Back on home soil

So last night, I arrived back in Chicago, safe and sound. I treated Friday as a very long day-- eating breakfast in the air somewhere over France, lunch on the street in Amsterdam, and dinner in Detroit's airport. I was pretty disappointed with my planning in Amsterdam-- I arrived back at the airport after heading downtown an hour earlier than I would have needed to so I could have spent more time seeking a nice sidewalk cafe. As it was, I ended up eating a sandwich on the go as I made my way back to Amsterdam's Centraal Station to catch the train to the airport.

I should should mention that on the plane ride home, I had a lot of time to think. The product of all of that thinking was the realization that I have been going through separation anxiety. Looking back further, I think my posts and private journal writings prior to departure have some of the same elements. I don't know what to make of that realization yet, although I think it's positive that I have learned a little something about myself on this trip. As I sat in Kilimanjaro International Airport on Thursday evening, drinking my last Tusker beer and watching some World Cup, I felt relatively at peace. I was leaving this "other world" behind but I felt like I was able to accomplish something productive while I was there and so I guess that relaxed me.

If my previous trips have taught me anything, it's that once I get back, I have a difficult time staying awake past 6:00 pm for about a week, so I'm not going to be getting bent out of shape to make sure I get everything posted this next week. I'll be posting another entry about the fun times with the kids closer to July.

A conundrum

So I'm just sitting here relaxing for a bit and realized a few things. First, I haven't said goodbye to any of the kids at Amani. I'm going to go resolve that in a few minutes on my way to KCMC to finish packing.

The second is more complex: I've been writing about how I'm looking forward to my old routine. I just realized that my old routine also means I'm going to work on Monday (and actually I'll be logging a little time on Friday night to book travel to Grand Rapids for Monday). One of the worst feelings at the end of a vacation (especially four weeks away from work) is the disappointment that work is just around the corner. I enjoy my job, but there are certain aspects following a return from vacation that are not fun. The one that comes to mind first is all of the e-mail that I will have to deal with. Second, the stress that there might not be any available seats on a flight to Grand Rapids for next week (or no hotels). I need to take care of Advisory University registration (even though I'll be registering late-- the registration period was entirely within my vacation period.) I'm certainly not going to take care of this work stuff now while I'm on vacation, because keeping clear separation between work and vacation is very important to me. I have been periodically downloading my work e-mail to stay somewhat loosely informed. I absolutely do not act on anything during vacation (and seldom on the weekend for that matter). I need the clear split.

The conundrum: So even though I'm looking forward to a return to things I am familiar with, I just realized that I'm also not looking forward to the routine because it is exactly that: the old routine. It's a perplexing contradiction and it's leaving me feeling uncomfortable. I'm saying two things: I want the old routine and I don't want it. There is too much change for me to be happy and not enough change for me to be happy. I haven't figured out what separates one statement from the other yet. Maybe my experience here has been so jarringly differrent from what I'm used to that my three weeks here have become some sort of alternate reality within the construct of my mind. That's not a helpful way of trying to describe how this feels I guess--a bit over the deep end on the sci-fi factor. I'm not going crazy, I promise.

Now, just to provide some reassurance after all of the doomsday junk, I'm not going to leave PwC anytime soon--like I said before, I enjoy my work, so basically I just have to suck it up and deal with the fact that returning to the US is just as major of a change as coming here, and I obviously survived here for three weeks. I should be able to pick up my life in the US where I left it. I would bet that what I'm feeling now is just a reflection of the same fear I felt on my way to Tanzania. Major change is hard and frightening.

Last day in Africa

Today is my last day in Africa. I have some mixed emotions. There is certainly a lot to look forward to back home, but I have met some wonderful people here and had so many memorable moments. Over the next few weeks, I will be spending some time thinking about how I can integrate this experience into my life. I don't think I would be a good fit for Tanzania specifically long term, but I would like to spend a couple years living and working abroad somewhere.

I've told Phil and Alison a few times while out here that I'm looking forward to a double quarter pounder with cheese from McDonald's (terribly unhealthy, I know, but quite delicious). While that's true to a certain extent, I think what is closer to the root of what I'm looking forward to is a return to the familiar for awhile. This contradicts my previous paragraph about wanting to live abroad somewhere a bit, but I think in the end, it comes down to me forcing myself to adapt and accept change. I want to further push the boundaries of my comfort zone and personally develop greater appreciation for all of the diversity in the world. I really want to become conversationally fluent in about six languages so that I can reduce some of my fear of being lost in a sea of unfamiliarity. I have the advantage of already knowing English, but even that only gets me so far. Every once in awhile though, it's nice to return to your roots and feel warmth and security of predictability, you know?

