During the Saturday afternoon I was in Arusha, about two dozen neighborhood kids came to TACODA for a community art project that I had to facilitate. Deo was out for most of the day picking up some of the center's younger boys from their boarding school for their spring vacation. The local children arrived before he got back so unfortunately there was no one to help me translate the instructions. Luckily there were two men who came to TACODA with the kids so they could at least provide some assistance helping the kids to cut and glue. For the project, the kids made masks by cutting eye, nose and mouth holes out of paper plates and then adding
feathers, pom poms and pipe cleaners as decoration. When they were done, we punched two holes and tied a
loop of string so that they could wear them. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves, but once they were done there was quite a mess of feathers, pom poms and pipe cleaner pieces all over the tables and floors.
On Sunday, Deo had offered to bring me to the base of Mount Kilimanjaro about 80 kilometers from Arusha. He doesn't have a car so we had to go there by public transportation. Deo was already running a bit late, but then I realized I had locked my camera in the office the day before and since he didn't have the key with him, he had to go all the way back home to get it. Nearly an hour later, he arrived and we set off by matatu for downtown Arusha. From there we caught a bus to the town of Moshi where we had to get another matatu to Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park. On the bus to Moshi, Deo got a call from his friend regarding a safari trip to Ngorongoro Crater that he was trying to set up for me. His friend said there was a group leaving that night for Karatu and heading to the crater early Monday morning. It was already after 1:00pm so by the time we got back from Kilimanjaro I would have to had to take a private car to get to Karatu. I weighed my options and decided it wasn't worth it to pay the sizable extra expense. I ended up regretting my decision, but by the time I realized that it was too late to do anything about it.
Once we got out of the matatu, we had to hire a taxi to actually bring us up to the base of the mountain. Just like with Mount Everest, you can't actually see the mountain from the base camp. You can theoretically see it on the drive up, but it was so cloudy and overcast that day, that the summit was barely visible. I got one decent shot of it on the way back down, but otherwise it was shrouded in mist. When we got to the park, we walked around for a few minutes, took some photos of the trailhead signs and then headed back to the cab. It was getting to be late afternoon by this time, but since I had decided not to go on the Ngorongoro tour, we opted instead to stop by a waterfall before going back to Arusha. We had to walk down a steep trail and then cross a stream to reach the bottom of the falls, but getting to see something besides the clouded-over mountain somewhat helped to justify the three-hour trip each way from Arusha.
After the cab driver dropped us off, we took another matatu back to Moshi where we boarded a bus headed for Arusha. About two-thirds of the way through the trip we started to encounter large groups of people out in the streets shouting and celebrating. It was nearly 7:00pm by this point so it was already dark. In some spots, the driver had to go very slowly to avoid the crowds surrounding the bus and banging on the sides. In spite of this, I didn't start to get nervous, until a car suddenly raced up from the other direction, sending people running and scattering. Next thing I know I heard a few pops and all of a sudden the man next to me in the window seat was shutting the window and frantically rubbing his eyes. Deo was hit next and started grabbing his eyes as well. I shut mine, but mistakenly started breathing through my mouth and was hit with a mouth-full of tear gas. Once we had gotten through the worst of it, Deo grabbed my bottle of water and started dowsing his eyes to clear them. I meanwhile took my sweatshirt and put it over my face to make it easier to breathe. Even so, I couldn't stop coughing thanks to the initial dose of poison.
Once things had calmed down a bit, Deo explained to me that a special election had taken place that day to replace a local MP who had died. The ruling party wanted the seat to go to the MP's son, but the opposition cried nepotism and in the end the opposition candidate won. The people were out in the streets celebrating the victory, but the police (or government forces) felt threatened so they wanted to break the crowds up. Deo claimed the next day that a few people had died in the violence, but I had no way to confirm this. All I know is that for the rest of the bus ride to Arusha I was sitting on the edge of my seat fearing we would come across more large crowds. I was really worried about what would happen once we got to the center of town since it was already dark and the bus station was always crowded and chaotic anyways. Luckily, Deo had called ahead and arranged for a cab to meet us on the main road, which brought me right back to John's house. Once there, I gratefully headed through the gate, locked myself inside the house and ate dinner in peace and quiet. In retrospect, I would not have wanted to get back into a car that night to drive all the way to Karatu. However, I do wish that we had gotten an earlier start in the morning so I would have gotten back on time to go while it was still daylight. For the rest of the night, I was on edge whenever I thought I heard loud noises from out on the main road even those I was safe behind the gated walls of the complex.
