Stan's House

As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts Kir, Nate and I were extremely lucky the day a 17 year old boy appeared at our after school soccer program. Over the past two months we became close to Stan, and one day he invited us over to his house to meet his family and have dinner. We were so excited and very thankful. It was such as sweet invitation. Last week we finally made our adventure over to Stan’s house and it was wonderful. He lives only five minutes away from the soccer pitch in an apartment complex. We marched up to the fourth floor and quickly met his grandmother, two older sisters, mother, father, and his adorable little brother named Joshua. Stan’s parents and siblings are all spitting images of each others and are all some of the nicest people I have ever met. Stan’s mother is a tailor and his dad is a policeman. Both of his older sisters are in college, and Joshua is busy being the most adorable 4-year-old boy around. We were flowered with presents consisting of a painting, a weaved basket, and jewelry. Sadly, the only thing we had to offer were silly bands, but they did succeed in creating great joy in Joshua. I also showed Joshua the Pixar short entitled and it rocked his world. Over the two hours we were guests, we were offered our fill of food and coffee and curious/wonderful conversation. I honestly can’t remember the last time I was welcomed into such a welcoming home by the entire family in one sitting. It will go down as one of my favorite moments in Tanzania.

A Weekend At Gibbs Farm

The lodge that my sister, my mom and I stayed at was called Gibbs Farm and it was really wonderful. It was started back in the day by a German man who wanted to start a working coffee plantation, however, is now a full time lodge with a little bit of coffee production. Somehow we got lucky at got a wonderful room (more like our own lodge) called the Deutsch house and it had two bedrooms, and each one had a really nice bathtub, shower, and outdoor shower! Not to mention incredible beds. I thought I was in a different world. The really cool part about traveling around Tanzania is that everyone is literally from everywhere, playing the accent guessing game has become a common pastime.

The great thing for my vegetarian sister Corey was that all the meals were created from the lodge’s own garden. I had some of the best veggies and salads ever. Gibbs Farm is quite small, so everyone eats in one cozy dining room, which I think adds a lot to the atmosphere.

The lodge also had a resident artist, which I thought was really cool. Being an artist, as a profession here doesn’t really exist, so it was exciting to finally see one. For example, of all the schools we have worked at, only one school has an art teacher. Furthermore, the lodge has a stunning view, the perfect thing to look at while sipping the free/local teas.

The lodge also has its own daily schedule of activities. Corey and I decided to give milking a cow a try (not my favorite), and the much more enticing bush baby feeding at twilight. A super cute animal.

Side note: the best thing to relax to on a beautiful African farm…..Glee with your sister


The Crater and the Lake

However, a major reason why we came to this lovely lodge was for the well known/beautiful safaris. On Saturday we had a full day safari to Ngorongoro Crater, which I had heard many wonderful things about and was really excited to go. We had to get up at the lovely hour of 6:30, eat breakfast in our cozy dining room, and then head off on our adventure. The morning was extremely foggy, and at times I thought I was driving through a cloud. We couldn’t see a thing. Our guide, Bashu, promised us the day would clear up so we could see something/anything at all, and I could only hope he was right. For the first hour we had to drive into the crater so we were on super windy roads for quite some time. There were a couple instances I thought we were going to side down the cliff. About an hour into our drive the sun finally broke through (very much Lion King style), and everything became crystal clear. The safari was amazing. We saw many lions, ostriches, wildebeests, monkeys, impalas, dikdiks, hippos, hyenas, and much more. We even got lucky enough to see two of the remaining ten rhinos in the park. We adventured about until about three in the afternoon and then we headed back to Gibbs Farm.

Since I had to get back to Arusha by Sunday evening, we only had enough time on Sunday for a half-day game drive. This time we went to Lake Manyaro, which was quite different than the crater. The lake is much more of a jungle atmosphere so we were excited to see something a little bit different. We saw many different new types of birds and monkeys. We also saw a lot more of the animals we had already seen but seeing them in this new jungle/lake environment made it new again. Sadly, at about two or so we had to head to the airport, marking the end of a wonderful weekend and the closing end of the Malone African Family Adventure.