Also, it turns out that I have an 8 hour layover in Amsterdam, making my total travel time back to the US about 35 hours. I'm going to make the best of it though, and spend the morning tomorrow in Amsterdam visiting some sights like the Van Gogh museum. After having lunch in central Amsterdam, I'll head back to the airport for my flight to Detroit and then finally on to Chicago.

A final side note (possibly my last post before returning to the US): I'm looking forward to a little welcome home gathering this weekend at BW3's in Chicago. It'll be lunch so that we can watch a World Cup game. I can't wait for 18 wings, half mild and half medium, with ranch dressing. What yummy goodness. It's amazing that such simple things are held so dear when we think about "home." I guess in our own little ways, we all cling to the familiar, resisting change to some degree.

Sunrise over the Serengeti

As we drove through the park to return to Arusha, we witnessed a spectacular sunrise. You can't tell from the photo very well unless you look away from the area of the sun, but in the distance, you'll see some distant clouds. Sunrise is normally earlier, but these clouds kept me from getting this photo until about 6:50 am. Serengeti National Park, Monday, June 12, 2006.

Africa in shadows

Full moon setting in the west. The exposure was relatively long (1 second) so you can see some stars in this photo. From campsite just outside Serengeti National Park, Monday, June 12, 2006.

Wildebeest

Hundreds of wildebeest. The migration was already almost to Kenya, and the park is so big, so we didn't make it to that. However, this was a pretty substantial herd, perhaps even a few thousand wildebeest. Serengeti National Park, Sunday, June 11, 2006. 

Zebras

Many zebras. Serengeti National Park, Sunday, June 11, 2006. 

Thompson's Gazelle

We saw both Thompson's and Grant's Gazelles. Pictured here is a Thompson's Gazelle, marked by the black stripe among other characteristics. It was pretty common to see the two types of gazelle in herds together. Serengeti National Park, Sunday, June 11, 2006.

Elephants

Large herd of elephants crossing the road. We were close, but not too close as elephants could freak out and smash our vehicle without too much effort. Serengeti National Park. Sunday, June 11, 2006.

Giraffe

In Swahili, the word for giraffe is twiga, or in this case, since there are two, you could say twiga wawili (two giraffe). We saw quite a few along the drive from the crater rim to the Serengeti gate. 

The Circle of Life

Here you can see a spotted hyena eating an elephant. There were two other hyenas nearby, but they were a bit skitish because we were around. N'gorongoro Crater rim, near Simba campsite. Morning, Sunday, June 11, 2006. 

N'gorongoro Crater

N'gorongoro Crater is quite a sight to see. This large caldera is about 12 km across and supports an active ecosystem. Animals can and do enter and exit the crater at their own will. Vegetation along the rim during this trip tended to be fairly green with a good number of trees and shrubs, while the crater floor was fairly dry. There is a large lake in the crater; a small portion of it is seen in the background of this photo. I'm not sure why I was wearing a jacket at the time of the photo as the temperature was really comfortable. N'gorongoro Crater, Saturday, June 10, 2006. 

Me with lions

This lion is enjoying the shade of our Land Rover. N'gorongoro Crater, Saturday, June 10, 2006.

A Weekend of Adventure

This weekend, I spent two nights on safari. For anyone who thinks it's expensive, a safari is as expensive and luxurious as you want it to be. For me however, with camping and preparing my own food (consisting of peanut butter sandwiches, apples, carrots, peanuts, and other small staples), the two nights cost US$292 for driver/guide + tip, camping, and park fees, + 15,000 TZS for food and water.

Everything came together very suddenly on Friday when someone called Phil to respond to a sign I placed at The Coffee Shop. I met up with the group at 4pm to understand the detailed logistics, headed back to KCMC and had a half hour to pack before I needed to head back downtown to catch a bus to Arusha. That night I stayed at a place locally called the Danish Centre, although it has a longer, more official name. The room cost a hefty $48, but included dinner and breakfast buffets. We departed from the centre at about 7:30 am and made our way to N'gorongoro Crater with a brief stop in Arusha for me to buy food.

Saturday was spent mostly in the crater, but we did stop for a moment along the way to get a view of Lake Manyara, home to a huge flamingo population. We were a bit far away to be able to actually see the flamingos, but I'm sure they were there. We saw quite a variety of animals in the crater including elephant, gazelles, zebras, hippos, etc., but the highlight was probably seeing some lions laying in the road, relaxing in the shade of a Toyota Land Cruiser. At some point, the Land Cruiser took off and one of the lions moved over into the shade of our vehicle.

