"knowing how way leads on to way..."

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

"All I wanted to do now was get back to Africa. We had not left it, yet, but when I would wake in the night I would lie, listening, homesick for it already" - Ernest Hemingway

As my departure from Tanzania approaches, I am growing increasingly anxious. For the whole time that I have been here, I have had a strange feeling that I would be back; this was only the beginning of my time and my journey in Africa. While I still believe that to be the case, in the past couple of days I have been afflicted with a kind of paranoia – what if it is the last time I ever come here? What if I never actually make it back?

It seems a bit irrational to feel this way because reason says I should have control over my own destiny and decisions, but… I know how life tends to go… what if something comes up? What if there’s a series of events that delays my return, and suddenly years go by, commitments and responsibilities arise, and suddenly, there I am – a lifetime of dreaming, but delaying, a lifetime without Africa.

These thoughts have begun to haunt me. They even make me tear up if I think too much for too long. I feel such a connection here, to this place, to these people. It doesn’t feel foreign. I know that sounds strange, (of course maybe it’s because I’m with 16 other American college students everyday) but it honestly doesn’t even feel that alien anymore. It just feels like… life. When I first came to Tanzania, I could only see the cracks in every decrepit building, the dirt and sores on every poor child’s face, the strange looks that people gave me in the street. While I still recognize those things, I now see so much more – the purple tint of Mt. Meru at sunset, the sound of children laughing in the market, and I can feel the pulse of a continent with so much heart and soul that I feel my own might burst.

The thought of leaving and never coming back is terrifying – but it sparks an internal fire to take action to make sure that is not the case. I believe that if people really, truly and deeply want something bad enough, they will do what it takes to make it happen.

Confession: I have already been researching my return. I do have four weeks in January without school and post-graduate life offers a plethora of opportunities. I am young, I am able, I have dreams and I have initiative. It’s all the right ingredients in a recipe for return. Let’s just hope that my pictures and memories can hold me over until I get back.

Safari

Sunday, July 20^th

I was pretty much so incredibly stoked to go on the Safari since I first was accepted into the summer program. I was raised on stuff like this – as seemed to be the Lucas Family saying, “we don’t go to theme parks, we go to National parks.” While we did make visits to both Disneyland and Disneyworld, it did seem to be the case that the Lucas Five are at their best when out experiencing Mother Nature, more inclined to enjoy our time at Yellowstone and Fort Fisher than something more superficial. And that appreciation of nature and the environment is something that I have carried with me ever since, particularly here to Africa.

We were picked up by Maasai Wanderings (who also does Safaris), hopped into large 4runners, and made our way up to northern Tanzania – home to the Serengeti, Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater, the latter two areas which we would be exploring over the next two days.

I can’t explain what it’s like to take that first glimpse of the crater – we had made our way up the winding mountain slopes and we pulled over for that first photo-op. It’s incredible. The crater lays vast, wide below you, just teeming with life. It was epic.

The crater

We soon made our descent down into the crater to begin our great adventure. We pulled over and popped the top of the car, which lifts about 3 feet in the air so that you can stand up and watch from inside. The crater was swarming with zebras and wildebeests, everywhere you looked. As we went in further, we saw warthogs, hyenas, impalas, antelope and flamingos scattered like hot pink dots all across the lake. But we all had our eyes peeled for the cats – lions, cheetahs, and the ever-elusive leopards are the cats that occupy the crater. They’re definitely the hardest to see, which makes them the hottest commodity. It wasn’t until after lunchtime in the later part of the afternoon that we finally saw the lions. There, laying out in the sun, was a male and at least five females, all having their afternoon catnap. We were sooo close! Sleeping, they weren’t so intimidating – they look just like my house cats napping after a meal. It was actually really cute. We also saw hippos, later on, filling an entire pond. It turns out that hippos kill more people on Safari than any other kind of animal. In fact, one of the guys in our car, my friend Dan from Uganda, was on a Safari once and saw a bloodied victim of a hippo attack – he said the man died 3 days later. As long as you’re smart and just stay in the car, you’re fine. So I never felt endangered. Well… not on Friday.