By Monday morning, it seemed that everything had gone back to normal and I was able to go to Mganwaza School for my second day there with the older students. Here's my summary:
I only taught one class that day, so in the afternoon, I went back to TACODA to add some new ideas to a few of the lesson plans. Then gradually more and more kids started showing up in the yard out front. Eventually one of the TACODA boys came in to ask when I was going to be ready to work with them. Unbeknownst to me, apparently the neighborhood children thought they were supposed to come back that day for another community project. I started scrambling to gather supplies for a weaving project and just as I was upstairs giving instructions, Deo called to say that I should have them return the next day instead. I was definitely caught off guard by the kids' arrival so I was glad to be given a reprieve, though I was still a bit upset that I hadn't been given any advanced warning.
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On Tuesday afternoon, the kids came again for the community project and I had them work on a paper weaving project where they wove strips of one color paper into a second color paper "loom." I underestimated how inexperienced some of these kids, especially the younger ones, were with the concept of weaving and even cutting with scissors. As a result, I spent most of the hour cutting hundreds of strips of paper and literally weaving them all in by myself. Just when I would finish (or get pretty far along) with one weaving, four or five kids would all stick their papers into my hands, clamoring to be next. I was completely exhausted by the end of the session and frustrated to see the amount of wasted paper that ended up in the trash pit and to discover that a whole stack seemed to go missing. I realize now that I probably should not have tried to attempt a project quite so complicated with so many kids of all different ages. The older kids were able to handle it, but the younger ones were definitely not.
I was now done volunteering, but before leaving Arusha to head to Dar-es-Salaam, I had wanted to find some way to go on a game drive, which Deo had be trying to help me do. In particular, I wanted to go to Ngorongoro, but since it was $200 per car to get in plus $50 per person, not including the cost of the driver, it was something I could just not afford to do on my own. It was actually one of the first times since starting my trip that I was really frustrated I was traveling alone and didn't have anyone with whom to split costs. In the end, John agreed to drive me to the nearby Arusha National Park for a charge of about $100, including fuel and his entrance fee. Originally his sons were going to come as well, but it ended up just being the two of us. The park is only about a one-hour drive from the city and thus doesn't have elephants, rhinos or any of the big cats. John seemed to have a good idea of where to go, though, because he spotted a bunch of black-and-white colobus monkeys far off in the treetops that none of the other guides appeared to have noticed. In addition, we saw some herds of buffalo (the only one of the Big Five in the park), giraffes, zebras, wart hogs, tons of baboons, guinea fowl and flamingos. Though, we didn't seem much big game and it was rainy for much of the day, we did see a lot of different animals and it was nice that the park wasn't too overcrowded.
Right outside the park on the way back to Arusha, John and I stopped at a reptile farm where I saw several different kinds of (mostly) deadly snakes, crocodiles and chameleons. In the end my first official African game drive was a nice way to wrap up my time in Arusha. The only other annoyance was that what I thought was a 4 GB memory card I had just bought was actually an already used card that only stored a few dozen pictures. I was mad about being ripped off and having to save most of my photos to the camera's memory. I still haven't tried getting them off so hopefully it will work.
On Sunday, Deo had offered to bring me to the base of Mount Kilimanjaro about 80 kilometers from Arusha. He doesn't have a car so we had to go there by public transportation. Deo was already running a bit late, but then I realized I had locked my camera in the office the day before and since he didn't have the key with him, he had to go all the way back home to get it. Nearly an hour later, he arrived and we set off by matatu for downtown Arusha. From there we caught a bus to the town of Moshi where we had to get another matatu to Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park. On the bus to Moshi, Deo got a call from his friend regarding a safari trip to Ngorongoro Crater that he was trying to set up for me. His friend said there was a group leaving that night for Karatu and heading to the crater early Monday morning. It was already after 1:00pm so by the time we got back from Kilimanjaro I would have to had to take a private car to get to Karatu. I weighed my options and decided it wasn't worth it to pay the sizable extra expense. I ended up regretting my decision, but by the time I realized that it was too late to do anything about it.
