NgoroNgoro Crater = Amazing!
Two days ago we woke at 530am after spending another evening at our homestays. We grabbed some coffee, dressed in our best Safari outfits (blue button downs, linen pants, a sun hat, and sneakers) seemed to be the dress of choice. We piled into three land rovers and off we went. I had gotten into the second row of the biggest van. At our first pitstop i was feeling a bit car sick so I asked to switch to the front seat of a different car. My director switched with me and off we went. Three hours later we made a pit stop complete with a family of baboons on the side of the road and a plethora of storks. That is when we heard that the van (the one I had previously been in) had broken down and they were at least an hour away and waiting for a new van. Needless to say I felt about ten percent bad and 90 percent grateful that I had switched vans. Karma for getting carsick was not being in the car that broke down. A good trade off.
We got to the entrance of the national park and drove in another hour through the jungle to the rim of a gigantic caldera that was created when a volcano fell in on itself thousands of years ago. On our way we spotted two giraffe feeding in the trees. Giraffes in the wild! Wowza! The rim is 2500 meters above sea level and then we descended into the huge caldera. The land rover bumped and jostled down into the most beautiful place I have ever seen. There is a huge salt lake in the middle and our driver opened the top of the jeep. We spent the next four hours standing on our seats with our top half in the open air scouting out savannah wild life. First stop = the lake.
Spotted: Huge herds of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeast
Next: A huge Male Lion limping along the land
Flamingos, crown cranes, warthogs, heart beasts, ostriches doing mating dances, monkeys, hippos, many birds.....and at the very end to make my entire life.....
AN ELEPHANT IN THE WILD! Life is complete. The perfect end to my African Adventure! See you all soon I will be home on Tuesday!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Imbaseni Village -Internet for a few minutes!
Arusha is wonderful. It is rural mountain town. The small village
of Imbaseni that I am staying in has mud brick houses cows chickens
and goats everywhere tiny two room shacks, cooking over small fires,
no electricity, outhouses. The women carry water every day sometimes
from a mile or more away on their heads. It is truly incredible. But
despite this the people there are so happy. I am staying with a
husband and wife. My host mom is twenty years old and my host dad is
24. Crazy huh? The have a one month old daughter who is absolutely
beautiful. Last night I slept in a twin bed with the one month old
AND my host mom. Needless to say I did not get much sleep, but it is
okay. They talk barely any english and i talk barely any swahili so
it is very interesting with a lot of jumbled words and crazy hand
motions. I cooked chapati bread over the fire and watched them
slaughter, defeather, and prepare a whole chicken. It took a lot of
effort for me to eat a few bites. But the food was delicious. There
are relatives everywhere. Grandma Amina lives in the house over and
sells mandazi bread and other homemade food out of her house. all the
relatives came to look into the cook shack at me trying to make
chapati. They laughed and talked in swahili and said nzuri sana (very
nice)! I was pretty darm good:) I also went to the village mosque to pray. I was wrapped up in a headscarf and long wrap skirt and I followed the motions of the other women, but had no idea what I was doing. Then I visited a relatives home and we looked at pictures and went to get a rack of soda bottles to bring to her duka (store) to sell. She carried the whole rack on her head. INCREDIBLE. There is so much more to tell you, but it will ahve to be later!