Lions napping

On Saturday, however, we were taken into Lake Manyara National Park. While not as grandly majestic as Ngorongoro, it was just as full of life – less grasslands, more forest. While there were many of the same animals there as in the crater, such as hippos, antelope and zebras, there were also many more. We saw so many elephants, giraffes, mongooses and diga-digis (I don’t know how to spell that… they were like miniature deer – like the size of small dogs!) The giraffes were just the most beautiful creatures I have ever seen. I don’t know what it is about them, but I was so excited every time I saw one. It’s funny because you’re always so excited the first time, but as the day goes on, it’s like, “zebras smebras” as our car liked to say :) But giraffes were the one animal that got me so excited every time.

A huge herd of wildebeests - we watched as they crossed the road

The only time I felt remotely frightened was our close encounter with the elephants. Our guide, Nelson, had told us earlier in the day that elephants are one of the most dangerous creatures on Safari – he has seen four cars attacked and demolished by elephants – there are no survivors because they crush the vehicles. I mean, it’s not hard to understand – they’re HUGE animals. So while most of the day, we viewed them relatively close, late in the afternoon we came across a family that was right next to the road, including a mother being very protective of her very small baby (always a bad sign). We stopped to observe them and they just kept coming closer… and closer… and closer… until they were right next to our car. Nelson told us to be silent. We were hardly breathing. My friend Kim moved her arm slightly away from the window as the elephant trunk had almost brushed it at that point. From her slight movement, the mother started to back-up in a way that looked like she was about the charge. We were all paralyzed, scared of what was going to happen next, with two of my peers in the car going “let’s go Nelson, please, let’s go.” And as we thought we were going to die from holding our breaths in the fear, Nelson started the car and we left.

Luckily, the mother wasn’t intending to charge – she was just backing up cautiously. But we didn’t know at the time – and when that large of an animal is directly in front of you, only three feet away – you know you better watch out. But it’s one of those experiences I’ll never forget, it’s just something you can’t replace… the adrenaline, the thrill of it – just incredible.

The Elephants - look at the baby!

The Safari was a great adventure – I think everyone should do it at least once in their lifetime. Africa is so full of life, with so many exotic creatures and breath-taking views. I have never been anywhere as beautiful or as intriguing, and I doubt I ever will be again. And to think, this is just a small corner of a vast continent. I wish I could see it all. Perhaps I will try, someday.

Choice - it matters.

Tuesday, July 15th




You know what I really like, as a woman? The right to choose.

In America, we associate that solely with abortion politics, but I think we’ve forgotten – yes, particularly us women – that the right to choose encompasses so much more. And we often seem to take it for granted.

I like that I get to choose my husband. I like that I get to choose how many children I will have. I like that I get to choose to have a career. Hell, I’m glad that I get to have one, at all. Same thing for going to college, even secondary school (high school). More than my right to choose where I’m going to go to college, I like that I get to go. I like that I get to choose to wear pants instead of only skirts, what day to go to the market, to speak in public if so compelled and yes, I also like that I get to choose to not have my genitalia mutilated.

Of course, being subjected to female circumcision, arranged marriages and not being able to attend high school are severe examples – but this is the reality for so many women in the world today. These are specific examples of things that many Maasai women cannot do, from my observations and interactions with the culture here in Tanzania. On Monday, we took a tour with an organization called Terrawatu, which promotes and preserves the rights and lives of indigenous people, in this case the Maasai, and which does some very positive community building. Terrawatu has three programs – a secondary school, which they provide funding and support, a traditional Maasai medicine clinic in Arusha, and lastly, they sponsor a Maasai women’s group by teaching them how to plant the traditional medicine trees and plants, harvest them, and sell them in the market to increase their economic capacity.

Our day began as we gathered at the Terrawatu office. While the founder is an American woman, she is currently back in the States – the National Director, however, is a Maasai man named Sululu. From our first moments in the office, Sululu just didn’t sit well with me – there was just something about him that I didn’t like. There was a moment where his cell phone rang in the middle of his introduction to our group, to which he responded by pulling it out, staring at it, then shoving it onto one of the women program coordinator’s who was sitting by him, ordering something at her in Swahili, then returning to speak to our group. It sounds like a minor detail, but my eyes narrowed. There was something in that small moment of how he treated that woman that spoke volumes to me, but I didn’t know the half of it – yet.

