From SeaTac to Dar
Trip Start
Jul 18, 2007
1
11
Trip End
Ongoing
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
Monday, July 30, 2007
My 20 hours of flying, begining on July 18, was long, and rather boring. I think I watched three movies from Detroit to Amsterdam, but fell asleep half way through all of them. From Amsterdam to Kilamanjaro I slept again (big surprise) and was highly amused by the flight attendants. They were very Dutch and I don't know how else to describe it. We were greeted in the Kilamanjaro Airport by our two professors Barbara and Lori, and our Orientation guide Steven, who has the greatest deep booming voice ever. We spent the first night at MS-TCDC which I can never remember what that stands for but there's developement training center in there somewhere. The locals call it little Denmark because it was started by the Danes and has a very European feel to it. We later got shipped to Klub Africo since TCDC was over booked. Its a fun little hotel. We got to stay in huts. and the power only lasted for about one and half showers. Its excitig showering in fridgid water in complete darkness let me tell ya. While we were in Arusha area we went to the Saturday market in Tengeru which was completely overwhelming. I managed to come away with a Kanga (traditional cloth that the women wear) with out getting ripped off too badly. There is just so much going on. Its complete scensory overload including your sense of smell. Animal dung, rotting fruit, fresh fruit, raw meat, and unwashed human bodies. Mmmm buddy. We also went to a Coffee farm where we got to help harvest the beans and go through the whole process. I'm pretty sure that is the best coffee I have everr tasted in my entire life. The amazing thing is that what we pay for a latte is about the same as what the farmer gets for a kilo of roasted beans. We found this appalling and are going to try to find away for PLU to buy direct from the farmer so that we aren't supporting this corruption.
We went to a Lutheran church service at Steven's church. We took our land cruisers down this dirt path that was full of boulders and holes and other amazingly fun things to drive over. That is the most fun I have ever had going to church. Well really going anywhere is fun. especially sitting in the back of the Land Cruiser because there aren't any seat belts and you get thrown all over the place. We arrived at this white stone church without any glass in the windows or doors in the door frames. It had a dirt floor with simple wooden benches and a synthesizer. Most of the people there walked over a half an hour to get there, and they do that every Sunday. Thats what I call dedication. Though I couldn't understand any of the service I knew it was Lutheran because we stood up and sat down about fifty times. The choir's harmonies were amazing and it was kind of sad that the guy accompanying them on the synthesizer couldn't keep up with their key changes. There were three different offerings and for each one, the choir would dance in a line around the offering plate as they gave their money. It was sooo cool. After the service we split into pairs and went to some of the members of the congregation's homes for lunch. Brice and I went to our family and found out that four of their five cows had recently died. They have a daughter going to college, two sons and a nephew that was living wth them in secondary school and two daughters in primary school plus about a million other small relatives running around. Half of one of their buildings was plowed down by the government so that the road running past their house could be widend. they were given no compensation. One of their daughters has polio and scoots around on the floor with a sandle on her hand because they can't afford treatment. Despite all this, they cooked one of the largest meals I have ever seen, made Brice and I dish up first, and complained the whole time that we didn't take more, even though we both had seconds. Tanzanians are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. They always greet you with a huge smile and a Mambo. And no matter how little they have, they always offer it to you. It absolutely blows my mind. I can't imagine showing up randomly at somebody's house in America and being treated so kindly.
Ok so I'm obviously going into way too much detail here. You can hear the full stories when I get back but here is the short version of Arusha. We worked at a secondary school and an orphange and got to tour a hospital. The form four kids at the secondary school (ages 17-18) were way more informed about world events than any American high school senior. Probably than most of America in general. And I really wanted to take home all the kids at the orphanage. We went on a safari in the Ngorogoro crater, which is possibly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life. I think it has the title of the eighth wonder of the world. There were elephants fighting right outside our Land Cruiser, hippos bathing in the sun, warthogs doing whatever it is warthogs do, and we even saw an ostrich mating dance. Apparently Bill Clinton was in the crater at the same time we were but we didn't see him. We camped over night on the rim and were once again amazed and stuffed by the quantity of food people keep feeding us. The next day we went to a Maasai village which was phenomenal and I got a pretty sweet bracelet and necklace. Then we had the night free, finally. The next day we went to a village that I forget the name of, and stayed with a couple of farmers, Martha and Rueben for two days. We harvested, beat, and sifted beans, had interesting bathroom experiences involving a hole in the ground, cockroaches, and cornfields, were again fed way too much, and had great conversations with what seemed like the whole village who joined us for dinner each night. It was so interesting to hear the Tanzanian view of our politics and their own. General consensus: The world is corrupt. They were all pleased to hear that not everyone in America likes Bush because most of them think he's crazy. Except for our friend Killima here at the University. I haven't quite figured out what he likes about him yet. We got back to Arusha on Saturday afternoon, took a shower (thank God) and attended a wedding. It was really interesting because it was a more modern wedding rather than a traditional Tanzanian affair. To be honest, the decorations reminded me a lot of the Wedding Singer. When it came time to give our gift there was a brass band playing and everyone danced up to the bride and groom to give the gift, which was a lot of fun. The brass was pretty much amazing and were way better dancers than all of us. We then crashed in our beds, and woke up early the next morning to make the nine hour bus ride to Dar. I slept for most of it and watched poorly made African movies for the other part. All and all an uneventful day.
