For the last five days I have been on an amazing Safari traveling through four different national parks/conservation areas; Lake Manyara, the well-known Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater, and Terengerie National Park. Daniela and I were still traveling together and we were in a group with a loud mouth, chain-smoking, chatterbox, party animal couple from Spain, and a know-it-all dude from Slovenia. Continue reading
As those of you who have read the last few posts know I have been dreading writing this post. I have to start off with a confession. My stay here in Tanzania with the people at Hope Foundation has been trying to say the least. Continue reading
I’m still not really up to writing the post about how I have been “viewed” here as a “Black American” and the conversations I’ve had with a few locals about their personal views. But what I will do is leave you with this song that the children at the school had been singing in the distance for the last few day. Today I finally met with a child who was so kind to sing it to me up close and personal. Like to here it??….Here it goes…. Continue reading
This morning started out wonderfully…well with the exception of mother nature knocking HARD on my door and making her presence known. As we set off for school and walked past the church you could see a clear view of the snow capped peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. I stood there in awe as I had never seen such a great sight so close up and personal. I was more convinced than ever that I had to conquer that mountain. OK well…despite the fact that a lot of people don’t even make it to the top due to frost bite, altitude sickness, and event death. But those are just minor details. Continue reading
I attended church with my host family and the kids from the orphanage this morning. The church is a stones throw away from where we sleep so even though I had already had an extremely exhausting few days here..sleeping in was not an option.
I honestly thought I was in a Catholic service with the amount of times we stood up and down during the three hour service. The entire service was in Swahili with the exception of the sermon which was translated for us by our new friend Emanuel (Ema). I was shocked to find out that our guide Thomas is also the Kirk Franklin of Msae (the village where I’m staying). This cat plays the piano, sings, directs the choir, serves as the sound engineer, and performs dances to pre-recorded music with the choir. All in one service. I was exhausted watching this man in action. Continue reading
Today was my first official day as an official teacher. Being beyond nervous coupled with fact that I had a lot of other things on my mind I barely got 3 hours of sleep last night.
Kids can be the most honest creatures on the planet and are not afraid to show either verbally or physically that they don’t approve of something. To include the new “Black American” teacher that is standing in front of them. To my surprise my students actually loved me. I mean who wouldn’t (bats eyes). Continue reading
This is the most “maternal” I’ve ever seen myself look.
My day today in the town of Moshi was quite eventful. I had gone in with Thomas (the volunteer guide) and Daniela (my roommate and fellow volunteer) to pick up more supplies that I’d need for my class. The town of Moshi is not modern by American standards but definitely more modern than the small village where the orphanage is located. We spent an hour at an internet cafe and paid less than $1. They even threw in 3 power cuts for free. How generous is that? *Note to self…bring your netbook with you when you come to town next time* Continue reading
I made it to Tanzania safe and sound. It was probably the longest journey I’ve taken on this journey so far being that I had a 7.5 hour layover in Qatar and almost 18 hours of flight time but a 2 hr bus ride when I got here. That doesn’t include a layover at JFK and a random one that didn’t show up on my ticket in Dar El Salaam. Anywho… Continue reading