Africa!

The final two weeks :(

derski — Mon, 1 Mar 2010 21:33:00 GMT

Hey, so this most likely will be my last post, since my time is sadly winding down. Four of my closest friends leave this week, so it really sucks. Then next week is my last and I have to say goodbye to my kids, ugh I am going to be a mess. Lots of things still to see and do here, this weekend I am going to a Maasai village for the night...so that should be really interesting to learn more about their culture. Lots of other trips are in the making. I survived the half marathon!! Actually for not training at all, I did really well. I ran it in 2 hours and 20 minutes. It was beyond beautiful tho, looking up and seeing the peaks of Kili. All the Olympic runners were there from Kenya and Tanzania, so that was cool to see. I got a medal and t-shirt for finishing in the top 1,500 (there were about 4,000 people in our race). I am hurting like hell today tho! So thanks everyone for reading my little blog and commenting!! See you in a couple weeks!

Zanzibar

derski — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:51:00 GMT

I am back to the swing of things in Arusha. Twelve of us girls went to Zanzibar for the past week and hands down the best part of the trip so far. Zanzibar has nothing on a safari. We stayed in Stonetown which is my favorite city in the world. We planned it so we would be there during the music festival “Sauti za busara” or sounds of wisdom festival. (I think there is something there with my name being in the Swahili word wisdom ;) ) Anyways it was awesome, very European feel, lots of history, lots of shopping. I just walked around all day, went to the beach, ate and ate. The streets are little alley ways with beautiful old buildings everywhere. Then at night we ate dinner at the outside seafood market, where I tried everything squid, octopus, shark…. It was the best food. My fav was Zanzibar pizza, totally different then ordinary pizza even in Tanzania. You could have all different kinds, but my favs were either mango or plantains with chocolate. I actually stayed until dinner the next night so I could get more food there and then headed north to Kendwa beach. SO beautiful, the water was so crystal clear. We stayed 3 nights there, in dirt cheap rooms right on the beach. It was a very lazy vacation; my only exercise was walking up and down the beach. Lol I found some sick shells tho, they are huge! Im excited because I am now pretty tan. Arusha is pretty mild temp wise, but Zanzibar was extremely hot. My valentines day was spent on the beach with all the girls, we went big and had an amazing dinner, literally on the beach. It is nice to be back in Arusha tho I really missed my kids and it is nice to not have to spend money. Lol Zanzibar is expensive! Oh well it was so worth it! Lots to tell about the trip, but I will save the stories until I get back. This weekend me and the girls are running/walking the Kilimanjaro half marathon. We haven’t trained at all really, but it is around the foothills of Kilimanjaro mountain, so it is going to be awesome. We will do more talking then running, but I am really excited for it!!

Photos: Zanzibar and my new hair!

derski — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:25:00 GMT

New Hair

derski — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:09:00 GMT

Zanzibar was so amazing! I am trying to put up pics right now and also some of my new African hair! Big shock to the system, different color, length, and style. I love it tho, rainy season has started so it stinks becuase I cant get my hair wet. My friend and I just got stuck in the rain so I ran for cover lol. Hopefully the braids will last until I get home, I am an African now!

More tid bits!

