Rough day!

Hey all....last note before I leave for the weekend! Rough day today. I got to school this morning at 8..ready to teach...and little Anita, who is 2..was screaming crying. So..I sat down and put her on my lap...thankfully, facing away from my body...and all of a sudden..trajectile vomit..alll over my feet and the kids sitting at my feet..it was AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The other teacher ran over, grabbed her and sat her in the back of the classroom...so I walked back to rub her back and she was kept on vomiting all over herself....I walked her to the bathroom to wash her off, picked her up..and she peed all over me. ERK! She cried all day for her mom. Then, the other 2 year old, who I am obsessed with, came back to school today, still has the ear infection....I held him for a long time and he just slept on my shoulder. It is absolutely heartbreaking. I spoke with one of the teachers about materials that I could send to them from home...and she basically said they needed everything....Michele and I are going to brainstorm to figure out what is most needed. There is just so much need, I don't know where to begin. I just really want to leave a part of me behind here and know that I am helping.....it is really hard to see a huge difference as a nursery school teach.

I had an individual meeting with one of our directors today. I basically told her that I love the teachers that I work with, but I need someone to help me. I have realized that I am a good teacher, and can do a better job than the other teacher, but I just need more hands. She wants me to talk to the teacher tomorrow and ask for help..I'm a bit intimidated by this, so we'll see how it goes. Actually, just realized I can't do that tomorrow because Michele and I are going to the hospital tomorrow morning to sit with Lindsay...I hear it is quite a culture shock there.

Ok....headed for a beer across the street...need to unwind a bit. Lots of love to you all! XOXO

Wo Wo Wo! (Booty)

Hi all...we have been hearing this word a lot in town...can you believe that the word for butt is wo wo wo?? :) I have a few minutes before din din so thought I would write to tell you about my fantastic day. We went for a day hike at the base of Kilimanjaro to and awesome waterfall.
We swam in the refreshing water and went to a few markets on the way. It was so nice to have a break from my placement. Those kids really take it out of me!

Poor Lindsay ended up having appendicitis and had to be rushed into surgery last night. So scary!!! All of the volunteers are taking turns spending the night with her in the hospital. Also, many of the volunteers at the other house in Moshi have malaria. It rained a few days, which brought on the mosquito's. YIKES!!!! So far so good at our house :)

Tonight we are having a barbecue....soooo excited!! A few of the volunteers are going skydiving, but I have decided not to tempt fate this time. I think being in Africa is enough for me :) Life is good in Kili! Michele and I are going to try and load some pics on Friday! Much love!!! XOXO

Hujambo!

I have been a busy bee! I will try my best to recap the last 5 days :) Last Friday I had another volunteer come to my placement with me. Thank goodness!!!!! Instead of all of them on me, it was split between the both of us. I finally got peed on..haha.....I handled it pretty well considering....Helga, she is 4, was sooo embarrassed. Apparently I am only supposed to be assisting the teachers, but instead, they have given me the entire class, which is extremely frustrating to me. I am unable to communicate effectively to them, as I do not speak there language and have a hard time getting my point across. The teachers are not much help at all. I really want to have a talk with them and ask if they will split the day with me, but am feeling a bit intimidated. The sick children have not been to class for the last few days...let's hope that they have been taken to the doctor and are home resting. :) After placement on Friday, 10 of us left for a safari to Ngoro goro and Manyari park. It was absolutely amazing. We camped in an awesome area...even had showers and a pool. In each car we had a driver, a guide, and a cook. We were well taken care of! Friday night we went to to the Maasai village.....it was insanity how these people actually live. This particular village had about 8 huts, made of sticks and cow dung. The women sleep with the children on one side, and the man sleeps alone on the other side. Their baby cows also sleep in the huts with them. When I walked inside, I could hardly breathe. There is a corral in the middle of the village and cow pooh everywhere, with leads to the billions of flies. I was a bit disturbed as the children were infested, but I had to keep reminding myself that these people choose to live this way and know nothing else. I later met a guy who had left his village because he understood through his schooling that there was a better way to live, without disease and filth. He will never be aloud back to his village. After the Maasai village we went back to the campsite for an awesome dinner, wine, and a scary conversation with our guides. My guide, Joseph, was telling me his safari horror stories. I was extremely disturbed, which pushed me to be ridiculously paranoid.....only natural. The other guide, Abas, spoke about his childhood in a polygamist family. His mother was the 2nd wife and he absolutely hated it. It was very sad....couldn't help thinking about Big Love....I love that show! Saturday, we were in the crater all day long looking for the big 5. We managed to see them all except for the leopard. I can't wait to send pictures. INCREDIBLE!!! Nothing like the zoo..haha. After the safari we went back to camp, and again...ate great food, nice wine, and talked with Joseph about his relationships and how he deals with HIV/AIDS. He is 27 and will not even kiss someone randomly because that would eventually lead to sex, and the risk of HIV/AIDS is too high to even go there. They must be tested every 3 months for 9 months to know if they are infected. It was very interesting to hear his views on this subject. Sunday, we went to Mangora Park and saw more animals. I think our favorite was the giraffes...beautiful animals. On our way home on Sunday night, we managed to fit in a short camel ride....camels are gross animals..and very uncomfortable.

