Tanzania page 3 of 3
I just received a call from Tara @ 7:30 am,pst. She just returned from the "disappointing" 3 day Mikumi safari (MOM19). However,"......it was "AWESOME!"
She mentioned that it was too bad people left early, because it ended up "GREAT!". Lions, Cougars, Giraffes...etc.. She loved the Campfires at night. They reminded her of the many Bonfires we had at home on the beach in San Clemente, Calif.
Only had a minute and a half, very bad connection
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Tara W [item 2]
Hi everyone,
I�m on my way to India while trying to process everything I witnessed in Tanzania...once we get back on the ship, it is really hard to focus on studying because we are soaking up so much outside of school and trying to plan for the next country. Since I did not do any service projects or many other things in Tanzania besides a safari, this email will be shorter than the previous ones, I hope.
Early in the morning we pulled into the small channel leading to the docking point, where we saw a boat packed with workers heading over to Zanzibar for the day. We waved, at least I did, and did not receive one back. Either they were in complete shock of the huge ship right next to them, or they were not very happy we were there. Either way, the first interaction with Dar es Salaam did not make me feel welcomed. The ship took a really long time to clear, so in anticipation of seeing the city, we could not wait to get off (as usual). Getting off the ship the first thing I encountered was a gigantic metal crane that had smashed into the building directly in front of our gangway. Again, not making me feel very secure at our dock. Sometimes Semester at Sea can scare us a little too much, by warning us about everything and telling us not to do certain things. In this port, we were told there was possible Anti-American sentiment and that we were not allowed to go to the islands of Zanzibar, Mafia and one other that I don�t remember right now. Since SAS hasn�t been to Dar es Salaam in 20 years I think the faculty tried to prepare us for anything and everything, which was good in a way, but they do seem to go overboard sometimes. With all these warning and "scare tactics" from the staff and the diplomats, we were all a little wary about what to expect when we stepped off the safety of our ship.
The ship was so far away from anything, very different from South Africa where the mall was right in our face the whole time. We walked through a yard of old box cars from trains and large wherehouses that Erin describes as "a place where the mafia would take someone to kill them." It was a little sketchy, but only a 10 min walk through there and then we hit the gate where we were able to get a taxi the rest of the way. The first night a taxi full of our crew were mugged at gunpoint after dark, so they beat the taxi driver up and ran. I�m glad I heard about that after we left Dar, because that�s a little scary...
Tanzania is definitely a third world port, and is was obvious from the amount of poverty my eyes saw. This was not a tourist trap, it was everyday people going about their lives stopping to say "jambo" (hello) to us on the street. Me and five other girls headed straight for the market since we had the full day to do whatever we wanted. Our goal was to get to Karikoo market which was described in one of our travel books as the "cheaper local market", so in wanting not to be with a million other SAS students, we went for it.
When asking for directions, we were given many different ones, so we ended up walking around for about an hour in the heat of the sun (in pants). We came upon the street Karikoo and decided to ask one more person if we were going the right way. His name was Rodrick, and he offered to walk us there and through it. I was so relieved that he was with us, because six white girls walking through this market seem to be out of the ordinary by the looks we received. This was one of the first times I have felt EXTREMELY uncomfortable as an American and wanted to crawl up into a little ball. There was not a white person in sight, which is usually not the case since SAS students end up in the same place most of the time; it was not what I was expecting. But, I am very glad I went because it was an experience I needed. Rodrick would not leave us because he said it was "unsafe to be walking around alone", so he got us a taxi , rode along with us and took us to the cultural museum. The museum had 18 different houses set up my different villages so that we could compare the different types of houses in each area. Rodrick was from the capital, Dedoma and explained that his grandparents and parents lived in a house like the ones we saw, but his were more modern. At the museum we met some kids our age 18-22 who were doing a fundraiser for AIDS/HIV education. They were very friendly and talked with us about our culture and we asked about theirs. I was very relieved to see that there was a promotion of AIDS education since Tanzania has one of the worst epidemics. Rodrick graduated from the University and was now teaching Geography and politics while taking classes on computers in Dar es Salaam. It was so funny because we kept talking about the "bugs" and he had no idea what that meant. He knew the word "insect" but not bugs which surprised most of us, because you don�t think of "bugs" being a slang word. When he was a child, girls (like his sisters), did not go to school since they were meant for the kitchen. But now, education is more valued for everyone and mandatory until a certain age. He was a very nice man, so gentle and helpful; he escorted us all the way back to the ship. We gave him some postcards with our names on them and got his address so we can keep in touch with him.