derski — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 20:11:00 GMT

Hello! Hopefully I will have some pics up on here too with this post, crossing my fingers that it will work. You will be able to see pics of my house and then pics and a video of my class! I love them they are so adorable. One boy, Rial (boy in yellow in the pics), totally has my heart, sorry Jason lol! Other than teaching in the mornings my afternoons are packed with walking all around Arusha. I have made friends with some Tanzanians so I have them pick out real Tanzanian hole in the wall places to eat lunch, I stay away from anything Western here. Some afternoons I go to the Rwanda Tribunal, the public can watch the trials of those on trial from the Rwanda genocide. It is pretty intense, I actually was able to see (and I am still following it) one of the big dogs in the creation of the genocide. Then of course I find time to “window shop” and practice my bargaining in the streets and markets. I really love this city and of course Africa in general, so I hate going back to my house because it doesn’t make me feel like I am in Tanzania. Don’t get me wrong, I love the house, we are like a big sorority, so many girls, but I seriously don’t have a problem with anyone, we do well together. A week from today 12 of us girls are road tripping to Zanzibar!!! Google it, it is going to be amazing. We are going for a full week, half the time in Stonetown because there is a huge music festival going on, then we head 2 hours north to Kendwa beach. Yes my valentines day will be on the beach were they are having a big party, but minus Jason  It is going to be sick tho the water is soooooo blue!!! Also I posted one of my friends albums on my facebook, much easier for me the work is already done! As for this weekend, I am going with some of the girls and our Tanzanian friend a ways out of town to a village market and then Saturday I am spending all day at the local market and Sunday church at the Catholic Church really excited to check it out. Last Sunday I went to a Baptist church here and 2 hours later I was still having an amazing time! It seriously was a party, dancing, singing, yelling. Lol

Photos: Arusha

derski — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 19:41:00 GMT

Arusha

derski — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:48:00 GMT

I live about 10 minutes outside of Arusha town. I take either a dalladalla which is a minibus packed with people for about 30 cents or a taxi to get to town. We have a shoprite so that is where we go for supplies and snacks. Other than that there are markets to buy fruit and gifts... which of course is my fav because I bargain like noneother and I now bargain for all the girls with me. I could shop everyday!!! Arusha is a good size, lots smaller than Accra, Ghana. People are so friendly and its pretty safe. We never walk or go out at night without a taxi though. There are dance clubs and really cheap but great restauants. Arusha is a big tourist town since we are close to everything. I would recommend it for sure tho!!

Safari!!!

derski — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:40:00 GMT

On Sunday I returned from my 3 day/2 night safari. :( It was so amazing...I am not a big animal person, but I decided to go anyways since pretty much my entire house was going. Friday we left bright and early for the Serengeti which tok about 6 hours because we made a lot of stops. The second you enter the park you see literally hundreds if not thousands of zebras, gazelles, buffalo, etc. It is the best time to take a safari since the animals are in Tanzania for their migration period. So long story short we saw about a dozen lions, and even more elephants and giraffes the first day. We stayed in tents both nights the first night in the serengeti and the second onto of Ngorongoro crater. I think that the serengeti has NOTHING on Ngorongoro crater. THe third day we spent in the crater which was amazing. I was surrounded by completely green mountains and then there is a forest area where we saw a ton of baboons and monkeys (which is a whole different story, but they got in our land cruiser!!). Then a flat area where we were 5 ft from the big daddy lion, it was the best he was glaring at us then he roared so we got the hell out of there! There were about 8 of them some where still chewing on a buffalo they got that morning. We also saw a leapord and so many more (but not as cool animals). The first night of camping we woke up to buffalo hoofs, it was being chased by a lion! The second night my friend woke me up because 3 elephants were about 10 ft from our tent! It was an awesome time, now for the shitty part...today I acidentally erased all my pics from my camera. Thankfully I had 4 other girls with me that took the same pics, but that means no Amsterdam pics. Im really bummed but oh well nothing I can do about it now. Hakuna Matata! Going to a village this weekend to get out of the city again...

Familia!!

derski — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:49:00 GMT

As I was rereading my posts I remembered that my Dad and bro were able to see these and I only gave a shout out to my Mamma, so Daddy and Dev I love you guys. Dev I hope you got my text!!! Miss you all!!

