The past week can basically be summed up in one exclamation: This is the most wonderful and beautiful place I have ever been too! I know, it is really cheesy, but to explain I’ll just give you an example of my daily schedule:
7 AM: Wake up and work out with the two other girls in the hostel: go for a run,sprint up the 4 flights of stairs, crunches and push-ups, then do yoga on the rooftop. ** By the way, the hostel where I am living is in Old Town, one of the most beautiful parts of the city, and it is literally right on the water of the oldest port in Africa. The rooftop is wide and open, where you can see the entire city, port and out to the ocean.
8:30: Eat breakfast with the girls, usually fresh fruit and chai, on the balcony next to the living room and watch the ocean. This morning, we watched storm clouds come in and it is currently pouring rain! A huge difference to the extreme heat and humidity of the past week.
9:00: Go to the SIT office and conduct interviews with local Swahili people, ask them questions for my ISP and get to know their culture, community, religion and most importantly their political views. My ISP has really been going very smoothly, I talk to at least one person every day and I am really gaining a great overview of the political and ethnic sentiments of these people
12:00: lunch at the hostel or with one of my friends in the group, grab some local Swahili food (chapatti, beans and rice together costs just under 2 dollars!) and begin to plan our afternoon
1:00 – 5:00: Head down to Nyali Reef to lie on the white sands and swim in the beautiful Indian Ocean, afterwards head to any number of hotelis and grab a cold beer or soda.
6:00: Dinner at a friend we made here, Tom (who a girl in my group is living with) who is an AMAZING cook!
8:00: Out for drinks and then back to the hostel, go up to the roof and watch the stars and the ocean for a while before passing out and doing it all over again the next day!
Last night was special though; Mike’s parents actually arrived on Wednesday for the rest of the week, to vacation and see the sites and also to meet all of us. They are very friendly and nice people, they took us all out to eat at the most famous restaurant in Mombasa, and arguably on of the best seafood restaurants in all of Africa (as the brochure states). And I would have to agree…it was actually some of the best seafood I have ever eaten ANYWHERE! The amazing three course meal was out of this world…spicy crab coconut soup, then a seared salmon in champagne sauce, and a chocolate cornet in passion fruit juice… I am pretty sure that meal is going to hold me over until I get back home!
Speaking of home, from tomorrow there are only 4 weeks left in the program. The time is going to fly, but being here in Mombasa is making every day worth it. My goals for the next four weeks are 1.) Write a good ISP paper 2.) Enjoy every day here (meaning, go swimming in the ocean and lay on the beach) 3.) Explore the city and get to know more people and 4.) Fully appreciate every day the true awesomeness of where I am and what I am doing.
Miss you all…hope you had a great Easter and see you in 4 weeks!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Most Incredible/Beautiful/Amazing Week of my Life!
Hello everyone! I have to admit that my mind is pretty much fried and bent out of whack from the last 9 days. I have just finished my 10 page paper on how “development is a public health issue and public health is a development issue”, and the least I can say is “WHEW glad that is over”.
So now I am back to Nairobi from Tanzania, and I will be here for the next 2 days. Then I and 6 other students in my group will be taking the train to Mombasa and I will start my Independent Study Project! This weekend will probably be very unproductive. I’m sure we’ll all be exhausted from the train, and of course we will be celebrating Easter Sunday (so far we have a scavenger hunt planned…and we’re trying to find some sort of ham…pretty difficult in a city that is overwhelmingly Muslim). I will be in Mombasa until May 2nd, and then I’ll be coming back to Nairobi to write my 30 page paper for a week, I’ll be staying with another student in an apartment here that will give us internet, a gym and a pool. Basically the essentials to decompress, rationalize and reflect.
But about Tanzania! It took about 7 hours by bus to get there, including the hour it took to get through customs. The scenery changed SO dramatically from Kenya to Tanzania. We were driving through the dusty savannah one minute, and the next we found ourselves in the lush mountain valleys of Tanzania. We saw Mt. Maru and Mt. Kilimanjaro, and soon we were in the quaint town of Arusha. Everything is green and flowering, there is a light rain that is falling. It is really breathtaking. The entire week was basically exposure to landscapes that took my breath away. We stayed at the U.A.A.C.C., the United African Alliance Community Center. It is run by Felix Pete O’Neal and his wife Charlotte. Pete is an ex-black panther, he actually lead the party in Kansas City. Please Wikipedia him right now to find out more! He has led an incredible life, especially now during his exile in Tanzania. He founded the UAACC, and it is a cultural center for the town and it hosts a school as well as an orphanage. They are very wonderful people with a wonderful vision, it was inspiring just to be there! Also, Pete cooked us American food (and lots of it!) like barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, and even ice cream! So basically, it was magical.
We visited the ICTR, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Here we saw the actual proceedings of court cases for perpetrators of the horrific genocidal violence in Rwanda of April, 1994. We could not see the accused, he was hidden by a curtain, but we were able to watch the proceedings and then meet with someone afterwards for questions and also a documentary. Very cool experience!
