The Last Few Days

We spent our final days in Tanzania on the beach in Zanzibar. Wednesday morning we set out for the east coast of the island where we got to stay in Jambiani right on the beach. The beach was beautiful! The water was so clear and ranged from sky blue to teals based on the depth, the sand was almost white and very soft, and there were perfect shells scattering the beach. We spent a little time on the beach or in the water before lunch and snorkeling. Everyone had an awesome time snorkeling. There were so many fish and other sea creatures to look at and the water felt so good as well. Our "guides" pulled out starfish for us to look at and hold, the coolest one being bright red and grey with spikes all over it. Later that night we started a fire right on the beach and got to relax and have a good time with everyone on our last night in Tanania.
The next morning lots of us got up to watch the sun rise over the Indian Ocean. It was really pretty and had some great views. After breakfast we had more time to get in the water, relax on the beach or start packing up our stuff for the long journey ahead--no one really wanted to leave though!
Once we left Jambiani, we traveled for 32 hours and 22 minutes straight until we landed in Minneapolis and used almost all modes of transportation possible: two buses, a ferry, and two planes...the only thing missing was a train! Our travels went smoothly though with only a slight delay leaving Amsterdam.

Overall this trip was amazing! We all had such a good time and will have so many memories (and pictures) to share with everyone back home...thanks for keeping up with us!

Stone Town, Zanzibar

Monday we began the final leg of our trip, the journey to Zanzibar. Our morning started out a little delayed since the bus didn't come as early as Pastor Hafermann had hoped. With loading everyone's luggage, getting pulled over for speeding and the crazy traffic in Dar, we were pushing it to make the ferry in time. We got on though and settled in for a two and a half hour ride from Dar to the island of Zanzibar. It was a fairly nice ride and no one got seriously seasick. After disembarking and checking into our rooms at the hotel, we went out for lunch/supper at a local restaurant before walking to the Old Fort for some shopping. It was very hard not to buy something at every shop since the workers would try and talk you into everything whether you needed it or not. It seems to be that way for everyone around here as we had the same experience with guys on the street trying to sell us soccer jerseys. We did a "second supper" at the seafood market that night. They had almost everything imaginable from shrimp and lobster to octopus. It was all very fresh and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.
Tuesday we started out with a tour of the Anglican Slave Museum. As they took us through the museum, the guide did a very nice job of explaining what it would have been like for a slave waiting there, especially in the holding chambers. Next, we drove out of the city for a spice tour. We got to see how a lot of the spices we are accustomed to are grown. It was neat and at the end they let us try three of the teas they produce and some of the local fruit, the most interesting being a custard apple (English translation) which reminded us of bananas. They also let us try coconut water and meat, but in order to do that, one of the guys there climbed up a tree and dropped all the coconuts. Either he does that all the time and is used to climbing palm trees or he has no fear because it would have been a long way to fall if he had! Back in Stone Town we grabbed some lunch and had a little down time at the hotel before heading out to more museums and the Old Fort area for shopping and supper.

The Lulenge Village Visit



We went on our last village visit today, this time to the Maasai village of Lulenge. The roads to Lulenge were the best we have had for a village visit and did not take as long as the others. We were served tea right away when we arrived and then sang back and forth with one of the Maasai choirs (they are way better than we could ever be!). The service was somewhat similar to the last Maasai church we attended, but this time there were baptisms. Most of those being baptized were infants but there were two older children as well. It was really neat and inspiring to watch as Pastor Hafermann baptized each of them; there was a small feeling of celebration after each child’s turn. We got to sing during the baptisms which went very well for us and the congregation seemed to really enjoy our presence. Their choirs were amazing and no one seemed to ever hit a wrong note. They are so expressive with their music as well; there are always movements and some of the women frequently yell with excitement. After the service we were served “lunch” (at 3:00 in the afternoon…). They did pretty well with the food and must have thought we, especially Lizzie, enjoyed the potatoes because one guy piled half of the bowl onto her plate. Unfortunately, the Maasai warriors that were going to dance for us had to leave so we did not get to experience that part of their culture. This was still a good experience for all of us and we got to see more of the Maasai culture. 