So first of all, we’re taken to the school and get to have a Q & A with some of the staff and faculty. During which time, Sululu felt it completely acceptable to interrupt some of the female teachers while they were talking – as if it was nothing. Then, he took us to the Maasai medicine clinic and told us about the traditional remedies. Afterwards, we headed out to the village to meet with the women’s group, learn about their tree-planting program and have lunch. Our lunch consisted of the traditional Maasai preparation of roasted goat. They killed two goats and roasted them on sticks for us – however, in Maasai tradition, only the men get to carve up the goat and they get to eat it first – the women and children only get the leftovers. They did let us western women eat the goat with them, but later on we saw the Maasai children eating up the bits of our leftovers in the trash area – and that was just something hard to see.

After lunch and then the explanation of tree-planting program, we divided up into two groups – men and women. The men of our group went with Sululu and the other Maasai men behind a boma and the women of our group gathered with the Maasai women in our own circle. We were told it would be a chance for us to ask questions and exchange in conversation. However, the Maasai women seemed rather reluctant to gather with us – some of them even brought over their bead-work. Perhaps it was because they have done this so many times before, or perhaps because in their culture, the women aren’t really supposed to make the big speeches or presentations – or maybe both. Angel, one of the women program coordinators, translated for us. We asked questions that we really wanted to know the answers to – such as “Do you think it’s fair that your husband gets to have multiple wives and that you have to share your husband?” To which they answered “No, it’s not fair – but it’s just the way that it is and there’s nothing we can do about it.” We asked what kind of lives did they want for their children, different or the same? To which they responded that they wanted different lives – they wanted their children to have better educations, more opportunities, and “the ability to run their own lives.” We asked if the wives all got along, or what were their interactions like. To which they responded that when their husband is not around, they all get along and share everything – but as soon as he gets home, it’s back into their separate bomas, and it becomes almost like a competition for his attention and affection. Lastly, we asked them if they had ever tried to change the way things are, and they just said “no we haven’t tried – because we know we can’t.”

Needless to say, I was rather depressed after the conversation, as well as many of the other women in my group. It’s hard to hear these women say these things about their lives – to feel like they just can’t do anything about it – to feel like they have no choice.

Adding to the disheartening reality of our exchange, we quizzed down the guys to hear about what they talked about. Most of them just did not want to talk about it – it was almost kind of strange. Finally, through a combination of on the bus ride home and when we discussed it in class the next day, we finally got it out of them – Sululu had dominated their conversation and had some extremely ridiculous, and offensive, things to say. Turns out, Sululu is quite the sexist, and, dare I say it? Misogynist. In summary, their conversation (or should I say, Sululu’s speech) was “how to dominate women and why.” It included the dangers of women being “too educated” and his own personal theory of homosexual men being a result of women having too much power in western culture. Sululu proudly told the men his story of being married to two western women – a Dutch and Italian woman – at the same time. And when in Italy at a restaurant, his Italian wife apparently got red wine in his eye, after which he hit her in the middle of the restaurant. He was arrested, and when he went before the judge his excuse was “I’m a Maasai, it’s what we do in my culture, I’m allowed to do that there.” To which the judge said, “yeah, but you’re in Italy. And now, you’re deported.” Thankfully (for their sakes) his wives divorced him – and now he’s back in Tanzania, running a non-profit, which sponsors a women’s group.

Yeah.

I just can’t even tell you how upset I was after my trip to the village and after hearing about what this man was so proudly telling all the men of the group. I know that these attitudes toward women still exist, but for the love of god, why, WHY is this man running this non-profit? I feel like it utterly and completely undermines the objectives and mission – I feel compelled to write a letter to the founder to let her know exactly what we experienced – because something tells me, she doesn’t quite know what’s going on back here in Tanzania.

Besides the unfortunate run-in with the misogynist (whose daughter is in law school, by the way – I guess educating women is okay when 1. you get to brag about her and 2. when you’re not paying the tuition bill), the day was still pretty disheartening. These women… stuck in these lives… I just can’t imagine. I appreciate so much the little things – like getting to wear pants – and I never want to take these things for granted, ever again. If people want to preserve their culture and their way of life, fine. I don’t want to stand in the way of that. But… women deserve to have a CHOICE to live their lives the way they wish – and if that results in something other than the cultural norms, well… maybe that says something about the culture. Not to be insensitive, not to be offensive, but… women deserve to choose. That’s all. But, that’s everything.