The next day we left to live with a Maasai tribe. These were some of the most wonderful three days! It took a while to get there, these people are pastoralists and live far from the city so that they can herd their cattle for long distances. The Maasai are a tribe that is found in the Great Rift Valley, mostly in Kenya and Tanzania. Because they travel so much with their cattle, especially during the dry season, they are not subject to border laws, and can move between countries freely. The land that we lived on was incredibly dry, but it was also cool and extremely peaceful. Their bomas (huts constructed in a circle, each family belongs to one bomas) are on land right between Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Maru. We participated in many cultural activities, such as dancing, bead making and even the sacrifice of a goat. The Maasai do not hunt animals, they only kill when a lion has attacked their cattle or goats, and even then they do not eat the meat. The only meat they eat is goat, and this can be as few as only 3 or 4 times a month, because a sacrifice only happens for special occasions such as visitors, a birth, a wedding or a death. Other than that, the Maasai warriors (men) drink milk and blood, and that is it! The sacrifice was very interesting, we as students didn’t participate in the killing of the goat (suffocation) but we did participate in skinning and the drinking of its blood. That night, we were invited to a party in the bomas where we learned their traditional dances and songs. A really cool fact about the Maasai: lions are afraid of them, because they rub animal fat onto their skin. A lion knows the smell of the Maasai, and knows that they will kill lions that attack their cattle, and will stay far away from the bomas.
The rest of the trip was excursions to see bush people, Ngorogoro Crater (the 8th natural wonder of the world!) Olduvai (where it is believed that the first humans came from) and seeing all sorts of amazing animals, giraffes, hippos, lions, wildebeest, hyena, zebra…and the last day we climbed 1/5 of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The climb was only 2 and ½ hours to the top, but it was amazing and beautiful. We all felt very accomplished! I am sorry that I don’t have pictures of all the things I’m talking about, but there should be some up on facebook soon. The last leg of the program is coming up now, and there is less than 6 weeks left! I can’t wait to see you all and tell you about my adventures in person, I hope all is well back home I miss you all very much!
So now I am back to Nairobi from Tanzania, and I will be here for the next 2 days. Then I and 6 other students in my group will be taking the train to Mombasa and I will start my Independent Study Project! This weekend will probably be very unproductive. I’m sure we’ll all be exhausted from the train, and of course we will be celebrating Easter Sunday (so far we have a scavenger hunt planned…and we’re trying to find some sort of ham…pretty difficult in a city that is overwhelmingly Muslim). I will be in Mombasa until May 2nd, and then I’ll be coming back to Nairobi to write my 30 page paper for a week, I’ll be staying with another student in an apartment here that will give us internet, a gym and a pool. Basically the essentials to decompress, rationalize and reflect.
But about Tanzania! It took about 7 hours by bus to get there, including the hour it took to get through customs. The scenery changed SO dramatically from Kenya to Tanzania. We were driving through the dusty savannah one minute, and the next we found ourselves in the lush mountain valleys of Tanzania. We saw Mt. Maru and Mt. Kilimanjaro, and soon we were in the quaint town of Arusha. Everything is green and flowering, there is a light rain that is falling. It is really breathtaking. The entire week was basically exposure to landscapes that took my breath away. We stayed at the U.A.A.C.C., the United African Alliance Community Center. It is run by Felix Pete O’Neal and his wife Charlotte. Pete is an ex-black panther, he actually lead the party in Kansas City. Please Wikipedia him right now to find out more! He has led an incredible life, especially now during his exile in Tanzania. He founded the UAACC, and it is a cultural center for the town and it hosts a school as well as an orphanage. They are very wonderful people with a wonderful vision, it was inspiring just to be there! Also, Pete cooked us American food (and lots of it!) like barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, and even ice cream! So basically, it was magical.
We visited the ICTR, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Here we saw the actual proceedings of court cases for perpetrators of the horrific genocidal violence in Rwanda of April, 1994. We could not see the accused, he was hidden by a curtain, but we were able to watch the proceedings and then meet with someone afterwards for questions and also a documentary. Very cool experience!
The next day we left to live with a Maasai tribe. These were some of the most wonderful three days! It took a while to get there, these people are pastoralists and live far from the city so that they can herd their cattle for long distances. The Maasai are a tribe that is found in the Great Rift Valley, mostly in Kenya and Tanzania. Because they travel so much with their cattle, especially during the dry season, they are not subject to border laws, and can move between countries freely. The land that we lived on was incredibly dry, but it was also cool and extremely peaceful. Their bomas (huts constructed in a circle, each family belongs to one bomas) are on land right between Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Maru. We participated in many cultural activities, such as dancing, bead making and even the sacrifice of a goat. The Maasai do not hunt animals, they only kill when a lion has attacked their cattle or goats, and even then they do not eat the meat. The only meat they eat is goat, and this can be as few as only 3 or 4 times a month, because a sacrifice only happens for special occasions such as visitors, a birth, a wedding or a death. Other than that, the Maasai warriors (men) drink milk and blood, and that is it! The sacrifice was very interesting, we as students didn’t participate in the killing of the goat (suffocation) but we did participate in skinning and the drinking of its blood. That night, we were invited to a party in the bomas where we learned their traditional dances and songs. A really cool fact about the Maasai: lions are afraid of them, because they rub animal fat onto their skin. A lion knows the smell of the Maasai, and knows that they will kill lions that attack their cattle, and will stay far away from the bomas.
The rest of the trip was excursions to see bush people, Ngorogoro Crater (the 8th natural wonder of the world!) Olduvai (where it is believed that the first humans came from) and seeing all sorts of amazing animals, giraffes, hippos, lions, wildebeest, hyena, zebra…and the last day we climbed 1/5 of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The climb was only 2 and ½ hours to the top, but it was amazing and beautiful. We all felt very accomplished! I am sorry that I don’t have pictures of all the things I’m talking about, but there should be some up on facebook soon. The last leg of the program is coming up now, and there is less than 6 weeks left! I can’t wait to see you all and tell you about my adventures in person, I hope all is well back home I miss you all very much!
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