Sunday, January 27, 2008

Wedding Crashers

Fun facts about Cyprus:
1) You can't flush toilet paper down any toilet in this country.
2) You can crash weddings.
3) Their college employs adorable old me who make tea for us when we're trying to steal the internet signal from the college.

First things first...no toilet paper? Awkward...very. Especially in a bar late at night, when you have to fish the drunk girl before you's (awkward possessive-sorry) toilet paper out of the toilet. Maybe too much information there...but I feel like it's worth noting, so everyone in the US can more fully appreciate their bathrooms.

They also rank in the top three of Europe's worst driving records, and only know how to park on sidewalks which is dangerous for multiple reasons. The two top being you can't ever cross a street without running like a maniac, and in the night when you're walking you have to walk in the street because you can't walk in the sidewalk because the cars are parked there. Unfortunately you can't walk in the street because they're crazy and you're left with an awkward curb walk, leaving it somewhat doubtful if you'll make it through the night. And people were worried about me in Africa...silly silly people. When there aren't cars, there are trees smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk. You would think there would have been better planning.

Other than that things are going fabulously. I really like the girls I'm living with, especially my actual roommate. The heat is semi-working now, so I haven't had to sleep in my winter coat the past few nights. The gas stove worked for a day, but it seems that gas has run out. When it was working it crackled and boomed, leaving several girls jumping and diving away from the stove. So far it hasn't blown up, and I'm hoping it'll stay that way for the rest of the trip. You also have to heat your water every time you want to take a shower, and if you leave the heater on, that tank could blow up as well. So I'm eating cereal and peanut butter for now, wearing a lot of sweaters, and taking short short showers with no water pressure. But I swear my apartment is really nice, with a ginormous kitchen, and huge bedrooms, and really great house mates. The girls threw me a birthday party last night. We're celebrating everybody's birthday this semester, or half birthday if your birthday doesn't fall in the time span. One girl just made up a birthday. We had baklava and it was beautiful.

As far as orientation goes, we've taken a bus tour of downtown Nicosia. It's a strange little city, which is half deserted from the Turkish invasion. It consists of two parts- New and Old. The old part is walled in with ancient walls, and is really a cool place. Down in the buffer zone it's really eerie, but captivating beautiful in many ways. All of the buildings are deserted, there are buffers made out of random materials, and soldiers walking around with very very large guns. Our tour guide was obviously very very biased against the Turks, which made for an interesting tour. Other than that, the city consists of a lot of restaurants, cafes, and bars/clubs. Parts of the old city are being renovated now, and some trendy shops are going in. I think someone should invest and renovate a building, because it would be pretty sweet.

We also got to pass the headquarters for the Cypriot Orthodox Church, which has a statute that the tour guide said "is obviously too large for this place" as it is MASSIVE beyond belief, and rather disturbing on many levels. Our guide informed us that there was a wedding going on in the cathedral, so we began walking away. Then she turned around and told us that we just couldn't take pictures or talk, as she led us into the back of the cathedral while the archbishop was chanting through a Cypriot wedding. Fab fab fab.

Other than that we've sat through a lot of orientation meetings. We were taken out to dinner tonight, where the musician played lots of bad American 70s music on a synthesizer and continuously looked for our approval. We did a lot of shoulder shakes and head bobbing...even threw my arms in the air when he played "Hands up, baby hands up, give me your heart give me give me your heart give me". The song sounds even more fabulous than normal when it's down on synthesizer.

The internet is finally up and running in my apartment, but last night we were all becoming a little desperate for the web so we walked over to the college and sat on the steps, where the nice security guard made us all tea. I just needed to read GoFugYourself and The Superficial. He taught us some Greek, and we all promised to come visit him other nights. Adoreable!

Here's some pictures.



Having a great time, miss you all.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

In Cyprus!

Well I have arrived in Cyprus. I didn't think I was going to make my connecting flight, as my plane was delayed in Dulles and didn't land until 7:50 and my connection was at 8:30. But I did make it, even got to brush my teeth in between. Unfortunately, I've been trudging around Cyprus in my red sweat pants as my luggage is still in London. Oh well.