Weekend Getaway with the Family

This past weekend was incredible because my family and I flew to the Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyaru, and stayed at the wonderful Gibbs Farm.

The entire weekend was perfect, but it started off with an incredible experience on the way there—I got to fly the plane. We were the only ones on the flight and I asked the pilot, Liz, what the flying conditions were (flying is not my cup of tea, but obviously doesn’t stop me from traveling one bit). She told me it was going to be bumpy because it was hot and windy, I told her that I’m a bit afraid. She immediately told me to get into the co-pilots seat. I assumed this was because it would be the least bumpy place on the plane but I was wrong. Ten minutes into the flight she told me to take hold of the steering gear and told me how to use it and where to steer the plane. I did exactly what she told me to do and in three seconds she was writing stuff down, taking a water break, chatting with my family, aka NOT flying the plane. I was a little shocked and bit nervous but took full advantage of the opportunity. Lets just say I was so intensely concentrating that I didn’t have time to think about being afraid. When we landed she told me that flying a plane would decrease the fear of flying. She was right.

***more to come on this weekend***

Cooking Lesson

Last Sunday Pele set up another weekend activity for us because we had a free day. However, this free day was extra special because my mom and sister (Corey) had arrived. YAY!! The cooking lesson was at an old host mom’s restaurants backdoor kitchen. It was a great set up. We were quickly put to work on getting veggies and meat ready. The whole process took about four hours, but the food couldn’t have been better. I asked if they had any recipes to share, but apparently the concept of recipes does not exist in Africa, you just know (don’t worry Dylan I will look up what we made and find some great recipes to send to you to add to your cooking expertise). I will post those the first time I get the change/have reliable Internet.

Soccer

Some of you might already know this but sine I have been here, Nate, Kir, and I have been running an after school soccer clinic at the Arusha School. We normally coach kids from the ages of 5-16. The clinic has been one of my favorite things activities. We were extremely lucky to meet one of the teachers named Mr. Kilinga who offers his room to us at the school to relax in and change in everyday. He also comes and plays with us most days. Furthermore, he is the regional director of the Model United Nations Club. Yes, they have it in Western Africa, pretty cool. Secondly, we were very lucky to meet a 16-year-old boy named Stanley who lives by the school. He has basically become a fourth coach, and is a godsend because he translates everything we say into Kiswahili. The school is private and therefore the instruction is in English, but soccer vocabulary isn’t something taught in schools. Each day we do drills for half an hour and then scrimmage for the last twenty minutes.

Cultural Misunderstanding

Last week I had one of the biggest internal conflicts of my life in terms of understanding a different culture. We arrived at the high school we were teaching at on time, and immediately took not that all the girls were leaving the classrooms while the boys stayed inside. We were immediately confused because our lesson was supposed to start in a minute, and had no idea why all the girls were leaving. We walked into our classroom and then heard the notorious noise of a stick in the air. I look outside and every single girl in the entire school is kneeling on the ground waiting to be beat with a stick by the teachers. I immediately become sick and furious. I watch as the girls are hit one by one. I look at my watch and notice that we are 15 minutes into our allotted class time. The teacher we are working with quickly comes up and tells us to start our lesson. I say, “but the girls are not here, it wouldn’t be fair for them not to gain anything from our lesson. Do you really want us to start?” The teacher replies, “yes, they will be back in five minutes.” NO, they came back with three minutes left in the lesson. We taught a class of only boys. I was furious. It makes perfect sense to beat ALL the girls in a country where girls are already the minority in schools. Lets punish those that make it all the way to high school. Call me a feminist, but I also don’t think the use of physical punishment has any place in schools.

