In the center of Moshi, there are many volunteers and tourists so seeing them on the street is very common. However, when you go into the residential areas, there is sometimes great excitement from the children on seeing a "mzungu" (white foreigner). Most will automatically assume that you are a teacher and many "wazungu" - the plural form of mzungu, are called mwalimu (teacher). Many of the children have had experience with volunteer teachers in Moshi urban, but that quickly drops off when you enter into Moshi rural and once you get outside of Moshi district in the Kilimanjaro region, thei [View Full Entry]

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Habari Rafiki? Today I will start publishing photos that I have taken from various spots in Tanzania. I will start off with a picture I took while on safari near Lake Eyasi, on a visit to the Hadzabe tribe. I had heard contrasting opinions about visiting the Hadzabe, whether it was in their best interest or not to have outside influences enter into their lives. After visiting, I am not opposed to visits. They are a very friendly people and quite fond of their lifestyle. What is threatening them is loss of habitat for the animals that they depend on for [View Full Entry]

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Today is a dark day as I perform that which I swore I would never do. I am blogging. It just sounds wrong. But I am far too lazy to respond to individual emails and messages, so this was the easiest route. Do not fret, I will keep things short. So, join me on this magical adventure into the lowest form of written word, wont you? (FYI, this site will not allow me to do apostrophes, so I have opted to simply skip them. Its not poor grammar, so dont judge me). Also, editing on this computer is pretty much impossible, [View Full Entry]

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Talk about a walk in the clouds! Edgar and I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya on September 11 and took a shuttle to Moshi, Tanzania, a small town at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The shuttle ride there was wild. It took 7+ hrs and had to be on some of the worst roads I have ever been on. At some points we were literally bouncing out of or seats. However, it was worth it as we saw the country side and the people who live there. A lot of Masai tribesmen and women who were herding there flock along the road,including [View Full Entry]

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Hey everyone! Finally i have a fast internet so i think tomorrow i will bring my camera and try to load a few pictures up to facebook! So to tell you a little bit about my day. We woke up around 5:30 AM and made sandwiches and headed to the bus station on the dalla dalla, now you guys know how much i love the dalla dalls but you know what or i am getting used to it ... or it was just not as crouded ... i am sure its a bit of both ha ha. At 7 oclock we [View Full Entry]

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Since I got here I’ve wanted to visit a government school. Having seen them on Blue Peter and Comic Relief I wanted to see for myself how cramped the classrooms are and how few resources they have. Up until this week they’ve been on holiday so I only got to go yesterday to Meserani Primary. The school took about 30 minutes to walk to from the road across dust which was occasionally crossed by huge chasms; these are rivers in the wet season. I can only imagine how muddy the dust gets! As we walked, three white girls and a Maasai [View Full Entry]

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Hellohello! A quick blog update now before we have lunch plans with another wonderful Rotarian... Monday and Tuesday we made an excursion to Moshi, TZ, which is a little market-town at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. The 6-hour bus ride was outrageous in every way but the price - only 11,000 Tsh, or about 8 USD - truly an African safari adventure! It was cloudy on the drive in and as we checked into our hostel (Kili is so huge that it literally creates its own weather for the surrounding area), so Tom and I were feeling a little frustrated that [View Full Entry]

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Even een kort berichtje vanuit TANZANIA. Best bizar om zo even 750 km verderop te zijn. Gisterenmorgen zijn we op het vliegtuig gestapt naar Kilimanjaro International Airport. Daar aangekomen moesten we ons eerst een weg banen door alle taxichauffeurs, als zij zeggen dat er geen bus gaat willen wij dat niet geloven, eerst zelf zien. Had ik al verteld dat we maar een klein beetje eigenwijs zijn? Toch met de bus naar Moshi (eerst een stukje taxi, tot het kruispunt) en daar een hotel gezocht. Moshi is erg dichtbij de Keniaanse grens, dus moesten we toch eigenlijk ook daar even kijken [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, I’m coming to the end of my volunteering now. I finish teaching on Thursday and then travel to Zanzibar on Friday. I’m planning to meet up with Brendon (another volunteer from the house) in Kendwa rocks, a beach resort in the north of the island on Sunday. I should be back in Moshi by Wednesday evening and then do some souvenir shopping and project visiting on Thursday and Friday, before flying home on Saturday. I’ve just been handing out sweets to 1B as it’s my last lesson with them. Although it can be frustrating at times, I have enjoyed [View Full Entry]

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the internet is infrequent and unreliable in africa. much like telephones, roads, public transport and prices. enough said as to why this blog is delayed i think. so we arrived in moshi mid afternoon, having caught a local bus from arusha (where our taxi driver from the airport had categorically told us that if we caught that bus we were going to be mugged and killed so of course we must take his taxi all the way. he even roped his friends into going along with the story. we ignored them all and it was fine) where a mountain guide called [View Full Entry]

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