Dar es Salaam

Our next part of our check list was to go to Dar es Salaam where we were to start classes at the university and to stay with our awaiting host families. We got to Dar after a long and hot bus ride from Arusha late in the night on February 15th. We could all feel each others excitement for our next adventures that awaited us in Dar. Our first day in the city we got to visit one of the cities beautiful white sanded beaches with crisp aqua blue water. The water was so warm it almost felt like bath water. I think it was a nice change of pace and a sense of relief for us all seeing the Indian Ocean and taking in the salt water breeze. It was a wonderful welcoming to Dar for us all.

On Friday we had our orientation into the university and got to have a sense of what classes would be like. We officially started class on Monday the 20th of February, where it was such an odd feeling for us all to have gone from a busy month of traveling to Dar where we were settled in one place and began classes again. It was a shock to us all. We each are taking four classes five days a week and have our internships twice a week. Although our orientations are not exactly what we had imagined them to be, will be a good experience for us all to understand the true meaning of working in East Africa.

The six of us are split into two's at three different home stays, just thirty minutes from the university. Our experiences at our home stays have been different from one house to the next, due to some having siblings and some having house help, but we are all enjoying our home's very much and have felt very welcomed into our houses.

Arusha

In between Moshi and Dar es Salaam we headed back to Arusha our base camp at the UACC where we had a week before the crazy life of traffic and havoc in the city. So we enjoyed the company of the orphans, the other volunteers at the UACC and a large group of high school students that came to spend a week at the center. It is never a dull place around the center but instead is always filled with joy and excitement. We were taught how to make batiks by Max, the art teacher at the center and some of us got the pure joy of sitting in on the english classes at the center and help teach english to the local swahili teenagers. We also got to have more play time with the orphans, making stronger relationships with the kids and got to help volunteer at a local organization called Food, Water, Shelter. The NGO was started by two australian women who were determined to raise money for widowed and abandoned mothers in Tanzania in 2007 and by 2009 the women had raised enough money to come to Arusha to start their own business and have been successful ever since. They are currently housing seven widowed mothers and their children, have a school for children from ages in pre-school to primary schooling and are responsible for a great amount of the produce that comes from the local area. They built all eco-friendly housing for the mama's (as they refer them to) with solar panels on the roofs and wind turbines. They don't use any source of oil in their energy use and have hired an environmental coordinator to be in charge of their environmental aspects.

We got the pure pleasure of working on their farm that day by helping them with small things like watering and digging. Some were in charge of digging pig manure from one side of the farm and moving it with a wheel barrow to another part of the farm and filling in some trenches with the manure. While some were in charge of watering the newly planted mango and lemon trees with water from the organizations own hand made pond. After we all helped water the vegetable, fruit and plant farm by a foot pump that pumped water from the pond. It was a successful day filled with enjoyment working in the dirt under the hot African sun. It was a great way day to spend Valentines Day, a day dedicated to love. But instead we spread our love to the African land and to the widowed mama's and the children.

Moshi

Next on our list of to do's was to head to Moshi for our main excitement the hike to the first hut on Mt. Kilimanjaro. But before the hike we got the pleasure of meeting up with 3 Peace Core volunteers where they took us to an environmental organization that was started by local women. The organization called Trees for the Future was a very impressionable experience for us all because we got to see this group of middle aged local women who were spending their own time to help reforest the mountain. Deforestation on Mt. Kilimanjaro is a serious issue facing the mountain and its melting glacier. We got to kneel down on the soil side by side with the women and help plant new tree seeds. Even though there seemed to be a language barrier between the women and the students, we all seemed to have broken that barrier and fit right in with the women by singing, smiling and laughing with them all.

The day we visited a group of local women who are taking the issues of Mt. Kilimanjaro very seriously and taking the issues and problems in their own hands by replanting trees was a day where I also found peace and joy with all that surrounded me. The welcoming we received from the group with an upbeat and positive song about the wonderful and lovely guests (which was us) was such a comforting feeling. I noticed that our group of eccentric characters, personalities and beliefs all got their hands dirty and jumped right in to help these women. Although we may all have gone to different extents to truly dirty our hands, we all felt a desire to help. The woman I got to know and work side by side while we planted seeds inside individually wrapped soil packets, was a woman named Rahenna. I could instantly distinguish her caring, loving and beautiful soul. She was old enough to be my mother and I could detect her motherly actions as she taught me how to properly plant the seeds in the soil so they will grow into strong trees. I was trying to communicate with her but soon realized she spoke very little English and I spoke very little Swahili, which caused a frustrating language barrier between us. But as one of the workers sat next to us while Rahenna and I worked together, he helped break this barrier between us and translated for both of us. She began trying to teach me Swahili, with words like the name of the seed we were planting and different anatomy words like finger and hand. I tried teaching her words in English and the man would translate for me and she would then smile and nod her head as if she had understood what I was trying to get through to her. She told me I was her teacher and she was my pupil. This woman was old enough to be my mother and yet I was her teacher? I felt so privileged to have been able to teach Rahenna a few words in English. But then she began saying a sentence over and over again in Swahili, which I could not understand. Finally the man translated for me saying “wa wa mzuri” which means you are very beautiful and strong. I was immediately flabbergasted and taken aback and responded saying “who me?!?”. For this woman I had known for only a few minutes and whom I could barely communicate with was flattering me with such lovely compliments and acted like she already knew who I was. We continued to work side by side until it was time to leave. When it came that time, I turned to face Rahenna and gave her a big hug, a hug that I tried to communicate to her how much I appreciated her and all that she had done for me in the thirty minutes I had known her. I hugged her like someone I had known for a long time and as she hugged me back, while sending me off with unknown words in Swahili, she kissed me on each check and said, “please come back anytime”. I knew then that this woman, someone’s daughter, wife and mother, truly meant what she had said to me, a stranger. Even though we came from two different countries, two different lives, worlds, languages and cultures, we connected over something we both had a passion for, the environment. We both had the same passion and desire to make a difference in the environment that surrounded us.