The Baptisms

Instead of eating our last dinner in Morogoro at the seminary, we went out for pizza (mostly so Bwana Ed could watch the Manchester United soccer game). It was a good way to end the day and procrastinate the packing everyone has to finish before breakfast tomorrow morning!

The Tree Seed Project

 Friday morning was our last morning in the Udzungwa mountains. We were out of the resort before 9 AM and headed back to the seminary. Along the way, we made a short stop at the Mikumi Snake Park. They have many different snakes, some poisonous and others not, along with turtles and a few crocodiles. We got to watch as the crocodile was poked with a long stick to get a reaction out of him. For not being fed for a week (they get fed once a week), he was able to move pretty quickly to defend himself against the stick. Before we left, Pastor Hafermann, Michael, Paige and Bwana Shawn opted to hold one of the pythons they have, while others were content to watch the crocodiles or turtles.

Working to fill the dirt tubes

After lunch at the seminary, we went back  into Morogoro to the Tanzania Tree Seed Agency (TTSA) to learn about their work and pick up supplies  for tomorrow s project.  Their main focus is combating deforestation by providing tree seeds and seedlings for public and private groups. We get to participate by planting some trees at the seminary, which will be most of the action tomorrow.

Planting the memorial avocado tree

Half of the group went over to Emmy s home just before supper to meet the family and say hello. Emmy is a 25 year old widowed mother of two and takes care of six other children of extended family members who have died of AIDS. Her late husband, Luka, was a very integral part of Pastor Hafermann s ministry and did a lot for the seminary, so it was nice to meet the family that we had heard so much about.

Saturday morning was reserved for the tree seed project at the seminary. We planted two of the three seedlings from the TTSA at the seminary, one mango tree and one avocado tree. The avocado tree was especially important as it serves as a memorial for Solomon, the man who planted most of the trees surrounding the seminary. We also dug up three types of seedlings from the seminary grounds to plant in small tubes of dirt so they can be used later down the road. There was a lot of tube packing, over 200 for sure, in order for us to plant all the seedlings needed for the project. Later that day, the other half of the group went over to Emmy's and planted the third seedling for her and her family. The rest of the night was free for packing, since we will be leaving in less than a week! It's hard to believe the trip is almost over, but not before heading to Zanzibar for a few days.

Hiking and Waterfalls



The waterfall on the first day's hike



Our second national park experience was at Udzungwa National Park. We arrived on Wednesday after finishing our last game drive at Mikumi. The accommodations here are fantastic! We are being so spoiled that it will be hard to leave. Not only are the rooms and service great, but we also have some amazing views from our balconies. The resort is situated on a mountain and is surrounded by rain forest, so everywhere you look is green scenery. Wednesday afternoon most of the group went on a hike through the forest near the resort. We were led by Babu, a 74-year old man who could beat any of us college students at a hike. He led us through some thick patches of forest and on narrow, muddy paths that would at times take on a pretty significant incline. We were grabbing at trees along the path to pull ourselves up. The first place he took us was a beautiful waterfall. It wasn’t huge but still so cool to be able to stand near. The hike continued through some intense terrain before we were led to a “swimming pool”. A small area just beyond some rapids served to cool us down and was so much fun! The current wasn’t strong enough to cause problems for anything but a few clothing articles that were being pulled in unwanted directions. We were still soaking by the time we made it back to the resort and got to take full advantage the awesome showers in our rooms.

Meghan, Amy, Anastasia,  Natalie and Michael
swimming after the first hike

The following day, Thursday, we went on a hike to Sanje Falls in Udzungwa National Park. The hike started out slow as we were stopping and going to see the different trees and plants growing in the forest. We did see mango, guava and banana trees as well as lemon grass. The hike was a really good workout with all the stairs we climbed along the trail. It was so worth it once we got to the top. We were standing atop a 660-foot waterfall looking out across the sugarcane fields. It was such an amazing sight and almost unreal. We proceeded to eat our lunch out on the rocks just before the big drop-- it was so awesome! There were two more waterfalls we went to, both smaller than the first but still neat to see, before we hiked back down to the bottom of the first waterfall for another swimming adventure, this time in which Bwana Shawn joined us. The water was so cold today and the current was stronger but it was very cool to look up to the top of the waterfall and know that we had hiked the entire way up.

