Jina Langu ni Catherine

Picture Time!

catherinehickey — Wed, 8 Dec 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Hi everyone, I've been back in Chicago for a few weeks now attempting to get my life in order :)

Not sure if anyone will read this since I haven't posted in over two months (sorry!) but want to finish up this little project regardless.

Post will come soon but some of my pictures can be viewed using the links below. The links are from facebook but these pictures are "public" so you do not need to be on facebook to view them. You can click on a picture to view them individually as well. I tried to narrow down as best I could but there are still a lot of albums. Hope these links work because it took me days to organize and post and I don't feel like doing that again on this website! Stories coming shortly. Hope everyone is well.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96430&id=1346014478&l=dc1e247b47

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96434&id=1346014478&l=325676ec4e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96437&id=1346014478&l=1cbbe8be9e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96461&id=1346014478&l=67f94513bf

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96560&id=1346014478&l=5e1f301b08

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96566&id=1346014478&l=b886789e47

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96583&id=1346014478&l=8e8cad644f

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97055&id=1346014478&l=b9e8e8cfe7

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97069&id=1346014478&l=410327fd03

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97084&id=1346014478&l=c501a3b902

Malta/ Sicily/ Istanbul/ Back to Arusha, Tanzania

catherinehickey — Mon, 4 Oct 2010 17:00:00 GMT

Hi, hope everyone is well! I’m going to try to get this blog caught up now as I’ve been slacking off... most of my internet time has been dedicated to looking up South Africa info as I’m headed there in a few weeks with my sister Laura (after a short 3 day safari here in Tanzania) and my friend Rebecca who’s flying down from Munich. Can’t wait to see both of you!

Can’t remember where I left off last time but on Monday the 13^th of September I left Zanzibar and traveled to meet my friend Jessica and her husband Bryan in Malta for 5 nights. After a few long layovers and flight transfers I arrived in Malta Wednesday afternoon. I met Bryan and Jess in the lobby of the resort we were staying at, I’m sure I wasn’t looking too nice as I’d been traveling for a few days and hadn’t showered since Sunday night in Zanzibar. We ran up to the room, changed into my swimsuit and hit the pool. We were at the Westin Dragonara Malta Resort (or something like that), really nice and right on the Mediterranean Sea. Had a few beers, Jess and I started catching up and talking and I don’t think we stopped until after 2 in the morning. Bryan was a good sport and did a great job zoning out and letting us catch up. Our days were pretty relaxed, lots of sleeping in, swimming, relaxing and swimming the in pool and the Mediterranean Sea. The water was gorgeous and nice and warm, not as warm as the Indian Ocean in Zanzibar but much better than freezing Lake Michigan. We took a great tour of the island one afternoon to see all of the “important” sights and on Sunday we woke up super early and took a 90 minute ferry ride at 7 in the morning and spent the day in Sicily. Toured around a portion of the island and stopped in a really nice town close to the sea. Visited an old theatre that was really pretty, completely forget the name right now and forgot to bring my camera today to look it up but it was old and somewhat crumbled down and gorgeous with stunning views of the homes on the hillside and the beach on the Mediterranean. Had lunch at some random restaurant and had the most delicious spaghetti with tomato sauce I’ve ever had in my life. I’m sure if I ever go back to Sicily I’ll never find the place but it would be worth trying! After lunch we drove a couple of hours to Mt. Etna “an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, close to Messina and Catania.” “Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is in an almost constant state of activity.” Thank you Wikipedia for that brief description…it was really super windy there and got pretty chilly. Got some cool pictures and it was a good stop. Headed the few hours back to the port after Mt. Etna for the ferry ride back to Malta and arrived around 11:30 PM, a full, great day out. The next morning I had to pack up and leave…we had a really nice lunch then time for goodbyes. Still horrible at goodbyes and spent half the cab ride to the airport in tears. It’s always so hard to say bye to family and friends when I’ve been lucky enough to see them on this trip.

Short flight from Malta to Rome, 4 hour layover in Rome then flew to Istanbul and arrived around 1:30 AM. No electricity at the place I was staying but by that time I was used to electric going out although every house/ guest house/ hostel I’ve stayed at in Africa has always been one level so the winding staircase in a dark, old guest house in Istanbul was a bit of a challenge in the middle of the night. Woke up the next morning and was assured the power would be back on in an hour. Wandered around all day and got back around 5 PM. No power. Left a bit later for dinner and got back around 10 PM and there was power.

Istanbul was amazing, would love to go back and spend more time in Turkey. It was so beautiful, hit up most of the major sights including the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace/ Gardens, Gulhane Park, various other famous mosques, the Basilica Cistern, Egyptian Spice Market and took a really nice sunset ferry ride down the Bosphorous River which runs through the middle of the city. Istanbul lies on both the European and Asian continents and the Bosphorous runs between. There were so many beautiful mansions and restaurants along the river and would have loved to have more time to explore a few more neighborhoods in the city.

Although my little guidebook didn’t give it much credit, Gulhane Park was one of my favorite places. Went there a few times to walk and relax. It was full of super old, tall trees and people walking around, picnicing and when you walked all the way through you ended up on the seafront and could watch all of the boats coming in and out of the harbor. There was a nice jogging/ bike path along the water and it reminded me a lot of Lakeshore Drive.

Almost every home and most restaurants in the city have beautiful rooftop terraces/ gardens which offer fantastic views of the water or city. Had breakfast every morning on the terrace and drinks before dinner watching the sunset. The weather was a bit cooler and more fall like which reminded me of Chicago. Made me a bit homesick towards the end, good thing I’m back in Africa where it’s about 10 times hotter and sunnier than it was in June now that it’s turning into summer. It was really nice being in a big, well lit, super busy city where I felt safe walking around at night alone which doesn’t happen in Africa, at least where I’m staying.

After Istanbul I flew back to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania. Didn’t have plans from there…decided on the plane I wanted to back to Zanzibar for a week. Got to the airport, the ATM wouldn’t accept my “international” card and had enough cash on me to get a one way ticket back up to Arusha. Could have taken the bus for a lot cheaper but it’s a 12 hour bus ride from Dar to Arusha and I was hot, really tired because I didn’t sleep very well on my overnight flight and splurged on the plane ticket. Probably would have fallen right asleep on the bus if I had taken it and woken up and found all of my stuff missing so plane was the best/ safer option at that point. After buying my plane ticket I texted my friend Evan, the last person that I knew from the summer that was still staying at Mama Z’s. Had him ask them if I could come stay with them for a bit but not through the volunteer organization. Got the text back “she said yes and seems really happy!” Ended up on Mama’s doorstep about 5 hours later and am staying here for 4 weeks for $50 a week or $7 a night including all of my meals, can’t beat that! Back in the swing of things, dirty and dusty all the time, bucket showers, huge bowls of rice or ugali for lunch everyday at the orphanage, right back at home.

I’ve been back in Arusha for a little over a week now and it’s been great. Showed up at Glorious Orphanage although they were not expecting me and Alice and Julius who run the orphanage were so happy. It’s really nice being back here now that everything is familiar, seems 10 times easier than it did the first time around. I feel so welcome, the ladies that run the internet café remembered me, the woman who washes my clothes yelled “Catherine” and was really excited that I came back, probably more excited for the money than to see me but whatever, it’s been really nice. As I mentioned earlier the weather is a lot warmer here now and the sun is super bright and hot by mid afternoon. Oh and the mosquitoes are about 10 times worse too, not enjoying that part and fingers crossed my malaria medication doesn’t fail me!