My time here has been wonderful. There has been misunderstanding, mess ups, and blank stares, but above all else so many laughs, handshakes, and warm smiles. They accept that I do not know how to do anything the way that they do it and they teach me. I help my host mom learn the English words and she helps me learn the swahili words. Above all else it makes me so grateful for the wonderful family and the privilege that I have. I have missed writing about so much. There are so many stories to tell, but I will ahve to share them later. Now I will be going to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Wow. What is my life? It is going to be an intense day. Then back to my homestay for one more night. And tomorrow NGORONGORA crater for a SAFARI!!! Woo! I will be home on Tuesday :)
of Imbaseni that I am staying in has mud brick houses cows chickens
and goats everywhere tiny two room shacks, cooking over small fires,
no electricity, outhouses. The women carry water every day sometimes
from a mile or more away on their heads. It is truly incredible. But
despite this the people there are so happy. I am staying with a
husband and wife. My host mom is twenty years old and my host dad is
24. Crazy huh? The have a one month old daughter who is absolutely
beautiful. Last night I slept in a twin bed with the one month old
AND my host mom. Needless to say I did not get much sleep, but it is
okay. They talk barely any english and i talk barely any swahili so
it is very interesting with a lot of jumbled words and crazy hand
motions. I cooked chapati bread over the fire and watched them
slaughter, defeather, and prepare a whole chicken. It took a lot of
effort for me to eat a few bites. But the food was delicious. There
are relatives everywhere. Grandma Amina lives in the house over and
sells mandazi bread and other homemade food out of her house. all the
relatives came to look into the cook shack at me trying to make
chapati. They laughed and talked in swahili and said nzuri sana (very
nice)! I was pretty darm good:) I also went to the village mosque to pray. I was wrapped up in a headscarf and long wrap skirt and I followed the motions of the other women, but had no idea what I was doing. Then I visited a relatives home and we looked at pictures and went to get a rack of soda bottles to bring to her duka (store) to sell. She carried the whole rack on her head. INCREDIBLE. There is so much more to tell you, but it will ahve to be later!
My time here has been wonderful. There has been misunderstanding, mess ups, and blank stares, but above all else so many laughs, handshakes, and warm smiles. They accept that I do not know how to do anything the way that they do it and they teach me. I help my host mom learn the English words and she helps me learn the swahili words. Above all else it makes me so grateful for the wonderful family and the privilege that I have. I have missed writing about so much. There are so many stories to tell, but I will ahve to share them later. Now I will be going to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Wow. What is my life? It is going to be an intense day. Then back to my homestay for one more night. And tomorrow NGORONGORA crater for a SAFARI!!! Woo! I will be home on Tuesday :)
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Tanzania
Hey all! Just got off the plane in tanZania! I am so excited for the
next leg of my trip. I have been fighting sickness but I am hopefully
on the mend! I am waiting to take a hydrofoil boat to the island of
zanzibar in the Indian ocean!
next leg of my trip. I have been fighting sickness but I am hopefully
on the mend! I am waiting to take a hydrofoil boat to the island of
zanzibar in the Indian ocean!
I was ready to say goodbye to Cairo today. It was an incredible
experience and it really started to grow on me. The people make Egypt
what it is. They are so warm friendly and inviting.
On friday we attended Friday prayer at masjid el noor or the mosque of
light. We had a large discussion with the sheikh and a tour of the
mosque. The men and women split up and the women went upstairs to a
large room with small windows looking down at the imam an sheikh. We
were so welcomed. Many many women and children came down the line to
shake hands and say hello. One little girl tried that about five
times! Although the entire service was in Arabic I could pick out a
few words thanks to the certificate that I got saying I passed
beginner Arabic! Woo!
The time at the mosque was so incredible. There were so many women and
children gathered praying it was very powerful. Till next time love
you all. Time for breakfast!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Mango Juice Heaven
Hello all,
It has been a few days since I last wrote partly because my body has been defying me by taking on a cold and partly because we have been so busy! The environment of Cairo does not pair well with my body that was brought up on pure Maine air, cold weather, and fruits and veggies. Reminds me of how fortunate I was to have that be my home:)
So here is the low down of the past few days:
Seeing the delta to the north of Cairo where the Nile splits into two branches!
Drinking more mango Juice (this can go on the information for each day that I talk about because it is an everyday event and something I will dearly miss upon leaving Cairo).
A little bit of exploring the city and shopping for things like "A Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle written in Arabic. -Don't make fun of me who know how much I love children's books, plus how cool is that!
Continuing Arabic class: Our instructor Malan is out to kill us. She assumes when she says a grammar rule once that we will retain it and be able to use it in every other circumstance, not to mention in the homework it asks for vocabulary that we have never learned and that is not in the book. I am glad she gives us credit, but jeez we are here for conversational Arabic and do not need to know about dative case. But it is enjoyable to be able to have small conversations in Arabic and the people are so excited when you try to speak their language even if I know that I am butchering it most of the time.
Experiment walking alone in the city (just to the Mariott, mom don't worry it was safe). Got an interesting mix of attention. Lots of stares some just curious, others uncomfortably sexual. The report about men cat calling is true, but no groping (thank goodness). But it is frustrating to me that it feels so uncomfortable because I want to go exploring on my own, but I do not feel comfortable going to far.