Monday, I went to placement and after my English lesson, one of the teachers came into the classroom and handed me a 6 month old baby....her name is Filbert :) The other teacher took over my class, so I then assumed that I would be babysitting for the day. I finally asked who she was...apparently one of the teachers' housekeepers quit, so she needs time to find another one. Thank goodness I am there. :) She is the cutest little girl! At 10am, one of the students brought me a cup of milk and a spoon....so I sucked it up...leaned her back, and spooned the breast milk in her mouth...I can't believe they don't have bottles!!!!! I then burped her and rocked her to sleep. I absolutely love babies!!!! I want to take her home with me! After class we had Swahili lesson, which I hate, and then had a talk about traditional healers and spirits with one our our staff members. They still believe in witchcraft here! It was insane to hear him talking about the witches flying around at night, with total belief!

Michele is having a rough time at her placement. One of her kids came to school without a pen, backpack or socks. The headmaster was very angry, so he completely embarrassed him in front of the other kids. The kid didn't have any money to buy these things, so after the headmaster embarrassed him, he gave him money to run to town to buy socks and a pen. It is so sad how they treat these children. If they are late, they all get whipped...many times, it is not even their fault. It is so frustrating.

Isaac, one of our local volunteers, who is 19, is adopting one of the orphans. He is an amazing human being....don't worry...I won't be bringing one home with me this time....you must live here for at least a year before adopting :)

Today was a rough day. I taught all morning and ran out of things to do. I can only teach in English for so long before the kids get ancy and annoyed. I did the hokie polie with them, which they loved, but they can't sing it with me. God forbid the teachers translate for me. I think I am going to have to make some changes. The teacher actually fell asleep in class yesterday while I was holding the baby..I couldn't believe it! After placement, Michele and I skipped out of our political discussion and went to Upendo Orphanage. This was tough for the both of us. The children clung to us and would not let go. Most of them have wet bottoms and some dirty with their feces. We fell in love with Gabriel. He was just taken out of the nursery, so he was only 1. We wanted to take him home!!! Rosemary was absolutely adorable. She has some time of disability, but she smiles and laughs and can only walk if you hold her hand. She probably went down the slide 100 times....I hugged and hugged her, but I couldn't bring myself to pick her up as she was absolutely filthy. There were a few children who were severely disabled who were left alone...one in a dark room, naked, in a crib, in the corner, and the other by himself, in a different room, in a crib. They just don't have enough hands. I realize they are doing the best they can, but it is disheartening. I have a feeling that Michele and I will be spending many of our afternoons their.

