batiks, maji, and maasai tire sandals!

07/12/07
We didnt work today and spent most of the day in Arusha. We went to town with Makaay which is Untimama's best friend. Untimama is Munka's (the director figure) son.
We went to a local food market and then an internet cafe to touch base with the real world. After that we all went to a restaurant called Bamboo.

Arusha, Tanzania

After that we rushed to the Rwanda thing and watched International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda. It was intense. The people that were responsible for the genocide in Rwanda were being tried and prosecuted. It was an amazing experience and I am very gracious for the opportunity. After that we went to the Maasai market again and I finished all of my shopping for friends, family, and myself :)
We baptized Bruno (Bob's son) and his new American/Canadian name is “Andy”.
Nakupenda = I Love you.  
07/13/07 
We worked on the school for half the day today...

George inside the school walls.

Admiring our work.

After working on the school we went back to the house to meet with Master Batikers. A Batik is a cloth with a pattern or picture on it made by using a manual wax resistant dying technique. It is rather diffictult - but we gave it our best shot...

Batiks made by the masters

Attempting to wax up my Batik.

2 Master Batikers.

07/15/07
Yesterday we went to Ngiresi (a small village about 25min drive from Moshono). We stayed at Loti’s Farm. He was a very nice man and had a lot of people who were at his house.

Loti''s Farm

We stayed in tents and it was VERY cold outside. I had 5 layers on my top (no joke). And I still needed a down vest.

The tests we camped in.

Kids we met on the walk to the waterfall.

Navaru Waterfall

After our waterfall hike we did more hiking and went back Loti's. I had the best dinner of my life - I don’t know how to explain it but it was rice and this carrot/veggie thing and I actually liked it. So we went to sleep at about 9pm and I woke up at 3am and then it started pouring outside and I didn’t know Hailey’s shoes were outside so I didn’t get them and they got soaked and I felt super bad. Then we waited for the rain to clear up which it didn’t so we basically sat around. Then right when I was about to fall asleep we went for a wet walk around the village and saw a traditional home. It was awesome. 

Traditional style home

Pot boiling inside the house

Hanging out inside the house with Maakay.

 The entire family stayed in these homes as well as the cattle (if the family had any).  They had makeshift walls that gave the feeling of rooms but it was for the most part a one room house. They did their cooking int here as well and it tended to get very very smokey in there. They had a ventilation system set up so the smoke would go out through the middle of the roof but it didn't work that well.

Baobab Tree in the mists after the rain.

Then after that we went and saw the village Traditional Healer and her name was Mama Chalas. It was amazing!!! There were leaves that you chewed on to make a toothache go away. Then you mixed the bark of two trees and boiled it and then it got rid of STDs and there was stuff that helped with Malaria and just a bunch of other things.

Mama Chalas's house from a far

 

Mama Chalas with her healing herbs.

Beautiful flower on the hike

After that we went and looked at a coffee plantation:

Headed back to the farm and had lunch then waited for Munka to come with the car. The car couldn’t come in the morning because it was too wet and couldn’t make it up the really steep hill that lead to the farm. 
We went back to Arusha for a bit and then back to Moshono. We went and played soccer today. Our favorite players are Dayos, Ben, Schevchanco, Toby, and Fester. They are only our favorites because we know their names. And they pass us mzungos! We call and say "Rafiki yangu!! Rafiki yangu!!" Which means "My friend! My friend!" or "Friend of mine! Friend of mine!" 

The group we play with (I am taking the picture)

Me and Monica getting ready for the big game.

07/16/07
So today we worked on the school but not really because there was pretty much nothing for most of us to do. There are only 1 person jobs to do now. I saw Ronald again...Ronald is the little boy who I bought a new uniform and shoes for. Hailey left for Dar-es-Salaam today. She is going to see the child her and her family has sponsored through World Vision for like...5-8 years now.

Walls are all up

Izzy, Monica, Hailey, and Me!

Maasai beading people came over and it was so much fun. They brought all this stuff and I bought my last gifts for people back home. Then I got some Maasai tire sandals and decorated them! Then I made a necklace that is amazing and Isabel made a bracelet and gave it to me cause it didn’t fit her ankle! It was so fun! 

Hard at work!

