Chillin' in My Khanga

Hi everyone. Not sure how far I will get on this post but I will continue to update it as I have time. I made it safely to Dar Es Salaam on Thursday late evening. When I had left you last I was spending the night in Nairobi by myself in a little dorm style room. That turned out to be a really good place and I ended up with the room to myself. I spent the rest of that day walking around Nairobi taking care of some business - getting some English books, going to the market to get snacks, and eating an early dinner so I could be in the hostel before dark. The night was amazing because the room I was sleeping in had this great breeze and for the first time in 3 1/2 weeks I was a little cool. Thursday morning (1/22) I had a 6:30am bus to Nairobi. My ticketing agent had told me to be at the station by 6:00 so I had planned to rise at 5:30, dress, repack and then walk to the station. WELL sometime during the night I had rolled over my phone and sent it into silent mode. So I just happened to wake up and see that someone was calling me. After I hung up the phone I noticed it was 6:08AM! I literally jumped out of bed. For some reason the night before I had resolved to pack AND sleep in the same clothes, something I never do. It turned out that the foresight helped save me from missing my bus. I literally threw a bar on, peed in the hole in the floor and grabbed my stuff and ran to the bus station. I was one of the last on the bus and felt very grimy, but I did not want to disappoint TAWE and miss the bus. On the bus I was lucky enough to have a seat mate who spoke English (Ismiel) and we kept each other company for the 17 hour bus ride. NOW, I know, you are thinking, 17 hours? No way. Well no shit. I was on the freaking bus for 17 hours. And imagine no food stops and very limited bathroom stops? And the bus had been advertised as the luxury bus with air conditioning and bathroom. Do you think the bus had any of those? Nope. So in case you cant tell, this was probably the first time I had been a little bitter on this trip. And I actually did the trip pretty well, surviving until 8:00pm when I heard it would be another 3 hours - it wasnt until then that I become a little annoyed . . . So not to dwell on the bus too much. I saw the entire landscape of Pare Mountains and Mt. Kilimanjaro, which I will see again in a few weeks when I return to Arusha. The only other noteworthy aspect of the trip was the Visa part. So when you arrive at the land border between Kenya and Tanzania, you have to actually exit the bus, disembark on the Kenya side and fill out paperwork, physically walk across the border into Tanzania and then apply for a Tanzanian visa. Well, of course, the 200 meter distance is filled with people looking to take your money. Luckly the bus driver had warned us ahead of time so we knew what the expect, but people were literally grabbing me trying to get me to pay them to 'cross the border.' Stuff like this happens all the time and I should get used to it, but it still frightens me and makes me mad. Once on the Tanzanian side it was a little bit of a fiasco to get a visa, but in the end I ended up with a good visa and the man gave me a deal - a multi entry visa where usually we should only get a single entry visa. Afterwards we got back on the bus and continued on. I will never do that journey again via bus . . . lessons learned. So luckily for me one of my TAWE greeters waited for me at the bus station for 3 hours just to make sure she was there when I arrived. That was an immense gesture and meant a lot to me because it is notoriously dangerous to be at the bus station alone at night. Sarah met me with her daughter and took me to my host home where Loyce lives. Loyce is a 50 year old woman who owns her own draperie business. Loyce was out of town on business but has a maid (yes!?) and just dropped me there for the night. On first impression I was very impressed with the home. VERY WESTERN. A cement home with a living room with a TV, sterio and several couches as well as a simple table for eating. I had my own bed room with a fan!!! YES A FAN and the windows had SCREENS!!! so there was a decent breeze. Funny but all of this stuff is so exciting now. The only part not western is the plumbing - basically she has no running water. The bathroom has a toilet and a sink, but its all kind of ceremonial. If you pour water down the sink it lands on your feet. But in a way I also love this. I havent sat down to use the toilet in five days. I use a bucket of water to flush the toilet. I use cups of water to wash my face and at night I use a bucket of water to shower. I have gotten pretty good at that and am down to using less than 1/2 a bucket per shower. I am also eating very well here, grateful that Loyce has taken into consideration my western tastes and does not feed me ugali at every meal. I eat almost 1 1/2 mangos per day along with tomatoes, eggs and fresh juices. I am being very spoiled here. On Friday afternoon, after a nice rest, several members of TAWE came over and we had a 4 hour meeting. I probably wont go too much into the activities of TAWE or how things are fairing with them since its not fair to them and probably not appropriate, but I definitely feel that I have a lot of work ahead of me and I am already questioning what I can accomplish. In the meantime I am keeping an open mind about these women and their lives. On Saturday Loyce's niece was having a visiting day at her girl so we took a picnic and drove out to meet here. It very a very lively place and there were tons of people visiting. Loyce is a huge networker and knows people EVERYWHERE. She is a very intersting character . . . On Sunday my appointment cancelled so Loyce took me to the beach. IT WAS AMAZING. We took this little boat out to this island and spent the entire day swimming in crystal clear water, eating fresh fish and snorkeling. I have some amazing pictures that I hope to post sometime in the future. We met some nice men too and they kept us good company. Then this morning I had a meeting in the morning with a pottery collective to learn about how to make pottery and what tools are available. One of my projects here is to work with a group of village women to see how they can produce better pottery to market to big buyers. It was an informative session and my next step is to go visit the village maybe next week and see how they are currently operating and to get a clay sample to the pottery collective so they can give better advice on what glazes and molds to use. In the afternoon I met with the chapter Treasurer and had a pretty unproductive day, but was able to see where she works and meet some nice people.
So I feel like I am leaving out a ton of detail, and I guess that I am. Its so hard to convey where I am and what Im doing. Its hot as well. Like super hot. I am the most casually dressed person that I meet. I dont have any nice clothes and everyone dresses very nicely here, even in the heat. One of my new favorite things are Khangas, hence the title. Khangas are traditional Tanzanian wear. They are basically thin towels that serve as dresses, skirts, wraps, bags, baby carriers, etc. They are multi functional and always have some kind of Swahili message written on them. They are meant to convey a message. Loyce and Edine (her maid) gave me one on my first night and I love wearing it around the house. When I come in at the end of the day I always take off my clothes and put it on. Its so comfortable and relaxing.
One note - I had a nice email from Mary DuPont about how lucky I have been, or how great of a guardian angel I have. I just wanted to completely agree with her and I hope it comes across how grateful I am for the amazing people I have met and the amazing experiences I have had. This is such a life changing and eye opening time for me and Im very happy with the person that I am here. I hope that I have the strength and grace to bring that person home.
I have to go now and will have more of an update later, but I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life. Congrats to America for Barack Obama! I love you all!