Chasing Waterfalls

Monday, July 14th



Friday was a nice day off and I took the time to do some errands and rest up, but Saturday and Sunday were all adventure.

On Saturday, we had a recreational activity sponsored by the program to visit Lake Diluti and then the Mt. Meru Game Lodge. We took an hour-long nature walk around the lake, during which we saw a giant lizard (I can't remember what it's called - but it looked like a Komodo Dragon - obviously MUCH smaller though). We also learned that it was a crater lake, which then became obvious as we looked around and noticed that the lake itself was in a gorge. We had lunch by the water and some of the group took out an old row boat for a tour on the water. After that, we went to the game lodge. Basically, the lodge puts out a ton of food in a nature reserve, which the lodge looks over. Then you sit there, have some coffee or tea, and watch all the animals as they graze. We saw lots of zebra, water bucks, ostriches, peacocks, monkeys and some other kind of storks. It was so nice to just be sitting there and taking it all in - it's funny though how you just become used to it so fast. When we first got there, we were snapping pictures like mad, but then after an hour or so, the animals are just... there. However, it doesn't make me any less excited for our Safari in the Ngorongoro Crater this Friday and Saturday!!!

On Sunday, 11 of the 19 group members signed up for a Waterfall hike. While I had certainly struggled on the hike when we went camping last weekend, this waterfall hike seemed too promising of an opportunity to pass it up. So we left around 9am, taking a dalla-dalla to the base of Mt. Meru. Then we hiked up a huge hill and into the village. We went to the guide's mother's home and had coffee and tea. One of the guys in our group noticed the goat and cow outside and asked if they were beneficiaries of Heifer International, to which we tried to stop his question thinking it was rude. But it turns out that he was spot on as, yes - they were. They had received their calf more recently, but that was where it came from. Asking more details, our guide only spoke positively of the organization, which just goes to prove even more the good work that they do.

After our tea break, we set out to go to the waterfall. We hiked to the top of the gorge, where we had to sit and wait for a bit. The Tanzanian army uses the waterfall and river area as their water source, therefore our guide had to go and give them a permission slip. He had to hike all the way down the gorge and up the other hill, and then it turned out that we had to sign to slip, so he had to come all the way back to us and then do it again. The man has endurance.

Once we had the full permission, we made our descent into the gorge. Let me tell you - it had rained the night before, making it the steepest, muddiest path. There was lots of slipping and falling, and of course lots of laughing - even trying to catch each other on video as we fell. As we finally got to the river, it was all so worth it. It was beautiful! But it certainly wasn't over yet. We then had to climb upstream, both along and through the river to reach the waterfall. Of course, my foot got stuck in quicksand, and of course, I made quite the scene. Refusing to abandon my 18,000 shilling (about $15) teva-rip off sandals I had bought in the market the day before, I dug my foot out - but broke my cheap shoe in the process. Well, that's what you get.


Hiking through the water itself was my favorite part - there were little waterfalls, ranging from around 3 feet tall to at least twenty feet - all along the way. But nothing could have compared to our final destination - after almost 4 hours of hiking, we reached THE waterfall. It. was. huge. It's so difficult to estimate - you'll just have to look at the pictures. But venturing a guess, I'd say enormous, several stories high at least. Despite the water being freezing cold, of course the guys jumped in (but couldn't stay in it long). Others climbed up the rocks to stand right under the falls. It was just one of those things you'll never forget - mother nature at its finest.









After taking it all in, we continued back downstream, and then back out of the gorge (which nearly killed me, but I survived!) We headed back to the house for a very late lunch around 3:30pm, but of the most delicious homemade food - vegetable curry, ugali, rice, spinach, and fresh cut cucumbers and bananas. We then made our way down the hill and were back by 5:00pm or so. It was by far the most fun day yet - exhausting, but incredible.



