On Sunday morning Divina, Bryna, Joel and I walked down to the classroom block to catch the staff transport that leaves around 9 am to go to into town to church. We got there about 10 minutes to 9, but there was no bus. We called the driver and he said they had left a half hour earlier to take one of the teacher's kids to the doctor. Gee- thanks for letting us know. But the driver said he would be back to get us in awhile. Awhile turned into 45 minutes, so we called him again. This time he said he had a flat tire (which was probably a lie so he wouldn't have to come get us). But we waited until 10:30 to see if he would show up. He didn't- so we gave up. As Joel said, "We were at church spritually."
For the rest of the morning, and part of the afternoon the Chui House (the leopard house where the girls live) watched Desperate Houswives. It's Divina's favorite show and she has all the seasons on her computer. We were soooooooo productive.....not.
Later we played some volleyball with some students and Bryna, Divina and I went on a run. When we got back to the school Bryna identified where the sewage smell we noticed earlier was coming from. One of the manholes for the sewer system was overflowing and raw sewage was bubbling up by the security station at the gate. I had Divina ask the gaurds how long it had been like this, and he said the system had been blocked up since Friday and it was blocked up on purpose. Of course it was blocked up on purpose- it was my idea. Good Heavens- my research project had raw sewage leaking in tot he road outside of Peace House property. Oops.
The maintenence guy that was going to block up the system was supposed to do it last Tuesday...but I guess on Tanzanian time that means 3 days later. I thought the experiement was complete crap (literally) because I had no way to measure how much sewage I had lost. I wanted to measure what volume of waste was entering the system per day. I didn't take a measurement and hoped that the system would be unplugged as soon as possible.
The good news is that I talked to the maintenence guy this morning and he has been taking measurements for the time that the system was blocked up- so it wasn't a total loss. Now I just have to see what kind of data he has.
Yesterday (Monday) we traveled to the village of Monduli, which is about 20 km west of Arusha. We met up with volunteers and workers of Global Service Core (a local NGO). They were in the village to build a hefier- which is a rain water catchment that can be used to irrigate crops in the dry season. Our group helped dig the 1m deep by 1.5 m wide by 4 m long trench that was going to be lined with plastic to store the rain water. I hope that this actually helps the family we built it for. We were actually in a Masaai village- the family who recieved this hefier was living in a small hut covered with leaves and had mud/dung walls. It was cool to see the Massaai warriors help dig the hole. The village elder made an appearance later in the morning and was talking to the warrior whose hut we were at in angry tones. Of course I couldn't understand anything since they were talking in Masaai, and it sounds like swahili, which I don't understand either. But the wife (or one of them anyway) of the warrior told us that the village elder/cheif was just a cranky old man and a corrupt leader and told us that we were doing a good thing helping them. The elder was just mad that no one consulted him first. Amends were made, and we stopped working and went into town for lunch around 2 pm. The hefier was about halfway done when we left and we came back to Peace House after lunch becasue we had a long ride in a Dalla from Monduli. We hope to get back out to the village and keep helping sometime later this week.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Our group got considerably smaller on Wednesday morning. There are only 8 of us left now. And now I have my own bedroom! That afternoon I went to Mr. Peter's biology classes and talked to the students about water consumption. I told Mr. Peter that I would only need about 15 minutes of his class time, but of course he didn't prepare any lesson that day, so I improvised. I have had the students help me count how much water they use everyday here at school. I hope I get good data so I can calculate how much water an average student at Peace House uses. The kids are stressed out because they have exams all next week, but hopefully they have been filling out the notecards I have given them!
Today we went to the school's rugby match and Peace House dominated! I never realized rugby was so violent. I also realized it has been quite some time since I have been on a bus with a bunch of high schoolers. They were going nuts singing/screaming on the way back from the country club where they play. Tomorrow a few of us are planning on going into town to go to church- should be a cool experience!
Today we went to the school's rugby match and Peace House dominated! I never realized rugby was so violent. I also realized it has been quite some time since I have been on a bus with a bunch of high schoolers. They were going nuts singing/screaming on the way back from the country club where they play. Tomorrow a few of us are planning on going into town to go to church- should be a cool experience!