Teaching High School

Currently listening to: The Swell Season

Last week we made a huge age jump from teaching elementary school to high school seniors. I was honestly nervous because I wasn’t sure how the students would respond to being taught by someone who was only a few years older than them. However, I was beyond happy with the outcome.

Teaching AIDS in Africa:
Possibly the reason why I was most nervous when we switched to teaching high school was because our first lesson was to teach the different ways the virus can be transmitted. After talking with the teacher we decided to make an AIDS tree to show transmission by using the students to create a human diagram. I think the picture turned out pretty good. Afterwards we listened to the teacher go into detail about the virus. We thought the teacher did a very good teaching the lesson, however, there were a couple comments we were a bit bothered by:
-Wearing ‘style’ will prevent you from getting the virus
-Not using contraceptive pills will prevent you from getting the virus
-Engaging in economic activity will prevent you from getting the virus
-Going to church will prevent you from getting the virus (hmmmm)

Hopefully these different bits of information were lost in translation, aka make much more sense in Kiswahili…. But overall I loved working with the teacher. Also, it is interesting to note that AIDS, transmission, prevention, etc. is in the curricula here starting in first grade. Imagine that in the USA.

When I was a young girl, I had me a cowboy...

Thought I’d introduce this post with a lyric from the song I’m currently listening to.

Today is July 11th and I’ve been in Tanzania for almost a month now, and have less than a month left here. I can definitely say that this is a summer filled with unique experiences. I had my first moment of genuine frustration while teaching this past week. I was teaching the pros and cons of the tourism industry in Arusha and the children just weren’t getting it. The final step was for the kids to find a solution to common problems that occur from tourists, but their brains just weren’t turned on. The lesson eventually ended and not all of my students had finished projects. I left the classroom upset, but after calming down I learned that sometimes you can only hope for some kids to understand bits and pieces and not always the big picture (at least not in one 40 minute, quick crash course). I have had great successes, but its sad that you normally always focus on the moments of failure.

In other new my mom and sister come on Saturday. I’m really excited about showing them around Arusha.

I only have two more nights at my homestay. It has been a wonderful experience and I’m really sad to be leaving them.

Braces

Today while teaching one of the Tanzanian teachers came up to one of my students are started yelling at her to get something out of her mouth. She quickly became tight lipped and didn’t respond to him. I asked her to open her mouth for me and realized that she had braces. I had to explain to the teacher what they were for and she wasn’t misbehaving. He told me he had never seen them before.

Charles and Kennedy

My two host brothers could not be nicer. I am especially fond of Charles because he always wants to do everything with me, which is adorable. So far on my computer we have watched Twilight twice (by the way bonus points for anyone who can find out if Eclipse is somewhere in Arusha, Tanzania), Harry Potter, the cartoon Presto, The Day the World Stood Still, and Home Alone. They love watching movies on my computer. When I get home from teaching/soccer they always want to kick the ball around which I love.

End of the Cup

Once the United States was defeated I joined the large Ghana bandwagon. I thought this was fitting since I am in Africa after all and they beat us. If you are reading this and haven’t watched the highlights of the last Ghana game, you must! By far the most exciting and crazy soccer game I have ever seen. After the teams loss, I could hear screaming and horns blowing (in sadness obviously) for about an hour after the game. Sleep was little.

I’m pretty indifferent about who wins between Spain and the Netherlands. Win-win?

Homestay First Impressions/Communion

The day we started our homestay we all anxiously waited at our apartments for our homestay family to come pick us up. I was quickly informed that my host parents would not be picking me up because their sons Charles (9) and Kenedy (12) were having their first communion and a party to follow. Instead I was picked up by my host family’s “house girl.” The best way to describe a house girl is a live in maid and nanny and someone who basically takes care of all house chores. Some families treat house girls as if they are an extra member of the family, however some treat them as if they are much lower than them. For example, Cameron’s “house workers” live in a shack behind the house.