Besides everyone at Mama’s and the orphanage I’ve had the chance to meet up and go out with some friends and teachers I met here last time and it’s really nice to be back even if it’s only for a month. Probably won’t have too many new, exciting things to post over the next few weeks but its great being back. I was sad leaving last time but I have a feeling when I have to say goodbye in a few weeks it’s going to hit a lot harder… that’s it for now, hope everyone is well. Cath

Zanzibar

catherinehickey — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:07:00 GMT

Hi everyone, hope all is well. Sorry I haven’t written in a while, it’s been a busy few weeks! Was in the village of Nungwi in Zanzibar for two weeks until September 12^th and spent one last night in Stone Town before flying out. Bought my return ticket to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania from an agent in Stone Town and got a nice “resident’s rate” since I am currently a Tanzanian resident for another month or so per my volunteer visa. Only $35 USD, nice! After my first week of yoga at Flame Tree Cottages I moved down the beach a bit to Casa Umoja, a guest house in a nice garden about 100 meters off the beach. Clean and cheap! The second week in Zanzibar was just as great as the first for the most part. Three other women joined in yoga, 2 were from Denmark and one from Sweden. My friend Carolina from Sweden is actually living in Afghanistan and working for an NGO doing anti corruption work, she’s one of the smartest people I’ve met and had so much fun hanging out with her that week. They were all staying at Flame Tree so I continued to spend a decent amount of time there and miss chatting with Elizabeth and Seth, the owners, who were so nice to me! Even when I wasn’t staying at their hotel because the second week would have been way out of my budget, they let me use their nice private beach area and on my last day in Zanzibar they invited Marisa (my yoga teacher) and I to lunch at their house and said I felt like part of the family after being around everyday for two weeks. Elizabeth also graciously did all of my laundry in her washing machine which was so nice of her and saved me a few bucks.

The last few days of my time in Zanzibar were a bit interesting...that Thursday, Carolina, Catherine (one of Marisa’s friends visiting from South Africa) and I walked up the beach after our morning yoga session to take pictures and do some shopping. Carolina and I stopped for lunch and had been sitting on the beach for a while when we started seeing smoke, seemed pretty close so we kept watching thinking the fire was at one of the larger hotels close to where we were eating. We walked down from the restaurant to the beach and it was further off. Kept walking towards our hotels and started to see people unloading their homes, furniture all over the beach, hotel staff running bags out to the beach, tables and chairs, etc. Everyone was frantic yelling and running around. The smoke was getting thicker and blacker and we walked closer and saw burned down homes, a dive center gone and one of our favorite fish restaurants, Union (no menu, just the days catch sitting on ice blocks on the beach, you’d pick your choice and they would cut off a piece and grill for you, freshest fish I’ve ever had, yum!) was burned down. We were super nervous at this point, there was one firetruck on the beach however the firemen couldn’t get water to pump through the hose from the ocean and everyone was crowded around the truck screaming and yelling and not letting the firemen do their jobs. Unfortunately there were also looters running around stealing and running off with peoples possessions they were trying to save from being burned. We ran to my guest house which was super close and I quickly packed a few essentials in a little bag, leaving all of my clothes and everything I’ve been carrying around the past few months and went back to Flame Tree with Carolina. Walked into the Flame Tree grounds and everyone came running up to me saying they were so worried. Lisa and Tina (Danish women from yoga) had run to Casa Umoja when they saw the smoke and were banging on my door trying to make sure I wasn’t napping in my room. Elizabeth ran over to try to get into my room to pack my bag and get my stuff out but they wouldn’t let her in. Even some of the staff at Flame Tree came over trying to find me. I was honestly shocked so many people had thought of me and were worried, people I’d known about a week and a half maximum. Spent the rest of the day at Flame Tree and went back to Casa at night. Fortunately there was no damage however due to the fires we had no power for my last days there because they didn’t have a generator, which lead to extra hot nights with no fan and lots of stumbling around in the dark with my flashlight. Flashlights are seriously in the top 3 items I’m so glad I brought. Power goes out at least every other day at Mama Z’s in Arusha, power was out in Zanzibar and the 1^st night I was in Istanbul the place I stayed at ended up having no power (more on Istanbul later). Back to the fire, it’s really hard here when fires start because most of the houses and smaller guest houses/ hotels have roofs made of dried straw so fire spreads so fast. No one has fire alarms and fire trucks/ men are few and far between. The bigger hotels have their own hoses and water supplies but that’s about it.

The other cause of much excitement the day after the fire was that at 12 AM on Friday, Ramadan was over. Got about 1 hour of sleep that night due to being anxious about the fire and because the partying started right away (Zanzibar is at least 90% Muslim). It’s like Christmas times 10 because after 30 days of fasting from sun up to sun down they are allowed to eat. On Friday, two members of Flame Tree staff took Carolina and I around their village, it was a great tour, we got to meet their families and see their homes, very similar to homes in Arusha, few rooms, concrete floors, mud/ brick walls, etc. Everyone was eating all day long, ate a few bowls of rice I didn’t really want to eat, etc. but it was really great to see and be invited to experience the “non-tourist” Zanzibar.

On the 13^th I flew from Stone Town, Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam, had a 7 hour layover in DAR which was hot, sweaty and boring. Got on a 7:45 PM flight from DAR to Istanbul stopping in Entebbe (Uganda) for an hour and arrived in Istanbul at 5:30 AM. Spent a wonderful 25 hours in the airport at Istanbul drinking $5 cups of Starbucks coffee, reading US Weekly and other gossip magazines until the shop owners started giving me dirty looks, looking homeless while napping on metal benches clutching my purse and using my backpack for a pillow, reading, listening to my ipod and walking about 100 laps around the airport at various times during the day/ night when I would start to feel my legs go numb from sitting too long. There was nothing cheap about that airport and I think I spent about $50 eating junk and drinking Starbucks just to entertain myself. Finally got on my next flight from Istanbul to Rome, spent 4 hours in the airport in Rome drinking coffee and freshened up spritzing myself with perfume in the duty free shop and then flew to Malta to meet up with one of my best friends Jessica and her husband Bryan for 5 nights! Spent 5 nights with them in Malta and then 4 nights by myself in Istanbul which was amazing. Loved it and wish I could have stayed longer but Europe’s a bit more expensive than Africa and it was time to go.

Will write more about Malta/ Istanbul soon and I am currently back in Arusha for another month of volunteering at Glorious Orphanage. Kind of showed up here without warning...I didn’t have any plans after Istanbul...decided on the plane ride back from Istanbul to DAR that I wanted to go to Zanzibar for a week before Arusha, unfortunately the ATM wouldn’t accept my “international” debit card and I only had enough cash in my pocket for a one way plane ticket back to Arusha so that’s where I’m at. Happy I am here back at Mama Z’s, will just have to pay a few bucks and hit up the pools at the hotels on the nice side of town on the weekend and pretend I’m in Zanzibar. :)

Hope everyone is well! Miss you! Will post on Malta/ Istanbul sooner than later! Cath

September 4, 2010

catherinehickey — Sat, 4 Sep 2010 13:00:00 GMT

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Hi everyone! Hope all is well, I’m currently in Zanzibar where I’ve been for just over about 12 days now, I think...all my days are starting to blend together it seems. First of all, congratulations and best wishes to my cousin Patrick and his fiancée Danielle who are getting married this weekend. Wish I could be there and can’t wait to see pictures and celebrate when I get back!

