Alistair Eksteen

Our volunteering wrapped up almost a week ago now, and since then we have been doing quite a bit of traveling. Unfortunately a lot of these computers do not have USB ports (or at least none that I can see), so the pictures will have to wait until we can get them up on facebook. Last Saturday we left very early in the morning for Arusha to meet up with our Safari company. There were two other guys in our safari car; one from Texas who had just finished climbing kili, and another from Korea who could barely speak a word of English. The first day we were in Lake Manyara, and didnt see anything too crazy besides black giraffe. I've never heard of a black giraffe before, and when I saw one in the distance ... read more

Hello all! It is almost unbearably hot outside...and when you are required to wear pants for work it doesn't help the situation! And its supposed to be winter here too! It's almost summer in Edmonton and its snowing...we definitely chose the right time to come. This past weekend wasn't nearly as exciting as our first one here, but it had its highlights. On Saturday, Amir and I along with the two US volunteers went to the annual KIWAKKUKI meeting in Moshi. There were over a thousand people there, and everyone had outfits made with the same material, so we were all matching. It was cute. Except for me and Amir, we just looked like gorilla wannabes in the massive shirts we had tailored. Apparently our tailor thought we were way beefier than we actually are. Or ... read more

Almost another week done in Moshi town. On Sunday, Amir and I decided to switch the organization we were volunteering with. Our coordinator took us to St. Joseph's hospital in Moshi, and that is where we have been working for the past week. At first it was ridiculously boring. We would sit for hours doing nothing. But that's just how they roll here... you definitely can't work at an American pace or people will get angry. You have to learn to be patient, unless you're trained enough to be self sufficient. The first day we basically followed the doctors doing their rounds. In the pediatric ward there was one girl who had severe pneumonia because they discharged her earlier without the appropriate treatment! (Turns out there were several children like this). The doctor in charge is ... read more

The end of our first week in Tanzania, and it already feels like we've been here for months! Today has been our first day of relaxing since we arrived, and it is much needed. A lot has happened since my last blog, so I'll touch on some of the highlights. On Thursday we were told that we could attend a meeting hosted by an AIDs support group. I thought that we would be sitting on the sidelines observing, but we walked into a classroom with 50 people facing the front, and we were told to sit on the bench in the front. Turns out we were the main attraction! At first people who wished to speak would stand up and tell us their stories. We wrote their names and stories down as examples for a report ... read more

Hello everyone! Amir and I just finished our first official day of volunteering with KIWAKKUKI (the Kilimanjaro region AIDs organization). We had an incredible day, but first let me explain how we got here. Our first night in Dar can show you the detrimental effects of jet lag... I went to bed around 9pm or so, and at 11:30pm Amir woke me up. "Alistair, its light outside, I think we missed our bus!" I got out my iTouch, which said 23:40. "Amir, its not even midnight yet, but I'll reset it and double check" " No, its light outside, and it doesnt get light that early in the morning." So I got up to look outside, and sure enough the light he saw was the fluorescent light that lit the hallway outside our room... We both ... read more

Greetings from Tanzania! Amir and I just arrived in Dar es Salaam from our 60+ hour travels. Of course I started off the trip by getting searched in Edmonton by a big black guy who asked me if I modeled, after which responding with "uhh, no" he commented on the fact that I should. I was quite flattered considering it was 5 am and I probably looked like a zombie. I've always had this theory that it was impossible for a person to talk for two hours straight without taking a breath. This theory was disproved by two girls sitting behind us on the flight to Houston. I listened for awhile and honestly couldn't catch any breaks in the conversation... and their shrill voices definitely didn't help any attempts to fall asleep. I left the flight ... read more

Hey everyone! I'll be posting blogs here as often as I can while Amir and I are in Tanzania if you wanted to follow our trip! Enjoy Alistair... read more