We have been encouraged to talk with people in each country about everything and anything, so we asked what he thought of the war. Rodrick says "Tanzania is against any fighting, we are a peaceful country where refugees come running to from violence". To me, I did not feel so safe in Dar, maybe it's from the things we were told before we got there, or maybe its actually from the sense I felt there. Its amazing to hear everyone�s opinion...in the states, sometimes I forget that there are so many people in the world with very different ideas and beliefs, that we really don�t have a chance of ever hearing. At the end, I remembered to get a picture with Rodrick, since I regret not doing that with the girl I met in South Africa.
For dinner, we headed out to Peacock Hotel since there aren't many restaurant besides hotels. It was pretty good and cheap: appetizer, entree, drink, desert for about $10. Anything different from the ship food at this point is incredibly good. We ran into three Massai Mara men guarding a building. They live in Arusha area, about 8 hours away from Dar es Salaam, but are brought in for their courage to be guards for the city. Seeing grown men dressed in their traditional robes definitely makes them stand out, and that is what they want. We asked to take a picture of them, they refused unless we gave them some money. So, we didn�t...I have it in my head (and other peoples digital pictures).
3/3/03
Today was our day to catch up on things we needed to do. Basically we did internet in the morning, shopping in the afternoon, and dinner at night. Internet was only 50 cents for a half hour (unlike on the ship 50cents/minute), so we used that for a while. We heard that the local market, Mwange, had great bargains for wood carvings and some paintings. At Mawange, our first sight was men sitting on the ground carving from every shape of wood you can imagine. Going around to each little store we expected different item at each one, but were disappointed when we figured out they were all the same just different bargains. So, we scoped out our the items we liked and experimented at each place with how low we could get. I found something I really wanted to get, but they only had it at one place that I saw, so I had to settle for her price. To bargain her down from $10 to $6 I had to give her 2 pens and my only Blistex chapstics...but, hey I wanted it :) So, the next store (which we hadn�t been in yet), had the same thing for $4 without bargaining; too bad for the "great" deal because you can't exchange anything. And all of you will be surprised to hear that I, Tara, bought a skirt, only $5...I figured if I don�t wear it, it's not that much money. At the end I only had $1.80 left in my pocket, so I bought a little drum even though her quoted price was $10 (which is usually their "American" starting price), she knew I only had $1.80, that was a good bargain :) After bringing our stuff back to the ship (with 6 people in a taxi for 4-how we usually travel), we went out to dinner at the "New Africa" Hotel. It was really good. The one thing to remember when eating dinner in Tanzania is give yourself at least 3 hours. Unlike the states, no one is in a rush. Therefore, to get your order take=30min, food=1:30min, and bill=3 hours after being seated. So, be prepared.
One thing I didn�t mentioned yet is the rationing of water we have to do it port here. Since the water here and in India is not clean enough to use for showers and washing hands, we were only allowed to use the water between 6am-10am and 6pm-10pm. So, we had to be back before 10pm to take a shower...which, trust me, everyone needs a shower after Tanzania for the day.
3/4/03
Its Safari day! On our way out to Mkumi National Park to see wild animals, the sides of the roads were occupied by many people. While in our air conditioned buses (once again), we saw the young men and boys riding and walking into the town to look for jobs for the day. The women sitting outside on their steps and children playing in the dirt. Some women and young girls, in the later day, walking with buckets and rice on their heads without flinching. The landscape reminded me of Santa Barbara with roads made of dirt and houses made of cow dung and mud. The houses on the side of the road were just like we saw in the cultural museum. Once we reached our "5 star hotel", we rushed out of the buses to hit the bathrooms. Unfortunately, our expectations were not met, and many people were mad...mostly the professors and leaders on the trip. This started everything off bad. The itinerary was not being followed and the accommodations were not what we paid for. So, without letting us linger too long and build up more anger, we left for the game drive. It ended up being another 2 hours to the park from out hotel. That was very frustrating since we thought we would be near the park and in a nicer hotel. I enjoyed the game drive though, once we got there. We saw giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, impala, elephants, buffalo and tons of birds. It was a great day at the park, but when we got back to the hotel it wasn�t so great. Most of the professors and their families left in the morning because they were so unsatisfied with the arrangements and didn�t want to deal with them anymore. There weren�t enough rooms for us, so most of us ended up with 4 in a bed and Erin and I ended up with a rat in our bathroom. Erin ran into the bathroom, sat down and screamed...."there�s a rat in here!!" and ran out of the bathroom. The guard heard her scream and ran down with his baton. He went into the bathroom and we heard a smack and a thud. He then kicked it out of our room with his foot and finished it off on our porch. It was disgusting! There were still guts in the bath tub too, so he took that out with his hands, eww. The rest of the night, Erin and I stayed in our mosquito nets with our lights and glasses on (since we both can't see without them)- just in case. So, our night consisted of no sleep, but it was ok because we were so excited about the next days safari. I�m glad those who were complaining so much left, they were really bringing the rest of us down especially since they were supposed to be the "mature" ones.