After saying goodbye to all the great people I met and lived with during the two months at Mama Zubeyda’s in Arusha, the past few weeks have been a lot of fun! I really miss all of the kids and will probably be heading back after “vacation” is over mid September. I’m meeting one of my best friends Rebecca and (hopefully- book the ticket!) my sister Laura in South Africa towards the end of October but as of right now I think I’m going to go back for another month to the orphanage I spent my last two weeks in Arusha at after my school went on break for the month of August. I was planning on doing more traveling but I really miss the kids and want to go back.

My mom, my sister Liz and her husband Steve arrived in Arusha on Sunday August 15^th. I think my mom had a bit of a shock at the state of the super bumpy dirt roads coming in at 9 PM in the dark from the airport but everyone survived the trip! The roads don’t even phase me anymore. We met at the Ilboru Safari Lodge in Arusha where I had spent most of the day after taking a nice cab ride from Mama Zubeyda’s around 10 that morning. Highlights of my Sunday were laying out at a fantastic pool having a few freezing cold beers, the hotel’s free high speed internet and of course…taking my first non- bucket shower in over two months! Spent about 30 minutes trying to scrub dirt out of my toenails which left zero hot water for my mom the next morning. Whoops!

Seeing my family was so great, I knew their flight was arriving at Kilimanjaro airport around 8:20 PM and around 9:30 PM a few safari trucks started pulling into the hotel parking lot. Of course I ran out of my room for the first few expecting it to be them, only to have the hotel reception laugh at watching me almost fall on the slippery floor in my extra dirty/ worn out flip flops with no grip left on the bottom. Finally a Good Earth Tours safari truck pulled up and it was them! Yeah! After lots of hugs it was late and we all went to sleep to get ready for Moses, our safari driver, to pick us up at 8:30 the next morning.

Monday morning we headed to Tarangire National Park which was fantastic. I had been there for a few hours with the nursery students but this trip was much nicer as we were riding in a nice safari vehicle with shocks rather than a bumpy school bus crammed with a few puking children. I don’t think my mom believed me when I told her we would probably see literally hundreds of elephants and zebra and she started taking pictures of every single one of them, which she continued to do for the rest of the trip. If anyone is in the market for 2,000 pictures of elephants, please let me know. :) Actually I’m really happy my mom and Steve were such avid photographers while Liz and I relaxed in the safari truck. I’m sure they have amazing photos, my little camera isn’t that great with the zoom and Liz and I enjoyed a few nice afternoon naps while they were shooting away. Apparently eating large meals every few hours and driving around looking at wild animals is hard work and we somehow managed to fall asleep for 20 minutes (or more) each afternoon while driving along!

I could write for days and bore everyone about safari so I’ll try to keep this to a minimum. We spent a day and a half in Tarangire National Park which is well known for its elephant population (hundreds!), a day at Lake Manyara which was very green and lush in comparison to the rest of the parks, about 3 ½ days in the Serengeti and a day and a half in Ngorongoro Crater. All of the lodges we stayed at were nice, ate too much, talked about how we ate too much, proceeded to do the same the next day, etc. My favorite place was the Kirurumu tented camp at Lake Manyara. It was so nice! The first night we also stayed at a tented camp rather than safari lodge and we’re pretty sure there were lions walking around our tent. I woke up and heard something walking and breathing heavily and the next morning at breakfast Liz and Steve said they heard it too. My mom didn’t think it was a lion but I’m still convinced it was! The lodges were still really nice even though they were in the middle of no where. Wake up in the morning to little monkey’s staring in through the glass on the balcony, fun!

I think my favorite park was the Serengeti, the land was so beautiful and it seemed endless. During the trip we saw lots of animals: worthogs (not sure how to spell…uh Pumba in the Lion King type animals?), elephants, giraffe, zebra, gazelle, tons of birds, a rhino in Ngorongoro (there are only 26 in the whole park and they are on the extinct list!), lions, cheetah and leopards. Many more smaller animals I can’t think of at the moment. It was amazing. Moses was a fantastic driver and could spot things it would sometimes take me a few minutes to pick up with the binoculars. Good Earth Tours is highly recommended if anyone is in the market for an African safari!

Highlights include seeing the cheetah (not everyone does), seeing a lion kill a gazelle (sad but its nature right?) and when two lions literally walked up next to our safari vehicle and were so close Moses stuck his hand out the window and quickly touched its tail! We have great pictures of a huge lion, resting under the shade of our vehicle, trying to take a nap. Moses turned on the car and revved the engine to get it to move but it wasn’t really interested. After a few minutes of us annoying the lion he started swatting at the truck, bit the tire (luckily didn’t bite a hole because I wasn’t getting out to change the tire…not that I know how to change a tire or anything…) and ripped a little hole in the spare tire cover on the back of the truck. Finally got up and walked away so we could drive on. Can’t wait to see the pictures when I get home! The land was just so beautiful and it was so peaceful riding around with the roof popped up so you could stand up and stare out while driving. Would love to do it again.

After safari we flew to Zanzibar for 3 nights at the Shooting Star Lodge. Another fantastic choice! We were on the east side of the island in Kiwengwa. The rooms were gorgeous, right on the beach and the only mishap was a huge spider waiting for me at 6:30 AM one morning. Now, I like to exaggerate a bit now and then but this spider was literally the size of the toilet paper roll it was resting on. I screamed, woke up my mom who took one look and ran out the door to go find someone to kill it while I hopped up onto the bathroom sink to watch and make sure it didn’t run away! Some guy came and killed it but I really wish I got a picture of it before it was smashed, it was huge! I hope I never spot one again, I can handle the 4-5 geckos that are currently living in my room with me but spiders are another thing! The hotel was so nice, coffee and tea every morning on our patio when we woke up, super nice beach and infinity pool overlooking the ocean, more excellent food and drinks, fantastic Zanzibar coffee scrub/ massage and an awesome lobster BBQ on the beach one night for dinner. Thanks mom and it was so much fun seeing everyone!

Last Thursday they left. L We got in a cab to take them to the airport and dropped me in Stone Town on the way. Tears from me of course. Miss them a lot. Spent 4 nights in Stone Town exploring the old city. This island is 90% Muslim and it’s currently Ramadan which means no food from sunup to sundown among other things. Don’t worry, there are still restaurants for the tourists open although of course they are the expensive ones. Ripped a few pages and maps out of my Tanzania book so I wouldn’t stick out too much (I’m sure it didn’t work) and explored the city which is basically comprised of tons of small alley’s no cars can fit down so its great for walking. It’s a gorgeous town and I’ll probably head back there for at least a night before heading off. Lots of old buildings, mosque’s, very nice.

Also have been snorkeling twice, off Mnemba Island and Chumbe Island. Both were great. Chumbe Island is protected by the government and was gorgeous. There is one hotel on the island comprised of 7 little bungalow style rooms and it’s won many eco travel awards, really cool. I spent the day with two 50 year old Italian woman with limited English but we had a lot of fun. Mirna and Allesandra…Mirna was hilarious and almost broke her ankle about 15 times during our hike in the forest as she was wearing platform high heeled sandals on our hike. Not the smartest idea! Snorkeling was fantastic. There were two marine biologists from the U.S. going out in the same boat so I followed them around in the water for two hours while they pointed out all sorts of cool fish to me. At some points there were probably a thousand swimming all around us. Of course I don’t remember any of the fish names either. I think they told me there are over 400 types of coral species in the reef, over 90% of species found in East Africa.