The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them.
Talking to Form 2 Biology Classes (thanks Kurt) and pictures of children we passed on the way to the orphanage (thanks Robyn)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Pole Pole (slowly)
The pictures are all that would load for now. I'll get more up when the internet is cooperating.
Hakuna Matata!
It means no worries! Everything is fantastic here in Tanzania- just got back from safari and research is going strong!
This past weekend our entire group (minus one Tanzanian student) went on safari to Ngorongoro Crater and to Tarangire National Park. We left Peace House at 9 am on Friday and headed into town to buy a park pass. We didn't leave town until about 11 am because we had to change money about a thousand times. If you are not Tanzanian and want to buy admission into any of the parks in this country you have to pay in US currency. Of course all of us don't just carry around $200 US cash, so we had to use the atm, which spits out shillings, then go to the change bureau and get it changed into dollars. What a fiasco! We all spent more money than we planned on this trip- but it was totally worth it!
We got to our lodge/camp on Friday afternoon and went on a sunset hike up a big hill. Then we were served a huge 3 course dinner. All of us had rooms with bathrooms except for Jarod who had a tent to himself (if you don't count the fleas). On Saturday morning we had breakfast at 6:30 and headed to the crater. This crater was formed by an explosion of a mountain larger than Kilimanjaro. Now, it is home to many animals and one of the two places you can see about ten of the 20 Black Rhino that are left on earth. We saw two of them! We also saw mating lions, tons of zebra, fighting wildebeests, hyenas, cheetahs, hippos, one really old elephant, water buffalo, and a bunch of other things I shot- with my camera of course! It is really dry in the crater and we were so dusty afterward from all of the safari vehicles kicking up dust.
On Sunday we left the lodge (and the good cooking) and headed back toward Arusha to Tarangire National Park. The crater was dry and open with no trees and Tarangire was dry, but there were many acacia and upside down trees. There was also a river the animals used for watering. Our group had two land rovers and each car had a driver. Our driver/guide- Alphi- heard about a leopard sighting over the radio. At this point the leopard was the only animal out of the Big 5 that we hadn't seen! I stand corrected from my last post- the Big 5 are: elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and buffalo. This is because they are the most sought after by big game hunters. At 10:15 am our vehicle won the race in our group to see the Big 5! A leopard was hanging out in between a termite mound and a tree. It was kind of hard to see him in the tall grass, but he had the fur of a cheetah and the body of a lion. Way cool! Alphi said we were very lucky see all that we did. We saw many elephants, zebra, wildebeest, monkeys, and the coolest thing we saw were 3 lionesses and a lion after they had eaten their kill. You could tell they were really full- pretty much just napping under a tree with the carcass of a buffalo near by. 2 of the lionesses got up to get a drink and walked 3 feet from our car to cross the road to go get a drink. Scary! They definitely are the kings of the jungle!
We got back from safari on Sunday night and I made HUGE progress with my research yesterday. I am going to teach students about water consumption tomorrow in biology class in order for them to help me collect data on how much water they use. I also got more information about the wetland system from Andre- the school's grounds keeper and the person who built the system. He said they would stop up the sewage flow for me today in order to determine how much waste is entering the system, but now it is 2:30pm and it hasn't happened yet, so I have an idea that it might not happen today. Tanzanian time is def. slower than the pace I am used to.
Tonight we are going into town for pizza to celebrate the going-away of part of our group. Dave, a professor, Melanie, Dave's girlfriend, and Robyn and Kat (U of Minn.) are heading back to Dar es Salaam to catch flights back to the States on Wed. and Thurs. Our group will almost be cut in half and it will be a big change without them. Time has been flying, and I have been learning so much!
This past weekend our entire group (minus one Tanzanian student) went on safari to Ngorongoro Crater and to Tarangire National Park. We left Peace House at 9 am on Friday and headed into town to buy a park pass. We didn't leave town until about 11 am because we had to change money about a thousand times. If you are not Tanzanian and want to buy admission into any of the parks in this country you have to pay in US currency. Of course all of us don't just carry around $200 US cash, so we had to use the atm, which spits out shillings, then go to the change bureau and get it changed into dollars. What a fiasco! We all spent more money than we planned on this trip- but it was totally worth it!