These women were unpaid volunteers who were giving up their own time to come and face the situation of global climate change that is deteriorating the environment on Mt. Kilimanjaro every day. They understand the problems the people and the mountain face and instead of giving up or waiting for others to come help them and relieve them of their problems, they are fighting for a solution on their own. Although these women may not have the expensive resources they could use to reforest the mountain efficiently and quickly, they are getting by with what little resources they do have. Their spirits never dropped when we were there but instead being there with them, side by side, our spirits and theirs were continuing to be uplifted together and filled with joy. It gives hope and sends out a message to the rest of the world that we don’t always need the newest and the most efficient technology to fix a problem. It can take just a group of determined and passionate enough people to find a way to make a difference.

Monday morning we headed out to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, or at least hike to the first hut. We took our first step on the mountain some time after 10am. Our guide was a member of the Bush Tribe from Arusha who are also a clicking tribe. He tried for ten minutes trying to teach me how to say "look at me" in his clicking language. I failed miserably even after ten minutes realizing how hard it was to find the exact clicks and noises to make with your mouth. He was very informative about the mountain and the people. I could tell his excitement by our young energy and eagerness to get to the first hut. It became an adventure for us all.

Although we all hiked at our own pace causing the group to become scattered and dispersed I would have to say it was a moving experience for us all. I started off the hike thinking about the people who live on the mountain and who rely on the mountain's resources like it's water, soil, tropical forest at the basin of the mountain and so on. We all immediately took in the mountains natural beauty such as the tropical birds, diverse species of monkeys and the forest. We enjoyed each others company as we sang, talked and laughed on the way up the mountain and relying on one another for the help to get up the mountain as it became steeper. But what made us all suck up the pain of the steepness of the mountain was seeing a handful of porters walking up the mountain at a faster pace than us with a 50-100 pound bag of potatoes on their heads. This kind of made us all suck up our complaints and realize just carrying our small bags was not nearly as bad as a 100 pound bag of potatoes, on our head. After about 3 hours give or take we made it to the first hut of the mountain. We had hiked through the tropical forest and had finally come into the alpine zone. We were able to see the Kenyan side of the mountain, looking down upon a magnificent amount of land stretched below us filled with lower peaks of the mountain and a river that held crocodiles. I could easily say we were all taken aback at that moment by the mountains magnificent beauty.

The walk down was much simpler than the walk up and by the time we were heading back a lively and energetic vibe had filled the group with even more laughter and singing because we all knew that we had reached our goals for the day. It was a successful day on the moinatin for us all. But what we were all left wondering about was what would happen to the mountain and its serious issue of global climate change that faces it in 2012? What happens when the people continue to ignore the flashing warning signs in front of them? What happens to Mt. Kilimanjaro and all the people it provides clean water for? What happens the main source of income for Tanzania, farming? Agriculture is a huge part of Tanzania’s income. Tanzania relies heavily on the land and those farming the land for rice, coffee, fruits and vegetables will no longer be able to irrigate the farms. Even before the colonials came over with their corrupted ideas of cash crops, Tanzania and most African countries have always had an agricultural economy that relies mostly on the land. So when a large portion of the land in Tanzania can no longer support the people because of the worlds decision to neglect the warning signs of Mt. Kilimanjaro, then Tanzania’s economy will crash and burn.

So what does this mean for the local Tanzanians that are faced with these environmental issues of Mt. Kilimanjaro? It means they must change the way they live their daily lives. It means their cropping and farming may be shortened by a few months this year because of the lack of water from the draught which then cuts back their source of income. It is a vicious cycle that will never end but instead will continue to degrade not only the environment but also the people and their source of income. So what can we do to help is the lingering question?