On Monday I came to Nungwi, a smaller fishing village on the northern tip of the island. It’s pretty calm and peaceful here. All of the dhows (wooden fishing boats) leave from the beach late afternoon around 3 PM and fish all night arriving back around 6 AM the next morning. I'm planning on waking up early tomorrow morning to watch them come in and try to watch some of the auctions between local fisherman, locals, restaurant/ hotel owners. Probably won't smell the best but should be interesting to see. Was planning on heading to Jambiani on the southeast coast next week but I’m doing a yoga program with an instructor, Marisa who is so calm and great. She’s from South Africa and moved here about 3 years ago. We do yoga/ meditation for 2 hours every morning and for 1.5 hours right around sunset. It’s so peaceful and I've decided to stay here another week to practice with her until I fly up to meet one of my best friends, Jessica and her husband Bryan in Malta for almost a week in the middle of September, looking forward to seeing them but not looking forward to my 24 hour layover at the airport in Istanbul. Found more direct flights but they were about $500 more so I'll be making myself comfortable in the airport for a while. Walking around the village today to investigate cheap sleeping options. Staying at Flame Tree Cottages right now which is really nice and right on the beach but it was a bit of a splurge and need to find a more reasonable option. I should be able to find something, probably not right on the beach but close enough for about 25,000 tsh a night (roughly $17 USD) . The rest of my days are pretty much spent laying on the beach reading, napping, doing whatever I want. Today’s Marisa's birthday and she invited me to her party tonight, can't wait to meet some of her friends here.

That’s it for now…I’m typing this up on a laptop in an internet café. I think the battery is about to run out and of course the power is out. Happens a lot here, probably at least 4 times each night the power goes on and off. The hotel I’m staying at has a generator that kicks in but last year I know the power was out for over 3 months on this island! It comes from Dar Es Saalam under the ocean and something broke. Anyway, about to save this post to my flash drive with the hopes of posting it tomorrow…assuming the power comes back on! :)

Take care, hope everyone is well, Cath

August 6, 2010

catherinehickey — Fri, 6 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Hi, hope everyone is well! It’s Friday, August 6^th here and I can’t believe I only have about one week left before my mom, sister and her husband come for safari and Zanzibar! I really can’t believe how fast this summer has flown by! Also, congratulations and best wishes to my friends, Dan and Caitlin who are getting married today, wish I could be there!

Last Friday was my final day of school at Shepherd’s and they are now on break until the beginning of September. This week I’ve been tagging along to other volunteer projects and have visited an amazing orphanage with my friends Clare, Maia and Evan who are placed there. Glorious Orphanage is run by two of the most genuine and sweet people I’ve met here, Alice and Julius. www.gloriousorphanage.com for their story and more information. The kids are super sweet and cute, love bubbles and getting their nails painted. My friend Ali brought a bottle of hot pink nail polish one day so now there are about 50 orphan children running around with one or two hot pink nails, boys included. Of course I have two random hot pink nails as well. Why not? I also spent a day with a few girls at the special needs wing of Pangani school. Much different than special needs schools in the U.S. as obviously they do not have the necessary resources to help many children. The rooms I observed were mainly mental disabilities, a few Downs Syndrome children but for the most part the teachers are not really sure what is wrong with the children as testing isn’t readily available. There were a few deaf and blind children who live at the school because their parents gave them up as well. Unfortunately, most disabled people are not accepted as members of society here and very few children even have the chance to attend school.

Last weekend was another weekend full of strenuous hiking. I have a bunch of amazing pictures, we were gone for about 7 hours. We walked through a few villages and into the jungle, had to walk down the river for about 30 minutes, on painful rocks, of course I wiped out, luckily the water was shallow at that point so I didn’t get too wet. Anyway, we finally made it to an absolutely stunning waterfall, much taller than the waterfalls in Marangu last week. There were tons of local kids there playing and it was really fun. The water was freezing but none of us went swimming or anything, didn’t really seem all that safe. They were like something out of a movie, the vegetation was so green and it was so beautiful, can’t wait to post pictures in a few months when I get home (or if I ever find high speed internet)! Of course by the time we got home we could barely walk and had to rest for a few hours, but don’t worry, we all still made it out Saturday night. Went to a local bar with some guys we met through our volunteer organization. There was a band playing live music and we had tons of fun learning African dance steps although all of our legs and feet were in pain all day Sunday when we got up.

Back to my last day of school and the huge production we put on for the parents and visitors. The entire lawn at our campus was transformed into a huge tented seating area for the parents. The school rented a huge tent and chairs, set up a small stage and decorated with fresh flowers and it really looked amazing, wish the internet was fast enough and I could post pictures! The show was supposed to start around 9 AM but of course none of the parents started showing up until closer to 9:45, with the show finally starting at 10:50. “African time.” All of the classes did fantastic with their songs and poems. The 5^th graders made up a dance routine to “The Twist” which was super funny. I think I was most impressed by the 5^th graders who spoke about women’s empowerment and about how educating a woman is educating the entire family as a woman will take her knowledge and pass it on to her entire family/ village. In between the songs various speakers from different career fields were invited to present information to the kids and parents regarding their educations and jobs. It was really great to see the kids, especially the older ones listen attentively. I was very excited to see the number of parents that showed up, it was easy to see that I was placed at a rather wealthy school comparing only the dress of the parents to the dress I see in my village everyday which is one of the poorer in Arusha.

The day went great until the end. I had a translator sitting next to me most of the day as almost everything besides the kids performances were in Swahili because most of the parents aren’t fluent in English. The headmaster started speaking and silence took over the crowd. One of the level two girls, Irene Peter, 7 years old, was hit by a dalla dalla on the way to school that morning and killed. Some of the teachers had known about it but didn’t tell anyone until this point. Everyone started crying and I was so upset. There are almost 50 children in the second grade class, however I was running around all morning saying goodbye to everyone and visiting all the classrooms and never noticed anyone missing. Apparently she left that morning, so excited for the production and the last day of school before break. Her mother wanted to bring her to school when she came for the performance but Irene wanted to ride the bus with her friends. Her mom left to run errands and didn’t find out until she arrived at school and was quickly ushered away before seeing anyone by the headmistress who broke the news. I was just so upset all day and keep thinking about her. One of the last images in my mind of Shepherd’s is teacher Ruth sitting in an empty classroom by herself holding Irene’s file with tears streaming down her face. I had a fantastic time there before September break but can’t believe Irene won’t be starting level 3 next fall as she was one of the smartest kids in the class.

That’s it for now, I’m going to visit a few more volunteer placements next week before everyone arrives for vacation. Tomorrow (Saturday) we’re heading to a hospital about an hour away to visit a little boy from Glorious Orphanage. He’s 5 years old, unable to walk and his parents have to carry him everywhere. A few of the volunteers did fundraising at home before they came and paid for two weeks of physical therapy for him and crutches for the next two years as he’ll need new crutches approximately every six months when he grows. His mom is spending the next two weeks with him at the hospital and was so happy and overwhelmed when she found out he was going to receive proper medical attention as they could never afford crutches and therapy. There are a bunch of other children at the hospital we’ll be able to visit and spend some time with so tomorrow should be a sad but great day.