Mikumi National Park

We began our national park tour with Mikumi, about two hours from the seminary. As we got closer to the main park entrance, we were greeted by baboons on the side of the roadway. They were not scared of the traffic at all it seemed and would “pose” for us to take pictures from the bus. When we got checked into the park, we were taken to our Bandas where we stayed for the next two nights. They were so cool and were situated right on grazing land for the animals. We could sit on our back porch and watch buffalo, elephants and impala graze--it was so cool. The first afternoon we went on a game drive and saw lots of twiga (giraffe), tembo (elephant), punda milia (zebra), impala, baboons, a ton of birds, a crocodile and the heads of some kiboko (hippo). It was so neat to see all of these animals living in somewhat close proximity without any problems--they just did their own thing and kept on eating : )

Impala and Zebras

The next day we went on three drives: one early morning, a late morning/early afternoon, and a late afternoon drive. During the first drive we saw lots of the same animals as the night before. Everyone was hoping for a simba (lion) but no such luck on this drive. The most excitement we had during the morning session was getting stuck on the road through a marsh. The tires started spinning and we slid a little so there was no way we could continue forward. To remedy this, our driver perfectly executed a 17-point turn with a two foot drop off behind him to deal with! It was a little nerve wracking at times but amazing that he got the bus turned around.

The afternoon game drive that day was when we finally got to see the simbas. There were two young males lying right next to the road. They were so calm with us right next to them taking a ton of pictures, but got eventually got annoyed with us trying to make them do something so got up and walked off. It was exciting to see a couple simbas though. The rest of the drive we saw lots of the same stuff as before.


Tembo

 That night we had tembo visitors come up close to the bandas. One came up very close to Bwana Shawn and Michael’s banda and then proceeded to work their way down the line. They just kept on eating like we weren’t watching their every move. It was so cool but weird at the same time since they were wild tembo that would have nothing stopping them from coming as close as they wanted.
The next morning we went on one last game drive, and while we didn’t see a whole lot of animals, we got a very personal experience with the Tsetse flies. Almost everyone completed the task of killing at least one fly while on the drive, some more than others. They sting fairly hard and are super annoying. Everyone was glad when we drove out of the Tsetse fly territory and made our way back to the camp.
We got to see pretty much everything we had wanted to during our drives through the park, just maybe not in the quantities we had hoped for : )

Simba



A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

We spent the day catching up and didn't have anything planned, so here are some more photos to share!

The language school students and teachers

The girls outside one of the restaurants

Our Mountain at Sunrise

The Maasai Cattle Market

Sangasanga



Maasai and  Barabaig women dancing

 We traveled to the village of Sangasanga today to visit the Barabaig people. The ride there was two hours over the worst “road” imaginable. There were so many holes and bumps to deal with on the dirt path through the thick bush landscape. Once we got to the village (more of a central meeting place with about four other buildings) they welcomed us and took us to see their well down by the river and school building. The people are somewhat nomadic and have a hard time keeping the kids in school. For that reason, the teachers would like to dig some more wells and build dorms for the kids to stay in. It’s a large project that will require a good chunk of money, but their hearts are in the right place. We went to their church to sing a couple of our songs and listen to a few of theirs. While in the church, some Maasai people showed up and began to sing. Some of the women even began dancing with the Barabaig women during their songs. This was a once-in-a-lifetime cultural experience since the two tribes had previously hated each other. To see them gathered in the same church interacting with one another peacefully was amazing. At the end of the event, the village leader welcomed us and expressed how happy they were to have us visit just before he turned to his people and advised them to not be afraid of us! It was very nice of him to reach out to us in that way. We also heard from a woman who is a Christian that had been from a different village and how today was an answer to her prayers. She had been praying for people to come use the church as it was meant to be used, and here we all sat, singing praise and joining together across cultures.