Once we got out of the matatu, we had to hire a taxi to actually bring us up to the base of the mountain. Just like with Mount Everest, you can't actually see the mountain from the base camp. You can theoretically see it on the drive up, but it was so cloudy and overcast that day, that the summit was barely visible. I got one decent shot of it on the way back down, but otherwise it was shrouded in mist. When we got to the park, we walked around for a few minutes, took some photos of the trailhead signs and then headed back to the cab. It was getting to be late afternoon by this time, but since I had decided not to go on the Ngorongoro tour, we opted instead to stop by a waterfall before going back to Arusha. We had to walk down a steep trail and then cross a stream to reach the bottom of the falls, but getting to see something besides the clouded-over mountain somewhat helped to justify the three-hour trip each way from Arusha.
After the cab driver dropped us off, we took another matatu back to Moshi where we boarded a bus headed for Arusha. About two-thirds of the way through the trip we started to encounter large groups of people out in the streets shouting and celebrating. It was nearly 7:00pm by this point so it was already dark. In some spots, the driver had to go very slowly to avoid the crowds surrounding the bus and banging on the sides. In spite of this, I didn't start to get nervous, until a car suddenly raced up from the other direction, sending people running and scattering. Next thing I know I heard a few pops and all of a sudden the man next to me in the window seat was shutting the window and frantically rubbing his eyes. Deo was hit next and started grabbing his eyes as well. I shut mine, but mistakenly started breathing through my mouth and was hit with a mouth-full of tear gas. Once we had gotten through the worst of it, Deo grabbed my bottle of water and started dowsing his eyes to clear them. I meanwhile took my sweatshirt and put it over my face to make it easier to breathe. Even so, I couldn't stop coughing thanks to the initial dose of poison.
By Monday morning, it seemed that everything had gone back to normal and I was able to go to Mganwaza School for my second day there with the older students. Here's my summary:
Day 4 - Monday, April 2nd
On Monday, I returned to Mwangaza, where most students were out for the week on holiday aside from the Level 4 and Level 7 students who were studying for their assessment exams. I had to wait for the Level 4 students to finish up their math class in the morning and in the meantime went to greet and answer the questions of some Level 6 students who had come in on their own to study together.
To start off my lesson with the Level 4 students we sang, "Hello Everybody. How Do You Do?," "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" and I then taught them the "Hokey Pokey." Afterwards we read through "One Nighttime Sea" with them repeating each line after me. I went through quickly a second time to demonstrate how to act out each animal. We then read through the book a final time with the correct number of students coming to the class for each animal (1-10 and then 10-1) to do the actions in front of the class. It was a bit hard to keep control during this activity because all of the students would rush up to the front even when I tried to individually select them (I would get to the front and would have two or three extra students each time.) Since it was hard to keep track, I'm sure some students got to go more than once. They seemed to have fun, though, so I guess that's what matters. The school coordinator was also in the room to assist with managing everything so that was a big help.
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On Tuesday afternoon, the kids came again for the community project and I had them work on a paper weaving project where they wove strips of one color paper into a second color paper "loom." I underestimated how inexperienced some of these kids, especially the younger ones, were with the concept of weaving and even cutting with scissors. As a result, I spent most of the hour cutting hundreds of strips of paper and literally weaving them all in by myself. Just when I would finish (or get pretty far along) with one weaving, four or five kids would all stick their papers into my hands, clamoring to be next. I was completely exhausted by the end of the session and frustrated to see the amount of wasted paper that ended up in the trash pit and to discover that a whole stack seemed to go missing. I realize now that I probably should not have tried to attempt a project quite so complicated with so many kids of all different ages. The older kids were able to handle it, but the younger ones were definitely not.
Right outside the park on the way back to Arusha, John and I stopped at a reptile farm where I saw several different kinds of (mostly) deadly snakes, crocodiles and chameleons. In the end my first official African game drive was a nice way to wrap up my time in Arusha. The only other annoyance was that what I thought was a 4 GB memory card I had just bought was actually an already used card that only stored a few dozen pictures. I was mad about being ripped off and having to save most of my photos to the camera's memory. I still haven't tried getting them off so hopefully it will work.
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