Monday, November 26, 2012

Dear Ndugu,



I wasn't sure how I'd feel leaving the Village.  It was a challenging 3+ weeks, but as I walked the gentlemen of Serengeti House to school on my last day they all suggested that we take a picture together and then they each gave me hugs and said goodbye.  I have to admit that it got me a little soft inside. 

I was writing a friend a couple days before I left that I would reserve judgment on how to define the experience until I had time to digest a bit more.  Though, as I drove away from the village, there was another moment of heavyheartedness.  I, as I do with most feelings, suppressed it with the tenacity of a mongoose, but was a bit shocked at how much the 3+ weeks had subconsciously(unconsciously?) meant to me.  

While I'm still digesting the experience, and don't think I'll quite reach a place where it will be defined as life-altering, I can say that the experience was more than my overly-analytical brain had planned for.


I won't do a shill here.  But, if you guys were looking for an organization to donate to as 2012 comes to a close, this one is a pretty good one in my book:
http://www.tanzanianchildrensfund.org/Sponsor_a_Child.html

If you sponsor/donate, your kid(s) will periodically send cards that highlight their art skills.  If you'd like a sample for what you'd be in store for, I'm including a couple of drawings that the kids did of me... 


While I think I'm meant to be a superhero in the second one, I can't say they are very flattering.  I guess the message here is that, at the very least, you can expect something creative.

Tonight is my last night in Tanzania.  Crazy!   It's gone by so fast and it has been quite the experience.   I fly to South Africa tomorrow evening for a new and different adventure (CAGE DIVING!!) with a few friends.  It will be nice to see some friendly faces, but I'll miss some of the friends I've made here too. 


I'm off to the roof to check out Kili under the full moon at bit longer.  It's sick!



(*I know I owe several people emails.  I promise I'll be getting back to you soon!  Please bear with me!)

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Taking a Walk on the Wild Side...

ALL PICTURE POST!!!!

Here are some highlights from Tarangire National Park:












In all we saw:
Zebras
Water Buffalo
Impala
Mongoose
Black-Backed Jackals
Water Buck
Giraffe
Monitor Lizard
Warthog
Baboons
Dyk-Dyk
Lion
Ridge-Backed Antelope
Wildebeest
and probably a few things that I'm forgetting.

IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

(I'll work on doing a Picasa thing so you can see all of my shots - it was great)


Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I've landed in Moshi for the next few days. It was a long haul and, at one point, I had to sit in a row with 9 people (where in America it normally would've maxed out at 4) where the woman on one side of me was breast-feeding her daughter and on the other a dude was asleep and drooling on me.

But when I got to Moshi, I got to have a small family Thanksgiving:

Chris, Ian

Roy, Mom, Brian, Paula

Lee and Conor

I'm so thankful to have been able to share a few minutes with them. It makes being 7000 miles away a little easier! Conor even said "I Love You"! (Not necessarily to me, but I'm claiming it.)

I'm also thankful to have such great friends that are so supportive of me and what I'm doing. To hear from you so frequently is really a blessing.

But mostly, I am thankful to be off that friggin bus!

Enjoy your Turkey. I'm super jealous!

I'm going to go find something to eat that won't even come close to my favorite meal of the year!  It'll be a tribute!





Thursday, November 15, 2012

Under African Skies


Apologies for the delay to those who have sent emails asking what I'm doing!  

I've been trying to get pictures to upload.  Sadly, I don't think the internet is going to allow for that.  I'll do a "Tanzania" pictures post when I get to a decent connection to make it up to you.  

In the meantime, I was able to get a few up here though for your viewing pleasure. 


I wanted quickly touch on a point from the last post regarding my “experience” being different from expected, before getting into my update.   Several folks asked me to clarify it and it actually helped me understand it better.  So for posterity's sake -- 

Basically, I think where that feeling derived from was having been more focused on community-based vs. education-centric volunteering before I left.  Therefore, this wasn’t a type of volunteering that I had initially thought I would be doing.  After jumping at this opportunity, which came up at the last second, I think it really is a product of not knowing what to expect vs. there being a deficit anywhere.   It was the skeptic coming through a bit too much.