Sunday morning, we discovered that a recently dead elephant was being eaten by spotted hyena a few hundred meters from our campsite. I'll post the photo. I thought I had taken some video of this also, but apparently did not. (I'm up to about 5.5 GB of photos and videos from this trip by the way. 7.1 megapixel images take up a lot of space!) Along the drive to the Serengeti, we stopped at Oldupai Gorge, the site of some early homanid tracks and a significant amount of other items that are relevant to human evolution. The Serengeti is an amazing expanse. The amount of space is really breathtaking, not to mention the variety of wildlife. We saw many of the same animals as in the crater, but in much larger numbers. At one point, we were surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of zebras. As we drove toward our camp that night, we found a sizable herd of wildebeest (this was not the migration though- those millions of wildebeest are already near the Tanzania-Kenya border, too far for us to go given our time constraints).

Monday, we got up at 5:00 am to make the 7 hour drive back to Arusha. I'll try to post a Google map of our route at some point if I can figure out how to make Blogger like Google maps. We were the first to re-enter the park when it opened at 6:00 am and saw a little more activity at that hour as we drove through, although we didn't see as many animals. The route back to Arusha also took us along the rim of the crater. I got back to Moshi at about 3:30 pm and took a much needed shower!

We also watched the USA/Czech Republic World Cup game last night. The USA didn't look very good at all.

Update on the electricity: we have power but it has been spotty and the voltage has been generally lower than it should be. Usually at 7:00 am, the power goes out completely for an hour or two.

Hakuna Umeme

Everyone who has seen Disney's "The Lion King" knows the phrase hakuna matata. There's a new phrase I've learned: hakuna umeme, or for those who do not speak Swahili, "there is no electricity." Tanesco, Tanzania's sole supplier of electricity announced today that beginning tomorrow, most of Tanzania will have its electricity cut from 7am to 7pm daily, through December due to low water at the hydroelectric power plant. As a side note, it's typical in Tanzania to announce something with little warning. School vacation that starts on a Monday is announced the previous Friday, for example.

For a little more background:
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2006/06/07/67914.html
http://english.people.com.cn/200606/08/eng20060608_272152.html

Amani is going to try to buy a generator to keep the office up and running. Of course, I have a laptop, but without power, it'll die eventually. Without power, we won't have any Internet, and we don't know if the cell phone towers will have generators.

Talk about a GDP killer. It's stuff like this that really hurts growth in East Africa. While 80% or more of the population here does not have electricity, and many of those that do tend to only have a light bulb, there are many organizations and others that rely on electricity to get through their day-to-day operations. People are pretty annoyed that they'll miss a lot of the World Cup.

The next week will be interesting. Unless we do some work at night, I won't be in the office to post anything while there is no electricity.

Since we still have the pizza from last Thursday (the power was out at KCMC for several hours last Thursday--interesting to see a major hospital in the dark, at least they have generators for the most important stuff) in the freezer, we are planning to eat that tonight. Last night we pasteurized some more milk and now the milk is sitting in the refrigerator separating. It'll probably spoil. Hopefully there isn't much else that will spoil.

Kigali Genocide Memorial

There are seven mass graves of approximately this size or a little bigger at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. All of these bodies were reburied here at the memorial site. All of the other mass graves are sealed. This particular gravesite is open to show visitors that the victims were reburied in caskets (three people to a casket) when the memorial site was built. 

Hotel Rwanda

This is the Hotel des Mille Collines, the setting for Hotel Rwanda's storyline. The hotel in the movie was actually in South Africa and looked quite a bit nicer than the exterior of this hotel. We ate an 8,000 RWF (about US$16) brunch here on Tuesday morning. 

Lake Kivu

Here's a nice picture from Lake Kivu. I thought the way the Coke bottles had been arranged on the table was pretty artistic and would make a nice picture. 

Rwanda -- part 1

I'm feeling a bit uncomfortable after our return from Rwanda. Reading about genocide in a book simply is not the same as walking the streets of Kigali and imagining the chaos that took place there 12 years ago.

Seeing the mass graves, bones, skulls, etc. was unsettling. More than that though, I'm feeling a sense of shame that while I was enjoying 7th grade, a million people were killed in the span of about 100 days. Even worse, the international response was to essentially ignore the genocide. Even the Catholic church condoned it.

Anyway, we visited Kigali, Kibuye and Ruhengeri. We visited the tourist office in Kigali on Friday evening and found out we were no longer on the list for Saturday. Apparently since we had not paid for our gorilla permits, they dropped us in favor of someone who was paying. The lady put us on the list for Monday even though that caused the total number of people to be 41, one more than allowed. She said she'd have to remove someone's name. The lady took our $375 apiece and we were set for Monday.

