Mambo From Tanzania!

---

I was hoping that I would not end up on a travel blog site instead of Walkabout Polly, alas, here I am...though I am so very happy I had a 22 hour layover in Amsterdam which gave me the opportunity to visit with my mom and her husband Stan who live in a small town just outside the city (the blog entry pertaining to that visit IS on www.walkaboutpolly.com) en route to my final destination here in Arusha, Tanzania, I made the utterly foolish mistake of leaving my computer charger sitting quietly on the bed in the third story of their home. AGH! This means I cannot blog from my website, upload photos as I go, or even do my kung fu workout dvd which I brought with me. Worst of all, everyone in the volunteer house is DYING to see the proposal movie Brent created after hearing the story. But, travel as we know is all about rolling with the punches and if you can't do that here in Africa, you're screwed. :-)

I arrived just over a week ago on a Saturday evening. When I stepped off the plane onto the tarmac, I was instantly hit with that "smell" that I have often found in tropical, humid, or developing countries. A warmness enveloped with the slight scent of sweet vanilla powder tinged with smoke. I had major deja vu to being in both Cambodia and Tonga. Once we all piled into the small, hot customs room, I was quite glad that I had already gotten my visa ahead of time and was able to get in the much shorter passport control line. I zipped on through with a wink from the young man behind the counter, and headed to the baggage claim area. Chaos ensued. The luggage came out on two completely different carousels so it was basically impossible to watch both at once. Mixed with the local tour guides there to greet adventurers heading on safari or to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, there was a constant jockeying about to get to our bags. I waited and waited, but still that one piece of luggage I checked was determined not to show. Alas, I eventually ended up in the forlorn line of about 10 of us who did not get our baggage, and had to file a claim. More on that later (and luckily I had packed the majority of my necessities in carry-on).

I was greeted in arrivals by two young, enthusiastic Tanzanian women who were holding a handmade sign which read "POLLY" and dancing around. They were so adorable and welcoming, and gave me hugs and laughter immediately. I instantly felt good about my decision to go with the organization I had picked. They rushed me to the volunteer van and off we went into the night. Angella and Nelly laughed alot and spoke mostly in Swahili as we headed towards Arusha (I had flown into Kili airport, about an hour drive west of Arusha). But a few minutes into the drive they shrieked and said they'd heard from the founder of the org I was engaged and grabbed my left hand to see the ring. They nodded knowingly when I explained it was a fake, being in Africa and all. It was hard to see much during the drive that night, but I do remember at one point seeing roadkill. I have to mention this because there is a difference between California roadkill and Africa roadkill. I don't know what this poor animal was, but it was flattened and it was HUGE. Not your typical skunk or squirrel.

After about an hour, we detoured onto a bumpy dirt road for just several hundred feet, and then our driver laid on the horn for a good 10 seconds at a gate with a completely flat iron wall, which was opened by a security guard. As we rolled into the driveway, I heard loud music booming and about 20 young people on a large front porch surrounded by and endless bounty of beer bottles, and dancing around. It was a full-on party. Having come off of a few days of traveling, this wasn't exactly what I was prepared for. Ommy, our resident young Tanzanian flirt who lives at the volunteer house as well, took my by my hand and eagerly showed me through the house to my room. On the way I met about 10 people and of course could not retain a single name. My room had two bunk beds and it looked like it had been hit by a cyclone that can only be created by several young women sharing a room together. After I put my pack down, Ommy insisted that I take a full house tour (all the while holding my hand). Once that was done, I was completely dazed and overwhelmed by all the action. I was thinking, what have I gotten myself into? It was a flashback of when I lived with 12 others during college when I was 21. Eventually a handful of the volunteers cornered me in the kitchen and assured me that it is not a constant party at the house and to not freak out. That they knew how I felt because they too had also arrived on a "party night". Which I have since learned is on Thursday and Saturday nights. They definitely made me feel welcome, but I was still having major doubts about being happy in this environment for a month. Almost everyone else was just so much younger. Shortly after my arrival everyone loaded into the volunteer van and headed off to Masai Camp, a local club. I went into my bedroom and called Brent despite the $5/minute charge. I couldn't help it, I just wanted to hear his voice. I didn't sleep much at all that night, between being so whacked out from jetlag and the kids coming home at 3am. Man, I sound like an old fuddy duddy!

