Amsterdam Day 1

I had a full day today in Amsterdam. First, I went shopping for warm clothes and shoes for a couple of hours. It was nice just to walk down the main shopping street going into stores and trying on boots. After a couple of hours of trying on shoes I decided just to buy a warm pair of socks instead. Then I had a huge lunch of Thai chicken soup and a huge sandwich. In the afternoon I went on a canal cruise/tour through the city. The tour was very bad but it was really nice to see more of the city. At around 4:45 the sun went down and I went back to my hotel room to rest. About two hours ago I went to get some dinner. To do this I had to go outside (which took all of my motivation I could muster up) dressed in so many layers that I couldn't more my arms. I ate a delicious McDonald's quarter pounder meal and went to this dessert place and got a waffel drenched in chocolate sauce. All of this food tasted amazing to me!!

Its been a strange day starting to adjust. I was so close to bargaining with the salespeople at H&M today. Also, I was worried that something was wrong with my food at lunch because it came so fast. Going on public transportation absolutely blew my mind because the tram actually came to a full stop to let passengers on. And there was a mechanical paying system! Oh and I was just getting used to the lack of personal space in Tanzania so the amount of space people put between themselves has kind of made me think. On the public bus there is a "comfort level" rating based on how many people are on the bus. That just makes me laugh. I got weird looks when I sat down directly next to someone at a table. This is just the beginning of "reverse culture shock."

Safe and Sound

Just writing to say that I am safe and sound in Amsterdam. The flight from Tanzania seemed really short and I got to spend a couple more hours with my friends. Its very strange being back in the very developed world. It actually feels like I never left but I keep noticing things that catch me off guard... such as thinking about brushing my teeth using tap water!

Of course I came into Amsterdam on a bitterly snowy day BUT it is still beautiful and I'm about to go out to get a bite to eat and get some warmer clothes. (Well really just a pair of warm shoes, gloves, and a hat.)

Onto my next adventure

I'm flying out of Tanzania tonight at 10:30pm with three of my amazing friends, Stephanie, Jenna, and Cassandra. When we land in Amsterdam in the morning, I'm heading straight into my new adventure. I'm spending two weeks wandering around Europe and Northern Africa. Four countries in 14 days. I'll be going to the Netherlands, Morocco, France, and England. I'm going to try my best to update everyone on this blog about my whirlwind trip. I'm most nervous about the weather! I'm coming from 80 degrees and sunny to 30 degrees and dreary. Seriously, I just came back from tanning by the pool at the hotel up the street! Guess that means I'll be having a shopping spree for gloves and possibly a warmer coat.

Currently, there are four of us left in Arusha and it is very surreal. I have moved out of my apartment for the housekeepers to clean and all of my bags are packed. I'm a lot more laid back about packing on this end compared to how I was when I was coming here. I'll probably be going back to the pool for a little while then I'll come back, shower, and get ready to leave this beautiful country.

Kwa heri!

Last full day

Today is my last full day in Arusha. Its a very bitter sweet day for me. This semester has definitely been a lot of fun and I have done some amazing things but I have also faced some serious challenges. The past week I have been trying to take in Arusha with all of my senses so that I could have a really full memory of the city. So here it is: Arusha according to my senses.

Sound: The call to prayer 5 times each day, Kiswahili being spoken everywhere, blasting music from Dala Dalas, cars whizzing by, chirping birds, the sounds of the streets being swept, pick up trucks with full bands in the back playing for a wedding, the songs "Waka Waka" and "Waving Flag"

Sight: Mount Meru, colorful flowers, dirt roads, school children in uniforms, some of the most beautiful people I've ever seen, colorful kangas and kitenges, amazing handicrafts, lots of bicycles

Touch: Dirt/dust, soft fabrics, everyone else's hands who want to shake your's or give you a high five on the street, food such as chipati and ugali in my hands

Smell: spices, maize cooking on the sidewalk, body odor, car exhaust, flowers, Indian food, the birds and turtles at the Natural History Museum, fresh fruits being sold across the street, chai, OMO clothing detergent, hand sanitizer, Swahili food, freshly baked bread

Taste: Ugali, maize, rice, stewed vegetables, beans, chili sauce, dirt, sand, mangos, pineapple, avocado, nyama choma (barbecue), goat meat, chips, sweet potatoes, chipati

Happy Thanksgiving from Tanzania

Happy Thanksgiving! It has been a different kind of Thanksgiving but a nice day nevertheless. For our feast, we went out to our favorite Chinese food restaurant- an African Thanksgiving, kind of like a Jewish Christmas!

great escape to kenya

The past couple of weeks have been really hard so my friend Stephanie and I decided to reward ourselves with a couple day getaway to he beautiful coastal town of Mombasa, Kenya. On Wednesday morning we left Arusha on a big yellow bus and drove about 9 hours into another world! (Oh, on the bus ride there I saw an elephant just hanging out near the road.)

