Weekend Trips!!! Whoo hooo!

Would you like to know what we do on the weekends? Well, I will tell you. After working all week we do like to take some time to relax and party it up in good ol’ Tanzania! J And there are lots of fun things to do and see here, so I will give you just a taste of the few really cool things we have done this summer over the weekends.

Aside from the movies we see, and the safari’s we’ve been on, there are other cool things we’ve done, including a bigger trip to Zanzibar.

We have also gone to see some really cool places like the Shanga Shop, the Snake Park, and the Masai Market. The Shanga Shop is a shop where they take recyclable materials and re-work them into amazing things. They take glass bottles and make beads, tables, chandeliers, and other glass things, they take other materials and make scarves, necklaces, clothes and blankets, and do you want to know the coolest part? Most of the employees there are deaf, mute, or have some other handicap that prevents them from finding a good job in Tanzania. The Shanga Shop provides a way for them to support themselves and their families. The Snake Park is a zoo of sorts specifically for things like snakes, crocodiles, and turtles, as well as some camels that you can ride (which is really weird, and really scary, but really fun!) and some monkeys that like to play with your arm hair if you have a lot of it. The Masai Market is where we do most of our souvenir shopping. The primary tribe where we live is the Masai, and they make all sorts of cool things to sell at this Market, including some baggy African pants that we love, bracelets, machetes, spears, shoes, paintings, and everything you could really want to take home from Africa.

There are also a bunch of different churches here, since most of the Tanzanian people are religious in some way. The LDS church is really cool, and they even make an effort to do some classes in English so that we can understand them. We also went to a Lutheran church with a partner, were blessed (very interestingly) by another partner’s priestess mother, and went to a very lavish first communion for another partner’s nephew. All in all, Tanzania is a beautiful mosaic of different churches and different beliefs living together in harmony.

We hiked deep into a ravine to see a freezing cold waterfall, and then of course had to hike back out. It was very steep, (and personally, I thought I was going to die before I reached the top again) but the waterfall was totally worth it! Our feet were also the cleanest they had been in months from walking in the stream to get to the waterfall. The good news is, no one lost any toes from this freezing cold water. J

The other things we choose to do on the weekends, aside from finding new and exciting (and sometimes sketchy) places to eat, are pretty normal things. We like to have bonfires in our front yard and make our makeshift s’mores with shortbread cookies, galaxy chocolate bars, and strange textured marshmallows. We like to go to Njiro, the mzungu place where we eat dinner and use the free wifi. And we like to get our hair braided like Africans by our friend Elias.

All in all, as exciting as our weekdays are, the weekends are super fun too. The weekends are when we get to let our tourist side show, let loose, and pretend to not have a care in the world. Then reality comes back, Monday comes around, and we turn right back into the responsible hardworking adults that are trying to do their part to help the world.

Bringing Home the Bacon!

Whenever I hear the word pig, I immediately think BACON! Well this blog post has nothing to do with bacon other than the fact that I wished I had it right now.

Anyways, we have been working with a group called Albino Peacemakers. This group works to make the lives of albinos better. Albinos have many health problems, they are often discriminated against.We asked them if there is anything we could do for them. The director named Martha said that they have a pig pen, but it doesn't have a roof. The pigs are being used to generate money for the group. So we wrote the proposal, bought the materials, and helped put the roof on.  

This project was one of the quickest ones yet. It took us a day to buy all the wood, tin sheets and nails. It took us another half a day to assemble the roof. As volunteers we were able to hammer, saw, and carry the material to the builder. An electric saw was donated to us from Home Depot in Toole, Utah. We were able to use this saw to help speed up the work of the roof building. Emmanuel, the builder, loved it so much he went to work to beautify the entire pig pen by sawing off extra pieces of wood. He had the biggest grin the entire time. It was a lot of fun to help build the roof for the pigs and we were able to make the builders day. 

Aaron and Kelsi’s Center for Kids Who Can’t Talk Good and Want to Learn to do Other Stuff Good too

 When I first arrived in Arusha with the second wave in mid June, I was offered the responsibility of teaching a group of students how to use the computer.  I thought it was just an errand, rather than a full fledged project.  It has been a memorable adventure though.  I teach immediately after English class is done at a small school house a little way down the dirt road from the Madhukani daladala stop.  It is one of the more picturesque parts of Arusha, with ample greenery, banana and coffee farms, steep hillsides, and on clear days, breathtaking views of Mount Meru's craggy peaks. 