In the light of day on Sunday, things started to fall into place. I went with three other volunteers (two from Canada, one from Ireland) to check out a local church service in town. We took the "dala dala" which is a mini-van that is a cross between a taxi and a public bus, into the center of town. The ride from our neighborhood, Sakina Maziwa (means breast milk!) costs 300 shillings, approximately 40 cents. The dala dala is a great way to immerse with the locals, as everyone takes the dala dala. And over 25 people are squashed into an area meant for about 15. A mother climbed in the other day and just plopped her baby onto my lap since she only had standing/ducking room. I love it! As you could probably imagine, the people and their clothing are extremely colorful and vibrant here. Many of the women wear loudly patterned dresses in primary colors, with matching bolts of fabric swaddled atop their heads. The Masai tribal men also are a constant presence in their often purple, red, or blue robes and earlobes pierced with holes about two inches around. There is also a small Muslim element and it is not uncommon to see a women in a burka.

Back to the church service. We arrived to a very large, airy hall and were clearly the only "mzungu" there. Let me tell you about the word mzungu. I've heard it an awful lot in the past week. It means "white person" and the men especially have a penchant for calling out mzungu anytime I walk by. It's not exactly a compliment, but it's taken in stride. And us volunteers have found ourselves referring to ourselves or other foreigners as mzungu. For example (and I am jumping ahead for a moment), we went out dancing at an outdoor club on Thursday night called Via Via. On Friday morning, one of the other volunteers who had not come out told me that she heard that I had been dancing like a "bongo" (local), not a mzungu, on Thursday night. Back to church, again. I keep digressing, but seriously I have seen and experienced so much that it has been the ultimate frustration not to have my computer with me to blog on a daily basis! So I apologize that I seem to be going off on several tangents. The church service was in Swahili, but holy smokes, the choir was rocking! They filed in from the back dancing and belting out their tunes, and everyone in the audience clapped along with them. It was really cool. They were definitely the highlight, and sang every ten minutes or so throughout the 90 minute serves. It was also fun to look at all the churchgoers in their Sunday best. Many loud hats and dresses. Afterwards we walked around downtown for a little while. Arusha has a lively outdoor produce/housewares market, and lots of little shops and stalls with a random assortment of goods. Also lots of money exchange counters and tailors. There is one little building that I pass everytime I go downtown, called "The Computerized Zebra Eye Clinic". I have no idea what it is, but it always makes me laugh. Overall, I instantly felt pretty comfortable with dodging the frenetic rhythm of vehicles, pedestrians and the occasional goat. I basically have gone back into Southeast Asia/India Polly mode. I do wonder what I would think if I had not already visited other developing, non-western countries. However, I feel like I have adjusted immediately to the pace here.

Sunday night I took the time to start to talk individually with the different volunteers. At that point there were 25 of us living in a 6 bedroom house with intermittent running water and electricity. It was pretty confusing trying to keep everyone and their nationalities straight. We have a mix of Canadians, Americans, English, Irish, Australian and one Hungarian. I currently have 2 other roommates, Esther from Hungary, and Tory from England. Esther is 21 and one of those girls that had to grow up and move out at 16. Tory is 18 and extremely entertaining and lively. It has been a slow process getting to know the volunteers well, but in this past week certain friendships have emerged as I have been drawn to certain people. Everyone in the house is friendly, but I seem to jive with the somewhat quieter, more offbeat people. Though I was initially a bit frightened by the sheer quantity of housemates, it has definitely mellowed out over the week and I am now very happy to be there. We have three meals made every day for us by an angel named Ashura. She is a bodacious 22 year old local with a hearty laugh and a propensity to shower me with hugs. I love her to death. And I still cannot believe that I do not have to lift a finger to make a meal! The food varies but it always consists of big platters of pineapple, papaya, bananas, and avocado. The main meal for us vegetarians is usually a rice dish mixed with veggies and spices or some sort of bean soup. All the African food I've had so far has been delicious.

On Monday, all of us "newbie" volunteers had an orientation which started with a Swahili lesson. At this point I must tell you about one of the other volunteers, Mike. He is such a character, and the sort of person you want along on a trip just to see what he does or says. For example, he asked during our lesson how to say "it's raining in my armpits" because as we all know this would be very useful for communicating with the locals. Nelly (one of the volunteer coordinators) then took us all on a dala dala and we headed into town for a quick tour. Nelly is awesome. She is beautiful, savvy, funny and basically everyone in our group is in love with her. She also totally tracked down my checked luggage that had never shown up. We went to the KLM office where she got a few phone numbers to sort things out. Turns out the bag showed up the following day and when it was taken from the airport to the KLM office in town, they wouldn't hold it there (why, I don't know). So, the man who happened to be transferring my bag took it home with him! So KLM gave Nelly his phone number, she got his address, and had our driver Eric go to his home to pick up my bag. This is where I interject with another saying that keeps coming up, T.I.A. Which stands for, This Is Africa. Things just have a way of happening (or not happening) in roundabout ways over here.