And, importantly, it is also me learning that with all idealistic volunteering gooey-ness -- comes some really hard, and sometimes boring, work.  As Paul Simon sings in the song that gives this post its name: "This is the story of how we begin to remember."  To me that means remembering to keep my mind open and my skepticism to a minimum.  I'm pretty sure that's  not how Paul meant it, but it is what I'm taking away.

Now halfway through my third week here, I can say that while these kids can be crazy, booger-eating tyrants and con-artists, I know this will be an experience that I will always remember.   

Anyway, in more good news -- the rains have taken a hiatus and the last week has been beautiful.  The landscape has turned from yellow to lots of green, with flowers and coffee plants in bloom.


Rows and Rows and Rows of Coffee.  We get to drink it every morning and it is amazing!



Sunset over Mt. Oldeani with the Bougainvillea that lines the property in the foreground

It has allowed for a lot of time outside (I currently have a wicked farmer tan) and a sunnier disposition with the kids!  

However, the only animals I've seen so far are Baboons (well, I guess I have seen lots of different birds too).  Hoping to change that this weekend with a Day Trip to Tarangire National Park.   

Random other tidbits:
  • Tanzanian's often refer to the USA as "Obamaland" and I've heard at least one kid here at the village refer to Washington D.C. as "Obama's Village".  Needless to say, they were thrilled that he won the election.
  • I have gotten to play the Tooth Fairy three times.  I’m not sure if Matchbox Cars and Glow Sticks are cool to these guys, but I'm trying my best. 
These are the primary school boys of Serengeti House, where I'm living.  We also have a couple of older boys who go to High School and two little ones. 
  • I got to play concerned parent when Janu, the 3-year-old in my house, woke up sick in the middle of the night. For those keeping score at home, I can play concerned parent.  However, I am totally useless on what to do for a three year old experiencing a terrible bout of diarrhea. What fun!
  • I got punched in the junk by the 3-year-old below as he yelled, "you lion!".  He sure is cute.  Lucky for me his bark is bigger than his right hook. 
Meet Ema - the comedian of the pre-school set
  • I made it through a full week of kindergartners all by myself. It was a fun week doing all sorts of stuff.  A few kids needed to go to the "office" at the beginning of the week, but we settled into a nice routine the last 3 days of the week.  It went something like:  
(From Left to Right -- that's Neema, Gabby, Vicenti, Micha and Jackson)
o   Math – We’re working on the concept of “carry the one” with some of them and others to remember addition tables vs. finger counting.  That said, it is cute to see 52 + 18 = 610 and to sit in a room with 7 children counting out loud and sounding like robots.
o   Spelling – We’ll still be working on the epic struggle of c vs. k and b vs. d this week.
o   Reading - Who knew Amelia Bedelia was still up to her old antics?
o   Drawing - the boys have a fondness for Power Rangers and the Girls for Rainbows and Flowers, but we also did some Hand Turkeys in honor of Thanksgiving (it was the end of the week and I was running out of ideas!)
o   “Simon Says” – It was short-lived, as the class all agreed that the game was “stupid”
o   Importantly, I didn’t have to watch the Lion King again!  Though, it wasn’t without serious protest.
-
Meet Evans.  I called him Walker for the first 2 weeks.  I figured out it was because that hat reminded me of Jimmy Walker.  In fact, he's closer to another red-hatted TV character:  Mushmouth.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome!


I knew there would be certain things that I would inevitably miss when taking this year away from my life back home.  The seeming ubiquity of the internet so far has made it easier to keep up with it, albeit slowly --  I think I'm now up-to-date on Sandy, Elections, dating lives, book clubs, etc. etc. At least reading them, responses are another thing.  BUT -- I promise they are coming. (BTW - I’ve really enjoyed the notes that you guys have sent me – so my apologies for the delayed responses)

Two notes in particular have highlighted how small the world has become and yet how big it can still feel.  Two notes that made me happier than anything else the last 4 weeks.  