Barabaig, Maasai and  Us

 Outside the church, the young Barabaig men began to put on their show of jumping to show off. The young women were supposed to have a part but took too long getting ready so the Maasai youth began one of their own before we returned to the village center for a lunch of rice and beef (once again without any silverware). As we were leaving, a bunch of Barabaig women hopped on the bus with us to be dropped off further down the road. Along with them came a ton of flies! They swarmed around the women like crazy. To make the ride more bearable, we began a “dance party” and started singing along with someone’s iPod. It was fun for us but some of the women didn’t know what to make of it! Once they all got out it was a little more comfortable for our remaining ride back to the seminary. The roads were just as rough as coming in and we did manage to get ourselves slightly lost. The driver began following a car that looked like Pastor Hafermann’s when in fact it was some random person returning to their home. After a quick stop for directions, we got back on the correct road and made it back to the seminary. This may have been one of the most interesting days of the entire trip!
Along with the pictures that have been posted, we now have a video on you tube that captures more of our experience. Click on the link to see it and a big thanks to Lizzie for putting it together!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuFy8bAjHE0&feature=channel_video_title

Faraja Trust Fund Visit

Today we visited the Faraja Trust Fund in Morogoro. This organization deals with adults and children living and dealing with HIV/AIDS. Through micro loans to women for small businesses, education about HIV/AIDS, and education and care for children, they hope to decrease the prevalence rate from five percent of the Tanzanian population. They began working with sex workers in 1991, and since then, they have expanded and become more accepted by the community. We got to visit their HBC (home based care) center for children living with HIV/AIDS. Now they have approximately 120 kids they check in on through counseling, home visits and play dates to ensure these kids, who might only live until 20 years of age, have the best possible life. It seems like a really neat organization and they are making strides in the right direction to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS.

After visiting Faraja, we went out for lunch at a place called the New Green Restaurant. It was a cultural experience for all of us since we didn’t really know what we were ordering. They had it separated by meat category, but the rest of the words meant nothing to us. I think everyone ordered pretty well though and enjoyed the meal.

Today was probably the last day we made the trek to the orphanage. As always, the kids were ecstatic to see us show up and were really into the books today. Also visiting were some people from the YWCA in Finland that had partnered with the YWCA in Morogoro to help single mothers. It was neat to see other people visiting the orphanage and the children, but they could tell the kids liked us better! (I’m sure just because they knew us…) Everyone was a little disappointed to leave the kids this time. This weekend we will go to another village and prepare for our week of national park visits.

Playing Frisbee with kids  at Faraja

Juma Tano (Wednesday): Swahili Day 4

The kids playing with donated toys

Our fourth day of Swahili went a little better than the last. We still learned a bunch of vocabulary words, but they were the ones we requested to know--not just what the book had for us to learn. Most of the ones we asked for were fruit to find out what all they have available here as well as others, like sorry and please, that would have been useful to know sooner. The afternoon session was reserved for cultural “do’s and don’ts.” Chuma, our teacher, gave us a bunch of pointers on how to appropriately behave in the Tanzanian culture, like how to behave  as a guest and to stay away from American jokes. We also learned a lot about the marriage customs here. It seems like a really long, formal process in which the man has to tell his parents he has seen a girl he would like to marry before anything else starts. Then they bring in a “middleman” to go between the two families and get things worked out before the girl is even asked. Once the dowry is paid though, they are pretty much married, only the religious part of the wedding remains.
We went to the orphanage again today and brought more of the donations for the kids. They loved it! There were books and stuffed animals were spread all over. Some of us even got involved with a game the older girls were playing. It was lots of fun and the kids definitely enjoy having us visit.