3/5/03
We went off to our second game drive at 7am, in hopes of seeing some lion in the morning time. We didn�t. Instead, we saw the same animals as the day before, with one of our buses seeing a cougar. The only other thing that was really upsetting was that we couldn�t go in safari in "safari jeeps". We had to stay in our buses, which meant we couldn�t go off roading to where the lions were. This came into consideration when they gave us our two options when we got back from our morning safari. The first, you could go back now and get a $200 refund or get $100 refund and stay another night at the lodge right in the park and go on a 6am game drive the next morning. Of course I stayed because I really wanted to get the full experience, hopefully seeing some lions in the early morning game drive. We did! The next morning, we went out and saw 3 female lions sunbathing in the tall grass. They were beautiful, with the Africa sunrise and trees in the distance. It was incredible. Basically, that sums up our safari...its hard to describe animals, you'll have to see pictures. Eating lunch, we had 4 foot birds called "scavengers" eating with us. It was a little frightening with five 4 foot birds around you staring at what you are putting in your mouth. Another amazing thing was how the an elephant came right up to the pool and drank out of it. We were about 10 feet away from him, his trunk was so funny looking while he was sipping up the water. The camp there calls him Osama because he mauled a worker on 9/11...so they gave him that well deserved nickname. At night, we sat around the bonfire and bonded. It was really shocking how many people opened up, especially those who I would never expect. Since I hate public speaking, it was really hard for me to talk in front of all these strangers...but, this trip is about coming out of your comfort zone, so I did. One of the ideas that I will never forget from around the bonfire is "the more you learn, the less you know", from one of the professors. After seeing so much already, I really believe this is true...I never knew what I was missing.
3/6/03
On our way back to the ship from the morning drive where we saw 3 lions. I just watch the landscape trying to take it all in. Tanzania did not permit us to take pictures of certain things (schools, police and government stuff) and it was not customary to take pictures of anything really, so I ended up with no pictures of the people. All I did was listen to other peoples conversations on the way back and tried to sleep. Getting back to the ship wasn�t fun, since I am never ready to leave the countries we go to.
Ok, I think I have rambled on enough so I will let you all go. Once again, I hope everything is going well for everyone.
Love,
Tara
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Julia [item 3]
AFFFRRRRRIIIICCCCCCAAAAAA! Is where I am right now.
Okay, I want to let you know that I am frustrated right now because I actually already wrote a very extensive e-mail, but as soon as I pressed send�poof�my connection was gone. I tried again at the internet caf�, but I'm now actually sending this from the boat ..long story..! Anyway, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya are so unlike any place I have ever been. They are extremely poor countries with kids standing in the middle of the streets selling soap and other necessary items, street stands set up that sell everyday clothes as if they were malls, and thousands of the little public buses/vans - Dala Dalas, zooming down the streets. Right now, however, I will speak of ship life.
Right before we left South Africa, a township choir came on board and gave us an amazing performance. Since I am a member of the choir, I got to sing (and dance) the last song with them. The sea was extremely rough for the first couple days after South Africa and me and about 90% of the ship was feeling quite sick. Luckily, my mom sent me a package in South Africa that included SEA BANDS!!! On the third day at sea, we had the un-Olympics, which is a day full of events in which we competed to see which deck would get off the ship first. I did- name that tune and mashed potato sculpture/eating. We made a lovely Taj Mahal and I got sick from eating all the potatoes, but alas, the Yellow Sea (my deck) came in about last place.
AFRICA!! As we pulled into port a few friends and I got out the ships AWESOME drums and drummed while we pulled in. I'm becoming quite the drummer and I think I'll take Swahili next semester (is that better than Chinese, Mom and Dad?) Shortly after arrival, I departed to the airport for my flight to Nairobi, Kenya. In Nairobi, we had a short tour of the bustling city before we arrived at our hotel then departed for dinner at Carnivore. Carnivore is a world famous restaurant that is basically the African equivalent of the Hard Rock Caf�. They served us chicken, pork sausages, beef, IMPALA meatballs, HARTEBEEST, ZEBRA, WILDEBEEST, OSTRICH and here is the best part- they would come around and carve it off of swords onto our plates. Everything was quite good, but it sure was a lot of flesh.
The next morning, we departed very early for the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. After seeing the Great Rift Valley, several animals, Maasai Men and their cattle and traveling for five hours on a very bumpy, narrow road, we arrive at the Mara Sopa Lodge. With a swimming pool, tea and coffee at all times, quaint little huts with huge beds and showers, we were as far from "roughing it" as we could be, which of course is good and bad. In the afternoon, we went on our first game drive in vans that had roofs that lifted up so we could take pictures and get better views of the animals. Animals we saw include: impala, gazelle, wildebeest, hartebeest, giraffes, lions, elephants, (babies included!) After the buffet dinner (in one of the poorest countries in the world??) we enjoyed a performance by the Maasai dancers.
