Home Sweet Home

After 30 hours of travelling, I have finally made it home.  The journey began with two days straight of rain in Dar (the biggest rainfall they have had in 50 years).  As a result, many roads were flooded and closed down.  I almost had a panic attack waiting for my driver to come pick me up from the airport.  After 40 minutes he still had not shown up!  I finally decided to call another taxi, but had no idea how long it would take him to get there, especially since many of the roads were out of commission.  He drove like mad (going 60 mph in Dar is not usually recommended) and we finally reached the airport only an hour and a half before my plane departed.  I met up with Chelsea and we were both relieved to finally have gotten to the airport.  It turns out that it took Chelsea three hours to get to the airport because of traffic.  It was such a relief when we finally got on the plane.  We were so excited!...especially for Swiss Airline food!  It sounds crazy, but both Chelsea and I had been dreaming of the day when we would get wonderful airplane food.  Now I don’t know if many of you have travelled internationally before, but the food is excellent, nothing like the fake stuff they serve you on domestic American flights.  We got cannelloni, warm rolls, fresh cheese, vegetables, and carrot cake.  For breakfast they served us yogurt, warm croissants, and orange juice.  When we got to Zurich, it was freezing cold!  We could see our breath walking into the airport!  We had a 6 hour layover and managed to kill time in the business class lounge (they didn’t check our tickets so we got in even though we were flying economy).  We watched the news, read our books, and ate lots of free food!  The next flight was 10 hours long and I managed to watch a ton of movies and TV shows, finish a book, and sleep a little.  Surprisingly, I wasn’t really tired on the flight.  When we finally touched down in America, it was almost surreal.  I remember thinking that it was the first time in a long time that I was able to see real houses in the city…no mud huts or shacks.  Chelsea and I headed off to customs and ended up waiting in line for at least a half an hour.  We were really excited about the water fountains in the airport.  We could finally drink water out of the fountain without getting sick!  I met up with my family in the O’Hare airport and we drove home, getting there at about 8:00 pm.  I was hungry and went into the pantry only to be bombarded by choices.  I got out a bagel at first and starting toasting it, but then realized I wanted crackers, and then saw the cereal.  I couldn’t decide what I wanted.  There were so many choices!  I settled on a bowl of cereal and found that it was a lot more sugary than I remembered.  In fact, I have found that about a lot of things here.  I ate raw carrots yesterday and thought they tasted like candy.  And things that I would normally love, like salad dressing and milk, don’t seem to do hardly anything for me.  In fact, I haven’t been able to finish a whole glass of milk yet.  I think I am a little lactose-intolerant from not having milk for 4 months.  Other observations about being home: I have to constantly remind myself that I am no longer in Africa when riding in a car.  My first thought out of the airport was that I had to pee, and that I could just get out and go pee on the side of the road.  Hah, also, I have to remind myself to put on my seatbelt.  Seatbelts are hardly ever present in Tanzania.  I am loving the fact that there is warm water.  Having clean water to wash your face with and brush your teeth is a wonderful thing.  I have already taken two baths and they have been amazing.  Also, I LOVE washing machines.  I was so excited to get home and wash all of my clothes.  So far, the culture shock hasn’t hit me too much.  Of course, I do notice differences between the two countries, but I haven’t been too shaken up yet.  I’m still adjusting to the time difference.  I almost lost it yesterday after waking up at 4:30 am and being up for the entire day.  By 7:00 I had crashed and could not function.  And last night I managed to wake up every 2 hours.  But, these things will all come back with time.  Lately, I have been doing a lot of cooking to make up for all the months when I wasn’t able to cook.  I’m sure I’ll think of more things that are different here than in Africa as time goes on, but for now, I am just going to relax and enjoy the holidays.  Thank you Tanzania for all of the memories.  It has been absolutely wonderful, and I know that this is an experience I will remember for the rest of my life. 

