Cheers and Tears!

Today was by far our most emotional day yet! We, along with our 26 college students, made a trip to a primary school for children with special needs just 5 minutes from the college. Yesterday, our students were introduced to the CARS assessment and were able to use this instrument at the school today in order to help identify which, if any, students were indeed Autistic.

Upon our arrival, there were several school children who ran up to our van to greet us with hugs and many hellos! The one and only teacher of the 7 children was very happy to have us there and couldn't have been more thankful for the weighted vests and academic materials that we brought along with us. We got a tour (if you can even call it that) of the 2 room school house, equipped only with some desks, 2 lego blocks, a comic book, and a puzzle. It was quite evident that the school was much in need of any help someone was willing to offer. Without hesitation, Amber, Marilyn, Valerie, and I pooled together 150,000 shillings (roughly $100) The tears started flowing when we were told that this would be enough money for the students to have food supplied for over 5 months! We couldn't believe that our small contribution could help that much. Much to our surprise, and again the tears were flowing, the 26 college students pooled together their own shillings and offered them to the head teacher of the school. We were so happy to support the school and are anxious to see what comes of the college students' interest in the primary school's needs.

After our happy tears were shed, we piled 10 of us into the JM Tours van and headed back to the college. The students enjoyed another "Make & Take It" workshop and were anxious to share their experiences and findings from the rating scale used at the school. The session concluded at 1pm and we were supplied lunch after our exhausting morning.

We have one day of teaching left and are then planning a celebration (Fiesta) to end our week of teaching on Friday! Tomorrow we also have plans in place to visit a school for the blind and an orphange at Arente Point. We are positive that there are more tears to come but are so happy to be able to make even the smallest impact in this mountain village.

Stay tuned! Badai (Later)

Habari ndio hii? Wazungu tumerudi!

Did you hear the news? The white people are back! Just our newest saying we have learned!

We finally have internet!!!! The college has been generous enough to let us use there computer lab now that it is sunny out! (their internet is solar powered). The students have been great participants in our crazy antics and are asking great questions about Autism that we do not always have the answer to. Their favorite parts have been the CARS rating scale in which they became very competitive about and the first "make and take it" was a hit today. We don't think they get to do many "crafts" in their college course work! Though it was fun, getting step-by-step directions across to a group that speaks an entirely different language can take quite a bit of time. We are on day two of teacher training at the Sebastian Kolowa University in Lushoto, Tanzania. It has been very cold, misty, and foggy but we are still enjoying the beautiful Usambara Mountain Range, which is fully covered in magnifecent jungle foliage. We have taken stay at the Tumaini Lutheran Hostel. To make things quick we have learned several things at our time in Lushoto...

1. Some of us are still learning to use the in ground toilets (cough cough: Valerie)
2. There IS such thing as a "blanket house"... Africa has THE softest blankets to snuggle up in!
3. It is possible to take bucket showers.
4. To some, it is normal to eat fish heads
5. Some spiders have 6 legs
6. Duka la Madawa (Pharmicies) have everything!
7. Chips are fries in TZ and very tasty when mixed with eggs (chips mayai)
8. Rice can frequently resemble termites
9. Efraem can quickly pick up on "blonde jokes" and loves the sayings "holy moly and GTFOOMF"!
10. Tanzanian college students are fabulous! They are quick learners and ask great questions!

It took us 4 hours to drive from Moshi to Lushoto. We got to see many unique small villages and enjoyed the people and animal watching. We will finish up teaching Friday aternoon and head back to Arusha for the night before heading to Tarangire and Ngorongoro Crater for Safari!

Kwaheri!

P.S. Janessa we are still not telling you anything! A month will be here before you know it!

XOXO to all our family and friends back home!

Wazungus are back!!!!

We made it safely to our hotel in Arusha, after our hour ride from the airport! It was 2:30pm and we were all ready for bed! We were so tired, none of us slept all that well on any of the plane rides. Our stomachs were achy, are heads hurt, and our eyes felt heavy! We got checked in, dropped of luggage, and decided not to lie down in case we couldn't wake back up! The hotel "bar" proved to be a nice relaxed atmosphere to enjoy our Tanzanian favorite, Fanta, along with some coffee and chi. 

With a few hours until dinner, we set off to walk the streets of Arusha for some good ole' people watching. We forgot how much the locals enjoyed seeing "white people" (wazungus). We found a beautiful garden and couldn't stop taking pictures of the exotic flowers and plants that were for sale along the street side. This walking only made us more tired and more hungry, so we headed back to the hotel restaurant in search of some good comfort food. 

Thank goodness for the menu selections! Marilyn, Valeria and I ordered the best Mac & Cheese I have ever had, and Amber order some vegetable stir fry that was also enjoyed. We now had full tummies and were in need of sleep (we didn't care that it was only 6 o'clock!!!) Some showered and some hit the sack right away. It is no shock that both rooms woke up in the early part of the night thinking that it was time to get up! Amber and I were wide awake at 6am so we decided to get up and get ready for the days adventures!