We got to our lodge/camp on Friday afternoon and went on a sunset hike up a big hill. Then we were served a huge 3 course dinner. All of us had rooms with bathrooms except for Jarod who had a tent to himself (if you don't count the fleas). On Saturday morning we had breakfast at 6:30 and headed to the crater. This crater was formed by an explosion of a mountain larger than Kilimanjaro. Now, it is home to many animals and one of the two places you can see about ten of the 20 Black Rhino that are left on earth. We saw two of them! We also saw mating lions, tons of zebra, fighting wildebeests, hyenas, cheetahs, hippos, one really old elephant, water buffalo, and a bunch of other things I shot- with my camera of course! It is really dry in the crater and we were so dusty afterward from all of the safari vehicles kicking up dust.
On Sunday we left the lodge (and the good cooking) and headed back toward Arusha to Tarangire National Park. The crater was dry and open with no trees and Tarangire was dry, but there were many acacia and upside down trees. There was also a river the animals used for watering. Our group had two land rovers and each car had a driver. Our driver/guide- Alphi- heard about a leopard sighting over the radio. At this point the leopard was the only animal out of the Big 5 that we hadn't seen! I stand corrected from my last post- the Big 5 are: elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and buffalo. This is because they are the most sought after by big game hunters. At 10:15 am our vehicle won the race in our group to see the Big 5! A leopard was hanging out in between a termite mound and a tree. It was kind of hard to see him in the tall grass, but he had the fur of a cheetah and the body of a lion. Way cool! Alphi said we were very lucky see all that we did. We saw many elephants, zebra, wildebeest, monkeys, and the coolest thing we saw were 3 lionesses and a lion after they had eaten their kill. You could tell they were really full- pretty much just napping under a tree with the carcass of a buffalo near by. 2 of the lionesses got up to get a drink and walked 3 feet from our car to cross the road to go get a drink. Scary! They definitely are the kings of the jungle!
We got back from safari on Sunday night and I made HUGE progress with my research yesterday. I am going to teach students about water consumption tomorrow in biology class in order for them to help me collect data on how much water they use. I also got more information about the wetland system from Andre- the school's grounds keeper and the person who built the system. He said they would stop up the sewage flow for me today in order to determine how much waste is entering the system, but now it is 2:30pm and it hasn't happened yet, so I have an idea that it might not happen today. Tanzanian time is def. slower than the pace I am used to.
Tonight we are going into town for pizza to celebrate the going-away of part of our group. Dave, a professor, Melanie, Dave's girlfriend, and Robyn and Kat (U of Minn.) are heading back to Dar es Salaam to catch flights back to the States on Wed. and Thurs. Our group will almost be cut in half and it will be a big change without them. Time has been flying, and I have been learning so much!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Finally- a research project!
One word- HUMANURE. It will save us all.
On Monday we visited an orphanage-in-progress that is run by an Australian NGO called "Food, Water, Shelter." It is located outside of town in a small village and it was probably one of the best days of my life as a student. Why? Becasue I learned about an awesome composting latrine design and got to use one that is similar to what I have been dreaming about for the past 2.5 years...
Most of the buildings on the orphanage site are almost complete, and they hope to start moving orphans in sometime in August. The design about every aspect of this place is completely sustainable and green design. Their excellent features included: 45 rainwater storage tanks under the buildings to collect the water from the roof. The overflow from these tanks runs into a man-made aquifer for extra storage. They have fishponds that are full of tilapia (used for eating) and the water from the ponds can be pumped onto the garden, which is rot a tilled by placing a chicken coop over the bed after the veggies have been harvested. The chicken's feet aerate the soil and work their poop in as fertilizer. Food, Water, Shelter will produce biogas for cooking fuel with the dung from their cattle. But the coolest feature was of course their composting latrines! There are 16 holes in the toilet block and each hole leads to its own black collection tank. A number of different sized mesh in the tank will catch solids and allow urine to seep out into banana circles (compost piles). Sawdust is added after every use. Once the tank is full it is moved aside to sit for 6 months. The right high temp. has to be obtained for bacteria to die. Apparently the manure they get from this is excellent for their crops!
