... When I told them that he only loves me they go, "Oh that's what you think..." I guess it's just part of their culture.

We have a mama that cooks for us while we are at orientation. Her name is Mama Sia. It isn't her first name but mamas take the name of their first born daughter. She is one hell of a gal. She's larger than life and has a personality that's bigger than she is. Her husband left her so she is mad at men but she loves us kids! She takes care of us while we are here. She owns two restaurants in Babati and is kind of the queen bee around here. We all love her. She makes about five different meals that she rotates all of them consisting of beans, mchicha (steamed spinach) and some sort of starch, usually rice. We had this thing called ugali, which everyone hated. It's basically water and flour that makes a dough like substance. Absolutely flavorless. Hopefully my homestay mama won't make it much. It's weird because they seem to have all of the things we have at home: vegetables, livestock, etc but they don't add things like grilled onions to food or have cheese or yogurt. I guess those things require lots of equipment and pasteurization. Which aren't exactly easy to come by out here. I just really am starting to miss food from home. I'm so sick of beans and rice I can't even tell you. The one saving grace is that they make a lot of "chips" here which are french fries and they make this awesome thing called chips myie which is like an omelette with potato in it mmmmm... pretty much the only yummy thing we can find here.

There's a lake near the city that's full of hippos. We go to dinner near the water and they pop up every now and then to take a breath. There's even a baby one that roams around the streets at night and is SO cute. I've seen him three times already cruising down the road. One night at dinner there was a guy with a canoe (actually a hollowed out log of cedar it smelled like) that was letting us take rides out on the lake. It was cool to be so close to the water and see the hippos swimming around and opening their mouth. We didn't get close good thing or I probably would have hyperventilated haha. They're actually quite scary for as cute as they are.

We've been doing a lot of lesson planning and trying to factor in life skills with our teachings. It's been difficult because I've never done this kind of thing before but everyone seems to think I've been doing a great job. Instead of just giving them information we are trying to arm them with the skills necessary to enact the behavior change we want them to do, for example: choose an ABC (abstinence, be faithful, condom) to have safe sex, get tested, or reduce stigma. It seems like it will be a really effective way to teach the kids and community groups.

That being said, all of us are really getting tired of orientation. We are all very ready to get out into the villages tomorrow and start teaching! Finally being able to put to use all the things we've been practicing. We're very excited. Megan and I got put in the same homestay so we'll be living together and teaching together.

Kwahedi!

Chelsea

Arusha, Tanzania

We went on a tour of Arusha and it is actually a pretty bustling city. There weren't very many tourists like everyone said there would be but that's probably because it's the down season. Most of the animals in the Serengeti have migrated north to Maasai Mara NP in Kenya because it's the dry season. While we were walking around with Christina we bumped into a guy named Rogers. He's a friend of SIC's and walked around with us. We asked him if he knew where the camel rides were that we had heard about and he actually did! He offered to take us there because it was a pretty far drive from the center of town and it was on the daladalas, which can be a little confusing if you haven't taken them a lot or don't speak Swahili. We found the camels and for 1000 Tsh (a little less than a dollar) we got to ride them around. It was short but was a really fun experience. They are really scary to get on and off! I have a video of it and if I ever get decent internet access I will definitely post it. Because he offered to take us all the way there Megan and I got Rogers a ride too; he had never been on one before!

After the camels he took us to the Maasai trading market that was next door. He is Maasai so he knew all the people there. There were goats, chickens, donkeys and cows running around a big open area that you could trade or buy. I don't think many "wazungu" (the slang term they call us "white people") venture out here because they seemed absolutely shocked to be seeing us there. We caused quite the commotion when we had Rogers take our picture and everyone else wanted to be in the photos too and then see them on the screen. It's amazing how something that we take for granted in the states is such an exciting item here. All the men kept touching my hair too which was weird but it's because most of the women shave their heads here. Because my hair is so long and thick they were very interested in it.

Megan and I were ready for lunch and we were craving burgers. We had heard about this amazing burger place and we weren't dissappointed. It definitely wasn't an american burger though. Everything on it were things that I had never had on a burger. But I actually LOVE the ketchup here surprisingly. It's a little like spaghettio sauce. Bright read and really thin. But it actually tastes more like a tomato sauce than ketchup at home.

The next day in Arusha, it was our first day of the program. We had a health and safety talk at the SIC headquarters there and then were free the rest of the day. Megan and I looked everywhere for a market to buy gifts but couldn't find anything. All we have seen so far is lots of second hand clothes for sale; nothing I can bring home for friends and family. Hopefully I find something eventually though. We did find a little restaurant with delicious curry and CHOCOLATE CAKE! Yum.

We had opening dinner later that night at a really fabulous Chinese restaurant. Meg is Chinese and she was SO happy. She said it was actually pretty good and authentic. We met all the Tanzanian teaching partners (they help us lesson plan and translate for us) and they seem really great. I'm excited to get started!

The final day in Arusha our whole group went on a hike. It was supposed to be an "easy" hike up through the foothills of Mt. Meru and end at a waterfall near a creek. It ended at the waterfall but it was anything but easy. I seriously wanted to turn around every step of the way but I had no idea how to get back so I had no choice haha. The first half was all uphill and really dusty. At least it wasn't too hot though it was nice and overcast. The last part of the hike was downhill and by downhill I mean straight down. I pretty much slid the whole way on my butt and got very dirty. Then we walked up the creek and saw monkeys in the trees and crab and frogs in the creek. It was very pretty and really cool. The waterfall at the end was pretty and we had lunch there. The only thing that dampened the mood was realizing we were going to have to go back up that muddy hill that I could barely get down in the first place! Somehow we managed to get up it on all fours and started the descent down back to Arusha. On the way down we passed a bunch of kids running around with GIANT machetes and for a second each time I saw them I would flinch because it was so scary seeing them swing them around at me! Flora (another girl working with SIC) and I also got rocks thrown at us by little children that asked us for money. As we started running from them their mom came out and started screaming at them haha little children! Don't mess with the Mazungus!

The dinner they took us to that night was amazing. By far the best food we've had the whole trip. We went to a restaurant called Kahn's and it was Indian food. We had tons of Naan, the best BBQ chicken I've had in my whole life (Not an exaggeration!) and tons of yummy sauces and shiskabobs. We were in the Muslim area of Arusha and there was a funeral nearby so it was really interesting to see the process right next to us. Also an interesting point is that the restaurant didn't serve alcohol because of their religion. We leave tomorrow morning for Babati. Wish me luck it's a dirt road the whole way!