This week, we'll be visiting another field site with an organization called Terrawatu, and then we'll start working on our final projects. We have to choose one of the organizations we have visited and create a capacity building project for them. We'll spend most of the rest of our time here conducting research, putting the project together and then presenting it. I can't believe how fast time is going! Tanzania has grown on me in ways that I can't even explain - it doesn't even feel "foreign" here at all anymore... it just feels like... the way it's supposed to be. I'm sure those who have also studied abroad know that feeling as well. It'll be hard to leave when it's time to go, and I've only been here 3 weeks so far!

Hope you all are doing well, whatever your own summer adventures are :)

Heifers and Human Rights

I'm a little behind on my blog, so here comes a flurry of posts.

Friday, July 11^th

Our Monday kicked off with a visit from US Ambassador Mark Green. He spoke to our class about his experiences (he was a school teacher in a Kenyan village twenty years ago and then was eventually a US Congressman for eight years from the state of Wisconsin) and about the work that he has done over the last 10 months in his tenure as the Ambassador to Tanzania. He talked about the policy that Condoleeza Rice has implemented, called “diplomacy by deeds” which is an emphasis on not talking so much about taking action, but just going around and doing good things for the country and “letting people draw their own conclusions.” I was absolutely fascinated by how he worded things, how he would speak about certain things. He would have his moments where it was completely obvious that he was a mouthpiece for the Bush administration (considering his position is a Presidential appointment, I mean, it’s what you’d expect) but he’d also have his moments where he would almost separate himself and say, “well, speaking personally…” This kind of political behavior is just so darn intriguing. Particularly interesting was how he spoke about the current Tanzanian President Kikwete, who President Bush visited for three nights earlier this year, and President Kikwete was actually in America this past week. He spoke extremely highly about him and all of his “cooperation” with America – yet I have heard an entirely different story from Tanzanian residents, including university students and journalists. Oh, it’s that’s politics in a nutshell, and I just LOVE to observe it. But in all seriousness, it was really a privilege to be speaking with the US Ambassador and it’s something that I’ll never forget.

We also had several other speakers this week, with a couple of people from the East African Community (EAC), the supranational regional organization (it’s similar to the European Union, but for Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and recently added Rwanda and Burundi). They are really getting off the ground and starting to do some great things, as they were reformed in 1996, so it was interesting to hear them talk about regional integration and cooperation. However, the other most interesting speaker of the week besides Ambassador Green was the newly elected Chair of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission (HRC). The HRC is an independent institution that was created by the government to protect and promote human rights in Kenya. Since the US doesn’t have their own HRC, her position would be the equivalent to like a US Court of Appeals judge. She was fantastic, speaking to the recent election violence and what Kenya is doing to try to prevent this in the future, although sadly, they don’t seem too optimistic that these politically motivated ethnic clashes will end for the next election. But their HRC does a lot of good work, is well respected, and I have great faith in her term.

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Starting on Wednesday, we got to get out of the classroom and go out into the field! We have two days of back-to-back field trips to visit farms which had been helped by Heifer International. A lot of you are probably familiar with Heifer (the Chapman Honors program holds a bake sale to raise funds for them on campus each year), but those of you who aren’t, Heifer International is an NGO which is dedicated to sustainable capacity building in underprivileged communities around the world – a.k.a. they don’t give aid in the form of money, but in the form of livestock, including cows, goats, chickens, pigs, beehives. It’s to kind of jump start those that need some help by giving them something that can reproduce and that they can use for so many purposes. And they don’t just give anyone a cow, but there’s an application process, and afterwards they provide training and support to the farmer to sustain the growth and prosperity. And – to make the good spread as far as possible - they are obligated by contract to give away the first female calf to their neighbor, to spread the “sharing and caring.”

So, Heifer Tanzania took us out to an incredible farm owned by an amazing couple. Back in 1997, this family had been given one goat. After the goat had two kids, they gave one to their neighbor and then sold the other one to buy a calf. And that’s how they got their start. Now on this one and a half acre farm, they have several cows, goats, chickens, pigs and even a fish farm. They also have a lot of agriculture, growing all of the animals’ food and much of their own. This couple is so enterprising that they even got a water tank donated to them, so now their house water for the whole year comes from the rainwater caught in this tank and they don’t have to go down to the river with buckets everyday. The most incredible part about all of this? To listen to the great impact it has had on the quality of their lives in so many more ways than just putting food on the table – they earn enough to send their children to boarding school, which are some of the best in Tanzania, so that they can receive a great education. It’s also helped their marriage in more ways than one. Beforehand, the husband was working far away and in the highly dangerous field of mining. But now, he gets to be home in a much safer environment and with his family. Also, Heifer International makes sure the contract is signed by both the husband and the wife – something that’s not as common as it should be in Tanzania – so it makes them equal partners. During the presentation around their farm, the couple split up their time explaining their farming methods and developments. It may seem small, but the fact that a woman was allowed to lead the conversation when her husband is present is another small triumph of Heifer.