Since our itinerary shifted, we spent the night in Kigali at the Hotel Isimbi and had dinner at a Greek restaurant across town. Saturday, we rode a daladala style van (but thankfully with nobody standing) to Kibuye. The road had many twists and turns but given the fact that this is the land of a thousand hills, the continually curving road is understandable. We rode moto taxis to our hotel to drop our stuff and then pretty much walked all the way back to townto check out the Sunday mass schedule for St. John's church. On our way back, we enjoyed some mighty fine bottles of Coca-Cola. When we were almost back to the hotel, we decided to check out a really long hike that took us out to the end of another peninsula. Ultimately we rewarded our efforts with a nice swim in Lake Kivu.

Sunday, we attended mass at St. John's and boarded the van back to Kigali. Once at Kigali, we purchased tickets for the bus to Ruhengeri and ate some lunch. For the ride to Ruhengeri, the tour company had an actual bus. Not a large bus, but at least everyone had their own seat and there was no overcrowding.

At Ruhengeri, we stayed at the Hotel Marahaba, apparently the best hotel in town. Unfortunately, there didi not seem to be any hot water in our water heater for some reason. We took a hike to the top of the hill by the post office to try to get a better view of the volcanoes, but apparently there are some important communications towers up there that are guarded by the military and it was not ok for us to be up there. We were surrounded by local kids who had led us up there, so they didn't do anything but escort us back down. The views of the volcanoes were not that spectacular anyway as there were too many trees. I had goat stew for dinner that night. Not too bad.

On Monday, we visited the gorillas. The park has eight habituated groups-five for tourism and three for research. Eight people are allowed in a group, but our group only had five. The other couple with us had just retired from the organic food business. Ever heard of Silk brand soy milk? Yeah, we met the guy that invented it and took the company to the top. He said that they had the best selling chocolate milk in the country at one point, and it wasn't even milk. He also told Alison to tell her friend that drinks Silk, "Thanks for sending me around the world." Too funny.

More about the gorillas and Rwanda in my next post. 

Mt. Kilimanjaro

This is a photo of Mt. Kilimanjaro, taken just about two hours ago, as Phil and I were walking from the Amani office toward the children's home. Phil was giving a tour to some people from Buffalo, NY.

The kids played drums and played soccer. I took some pictures of that and some video also. The video files are a bit too large to post, sorry! 

Food, Tanzania style

Today, Phil, Alison and I had lunch at a local place where I had 'mix wali' which means 'rice mix'. The rice was served with beans, a small bit of meat (probably beef or something similar), stewed cabbage and some sort of soup/vegetable broth.

Other memorable lunches: at Amani, I've had rice or ugali (some sort of basic starch, maybe corn meal based-- piled like mashed potatoes but with a consistancy not unlike that of unleavened bread) with chopped spinach and meat. I should mention that the spinach isn't really like our spinach in the US, and the meat served isn't USDA prime. I avoided eating the intestine, but the actual meat was fine if you ate around the fatty parts and the bone. I've also had rice and beans, again with the suspicious meat. We also had a tastier rice/meat dish at Amani on the first Sunday I was here. It was a special meal apparently. The kids love it all, demonstrated by their eagerness to eat whatever I (and the other staff) have left on the plate.

Better, but still somewhat traditional meals have included the lunch today, rice and beans, and spaghetti with sliced carrots, a small amount of garlic and onion, and tomatoes (no sauce). Those were all made in house though, not for the kids at Amani or at a restaurant. I'll explain what that means a bit more in a post at a later time.

I haven't taken any photos of the food because I haven't thought it would be appropriate, especially not at Amani.

On another food note, tonight, we are going to have dinner at El Rancho, Phil's favorite restaurant in town. Despite the name, El Rancho is an Indian food restaurant. Apparently, the owner of the restaurant had lined up a mexican food chef and applied for all of the necessary government permits, etc. but then at the last minute, the chef couldn't come for some reason. However, there was an Indian chef available. Thus, "El Rancho: Indian Restaurant" was born. They recently added some Chinese food and pizza to their menu apparently.

Moshi also has a tasty Chinese place called "Panda Chinese" (with some delicious spring rolls) and I've already mentioned that there are a few pizza/Italian style outlets in town and other Indian restaurants. A handful of places serve food that is fairly close to American staples like ham and cheese sandwiches and burgers (but the ketchup here is different--it has a different consistency and taste). Plenty of local food restaurants as well of course. Still no mexican food though, so there's an opportunity to break into a market here!

