{african food}

when i actually remembered my camera, i took photos of some of my meals. based on the photos below, it seems i was usually most inspired at breakfast...

we definitely did not go hungry at the ccs house. some meals were better than others, and i found out early on that the meat here doesn't settle very well...so i've been eating more like a vegetarian while I've been in africa. except for eggs. do vegetarians eat eggs?  that's probably something i should know.  anyway, thank goodness for beans and peanut butter!

we could also help out in the kitchen, and one of our cooks, robert, taught us to make the most DELICIOUS, completely organic, healthy (no butter or anything else added) pumpkin soup. i cannot wait to make this at home. eda also taught us to make chipate (which is not healthy), and ugali - which is served at practically every meal here, but I have to admit, is not something i'll miss. ugali is definitely a filler food-but is good for most africans as it is cheap and full of calories.

while we do always have some sort of vegetable salad, we absolutely never have lettuce. i guess the cheap, delicious avocados (massive avocados cost about the equivalent of 10-15 cents) and passion fruit make up for it.

some shots from a typical grocery store:

(that on the top shelf is butter, also known as "fat spread" here.  they don't refrigerate it.)

(africafe - the instant coffee everyone loves here)

(bagamoyo chill sauce.  no idea, but if i remember correctly, both bottles were past the expiration date.)

yummy breakfasts.  usually there were eggs, beans, and some sort of fruit. 

delicious lunches and dinners.  on a few rare occasions they surprised us with cokes!

learning to cook.  soup with robert:

and chipate with eda:

i'll miss the delicious home cooked food i've grown accustomed to!

{last week in bagamoyo}

june 25-29, 2012

my last week in bagamoyo i had the opportunity to work with a non-profit women's empowerment organization called bawodene. it was a very eye-opening experience, and one that left me feeling very appreciated and that I had actually made an impact.

bawodene is an organization whose purpose is to aid women in tanzania to become more financially independent. this central organization, which manages over 400 smaller groups across southeastern tanzania, collects dues from it's members, obtains grants and donations from various organizations, and uses the money to hold women's conferences, hire people to train the different groups (i.e., if one of the groups earns money by selling jewelery or baskets, they will find someone to train the women on how to make the product), and also help the groups obtain loans from the bank. it sounds like a great concept, and it has a lot of great potential, but unfortunately is lacking some serious organization.

bawodene wants to apply for additional grant money, but in order to do so, needs financial accounting records to submit with the applications. since our program director knew i was a cpa, he asked me if i could help.  in just a week, i sorted through a few years of their books, records, receipts (which in most cases didn't exist or were just shoved in a desk drawer), computerized all of their data, created a detailed instruction and to do list, created monthly reporting packages, created annual financial reports, and trained their "treasurer" on how to keep this up going forward. i really do hope that they will continue this process in the future, but realistically, i'm just not sure.

i have to admit that working with this organization and learning more about the tanzanian government and other non-profit organizations was a bit disheartening. the government is so corrupt that probably only 10% of money that is donated (in which 100% is intended to get to who needs it) probably makes it down to the people who need it. So so so many of the people in tanzania are poor (72% of the country is illiterate and 60% are women) that there really is so much need and so much room for improvement. in order to really make a difference though, i really think you have to be based in tanzania permanenty.  or at least longer than a month.

that being said, i am still so thankful for the opportunities i had in bagamoyo and really did enjoy my work and the community where i lived.  i guess i just wish id had more time. perhaps that is a good thing though, i'm sure that this won't be the last time i travel to africa to do something like this.

though working was my main focus this week, there was still time for a few other things:
-i picked up ALL of my items from pili's. pili is the seamstress in town who can make absolutely anything you want from the beautiful kanga and kitenga fabric they have here. as she only charges about $3 per dress, i had her make me quite a few things...my wardrobe will be a lot more colorful when I get back home!

(pili, the amazing seamstress!)
-we enjoyed one more entertaining performance by the zawose family
-we took the ccs staff out for a nice goodbye dinner

what I think I'll miss the most:
- 545 am runs with my friend Lauren down to the beach and back. we got to see the sunrise just about every morning and it was beautiful!
- walking to and from school each day with at least 10 kids holding on to my hands
- playing games with the kids in the dirt outside the school house
- swahili lessons
- free time at the beach
- unlimited supply of safe drinking water
- robert's delicious pumpkin and vegetable soups
- sharing stories about our different cultures with the people in the community

it's crazy how quickly my time in bagamoyo flew by. i'm so thankful for everything I experienced there and am so hopeful i can go back again in then future!

now - on to the travel part of my african adventure!

{the neighborhood}

here are a few photos of the house and some photos of the neighborhood...
i felt uncomfortable taking photos of a lot of the homes people lived in around town.  most are small, run down shacks and in all, are just a very sad sight.

what never ceased to amuse me were the names of the stores and the different signs around town. my favorites were the "hilary clinton shop" (sadly, i didn't get a photo) and the "obama '08 shop" (no photo of that one either). whenever people would ask me where i was from and i would tell them new york city in america, i always got this response: "obama! jay-z! rihanna!"


(main ccs house where i lived)






(bagamoyo's version of a strip mall)

(winner's driving school! god is able)

("manhat" beauty salon.  i pretended they meant manhattan and got really excited.)

and here's the internet cafe where a lot of this magic was happening.  well, not really that much as the connection was pretty awful.

bagamoyo was such a sweet, little town! unless it was dark.  then it was scary. 