It just goes to show you that sometimes, people just need a little boost and that they can really do great things with just a little help. Obviously, not every story is this much of a success story, something that our group was very keen about discussing. So while not every single Heifer recipient may create a “super-farm” of sorts, it’s clear that these people who receive the cows and goats are benefitting from having at the very least more milk, meat and muscle (3 of the 8 beneficial M’s that our Heifer guide quizzed us on) that greatly improves the quality of life. It puts the responsibility in the hands of the community and empowers them to develop independently – just from receiving the initial gift. That’s what I liked the most about Heifer International, as one of the other students in my group pointed out – their philosophy is rooted in optimism and faith in fellow man, that they are not only competent, but very giving. It is nice to see an organization be successful in responsibly subscribing to that way of thought. I think we all could benefit from a little more of that in our lives.

Lions and Scorpions and Giraffes?- oh my, what have I gotten myself into...

Monday, July 7^th

Well, we had quite the weekend! We went camping about an hour and a half away, out in the savanna by a few Maasai bomas. By the time we got to our campsite, it was completely dark outside – so it was pretty scary to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere in a strange place and have no idea what was around you. However, we had a really great group of guides who had already set up all of our tents and had built a campfire. While they were cooking our dinner over the fire, they took us to the boma right next to our site to view a Maasai wedding celebration. As we went over there, one of the guys in our group had to translate from Swahili for us – he introduced us to a 33 year-old man as the groom, and then warned us that the bride was very young – 16 years old. Well, as surprising as that was, we were way more shocked when we actually met the bride. There was no way this girl was 16 – she looked much, much younger. We were all very polite, obviously, as we watched them dance and do their traditional songs and chants, but it was fairly disturbing from my western viewpoint to see such a young girl being married off to this older man. As we went back to the camp, I kept contending that there was no way that girl was 16, which one of our guides overheard. He explained that they referred to her as being 16 for some reason having to do with the education system (which I can’t quite remember) but that she was more likely 14 years old, perhaps even 13. Whoa. I know that they marry very young in some cultures, but 14? And a very undeveloped 14, mind you.

It’s hard to comprehend such a thing. It’s a difficult situation because you want to be respectful and sensitive to other cultures and their traditions, but it’s hard when something like that just seems so wrong. It’s something we’ve talked about a lot in our coursework – how these documents, such as the UN Declaration on Human Rights, make grand statements about protecting people, but it’s a whole other ballgame when it comes to actually implementing it. The Tanzanian government has a lot of laws in place to protect women and children, including minimum ages to marry and laws against female circumcision (or what is better known as female genital mutilation, something that the Maasai participate in as well), but the laws are not consistently implemented (what seems to be a trend here in Tanzania).

Anyways, we had a great time celebrating the 4^th, including roasting s’mores (made with some substitutions – nutella instead of Hershey bars, for example) and each taking turns singing our national anthems, with Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Korea, then ending with America. It was a lot of fun that night, but I was pretty paranoid. Anyone who knows me well (especially my family and friends in NC) will know that I am scared of the dark – and even more afraid of wild animals in the dark. (Mom, remember when I started screaming in the front yard one night because I thought I heard a Mountain Lion growl? Yeah, I’m that girl.) Well, all of the sudden, once I got to the site, it occurred to me… oh wait. I’m in the middle of AFRICA in the DARK. The moment I freaked out the most was when one of the guard dogs from the Maasai boma next door had come over to our fire – she was a really good dog, keeping watch for us. Well, she started barking and growling like crazy, toward the dark hills behind us, and then we heard the sound of a goat yelp in pain. Well, that about did me in – I thought for sure the lions had come and I was next, right after the goat. But the guides were good about assuring us that no, there were no lions here. Maybe some scorpions, (like when they made me stand up when I sitting by the fire because they thought there was one near my leg!) but no lions.