On Tuesday I played rugby with the school team, it was my first time playing. I had no idea what was going on and spent most of practice trying to figure out the rules. I definitely like soccer better. Hopefully today I can practice with the team- if I can keep up. These kids are wicked fast!
The group has finally tired of eating ugali, rice and beans. So we have decided that every once and awhile each house will cook for the other house. Last night the guys house made delicious spaghetti and us girls brought over dessert. Patty made pineapple tarts and Kat and I made a chocolate cake with icing- so good!
I finally have my research project. Drumroll please... "Wastewater treatment at Peace House Secondary School; appropriate plants for wastewater treatment in Northern Tanzania." It sounds just like the title. I will studying the wastewater treatment system here at the school and hopefully getting the students involved in helping me collect data. I'm going to start taking measurements of the system this afternoon because tomorrow, Friday, we are leaving to spend the weekend on Safari! Hopefully when we get back I can post pictures of the BIG 5- hippo, lion, cheetah, buffalo and rhino!
On Monday we visited an orphanage-in-progress that is run by an Australian NGO called "Food, Water, Shelter." It is located outside of town in a small village and it was probably one of the best days of my life as a student. Why? Becasue I learned about an awesome composting latrine design and got to use one that is similar to what I have been dreaming about for the past 2.5 years...
Most of the buildings on the orphanage site are almost complete, and they hope to start moving orphans in sometime in August. The design about every aspect of this place is completely sustainable and green design. Their excellent features included: 45 rainwater storage tanks under the buildings to collect the water from the roof. The overflow from these tanks runs into a man-made aquifer for extra storage. They have fishponds that are full of tilapia (used for eating) and the water from the ponds can be pumped onto the garden, which is rot a tilled by placing a chicken coop over the bed after the veggies have been harvested. The chicken's feet aerate the soil and work their poop in as fertilizer. Food, Water, Shelter will produce biogas for cooking fuel with the dung from their cattle. But the coolest feature was of course their composting latrines! There are 16 holes in the toilet block and each hole leads to its own black collection tank. A number of different sized mesh in the tank will catch solids and allow urine to seep out into banana circles (compost piles). Sawdust is added after every use. Once the tank is full it is moved aside to sit for 6 months. The right high temp. has to be obtained for bacteria to die. Apparently the manure they get from this is excellent for their crops!
On Tuesday I played rugby with the school team, it was my first time playing. I had no idea what was going on and spent most of practice trying to figure out the rules. I definitely like soccer better. Hopefully today I can practice with the team- if I can keep up. These kids are wicked fast!
The group has finally tired of eating ugali, rice and beans. So we have decided that every once and awhile each house will cook for the other house. Last night the guys house made delicious spaghetti and us girls brought over dessert. Patty made pineapple tarts and Kat and I made a chocolate cake with icing- so good!
I finally have my research project. Drumroll please... "Wastewater treatment at Peace House Secondary School; appropriate plants for wastewater treatment in Northern Tanzania." It sounds just like the title. I will studying the wastewater treatment system here at the school and hopefully getting the students involved in helping me collect data. I'm going to start taking measurements of the system this afternoon because tomorrow, Friday, we are leaving to spend the weekend on Safari! Hopefully when we get back I can post pictures of the BIG 5- hippo, lion, cheetah, buffalo and rhino!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Weekend at Peace House
We went out to dinner at my new favorite restaraunt on Friday night. It's called Khan's Barbeque. This Indian guy named Khan runs an auto-repair shop out of his store front by day, and at 6pm every night (even holidays he told us) he starts up his grill on the street and his shop turns into a BBQ joint. It was delicious! He had a sort of salad bar with spicy sauces and some veggies. Then he brought us huge plates of fries, bread, Zanzibar pizza, beef, mutton and chicken. I was so happy to eat meat! We eat beans almost everyday at Peace House. Khan's motto was "Chicken on the Bonnet" (as in hood of a car) so the next time we go there we are going to propose the idea that he should actually stick his grill in the hood of a car. Pretty sweet, huh?