07/17/07
We woke up and went to work. Today we had to make A LOT of cement. It was hard. All they said was “MORE MAJI” Maji is Water in Swahili. Michelle, Ella, Kathy AND Monica were all sick today. So after lunch we didn’t go back to work and just relaxed at the house. We napped and read. It was very nice. It started to rain though so we went inside. When it stopped I went back out to just listen to music and sleep and we had our THIRD earthquake!!! It was absolutely CrAzY! It was the worst one yet. The one we 1^st had on Mr. Meuro was part of one that was in Nairobi, Kenya and then the ones today were from Arusha. No on was injured in either. And they were a 5.4 so not bad at all. It just feels really weird! Haha the ground is like…moving! I love it. Haha. 
07/18/07
Today we don’t have to work at all because all there is to do is cement mixing. So walked into to Arusha, which took about a 1-1 ½, walk, then in town we ate lunch after the internet. Munka gave us a ride home. Im tired...safari is tomorrow...very excited about that

working hard - playing hard :)

07/06/07
Today we finished digging the foundation and started to make the cement and poor it on. 

Me and Monica digging the foundation

Mixing the cement - by hand

 While making the cement we had to get buckets of water from the water hole. It was absolutely filthy! There were other children getting water from there when I was. I asked them what they needed it for and they said to make dinner and to wash dishes. The water was brown. Its something that I take fro granted back at home – running clean healthy water. 

After our long hard day of work we had our first session of Swahili lesions.

The weather is nothing like I expected it to be!! It is cold and cloudy. We are all praying for sunshine tomorrow!

07/07/07
We nearly slept through breakfast- Melissa had to wake us up. Our meals are cooked by the “Moms” They are people hired to come to hour house and cook and clean. There are 3 of them and they are very sweet ladies. We are all buying them a gift to show our appreciation.
The children call me Tonia not Toni.  I like it...
Today we went to the school and finished HAND mixing cement, pouring it into the foundation and move very heavy bricks. There are a few local men who are leading the construction and helping us...today he said to me “I love you because you are powerful” hahahahaha I laughed really hard. 
We only worked half a day...a bus picked us up from our house and took us into town (Arusha). We went to the Maasai market and bartered for awesome gifts.  
07/08/07
We woke up early on our only day to sleep in so we could go to the Roman Catholic Church in Barra. Barra is the village across the street. It was amazing! It was all in Swahili. Then we hiked up this huge mountain thing and they told us it was only going to be a “brisk walk” but it was straight up for ½ the way. Kijenge was the name of the mountain. Here is a picture of the group hiking up :

                                               -                                        A view of Mt. Meru

I forgot to mention that we have a security guard outside our house during the night time. His name is Libruce Malala. He is from the Maasai tribe. In order to become a Maasai warrior you have to kill a lion and bring the tale back to show everyone. He hasn’t accomplished that yet. 

Our house

Front porch.

7/10/10

The school is coming along..

Playing with the children makes for great work breaks.

Izzy, Samuel and Me.

Muzungos playing football!

So after work we went back to the house for a little while and then we totally went to the field with our new rafiquies (friends) to play some more hardcore football – Aka soccer. I was actually doing OK today. I stole the ball from this one really good guy. But just once. He totally schooled me all the other times. He was super fast. Deus (Day-oh-s) is our new friend - he is good at soccer and actually passes to us Muzungos (white person). Oh and they totally made Karson kick the penalty goal cause they knew he would suck. And it was so funny.   

Sawa-sawa means “ok – ok” we say it all the time to George and Augustino. George and Augustino are the locals that help us build the school.

(Forgot his name), Augustino, and George.

All of us went outside tonight to hang out with our "watch man". We talked to him and sat by his nice fire that apparently he makes for us every night (but we didn’t know until today). He is totally Maasai!! I brought him some tea and Monica brought him some bread. He’s so nice. He speaks English, Swahili and Maasai. I asked if I could be in the Maasai tribe and he said yes. He “baptized” me and my new name is Nemburis! I love it. So we all made him American/Canadian. His name is now “bob”. It feels like we have been here FORever. NOT in a bad way though. I love it here. I miss my friends and family and…normal life but this is absolutely amazing. Oh, Monica and I totally had to go pee in a random hole today. It was the funniest experience ever! Yea but our Maasai security guard has 4 children and a wife named Elizabeth. His real name is Libruce (Not Bob) I can’t wait until the safari. Kwaheri means good by. Only 2 more full days of work left until the safari!!