The next day, a few kids went on a hot air balloon while I went on a game drive where I saw a bunch of the same animals and yesterday. The highlight of this day, however, was the visit to the Maasai village. The Maasai are pastoral people whose economy is almost completely based on cattle. There are about 1.1 million Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania , but the ones we visited with are hired by the tourist agency. Even so, they try to maintain their traditional ways of life to the best of their ability even though they are being forced off their land because their cattle get in the way of all the animals and the Safari business would go down the tubes. They are really in a difficult situation as they no longer have enough land to maintain their way of life, but there really is no place for them in the very slowly developing countries of Tanzania and Kenya. Most of them are very educated, speaking three or four languages.
The village consisted of a fence made of sticks to keep out predators and keep cattle in and about 10 houses about six feet tall made out of cow dung. When we arrived, the women and girls were performing a dance followed by the men. You wouldn't believe me if I told you how high they could jump. After the dances, a Maasai man took a few of us into his home, which had several rooms and a kitchen. They keep cattle for a living, but they very rarely eat beef, usually subsisting on the milk and blood. This man offered me some milk, and I drank it, I'm still alive, so I don�t regret it! Then they tried to sell us all their crafts, which is the time when people start getting out their socks, t-shirts, pens, an other stuff they brought to barter.
The next morning we left VERY early and had a similar ride back except this time we got to see baboons, which pleased me greatly. Oh, by the way, the climate was so wonderful in Kenya. It's at a high altitude so it was nice and cool compared to the intense heat of the cities (I'm sorry�I know you have like 7583957 inches of snow) . The flight back was hot and bumpy and made me sick. When I got back, I wasn't really in the mood to walk around and explore so I just went to an internet caf� and wrote a wonderful e-mail and then lost it�grrr. That evening, I showered during the specified hours (our water was rationed) and then ate dinner at an Indian Chinese Restaurant with a few friend and our videographer, who is a really cool guy. An attack on four crew members had us pretty freaked out about being in the city at night so SAS ran a shuttle to downtown and back and recommended a 11:00 curfew.
Today, my last day, I went to the national museum, which was small and simple but housed some amazing artifacts that dealt with human evolution (my anthropology dork lights were going off like crazy). A student from the University of Dar es Salaam accompanied us and gave me some Swahili R&B recommendations. After the museum, I basically explored the super busy city with two friends by walking in the heat. In our attempt to find the local market, we were usually directed to the Shop Rite grocery store. Eventually, we took a taxi to a tourist market that sold ebony carvings and jewelry. It was actually a lot of fun talking to the locals for extensive amounts of time while trying to knock the prices down.
I came back to the ship completely exhausted and overheated from walking around in jeans and a conservative shirt (no women in Dar show their legs past the knee or their shoulders) My awesome music professor arranged a performance by a popular "ngoma" group in Tanzania. There were three guys who played about 11 drums simultaneously and two girls that danced and sang. It was awesome and the SAS "drumming circle" felt inspired so we went to work for a few hours as we left Tanzania�.Now I'm going to sleep so I can go to core tomorrow at 9:20�yes..(INDIA IS COMING UP AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)
Love,
Julia
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Hey Fam!
All right, so Tanzania was the best experience yet, in terms of learning about the world and being challenged in every emotional way possible. The first day I was psyched to get off the ship, but they ended up holding us on for an extra couple hours for whatever reason. I was driving Nina nuts because I was so antsy to get off; I was worried about getting to the travel place too late because it was Sunday and the guy was only sticking around to wait for me.
Finally we got off the ship, but to get into town we had to take a shuttle to a local hotel. From there we found a cab. Nina got pretty nervous; the neighborhood looked pretty sketchy. Actually, Dar Es Salaam in general was pretty sketchy; almost everyone felt uncomfortable there. This area especially, though, was as far from touristy parts as it could have been and boy did we stick out like sore thumbs. But Tehsin, the guy who set my trip up, is such a friendly guy and went out of his way to point us in the right direction. He even exchanged money for us at a good rate, since all of the exchange boroughs were closed. Nina wanted to find an internet caf� so he told us about one that was a couple blocks from his office. On the street walking there, I have to admit I was pretty nervous too, but Nina seemed nervous so I tried to act like I knew what I was doing (the best way to get mugged is to act all nervous and confused).