When we got to Mombasa, we took a taxi to the northern tip of the island called Nyali which is the really nice section. Our hostel was there so we hung out there

for a couple of hours, eating dinner and hanging around this really reallynice shopping center. The hostel was in a huge mansion but it was really creepy and hot so the night was actually not that good.

On Thursday morning we got up and went to the beach! We went to this five star hotel named The Reef and hung out in the beautiful pool that overlooked the gorgeous Indian Ocean. We swam all morning, hung out at the swim up bar, and ate a light lunchat theoutdoor restaurant. In the early afternoon when the clouds were coming in, we left the pool and we to Haller Park which is a nature reserve within walkingdistance to Nyali District. The beautiful Reef

Hotel.

It turned out that we got to Haller Park right at feeding time for the animals. For just 800

Kenyan Shillings ($10) we gotour ownprivate tour of the entire park, fed giraffes by hand, and got to see the hippos and the crocodiles being fed. Haller Park was definitely a really fun experience.

After going to Haller Park, we went back to our hostel to pick up our bags and headed to the place we were staying for that night. We did not know that it was so far away but we realized this after about 2 hours of traveling by 3 different matatus (Kenya version of the dala-dala), a ferry across the channel, and a taxi. (A taxi from Nyali to the south coast where we were heading was going to be about $50 so we decided to rough it). We finally got to Stilts, the tree house hotel at about 8:30, ate dinner, and got into bed. Me feeding a giraffe!

!

I was awoken on Friday morning in my little tree house by Stephanie telling me to look at two monkeys staring in at us through the cracks big enough for them to move through. That morning, I put my toothbrush, toothpaste, and inhaler on the table on our little porch and one of the monkeys swooped down and stole my inhaler!!

We spent the morning and early afternoon at the beach again this time at 40 Thieves, a really cool restaurant with a free beach. We ate some amazing food and rested on the couches right on

the beach. The water was as warm as a bath! It was amazing!

Our Treehouse at Stilts

In the later afternoon, we headed back to the north beach via matatu, ferry, and this time a tuktuk which is an auto rickshaw! We checked into this other hotel in Nyali for Friday night that seemed really nice but there were bugs in the beds :(. We got up early on Saturday morning and caught the bus back to Arusha.

The couple days away were so relaxing and now I'm re-energized to do my massive amounts of work. Its really strange to thinking about how 1 week from tomorrow I will be boarding a plane to Europe.

Karibu, short rains!

Sorry for slacking on my blog updates. Basically I have been doing school work for the past week, which has been frustrating and somewhat educational!

Good news though: it is officially the "short rainy season" in Arusha. The four season system does not really exist here, rather there are three seasons: rainy, dry, and kind of rainy. The rainy season is in the spring (according to the northern hemisphere) but the rains are called "long rains." I'm assuming the rains last for several days at a time. The "short rains" that are occurring now, come once a day and last for maybe an hour. It is very unfortunate if you happen to get caught outside during the rain though, cause they're pretty vicious. The short rainy season is beneficial to the agriculture in Tanzania and all of those fun things.

Also good news: I'm going to Mombasa, Kenya from Wednesday to Saturday. I need a break from this school craziness and what better way to do so than to spend a few days on the beach?!

Putting the "study" in "study abroad"

The semester is starting to come to a close which means that school work is starting to pick up. I have about 3 weeks left here and I have SO much work to do! I'm starting to get a little nervous about getting it all done alongside trying enjoying the rest of my time here. I just don't want the last three weeks of my semester abroad to be ruined by piles of papers to write and tests to study for! I think I just need to remind myself to do something that is fun and stress-free each day so that I do not fall into end of semester burnout.

Now, I'm getting back to work!

Camel Safari!

After talking about going since the second week of being in Arusha, 3 friends of mine and I went on a camel safari today! After an hour drive through all terrains from Arusha to Mount Meru we arrived at the Mkuru Camel Safari Project, the starting point of the safari. The camel project is located in the middle of nowhere. There are probably thirty camels and they basically roam freely which looks strange because camels are so clearly not indigenous to the region!

After a few minutes of stretching our legs from the car ride and taking pictures of the camels, the guides brought out 4 camels (meaning that each of us got to ride our own) and we climbed on! This was my second time being on a camel, the first being in Israel when I was 16, but my experience didn't make the standing up and the sitting down of the camel any less scary!! Once we got to a nice pace, through, I started to have a really nice time looking at the scenery and petting the head of the camel directly behind me.

Part of the safari was visiting a Massai village, which as I know was set up specifically for tourism purposes, but it was interesting nevertheless. The guide awkwardly brought us into a Massai boma (house) and the woman and her child who live in the house showed us around. The child, named Zawadi (Swahili for gift) took to me, according to her mother because she likes white skin. Then the other women in the village started taking out their beadwork jewelry to sell to us. I bought a bracelet and necklace.

