Our group has a very exciting weekend ahead... we will be leaving Saturday morning for a safari in Ngorongoro Crater, camping there for the night, and then going on a trip through Tarangire National Park on Sunday! We're getting a really great deal on the trip, and I've heard that these places make for some unforgettable views of Africa's diverse and amazing creatures. I'm really glad that I have a big backpacking pack with me so I'll be able to bring plenty of layers to survive a cold winter's night in the African wilderness!
Everything else is still going really smoothly...
Baba is a chef, so the food at home is always really good. I'm always suprised by the spread that is brought out at every meal. Breakfast always includes fruit, eggs, bread, sausage, several drinks to choose from, perhaps porridge, and potatoes. Dinner usually involves about 3-4 different dishes along with greens and fruit as well. Also, my family is always pushing food on me even after I finish. Needless so say, I will never go hungry if my Mama and Baba have any say in the matter.
Classes have been going well, and my Swahili is slowly improving... I'm up to the level of forming simple sentences.
The technical portion of our classes has been introducing us to all of the different equipments that we may find in the hospitals, and in lab so far we've made extension cords and done a lot of work in becoming familiar with our multimeters and improving our soldering and desoldering skills.
Yesterday, Benita and I took the TCDC (language school) shuttle into Arusha and wandered around for a bit. I saw many more mzungus than I've seen the rest of the trip (aside from those at school). The market in the city was very crowded, and we decided to walk past it rather than try to push our way through.
Ninakwenda dasarani wa Kiswahili sasa, Baadaye!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Week 1
I have been here for almost a week now, and am finally making my first post.
The trip here was uneventful (thankfully), and we all arrived safely in Kilimanjaro. Two students' baggage was left behind in Amsterdam, but they recovered it in the next couple days.
Here's all my stuff, ready to go! I ended up having to check 2 bags to account for the EWH equipment and the gift items that I brought for my host family.
Steering wheel on the other side of the car, car on the other side of the road... gonna have to get used to this
So far, I am loving every minute.
I am partnered with Benita (another student in the program who happens to already be fluent in Swahili...which is fantastic), and our host family is wonderful. They are very welcoming and have five children (ages 17, 13, 7, 5, and 1.5). Benita and I share a room and bathroom in the home, and it is approximately a 15-20 minute drive from the language school.
On Saturday, our whole group took a tour of a Masai village in Arusha and went on a hike up "Little Kili", as our guide affectionately termed it. It was a very steep climb, and we took breaks every so often to catch our breath. Of course, what was a difficult climb to us proved to be nothing to the locals, and we were all impressed to see women walking up the way we had come while carrying buckets of water on their heads.
Yesterday, I went to church with Mama and Benita. At the beginning of the service, the preacher asked all the guests to stand up and introduce themselves. Benita and I rose and I followed her eloquent introduction with a simple, "Mimi ni Lucy. Kutoka San Francisco, California, Marekani" (I am Lucy. I am from San Francisco, Californai, America). I have heard from others that the church services they attended reached up to 6 hours, but ours was just about 1.5. It seemed very similar to Catholic services in the states. Of course, I couldn't understand anything that was being said, so every now and then Benita would turn to me and give a summary in English.
Right now I am on my lunch break at school. Every morning, we have Swahili classes from 8:30 to 12:30 (with a break for tea from 10 to 10:30) and then we resume at 1:30 for technical classes and lab projects.
I have more pictures that would complement this post, but I am currently letting my camera battery charge, so those will go up later!
More updates to come! Baadaye!
The trip here was uneventful (thankfully), and we all arrived safely in Kilimanjaro. Two students' baggage was left behind in Amsterdam, but they recovered it in the next couple days.
So far, I am loving every minute.
I am partnered with Benita (another student in the program who happens to already be fluent in Swahili...which is fantastic), and our host family is wonderful. They are very welcoming and have five children (ages 17, 13, 7, 5, and 1.5). Benita and I share a room and bathroom in the home, and it is approximately a 15-20 minute drive from the language school.
On Saturday, our whole group took a tour of a Masai village in Arusha and went on a hike up "Little Kili", as our guide affectionately termed it. It was a very steep climb, and we took breaks every so often to catch our breath. Of course, what was a difficult climb to us proved to be nothing to the locals, and we were all impressed to see women walking up the way we had come while carrying buckets of water on their heads.
Yesterday, I went to church with Mama and Benita. At the beginning of the service, the preacher asked all the guests to stand up and introduce themselves. Benita and I rose and I followed her eloquent introduction with a simple, "Mimi ni Lucy. Kutoka San Francisco, California, Marekani" (I am Lucy. I am from San Francisco, Californai, America). I have heard from others that the church services they attended reached up to 6 hours, but ours was just about 1.5. It seemed very similar to Catholic services in the states. Of course, I couldn't understand anything that was being said, so every now and then Benita would turn to me and give a summary in English.
Right now I am on my lunch break at school. Every morning, we have Swahili classes from 8:30 to 12:30 (with a break for tea from 10 to 10:30) and then we resume at 1:30 for technical classes and lab projects.
I have more pictures that would complement this post, but I am currently letting my camera battery charge, so those will go up later!
More updates to come! Baadaye!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)