The streets of Dar Es Salaam are just very different from anything we have seen thus far on the trip. They reminded me a bit of Cairo, except they are much less used to seeing tourists in Tanzania. It is just very dirty, run-down and fast paced. Americans attract so much attention and it makes everyone uncomfortable when we just want to walk down the streets and blend in. Not to mention that we attracted the attention of a ton of street crime. More than a few people got mugged. I wouldn�t even carry my camera in the city, so the only pictures I got are from Safari (I am counting on Jerry to get some good footage of town). Anyway, I strayed off the point. We used the internet caf�, and that is when you got the first email from me.
After that, at Tehsin�s suggestion, we went to the Village Museum (almost everything else was closed on account of it being Sunday). The village museum was pretty cool. There are numerous ethnic groups native to Tanzania, and the museum had 14 huts built, each one from a different tribe, with information on how they were made and what different purposes various features served. We were also shown a native dance. Really, though, the best part was chatting with a couple Rastafarian guys who worked there. At this place they are very used to seeing tourists, but no doubt these two were just interested in the two young American girls there by themselves. Nonetheless, they were very friendly and welcoming. I ended up trading a bracelet I had bought in Brazil for a bracelet one of the guys had on. Actually, he just wanted to give me his, so I traded. After we went through the museum Nina and I wanted Cokes. We went to the caf� at the place and got some, as one of the Rastafarians went to get us a cab. He came back and we went to leave, trying to take the Cokes with us, not realizing that the people get deposits for them. The woman who worked there started to try to stop us, but one of the guys (the other had left a while ago to sing in his band) told her he had a couple extra coke bottles that he would replace those with. I was blown away by how out of his way this guy had gone for us throughout the day. He had been our tour guide earlier and didn�t want any kind of a tip, then was going to pay for us to take these Coke bottles. I mean, these people are hungry, they don�t make a lot of money, but they were genuine none-the-less. Anyway, we went back to the ship then and met up with Theresa for dinner. We headed back out after to get drinks.
We met up with Peter and headed to the Royal Palm Hotel (or Palm Royal, I kept getting that reversed), where Peter ran into his world music professor. She recommended some local night spots with good live music. We decided to go to one of those places later. We hung out at the hotel for a while first, met up with some other Semester at Sea people, sent Nina back to the ship (she isn�t much of a night owl), and the rest of us headed out. Peter had met a very pretty, intelligent Kenyan girl so she came with us. We ended up filling up two cabs, and when we got to the spot we could see immediately that no tourist had ever been here. My cab consisted of me, Theresa, Peter and his friend, and we all jumped out and walked to the other cab to collect the rest of our party. Those people were very sketched out about the place, but we convinced them to get out, that everything was fine. They were hesitant because their cab driver had told them it might not be safe for us, which was ridiculous no matter how much we stuck out.
Anyway, we got swarmed at first, but there were a couple guards that shooed all the beggars away from us. We paid and went inside, and were happy to see a huge courtyard with a live reggae/samba type band and about 200 people dancing and having a great time. We received such a friendly greeting there � the owner wanted to announce to everyone that we were there (he said he was honored that we would want to be there). We told him no, it probably wasn�t a good idea to draw attention to us, but we all hung out with him a lot that night. We all bought some Tanzanian beer and went out to dance the night away. The coolest part about it was just how welcoming the people were; they were all dancing with us, and it wasn�t like at clubs in the other ports where the girls just got harassed by drunk guys. Everyone was very conservative in their dancing and just wanted to have fun. I�m sure the fact that people were very drunk influenced their friendliness.
At the end of the night I started talking to this girl who spoke perfect English and her brother who struggled a bit. She works for one of the touristy hotels in the area, and wanted to show me around the city. I told her I was leaving on safari, but she gave me her phone number anyway and said to call her when I got back. I tried a few times but I could never get hold of her. I was pretty disappointed; she was very cool.
Anyway, I left with some of the other people (Theresa, Peter and a few others found another club when that one closed). I was with a guy and two girls, and the two girls were the biggest twits, they were annoying me so badly. We couldn�t get the cab driver to take us to the right place, so we finally had him take us to a hotel so we could find another cab. While the guy and I went out and actively tried to find a cab while bargaining so we wouldn�t get ripped off, the two girls just complained all night. I have serious issues with girls, or just people in general, who wait for everyone else to take care of them. It turned out that the cab could only drop us off at the gate to the port, and we had to walk about 15 minutes back to the ship.
I ran into some other people that I know, and they told me about how at the club they went to, they saw a lot of people wearing t-shirts with images of the twin towers on fire and at the bottom it said �I support terrorism.� I wasn�t too shocked (earlier, Nina�s and my cab had driven by the old American embassy that was bombed), except that I had encountered the exact opposite; everyone I spoke to about it was genuinely opposed to terrorism (of course, as most people are) and even though they hate Saddam Hussein themselves, they are opposed to the war in Iraq. People in the third world might be poor, but they are not ignorant or stupid. In every conversation I got into with people (and I got into more than a few) I was surprised at knowledgeable the person was about world issues. At least, that was the case in Dar. Rural areas are a different story.