Take care, Cath

August 1, 2010

catherinehickey — Sun, 1 Aug 2010 15:00:00 GMT

Haven’t posted in a while as we’ve been pretty busy on the weekends and I hope everyone is well. Over the past few weeks I’ve gone on a few hard hikes to beautiful waterfalls, gone to a local church with two teachers from my school, visited their homes and my last day of school was this past Friday so here goes…

A few Sunday’s ago I went to church with two teachers from my school and their families. Teacher’s Ruth and Lily. After getting lost on a Sunday morning for about 45 minutes (good thing I left nice and early!) I met Ruth and we walked into a little village, Sekena, to church together. The service began around 10:30 AM and ended around 1:45 PM although it didn’t seem nearly that long. The service was very active, lots of signing, dancing, it actually felt more like a party than any service I had been too before. The dancing and singing by the choir was very entertaining, lots of clapping and shouting praises although I didn’t understand a word at first because it was all in Swahili. About 15 minutes into the service one of Ruth’s friends showed up late and spotted me in the crowd, obviously easy as I was the only mzungu in the crowd. She translated for me which was great although I was so amused by everything it really didn’t matter I didn’t know what they were talking about. Towards the middle of the service there were two “collections.” For the first one we all walked up to the front of the room and put money into a little covered basket and immediately after a woman walked around with a narrow sack on a stick, it was probably about 18 inches deep and everyone dropped a few more coins in. Not sure why it was so long, my first assumption was that maybe it’s harder for someone to reach into and steal the money although maybe it’s mean for me to think that because it is at church…anyway, after that the pastor read about 7 passages from the Bible and talked about them and did a lot of promising to serve the Lord. Lots of shouting and singing, a free for all. I wish I brought my camera to try to sneak a few pictures or video some of it. All of a sudden everyone scooted their chairs back. Most of the chairs people use here are those white, cheap, plastic patio furniture chairs you can buy anywhere in the States. I wondered what was going on when all of a sudden everyone crouched down on their hands and knees into the tornado position from grade school and the pastor started ranting and raving and everyone started praying out loud and screaming and begging for forgiveness. People started crying and I was crouched down, couldn’t see anything, the blood was rushing to my head and we stayed this way for what I would estimate to be about 15 minutes. About half the time I wanted to stand up and see what everyone was doing and the other half the time I was wondering how long it was going to last and daydreaming about delicious Sunday brunch I wish I was going to eat after. Breakfast burritos, some Bongo Room apple pancakes with cinnamon ice cream, maybe an omelet, etc. Not happening. Anyway after about 15 minutes of this sobbing/ praying people shuffled back to standing. A few more songs and dance, the choir sang a final prayer and about 3.5 hours later the service was over. Seemed much faster than 3.5 hours and of course I was introduced to everyone and invited back, especially after I told them I was Catholic and I’m pretty sure they are convinced I need to be “saved” or something. The teachers were really excited I came and I’m glad I got to experience it.

Onto our hikes…the past two weekends we’ve gone on a few intense hikes. Last Saturday morning we left around 8 AM for the Marungu waterfalls which are right past the town of Moshi. We arrived a couple hours later and hired a local guide for the day which ended up being pretty expensive at 20,000 each (around $15 USD for the whole day which would be cheap in the U.S. but expensive here). We hiked about two hours into the bush and were out of breath, sweating and exhausted by the time we got there. Hiking might be understating it, it was more of a trot and uphill the entire time. At a few places we were almost going straight up and climbing on our hands and knees, grabbing onto tree roots and pulling ourselves up it was so steep! We finally arrived at the waterfalls and they were beautiful. There were only a few local people there washing clothes in the river. After spending some time relaxing on rocks and eating our snacks we hiked into a little village and this old man showed us some “Kilimanjaro” coffee plants and how they roast the beans. After the coffee we walked a little further to a small bar and sampled banana beer. They gave us a pail to share. After lots of imagining I convinced myself it tasted a little like banana. It was warm (it’s actually really hard to get a cold beer here, even at bars, you have to ask for a cold beer and most of the time they come back just slightly chilled, that’s taken a bit of getting used to but when you have no other options you get used to it!) and full of grainy bits and a dark murky tan color, not at all like regular beer. Add it to the list of things I’m glad I tried but wouldn’t be at all sad if I never had again in life. After the banana beer we hiked about another hour uphill to the base camp of Mt. Kilimanjaro which was great to see…I’ve decided not to climb Kili on this trip because after being here for almost 6 weeks with barely no cardio activity (we walk everywhere all day but I don’t at all count that as “training.”) I don’t feel prepared at all anymore. If I’m going to spend over $2,000 to climb a mountain for 6-7 days I want to be prepared! So, in place of Kili I’ve booked a 7 day yoga retreat on Zanzibar and I can’t wait! www.yogazanzibar.com. Anyway, base camp was neat and it was inspiring to see all the hikers that were about to start climbing and I will hopefully make it back with some friends over the next few years to climb. I’m also not sure about being stuck on a mountain for 6-7 days with a group of strangers I haven’t met and would rather do it with a group of people I know I can stand for that amount of time! After base camp we drove to see the last remaining house of the people of the Chagga tribe. There was a small man made cave they constructed underground for security purposes, to hide when invading tribes entered their area. It was so short and narrow, we had to waddle like ducks and crawl on our hands and knees most of the time. I’m not claustrophobic but was getting nervous and everyone’s legs were cramping and shaking from being so tired, especially after all the hiking we had already done that day. We were covered in clay and dirt but got some great pictures from the day.

Last week I visited the home of Lily, a teacher at my school. I met her husband and two children, Charity and Phillip at church the week before. Charity is 4 and in the “baby” class at our nursery school. She’s super sweet and smart. She has great English and Lily told me at school on Monday that all she talked about the rest of the day on Sunday after church was about how she “talked English with a mzungu.” We got off the school bus and walked a ways down a little dirt road into a pretty little village. Her home consisted of two rooms, the main room you walk into with two little couches, the kids bed, a little coffee table, a cabinet with their dishes and other things. The walls were painted bright blue and the cement floors were covered in blankets. The other room could barely just fit the parents bed. They had a little area outside where all the cooking was done. I played with her kids and then she came back into the room with thermos of tea, two mugs of porridge for the kids and a bowl with 4 bright pink hot dogs in it. Yeah, they were all for me. I tried convincing her for a while that I was still full from lunch at school but she wasn’t having it. I’ve mentioned it before but people here really get offended if you don’t accept food or drink they provide anytime. There were just four hot dogs in a bowl, no bread, no fork etc. I picked up the first one and just ate it down as fast I could, tried taking a break and offering it to the kids but that didn’t work. I choked down two more and was finally able to convince her I was way too full from the tea and first three to eat the last one. Of course the kids were overjoyed they got to share the last one which made me feel bad because I didn’t want any of them. Not sure what hot dogs are even made of in the U.S. and I’m sure African hot dogs are probably ten times worse! Didn’t get sick so that’s a positive…

We hiked to more waterfalls yesterday which was a 7 hour round trip and we’re all super sore and tired today. The biggest one was about 500 meters high (at least that’s what the locals told us but who knows…it was really high though) and the hike through the countryside was absolutely beautiful. We only had to pay 4,000 each to bribe a local tribe to let us onto their land to hike through which was a lot cheaper than last week.