So I'm living in Tanzania

After 26 hours of travel, I finally arrived in Tanzania. I can't say that my travel experience was spectacular since I missed out on lunch in Detroit and paid $25 for a meal in New York, but since then, things have been much smoother. I think most of my concern was from reading the book about the Rwandan Genocide, "We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families" by Philip Gourevitch.

I tried to sleep on my flight to Amsterdam, but of course, dinner and breakfast got in the way to some extent. I napped on the flight from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro as well, so I was fairly rested upon arrival and all things considered, jet lag has not been too bad. The Mountain Dew for Phil survived the trip and I picked up some Belgian chocolate in Amsterdam for everyone to enjoy.

I made my first visit to Amani last week Thursday and spent a little time interacting with the kids and getting to know their names. Even now, I'm still having trouble remembering some names, but many of them are fairly memorable, like Rama, Amani, Fortunatus, Paulo Pascali (everyone calls him by his first and last name--it's cute), just to name a few. Some of the kids have mental handicaps and can be difficult to handle. Technico likes to pinch and bite, and he tends to hang around and cause problems. Doudy does not speak, although he does sing the first couple notes to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on occasion. Doudy likes to run away, but unfortunately he cannot tell anyone that he needs to get back to Amani, so a lot of attention is paid to keeping track of him. He's a nice kid though. Zena also has some mental handicaps, but is very friendly. I'll write more about the kids another time.

Phil and Alison live in "the compound" at KCMC, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center. This is a regional hospital, a step up from the district hospitals in Tanzania. If a district hospital cannot handle someone's illness, they are sent to a regional hospital. Unfortunately, people are often sent to places like KCMC to die. Along the main road nearby, there are a number of shops selling caskets. At least I can take comfort in knowing that if I get bit by a stray dog, I can go to KCMC for rabies treatment.

Transportation in Tanzania is interesting. People ride daladalas, which are essentially vans packed with people. The fare is currently 250 shillings for adults, equivalent to about 20 cents (the current exchange rate is about 1 USD = 1,250 TZS). Children's fare is 50 shillings I think, and if there are adults that do not have a seat, the children have to sit on the lap of an adult or stand. They do their best to pack people in and it's not uncommon for the konda (conductor) to be hanging out the open door a bit, although they do try to get the door shut. It's important to keep track of your valuables on the daladala. I saw a passenger take a glance into a woman's outer pocket where her cell phone was and open the pocket a bit to see better. He grinned at me and I shook my head. The people here don't just steal from mzungu (white people), but from their fellow Tanzanian. When the guy got off, I think he must have told the konda that she should protect her valuables better, because the konda said something to the woman and she moved her phone into her bra and looked a bit embarassed.

Phil and Alison have a nice routine each week. On Thursdays, they have their Swahili lesson followed by pizza at 'Uptown,' a shop near the compound. On Sunday, there's church. On Monday, some expats (from various countries) working at KCMC get together to play volleyball (and I have an interesting story about that). Tuesday evenings have bible study. I don't want to get all philosophical, but I think that the simplicity of life combined with a good dose of routine and some periodic "special" things can make for a happy life. Granted, after living here for 8 months, Phil and Alison are certainly missing some of the nicer things we have grown up with and become accustomed to. Like the blooming onion at Outback Steakhouse for example.

The interesting volleyball story: we played volleball at Will's house. During the course of the games, the ball bounced away to this tall plant and the hedge at the road. Will suddenly noticed the plant, saying "where did that come from? Wait a minute, is that dope?" Turns out, within the last two weeks, a marijuana plant grew to a height of about 5 feet!! (I've seen some corn stalks that are 14 feet tall--I should take a picture.) The theory is that someone threw a joint over the hedge and it had seeds in it. Will joked that he would need to have his gardener burn the plant (it's common to burn trash here). I've never seen weed before but it looked like the characteristic picture you see on t-shirts. I held a bit of the plant up to my nose and thought it smelled kinda minty. I don't really have a good concept of what it should smell like, but some others were confirming that it was marijuana. One of the girls apparently dated an "agronomist" for a bit during college and had been exposed to the process. She thought the plant had already developed seeds.

I have some photos and will post them as I can, however, the Internet is very slow here. At best, I can get a 14.4 Kbps connection, so have patience. At least we haven't fully lost power yet. Last night, the lights were randomly going out for a few seconds at a time during dinner.

Finally, we leave for Rwanda tomorrow. Although I have been able to withdraw cash from the ATMs here in Moshi, It turns out that there are no Visa ATM's in Rwanda, nor any major African bank like Barclay's or Standard Chartered, so we will need to take cash and exchange for Rwandan Francs. We will be going to see the gorillas on Saturday morning.