The next morning I left on safari. My flight to Arusha was pretty commercial, but my flight to the Serengeti was awesome. I was in a tiny plane, just me, one pilot, and a couple who we ended up dropping off half-way to where I was going. We didn�t fly that high, so I had a great view the whole time. The lodge where I was staying was in the middle of where you would go on safari; no other signs of civilization, and there were animals just wandering the premises. There wasn�t a fence or anything. My room was so perfect, an entire wall was a window that looked out into the Serengeti, and it opened. My porter told me not to leave it open for too long because the baboons would come in and go through my stuff. Baboons are quite a pest both in South Africa and Tanzania, but I still think they are adorable. I ate lunch right after I checked in. The restaurant was very quiet, very nice, and open so there were birds flying around. At one point, baboons got in and the waiters had to chase them out. There were very few other guests. I went on a game drive the rest of the afternoon. I�ll have to show you pictures because there isn�t much to say about that except that it was a lot of fun.
After, I was exhausted from not sleeping the previous two nights, and went to take a nap before dinner. I should have known the entire scene was a little too good to be true. I was jolted awake by the sound of loud, American voices cussing and whining. I went outside to find a Semester at Sea group not only staying in, and filling up, the lodge, but they were also on my balloon safari! I can�t put into words how disappointed I was. I actually had a lot of friends on that particular trip, so it was nice to see them, but this trip also had the alcoholics. That night they got trashed and kept all the guests of the lodge up all night. People complained. It turns out that that trip got in trouble at almost every stop for causing so much trouble and just embarrassing the students and faculty who didn�t appreciate these kids representing Americans in that way. A lot of people talked about it during open-mic night tonight on Tanzania. These places are full of European tourists just having all of their stereotypes about Americans confirmed.
The next morning, after again a night of no sleep, we woke at five to do the hot air balloon. That was so cool, but you might be disappointed that we didn�t go that high. The higher you go, the faster you go, and we wanted our trip to last as long possible. But if I can, I am going to send you a picture of the sunrise because it was just spectacular. After the balloon, I sat in the Serengeti for an hour and drove to the airport. It was all over so fast, but I was glad to be going back to Dar. By the way, have you heard about fires in Africa? We learned about it in Core, but flying over it you would be shocked by what you saw. There must have been evidence of 25 fires just under where I flew. They get started for various reasons, including to kill bees and bring rain.
The next day I woke up early and went out to the city. I was at that point still trying to get a hold of the girl I had met the first night, so I got breakfast and coffee at a hotel while I read the local newspaper cover to cover. I did some shopping after that before heading back to the ship for lunch. I ate with a couple guys heading out to look at the mosques and Hindu temples of the area. I didn�t want to go with them (I was really starting to dig the lone travel thing, it is very nice to not have to worry about what anyone else wants to do) but I liked their idea. I ended up walking around the city with a guy I bought a cheap chess set from. He showed me mosques and temples and even a number of other points of interest. He wanted a tip but he said only if I could afford it. He was a very nice guy. Oh this is interesting, I saw swastikas all over the Hindu temples, and was very confused. I didn�t realize that Hitler stole the symbol from them.
Anyway, after that I met up with my friend Ilan and we got dinner at a local Chinese place. Do you remember when we went out to dinner at that African restaurant with Justin and Shannon, and they served that white, thick powdery mush stuff? Well, instead of rice I got that, and I find that I like it much better. Ilan told me about he was mugged the day before. He had been walking by himself and a guy came up behind him and grabbed him while two other guys went through his pockets. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a guy coming at him with a giant rock. He kept saying Salaam A Lakem (again, I cannot spell Arabic, but it means peace be upon you) and they finally went away. He was a bit shaken by it, but he didn�t let him hinder his trip. He had a cool experience though. He got in a cab and went to some random little village by himself for a couple nights. He inspired me to get myself back on track and do something like that in India.
I think the truth is I needed this experience in Tanzania to get my confidence up to travel so far off the beaten track, so to speak. I have also discovered that I enjoy being in cities. Where everyone complained about being uncomfortable in Dar, I found it to be very exciting. Walking around there, you are definitely well beyond any range of your comfort zone previously tested, but you just force yourself to look beyond that and see the culture underneath it all. I think I am subconsciously searching for a city half as exciting as Cairo, because I have yet to find one. Granted, Cairo is a huge city, but there is something about it. Maybe I just think that because it was my first big culture shock.