The house I am staying in is fabulous and huge. The heat is terrible tho, and I plan on freezing tonight. We didn't really do anything today, except go to a local bar...in my beautiful red sweat pants. The Greeks got very mad at each other playing cards, and we got to practice our hand slapping skills on tables impersonating them.

That's about all. The next couple days are just going to be spent acquainting ourselves with the surrounding and the university. I'm planning on making a schedule with just Tuesday-Thursday classes and it will be beautiful.

Love you all!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Pictures!!!

Before I embark on the next adventure, I thought I would share some of my photos from Tanzania. They're in a rather random order, but include the UAACC, the villages we went to, and all of our testing days and teaching. Enjoy!!!




Just click on it to make it bigger.

I leave for Cyprus tomorrow!!!! Still haven't figured out how I'm packing for this...... Love you all.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

198 Tested!!!!

Well our testing days were quite successful. On both Friday and Saturday we got 99 people to get tested. Out of those, three people tested positive- all women. The really sad part was that a ten year old girl tested positive, when both of her parents tested positive, meaning that the way she most likely became infected was through rape. Learning that news was a little hard for me, and the group, to take. It's really great that we could get that many people to be tested in two days, but it was still hard to realize that our service group completely changed a person's life. I had a hard time thinking about it, and letting that information sink in, as the whole issue became a lot more real. I've never known anyone that's been tested positive, and although I didn't know these three women, or even know which three women they were, it still hit me hard.

Good news: I got tested and I'm negative. Not that I really expected it to be otherwise, but it's still always nice to know.

We also got a lot more people to come to the clinic and the UAACC when we were having the tests, so that we could do more education and condom demos. So hopefully, even those that weren't willing to be tested, walked away knowing a little more.

We didn't get to go into the city to celebrate as planned as a few members of the group were a little skeptical. It's probably for the best though. We were able to have a bon fire here, and just hang out for the night.

Today the group split up with 5 people going on a safari, and me and seven others going to a lake. I went swimming...which probably wasn't the smartest idea, but people did it last year and made it out parasite free, so I'm gonna hope for the best. A man also came up to me and declared me his wife...so maybe there is hope for me yet.

In other news....the pastry class I wanted to take in Cyprus isn't being offered next semester. I'm a little distressed. I also found out I will be living in a house with 10 girls, which has the potential of being fabulous or completely disastrous.

Just one more full day left. We're going to a secondary school tomorrow to do more education, and then packing tomorrow afternoon. We're going to prepare a nice dinner tomorrow night to thank the students and everyone that works here at the UAACC. Tuesday we'll go into the city in the morning to go to the Masai Market, and then we leave at 9:40 Tuesday night!!!

Love you all.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Jammin'

These past few days have been a little frustrating. A little of miscommunication has left us a little unproductive. On Tuesday we were able to do advertising in the morning, for the testing day we are holding tomorrow in Ngorodotu (pronounced in-grow-doe-toe). We all thought that it was fairly close by....instead we went on a four hour walk there and back putting up posters. The clinic is a little run down...meaning no electricity, lighting, or clean rooms. Hopefully Angaza can bring some tents to do the testing outside, and we'll have to find a place to put counseling so that it's confidential. We got back too late to do education on Tuesday, and were hoping to make it up yesterday, but the students didn't seem to know they were supposed to be coming. So yesterday morning we spent planning the testing days (I'm in charge of tomorrow's), and practicing our skits which are most definitely Tony award level material. In the afternoon we got a very jumbled Swahili lessons where we learned a lot of useful phrases for the testing day.

Hopefully today we'll be able to catch up on what we were supposed to be doing for the past two days. Mainly we need to work on helping the students come up with their own programming. Next Monday they'll get to go to a secondary school and do the education. Before then, we have two testing days. Saturday night, in order to celebrate (hopefully there will be reason to celebrate), we're going into the city to go out to dinner and to go to some club. It should be an interesting experience. Sunday, half the group will be going on a safari. I've opted out of that, and hopefully the rest of us will figure out something fun to do.