{lions, zebras and little miss sunshine?}

june 22-24, 2012

weekend at mikumi national park

most of the schools and our other placements were closed on friday, so a few friends and i took the opportunity to take a weekend safari to mikumi national park. in short, the weekend was beautiful, hilariously entertaining, and the epitome of "hakuna matata" (as i've now just come to expect in africa).

our guide picked us up in bagamoyo in our safari land cruiser and we began the 5 hour drive to  mikumi - which is a bit northwest of dar es salaam. for the first hour and a half, we enjoyed our first "african massage" on very bumpy back dirt roads. people here LOVE to make their own speed bumps and there is absolutely no way to exceed about 10 kph when you are dodging massive mounds of dirt and tree branches. anyway, i digress....

once we hit the 1.5 hour mark, we had just gotten to the bottom of the hill on a main road when our car died. i was sitting in front and when I gave our guide, rashidi, a nervous look, he said to me "don't worry, give me 5 minutes, I'll fix it." fifteen minutes later, rashidi told us he'd be right back and he just took off. 

meanwhile, the other girls and i started talking about what we'd do if we had to start walking home...

(unfortunately this is the only shot of the breakdown i got)

rashidi returned 10 minutes later with 2 farmers, flagged down a dala dala and two other men on bicycles, and here's where little miss sunshine comes in.  everyone that rashidi had recruited to help (8 men in total) started pushing the jeep from behind, and once it was picking up speed, rashidi ran to the drivers seat, hopped in and tried to start the car. no luck. so then everyone came around to the front of the car and started to push us backwards up the hill, then went around to the back and pushed again - this time we had a bit more speed as we were going downhill, so rashidi hopped in and after a few attempts, was able to get the car started.

we made a few more stops along the way, including lunch at the high classic hotel - supposedly the nicest place to eat in town, but I'm convinced you get a huge meal plus a stomach bug for about $3.

("classy" menu)

(the meal that made me sick.  yes, it LOOKS harmless.)

finally, 7 hours later, we made it to mikumi. it should be noted that not once the entire day did rashidi turn the car off.  we just stopped asking questions.   

(yay! we made it!)

our first game drive was incredible, even before entering the park we had seen baboons, monkeys, giraffes, zebras, elephants, and impalas. we drove through the park until just before sunset and were continually amazed by all of the animals - in addition to everything i mentioned already, we saw hippos, warthogs, buffalo, wildebeests and so many beautiful birds. it was absolutely breathtaking and so fascinating to see these animals in their natural habitat.

(hippos)

(warthog)

(one of the many families of elephants)

(i think buffalo are so funny looking)

we spent the night at a permanent campsite, which although there was no hot water, there were real toilets, and for that reason alone, it felt like pure luxury.

(the tent i shared with my friend lilian)

(delicious cucumber soup!)

saturday was a day long game drive which was just as incredible as the day before. it is baby season so we saw a lot of baby elephants, giraffes, and buffalo. we also followed some vultures to a fresh buffalo carcass and after going offroad (which is illegal), we found the 3 lions responsible for the kill relaxing with full bellies under a nearby tree. incredible!

(adorable baby elephant)

(oh hi zebra!)

(poor buffalo)

(happy lions)

(more elephants)

(me being weird in my "silk cocoon" during our picnic lunch)

the great snake escape

we finished our game drive about 4 pm and our guide asked us if we wanted to check out the snake zoo nearby. i'm not really one for snakes, but we all figured, why not?

big mistake.

the snake zoo has probably not been renovated for about 50 years and lets just say the "cages" are not very secure, with a glass wall in the front, and an old (often defective) wooden door in the back. we made our way around the zoo, checking out all of the disgustingly ugly deadly snakes (including watching one cobra kill and then eat a bird), and also saw a massive crocodile which was only caged by about a 2.5 foot wall. our guide told us the croc could probably jump 5 feet, so when we asked the zoo keeper why the fence wasn't higher, he simply replied "oh, he's sitting in the shade of the tree and he's happy, he won't jump." we made our way back to some of the cobra cages and that's when we saw the snake escape.

there were 4 cobras in this one cage, and we noticed one of them had made himself almost completely vertical against the back wooden door. the snake then proceeded to squeeze his head through what must've been a tiny hole in the door. we watched as he wiggled his entire body and finally his tail through the hole. my friends and i started screaming, our guide started yelling at the zoo keeper in swahili, and the zoo keeper ran behind the cage, grabbed the snake with a pole and threw him back in. we just stood there completely baffled that he didn't doing anything else about it. we watched as the snake proceeded to escape through the hole 2 more times.  each time, we'd scream, our guide would yell at the zoo keeper, and the zoo keeper would throw the snake back in. after the third time, we counted to make sure there were 4 snakes in the cage, our guide told us to run to the car.  we all sprinted to the jeep and rashidi drove away as quickly as possible. then he drove us to a bar in town so we could ease our nerves over a beer. what an afternoon!

(snake eating bird. gross.)

("happy" crocodile)

(lucy, elle, emma, and rashidi trying to forget about the snake escape)

(emma, lilian, and me)

saturday night was an entertaining evening with a delicious dinner (though i did lose my appetite when i saw a massive spider run across my dinner plate), warm campfire, and some burning elephant poop (which, to our guide's amusement, disproved the myth we'd heard about elephant poop).

(yay! rashidi got us some elephant poop)

(i love my headlamp)

(the group around the fire)

after an early morning game drive on sunday, we had a thankfully uneventful drive home, complete with another dreadful african massage. definitely an amazing weekend!