Sydney and Michael with the kids

Sita tatu la Kiswahili (Day three of Swahili)

 

Alex, Anne, Sydney,  Yusto the language teacher, and Anastasia



We began our third day of Swahili class today and it has been a lot of information to keep up with. We added over fifty new vocabulary words and went through all the numbers in a span of four hours, but slowly some of the language is sinking in. By the afternoon small group session, the overwhelming amount of information started to show its effect. Luckily, at least for my group, our teacher gave a “license to kill” the language in hopes that it will help us learn it better. We will see how far we get by Thursday, our last lesson of the trip. The morning started off rainy, but hakuna shida (no worries) it cleared up and the ground dried enough for us to walk to the orphanage. This time we brought donations from home along for the kids to play with. They THOROUGHLY enjoyed everything. There were some moments where sharing the toys became an issue, but overall they seemed thankful and happy with what we brought. Thanks to everyone who helped us collect the items, we couldn’t have done it without you!

  
 



Meghan and Paige with the kids



 



Swahili Class: Round 2

Habari  za jioni! (Good evening!)
Our second day of learning Swahili has been going better than the first. We can definitely say “Hi, how are you” and introduce ourselves which is helpful, but now are learning some more vocabulary to go along with it. My group’s teacher taught us to say “Swahili is difficult to learn” which is true! So many of the words sound similar and there are multiple prefixes and noun classes to remember. Needless to say, it can get confusing. During the afternoon session of class it began to rain pretty hard so we opted not to visit the orphanage today since we would have had to walk for a couple miles on now muddy paths. Hopefully everything will dry out so we can get there tomorrow.

The First Village Visit

Today we made our way to a Masaai village about two hours away. The ride there was over some of the roughest roads we have seen this trip! Pot holes and large rocks were everywhere on these red dirt roads that led to the village. Once there, the villagers seemed very happy to have us there. They openly welcomed us and made sure each of us had a good chair to sit around the tea table in and were served tea shortly before the church service began. The service itself was very unique and an awesome experience for us. It was more contemporary than traditional and the entire congregation was involved through their hymns, choirs and speaking parts. The choirs they had were really good and upbeat with their music and movements. Although the entire service was in Swahili and we had no idea what was being said, you could definitely tell how the message and fellowship was affecting the members in a positive way. They also really enjoyed our participation in the service and cheered us on during our songs, a reward of sorts for all the work we put in! Perhaps the most unique part of the service was at the end when they began to say good-bye to Pastor Hafermann since he will be leaving soon. They brought him some mementos from the village and celebrated his work with the villagers. It was very evident how much he had touched their lives and they enjoyed having him around. After church, they took us to a smaller room to be served lunch. After the things Bwana Ed had told us about village food, I think everyone was surprised how “normal” it seemed--rice and goat meat. They didn’t have silverware, however, and we had to eat with our fingers. This was cut short due to impending rain and the condition of the long road to get back, so we headed out and got some final pictures with the kids who were so cute! The whole experience was a positive one and I think everyone is looking forward to Saturday when we go to our second village.

　

Happy Mother’s Day to all our moms back home!

The Cattle Market



Everyone at the Cattle Market

Today we traveled about an hour to the youth prison and cattle market. This prison was way different from any we have in the US. It was an open layout--no walls or gates, just seclusion from the rest of society. The youth that are there (ages 16-21) are sentenced for a variety of reasons and lengths of time. While in prison, however, they are attending primary school and get training for civil jobs such as carpentry, vehicle repair, etc. They seem to be very proud of this system and really enjoyed giving us a tour of the grounds. We donated two soccer balls to the prison and they were ecstatic about that as well. After the prison, we went to the Masaai cattle market. It was a huge gathering of people, mostly Masaai but some others, cows, and goats. As we walked in we were greeted by the slaughtering block for the goats we would later have a taste of; such a warm welcome :) The actual market for the cattle takes place very quietly and we didn't really notice it occurring while we were in that area. They also had small stalls for the people to sell their goods. The popular items seemed to be clubs and knives, which the Masaai thought was strange for us to be leaving with. At lunch, we got to try goat leg. It was definitely a cultural experience and some people enjoyed it more than others. When all the meat was gone, Pastor Hafermann and Michael Jorgensen sucked some of the marrow from parts of the leg bone. According to Michael, it doesn't really have a taste but no one else was brave enough to try it. Throughout our time there, several of us noticed how it wasn't just our group staring at them but they also stared at us due to the cultural difference. We weren't unwelcome by any means but some of the Masaai were not overly eager to interact with us. It was also interesting how many of the Masaai had access to cell phones, something no one had been expecting.