Overall, everything is good. We are a bit annoyed with all of the CCS activities everyday as we would love to have more free time to send emails and pictures, and to just walk around town, but they really want us to understand their culture and everything about it. We are trying to be patient. I am happy to be here and will definitely be sad to leave in 4 weeks. Some of us are headed to Zanzibar this weekend.....I am ecstatic for the beach and a bit of rest. Michele and I are trying to make some decisions about our last week of travel. We have 1 week in Africa open at the end and are contemplating hiking Kilimanjaro, going to Mauritius, or South Africa. Everything is sooooo expensive, so we have some big decisions to make.

Tomorrow we have the day off of placement for a hike to a waterfall...we are soo excited to get some exercise...I thought I would be coming home weighing much less, but that is definitely not going to happen....they keep us well fed and God forbid I turn anything down :)

My new scent has become deet. We are all getting many bites, so fingers are crossed that we don't get malaria...apparently many volunteers get it regardless of the malaria medication. YIKES!!! I am constantly dirty....my feet have a nice tint of brown on then..not from a tan..haha. I also made the mistake of not bringing comfy flats for school, so I had to buy some Tanzanian sandals, which have given me about 100 blisters. NOT PRETTY!!!

One of the teachers mentioned bringing me to her house. If you are invited, you must go as it is a compliment, but it still makes me quite nervous. You must eat and drink what they give you, and we have a strict eating regimin here, as many things can make us sick. Most of the volunteers have had issues with their stomachs, I am still going strong though..thank goodness. Though, one of the volunteers has been having severe pains in her side. We were sure it was appendicitis, but the doctors diagnosed her as having an ovarian cyst....we were so worried that she would have to be evacuated out to a good hospital, so we are grateful it is not too serious.

I could write for hours, but I have to get back to the house as it is getting dark. I hope everything is well for you all. I will write soon...and I promise I will get some pictures out asap. Much love....xoxoxoxo

Hakuna Matata!

Hi All!!! I managed to snatch a spot on the computer, which is a big deal around here. So a recap of the last 4 days....



The airport....well...we made it through..thank goodness! We met some really nice people there, which was a comfort. There were 2 older women, who were both widows. They went to the Serengeti for a safari and were headed for Cairo, Egypt....having the time of their lives. We also met a man from Sierra Leone. He was very proud of his country, even though they are in constant war and his father was killed in the war. When we arrived to the Kilimanjaro airport, our luggage was indeed missing...lots and lots of laughing. We went to missing luggage and they were being held there since we were supposed to be on the earlier flight...whew!!!!! Our driver, Simon, picked us up and took us to home-base. As we were driving, there were hundreds of people walking down the streets and many of the woman were carrying buckets of food and water on their heads. I expected this, but it is so amazing to see this in person.



We were welcomed with open arms at the house. The volunteers are all wonderful people. There are 25 in all, 4 older women, 3 guys, and the rest girls their 20's and early 30's. The staff is absolutely amazing, so I am very thankful for that. The volunteer house is better than expected, accept for our cold showers, which I absolutely hate. Michele and I share a room with Brittany, who is 19, from Wisconsin, and Holly, who is 25, from Chicago.



Mama Grace is our second mother here and Moses oversees everything that goes on. We have had many meetings about cultural conversion, goals, and expectations, which has been very helpful. The language is going to be extremely difficult for us all. Swahili is quite difficult to learn, but is essential for my placement at the school and for walking around town. Moshi is extremely overwhelming. Everyone wants to talk to you and sell you things. Overall, the people are very friendly and understanding that we have no idea what we are doing. I have now learned how to greet the people, which makes a great difference.