I remember I was more or less winging it the first day.  We did not have access to the internet, so after a rather lengthy time showing them around Microsoft Word, I was at a loss of what else to teach them.  I showed them how to use the calculator function and MS Paint.  I made sure to have a better idea of what to teach them by the next class.  I continued to teach them word processing skills, as well as simple skills such as how to start up, restart, and shut down the computer and how to save and open a file.  Our primary focus however has been word processing and typing.  In those early days, my biggest challenge was finding a partner to come with me to the class, as we are bound by a strict "buddy system" policy.  Everybody already had their own projects that needed work, and I felt the vibe that going with me to teach computers was somewhat of a chore.  It is understandable though.  I teach the students the basic concepts, and they more or less help each other figure it out in Swahili.  It is really effective, but it leaves my partner with very little to do.  As the students became more and more proficient in word processing, my mind was racing for a way to get them connected to the internet so I could teach them how to use Email. 

With the end of the second wave, Lex and Mary, who were in charge of teaching English, went home.  I volunteered to take over English classes in their place.  Coinciding with Lex and Mary's departure was Kelsi's arrival, the final addition to our help team.  Kelsi agreed to join me in teaching both English and computers on a regular basis with these kids, which means I no longer have to scramble to find somebody to reluctantly agree to go with me each day.  Having one consistent partner allows us to bounce ideas off of each other, and merging the English class with the computer class allows for continuity between the students' assignments.  We often assign them to practice typing concepts that we taught them in English class.  One interesting way in which we were able to blend the computer class with the English class was our use of pen pals.  After we introduced the kids to the internet, I recruited a number of my friends in the English speaking world who were interested in being pen pals for these kids.  This way, they could practice conversing with people in English while practicing their typing skills.  On top of that, it is sustainable!  They can continue to practice English even after we leave! 

The kids seem to really enjoy it, but they appear to be dis-enthralled with how long the process takes.  We usually only have one internet stick, and the internet is notoriously slow at the school, so it is a very long process.  If nothing else, I hope these kids will frequent internet cafes after we leave to visit with their friends in America.  It would be an experience that not many Tanzanian youths get to take advantage of.  The difficulty is making this project sustainable and able to perpetuate after we go back to the Sates.  Ultimately it will be up to the students to go to an internet cafe to practice typing and communicating with their American pen pals.  I already can tell that many of the students don't have the drive or interest to do this, but it is a principle across the world that success comes to those who are most ambitious and hardworking.  We are giving these students a great opportunity.  From here on out it will be entirely up to them whether they will take advantage of it. 

"Tis a Woman"

Right now we’re working with a group called Your Sisters. Your Sisters is a non-profit organization that empowers women of all ages here in Tanzania. They have an orphanage and a school for the younger girls, they give training and work opportunities through craft and design to adult women, and they also have a volunteering program where you come here and make a difference in country. It’s a really inspiring organization that gives women a bigger opportunity to have education, work, and family.

Our goal with them was to help them touch and impact more lives by helping them become more well known. We went to the location weekly and gathered pictures and videos of the girls at the orphanage to put into a video and share it in the social media world. We wanted to show why they are unique and why they matter. We put all of the footage we got into one video and will upload it to YouTube! We will make a separate blog post with the link to this video when it is complete.

In the Jungle.....oooooooooooWEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

When opportunity arises to see lions, elephants, and giraffe’s who wouldn’t want to go? A safari is something that occupies a line on nearly everyone’s bucket list, and here in Tanzania we got to experience what it is truly like. Our group this year went on two different safaris. The first safari was at the Serengeti, Ngorogoro, and Lake Mnyara. Five coolest moments there:

1. One of the lions that we saw in the Serengeti was tearing apart and eating a dead warthog!

2. Later that night, in our campground, one of the volunteers went to the bathroom and a warthog was right there and it scared him!

3.We saw a rock at Ngorogoro that looked like pride rock from the Lion King! And, what do you know, a lion was on top! It was incredible!

4. At dinner, there was a jumping spider and one of the volunteers was poking at it with a napkin and it kept jumping up and biting it! There was also a rat crawling into the food area and tons of flying insects everywhere. So not only were we introduced to the African wildlife, we got a bug/rodent show as well.