Even with our lower levels of productivity, we've managed to do some cool things. I went back to the orphanage for a little bit yesterday. We've also begun morning yoga sessions with some of the women at the UAACC and last night we all had a jam session with the band that is playing at the testing day here on Saturday. My Swahili has improved greatly, and I'm hoping that I won't lose it all before I go to Kenya. It's a really easy language though, very much appreciated after my failed attempts at Arabic. We also celebrated one of the girl's birthdays Tuesday night with cake, dancing, and some Swahili singing. They all laugh at our dancing abilities, as they are quite different styles from dancing here.

I really can't wait for peanut butter, milk, and ice cream. The other night I gave in and ate some chicken, as I haven't eaten any protein on this trip, and was desperately craving something other than carbs. I think all of us are getting a little tired, sore, and grumpy, and we've been working extra hard not to get on each other's nerves. Last night a few of us had to bust out of ipods and just dance around the compound to let out a little pent up frustration (or at least that's why I did it). So far it's been working...hopefully it will continue to work for another five days plus a plane ride.

Love you all and miss you.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Week One Over

I can't believe we only have a week left here. It's crazy how fast the time here has gone by. Yesterday we got the fun challenge of creating an entire education packet to hand out to the students here...the really fun part was that it had to be in Swahili. There was a surprising amount of arguing over what needed to be included, and how basic it should be. Somehow we got it all done, translated, and typed by this morning when a group went into Arusha to have things printed. It ended up being about eight pages, but quite effective when today we were able to sit down with the students and go over everything again. It was great when you saw them completely understand the biology behind HIV, not just the basic prevention steps, and that they could draw diagrams for you and teach you the stuff you had been teaching them just a few days ago. A bunch of the guys like hip hop music and freestyle raps all the time. This afternoon they did one about HIV, and I'm pretty sure it had something to do with me. What that somethings is...I have no idea as I'm not that good at Swahili...yet.

Other than that, I've been laying pretty low. I did go and play football (soccer) with a the guys from our group and a bunch of guys from the community. I'm pretty sure they were taking it easy on me, since I was the only girl, but even so the forty year old men still whooped my butt. I did get to score once with the help of a team mate who stopped the ball right before the goal, and let me kick it in. By the end of it, I was completely wiped out, dehydrated, and filthy. I'm so glad they have working showers here.

For the rest of the week we're just finishing up our programming with the students and helping them make up their own skits and lectures for them to do here at the UAACC and at secondary schools in the area. Friday and Saturday are both lecture days. Thursday night we get to have some fun, and go into Arusha for dinner and a night out. I think next week we will be going with the students to a secondary school to help them with their first presentation.

It's been really really busy, and I'm really exhausted. I'm also really sick of eating carbs as potatoes and pasta are served every single day, usually twice a day, plus toast for breakfast. A glass of milk would be beautiful right now. I can't really complain much tho, as many of these students come from nothing, and can't even afford to finish secondary school, never mind go to a university. It's really amazing how much time they've given up to spend with us, and help us out with our testing days and advertising. Without them, our group really wouldn't be able to do nothing, and I would be sitting around playing poker a whole lot more than I already am.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Rasta Dog

The best part of the whole trip may be Blackie, the dog at the UAACC. He has dreads and they are absolutely fabulous. We've renamed him Rasta Dog.

In other news....

Yesterday ended with some difficult situations in the classroom. It's hard to answer questions like "Well, how do we keep our diets healthy if we don't have enough money for food?". None of us really have the answer to that, and it's hard to try and explain to someone who has seen her friends be miserable because of HIV medication, that they need to take the medicine even though they were feeling well before. We were also asked about herbal medication by Mgare, who is a very well educated doctor, and we also didn't really have an answer for that. Things we can work on for next year.

Once the boys and the girls split up, we learned some interesting things. The women we worked with, which was just two, were extremely confident and both were quite knowledgeable. We had a translator working with us, but even with the language barrier it was quite clear that these two women were very aware of their sexual health, and very confident in refusing a man. On the other side, we learned that most of the men that we are teaching here aren't having sex with women from around here, especially women who have some education here at the UAACC. Unfortunately, with Arusha being only a bus ride away, prostitution is huge here, and many of the men admitted to going into Arusha on Friday nights just for this reason, starting at a very young age. Most of the men had never used a condom, and those that had didn't know how to use them correctly. All of them have heard the ABC methods before, and could talk to us about them. Unfortunately, few are practicing them, and it's hard to think of ways to address these problems, and all the problems underlying prostitution.