Saturday was pretty relaxing until Bryna drug me out for an intense run. We ran outside the school's property and had a great view of Kilimanjaro. That night we all played a hilarious game of cherades.
On Sunday morning I ate my cereal on our porch and listened to the students worshiping in the dining hall. It was beautiful. Until we heard girls let out bloodcurling screams from outside the hall. I seriously thought that someone was in mortifying pain. Soon after Bryna and I walked down to try to use the internet and one of the teachers had taken 4 girls to the campus gazebo and was yelling/ preaching to them (in Swahili so I didn't understand what was going on). Every girl was individually pulled aside by the teacher and would start screaming after he was yelling at them. From where we were standing we couldn't tell if this man was choking the girls or if he just had his hands on their heads. Soon after, we found out that this is the way the students renounce their demons. I really hope that they got all of their demons out today, because I never want to hear those haunting screams again.
Saturday was pretty relaxing until Bryna drug me out for an intense run. We ran outside the school's property and had a great view of Kilimanjaro. That night we all played a hilarious game of cherades.
On Sunday morning I ate my cereal on our porch and listened to the students worshiping in the dining hall. It was beautiful. Until we heard girls let out bloodcurling screams from outside the hall. I seriously thought that someone was in mortifying pain. Soon after Bryna and I walked down to try to use the internet and one of the teachers had taken 4 girls to the campus gazebo and was yelling/ preaching to them (in Swahili so I didn't understand what was going on). Every girl was individually pulled aside by the teacher and would start screaming after he was yelling at them. From where we were standing we couldn't tell if this man was choking the girls or if he just had his hands on their heads. Soon after, we found out that this is the way the students renounce their demons. I really hope that they got all of their demons out today, because I never want to hear those haunting screams again.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Arusha Nite Life
Last night we went to a restaurant, Via Via, to have some drinks and listen to reggae. This was our first time experiencing the hoppin' Arusha night life. We danced with drunk tourists and the locals. It was a ton of fun- but not all play. I met a woman in the bathroom from South Carolina who is working with an NGO here focused on business and micro-financing. I got her contact information as it might help with some of our research here. Funny how connections are made.
We have just been hanging around the school for most of the week, and will be here this weekend. Next week I will hopefully start moving forward with my research projects. Right now I am thinking that I will assess the funciton of the school's wastewater treatment system which is supposed to be a wetland system. I also want to look at the springs in a local village that people use for drinking water, and see if their coffee bean shelling process has an effect on their water supply.
On Wednesday we attended Peace House's opening flag raising ceremony for the second semester. Saying the school has no religious affiliation would probably be lying since the kids pray before and after everymeal, and someone gave a sermon about obidience at the ceremony. Alot of fire and brimstone stuff. Later that morning a group of us went into town to attend some of the Rwanda trials. The East African International conference center is located in Arusha, and that is where the United Nations have taken up court as the Rwanda Trials Tribunal. All we had to do is show our passports and we got to sit in the gallery. Not too much happened as they weren't sentencing that day and only got through one witness before lunch time. After lunch we went to the craft market and I was searching for a certain fabric for a skirt I had seen a woman wearing last week. It had a picture of a choo on it. A choo is a toilet. How fantastic would it be to wear a skirt with a toilet on it! Amazing right?! Don't worry all the women in the stalls who had their wares for sale were laughing at me too...But one shop owner named Victor is hopefully on the hunt for that pattern for me, and it would make my day!
We have just been hanging around the school for most of the week, and will be here this weekend. Next week I will hopefully start moving forward with my research projects. Right now I am thinking that I will assess the funciton of the school's wastewater treatment system which is supposed to be a wetland system. I also want to look at the springs in a local village that people use for drinking water, and see if their coffee bean shelling process has an effect on their water supply.