After the Massai village we hopped onto our camels and rode back to the place we started to eat lunch, expecting to take another stroll on the camels after eating. Right when we sat down to eat our packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches it started down-pouring. By the time we finished eating, the rain had stopped but our guide told us we could not go back out riding because it was going to rain again (he was certain of it). So we paid and got back into our car to drive back through the rough terrain back to Arusha. Lo and behold, the minute we drove out of the camel area it began pouring again. I'm glad we didn't get stuck in the rain on our camels!

Of course it didn't rain in Arusha! When we got back it was just as hot and dry as ever!

Food!

I realized today that I have not done a blog entry on food! So here we go!

The traditional Tanzanian diet consists of ugali ("stiff porridge" made from maize flour), beans, rice, greens, and meat (usually chicken or goat). Nyama choma which is basically barbecued meat is really popular and I really enjoy going out to get barbecued chicken, beef, or goat. Other popular foods are chipati, somosas, cassava, sweet potatoes, and chips (french fries). The flavors are very influenced by international cuisine, especially India and China! Anywhere you go you can get curry vegetables. Another local dish is banana stew-- which is exactly what it sounds like: bananas and beef. The bananas are not the sweet kind so they turn out to have more of the consistency and taste of potatoes. There are also many types of fresh fruits available such as oranges, pineapples, guavas, passion fruits, bananas, melons, and mangos.

Arusha has A LOT of restaurants. So far I have been to a Chinese restaurant, a Middle Eastern "inspired" restaurant, a hamburger joint, an Italian bistro, and many other types of cafe type places. There are also SO MANY Indian food restaurants, but I'm not a huge fan of Indian food so I tend to stay away. I ate at the best sandwich shop in Arusha. I ate there several weeks ago and when I was thinking about what I was going to eat for lunch today I got an incredibly strong craving for this seemingly disgusting sandwich from this shop. The sandwich is salami, cream cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. Somehow the spicy salami and the cream cheese come together to make a rich combination of flavors that is really satisfying. A few hours later, after walking for a little too long in the mid day heat, I got another really strong craving for chips which just happened to coincide with going to the ATM and passing this little stand on the street that supposedly has the best fries. I got them "take away" and took a bite of one of the fries from the bag and IMMEDIATELY regretted getting chili sauce! It was so spicy my nose started running and my eyes were tearing!

Being in Tanzania has given me a chance to try some new food and taste some new combinations of food. Nevertheless, I am very excited to get back to the United States so I can have Mexican food and good pizza.

Happy November!

Elections have come but they are not gone. On Sunday, Tanzanians hit the polls to vote for their favorite candidates for local government, national parliament, and president. The day was eerily quiet especially since we had been warned of potential unrest during voting times. I went to sleep on Sunday night thanking the high heavens that it was a peaceful day.

On Monday morning, while walking to class before 8am, my classmates and I walked through a small group of Chadema (opposition party) supporters standing outside of the Municipal Council. When class ended at 10am the small gathering had grown exponentially so that an entire road was filled with people wearing red, white, and blue, the colors of Chadema. I found out later that there were some disputes over the results. Police in riot gear surrounded the demonstrators. I tried my hardest to circumvent the action and spent the rest of the day in my apartment complex. At around 6pm I heard noises from outside that sounded like gunshots and then saw masses of people running down the small road that runs behind my apartment building. I found out later that the sound was the police shooting off tear gas to disperse the crowds that were forming! Luckily I was far enough away to not be affected and by the time I finished eating dinner that night the city returned to its relative calmness.

I spent some time yesterday at Women in Action sitting in on one of their Village Community Banking (VICOBA) groups. I am writing my final paper in my Gender and Development class on the organization ad their VICOBA groups. More to come later about the banking groups!

When I was catching a dala dala to go back to my apartment after spending time at WIA, I saw the strangest thing that made me stop in my tracks for several seconds. A big truck transporting prisoners passed me (which is relatively normal, I usually see these types of trucks driving in and out of the local hospital) and all of the prisoners were sticking their hands through the bars of the truck and yelling in support of the opposition party. As I looked around after the initial surprise I realized that traffic kind of stopped for those several seconds as everyone initially stared in shock and then flashed the peace sign that represents the opposition party. It just shows how EVERYONE has an opinion about politics here!

After dinner, a few friends and I watched Blood Diamond. I recommend that movie to anyone who wants to begin to understand Africa and its conflicts. While not every country in Africa is in conflict over diamonds, the movie shows how natural resources and international influences are major causes of conflict and power struggles. Nevertheless, the issue of conflict diamonds continues to cause major human rights violations.

Today was pretty calm. Ate my first mango of the mango season, did some homework, and went swimming with a few friends at the hotel up the street.

I am in shock that I am leaving at the end of this month. I am finally starting to feel comfortable here! Its all part of the adventure I guess.