After class, the students invited us to go through Isambeni (the village we're staying in) to see where they all live. It ended up being a two hour hike through a very hilly region, which I was not prepared for at all in my flip flops. I think I may have a permanent layer of dirt and grime all over my feet. I did get two hours of Swahili instruction, and am now actually able to have really short conversations with strangers. I've also learned how to say "I like to go to the snake farm" because we all know that this is going to be remarkably useful throughout life. I handed over my head phones at the end of the hike as a thank you. As much as I am interested in learning Swahili, they are interested in talking about many different things, especially our knowledge of American hip hop music which they all know. They are all amazed that William and Mary has 5,000 students at it.

Today was our first testing day. I got to go into Arusha this morning to pick up the people from Angaza, which is the NGO that provides the testing. We got to the village Mag ya chi at about 11. Unfortunately, the clinic was away from the main part of town, and it was hard to attract people. On top of that, the director of the clinic said that they had people in on a daily basis asking to be tested. All in all, we tested 31 people, including 2 members from AIDSTanzania. For the location, it was definitely a success.

At the same time, I was learning that I am no longer suitable for marriage. Two women came up to me, and after exchanging names, they asked if I was married. When I said no, they very solemnly asked how old I was. After replying 19, they both grabbed my hands and very sympathetically offered their apologies. Other girls have been proposed to already on this trip, so maybe I am already out of my prime. Hmph.

Now we can hang out, but tomorrow will be busy planning for next week. We offered to providing training sessions to the student, so that they could go out into the community and do more classes. Every single student signed up, including one of the women who was one of the first to stand up. We weren't really expecting this, and so now we have a lot to plan.

Love you all!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Giraffe, Giraffe, Lion

Well it's clear that we are operating on so-called African time. Our programming was set to being at 10 yesterday morning. Students began showing up around 10:45, and trickled in throughout the day. We're here on their break, so there aren't that many students, and unfortunately many women are too busy doing household chores and other things that they can't make it to the UAACC. Yesterday we focused on the basics of cholera, malaria, and tuberculosis. In the afternoon we focused a few hours on HIV. The students asked a lot of questions to clarify the whole biology aspect of the disease, and we are considering holding a class next week devoted entirely to biology as its rather broad and complicated topic.

After teaching, we all changed and got ready to walk down to Good Hope Orphanage. A bunch of the students came with us. The orphanage was about a mile away, and when we got there we had about forty people playing soccer. The girls didn't really feel like playing soccer, so we sat down and started playing with some of the girls from the orphanage. We couldn't really communicate with them, but all of a sudden a girl popped up and started tapping our heads saying "Twega, twega, twega, twega, simba" and running around in a circle. We quickly caught on realizing we were playing Duck Duck Goose, although the worlds actually translate to Giraffe, Giraffe, Lion. On the way home it began to rain, which was fantastic as we were all covered in dirt, dust, and sweat.

Today we did another lecture on the transmission of HIV, and some skits on testing and medication. After lunch we will return and split the men and women so that we can do condom demonstrations and talk about sexual violence and anything else the students may want to talk about. Tonight we'll be busy getting ready for our first testing day which will happen tomorrow morning.

Everything is going great. The UAACC is really a great place, and provides so much for the community. The grounds are beautiful, and all of the buildings are painted with vibrant murals about peace and community. There are a few classrooms, a computer lab, and a music recording studio, plus small houses for volunteers to live in. The UAACC is also responsible for installing solar panels in houses in the village, and for providing clean water for residents. Every morning when we go out of the compound we see children standing around with five or six buckets to carry back water. The village is definitely poor, but hopefully with more improvements and better education, some of their lives can become better.

The people are so great, and we've really gotten a chance to become friends with the students. On the way back from the orphanage we got to talk one on one about all different things. I've learned some Swahili. Everyone holds hands, and just welcomes everyone into everywhere. This morning I was out walking looking for a store, and we saw some of the students who called us over and just wanted to talk. We're even exchanging email addresses.