On Wednesday we attended Peace House's opening flag raising ceremony for the second semester. Saying the school has no religious affiliation would probably be lying since the kids pray before and after everymeal, and someone gave a sermon about obidience at the ceremony. Alot of fire and brimstone stuff. Later that morning a group of us went into town to attend some of the Rwanda trials. The East African International conference center is located in Arusha, and that is where the United Nations have taken up court as the Rwanda Trials Tribunal. All we had to do is show our passports and we got to sit in the gallery. Not too much happened as they weren't sentencing that day and only got through one witness before lunch time. After lunch we went to the craft market and I was searching for a certain fabric for a skirt I had seen a woman wearing last week. It had a picture of a choo on it. A choo is a toilet. How fantastic would it be to wear a skirt with a toilet on it! Amazing right?! Don't worry all the women in the stalls who had their wares for sale were laughing at me too...But one shop owner named Victor is hopefully on the hunt for that pattern for me, and it would make my day!
Peace House Secondary School
Pictures are of: a classroom block of the school. Currently only the second floor classrooms are used. The library is also on the second floor and the librarian, Susan- a Canadian, is busy trying to get it ready for use. I helped her out yesterday by organizing National Geographic magazines for the students in the dorms. The view of our meeting hut/grilling place from my house. My bedroom I share with Divina, a Tanzanian student. The last photo is of our living room looking into the kitchen.
Arusha National Park!!!
It was a great day to see Kilimanjaro. Notice how scary she looks behind me! Look closely- the mountain looks like clouds and is in the top left hand corner of the picture. All the animals were willing to pose for pictures.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Safari!
Yesterday we went on a day safari to Arusha National Park. It was incredible! Within 3 minutes we were driving on the park road we saw giraffe, zebra, water buffalo and warthogs. We also saw some monkeys, flamingos, lots of other birds and some rabit looking rodents. Bryna saw a hippo in a lake, but it went underwater before the rest of us could see it. Hopefully I can post pictures soon.
We had a rocking 4th of July party on Saturday. I don't think I have ever been around a group of people so excited to celebrate the 4th. Maybe we just needed a reason to throw a party. We made peanut butter cookies, deviled eggs, potato salad, brats, burgers, fresh guacamole (the avacoadoes here are awesome!), and Patty made a pie. We are getting really good at making baked goods with our tempermental gas oven and no recipies. We played a competitive game of ultimate frisbee and some volleyball with local friends from town. There were about 20 of us!
The Peace House campus isn't so quiet anymore- the students arrived last night and are currently in their first day of class after their break. Tomorrow is an industrial holiday, Saba Saba (Seven, Seven), which takes place mostly in Dar so nothing is really going on in Arusha, except the kids don't have class.
We have made research progress last week with many organizations. This afternoon we will go visit Potter's village again and hopefully look at their water systems. We are supposed to have our finalized research project ideas in 2 weeks. I'm curious to see how this turns out!
We had a rocking 4th of July party on Saturday. I don't think I have ever been around a group of people so excited to celebrate the 4th. Maybe we just needed a reason to throw a party. We made peanut butter cookies, deviled eggs, potato salad, brats, burgers, fresh guacamole (the avacoadoes here are awesome!), and Patty made a pie. We are getting really good at making baked goods with our tempermental gas oven and no recipies. We played a competitive game of ultimate frisbee and some volleyball with local friends from town. There were about 20 of us!
The Peace House campus isn't so quiet anymore- the students arrived last night and are currently in their first day of class after their break. Tomorrow is an industrial holiday, Saba Saba (Seven, Seven), which takes place mostly in Dar so nothing is really going on in Arusha, except the kids don't have class.
We have made research progress last week with many organizations. This afternoon we will go visit Potter's village again and hopefully look at their water systems. We are supposed to have our finalized research project ideas in 2 weeks. I'm curious to see how this turns out!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Our Posh Pad
This is the volunteer house that we are staying in at Peace House Secondary School, Arusha Tanzania. The 6 women are staying in this house and the 5 men have a similar house right next to us. I was so excited to use my hammock I put it up the first day we got here and we use it all the time!
Swimming
We went swimming in the Indian Ocean in Dar! This is the exclusive beach resort Joel (a Tanzanian student) took us to on our last day on the coast.
Traveling
I finally have some time to try to get some pictures up! This is of Buckingham Palace in London!
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