Food and Drinky Drinks!!!

derski — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:36:00 GMT

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

So I know certain people are wondering about the food I eat and especially the drinks! J First off, the food is amazing, and I eat way too much. We have 3 cooks in our house they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I always come home for lunch during school because first off its me and its free, so that’s a winner there and it is super amazing. For breakfast we have toast, hard boiled eggs and tea, then either omelets or pancakes (but they are really crepes). Then for lunches and dinners we have a carb-noodles, rice, a pita bread thingy or UGALI my favorite! Ugali is a mix of flour and something else and you use your hand to roll it into a ball and dip it in sauce. The carb is served with (for me) the vegetarian option of a mix of veggies in sauce, fresh veggie salad (peppers, avocado, lettuce, etc) pineapple, mango, and French fries. The girls that work at our house defiantly don’t let us go hungry! The drinks….I have not drank much, but I have tried a few sips here and there. All the girls here are wine drinkers so I opt for the beer. My fav is banana beer which tastes like a mixed drink and tastes more like champagne ;) ;) It will mess you up after two for sure I had one and wow I was happy for the night. Then there is of course vodka and a gin which goes down real easy and I am bringing a bottle back for all my girls to taste. A beer which is 750 ml costs 1,000 shillings, less than a dollar! So I am in the right place lol We go out every Thursday so I will be able to update you all more in depth later lol!!!

Teaching

derski — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:59:00 GMT

Jambo! So I finally have started teaching…and I am in love with my kids and teaching in general…although not enough to make me have a career change. I assist in teaching pre class which is like kindergarten in the States. I teach at Jue Pre and Primary school all by myself (meaning no other volunteers with me), it is a middle English school and private. Which is Tanzania means it is one of the best schools you can go to, but is still way below any standard school I have seen in the States. I have on average 27 kids in my class and they are ADORABLE! Monday was my first day and I was a little overwhelmed, the entire school including teachers acted like they have never seen a white person (muzungu) before. So at break I went to play with the kids and not joking I was mobbed by at least 30 kids all trying to touch me and feel my hair. Lol So to put it in short I am the coolest kid in school, kids will come into class just to say hi to me and teachers too. They are constantly petting my hair and touching my skin, I am like a science project, but I don’t mind because I understand I look totally different. Everyone is really nice though and I know I will help with the productivity level, because they really dont get much done in a day. Whenever I am at my desk grading there is one boy named Siad, who will copy my every move all day. lol So anyways all else is good. Me and some girls went on a mini safari on Sunday and saw giraffes and zebras, etc. Tanzania is beautiful and so green! I think that is all for now, more teaching stories to come. Sorry I dont think I will put up my pics becuase it takes forever to download!

Finally Tanzania...the good shit ;)

derski — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:38:00 GMT

Jambo!! So I could write forever lots to tell. I live in the nicest house ever brand new with 20 girls...yes 20!! They are from all over and I am learning more then I ever thought I could already! My Kiswahili is getting very good and I get complimented on it all the time from Tanzanians. "Oh muzungu (white person) you speak my language!!!" Anyways hopefully I can get my pics up and much more to come. Mamma I am calling you tonight...miss you so much. I start teaching Monday I get to pick the grade and subject. Need to teach the kids good songs so if anyone thinks of some just comment to let me know! OK love you all!

The city with a thousand bridges

derski — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:21:00 GMT

To make use of my 9 hour layover in Amsterdam I decided to travel out and see some sights. Amsterdam is lovely! I went on a canal tour and mostly just walked around and window shopped. Of course I had to see the red light district which was crazy! Anyways my plane to Nairobi is delayed for 3 hours...but soon I will be in Africa soon!! (p.s this computer won't allow my pics so I hope to put them up soon!!

Call me for free!

derski — Fri, 8 Jan 2010 09:12:00 GMT

There is this phone number 1-800-FREE-411 where you have to listen to two 20 second ads first, but then you will be able to call me for free for 5 minutes! So keep that in mind, it says you can call mostly anywhere so I hope it works for Tanzania!

Getting ready to leave!!!

derski — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:25:00 GMT

Hello everyone! I decided to do an online journal so all my friends and family can see what I am up to...plus I won't have to send any e-mails out. So if you want to hear from me then bookmark my journal page!! Similar to when I was in Ghana I don't plan to go online that much..I would rather spend my money on other things. So I hope this journal will keep you all from missing me too much ;)