Love you and miss you all!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Damn the Roosters

Yesterday we went to a village that's about fifteen minutes away by car. And by car I mean a very large pick-up truck with bars overhead that fit all thirteen of us standing up, a few people from the UAACC and then a few more people we picked up along the way. I had thought driving on the wrong side of unpaved roads was an adventure, but this was something else. "Duck" was yelled a little late a few too many times as tree branches crashed into our faces. It did provide absolutely amazing views of Mount Meru, and just the country side in general which is filled with goats, chicken, and cattle. The little kids were the cutest, and as they saw our truck approaching they would run up to us shouting "Mambo" (hello) and "Mzunga" (white people), and laugh like I've never heard before. When we did make it to the village, we got to walk around the marketplace handing out advertisements and posting them on store fronts. The little kids saw that we had cameras, and kept wanting us to take pictures of them, and then show them. It was adorable. On the way back, a few of us decided to be a little more courageous and sit on top of the bars, which I quickly realized was a mistake as I could no longer avoid the tree branches as skillfully as the UAACC members. I got to talk to some of the guys that live and work here, who told me I should come back after I graduate to teach English. They did the math, said to come back in 2010, but then quickly clarified that with "Unless you're married by then," and then made it clear that they thought I would be.

We were all exhausted when we got back, and we were in bed by nine. But first we got to lie out and star gaze, which is one of the most magnificent things I've ever seen, and nothing like you would see in most of the US.


Today we'll be doing our lectures and then go visit an orphanage down the road. It looks as though I'll be able to post everyday, as I seem to wake up with a few others at 4 am as the roosters start to crow. We tried to catch the sunrise, but the whole compound was locked so we couldn't get out. It looks like the morning will provide the perfect time for this.

Love you all!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Safe Arrival

Short story first.....I have arrived in Tanzania safe and sound.

Long story.....

After we decided not to travel through Nairobi, we found flights directly into Kilimanjaro which is about 45 minutes away from the UAACC where we are staying for the two weeks.

The group arrived at the airport on the 31st, and quickly checked in without problems. Unfortunately, the first group worked with a new employee who neglected to give us our boarding passes for the flight from Amsterdam to Tanzania, something which would be very problematic. Security was fine, and by 6:20 we were in the air on our way to Amsterdam. We celebrated the New Year with champagne, but the flight wasn't very eventful.

Once we got to Amsterdam, we found the line we needed to get into to get our new boarding passes. As I was standing there, I realized that I had forgotten my glasses on the plane so Andrew and I had to run back to the plane, convince someone to let us back on, and retrieve the glasses. As I was getting off the plane, we found a small fire on the boarding ramp...so then we had to wait for the fight attendant to get help putting it out. Andrew and I ran across the airport again, and got back into line with the rest of the group. After waiting in this short line for about forty-five minutes, we get up to the counter and they can't find our reservations. It took another hour and a half of panic, as we almost missed our flight. Finally, we thought everything was settled, and the last of us ran to our flight. Once we got to our gate, we went through security, and then found out that the woman had not actually given us our tickets, and we were again delayed. Fortunately, they let us on the plane, and we got to sleep the next eight hours. It was much more stressful than it's sounding here.

Finally, at 9:45 we landed in Kilimanjaro. All of our luggage made it, and people from the UAACC were waiting to pick us up. We all got into two vans, and went on the bumpiest ride of my life. It was unbelievably beautiful. We couldn't really see much of anything, but the weather and the stars were gorgeous. We got to the center, unpacked our belongings, and met with Mzee Pete who is the founder. They had made us dinner, and then we all went to bed. At 6 I woke up to the sound of roosters and birds. It is so beautiful here.

I need to run and do things..so I'm going to wrap up quickly. The center is wonderful, the food is great, and the surrounding area is amazing. There are two mountains we can see, including Kilimanjaro in the distance. Today we're working on advertising, putting finishing touches on our programming, and then going out to one of the villages to post some of our advertisements. Saturday, we will be hosting our first testing day in a village that is about a fifteen minute car ride.

I love you all!!!!! I can't wait to share more with you...it is phenomenal.