US Embassy visit and presentation by US Agency of International Development. So interesting on so many levels. USAID is an Agency that would be so interesting to work for so I was very intrigued by the discussion.
Dinner at Abd's (pronounced Abdouh's) house. The most wonderful night yet. Mr. Abd is our driver. He greets us every morning with the largest grin I have ever seen and says sabbah el kheer (Goodmorning!). He helps us learn our Arabic by singing the number song at the top of his lungs in the car and he and Paul (our director from Harvard) talk a mile a minute in Arabic and laugh and joke. Abd has a beautiful house and we met his wife and his daughter and one of his sons and his new wife. They had an amazing meal of turkey rice, french fries(for us Americans), roasted eggplant, tahini, yoghurt dip, and watermelon. The evening was full of talking and laughing. A man named Denis was there. He works at Northeastern. The reason that Abd is in our lives now is because he drove a taxi that Denis was in twenty years ago and despite Denis's insistence that he did not have to wait for him to return from his meeting he waited. He began to drive Denis to work everyday and then he became the driver for both him and his wife. Paul met Denis while working in Jerusalem. Then he studied at Northeastern under Denis for his masters and doctorate. He began to help Denis with his student trips to Egypt and then took over running those trips. And Abd has never ceased to be the driver for those trips and a great friend to both Denis and Paul. Beautiful huh?
Then a Sufi Dance Presentation. Wow. Men in long dresses playing drums and hand cymbals, and pipes. Then the whirling dervishes. These men could spin longer and more beautifully than anything I have ever seen. Their skirts are gorgeously quilted in many colors and you get dizzy just watching them. I do not know how they walk straight after. But it was mesmerizing.
A lecture dissipating myths about women in Islam by Dr. Riham Bahi. A talk that I wish all Americans could hear. It was so powerful in breaking the stereotypes of Muslim women as oppressed, voiceless victims.
Meeting with Fulbright-Egypt.
Visit to the American University of Cairo which has moved to an area of town called "new Cairo" basically just like any American wealthy suburb. Huge houses, lots of Construction, very western looking, bill boards all in English. The campus is beautiful, but very far from the city.
A huge upscale Mall with everything you could imagine in it. Materialism crosses all nations if you have the money for it. It was a mesh of people from all kinds of nationalities with every possible fashion you could think of. Some women with hijab (headscarf), others with the niqab (face covering), some women with high heels, some sporting calvin klein hijabs, others in skinny jeans.
Sorry this has been so long. So much has happened. My mind is bursting. Three more days before Tanzania. I am ready. I have seen things, and met people, and gained many insights. The people I have met are beautiful and the things I have seen are amazing, but Cairo the city has no hold on me. I am ready to leave the noise, the dirt, the heat, and the smells.
Miss you all :)
It has been a few days since I last wrote partly because my body has been defying me by taking on a cold and partly because we have been so busy! The environment of Cairo does not pair well with my body that was brought up on pure Maine air, cold weather, and fruits and veggies. Reminds me of how fortunate I was to have that be my home:)
So here is the low down of the past few days:
Seeing the delta to the north of Cairo where the Nile splits into two branches!
Drinking more mango Juice (this can go on the information for each day that I talk about because it is an everyday event and something I will dearly miss upon leaving Cairo).
A little bit of exploring the city and shopping for things like "A Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle written in Arabic. -Don't make fun of me who know how much I love children's books, plus how cool is that!
Continuing Arabic class: Our instructor Malan is out to kill us. She assumes when she says a grammar rule once that we will retain it and be able to use it in every other circumstance, not to mention in the homework it asks for vocabulary that we have never learned and that is not in the book. I am glad she gives us credit, but jeez we are here for conversational Arabic and do not need to know about dative case. But it is enjoyable to be able to have small conversations in Arabic and the people are so excited when you try to speak their language even if I know that I am butchering it most of the time.
Experiment walking alone in the city (just to the Mariott, mom don't worry it was safe). Got an interesting mix of attention. Lots of stares some just curious, others uncomfortably sexual. The report about men cat calling is true, but no groping (thank goodness). But it is frustrating to me that it feels so uncomfortable because I want to go exploring on my own, but I do not feel comfortable going to far.