My last day of school was Friday and it was really bittersweet. The show was great but I’m really sad I won’t see the kids as they are now on break for the next month. I’ll post more on that this week. I’m going to take the next few weeks and visit other volunteer placements, schools and orphanages in the area so that will be neat.

Anyway, running out of internet time right now so more on my last day of school next week. I can’t believe I’ve been here for 6 weeks already, time has flown by! Hope everyone is doing well!

Take care, Catherine

July 16, 2010

catherinehickey — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Hope everyone had a great 4^th of July! It’s been a few weeks since my last post, thanks everyone for your emails! A quick note, my friend Marisa had to leave early and unexpectedly and flew back to the U.S. last weekend. She was away in Zanzibar for the weekend and got a call from her brother, her parents were biking and hit by a car, they were in the ICU for 4 days and have had multiple surgeries and should hopefully be okay but they have months of recovery ahead of them so please keep them in your prayers. I also got hit with a bug for about a week but after mysterious medicine I’ve been well for over 24 hours , hopefully I just didn’t jinx myself!

Well, obviously 4^th of July isn’t celebrated here but since it fell on a Sunday we were able to celebrate with a trip to the pool at the Impala Hotel on the nice side of town. It was my first trip over the river and I felt like I walked into the Emerald City or something. Nice hotels, restaurants, yeah! We walked the whole way there because the weather was so nice and it took about 2 hours inclusive of a 30 minute coffee break at a nice café. Funny how excellent coffee beans are exported all over the world from Africa but there’s absolutely no where to get a good cup by our house and I’m sure if we were actually able to find a bean grinder and coffee pot it would blow a fuse when we plugged it in. All we get is instant coffee in the morning and it doesn’t run a close second to Starbucks Via (instant). Arrived at the pool and for 5,000 tsh (about $3.50 USD) we got a nice lounge chair, fluffy towel and cushion. Excellent. Spent the day actually being able to listen to my IPOD in public and reading. Unfortunately there was no 4^th of July bbq but we had lunch at the hotel, Indian food which was really good but didn’t satisfy the BBQ cravings. A few of the guys asked if they sold fireworks and we were told there are no shops however the street orphans know how to make them. That didn’t sound like a very good idea as I didn’t come here to watch someone blow off a finger from a firework made by a 7 year old so the boys took a pass. Not a bad 4^th of July but missed my family and friends.

School is going well. The classes are having a performance for their parents on Friday July 30^th. I’m in charge of teaching the Level 1 and 2’s a song and poem each. My choices include: He’s got the whole world in his hands, the itsy bitsy spider (with a second verse about a monkey and a coconut tree which I don’t remember from school…), then poems about busy honey bees and a catapillar. My mom sent me a super cute poem about a purple zebra and I’m using that for art class next week. They don’t have crayons or anything so art is interesting. I’ve been trying to read them short stories and they draw out a scene from the story and label what color everything should be which also ties in a bit of spelling.

The main donor for my school is Epic Change www.epicchange.org . I am actually just about to look at the website for the first time after I post this update. The founders arrived Sunday and are here for two weeks working on projects and visiting. They are super nice and I’m really excited. We’re in the process of building a library/ technology center which will hopefully be done in a few weeks. I can’t wait to start painting, we’re going to get a bunch of different colors of paint and have all the kids put their handprints on the walls. I’m also working with them to try to start a reading program to work on reading comprehension. They brought a lot of books every time they’ve come but they are sitting in storage and need a home. More on this in the coming weeks as things progress.

Answers to a few questions….thanks everyone who has offered to ship me treats but it’s basically impossible as there isn’t a mail system here. No homes have a street address, actually besides a few main roads in town there are no street names. Everyone has a P.O. box at the post office in town and things can be shipped there however I’ve heard boxes, letters, etc. will sit there for weeks before they are even sorted. There is no mailman. I asked how people pay bills and I guess the electric guy comes every month to take a manual reading, leaves an invoice and the homeowner has to go to the electric company to pay the bill. Long process.

Shopping- everyone buys food daily at a local market which consists of people sitting around on the side of the road selling fruit, vegetables, rice, beans, etc. Meat is bought from random butcher shops on the corners which consist of small tiled rooms, probably the size of a large cubicle in an office, and its just hung from the ceiling in large slabs and the butcher will chop off what you want. It’s not an attractive sight. Chickens are alive one day and dead and on the table the next. Also there is really no garbage system. Everyone just throws it on the street and burns it every few days.

Guess that’s it for now. Hopefully everyone is well! Take care, Cath

Maasai Village

catherinehickey — Fri, 2 Jul 2010 16:00:00 GMT

It’s Friday afternoon around 4 PM. Supposed to get out of school early on Friday’s (hooray!) at 12:30 PM but for some reason we didn’t board the school buses until 1:40 PM, then our bus ran out of gas on the way so that caused a 25 minute delay on the side of the road while the bus driver filled up a random jug of gas to pour into the gas tank through a plastic Coke bottle…then got closer to town, hopped off the school bus before it turned off the main road and the dalla dalla I got on broke down 10 minutes later. Fantastic. Luckily another crammed one pulled over and I squeezed on…meeting my friend Clare for dinner in a couple of hours and I don’t feel like going all the way back to my village to go home for 30 minutes before turning around and having another 45 minute commute back for dinner. Quality internet time a head of me.

Last Saturday morning I left with about 10 other volunteers at 7 AM for a 4 hour drive in a van with no shocks to visit a Maasai village. Not sure how many kilometers it was but about half the time we were probably driving about 15 km or less an hour because there wasn’t a real road, only a dirt road through the bush. The village we visited wasn’t a “tourist” Maasai village, it was the village of one of the guards at one of the big volunteer houses here. It was apparent when we arrived they were not expecting us nor were they used to seeing white people. Suny, our host, was so excited during the drive because he hadn’t seen his family in over 4 months.

We arrived on the outskirts of the village and had to stop into the hut of the village elder for permission to pass. Jeff, the tallest and oldest male in our group was presented to ask for group permission. Permission was granted and everyone filed out to sign our names into a dusty, dirty, rarely used visitors journal. We got back into the van and drove a little further. Soon, about 8 Maasai men were walking towards our oncoming van down the middle of the road to meet us. The village consisted of about 5 thatched roof homes with dirt walls. Approximately 35 people live there, in the middle of absolutely no where with no modern amenities, running water, etc. To the north we could see the mountain range on the Kenyan border, and Mt. Meru and Kilimanjaro also. It was really beautiful. We were welcomed and sat on the ground in a circle and given cups of chai tea to drink (not nearly as delicious as a Chai from Starbucks which I am craving!). All of the children came up to us and were touching us, grabbing our hands, touching our hair, etc. because some of them had never seen a white person before. They were frightened of Colin, a redhead with freckles which they thought were a disease. The children were covered in dirt and dust and there were flies landing all over them and they didn’t even flinch. Only two people in the group knew any English, luckily our driver and Suny were somewhat able to translate. The men, women and children all dress the same, many layers of blankets wrapped around their bodies, both sexes have large holes in their ears and the women wear many layers of heavy handmade jewelry. Shortly thereafter they were singing and dancing and welcoming us and we joined in. Didn’t know any of the words but dancing consisted of a lot of hopping around which was easy enough to pick up. After dancing we were invited into a few homes. The interior consists of two rooms, a room for sleeping and a room with the fire. They said it takes approximately two weeks to construct a home between gathering the materials through construction. We had to take pictures to see the interior because it was pitch back inside. The beds are made of sticks woven together and lay a few inches off the floor with animal skins to lay on. The male of the family gets the bed and the wife and children sleep on the floor if the bed isn’t big enough.