The last morning I went to a grocery store with Ilan and another girl named Melinda and bought some food for the ship. Then at eleven we met back at the ship for a last minute trip to a local university. There I had a great conversation with a guy who grew up in Kilimanjaro (I have no idea how to spell that), which, by the way, I could see from the Arusha airport. Let me tell you, I have never seen a mountain that big. If I climb any mountain in my life, I want it to be that one. But I digress.
In Tanzania, the government pays for everything when someone goes to this particular university. The only thing is, to get in people have to work very hard in �high school� and pass all kinds of tests. Then they only have three years to earn their degree, so they are overloaded with work. At the end of all that, they probably won�t be able to find a job anyway. If they want to continue with school they have to pay for it themselves. This particular guy had, in addition, spent five years in seminary school (he seemed to be a devout Christian, but he wasn�t preachy at all). But with him and the other students I spoke with, I have so much respect for those students. These are people who grew up poor and hungry, with the situation getting worse, and most of their peers stopped going to school so they could work or whatnot, but they stuck it out to get educated. I am amazed at the things people endure on a daily basis yet still manage to come out of it successful. Oh, and the guy I talked to most of the time grew on a farm as most people do in Tanzania, or at least in rural areas, and he mentioned that the climate has been changing since the 80s and thus hurting the agriculture of Tanzania. What also hurt was the economic boom of the 90s. This is something that I learned more in Core, but saw evidence of here. First world countries, in the form of the WTO, enacted all these rules that would benefit them and hurt developing countries. Thus the price for coffee, what this guy�s father farmed, had plummeted. Anyway, I exchanged emails with this guy. He is climbing Mt. Kilimenjaro later this year and promised to send me snapshots from the summit.
The rest of the day I spent with Theresa, who had just gotten back from her safari. We went to the hotel we went to the first night for drinks and met some other SAS students there. We ran into the girl we had gone out with the first night; she was waiting for Peter who was supposed to meet her when he got back from Safari. We waited with her, but when he showed up we gave them privacy. You wouldn�t think that two people from such vastly different regions would be able to find a way to relate, but they were adorable together. You could see that they were both sincerely smitten with each other.
Alright, I am sure I left out a ton of stuff I will remember later. I have already noticed that my perception of Africa has changed. I bought a Time magazine and I read a quote and a few other things mentioning Africa and I noticed myself very emotionally tied to what was being said. The funny thing is I can�t remember how I used to look at Africa, I just know my view has changed. I am also sure that this email is probably pretty incoherent, but my excuse is it is late and I am exhausted. I still haven�t caught up on sleep from Tanzania. So I am going to go to bed, but I�ll talk to you all soon. I miss you,
Love Kirsten
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Kirsten [item 5]
Hey guys,
Don�t worry, I had my camera on safari. I have some very cool shots. I am sending a picture of the sunrise. And maybe I didn�t say it directly before, but I absolutely loved Tanzania. I loved Dar and all the people I met; it really felt like I was in Africa. A lot of people have talked about negative experiences they had, where people were rude or unwelcoming to them, but my experiences were all the exact opposite. Everywhere I went people wanted to make sure I was okay, that I didn�t do various things that would get me in trouble or put me in danger, such as trade money on the streets, and would take the time to help me find whatever I was looking for. Much more so than any of the other ports, in my experience. Every time I smiled at someone I would get a big toothy grin in response; that is a rarity anywhere in the world. For example, the last night Theresa and I were trying to find an internet caf�. A couple of cab drivers approached us and asked if we wanted a ride anywhere. We didn�t, but they spent about five minutes giving us perfect directions to walk to an internet caf�. They even argued in Swahili about the best way for us to go. And I gave you the example about the cokes at the Village Museum.
For the most part, everyone spoke English. The main language of Tanzania is Swahili, but everyone speaks a native tong from their ethnic group as well. I didn�t ever have a problem communicating, but I tried to use Swahili words where I could. I was a bit lazy about it though, just because everyone spoke English and approached me with English.
Basically, my friends thought of Tanzania as a learning experience. It wasn�t a place to party and get wild (although many people found a way); there weren�t extreme sports for people to go out and do; it was just a lesson. For me, I have now been to three African countries, and for the most part they are all completely different. With the little that I have learned about the world economic situation in the world and how it affects Africa, it seems to me that Africa would be much better off to be one country, with a unified economy (this would wipe out competition amongst the smaller countries that drive the cost down for various exports that many different countries produce, and would give Africa a chance against the super powers with things like World Trade Organization rules). However, culturally, this isn�t going to happen any time in the near future.
Just some stats for you that I learned (Tanzanians were pretty proud of this stuff): Tanzania contains Africa�s tallest mountain, deepest lake, biggest lake, and biggest and most national parks. From now on, I will never think of Kenya when I think of African safaris.