I was warned about corporal punishment in my school. This made me soooo nervous as I did not know how I would react to this in person. Today was my first day of placement and I am absolutely exhausted. The teachers and nuns are very great, and speak a bit of English, which I am soooo grateful for. The children are absolutely adorable. I teared up at I walked up to them singing their national anthem and trying to say, "how are you" in english, even though they are only 2-5 years old. They are all so little. This is going to be a great challenge for me. I am in charge of teaching English,math, and writing...the problem is that my Swahili is less that good, so it is difficult to instruct them. They were out of control today...hitting eachother, fighting, screaming.....I cannot punish them because I don't know how to speak to them correctly. Sister Cecilia is the full-time teacher in the classroom and she punishes by smacking the children in the head....I definitely don't believe in this. I feel that a school should be place of safety and comfort. As my Swahili improves, hopefully so will their behavior. They are alllll over me. I have scratches up and down my legs. Every child, 60 or so of them, wants to hold my hand, me to hold them or dance with them or talk to them. It is crazy. I am the only volunteer in the school, so I get way too much attention. I can't wait to send you pictures of them all. The conditions of the school are exceptional, compared to the others. This school is private, so the families must pay about $200 for their children to attend. This helps, but of course there is no air conditioner, toilet paper, or chairs in the room. It blows my mind. I was able to teach one of the students to write the number 4....pretty exciting. :)

It is now the next day as the power goes off often and I was unable to continue this last night. Today was day 2 at my placement....I almost broke down in tears in the front of the classroom. Sister Cecilia left me alone for a long time and the children were out of control!! When I tell them to sit, they laugh, when I say no, they laugh, when I put them in the corner for hitting or not listening, they laugh. I am at a loss. It is very frustrating, so I am hoping they will send another volunteer my way to assist. I definitely need some help. One of the 2 year old was crying all day today. I went to pick him up and noticed that his ear was dripping of puss. So, I sat him down and tried to clean it out, which only lasted for a few minutes. I told the Sister that he had a severe ear infection, but she said that she already spoke with the parents to let them know he needed to go to the hospital, but they had not taken him. It is absolutely heart-breaking. He would not eat, so I had to force the porridge down him, which he doesn't even like the taste of. Sister Cecilia said that she would try to put more sugar in it tomorrow.

I am extremely exhausted everday....we have been having Swahili lessons every day, along with discussions about the differences in our cultures. This is what I have learned:

-Tanzania is the 5th poorest country in the world, the people are poor, but rich in happiness, they have a 3.8% growth rate(they say baby factories), the women walk 10 miles to town for food and water, there are no strangers in Kilimanjaro, they have power outages a few times a day, If someone pick pockets me and I notice, I must not yell or they will be shot, they kill disabled children, twin, and albinos when born, in certain tribes, some women are circumcised when their boyfriends leave for long periods of time to purchase cattle, so that they do not marry someone else, and educated Tanzanians understand that there are better ways of doing things. Whewww. I am on overload.

I feel thankful that I was not placed in an orphanage as I do not think I could handle it. I will be visiting one next week, but the word is that the children go to the bathroom all over you and are left to sit in their own feces, as their is a lack of help. Once you hold them, they become attached immediately and it is hard to leave them. I would have struggled with this I know.

This has been an amazing experience so far. I can't believe I am actually here doing this. My time is out, but I will try to send pictures when I can. Please forgive my spelling and grammar mistakes. I am in a hurry always. The internet is very very slow and I am low on time. I head for the safari on Friday afternoon, so I may not get a chance to write before. Much love to you all. Please keep writing, and I will get to you as sooon as I have an extra minute. XOXOXOXO

Nairobi Airport

It has not been a good day. After a LONG night on the airplane, we arrived in Nairobi to discover that our flight to Kilimanjaro was overbooked, so we now have to catch the 5:30pm flight, even though we landed at 7:30am this morning. That means 10 hours in the airport....with no food because we aren't sure what we can eat. I managed to get some zzz's on the concrete floor, but poor Michele hasn't slept in 2 days. We are crossing our fingers that our luggage makes it to Kilimanjaro, but I have a bad feeling it may be lost.

I just went in search for my ipod, but am sad to say it is gone. It has either fallen out of my bag or someone has snatched it. I am a bit upset. I know it is just a thing, but I spent a lot of time uploading new music and pictures onto it for my trip and all of my itunes are gone since I had to turn in my google computer. I guess there are worse things in life....which I am sure I will soon see.