We spent more time sitting around with the children who were amazed with our cameras and seeing pictures of themselves. While we were sitting around the males of our group were summoned to go pick out a goat for dinner. About 20 minutes later they came back with a cute little goat. L The men gathered and brought out a few huge knives. They seemed to stare at the goat and talk for a while and finally two of the men held down the goat while a third slit its throat. My knees got weak…Blood was pouring out of the neck and one of the men held a cup to catch the blood. Their arms and legs were covered in blood splatters. The men passed the cup of warm blood around to drink! A couple volunteers tried it but that cup of blood was staying far away from me! After drinking the blood, they began skinning the poor little goat and took apart the animal. The men pulled out the kidneys and a few other parts and slurped them down raw. Yuck. They really don’t waste any part of the animal. They cut up huge chunks of meat which they stuck onto sticks and cooked over a fire. It took about 50 minutes to cook the meat, well done. When it was finished cooking we were invited to come eat. We sat on the ground again and they brought over hunks of meat one by one and cut off hunks for us to eat. Took a few small bites to try to be polite but passed off to the boys in our group every chance I got. They would also cut off huge pieces of fat and pass them for us to eat, we threw these “scraps” into a bowl. One guy looked in the bowl, looked back at all of us like we were crazy and just started eating all of our scraps. They ate almost the entire goat besides some of the intestines and fur, they even roasted the head after popping out the eyeballs.

After lunch we sat around a bit longer until it was time to leave. Upon departure we danced again and presented the gifts we brought to the elders to divide among the families. We brought rice, sugar, flour, chai and some candy for the kids. We paid 40,000 tsh (about $25.00) for the goat and gave them a “hospitality” donation of about 30,000 tsh. After a few more pictures we boarded the van for another bumpy, long 4 hour ride home. Hours of hot sun with barely any shade, flies, goat blood, dirty water…my bucket shower Saturday night was the best bucket shower ever.

A typical day

catherinehickey — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve gotten a few questions so here’s my attempt to answer most…a rundown of my typical day. It's Sunday here and everything is closed besides a few food stores and the internet cafe so I have some time.

I get up around 6:30 AM, although I’m usually awake by 5:30 when the roosters wake and the mosque about a ½ mile away begins the morning call to prayer. I’m getting used to both sounds and don’t wake up until my alarm goes off sometimes, or maybe I’m just exhausted. Get up, get dressed and ready to leave. I’ve only worn pants twice so far because no women wear pants here, only long skirts. Breakfast consists of a quick cup of hot tea and a slice of toast. At 7 AM, I walk out of my village to the main road, about 15 minutes give or take depending on how muddy it is and how many holes and puddles, there are to dodge. The roads are a challenge here, especially if it rains at all during the night. I catch the 1^st dalla dalla to town, sometimes I’m lucky and actually get a seat but most of the time there’s about 20 people crammed on the equivalent of an extended mini van. The other day I missed my stop because there were so many people and I was hunched over with my face in my lap and the driver didn’t stop where I asked him to. There are no set stops, it just goes in a certain direction depending on the color and you bang onto the wall or ceiling and yell “shoo sha” when you want to get off. The stop closest to my house is “shoo sha Pepsi” because there’s a Pepsi sign tacked to the wall of a shop at the corner. Okay.. hop off the first dalla dalla after a 15 minute ride to the center of the city and get on the second for about 20 minutes until my stop called Arusha Teachers College. Then walk about 2.5km down a dirt road into the village of Moivaro where my school is located. Along the way there are tons of kids playing that don’t go to school, a few people selling vegetables but it’s a very lush area with lots of banana trees, coffee plants and its really pretty and much more peaceful than where I live. There is so much pollution from the dalla dalla’s and you’re covered in dirt and dust the minute you walk out the door. Classes start around 8:15ish. My school is an English speaking school for the most part but its still hard to understand the kids sometimes, especially the smaller ones. The kids share books and its hard for them to learn and really absorb the information. I feel like 90% of the time is spent memorizing and repeating. I tried playing a Wheel of Fortune type game with them on the blackboard and they were having fun guessing letters but they were having a lot of difficulty, even when there was just one letter left to guess. The teachers here are more aggressive with discipline also. The kids get yelled at a lot more and are expected to sit quite or “sleep” while we grade their papers during class, teachers don’t bring any work home! I’ve also seen a few kids get a pinch when they’re bad. Around 10:40 AM we get a break, the cooks bring us tea and the kids get porridge to drink. It just looks like extra runny cream of wheat. Then two more hours of class. I was teaching the Level 6 kids about measurements the other day and they were good at remembering the information but it’s a challenge to explain examples, such as what a thermometer is when they’ve never seen one before and there are no physical materials to work with, no hands on at all and I’m in a private, good school. At 1 PM, we have lunch which is some combination of rice (plain, white), beans, sometimes some sort of chopped up spinach and once a week it seems there’s some kind of meat thrown in the rice. I always dump mine in the boys bowls, after seeing cows and chickens graze on the side of the dirty roads eating garbage there’s no way I’m eating that. Lunch and break is from 1-2 PM, then we have one more hour in my class that’s used to copy homework questions from the books and read before the day is over. Sometimes I cram into the school bus (pink painted short bus) with about 40 kids sitting all over the place, on the floors, each other’s laps and catch a ride to the main road where I start the dalla dalla process all over again. We usually walk a decent portion of the way home and stop at the internet café or Shoprite (Western style grocery store that’s expensive, even in tsh) for toilet paper (I carry it around with me because most places don’t have any, they don’t even have it at school and I’m assuming that means most people don’t use it or maybe everyone secretly carries around rolls of toilet paper, haven’t figured that one out). The walk home is always crowded and busy because everyone is trying to sell something or just hanging out. I believe the unemployment rate is around 67% although I have no clue how it would actually be measured. There are women sitting alongside the roads in the dirt selling all sorts of fruit and vegetables, really cheap. You always have to haggle unless you want to pay about double, sometimes triple the actual price. Avocados are about 200 tsh (Tanzanian shillings) which is about 15 cents each. We get pineapples for the equivalent of 75 cents each. There are people selling large piles of shoes and clothing, nothing new, donated from some Western country, usually the U.S. I’ve only seen one new clothing shop so far which was a Woolworth by the Shoprite. There are kids running all over and you can tell which ones go to school and which ones don’t because they are usually barefoot, super dirty and in rags that are falling apart. It’s really sad. The people and kids that live in our village never really seem to leave and sit outside their houses all day cooking corn, rice and hanging out. There are cows, chickens and goats just walking down the street all the time. This one lady usually holds up her baby in the air when I walk by and yells “baby” and smiles at me. I’m not sure if she’s trying to sell me her baby or what. Usually get home around 6 PM before dark because its not safe to be out after dark as muggings and theft is common. When we go out at night we usually call one of the cabs who’s info was provided by our program, also the only places you ever see police are walking around the outside of banks. At night we have dinner which is always a starch with either some random vegetables in a sauce or meat. Rice, mashed potatoes, noodles, sometimes we get some fruit. The food is really plain and I’m getting bored already. Should have brought some soy sauce or something! There aren’t really any restaurants by our village, we did go to a pizza place that took about an hour to get to which was really good and I have the feeling I’ll be trekking an hour again soon! After dinner is showers and TV time. The TV is super small, fuzzy and old. Showering is a whole other process. First you have to fill up a bucket with water, then pour it into a big metal witch cauldron type thing outside and wait about 25 minutes for it to get hot, then pour some back into the original bucket and fill the rest with cool water and go into the shower room which is just a tiled room with a drain. The rest of the time is spent dumping water over your head and shampooing, soaping up and rinsing. I’m used to the process but looking forward to the convenience of a real shower whenever I meet one in the future! We watch TV with Mama Zubeyda and her daughter who’s 15 and home from school break. They are very well off compared to most families. She has two other daughters who are away at school, her husband passed away about 3 years ago. We’re usually in bed covered by mosquito netting by 10 PM or so, I can’t remember getting this much sleep although I’m always exhausted from so much walking and the kids all day long. It’s kind of strange thinking about the fact that for a majority of the people here their days revolve around completing tasks necessary to live. Waking up on a mat on the floor, going to the market to buy flour, maize, rice and beans, that most people have never seen a TV and have probably never eaten a pizza. That being said, everyone seems to be happy, never in a rush to get anywhere, everyone greets you for the most part with a “mambo” which is kind of slang or “what’s up, how are you”, the response is “poa” or “cool.” They really appreciate any Swahili but people always want to work on their English. Everyone knows “good morning” and that’s what they say anytime of day so I find myself replying “good morning” at 5 in the evening. Beginning to recognize people in the streets, especially a lady that tries selling me corn everyday because she wears eye makeup with painted on eyebrows. The only woman I’ve seen wearing makeup here.

