This past Friday, we put together a girl's football match between the preform girls (the class I teach the most) and the form 1 girls. Well, what a showdown it was. The competitive side of me came out in full force although I know absolutely nothing about coaching soccer but unfortunately, the preform girls lost in a sudden death shootout. It was overwhelming to see how the girls responded to the excitement of the game and having their peers watch them, especially the boys. I was blown away by the boy's excitement and positivity in cheering on their girl counterparts. School [View Full Entry]

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The middle of October, 2009 brought the end of my first term of this school year, 2 teacher-in-service days, and Denia! My sister came to visit me for a quick but wonderful 10 days, during my week off from school, and together we terrorized (read: photographed and sang to) the Northern circuit National Parks of Tanzania. Denia arrived on a Thursday evening, and we had a quiet night in together, catching up and letting Kibo get to know another one of her Aunts. After work on Friday, we did a little tour of Dar and that evening we went out for [View Full Entry]

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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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Four volunteers including myself went on safari to Ngorongoro Crater today, and saw lots of great animals! Elephants, lions, hippos, zebra, hyenas, wildebeests, buffalo, gazelle, ostrich, crowned crane, flamingos, warthogs, jackals, baboons, and a serval cat. Here are a few highlight pics! [View Full Entry]

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We landed in Kilimanjaro International Airport, after Kenya Airport it was a paradise to land in big and nice airport. The air was stifling and it took time to use to it. The airport personal helped us to fix our tourist visa for Tanzania, they were friendly and nice, but some of them just wanted get money for nothing. We were staying in Arusha with our friends who have a fantastic place there. The place is like a hotel for tourists and it is called “Karibu Home”. Nice people, food, service… I warmly recommend staying there if you have the opportunity [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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We schrijven deze blog vanuit een internetcafe in Arusha, het toerisitisch centrum van Tanzania. Het veldwerk in Lushoto zit erop. De laatste week dat we er zaten was vrij mager op het gebied van water en elektriciteit. Door het aanhoudende droge seizoen was er weinig water in de rivieren waardoor ook de nationale watercentrales moeilijkheden hadden. Hierdoor zat het hele land zonder elektriciteit. Maar wonder boven wonder begon het op onze voorlaatse onderzoeksdag plots te regenen en konden we net voor ons vertrek naar arusha het licht terug aansteken en weer genieten van een warme douche. Al [View Full Entry]

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Thirteen of us all packed into the 4x4, driving 45 minutes along winding, bumpy roads, skidding and sliding back and forth in the muddy ruts, the whole way to Karatu. After spending two whole days in bed with stomach pains and achy blah, I finally went to see the doctor yesterday. I brought two other kids from the children's village who were sick as well, and with both of them on my lap, and seven more local villagers packed in for the ride, we set off uncomfortably tight. As the driver stopped to pick up more and more passengers along the [View Full Entry]

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Okay so as a follow up on my boastful "I'm gonna climb Kili" shit I would like to let everyone know that I admit defeat. I started off well, got to 4000 and, whilst looking at the amazing view, hurt my ankle. It's my own fault really, we were walking on basically just rocks and I should know by now that luck doesn't really cling to me.. so anyway, our guide Richard told me I should go down as my ankle would need rest and a top of a mountain really wasnt the best place for that. Totally bummed me out. [View Full Entry]

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Hello all, We arrived safe in Tanzania yesterday and got the ferry over to Zanzibar this morning. It's hard to describe how tired we are after the 4.30am start this morning, 8 hour flight to Doha, 1 hour transfer and the 5 and a half hour flight from Doha to Dar Es Salaam. We slept very little on the plane because Qatar airline was fantastic and provided around 1000 entertainment options, FREE alcohol (as much as we wanted throughout the flight), films, music, games and TV options as well as regular meals which were really tasty but kept waking us up. [View Full Entry]

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