After quickly dropping off the stuff at my house, I was quick driven to the where the first communion party was being held. I knew the moment that I could hear loud music thumping from speakers that I was in for a surprise. I thought I was attending a wedding. The huge room was covered in pink and white and a large number of tables and chairs were set up. At the entrance was an open bar, this was my first realization that my family had put a lot of money into this event. When we sat down at our table I met a 16-year-old girl named Lisa who was a close family friend of my new host family. She explained to us that first communion is treated closely in the same fashion as weddings. That explained a lot. The party consisted of dancing present giving lines, champagne popping, about a million toasts, and one of the largest buffets of food I’ve ever seen. The party went from 3-8:30 at night. At the end of it all I was quickly whisked away by Nate’s family because my family had to stay behind to do clean up. It wasn’t until about 10:30 that night that I finally met my exhausted host parents. They really couldn’t be nicer. I knew everyone wanted to crash in their beds, so we all passed out shortly after.

2-1

Last night, as most of you already know the US team lost to Ghana in extra time. I had a hard time falling asleep because horns, chanting and singing went on late into the night.

Had a great yoga session with Katie. Was one of the first times I've been able to clear my head in the past week and a half. Beyond helpful. I can't wait to get back into a regular yoga schedule at home.

I leave for my homestay in three hours. Getting ready.

Homestay Orientation

1. Receiving and giving things –use your right hand
2. When talking to an elderly person- don’t put your hands in your pockets
3. Don’t rest your legs on the chairs/tables which you are going to use
4. Don’t cross your legs in front of elders (especially girls)
5. Too short shorts in villages are not tolerable
6. Show respect to elders when greeting them
7. Showing love and affection in public is not accepted in our culture. Hugging is ok
8. Yelling to call someone’s attention is impolite, just clap your hands
9. Sniffing food is not good, very impolite
10. Try to avoid giving money to children, it is strongly discouraged
11. Bedroom is a private place
12. Knock before entering in a house and greet
13. Be careful of the homeless people
14. If you go to someone’s house and you’re offered a seat-please do not reject it. Even if you are in a hurry, sit for a few minutes, it is considered a blessing to the family

Tomorrow we start our home-stay. I will last for two weeks. I don’t think I’m going to have any internet, so expect a big update around July 10th.

Learning

The past 48 hours have made me realize that I am going to be learning a lot more about myself and others while here in Arusha. I am going to be doing a fair amount of soul-searching. I didn't plan for my time in Arusha to become that, but as of late I have realized that is what it is going to be. Tanzania has become a necessary escape from reality.

We begin our homestay on Sunday and it will last for two weeks. I can't imagine a better time for this experience, and I have no idea what to expect. Tomorrow I start my after school soccer clinic, something I am also very much looking forward to.

Dancing to the beat of my own Drum

Sunday was our first free day so we all decided to take African dance and drum lessons. The lesson itself was very basic, but I enjoyed it very much. We started the lesson by learning a couple steps to a traditional African dance, but my favorite part came when we got to learn how to play some of the drums. Our instructor taught us about four or five different beats and we would rotate between playing as a group and individually. I realized that playing the drums is actually not as easy as it looks, but a lot of fun. My favorite part was when we learned how to play three drums and how to play the African version of a xylophone.

Kilimanjaro

This past Saturday we had a day trip to climb the base camp of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The mountain is exactly two hours from our hotel, so we got up around 7:30. I was a bit worried because when we finally arrived it was drizzly and very cloudy, but luckily it cleared up shortly thereafter. Our guide explained to us the many different paths you can take to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and which ones were the harder ones and which ones were the easier were simply bamboo tied to the surrounding trees. I’m pretty sure I prayed for my life multiple times. The trek was rewarding because the waterfall and vast creek were extremely beautiful. Nonetheless we were still a spectacle to the locals who could continuously yell out greetings to us. A highlight was when we passed a family of young boys how were dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”

After the conclusion of our multiple hour adventure, we walked down to a nearby hotel for a delicious lunch, which consisted of fresh fruit and vegetables with rice and curry. During the entire hike we were surrounded by avocado trees, so I was more than thrilled to see them for lunch. By the end of the day I was filthy, and took a shower the moment we got back from out two-hour ride back to the apartments. ones.