Efraem, our tour guide from JM tours, picked us up at 9am. We loaded our luggage and were off to the town center for the bureau de exchange to change dollars into shillings for our shopping that was foreseen in our future. Next on the days agenda was one of our favorite shops from last years trip, the Shanga Shangaa Workshop! Here, blind and deaf individuals create all kinds of neat jewelry, glass and metal objects, along with different stone and wooden sculptures. Little did we know there was a tour guide available to show us around and take us to a wonderful lunch! It is hard to put into words about how beautiful our lunch was. We began with champagne on the cushioned couches in the middle of the garden, and then moved to our table equipped with a bowl of fresh roses and unique place mats. We also had no idea that this would be a 6 course meal with soups, Samasos, salads, meats, dessert trolleys, and coffee/tea. We were STUFFED but still had room to shop!!! Gifts were bought for all and poor Efraem patiently waited. It was time to make our way to Moshi where we plan to spend the night at a Lutheran Hostel before heading to Lushoto tomorrow. The hostel has proven to be quite nice. We even got to see a wedding procession and by the looks of all the decorations, they will be dancing into the evening at the reception. 

Stay tuned for our adventures in Lushoto, where we plan to being training teachers on Monday!

Kwaheri!

P.S. Janessa, we're not telling you what Amber got you....so don't even think about asking!  :)   :)

And the journey begins....

Jambo, readers! We are so thrilled that you are tuning in for our adventures as we move across Tanzania! Since we didn't have Internet in Dulles' airport, I am typing this during the 8th hour of our 13 hour flight to Ethiopian and pasteing it where ever we get Internet next. (boredom has definitely kicked in). So here has been our experiences thus far...

Our journey began at MCI airport at 3pm (much better than our 4am flight last year) Our flight left at roughly 5pm and we were set for Washington D.C. The saying "it's 5 o'clock somewhere" was certainly relevant at the time, especially considering the nerves that were present in all of us! Amber, Marilyn, and I decided on beer with some tomato juice, while Valerie chose wine.... little did we know the one and ONLY!!! flight attendant was perhaps a few shades short of bright! Being in the middle of the plane, we FINALLY received our beverages just as the announcement was being made that we were "beginning our final decent into D.C." (poor folks at the front of the plane) Stunned, we quickly drank (rather chugged) our bloody beers/wine and were off to catch the shuttle to our hotel for the evening.

After lots of strenuous strolling with nearly 550 total lbs of luggage, we found the Comfort Inn Shuttle, check in, dropped of luggage, and caught the shuttle to O'Malley's Irish Pub. Starving by this time of night, we ordered 2 orders of fish and chips, with some spinach dip to share with the table. To all of our surprise, what we thought would be strips of fish, came out piping hot as an ENTIRE fish! Guess that's what we get for being on the East coast close to the ocean. Marilyn was disgusted at the sight, so mama Nicole had to cut it up into pieces so she could eat the darn thing! With full bellies and a tired mind, we headed back to the hotel for some quick rearranging with luggage and some much needed R&R before our long day of traveling ahead! (disclaimer: I forgot to mention that Valeria had to pay $100 at MCI for having an extra bag and I had to pay $100 for having a bag that weighed 66lbs. there is just no easy way to pack for a month folks!)

We got the weight and extra baggage under control and caught the airport shuttle after a quick continental breakfast around 9am. The check in process proved to be much less hectic than last years. My luggage weighed in at 44lbs. and 55lbs. so I was A-Okay! It was time now to wait for the chaotic boarding procedures at noon. It just so happens that Amber and I were seated next to each other in row 25 and Marilyn and Valerie were seated next to each other in row 13. The loooong flight has not been bad at all (I might change my mind after the last remaining hours) We also still have another 2 hour flight ahead of us from Ethiopia to Kilimanjaro. We are scheduled to arrive in Tanzania at 12pm so we will have most of the afternoon to get settled in at the Impala Hotel in Arusha.

Tune in to hear about our Arusha stay next post!
Hope all is well back in the "states", and know that we are more then ecstatic to be back in Africa!

Kwaheri! (goodbye)

Preparations!

Hello again! JAMBO! We are so excited to be going back to Tanzania for a WHOLE month this year. Preparations are in place to leave for D.C. Wednesday evening. We will spend the night in D.C. before heading to Ethiopian at 11 a.m. on June 23rd. After a short layover we will head to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania and plan to arrive early in the A.M.

This year, the gang includes Nicole Maupin (myself), Marilyn Kaff (former graduate professor of mine), Amber Olson(former graduate colleague of mine), and Valerie Evans (new to the bunch)!

We've each got an entire suitcase packed full of materials to take to the teaching training our first week in Arusha. We have discussed that some "heavy tickets" may be in our future due to the enormous weight of our copied materials!

Off to finish our preparations! We hope you enjoy reading about our experiences. We are so grateful to have this opportunity and enjoy sharing our adventures with our readers!