07/11/07
The school is coming right along...

Me and Monica working hard!

Primary School is free in Tanzania, but the problem lies in the cost of the school uniform and materials for class (books, paper, pencils, etc). Our leader asked the School Principal for a list of children (1 for every volunteer) that we could financially support and who would otherwise have to discontinue their education for lack of funding. This is Ronald and for only $100 I put him through his next year of primary school :)

Ronald getting measured.

After work we cleaned up and went to a local orphanage. This woman started her own orphanage from NOTHING. She told us about a 2 different dreams that she had and she concluded that God was telling her that she needed to build an orphanage...and it worked out. She has 23 children, all but 2 of them are AIDS orphans.

Mother Crisbina

The orphanage

Orphans playing on the jungle gym

When we got home, Bob had water boiling for us and he also brought his son.

Bruno, Me, Hailey, Bob/Libruce drinking tea.

A New Home in Moshono Village, Tanzania

The first time I was in Africa I traveled with a private school based in Toronto, Canada called Blyth Education. Our mission was build a school room for a small village in Tanzania. After the school was built we went on safari. I kept a journal on my computer and here is some of what I wrote.

07/03/07
My day started at 3 am with my first flight from Ironwood, MI to Milwaukee, WI and then on another flight to Toronto, Canada. I must have looked very lost because Alexander (from the view foundation) spotted me and asked if I was looking for the View Foundation. That is when I started to meet my group. 

Hailey, Me, Karsen, Monica, Ella, Kathy
Melissa, Michelle, Izzy

There are 8 volunteers and 1 leader. The leader of the group is named Melissa. There are 7 girls (including me) and 1 boy. The United Airlines plane took us from Toronto to Washington DC. In Washington we had about a 3 ½ hour lay over. I said my last good byes to my family and friends and packed me cell phone away for the rest of the month. We boarded the Ethiopian Airlines plane at about 7:45pm. The total flight from Washington DC to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is 15hours.
 We stayed overnight in Addis Ababa but left early the next morning for Kilimanjaro International Airport. Not enough time was spent in Ethiopia so I definitely want to go back.

07/04/07
From the Kilimanjaro International Airport we took a bus to our village that we will be staying in (Moshono). On the way I took a lot of pictures of people, houses, and scenery. The ride to Moshono was when it hit me – I am in a third world country now. It was a big culture shock. There were children running around without supervision wearing no shoes. Women walking on the road with baskets on top of their head as full as they could possibly fill them. I saw two women who were carrying bundles of sticks on top of their heads that were bigger than they were! Yet everyone looked so welcoming and cheerful to have us there. A little girl came running down her driveway towards our buss waving both hands yelling “JAMBO!! JAMOBO!” (Jambo means “hello”). When we got to the house we were staying at, we were greeted by teachers of the school, Munka (our chief organizer/Melissa's "go-to guy"), and 10 amazing school children.

Munka took the whole group on a walk around the village. We met tons of adorable little faces just waiting to get their picture taken. The children absolutely LOVE to see their picture after they take it. They get such a kick out of seeing themselves and their raffikies (friends). We saw many children playing soccer at a field right next to where we will be building the school. Before I knew it we had a train of children following us down the road.

07/05/07
Today is the first day we start building the school. We left the house at 8:30am ready for a full day of work. I love how all of the children come to greet us at the end of their driveways when we are walking to the school where we are building. The school is called Moshono Primary School.  We got a tour and I saw Jescar and went into her classroom. Jescar said, “The boys love to do hip-hop”. So Ella and I asked the boys to show us a thing or two. A young boy named Dennis, who you could tell was the leader of the pack, had his friends crowd around him to decide on what song to do for us. One boy broke out into this beat he was making with his hands and a wood stick on a desk. Dennis and his friend Hassani stood up in the front of the room and started rapping!!! They had awesome dance moves. 

When they said that we were going to be building a school...they really meant it. We started from nothing. We have to dig the foundation for our new school and build up from there with cement blocks and everything was done by hand. Talk about hard work. They only supplied us with 4 shovels and only 1 had a handle. Jescar took me to her home. She lives there with only her Aunt who is a schoolteacher. 

 

There was also a little boy named Samuel (pictured below) who attempted to help us on our job site all afternoon.