On our hike our guide explained to us the different types of trees, plants, and fruits that line the mountain. Our path was extremely green and luscious. The best part was when we reached a waterfall at the completion of our hike. However, to get to the waterfall we had to walk down an extremely steep set of “stairs” that were made of slippery mud. The railings of the stairs

Via Via

Last night the group decided to get its first taste of Tanzanian nightlife. After our group dinner we taxied to a place that we had been given great recommendations called Via Via which has live music on Thursday nights. Believe it or not we had to pay cover! It was barely anything at all but this amused me nonetheless. Via via was a great sight. It is all outdoors and has two great tiki-shic bars. They had the world cup on all tvs and on a huge projector screen outside. They even had a huge outdoor dance floor with crazy light/lazer displays. We danced the night away and meet some great locals and visitors. The dj was amazing. It was the perfect mix of America rap/dance music and European techno influence. Perfection. I wish djs in the America were more like that. Also, many people were passing through on their way to the World Cup and some were on their way back. We also discovered a really tasty papaya gin that is from the local area. We finally decided to head back around 2:30ish since we had to get up at the delightful hour of 8 am the next morning. I also had a successful video chat with Stewart, which was really nice; I guess the internet is stronger at 3 am…

Beating

Today while we were walking around taking pictures with the teachers we witnessed a group of guys dragging along a shirtless guy. One of the men was carrying a large wooden stick. We learned from one of the teachers that he was about to be beaten. My stomach filled with knots and I looked away. Shortly after I heard the stick in the air. I cringed. This is what happens if you are caught stealing here. Sometimes, if serious enough, I have heard the person can be beaten to death.

Reading Photographs

The past couple of days we have been running teacher workshops at two different schools. The purpose is to teach the teachers the LTP method so that they can use the method in their classrooms. The first day I was a bit nervous because I would be teaching about 10 Tanzanian teachers LTP, and I didn’t how the language barrier and cultural norms would impact our interactions. The past three days I have been working with Cameron, which has turned out to be a really good team. The first couple of minutes everyone was a bit shy but it didn’t take too long for people to get comfortable, myself included. I did learn that language can be a bit of barrier and sometimes it takes Pele to translate for instructions to finally be understood. However, sometimes, the quite and shy teachers (mostly women) turn out to be the best English speakers and writers. Working and getting to know the teachers has been really rewarding.

Reading photographs is a primary activity in LTP. First, the group looks at a photograph and lists all the objects in people in the photograph, aka simply stating what the photograph shows. Secondly, everyone in the group chooses a person in the photograph to write a creative story in the first perspective. This is my favorite part because it is great to see the creative side of whoever is doing the activity (in this case teachers, and soon to be the students).


After the reading photographs exercises, we decided to make a social studies ABC book with the teachers for their students. The different groups were assigned different letters of the alphabet and then we brainstormed social studies words with the letters we were assigned. Once the words were chosen we went around the town and took photos of the words. After shooting we went back to the school, printed the photos and created our alphabet flipbook. One of the great things this year is that the ministry of education is getting involved and trying to make LTP MANDATORY in the schools. Another amazing thing is that we are creating a camera and printer resource room so that the teachers can check them out to use in their classrooms (the teachers don’t even have visual aids in the classrooms). Overall, the teachers seemed really excited about LTP and the ones that I talked to said they were defiantly going to use it.