Leaving Tanzania

Well this is it.  I don’t know if I thought this day would ever come, but it’s finally here.  I leave to go back to America at 10:10 pm tonight.  It’s crazy to think that I can now officially say that I’ve “studied abroad in Africa”.  It seems like just yesterday that we were arriving here in Dar and having our first orientation.  It’s only been 11 days since the program has ended and already I miss everyone.  It’s hard to go from seeing everyone 24/7 to not seeing them at all.  I think we are all going to suffer withdrawal from each other eventually.  We helped the Godde’s leave the other day and it dawned on me that it really is time to go.  I think I am finally ready.  No more bottled water, rice for every meal of the day, or squat toilets.  However, I will miss the wonderful fruit, the people, and of course, the weather.  Today and yesterday have unfortunately been rainy, but other than that, it has been beautiful here.  Highs are usually around 90 with tons of humidity, and the sun is always shining.  I stayed with my parents last night at the Whitemark Hotel and it was nice to be spoiled for once (air conditioning, a real bed, a flush toilet).  But at the same time, it was hard to see them go.  Our planes arrive in Chicago at the same time, but they have a 20 hour layover in Turkey and had to depart Dar earlier than me.  I missed my parents, of course, during the course of the program, but I think that now it is so hard to watch them leave after spending so much time with them.  I’m excited to go home, but also slightly nervous.  I’ve heard that the transition home is sometimes difficult, only because people don’t expect it to be difficult at all.  I can’t even imagine having a pantry or drinking water from the tap.  Also, there is a small little holiday just around the corner called Christmas.  Of all times to be going home, I get to come home right in the middle of Christmas.  It’s going to be crazy.  Thankfully, I have done all my shopping here in Tanzania, but part of me doesn’t even want to have Christmas.  I don’t really need anything (well, except new underwear since all of mine is being thrown away here in Tanzania) and I don’t really want to be around a ton of people obsessing over trivial gifts.  On the other hand, I am excited to be with my extended family, and to reunite with many of my friends.  I’m not sure if winter break will go by fast or not.  I fear not having enough time to reconnect with everyone.  I am also afraid that the busy American lifestyle will be a little hard for me to cope with.  For 4.5 months I have been here in Tanzania where everything and everyone moves so slowly.  They don’t have to be anywhere or do anything.  Yet Americans seem exactly the opposite-always going and always doing.  I am sitting here typing this in the cafeteria.  I have just eaten my last meal here (rice and beans…plus there were a few rocks in there).  It’s going to be strange adapting to a new eating pattern.  Right now I am so used to eating three HUGE meals (you should see the amount of rice they give you here) and never snacking, however, I’m sure that is about to change. 

Overall, I’m so glad that I did this program.  I just can’t get over the fact that I’ve spent four months here.  It certainly doesn’t feel like it.  I have met a wonderful group of young individuals and have shared some meaningful conversations with many of them.  I know that I have definitely changed and grown as a person, however, I think it will take some time before I actually recognize these changes.  Eventually, I’ll have to reread my blog from the beginning, in order to get a sense of who I was before I came.  I thank you all for taking the time to follow me in Africa.  I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the comments and e-mails.  Happy holidays to all,

Erin

(Look for one more post after I return to the states)

Zanzibar

Well, we made it to Zanzibar!  We took the 9:30 ferry on Thursday and ended up arriving around noon.  We checked into the hotel and then ate lunch at a cute little restaurant down the street.  I had vegetable biriani, Lara had Pilau, and mom had chicken and chips.  Then, we headed off for a guided walking city tour around Stone Town.  I had already been on this tour, but it was cool to hear everything again.  I caught so much more this time around since we weren’t in a huge group.  The tour showed us the old slave chambers, the church, Tippu Tip’s house, Zanzibar doors, and much more.  We all returned to the hotel, hot and sweaty, for a nice shower.  We ate at the seafood market that night and I had a tuna shishkabob and chapatti while mom had a prawn skewer.  We also tried Zanzibarian pizza-a fried pizza with laughing cow cheese, tomato, and egg.  We also had passionfruit juice and fresh pineapple.  By that night, we were all exhausted, so we went to sleep on our lovely air conditioned rooms J. 

