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.
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