magda's travels

After a year at home in San Diego I picked up and moved to Tanzania, so I thought I would dust off the old blog again so I could keep people up-dated on my life. But as always its content is not a reflection of the U.S. government, Peace Corps or anything else.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Pomp and Circumstance

There has been a great deal of official events/shenanigens around here lately. Friday was the graduation of 7th form (the last free year of school). The graduation was on our campus so all the school kids came to the Rec Hall ate a ton of food, sang and danced. But not me, I worked. I did cut up like 20 pineapples to help prep.

For me the big deal of the weekend (and why I worked the whole thing) was the first monthly training meeting for my Microfinance clients. It was the big transition meeting, and since we have 250 clients it is held once on Saturday and once on Sunday. I gave a speech to introduce myself, in swahili. Now before you all get overly excited NO I don't know swahili that well yet. I mean C'MON I have been like 2 weeks. But I did write a fairly simple speech in English and then have one of our assistants translate it and spend a whole day fretting over the pronunciation.
Saturday it was ok, I powered through it. But Sunday the crowd was FEELIN' IT. I mean there were several applause breaks. Andy compared it to watching the state of the union, I told him, yeah maybe if every time Obama was interrupted he giggled.

And for the grand finally, the Uhuru Freedom Torch of Tanzania came to campus today - Amazing the amount of grandeur that comes with that thing: 20 land rovers, a marching band, a dance troop, armed guards, district officials and lord knows who the rest were.
I do have to say it was a great ceremony, short, organized, nonviolent, and very musical. At the end of which they lined up the staff and we touched the torch, which I was told by the official makes me now Tanzanian.
Pretty amazing stuff for just two weeks in!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Getting off the beaten path

Hey everyone,

So today I took Andy's assistant out into "town" to try to find some clients that are behind in their payments. I say town but it's not like the size, shape or structure of any American town or village the best comparisons I can make are all PC comparisons. So for those of you that are familiar with AZ imagine any regions most remote villages and then cover it with extra red dust/dirt. So to get to these villages most people drive massive trucks, like construction trucks or a Safari Landrover, I drive a Rav-4. I live at the top of a hill surrounded by coffee plantation and squatter slums on the other hill over is the small village of Oldeani. So as you can imagine it's just steep washed (eroded) dirt "roads" straight up and down.

So I was nervous to drive it, but it was really fun. And you should have seen these old Tanzanian Mamas' faces when this white chick drove by, giggling the whole way.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

pics from this weekend




This weekend Andy, Andrew, Whitney and I went camping with the Hazabe tribe. It was insane. I have never been hunting before, but when given the chance to go with a group that still using poison arrows I had to take it.

I saw Black faced vervet monkeys, dik diks and a mongoose.
We learned to start fire with sticks and Whitney and I got engaged to a chief

Monday, September 21, 2009

Work all day play all night



So from the moment I have arrived in Karatu I feel like I have been the energizer freaking bunny.

Just in order to make the best use of the time that Andy and I are overlapping we are working some long hours "in the office." Which includes site visits to clients, meetings with cooperative savings groups, and just going in and out of the small villages we work with so we can give out the loans or pick up payments. We work from 8-6:30 most days and come home have dinner, a shower if we are lucky and there is still hot water. Dinner is with all the volunteers and western staff. After that we hang out, either with all the volunteers or with just Andrew and Whitney. I usually get to my bed by 11 or 12am and then am up at 6:30 to start it all again.

It's been great; everyday I say I am going to go to bed early or not have Konyagi but every night somehow the energy is back.

First Week Round Up


Hello everyone,

I know it is strange to start up again after so long but I think, with the limited access to internet time I have when I am not working, this is just the most efficient means of communicating.

So I have been in Tanzania for 8 days now and it's just crazy how much information I am trying to process-- but it's all good stuff.

Let me start at the beginning. The trip in, well as you may expect, traveling to the other side of the world, in long. I flew from San Diego to Detroit to Amsterdam to Nairobi, stayed over night in a nice hotel and then took a bus for 7 hours from Nairobi to Arusha (I don't recommend the bus).
Despite the heat, dustiness, and complete fullness of the bus for 7 hours -- I actually had a good time. Thanks to the practice on all the Marshrutkas in good ole AZ it was comparatively comfortable and there were a handful of other tourists with who I made quick friends. One of them is supposed to email and check up on me in my small town in three weeks to see if I am ok and if I have been married off yet. Ironically, there is an engagement to report-- but more on that later. So when I arrived in Arusha I was supposed to meet a speed-taxi that had been pre-hired for me. I was not able to find the driver in the swarm of taxis that met the bus.

I should say this about the swarm of taxi drivers in Arusha and also that were mixed in with the drivers for hotels at the airport-- they were unlike the taxi drivers in AZ. I mean they would ask if I needed a taxi and I could say no once and they stopped asking, or I would say no I have another ride and they wouldn't try to harass me into taking their ride. Also the music they were playing was more my taste and preferred volume level.

So, back to the trip, like I mentioned I didn't immediately find my driver so I told another driver that if I couldn't find my driver I would use him. After about 10 minutes I told him it was ok I would use him but I would need to use his phone to call my friend. I called Andy ( the guy I am replacing). Andy was able to explain to the driver that he did hire another driver and he told me that they were there and their lisc number. I told him if he called the driver they could look for me, that I am tall and was wearing purple-- this got misunderstood on the phone and Andy heard that I was tall and purple. He told me that when were hanging out days later and I laughed and said what did you think I was Grimace, which is apparently exactly what he thought and had told Andrew and Whitney.

After I arrived in Karatu (about 3 hours from Arusha) and Andy, Andrew and Whitney and I finally met each other we went to a hotel to meet some other volunteers. We got some cold drinks before dinner I ordered a gin and tonic (Whitney told me later that this is when they I knew I was going to be ok).

Whitney is my current roommate and runs the preschool here
Andy - like I said is the guy I am replacing and leaves 9/30/09
Andrew runs the sports program here and will be my housemate once Andy leaves
I hang out with these three more often than not.