oh the joys of fast internet:)

Vipi!

I've found that Swahili is a bit like Persian...the greetings and farewells can last an eternity! I can now carryon a 5 minute conversation in Swahili, that doesn't go into any details beyond how are you, how are the kids, how was work, how was your afternoon, etc. Which is good and bad....it's fun to talk to people, but when you can do this, you run the risk of them thinking you know Swahili and then when they continue, you must explain that you don't understand a word they've just said. They've gotten used to us "Mzungus" (white people) though, and you often find people come up to you with a big smile on and quiz you on the greetings. They aren't hard to remember, because you don't have much choice in the response...you just have to memorize the question-answer pair. For example, hujambo-sijambo, hamjambo-hamjambo, hawajambo-hatujambo, jambo-jambo, habari za (insert many words like asubuhi, leo, kazi, watoto)-nzuri/ndjema, salama-salama, mambo-poa, vipi-safi, shikamo-marahaba. It's pretty entertaining. Also, even if you are doing horribly, the worst you say is "nzuri kidogo" which means "a little well." You can go for an hour walk alone along a street and be talking the entire time! The little kids are the cutest though...as we walk along the road by where our house is, you hear (long before you see) little kids yelling "mzungu" or if they are really little "gugu," followed by frantic running/opening of gates and then the appearance of the little ones. They love to walk or run with us, holding our hands the entire way. It's really sad, because the locals don't get any response like this from the kids. I've been told that it is because Tanzanians don't want to hold their kids or give them much attention, because they think it spoils the kids!

Anyways, the past few days have been good. we learned a bit about the Tanzanian political system and education system. 60% of the population lives on under 2,000 TZ shillings a day, which is about $1.80!! A teacher makes about $60 a month, while a member of parliament makes $100 a day. we now know why the mzungu price is about 10 times more expensive.

Life the past few days has been good. I spent an eternity uploading photos to the web, which you can find on: http://picasaweb.google.com/ehaidari. I've started volunteering at the Light in Africa orphanage with kids under 2 years old, and it has been amazing so far. I love them so much, and I really want to take one home with me. He is a little boy named Joel and is about 6 months old. He is so calm and sits and watches the other kids or entertains himself. He never bothers the other kids, but plays really well with them. He loves to play catch or hold my hands and walk in circles for hours. He is so adorable! I'll get a picture of him up soon. The other day I found out some sad news about another little boy there. His name is Frank and he is also very cute...he is very loving and will come running into your arms to give you a hug and kisses. One of the women who works there (Laura) told me his background...his mother died when he was 3 months old of aids, and no one knew for 2 days. The neighbors finally found out, and discovered him hugging his mother, and very emaciated. Unfortunately he is also hiv positive, but you would never guess. He is just as cute as can be. There's another little boy named Charlie, and he's a little ruffian. He loves to go shove the other kids over or hit them on the head with hard objects. It's sad though because he's just looking for attention, and he is only this way because his mother treats him that way. His mother is about 14 years old, mentally challenged, and was raped...by her father. very unfortunate. but, on a more positive note, on Friday Chadwick stood up on his own for the very first time! He is almost 2 years old, but looks much younger. He only cries when another kid does something to him, but he takes his own pain (hunger, falling and hitting his head, etc.) with a grimace and you don't hear a peep. They are all amazing kids and I love them so much! Anyhoo, I'm going to go get some reading done, but I hope you are all doing well!

Moshi

Hujambo!

I am at my volunteer "home base" in Moshi, which is really like a private gated house in California. It is beautiful and is nothing like the surrounding area. Right outside our house is a dirt house. I feel a bit out of place, but it is nice to have electricity and modern things. Most people do not have electricity or running water. Sadly even, they are not aware of simple things like dishwashers and clotheswashers. One of the volunteers was reminiscing about how much she missed clotheswashers, and one of the maids overheard her and was amazed that such a machine exists.

Moshi is a nice town in Tanzania; in fact, it is the cleanest town in the country. The Chagga tribe live in this region, and today we learned about some of the tribal customs here. Tanzania is made up of about 120 different tribes, and each tribe has many sub-tribes. The tribes are mainly patriarchal, however there are some matriarchal tribes too. Apparently the current government is struggling between finding laws that balance the tribal customs with modern day human rights laws. For instance, in many of the tribes, when the man dies, the tribe gets his assets instead of the wife and kids. While this worked in the olden days, today many people are corrupt and don't take care of the wife and kids. It is interesting to learn about their different customs. They have many cool handshakes here that have been fun to learn.

We have gotten used to what they call "AFT" or African Flux Time, which basically means that you are never late, even if you show up for an appointment the next day;) People are very laid back, and more focus is spent on building relationships and social interactions with people, rather than hurrying off to do something. Another interesting tidbit is that they have no sense of distance or time. If you are asking for directions someplace, they will keep telling you it's just over the next hill, even if it is an hour walk away! For example, this old man was telling us about how his truck broke down in the middle of the country side, and a Maasai man walked with him to the nearest place where he could get help. The Maasai man kept telling him it was just over the next hill....6 hours later he arrived at the destination! However, he thought this was a good things b/c if he had known how far away it was, he wouldn't have moved and he may have had to wait for 3 weeks for the next car to pass by. He explained that Africans are very positive people and they never want to discourage others. I was quite impressed...I think we could learn a lot from their culture.