The rest of the afternoon back at the seminary was free for us to explore or just relax which was a nice break from the busy morning. We had our final singing practice after supper tonight and make our debut tomorrow at a village church service, hopefully they appreciate  our singing style!

Swahili and Little Children

Habari gani!
was our first day of Swahili class.  We met with our teacher, Chuma,this morning and got started with greetings and learning how to introduce ourselves. This took a good chunk of our time, but I think everyone is now able to greet any Swahili speaker and at least tell them our name. After lunch, we broke out into small groups to work on our speaking which really helped us learn the material better. We also were visited by Hilary, the wood carver. He brought some of his work which was amazing! Everyone really liked his visit and look forward to his next stop. After Swahili class this afternoon and a quick tea, we set out for the orphanage. It was about a 30 minute walk through some of the most amazing scenery. There were palm trees all over, some even growing in the middle of corn fields...figure that one out! With the mountain in the background it was such a cool place to be. Luckily we get to make that journey four more times so there should be some awesome pictures when we come home.
When we got to the orphanage the kids latched onto us right away. Not everyone had made it through the door before there were kids in our arms and interacting with us. They were so adorable and absolutely loved our cameras! There would be times the kids would run off with them for ten minutes or so before we could get them out of their hands. They definitely loved taking and being in the pictures and I know tons of random photos were taken by little kids today :) They don't have much for toys at the orphanage and apparantly they don't last long even when some appear. We plan to fix that when we take our donations, but for today they were more than happy to play with the cameras. The kids seem happy though and are so cute! Everyone is excited to go back (with cameras safetly out of sight!).
After we got back and had dinner, we went out to the girls' house to rehearse our singing for our village visits. It is definitely improving so maybe by Sunday we can have it all ready to go. Saturday we are going to visit the youth prison and then attend a Masaai cattle market. It may be a long day but will have a very intersting experience to go with.

Palm Trees and Corn Fields

Today is  also Alex's birthday, so Happy Birthday Alex! Just because they don't celebrate birthdays in Tanzania doesn't mean we can't still wish you a great day!

The Arrival

After a long nine hour flight, we made it to Dar es Salaam around 9:30 PM. As soon as we stepped off the plane you could feel the difference...it was warm and humid! We picked up our bags, met up with
Pastor Hafermann and headed for the Catholic Guest House in Dar for the night. The rooms were nice but the best part was having  a bed to sleep on instead of a plane seat. After breakfast this morning we left Dar for Morogoro and the Lutheran Junior Seminary where we will stay for the most part of our trip. As we headed out, we got to see more of Dar and how crowded it was. There were people all over the side of the road setting up small booths with items to sell and many more walking along. Driving in Tanzania is very different than America; they drive on the left side of the road and are very aggressive. Along the way we stopped for a small snack of pop (served in a glass bottle), rice cakes and samosas (a triangle shaped egg roll with only meat). The second half of the drive was beautiful. We got into some of the mountains and had amazing views!
The seminary shares some of these views and is in a perfect spot. A few of us are housed in blocks of buildings that are near the main buildings of the seminary, while the rest have their own house near the farm. They even have cows penned up in their front yard! The people here are so nice and seem glad to have us here. It is so amazing and peaceful here and I think we will thoroughly enjoy our time at the seminary.


A view from the drive in



Tonight we will get more acquainted with the surroundings and continue to get settled in. Tomorrow morning we will start Swahili classes, which could be interesting :) Maybe in a couple days I will get some Swahili up here--maybe...



Rice Cake, Samosa and Fanta

*sorry the pictures are sideways!

May 3rd and 4th

We made it to Amsterdam, halfway done with our trip to Tanzania! We have about two hours before we board again for a 9 hour flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where we will really begin the adventure.