Yesterday we got up early and had a breakfast of  fruit, toast, cereal, eggs, and kitumbua.  We met Karen’s family down in the hotel lobby for a dolphin tour.  The drive was quite long (over an hour) but we finally made it to the dolphin beach where we got masks and flippers and headed out in a boat to find dolphins.  After about 30 minutes we spotted a pod of dolphins and got ready to jump.  And just like that, we were swimming with the dolphins!  I LOVE swimming with the dolphins!  This pod was a group of 6 dolphins, and they were quite fast so it was hard to keep up with them.  We snorkeled for a while afterwords and got to see starfish, sea cucumbers, needlefish, parrot fish, angel fish, and lots of coral.  We ate lunch at the lodge and had rice, chips, chapatti, tuna, spinach, and coconut sauce.  It was delicious!  After lunch we drove to the Jozani forest and got to see the red colobus monkeys which live only on Zanzibar.  We returned to the hotel around mid afternoon and I went off to the market while the others showered and rested.  I ended up buying a kanga and some spices.  I got lost a few times in Stone Town, but eventually found my way back.  Last night we ate dinner at the Radha Food House, a wonderful little Indian Restaurant. 

Today we are just going to hang around Stone Town. We don’t have a ton planned but we want to go to the shops and do some shopping and then perhaps go to the beach. 

Mikumi National Park

Monday we departed for our safari!!  Lara and I were a little nervous about making it to the hotel on time, since we had to be there by 8:00 am, but it ended up working out perfectly.  We took a dala-dala to Ubungo and then walked to the hotel, and still had plenty of time to spare.  Our tour company picked us up at the hotel and we were introduced to our driver: Amani.  He was a very nice guy and spoke pretty good English.  The drive took us about 4 hours, but then we drove on a little game drive through the park for another couple of hours.  By the time we got to the lodge it was close to 3:00 pm!  We ate lunch at the lodge (it had such American food, it wasn’t even funny).  We had vegetable pancakes and dad had a burger and fries.  I also got a real salad!  We went on a game drive that afternoon and saw a variety of animals including impala, giraffe, elephant, red buck, bush buck, marabou stork, saddleback stork, hornbill, lilac breasted roller, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, and hippos.  We returned around 7:00 pm and had dinner at the lodge.  I had fish and rice while Lara and mom had beef kebabs and dad had spaghetti.  Lara and I went to sleep in our wonderful lodge (which we had all to ourself) and slept soundly. 

Breakfast the next morning was a huge plate of fruit, toast, and eggs with sausage and bacon.  We left at around 8:30 am and did a game drive until noon when we came back for lunch.  Lunch was tomato soup and a salad for me, a sandwich for mom and dad, and roast chicken for Lara.  We hung out and played cards until 4:00pm when we went on another game drive.  We returned for dinner and then headed off to bed. 

Wednesday morning we woke up super early for an early morning game drive at 6:00 am.  It was the perfect temperature out, not too hot and not too cold!  During the first hour of our game drive, Amani spotted two lions off in the distance and we drove around to get a closer look.  Sure enough, there was a male lion and female lion sitting in the grass.  We watched the lions for about an hour-my dad was so excited to see them!  We continued on with the rest of our drive and then went to breakfast at 9:00 am.  We departed MIkumi National Park at 10:00 and started off back towards Dar.  The drive took longer than usual since we stopped at an ATM and at a woodcarver’s market.  Plus, there was a huge traffic jam!  We didn’t get back to the hotel until around 4:00 pm.  We dropped our stuff at the hotel and went to a little café to eat.   Dad and I had beans and rice while the others had meat and rice.  From there we went to the Godde’s and watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty, which my dad had brought on DVD from the states.  It was weird watching the movies on DVD and in the sweltering heat!  Carla and Zoe stopped by and we said our goodbyes to them (they left that night) and Hani and Lauren also departed.  It was yet another day filled with goodbyes. 