US Embassy visit and presentation by US Agency of International Development. So interesting on so many levels. USAID is an Agency that would be so interesting to work for so I was very intrigued by the discussion.
Dinner at Abd's (pronounced Abdouh's) house. The most wonderful night yet. Mr. Abd is our driver. He greets us every morning with the largest grin I have ever seen and says sabbah el kheer (Goodmorning!). He helps us learn our Arabic by singing the number song at the top of his lungs in the car and he and Paul (our director from Harvard) talk a mile a minute in Arabic and laugh and joke. Abd has a beautiful house and we met his wife and his daughter and one of his sons and his new wife. They had an amazing meal of turkey rice, french fries(for us Americans), roasted eggplant, tahini, yoghurt dip, and watermelon. The evening was full of talking and laughing. A man named Denis was there. He works at Northeastern. The reason that Abd is in our lives now is because he drove a taxi that Denis was in twenty years ago and despite Denis's insistence that he did not have to wait for him to return from his meeting he waited. He began to drive Denis to work everyday and then he became the driver for both him and his wife. Paul met Denis while working in Jerusalem. Then he studied at Northeastern under Denis for his masters and doctorate. He began to help Denis with his student trips to Egypt and then took over running those trips. And Abd has never ceased to be the driver for those trips and a great friend to both Denis and Paul. Beautiful huh?
Then a Sufi Dance Presentation. Wow. Men in long dresses playing drums and hand cymbals, and pipes. Then the whirling dervishes. These men could spin longer and more beautifully than anything I have ever seen. Their skirts are gorgeously quilted in many colors and you get dizzy just watching them. I do not know how they walk straight after. But it was mesmerizing.
A lecture dissipating myths about women in Islam by Dr. Riham Bahi. A talk that I wish all Americans could hear. It was so powerful in breaking the stereotypes of Muslim women as oppressed, voiceless victims.
Meeting with Fulbright-Egypt.
Visit to the American University of Cairo which has moved to an area of town called "new Cairo" basically just like any American wealthy suburb. Huge houses, lots of Construction, very western looking, bill boards all in English. The campus is beautiful, but very far from the city.
A huge upscale Mall with everything you could imagine in it. Materialism crosses all nations if you have the money for it. It was a mesh of people from all kinds of nationalities with every possible fashion you could think of. Some women with hijab (headscarf), others with the niqab (face covering), some women with high heels, some sporting calvin klein hijabs, others in skinny jeans.
Sorry this has been so long. So much has happened. My mind is bursting. Three more days before Tanzania. I am ready. I have seen things, and met people, and gained many insights. The people I have met are beautiful and the things I have seen are amazing, but Cairo the city has no hold on me. I am ready to leave the noise, the dirt, the heat, and the smells.
Miss you all :)
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Picture link!
I have managed to put up a few pictures. The few that the slow internet connection will allow. Hope you enjoy :)
Pictures!
Pictures!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Alexandria and the Mediterranean Sea!
Feeling so much better, but still very careful of what I eat. So the day before yesterday we had Arabic lessons and our first test. That went well since I missed the whole class before.... FAIL. Then we visited the coptic church of St.Simon. To get to the church we drove through a garbage city. It was so intriguing because the people that live there have found ways to reuse or recycle objects that they find in the dump and then they can sell then to feed their families. It seemed to be a well thought out arrangement with certain objects being worked on in separate locations. It seems to be the ONLY form of reusing or recycling to be found anwyhere in Cairo. The church was built in a cavernous mountainside with many detailed carvings and could hold 20,000 people.
In the afternoon we visited the Resala Organization, a community service organization that offers many services and has over 100,000 volunteers. We saw clothing donations, compuer classes, a pharmacy, schooling for the deaf, blind, and mentally challenged, food donation, appliance donation, and the orphanage. LOVE. Beautiful children who were so excited to talk to us and play and jump around. It was amazing. The people at Resala were all so nice to us even though it felt as if we were intruding on their lives.
The next day: Al Azhar park and the Aga khan development Program.