The next day we went on a hike up a huge hill, well, more like a miniature mountain, and as we were walking through the woods, one of the girls in our group spotted a wild giraffe! I can’t even tell you how amazing that was to see… I think giraffes may be the most beautiful animals I have ever seen. It was just eating leaves, out there in the savanna. It was incredible. Other highlights from the weekend included when one of the guys in our group bought one of their goats for dinner. The Maasai men slaughtered it and helped us cook it. While it was a great cultural experience, I’m not gonna lie – I had no participation. I couldn’t even stomach to go over there and watch the process, or try the goat meat. It’s just too much for me.

Probably one of my most favorite parts of the camping trip was being out in the savanna at night and being able to see the stars. It’s so strange to look up and not recognize half of the night sky. Since we’re so close to the equator (like 2 hours away by car) we literally are seeing half of each hemisphere. How mind-blowing is that? As the sun set and the stars began to glitter, I could see the Big Dipper laying very low on the northern horizon and then what I think was the Southern Cross laying low on the southern horizon. I wish I had studied up on some southern hemisphere constellations before I left – it’s crazy to think I’m looking at a part of the universe I have literally never even seen before. And since the savanna is so wide open, you could literally see the entire sky and we all commented how for the first time, you could see the sky as a huge dome, feeling the roundness of the whole earth. It is something I will certainly never forget.

We’ve got a lot of things this week, including a visit from the US Ambassador to Tanzania, the Chair of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, and also field trips out to Heifer International field sites! Hope you all are doing well.

The savanna at sunset. Our tents were behind me and you can see the outline of the Maasai boma in the middle of the picture.


The wild giraffe!!!

Happy Birthday Merikani!

Alright, enough of my ideological rants... two in a row is probably too much. I can get carried away sometimes :) So here are some less politically-fueled updates.

This week, we finished up our speakers from the ICTR. We spoke with representatives from each of the three organs of the tribunal - the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), the Chambers (the Judges) and the Registry (which handles all of the logistical concerns, like the detainment facility, legal aid office, etc.) The best speaker of the week and easily the overall group favorite was one of the Senior Trial attorneys from the OTP, an amazing woman who was not only incredibly sharp and knowledgeable, but a really enjoyable speaker.

We also had a lot of fun last night - one of the guys in our group, Dan, who is from Uganda, turned 22 yesterday. So we wanted him to experience his birthday in classic American style. There's this super-mart called Shop Rite which is like a mixture of a grocery store and a Target, a.k.a. a western tourist haven. Thanks to Shop Rite, we were able to buy some cheesy children's birthday hats (of course, decorated with race car pictures) and a Happy Birthday sign. The restaurant which the program has arranged for us to eat at every night puts all 19 of us in our own dining room - so we hung up the sign, donned the hats, and had a nice little birthday party - we even ordered a cake, turned off the lights and made him make a wish before he blew out the candles. After dinner, we made our way to Via Via, a cafe that turns into a club at night. Yep, classic American-style birthday celebration. We have 3 more birthdays over the next 3 weeks, so I guess we're just going to have to celebrate a LOT.


Speaking of birthdays... Happy birthday America!!! We have this Friday afternoon free and all of Saturday and Sunday, so a group member arranged a 2 night camp out in a Maasai Village. We're going to rent tents, set up a bonfire, and roast s'mores out in the savanna, celebrating America's Independence Day the very best we can. It's a "Maasai 4th of July", if you will... okay, bad joke :)

I've been able to post a lot lately because we've been going to the Center everyday this week, and I'm able to hook up my laptop to an ethernet connection during our breaks. I'm still having a hard time loading pictures, so I'm really behind, so here's some more pics to catch you up.



Brian, our friend from Miracle Corners, with Kim, Dave and Mary, at the Nijiro Shopping Center, the most modern and western friendly place in all of Arusha - a.k.a. we kind of try to avoid it now :)




The view of downtown Arusha from the balcony outside of our room... it actually looks quite nice at dusk.




We couldn't resist this photo-op... Brian is a natural poser, clearly.




Dan blowing out the candles at his American Birthday Celebration