Oh, I forgot to tell you all about something funny that happened on the safari....(for those of you -and you know who you are-who make fun of my amazing story telling abilities, I am hoping that I will do it justice, but if not, take my word for it that it was pretty funny at the time). So we were at a visitors resting site near the entrance to Serengeti, and we were all up on a hill looking out at the view, and some British chap around 25 asked this woman (who was in her upper 70's) to take a picture of him. She proceeded to take a pic of him on his digital camera from about 5 feet away and asked him if it was good. To my amusement, he responded with, "Yes, it is a wonderful picture, but I'm not actually in it." lol, this kept me and my German companions entertained for awhile.

Anyways, that's about all for now. Hope everything is going well back home.
tatanoana baadaye!

Arusha/Serengeti

Mambo!

I arrived in the dust covered town of Arusha, in northern Tanzania last Friday night. I stayed for a few days at a hostel, for an amazing $6 a night, including breakfast and hot showers;) I wandered around Arusha on Saturday and met a nice guy named Frank who showed me all around town and got me some good deals on stuff. Arusha is a fairly large town, but not too terribly pleasant. It is dirty, dusty, and very busy. It's the place where most people go to book safaris though. Sunday I went with some kids doing internships at the Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal (thanks allen, keith was awesome!) for a hike with a maasai kid around (mostly up;) the foothills near Mt. Meru. It was beautiful, but very exhausting. The Maasai people living up the hills were incredible...women would walk up and down the sandy, steep incline with no shoes, balancing baskets filled with heavy things on their heads. They even passed us doing it! Our Maasai guide was amazing too....one of the guys was apologizing for taking so many breaks when climbing up a very steep (aka vertical) slope, and the guide replied with, "no problem, when I run up it I sometimes get out of breath too!"

Monday I went on a five day safari to the Serengeti, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire Park. It was incredible. I went with a French and German couple, adn it was very entertaining. We saw four of the big five (lions, elephants, cheetahs, and rhinos) but missed out on seeing leopards. Tons of other animals too, and each park had a completely different landscape. We got withing 20 feet of 3 female lions with their 7 cubs. The baobob trees are surreal...they are really ugly, huge trees that the maasai consider as evil spirits...but they store water inside of the trunk and can live thousands of years.

Yesterday, after driving for many hours on the bumpy dirt roads from Tarangire, I immediately hopped on a local bus and drove 2 hours to Moshi, where I am staying for 3 weeks to do my volunteer program. Not the most pleasant experience, but I survived. The bus (extended van really) held about 25 people, and I had the sun beaming down my back the entire way. In addition, the highwya<2 lane road) from arusha to moshi is fairly dangerous...I saw two accidents on my way, and we aren't talking minor accidents. A semi trailer separated from the front, and the front did a 180...I have no clue how, and anothe one a bus flipped upside doewn. they are ridiculous driers and the poor peole that live here were really scared and disgusted, understandably so. anyways, I am alive and at my house now. I'll write more later but gotta run now.

baadaye!

Zanzibar

Habari!

I am alive and well and arrived in Zanzibar last Sunday and have had an amazing week. Zanzibari culture is amazing, as it is a mixture of Arab, Indian and African. Also, a very long time ago, the Persians were here;) The people are super friendly and always saying "hujambo! or habari!" they don't let you just ignore them either, because they will keep talking to you, even in english. Yesterday, I walked around Stone Town for 5 hours, and by the end, all I wanted to do was sit in a room with complete silence...I think I had said hello to nearly the entire town;) They are very nice people though, and very eager to teach me Swahili. I haven't made much progress on that front, other than basic greetings and such.

I spent my first day swimming with dolphins in the ocean, and meeting some red colobus monkeys...who are very friendly-one of the monkeys lept from a tree and knocked a guy's camera out of his hands while he was taking a picture! The second day, I went on a spice tour and learned all about their 22 spices grown here, although i forgot most of it. I met a lot of cool people though, including a couple from france, whom i practiced my French with (their english was just as bad as my french, so it was all good;) Last night, the electricity went out, so Chesare (an Italian guy also satying at my hostel), nsoro, and Joseph (they work at the hostel), and I watched the sunset over the ocean and talked about life in Tanzania. Life seems very difficult here, and the people are pretty poor...but they are happy and work very hard. lots of the people know some english, so it is pretty easy getting around. today I went to Makemwe, a (extremely) small town on the east coast that had a beautiful beach with no tourists. i was followed around the beach by a group of young boys who loved to pose in front of the camera and then look at the pictures (this entertained them for a good half hour, and would have gone longer). Tonight I am going to have iftar with young kids that work at the hostel i am staying at....when they found out I am also muslim, they got really excited and invited me to dinner...I guess it has some advantages:)

I hope you are all doing well, and I miss you all! sorry to those of you i didn't get a chance to see before i left, but hopefully we will see each other soon.
kwa heri!