London was fun. We were able to met up with Kira for thai food, my favorite, then to a club for drinks. It was so wonderful to see her and catch up. She may be taking the trip to Amsterdam with Michele and I. Megan left yesterday morning, and Michele and I were so exhausted that we went to a movie instead of walking around. We saw No Country for Old Men..we both fell asleep...would ont recommend this one.

This is all I have time for. I will write once I get settled. Wish us luck!! XOXO

Cheers from Dublin!

We have had a fantastic few days in Dublin. The first night we went to Temple Bar, which is basically a street lined with pubs. Meg and I found the perfect ambiance at Oliver's Pub, so we plopped down at the bar...she ordered Irish stew and I order fish and ships ..... yummmmmy! .....with Guinness's of course. We met some interesting guys from Spain...so again...I pulled out my not so impressive Spanish. We hopped from bar to bar, and met two local guys.....when one bar closed, we moved to the next.....lots of beer, cider, and black currant was consumed. I believe there was much talk of politics also.....it is so funny how involved the Europeans are in our election. I feel like they know more than I do....it's quite embarrassing.

The next day we took the train to the coast. It was beautiful! Megan reallllly wanted to see a castle to we hopped on another train to Malahide...we didn't get there until dark, but she just wanted to see one. The guy at the station said that it was a 15 minute walk down the road...HE LIED!!!!!! It ended up being 45 minutes of walking along the freeway, in the dark....of course when we got there, it was gated up and there was no castle in sight!!!! Again....we laughed!!! Thank God we are able to keep eachother entertained.

We barely made it back in time to meet my friend Nick, who is working in Dublin for a few months. He treated us to an awesome Irish dinner, then off to the bars again. We had an absolute blast. I believe I even danced the jig at one point....it was not pretty. Haha. Nick also had the pleasure of me spitting my Guinness all over him as I was laughing. I think we laughed for an hour.

Today, somehow, we got up early to check out of our rooms. I'm pretty sure I was still intoxicated...oops! We went to Christ Church, then the Guiness Factory. I am ashamed to say that I could not drink the Guinness offered to me at the factory...I just couldn't do it.

We are about to head to the airport for London. We are meeting up with Kira for dinner, and Michele arrives early tomorrow morning...then off to Tanzania tomorrow night! It's finally here!! I probably won't be able to write until I get settled in. XOXOXOXO

C'est Bon!

We made it to Dublin!!! We managed to get in Trinity College today and our hostel is right next to Christ Church and Temple Bar. The best news is that when we arrived, we were told that the airlines called and will be sending our bags tomorrow!!!!!!!!! Thanks God! We were on the phone all day yesterday, or I should say Uncle Daniel was on the phone, and our bags were no where to be found. We assumed that they were stolen so were planning to do some major shopping in Dublin.....I am sooooo happy that we do not have to do that. Life is good....stress get's us no where....everything has a way of working out in the end :)

France was absolutely wonderful. My family is so generous and kind...I was sad to leave them. We ate some amazing meals, and drank some fabulous wine. Yesterday, Fabris and Emilie showed us around the city, which was great, considering they all have exams this week and the next. We were able to meet Fatina, who helps take care of Christopher. She was a riot! She spoke to me in French, like I knew what she was saying, until we realized that we both knew a little spanish, so we were able to communicate through spanish...whew! The only english she knew was curse words, and enjoyed saying the phrase 'my humps', from the infamous Fergie. She was great.

We were late for our flight this morning. You must be at the ryanair desk 40 minutes before departure and we barely made it 35 minutes before. She was going to send us away, but I think Megan and I both had looks of despair, so she let us through. Another whew!!!

All is well with us.....we are headed to have our first Guiness in Dublin, along with a few Irish Car Bombs I'm sure :) XOXOXOXOXO