The Family Has Arrived!

Dinner at Addis in Dar

All of the delicious food that my parents brought for us!

The parents have finally arrived!  Friday night was spent partying and saying goodbye to all of the wonderful friends we have made here in Tanzania.  We went to Addis in Dar for dinner and I had a lovely dinner of prawns and spicy chicken with Liz.  It was delicious!  From there, we all headed to the Godde’s house to hang out.  When it came time to say goodbye, we were all so sad and some of us even shed some tears.  I got back to Mama Frida’s house around 12:30 am – just in time for two hours of sleep before picking up my family at the airport in Dar.  It turned out that their flight was delayed so I ended up waiting at the airport for an hour, but it was so good to see them when they finally arrived!  We took a taxi back to the Godde’s house where we met the Kili kids (those who went to climb Mount Kilimanjaro) and gave them the goodies that their parents had sent for them.  By then, it was about 6:00 am and I was exhausted!  Lara and I went to Mama Frida’s and took a nap, which made me feel much better.  At 11:00 am we went back to the Godde’s for our cheese and cracker party!  My wonderful mother brought 5 kinds of cheese, crackers, sausage, peanut butter cookies, scotcheroos, chocolate chip cookies, puppy chow, and candy canes for us since those are foods that we have missed dearly while in Tanzania.  You should have seen how much food there was!  All of the kids came over and we munched on the food for a while.  Afterwords, I gave my parents an introduction to cafeteria food: chipsi mayaii, chapatti, and fruit and then gave them a short tour of campus.  They were amazed by the monkeys.  Hah, remember when I was amazed by the monkeys?  Now they are just as ordinary as squirrels are in Wisconsin.  We went for dinner at Mama Frida’s and Diana cooked us up some rice, beans, meat, chapatti, and spinach.  We brought papaya and cookies for dessert!  By then, I was SO tired, but I had to get my parents to their hotel.  So, I sent them off on a dala-dala and hoped that they actually made it to the hotel. 

Sunday Lara and I took a dala-dala over to the hotel after we had woken up.  We then piled into a dala-dala and headed towards Mwenge.  It was hot today and my family got their first introduction to Tanzanian heat.  We shopped at Mwenge for a couple of hours, looking at wood carvings, clothes, shoes, etc.  Dad bought a pair of leather flip flops and Lara bought a beaded headband.  I think they were a little overwhelmed at all the people!  We went for lunch at the cafeteria and I got to introduce them to Pilau (spiced rice), which my dad loves.  I had the usual rice and peas while Lara and my mom got pasta.  I don’t know what has gotten into me here, but it absolutely drives me crazy to see people leave half-finished plates of food on the table.  Obviously I’ve had a bit more practice at the Tanzanian food system here and know how much food they give you at each meal, but it just kills me to watch my family eat a tiny bit of food off of their plate and then leave the rest to go to waste.  Anyway, the afternoon was spent at the Godde’s hanging out and napping yet again.  We ate dinner at UDASA, a bar on the university campus, and had rice, chicken, and beans.  Lara and I shipped the parents off again to their hotel and we turned into Mama Frida’s.

PEMBA!

