Saturday, May 26th

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Saturday, May 28th @ 5:45pm

Well, I've been introuduced to the place -- very interesting. Yesterday was the first day that I walked around, and I was with Moody -- he's a Tanzanian guy that also runs Tamiha. Turns out he is of about 3 people here that speak English.. hm. We walked to all the Tamiha projects and through Usa River, which turns out to be much bigger than I expected. The roads are dirt (or mud) and are so bumpy i have no idea how people drive (they acutally dont, theres like 5 cars here). Everyone walks, some ride bikes, and not necessarily in Usa River, but towards Arusha there are people with motorbikes. There is heaps of plants and trees, very green and beautiful, but they ruin it by littering EVERYWHERE. This place could be so beautiful but the stench of burning trash and the image of what could be clean streams full of unbelievable amounts of garbage kind of distorts the beauty. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely some beautiful places.. but if they took more care to preserve the land, it could be very beneficial. They even burn plastic bottles... I totally get the burning of paper and tissue and stuff like that, but a recycling and composting program could do wonders.
The first place we went to is called Lukandane- its a huge piece of land that hosts the teen girls vocational shool - there is one sewing class and one computer class.. its 1 year and at the end they recieve a certification of completion which helps them get a job. There is also a widows program which helps women that have lost everything by organized microfinace groups - there are 5 groups of 20 women and they work all week in small businesses to make profit. There's also the Homeless mothers program which gives the women housing (in Lukandane) for 90 days and teaches them self management skills and what not... after 90 days, they are enrolled into the microfinance program and its just a cycle. Appears to be working quite effectively. The grounds are open and green and have lots of trees -- trees which have monkeys in them! I was so excited and was playing with one for a bit. Amazing!
We than headed over to the orphanage, about a 20 minute walk. We have to go through a bit that seems slum-like. Quite intimidating the first time. The entire walk has people walking up and down the road, and heaps of people selling bananas and avacados and corn. SO CHEAP. A bunch of 10 bananas is about 600 shillings (35 cents.) Grilled corn is around 250 shillings (15 cents). Havent tried the corn but looks delish. The food here is great and noone eats meat beacuse its so expensive.. works for me! As soon as we apporached the orphanage, about 50 gorgeous little kids all gather and run up to me and start to sing a song. The teacher introduced me to the kids (noone here can pronouce my name, they think its the craziest name ever -- generally its stepha, or tepa- ha!) The kids broke out into song again, for about 6 minutes.. cutest thing ever, I'll have to video it. The kids are between the ages of 2-6 and there are around 50 or so.. one teacher, and than volunteers if there are any. The "classrooms" are dirt floor, one wall, open air rooms - with one being inside but has no desks. The kids are just amazing though. Than we walked to St. Vivian School - all schools here charge, so thats why many kids dont have education. St. Vivian has kids from about 5-11 years old, there are 4 classes and all of the kids from Tamiha that get sponsored go to St. Vivian... the teacher asked the kids to raise their hands if they came from Tamiha... about 75% of the did, it was incredible! I think it costs about $250 per year to sponsor a kid to go, so that was neat to see.
Than we took the dala dala into Arusha Town, its about 45 minutes on the 'dala dalas' which are 16 passanger buses that they shove about 30 people in, not kidding, and they cost 500 shillings. There are no stops, you just yell 'Shusha!!" which means stop and they quickly pull over and basically shove you out. Quite a thrilling experience. dala dalas are basically the only thing on the road, there are thousands of them and you never have to wait more than 30 seconds for one to get you, and they wont turn anybody away so they get WAY too filled. We quickly walked through Arusha and took another dala dala home. I didnt get to see much of the town, but I got the gist of it. Its quite funny acutally, the place has nothing to offer but all of the safari companies are based there -- so I saw my first white people! Its hilarious, there are two or so nice hotels that I saw that have cafes connected to them, and they are filled with "mzungus" (white people). There are no whites on the streets really at all.. they are all just huddled up in these cafes. The streets are insane.. drivers wouldnt notice if they ran somebody over, its succch a mess! Dinner last night was amazing - i cant remeber the name of it but it was similar to an omlette - eggish stuff with chopped potato. Amazing! Breakfast is rough though, just two pieces of white bread - no jam or butter or anything.
Today was a good day. Jake (an aussie kid thats living here as well) and I went back into Arusha this morning on the dala dala and we had lunch at the masai cafe which was delicious. We walked through Arusha and went to the only 'super' market within about 8 hours. Bought heaps of bottled water and honey for my bread and treated myself to a box of australian candy- smarties (not the sweet tart american ones). Yum! We wondered for a bit, the town is just insane. So many people in such a small area. This whole place is so densely populated.
Now I'm home, but in a few minutes Jonas and Jake and I are meeting up with two other kids (1 aussie guy and 1 american girl) that are volunteering at another orphanage pretty near by. We are all going to dala dala into Arusha to watch the final football match (Man. United vs. Barcelona). Theres a sports bar that is showing it so that will be fun and it will be nice to meet some other people that live in Usa River. We go to Arusha a lot because there is really nothing at all to do here if we arent volunteering and working on the projects. It's quite lonely here.. I wish I had someone that I was close to here with me but I know it will pass once I get more comfortable and aqauinted with everything here. I do miss home though, and my people. I feel so far away, probably beuacse well, I am far away.. but beacuse I dont have internet or anything and dont get to talk to everyone often. I write these blogs on word and than upload them when I have internet.
Miss you all heaps, hope everything is going well at home. xx

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