Safaris

So it has been awhile since the blog has been updated and a lot has happened since January. We have gone on safaris in Tanzania, visited Moshi where the magnificent and powerful Mt. Kilimanjaro stands and finally we set off to Dar es Salaam, our second home base after Arusha.

Jija has some words about the safaris. "We had been in Africa for whole of two weeks and it was finally time for safaris! I guess as much as we say that we are here to study and get acclimatized to the culture of East Africa and interact with the locals, there is a tourist lurking in all of us and going on the infamous safaris and clicking pictures of the exotic animals was definitely a very exciting thought! But it wasn’t until we were actually in our safari van, (which we named ‘majestical George’ just for the record!), that I got the true feeling of being in Africa! I think all of us got flashbacks from the all-time classic, The Lion King and felt like we were right in the middle of it, the circle of life! It’s one thing to see a picture of a lion, no matter how realistic it may be, and it is a completely different scene altogether when you have four lionesses just roaming around your car and it definitely was an inexplicable feeling!

I think one of the most interesting facts I noticed about these animals was when we were in the Gnorongoro crater. I had been told by everyone who had been there before that it was one of the most beautiful places they had seen with breathtaking views and as much as I agree with that, I think one of the best parts about the place was the co-existing of all the different types of animals. Standing in our safari car, peeping my head out from the roof, I saw the vast expanse of greenery in front of me with the wild beasts, zebras, buffalos and flamingos all in one place, sharing the grass and the water. If these animals could live with each other and share the available resources, why is it so hard for us humans to do so? We call ourselves the most advanced of the species on earth, and yet, as compared to a human baby that takes close to two to three years to be able to walk on its own feet, the wild beast baby we saw was walking on its feet, just a couple of hours after it was born! We definitely have some re thinking to do here!"

So it has been another memorable and overwhelmingly enjoyable packed week in East Africa. This past week our group headed to Nairobi Kenya where we met up with OWU graduate Ben Wallingford who has been living in Nairobi for the past six months, working as a micro financing intern. We also met up with Scott Bellows, another OWU graduate, who is the CEO of Mercy Corps in Nairobi Kenya. Our group got to experience a true Kenyan slum, where we visited the Kawangware slum outside Nairobi. We were lucky and were able to have met up with women living in Kawangware who are working with a micro financing company called Maono, who is trying to help these women save their money and eventually help them by increasing their individual businesses. It was a an experience that I don't think any of us will ever forget. The children were as beautiful and innocent as they could be, screaming hello after us everywhere we went in the streets. Some even followed us screaming "mzungus!" (meaning white people). The women we met were as welcoming and grateful to us as we could have ever imagined. The women's strength, courage and determination have left a mark on us all and it was very motivational and empowering for us all to have experienced.

Later that day we visited the Great Rift Valley, seeing the beautiful and majestical mountains and hillsides of where human civilization was first found. We also got to visit an elephant orphanage where we met 12 orphan elephants who ranged from a few moths old to a few years old. Later that day we then visited the Giraffe Centre where all six of us got to experience what it feels like to kiss a giraffe. It's an interesting feeling that makes you chuckle. Luckily giraffes salvia is anti-septic, so we will survive from the multiple lovable kisses from the giraffes. Overall it was an education packed trip to Nairobi that none of us will ever forget.

We are back in Arusha Tanzania now and tomorrow we are off to start our five day safari!!! More fun packed experiences for us all to come in the future. Stay tuned!

So we arrived in Arusha Tanzania on Tuesday January 17th at 9pm and are staying at Pete and Charlotte O'Neal's United African Alliance Community Center (who both left the U.S. in 1970 after Pete, who was a member and a leader of the Black Panthers Party, left the country after allegedly crossing the state border of Kansas with a rusty shot gun and was sentenced to 4 years in jail but instead fled to Africa and has been doing 42 years of great generosity and good to the Tanzanian people). We have had such welcoming and humble hosts and staff, including Bullet the horse and Jimbo the German Shepherd that likes to follow us everywhere we go. We have had a great first two days, filled with a long walk around the community center visiting the University of Arusha and farmers. We have visited downtown Arusha multiple times and we have also gone to visit the United Nations International Criminal Court where the prosecutions of the Rwanda genocide in 1994 took place. We got a tour of the courts and library and got a great visit with one of the head communications facilitator where we discussed the tragic and inhumane genocide and the other world wide genocides that have benefited from the International Criminal Court. We also got a great tour of St. Jude's high school, which is a very prestigious school and was developed for the purposes of educating under privileged youths who would normally not have had the opportunity of a higher education. The school is funded by two Ohio Wesleyan University graduates Gordon and Helen Smith, who are both on the Board of Trustees at OWU as well. We have also had the great pleasure of being able to interact with the 22 orphans that live at the O'Neal's community center. They are all very welcoming and just as excited as we are too meet them and interact with them as much as possible.

Overall it has been a great past two days and is only a taste of what lies ahead for this excited and enthusiastic group!