The two separate notes were introductions to my friends’ newborn daughters.  The first was born October 24th and the other just yesterday.  

So, I'll introduce these two lovely ladies to all of you, while sending a(nother) big welcome from me to this crazy, crazy world:



Eliana Simone Loew

-and-

 Elizabeth Grey Benderly



I look forward to meeting you and, once you get to an appropriate age, telling you stories about your Dads.  Dads - you can't stop this from happening.

To the parents - I won’t get all deep about being at an orphanage as you become parents for the first time.  

Let’s just say that I'm so incredibly excited for the adventure that awaits you.   And these two little girls could not be luckier to have you as parents.


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Election Day!

A note from a world away.


The last election day, I was in Hawaii feeling a world away from what was going on in the US.  

Today is a totally different experience, but a very similar feeling as I am located about 40-mins off the paved road  - over hill and dale, through coffee plantations and past mud-hut villages  -- in a field in the shadows of Mt. Oldeani, with a view of the Great Rift Valley, that plays a trick on the eye by making the world seem to just drop off in the distance.



In Tanzania, we’re in the “short rains” season and making sure that the kids have the proper footwear to go to school here at the Rift Valley Children’s Village. 


While my early retirement wasn’t really ever supposed to be a long vacation, this volunteer gig is certainly redefining the retirement plan.  It isn’t exactly what I thought it would be (yet?), and it is a strange (different) world that I’ve entered.

By that I mean, I’m living in a house with 12 boys aged 3 to 13. I’m still getting to know many of them, but there are already a few who have revealed themselves to be the house extroverts and others exhibiting more punk-like behaviors

As advertised, days start at or around 6am and go til 6pm.   I prepare their breakfast while they do chores at 6:15 am and make sure they are out the door for school around 6:50am.   From there, no two days are the same.  Some are incredibly trying and others terribly boring.

It starts with Parker starring in Kindergarten Cop 2:  Swahili School, as I am currently  “teaching” 7 Kindergartners all sorts of stuff. And watching The Lion King in 15 min increments.



No real profundities, just the expected shocking of the system when you put a guy who loves kids, but has little experience with them, into an environment where they are everywhere 24/7.    As a result, I’m sore from being a human jungle gym.  Amazed by how many times they ask why.   Frustrated by how quickly attention turns into distraction.  And why kids just wont listen.  And, importantly, baffled by why anyone likes Justin Bieber as much as these guys do.

This past week I’ve also had the pleasure of:
  • Celebrating with one of the kindergartners who typically struggles with Math because she aced her Math Test (they go to a proper school for half the day).
  • Watching half of High School Musical.
  • Watching Lion King twice
  • As mentioned, listening to the boys sing Justin Beiber almost every night.
  • Washing about a pound of dirt off me a day.  Usually with a bucket because the water pressure doesn’t do the trick.
o   The water for this “shower” is heated by a fire.  I’ve learned that putting an extra log on the fire can go one of two ways – Unbearably hot or hot long enough to not have to finish my shower in freezing cold water.  Obviously one of those does me no good.  Maybe I’ll master how to get it right before I leave.
  • Learning Swahili from young boys means that I now know several “bad words”, which has resulted in needing to learn how to discipline their use.   At the same time, I’m also learning all sorts of greetings, which the Tanzanian culture is quite big on.  I’m not very good at them yet, but I’m learning.
  • When watching movies, these kids insist on watching all the way to the end.  I had no idea how much love there was for the below the line contributors.  They should know that in this tiny little nook in Africa, their toils are appreciated.
  • Seeing the biggest slug in recorded history.  I’m exaggerating in saying it was a foot long, but not by much.  I’m not squeamish, but this thing was one of the grossest things I’ve ever seen.

So, when I get feelings that the experience may be different from what I expected or wanted, I remind myself that it has only been 10 days and that my goal was only ever to do try my best to give in whatever sized way this opportunity may present, regardless of whether my preconceptions are satisfied.  It's still an amazing experience.  And, all in all, I couldn’t ask for a more idyllic setting to be spending time and better people to be spending it with.

I'll share more pictures when I have better internet. 








Music From the Trip