Let me tell you a little about the balloon safari. By the way, I am glad I did my safari exactly how I did. A lot of people got cool village experiences with their independent safaris, but mine was a little too high class for that. I admit I missed out on that experience, but staying in that lodge in the middle of the Serengeti, and the whole hot air balloon thing, was such a nice experience. Anyway, we had to get in the basket of the balloon while it was on its side. It fit 16 people, plus the driver, and there were eight compartments that fit two people each. We climbed in and laid on our backs while the driver started exploding large fire balls over our heads. We dragged along the ground a lot, starting and stopping numerous times, before we finally made it up. That experience was exciting, you definitely felt a little vulnerable trapped in the basket like that as the very hot fire came very close the balloon physically. Had it caught fire, well ouch. But once we were up we tending to stay about 25 feet high, but I have pictures that give a pretty good idea of the height. When we landed, the crew had champagne waiting for us. When we all finished that, they drove us to another spot in the middle of the Serengeti where a table was set with very nice china for a full, fancy breakfast. They served exotic fruits, coffee, tea, champagne, juice, sausage eggs and other things that I can�t really describe (I am not sure what they were).
Well, I will talk more later. Love Kirsten
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Rusty item [6]
Enough about that, how about that safari! When we got to Dar Es Salaam, there wasn�t really much there in the port and the city doesn�t really have that much to offer. I was glad that I had signed up for a four day safari that would take me hours into the country. That night I found one of the only things to do in Dar Es Salaam, I joined a number of other SASers at a hotel that had a bowling alley and a casino. On the upside, I learned how to play blackjack and roulette. On the downside, I learned how to lose at blackjack and roulette. Oh well, everyone said it is best to lose your first time gambling so that you don�t get yourself in big trouble later. I also went laser bowling and bowled my worst score ever. I bowled like a 72, it must be a different type of ball (yea right haha!) Anyway, the next day I left for the eight or so hour bus ride to Arusha. There, I boarded a phat Toyota Land Cruiser with Brady, Jessica, Loughlin, Sarah, and Coreen. We left there with our new guide Kisali and headed for our campsite next to the Tarangire Game Reserve. I got a spot in a little tent with my friend Louis. The tents were already set up and they had some showers set up. They also had a tent for eating and we had full time African cooks. The next morning we got up fairly early, had breakfast and hopped into our 4x4�s for our first day of game driving. The tops of the jeeps came off in sections and so we were standing on our seats so that half of our bodies were out the top. I was in the car with the same people from the day before and it was like that for the whole time.
When we entered the park, we wondered if we would have any success seeing animals. It wasn�t long before our questions were answered by way of Giraffes. Throughout the day we saw lots of Giraffes and many Elephants as well. We saw Impala, which look a lot like Deer, a few Zebra and, did I mention Elephants. We also saw Monkeys and Baboons, and let me tell you they are sneaky little buggers. We all met up at a certain part of the park for lunch and they were coming up and swiping parts of lunches and stuff. It was crazy. The highlight of the day came right before lunch. The one animal that I wanted to see more than any other was a Lion. I had been on a game drive in Uganda a few years back and we had not been able to spot any Lions so I was really hoping. We heard that two were under a tree just up ahead and so the guide in the next jeep over who had like eagle eyes spotted them in the grass with a pair of binoculars. I couldn�t believe it. I was looking so hard I thought my eyes would pop out and I couldn�t see them. After a while we realized that there were two in the grass under the trees and if you used binoculars you could just make them out. They were Lionesses. Occasionally one would lift her head a little bit and we got a better look. We waited a long time for them to get up and then finally, an Elephant started to come over and we knew that might do the trick. Sure enough, they got up and started slowly walking pretty much parallel with our car. They looked like one at first, but then they separated a little. We were so pumped. We drove around to where they were heading and we got in their path. They were slowly headed right for us and we were snapping pictures like crazy. More cars started to come and the guide leaned over to shut our windows. We were all standing out the top of the car and I swear I think I could have spit on her she was so close. Something spooked one of them and she roared all of a sudden and scared the bejeebers out of me. We watched them a little longer and then they walked right through the cars and we eventually lost sight of them. Needless to say, it was pretty cool.
The afternoon was pretty uneventful, we drove all around, but we didn�t see much game. One cool thing I did was climbing a big ol� tree that was so big that everyone from my jeep climbed into a hole in the middle of it for a picture. And, we had room to spare.
That night we had a green mamba snake (really poisonous) climb into the shower when a girl was in there. Luckily our African guards saw it and they got it out and beat the snot out of it. While it was still alive, I held it by the tail, which is a pretty big accomplishment for a guy who is afraid of snakes.
The next day was a lot of the same, we enjoyed the day driving through the game park seeing the animals and it was a nice day to get some good pictures. The next day we drove back to Dar Es Salaam and boarded the ship and that night we set sail for India.
