Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Things truly do work out

Here I was so worried about Christmas break and it's turning out just swimmingly!!! I started volunteering at an orphanage and met one of the managers on Tues. We went to what she appropriately calls the "African Starbucks" and then daladalaed to the girls' home (she doesn't like the word orphanage). There is a lot of legal stuff going on as she is trying to help another orphanage, but there are people who are there for the wrong reasons, so it's complicated. But this girls' home is a two story, very spacious, girls' home with toys, puzzles, and 1 hr of school each day. They know very little English so it's a good opportunity for me to practice my Swahili. But they decorated a Christmas tree with homemade ornaments. I might get them to make some for my tree :) I taught them Away in a Manger with hand motions and we're going to sing it at the Christmas luncheon! Christmas day they're having a potluck with carols and we're giving each kid a stuffed animal. So my problem of spending Christmas by myself is null AND what a cool way to spend it! It will be a memorable one! The girls are so lovable. When I first walked in, they said "upendo," love. They were so fascinated by my mole and my flip flop earrings. Many of the schools here require girls to shave their heads to keep uniformity, but Tammy (the woman who helps out/owns) believes girls should be girls and got all their ears pierced, does their hair, and got them all sorts of dresses and skirts. Mitumba (2nd hand clothing) is a wonderful thing! I got a nice blouse there for less than $4. We played hopskotch, but since we didn't have chalk we used their shoes and lined them up in different formations. We did some puzzles, which I haven't done in so long and brought back the days of the puzzle board my dad made me that I stored under my bed. I was most impressed when they had lunch. One of the older girls brought it to each girl, they all said thank you, and waited for each girl to receive her lunch and then prayed together. They are becoming a family and Tammy only wants to introduce kids in small numbers to keep the familial atmosphere.

Today when we went to get the toys, I thought we were handpicking 200 toys out, but a guy at the Mitumba market said he'd give us 100 for 100,000 about $80, so it ended up just being a day of shopping and a girls' day out. AND I met a volunteer who 1) is 21 2) FEMALE 3) going to be here 3 years 4) has lots of other volunteer friends and 5) likes to go out and do stuff so YAYAYAAY! I got a dress for the wedding in Zanzibar (long and with sleeves), and stuff for my awaited Christmas tree, donated by one of my piano student's parents, like Christmas lights for $4 and they're even awesome with different settings, little ornament balls, and tinsel. SO excited!

Came home and Collin (my "nephew") was running around naked. Oh to be a kid again! I cooked a great meal of Indian spiced fried pancakes and vermicelli vegetable turkey broth soup. It's so great to have time to cook. I've missed it! Oh and we found little plums today and went to a really good RAW place for ciabatta sandwiches and smoothies (Mom and Dad, I'm def taking you here!) So it ended up being a really good day!

Tomorrow bright and early, we take off for Lake Eyasi to see one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes and to camp at a beautiful lake. Super excited! Then it's Christmas caroling and then the CLIMB OF MT. Meru!!!!! Will update afterwards :)

Break is wonderful! And I was worried about not going to Lake Eyasi today. Then some people cancelled on Meru but we got a new crew together :) Then Zanzibar accommodation was really scaring me since it's peak season and everything is full. BUT we found a woman couchsurfer who's 25 and owns a beach resort and shares a house with the chef and is .5m from a quiet, coconut tree, white sand, no creepy beach boys (her words) and only 40 mins from town instead of 2 hrs like we were looking at! And of course is free.

I'm still working a bit and Umoja has A LOT of stuff going on right now, but the new website should be up by the end of break hopefully. Check out the Facebook page I created. Search Umoja Arts Project!

Oh and The Book Thief is an excellent book, highly recommend it! Gonna go finish it :)

Sunday, December 12, 2010

One day and 18.5 hours

Until Christmas break! Though tomorrow is a very lax day and I just have one lesson on Tues. As of tonight, I am solo for the next two and a half weeks. My housemate is going back home to Sweden (will miss you!). Luckily the plans are coming together and I finally have options for Christmas. I'm going to keep things open-ended for now. Hence how I finally have time to journal.
Thanksgiving was a huge success!!! We had a Thanksgiving potluck style on the day of with all the traditional foods like a turkey, yams, cranberry sauce, pumpkin and pecan pie, and stuffing. I was thrilled considering you usually can't find yams, pecans, or cranberries here :) But being a potluck, we also had nontraditional foods like gazelle meat, tomatoes with cheese and basil, green salad, and more I've forgotten already. It was great to celebrate with ex-pats who understand Thanksgiving and cool to see my Swedish housemate love an American holiday (how could you not!).
But then, I decided as an early Christmas present, I would make Thanksgiving dinner for my house staff. I've never paid so much for any type of food in my life, but it was so worth it! I attempted to pray in Swahili, granted it was short, and went around in a circle and said what we were thankful for. I was so happy. I could taste my dad's cooking, but it was me who made it! :) A 7.22 kilo turkey, cranberry sauce made from sweetened craisins and cranberry juice, garlic mashed potatoes and gravy (dad's recipe), and stuffing with homemade bread crumbs, it was such a success and I have a new appreciation of people like my dad that cook the whole meal by themselves! I was in the kitchen from 9 AM to 3:30 PM, but they all enjoyed it so much and it was so cool to share such a cultural thing.
Socially, it is still quite difficult to make friends. I have lots of acquaintances, but few people I could just call up to hang out, especially females. But I've decided over break I'm just going to go to things cuz that's how I'll make friends and I do have a travel buddy so that's really exciting! WE're going to see the Hatzabe tribe, one of the last hunter-gatherers and you go hunting with them using arrows and running and all, and it's on a beautiful lake so it will be a nice getaway.  This will be followed by a strenuous climb up Mt. Meru 4,000 some meters and I've heard the climb is harder than Kili as they call Mt. Kilimanjaro here, but a much more beautiful hike since it's less touristy. I'm doing both so we'll see. I'm going to volunteer at an orphanage a few days and I hope to take some day trips to the nearby parks. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm doing for Christmas, but I've been invited to a few things, some in Arusha with expats and one with my one Tanzanian female friend in their place in Moshi. My only thing is they're going for 3 days and I may feel a bit...not bored but isolated maybe is a good word? Lots of restaurants are having stuff here so I think my first choice would be to stay in town and hang out with people but we'll see. And then it's off to Longai, the only active volcano! And then Nina comes back and that'll be another post, but I'll try to be better at updating now that work has slowed down considerably.
The end-of-term concert went SO well! I was so proud of all of them and have received nothing but positive feedback. And our goal of filling the church (~200 people) was attained!!! To see the progress of the Umoja Ensemble kids made my heart literally go pitter-patter.
I went to a contemporary dance piece last night. I won't lie, I surely had my doubts due to my experiences with contemp dance in the past...but, this was AMAZING! Shirtless, VERY built, Tanzanian and Madagascar men doing headstands, jumping 3 ft in the air, balancing on each other, flips, the whole nine yards, and to think it was on cement!!
Oh and I had the BEST haircut complete w/ steak sandwiches, sweet corn which I didn't even know you could get here, and a shot of Zambuka, all for less than 15 bucks!
Well I'm off to a benefit concert. Check out the Sowers group, contemporary African music, really good!