Well, it’s been a while again, now, hasn’t it?  Well, Pemba was a wonderful way to end this program.  We travelled by ferry to Zanzibar early Saturday morning and then proceeded by way of another ferry from Zanzibar to Pemba.  The whole trip lasted about 9 hours (5 hours total on the ferries plus layover and bus time).  The way there was pretty terrible only because there was no air conditioning and it was hotter than blazes.  There were about a hundred people packed into one space and we had the sun shining on us the whole time.  Some of us even began to feel light headed.  There was virtually NO air movement at all.  Anyway, we finally got to Pemba and the hotel staff took us out on a boat right away to snorkel.  We went about 45 minutes away to a sand bar in the middle of the ocean where we ate lunch (fish pasta) and had TONS of fruit. They just kept cutting it up!  They had everything from pineapple to mangoes to papaya to watermelon to bananas.  We couldn’t even eat it all!  We swam around the sand bar for a while enjoying the cool water (it was hot out!).  Then, we headed back to the hotel for a shower and dinner.  The hotel was really nice and we had several dorm style rooms.  I shared a room with Siri, Chelsea, Zoe, and Carla.  For dinner we had rice, fish, octopus, kalamari, French fries, salad, veggies, and for dessert: more fruit!  I didn’t try the octopus since I had already had it before and didn’t really like it but I did have kalamari and it was one of the stranger foods I have ever tried-good, but strange. 

The next morning we got up and ate breakfast (tons of fruit again, bread, and eggs).  Then, we headed out to a beach to snorkel and hike.  The snorkeling was pretty good and the reef was really extensive.  My favorite part was swimming in this huge school of minnows.  You could see these minnows for miles!  I also saw lots of starfish, sea cucumbers, angel fish, and coral.  We ate lunch on the island and had rice and beans, and fish curry. The fish curry was so good!  And of course, we had fruit.  We hiked around the island after lunch and got to see some of the caverns on the island.  Then, we headed out on the boat to a spot where we could snorkel and where there are often sea turtles.  We didn’t end up seeing any sea turtles, but hey, what can you expect when you have 20 people thrashing about in the water?  We went back to the hotel in the evening for dinner which was pilau, fish, kalamari, veggies, and French fries. 

Our last whole day in Pemba was spent riding a boat 2.5 hours out to a shipwreck where we snorkeled.  It was really cool seeing the ship underwater.  It had sunk in 1967 and now there is tons of coral on it!  After we got out, it started to rain and soon it was pouring on us.  We were actually a little cold!  We rode back and had lunch (pasta and fruit).  Then, we headed into town to find some flying foxes (fruit bats that inhabit the island).  We were unsuccessful, but did end up watching part of a Tanzanian soccer game.  We hung out the rest of the afternoon and then had dinner: rice, shellfish, crab, fish, veggies, French fries and fruit.  After dinner, the hotel staff made us a fire and we watched a traditional dance.  It was very Tanzanian! 

Yesterday we woke up early to board the ferry and ended up making it back to Dar around 4:00 pm.  Nobody got sick on the boat this time!  Now, I have tons of laundry to do today and really nothing else to fill my day with.  I’ll probably go to the Godde’s house and hang out.  I can’t wait until the parents and Lara get here-only three days left! 
Well, I’ll talk to you later!

Erin

La-Dee-Dah

Well, I haven’t been blogging much since there isn’t much to talk about.  We’ve been doing a whole lot of sitting around lately.  Let’s see, yesterday I woke up, went to the Godde’s, sent some e-mails, went to lunch, went back to the Godde’s, studied a little, watched Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, went back to my homestay, ate dinner, and went to bed.  Eventful, right?  And today, about the only exciting thing I have to report is that we took our final exam in human evolution.  It was sooo easy!  It was all of two sections: each section included two questions and you had to pick one to write about.  Plus, he gave us the questions ahead of time.  It probably took me 20 minutes tops to finish the test.  So, that’s it.  School is done here in Tanzania.  I now officially have nothing to do as my paper and poster are both finished.  I have taken to coloring (although all of my coloring pages are now colored), writing plane letters, proofreading other people’s papers, and just plain sitting around.  It’s crazy to think that there are only 8 days left of this program!  I can’t wait until the family comes so I can show them around. 

 Well, I have nothing else to say, so I'll talk to you in a few days!

Erin