Back Roads

This morning Cameron and I took a walk around the back roads of the street our apartments are on. It is entirely a bumpy, dusty path which I can barley imagine cars driving down. We passed schools that are simply a falling down shack and many produce stands that stand at the edge of personal gardens. We decided to take the walk because were doing an alphabet photography project documenting American things in Tanzania. We were assigned m, n, o, p, and y, therefore we took pictures of money, a newspaper, a BP Oil tin, some pollution in the river, and a thing of yogurt. While we were walking, as we turned a corner, a 3-year old adorable little boy ran out of his house to me and grabbed my hands. He then started shaking his hips and dancing with me. It was definitely a highlight of my day. Since we had one Swahili lesson under our belt, we were also able to practice greetings to the people we passed along the way.

Pineapple

A couple of us decided to have our first experience with small market shopping. We walked along the dusty street path for a couple minutes until we came upon a small fruit and vegetable stand. We successfully (without understanding a word the woman said or her understanding anything that we said) bought a couple bell peppers to make a stir fry pasta dish this evening. However, I was determined to get a pineapple for Kir. Because you have to bargain (and we haven’t asked a local yet what normal prices are), I swiftly brought out 500 shillings (about 50 cents) to buy the pineapple. She wasn’t having it. The final asking price was 20,000 shillings. The pineapple was not bought and the search for a cheaper one continues.

Plans

Had a relaxing afternoon today. Was able to sleep in a bit and got brunch at the restaurant at hotel. It was very good. They brought out freshly squeezed juice which was basically fruit in liquid form. Shortly after we met with Katie and talked about what our schedule is going to be like for the time we are here.

For the next two weeks we have Swahili lessons everyday, and just about every day we are also going to be having workshops with the teachers that we are going to be working with. Next week we also start our after school projects with the children, which I’m sure excited about. Kir, Nate and myself are going to work an after school soccer program, can’t wait. The third week we are here we start our homestays, which will last for two weeks (this is right after we finish are Swahili lessons). During the homestays we will all be working at the same school so we will all be reunited during the day before we go our own ways at night. After the homestays we are going to be working at schools for most of the time, and one of the final weeks we are going to do workshops at a teachers college (this is awesome because it the equivalent would be teaching the education department at Duke how to use LTP).

We also talked about safety. For example what happens if you are cornered and someone has a knife—just give him what he/she wants. Therefore I will only WALK with just enough cash I need and my Africa phone. Everything else will only be brought when we taxi to and from places.

Hujambo

First Impressions: I knew my two months in Tanzania was going to be an experience unlike no other when I looked out the window right before we were going to land in Kilimanjaro airport and there were no lights to be seen. We (there are seven of us: Kir, Cameron, Nate, Ian, Aadya, and Wilma) exited the airplane to a cool crisp breeze (its winter in Arusha). We entered the airport (which was really just one building) for customs and baggage, and were greeted by a mob for the customs line. Luckily all of our baggage made it and we immediately met Katie (our faculty advisor), Emma (our assistant advisor), and Pele (our local liaison, whom I will probably be mentioning a lot). We hoped into a huge van and we were on our way.

The ride to our apartments was peaceful, barely any of the houses/buildings we passed had power so we had to make our figures and building shapes in the dark. As we got closer to town (meaning there was electricity), we could see everyone huddled in bars and houses watching the first day of the World Cup. Our of nowhere we took a sharp turn to the right and we were at our new home. We are all living in Kundayo apartments, an extremely well guarded apartment complex with lodge, restaurant, and fairly nice apartments. The three boys are in one apartment and the four girls are split into twos. I’m living with Kir who was in my LTP class, I’m really excited. The apartments are fully stocked and the showers are warm (although the water pressure is a trinkle, so glad I chopped off my hair before coming here). Our beds have built in mosquito nets, wooohooo, and of course we have to boil all water that we use for drinking or cooking, and mouths have to stay closely shut in the shower. When we arrived at the apartments the restaurant had prepared mushroom soup and spring rolls since many of us slept through the last airplane meal. After our tummies were full we got settled and I’m pretty sure we all passed out after 48 hours of travel.