Another time TIA was appropiately used was on Tuesday. That was the day we were each taken to our "placement". I will be using this term to refer to my job at the orphanage from here forward. When Alex, the placement director, took us into the very poor neighborhood where our orphanage is located, and we were stepping over dead cats and walking between mud hut homes and murky puddles, he turned to us and said with a big smile, This Is Africa. Speaking of my placement: it is a very small orphanage named Bethlehem Children's Center. It is in an area named Kijengue Juu and I actually quite like the little neighborhood. It leans into a hill towards Mt. Meru (I think it's around 10,000 feet?) and just feels like the sort of Africa I came to help. There are 10 children at the orphanage, a Mama (the head mother), two Dadas (sister is the direct translation, they do the wash, cleaning, and cooking), and then there are currently four of us volunteers. Two of the volunteers, Evelyn and Stephanie, have been there for a month. Myself and Courtney are the newbies from our house. Courtney is 19, and so sweet. I think we make a good pair for this program, and even discovered the other night that we have the same birthday! She comes from a very different type of upbringing from me but that doesn't seem to affect us. I feel like a big sister to her. The orphanage itself is in a small home with a narrow outdoor area to do laundry and where the children play. These kids are so precious. There are a handful that we "teach" in the morning -- go over some simple reading, do sing-alongs, and throw dirty little tennis balls around. There is alot of just separating the kids from each other and teaching them to share. A universal theme. :-)

Five other children there go to government school in the morning and come back at noon in time to have lunch which is fed to them by Dada. At that time we take a chai break and are served lunch by Mama. She's a brilliant cook, which I understand is pretty lucky because several other volunteers have found themselves in situations where they are forced to eat dishes they would not otherwise because they do not want to insult their host. The first meal was actually funny - we were served a local dish named Ugali. It is a pasty, stiff dough made of maize. You are meant to form it into a ball with your hand and stick it in the veggies or sauce accompanying it. I had read that it is offensive to use your left hand, so you can imagine how I looked trying to form these balls with my right hand. It was pretty messy! I noticed Mama eating it with her fork so from that day forward I have done the same (and am using my left hand).

In the afternoons we have the group of children that go to school in the morning, while the youngsters nap. We go over a few lessons with them for an hour. Let me just say it gets really hot in the little schoolroom in the afternoon. The roof is tin and you can literally feel a heatwave emanating from it! After lessons we sing and on Thursday, we taught them Duck Duck Goose. They caught on so quickly and loved it. It is crazy how quickly I have become attached to my kids and have missed them all weekend!

On Friday we went to an event called The Widows Project. A group of widows in a nearby village have co-oped to raise money to survive by creating a small petting zoo and having children and a Masai group perform for locals or foreigners. It cost 3000 shillings to get in (about $2) and we had a blast watching the children and Masai dance all afternoon. At one point near the end, Mike, the volunteer who constantly makes me laugh, joined in as the locals were dancing around their drummers in a circle. I then joined in, and then so did a few other volunteers. The locals went mad with laughter and clapping and cheering, and then the widows also jumped in with us. It was so much fun!!!

Yesterday nine of us went on an all-day hike/adventure at the Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park. The hike was gorgeous. I had not expected to find Africa so lush, fragrant, and tropical. We rollicked through jasmine, citrus flower, eucalyptus, thousands of banana trees and maize fields for a few hours. We had lunch at a waterfall, and almost all of us got in to swim. Have you ever stood directly under a waterfall? I felt so alive (hopefully I won't end up with giardia...). As we continued our hike, children constantly popped out of nowhere to attack us with their knowledge of English, "good morning" and "what's your name?" and were so excited to have their pictures taken. Of course they would then run after us for the next few minutes asking for money. T.I.A. On our drive home we stopped to look at Mt Kili which stands at a majestic 16,000 feet. It's pretty amazing.

I have so many more stories and observances but my time here at the internet cafe has run out after logging in for two hours! Later this week I am going on a four day safari to the Serengeti and Ngorogo Crater with six other volunteers so I will check in after that. All in all I can't be happier to be here. I feel so stimulated, inspired and fortunate for this experience.

Love, Polly

---