WOW! The first green space we have seen anywhere near Cairo. It is a gorgeous park established by this organization that is founded by the Ismaeli Shia Muslims. The keep up this park with a visitor center, fountain, playground,etc. But they are restoring and reconstructing these amazing mosques all over the historical area. The woman that led our tour had so much knowledge about the architecture and restoration and my favorite they have a brach called the Islamic music initiative, where they train children in the community in tradtional music to play concerts around the community. To see the mosques we walked through a relatively poor community, but everywhere we went there were epople outside that said hello! Where are you from?! They are all very friendly and happy to speak with us.
During the evening the Nilometer! Where they used to measure the Nile in the 9th century to determine how much to tax people because more water = more crops. Then Lebanese restaurant. Food here does not agree with me. So i ate some sauted veggies. First thing when I get home a big salad and a glass of TAP water. No more bottles!
Today we visited Alexandria by the Mediterranean Sea. We took the train and it was a very interesting experience because as soon as we walked into the station the tourism police surrounded us and didn't want us to go. They are very worried that something will happen to us and that would be bad for them. So everything takes a while. Once they decided it was okay we were off. Highlights because this is getting way too long:
A pureed Mango in a glass = best mango juice ever!
Bibliothek Alexandria = HUGE library and many museums extremely digitized and an amazing building.
The hot ocean air
The filth even in this smaller city.
A great day away from Cairo:)
Can you tell that I used a real computer for this one instead of my I-pod. SO much easier!
In the afternoon we visited the Resala Organization, a community service organization that offers many services and has over 100,000 volunteers. We saw clothing donations, compuer classes, a pharmacy, schooling for the deaf, blind, and mentally challenged, food donation, appliance donation, and the orphanage. LOVE. Beautiful children who were so excited to talk to us and play and jump around. It was amazing. The people at Resala were all so nice to us even though it felt as if we were intruding on their lives.
The next day: Al Azhar park and the Aga khan development Program.
WOW! The first green space we have seen anywhere near Cairo. It is a gorgeous park established by this organization that is founded by the Ismaeli Shia Muslims. The keep up this park with a visitor center, fountain, playground,etc. But they are restoring and reconstructing these amazing mosques all over the historical area. The woman that led our tour had so much knowledge about the architecture and restoration and my favorite they have a brach called the Islamic music initiative, where they train children in the community in tradtional music to play concerts around the community. To see the mosques we walked through a relatively poor community, but everywhere we went there were epople outside that said hello! Where are you from?! They are all very friendly and happy to speak with us.
During the evening the Nilometer! Where they used to measure the Nile in the 9th century to determine how much to tax people because more water = more crops. Then Lebanese restaurant. Food here does not agree with me. So i ate some sauted veggies. First thing when I get home a big salad and a glass of TAP water. No more bottles!
Today we visited Alexandria by the Mediterranean Sea. We took the train and it was a very interesting experience because as soon as we walked into the station the tourism police surrounded us and didn't want us to go. They are very worried that something will happen to us and that would be bad for them. So everything takes a while. Once they decided it was okay we were off. Highlights because this is getting way too long:
A pureed Mango in a glass = best mango juice ever!
Bibliothek Alexandria = HUGE library and many museums extremely digitized and an amazing building.
The hot ocean air
The filth even in this smaller city.
A great day away from Cairo:)
Can you tell that I used a real computer for this one instead of my I-pod. SO much easier!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Best friends with imodium
Hello friends!
Yesterday was spent at Cairo univarsity getting smarter about Cairo,
Egypt, and Islam. We had three professors speak to us who were
extremely knowledgeable and engaging. Then we spent the afternoon
walking around the Nile. Boy is it filthy. There is trash everywhere
and cars race by with no rules and not a care in the works except
their car horn. For dinner we went to a great egypian restaurant with
great food that led to a day spent in the bathroom and over dosing on
imodiim ( just kidding mom I followed the directions). But I made it
through the day without pooping in my skirt and other than that the
day was fabulous.
Arabic lessons... Sabbah el kheer! Many gorgeous old old mosques
and the crazy bazaar! The best comments: how can I take your money?
Are you from china? Me: No do I look like I am? Them: no but you are
( indicating short with his hand) I will lower price if you smile. My
thoughts: not enough!
Great fun! Then we sailed on the Nile( a much cleaner part than our
walk) it was lovely. Then I died on my bed and after an hour finally
moved to the shower. Here's hoping for less bathroom time tomorrow!
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