Learning out way: Katie was extremely brilliant because she had planned the day with us having the ability to sleep in. When we finally all started to stir around 11ish we made our first trip to downtown. Normally we will taxi to the center, but for our first day and to get our grounding we walked. This was my first true Tanzanian experience. The streets (which are very dusty) are busy with people walking all about. Numerous bars and restaurants line the streets however they mostly resemble strong standing shacks. The streets are by no means the cleanest and make DC streets look clean enough to eat off of, but they also have their fair share of gardens. We walked around the downtown area before walking to a former homestay mom’s restaurant. I have already failed at being vegetarian because she made an amazing beef stew. While eating we were also given our African phones. My number is country code (255) 0685464180. However, we were still sorta jetlagged so we then had our first taxi experience and went back to the hotel. For the rest of the afternoon we unpacked and relaxed. For dinner we all decided to go to an Ethiopian restaurant, I was pumped. The food was amazing and I now have a new love for local Tanzanian beer. I also saw the most adorable little boy, I really wanted to steal him away. After dinner we all pretended to be engineers so we could fix the tv in the lodge to watch the England vs. USA soccer game. After dancing with the antennae we were finally able to get the game. Stewart made a great point. Three days ago I was looking at 3D tvs because they are showing the cup in the US in 3D. Now I’m just trying to get a signal to watch the game. As most of you know we tied which I almost consider a victory for the US. Post game we all passed out once again.

Safari: Today was incredible. We all woke up around 7:30 to a Muslim call to prayer and hoped into a minivan safari vehicle (yes, they exist). Our drive to Tarangire Park was about two hours. It was an extremely bumpy/dusty ride but the sightseeing was incredible. We passed many villages, and I don’t think I will ever be able to figure out how woman walk with carrying water on their heads. The park was surreal. We were face to face with elephants, zebras, ostriches, impalas, a lion in a bush, and giraffes. I also experienced a whole new meaning to the concept of “off roading.” After an amazing afternoon, we all hoped back into the vans to make the journey back. The moment we got back Ghana won its first game. We could see the celebration in the streets.

We are currently all pretty tired (and tired of cars), so tonight we are going to eat at our hotel’s restaurant for the first time and watch the World Cup.

En Route to Tanzania

This summer I am extremely fortunate to have quite a unique experience--teaching in Arusha, Tanzania for two months. For those of you who I haven't explained what I'm doing there, I'm basically working with teachers and students in both private and public schools to help them incorporate an educational method called Literacy Through Photography into their classrooms. The basic idea is to use photography as a visual aid for any sort of discipline. To see how cool it is look at: http://cds.aas.duke.edu/ltp/index.html
Also, if you would like to know more, please feel free to contact me about it.

Anywho, I'm currently waiting to board my flight in Richmond, Virginia. I fly to New York, NY to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro. We land around 8:30 pm tomorrow, so it is going to be a full two days of travel. I love to fly international so I'm actually looking forward to it. Our first couple of days are getting situated, and hopefully filled with watching the beginning of the World Cup. I can't wait. I feel so lucky to be able to watch it in Tanzania.

Also, my internet will/might be pretty spotty, BUT I will have my blackberry with me. Therefore please feel free to email me at eam31@duke.edu (I will be able to respond to that very easily). Or you can bbm me, my pin is 31112486. I will not be using text messaging though because it is extremely expensive. My skype name is: erin.malone.smolla (not too hard to remember).

I get back to the United States August 7th (leave Tanzania the 6th, but its another long day of travel).

Will update as much as I can :)
With love,
Erin

Contact Information

Mailing Address in Arusha:
Kundayo Serviced Apartments
Plot No. 208, Block GG-Kimandolu, Ars-Moshi Rd
P.O. Box 1749, Arusha-Tanzania
Phone +255 27 2544340