A few funny observations: I love seeing all the American t-shirts, especially the few people I’ve seen wearing “kiss me, I’m Irish” shirts.

A woman I was talking to the other day got very confused when she was asking about my hair. She thought all white people have blond hair and we dyed it different colors. Guess it makes sense because everyone here has the same black hair.

That basically sums it up…please feel free to email me or ask any questions, I love hearing from everyone! Kwaheri, Catherine

June 21, 2010

catherinehickey — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Beginning my second week in Mbauda, Tanzania which the name of our village outside Arusha. I’ve walked around most of my village and Arusha, however I still haven’t found the “touristy” part because I haven’t seen one restaurant or hotel mentioned in my guidebook or any other “mzunga” a/k/a “white person.” All the little kids on the street yell mzunga at us all day long.

Thought I was going to be in an orphanage but I’ve been placed at Shephard Junior School which is in Moivaro and have been observing a level 3 class the past week. I’ll be getting my first assignments to prepare tomorrow, not that I’ve ever taught a day in my life before so wish me luck! It’s actually a pretty well off school compared to most others however the kids still share books and have to copy homework questions off the board every night. They also sharpen pencils with razor blades, yikes! I was surprised by how exceptionally well behaved they are although the teachers said even the very little kids in nursery level understand what a privilege it is to attend the school. And yes, some of these kids walk 45 minutes on their own to catch a 25 minute school bus ride to school everyday. The 3^rd graders have class from 8 AM to 3 PM everyday, levels 4 and 6 have class until 5 PM as they are preparing for national exams, they also attend class on Saturdays for 4 hours.

Last weekend was my first weekend here. Saturday Marisa (super nice girl I live with from Boston) walked up to the cultural center and toured the galleries and bought bracelets. When we were walking around after talking to some of the workers (well, greeting for the most part) in Swahili the owner of the shop came up to us and asked us if we were local. We told him we’d be around for a couple months and he told us to come back and he would give us 30% back for the “local discount.” Nice. Then we got invited and put on a list for the Arts Fest the next day which was fun. Mostly singing and dancing and food. We also went up to Shanga House which is a shop where deaf and mute woman work making jewelry. We had an excellent lunch there with champagne, fresh juice and about 4 courses and a bottle of wine for about $15 each. The place is really beautiful and hopefully someday I’ll be able to post pictures!

That’s it for now, settling in and getting used to everything. It gets dark really early now because it’s the winter and the electricity and lights are super dim. It’s hard to read and write after about 7 PM. We have a TV and Mama Zubeyda and her family are obsessed with watching Brazilian soap operas, the favorite is “Shades of Sin” and American music videos, no clue where the DVD’s come from though.

Hope all is well! Take care, Catherine

Arusha I'm here!

catherinehickey — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:30:00 GMT

I've arrived in Arusha, Tanzania as of Sunday night around 10 PM. This post is going to be short because the internet connection is incredibly slow and I haven't planned much out. Also not sure when I'll be able to upload pictures but will try my best.

Not sure if any amount of research/ pictures/ etc. could prepare someone for the reality of daily life here. Took my first "shower" (and only shower so far and its Wednesday!) with a bucket of hot water on Monday night, not so bad, toilet is a hole in the ground but a very nice ceramic tiled hole, also very interesting. The street I walk down to get to my house is a dirt road, as they all are with more holes and bumps than the Dan Ryan in January, I thought I needed a neck brace after I got dropped off. Our mode of transportation is by dalla dalla or walking. Dalla dalla's are extended mini van type vehicles however they cram about 24 people in them at a time. I'm sure I'll crash in one at some point. 5 minutes left on this internet...what else...yes, every woman carries around large baskets of fruit, rice, etc. on their heads, I just don't understand how they do it! Goats, chickens, a few cows wander around the streets, I really don't know how they remember what home to go home to at night but somehow they do and then the roosters get to sleep in the kitchen and start making noise and waking us up at 5 AM. Awesome :)

I love it here, today was my first day at the school and the kids and everyone is so welcoming and grateful we're here. Takes about 1.5 hours to get to school riding two dalla dalla's then walking for maybe 20 minutes. I'll write more later! Cath

Jambo

catherinehickey — Wed, 9 Jun 2010 00:15:00 GMT

Tuesday, June 8, 2010. Staring out the window at my gorgeous, perfect view of downtown Chicago with less than an hour until my 30^th birthday. Can’t exactly say I’ve forgotten it’s my birthday tomorrow but the day is definitely overshadowed by the fact I’m leaving for Tanzania on Saturday afternoon. Never would have imagined a few years ago that I would be packing up and moving to Africa to volunteer and travel for five months but I’m incredibly confident I’m setting out on the right path.

My last day at work was Friday, May 21, 2010. I worked in banking/ commercial lending for about seven and a half years after holding various important jobs such as: babysitter, lifeguard/ swim teacher, waitress, a two week stint shelving books (for some reason I never made it back on the schedule after the first one came out, wonder if falling asleep in the break room after a late Saturday night had anything to do with that…whoops!), a two week stint folding shirts at Marshall Field’s and nannying the summer after graduating from Purdue. Not sure if hanging out in Cape Cod with a fantastic family and one of my best friends Heather (who I convinced not to get a “real” job and join me nannying for another family in the same town) was considered a job though.

While I’ve learned an incredible amount over the past seven years and have met many people that have become amazing friends, I feel it’s time for me to take a step back and figure out where I want to be and what I want to do at this point in my life. I’m so grateful for the love and support from my friends and family. I will miss all of you and can’t wait to see everyone that’s planning on meeting up at some point during my trip!

I wish everyone the best while I’m gone! Email and keep in touch.

Kwaheri,

Catherine

Photos: Profile

catherinehickey — Wed, 2 Jun 2010 12:09:00 GMT

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