5. At Lake Mnyara, we saw around 50 monkeys! They were attacking each other, picking bugs off of each other, and one even crawled on our safari car!!

The second safari was at a place surprisingly close to Arusha at  a park called Tarangire. We were greeted at the entrance by a huge Baobob tree, and were on our way to see those animals in their natural habitat. We started off the day with some wildebeests, and then ended up in the middle of an elephant herd. We were surrounded by about thirty elephants, male and female, adults and younger. At that point our guide, Help partner Michael Medoth, was even a little nervous that one of them would get angry at something we did and charge. We took our time by taking loads of pictures, and when it was safe to continue we did so safari style. When the day came to a close we went back to the parking lot where volunteer Emilee Eddings attracted some nearby monkeys with her brightly-colored tennis shoes. We went into the nearest town, ate some delicious Chipsi Mayai, and then went to bed at a lodge in our proximity.

The next day we arose before the sun did and set out on our second day of safari. It was a completely different day, and we were itching to see some cats. About an hour or two in, our wish was granted. There we were, thirty feet away from a lion and his lioness. They laid in the grass for most of the time, just being lazy cats. If we made sudden motions or if a safari car drove too close the lion would growl an angry sound warning us to be aware of his “King of the Jungle” status. Those growls definitely made for fun pictures as well. We drove around looking for other cats and had no luck. However, after we saw elephants and impalas running away we went to where they were coming from and saw a group of 6 lionesses out on the hunt. That was definitely a cool sight.

A definite benefit of coming to help in Africa is the opportunity to go on a safari like this, and I recommend it to everyone who hasn’t had the chance to do so yet. You never know what you might see.

The Gift of Light

Being from the United States I have been blessed to have light as my constant helper in life. If it is a cloudy day and dark outside, I just flip a switch and I have light to read, work, study, or eat a meal.  If it is 10:30 at night and the moon is barely showing a sliver of light I touch a lamp with my finger and… Wazaam!!!!! Let there be light! In case of a power outage, although this is rare, have no fear batteries are near.  During these short terms of darkness, Americans have easy access to flash lights, cell lights, and all sorts of gadgets that light up. If all else fails there are generators to back everything up.  Although this system gives us constant light whenever we wish, it is an expensive and complex system. 

On the contrary the people of Tanzania live in another world that is simple and hard.  Much of the Tanzania population is outside of the reach of the existing power network.  And even if they live within the range of the existing power lines, most cannot afford to pay for a monthly power bill.  Most would think “so they are not blessed with light bulbs and power what’s the big deal”.  The problem is many live in houses and huts that in order to keep the home warm during cold days and nights only have one small window to light the house.  So without many options people live in darkness.  I understood that in order for an idea to really help the people of Tanzania, you must make sure that the average citizen and easily learned can afford the idea.  As I thought of the problem of people living in the dark, I realized that the people needed a cheap way to give light to their house.  I soon realized the sun provides us with plenty of light during the day, but it is blocked from entering the homes of the people.  The answer soon came as harnessing the suns light by letting it into dark homes.  I know it seems obvious but none of the people who need it the most practice this solution.  The answer is installing skylights.  A house can drastically be lit up with the simple installation of a 3x2 foot clear fiber-plastic piece of corrugated roofing for the cheap price of 5,000 shillings or the equivalent of $3 US dollars.  Although this is just a start, the concept still needs to spread. Those in poverty can choose to better their lives and live more in the light.  Our hope is that everyone can enjoy the gift of light.  

A Short Excerpt on Showers

Although we already briefly mentioned the cold, sometimes water-pressure-less showers, we didn’t feel like we put as much of an emphasis on this topic as it deserves. And trust us, it deserves it. :)

Now, it’s not like we are complaining or anything…. But our showers are very, very cold. We have a bathtub with a hose attached, and when the water pressure is good, you can take a very quick shower. When the water pressure ceases to exist, the so called “shower” is a long and painful journey of clenched teeth and muscles (unless you are Lex and you just say things like “Crap! Crap! This is cold!” the whole time you shower).  We all quickly learned and unanimously agreed that showering every day, or even every other, is simply not reasonable. Thus, we all made a promise not to judge each other.

Since then we are proud to say that we have successfully broken some not-showering records (that our Mothers may or may not be ashamed of). The current record for number of days without a shower is 9 going on 10. And we w

on’t tell you who. We don’t judge remember? ;)