Saturday June 6, 2010
A nice easy day to kick back and relax – no real plans!
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Meet at the CPAR office for a debriefing session in the morning and to go over the rest of the agenda. We’ve seen many different faces of Africa, it’s very hard to sum up our experiences. There is also a huge economic gap that is very difficult to rationalize. Here are some of our thoughts:
Matthew- the world is so unfair. The western world is so far ahead of this place, and it’s just not fair.
Mary – people here are so happy even though they have so little. It’s very unbalanced.
Nitasha – being in the Sopa lodges was unreal, like a vacation, whereas being here at the hostel feels more like home.
Karen S – we were able to get a real flavour for Africa. I had mixed feelings about coming, but am glad I did. It was the experience.
Karen G – the need for education is a recurring theme here. Our kids take it for granted.
Morgan – we wouldn’t have had the same experience without CPAR. They were able to put together so many experiences and get us access to so many places. It was so much better than the average tourist would get.
Alanna – it was really good that we had the contacts here through Jean and Japhet because we enjoyed it so much more.
Bronwyn – it makes me feel proud to see people trying to make a change to imprive their lives or the lives of others.
Alyssa – there were two extremes. I felt bad in the hotel knowing there were people that didn’t have the same luxury, and had a hard time being in the first hospital because we have free health care in Canada.
Megan – everything was so much more than I expected. Parts were hard – it was good to see that we had made a positive change.
Preet – we got to experience everything, rich and poor. It tells us what we need to focus on. You need commitment and passion to help, more than money.
Riley – the huge culture shock was hard. It was amazing how hard poor people work. I felt guilty and helpless some of the time.
Janice – amazed and bothered by the exploitation. There are probably many other issues in Tanzania that we haven’t seen. You need a connection (like CPAR) to be able to travel and really see the country. We need to start some fair trade ventures and keep our connections to the communities we visited.
Kathy – watching the change in the KE students means that our project was successful – they are certainly more aware of being global citizens. Positive impact in the Tanzanian communities was great. Although not the heart of our trip, the luxury lodges and safari were a nice frill. Seeing Africa wouldn’t have been as complete without that experience.
Peter – makes us that there are lots of issues in our own communities back home that need to be addressed. Gilala school was overwhelming, really enjoyed conversations with KE students, the animals here are absolutely majestic.
Susan – until we actually saw the difference in the community it wasn’t real. It was good to know some of the KE students better. The safari was part of the experience. Amusing to see an African farmer dressed in traditional clothes and using primitive equipment suddenly stop and pull out his cell phone.
Devin – absolutely amazing. Overwhelmed by how they fed us at the first school even though they were so poor. At the farmer’s field school they gave us stuff (bottled water) and danced for us even though we didn’t do anything but visit. Why are we bartering for things when they need the money?
Jeremy – it was one thing to see how poor everyone is, and another to see how organizations like CPAR and others are helping and making things better.
Cheryl – it’s a much poorer place than our world. It was important to make personal connections with people to give it a face. I’m so proud of our kids, and know their parents are too. We have so many options in our life at home, and now our kids will appreciate that so much more.
Erin – haven’t processed my thoughts yet – I need to look at my photos to remember everything. I gave a man my watch at the Masai village because he kept asking for it and it is so easy for me to just get another one at home, but he may not have access to a watch ever again. The alarm on the watch is still set, so it probably beeps at him at 6:30 every morning – hope he figures it out. The real culture shock will probably occur after we get home.
Jessica – when I think back to how much we complained over the last few years (tired of doing fundraising, don’t want to work at the dinner) it seems ridiculous. It was so worth it.
Vanessa – When we left home our group was in different cliques. We are still in them out here, but I feel like I have no problem talking to anyone. There are no differences out here.
Kayla – not going to say much (mostly because I feel like I’m going to throw up because I just took my malaria pill). There is no way I will be able to explain all of this to anyone at home – you have to experience it to actually feel it.
Carah – there are 2 themes – how much people give and how much they need. This experience has helped me decide what I want to do with the rest of my life.
Daniel – it was amazing, life-changing. I feel like I’m a better person after this. The water from the farmers showed their respect for us. It’s unfair how many really smart people there are in Africa that will never get the chance for post-secondary education. I think the CPAR people (Jean, Japhet, Dayo, Ndiringo, Mohammed) are absolutely amazing.
Delainie – everyone here smailes and waves despite what they are going through. The schoolchildren were overwhelming. The safari lodges were nice, but this is the real experience.
Joseph – you see the life and the drive in the people working as a community. Everything is done to improve their conditions. It would be interesting to see where they are 30 years from now.
Jean told the group that they were a very unique and special group of students.
Piled in the jeeps to go for lunch and shopping at Fine ArTZ – an upscale little place that has more original art from local artists sold as fair trade, as opposed to the usual trinkets peddled by the kids on the street. Jean and I took the student with injured hand up to the FAME clinic to get it checked out. Very bumpy ride at breakneck speed. The Tanzanian doctor looked at it and said it was just bruised. They cleaned it again and put a small bandaid on the knuckles. Since we were with Jean, the cost for this service was 5,000 shillings (about $7 Canadian) – if we had been run-of-the mill tourists it would have been about 100,000 shillings. Tourists usually have medical insurance (not that we didn’t, it was just easier this way) and so it is a way for the clinic to make some money to provide more services to Tanzanians.
We met up with the others at the café and craft shop for gourmet pizza and salad, a gorgeous view of the Ngorongoro highlands and some excellent artwork. Of course, more shopping ensued.
Drop off purchases at hostel and then split up to visit the market, relax, or go to visit the Crater Rim View hotel where the parents are staying. Pretty swanky! Glad we (the teachers and students) didn’t see this at the beginning of the trip – great accommodations, lovely grounds and a really nice lounge where entertainment is provided. More than a little envious, we head back down to the market to divest ourselves of more Tanzania shillings. A flurry of fabric buying (so many patterns!) – you can purchase a length of material and have it sewn into a dress custom-made to fit (almost) after selecting a style from a tattered role of sample pictures for less than $25 and 3 days. Many of the girls had already bought and many others decided to try it as well. Roamed around dogged by the ever-hopeful vendors (we usually do break down and buy still more of their stuff). Stopped to purchase phone cards so we could contact home. Back at the hostel, Pete tried unsuccessfully for several minutes to load the phone credits. I tried and it still wouldn’t work. Found first available teenager, happened to be Morgan, and she did it in about 9 seconds – I swear I did exactly the same thing! Moran politely did not mock our ineptitude – gotta love it when they show respect for their elders.
That evening we went to CPAR office for kuku choma (roasted chicken). This is a whole mess of scary looking chickens with legs stuck out in every direction cooked over a huge wood-fired barbeque by a special cook known as Kuku Georgie..JPG)
He also cooks potato fries in oil over a wood fire and prepares kachumburi - a salad dish. You get your plate and the cook hacks off huge chunks of chicken parts and throws it on your plate along with a mess of chips and salad. .JPG)
We sat around in the unlit courtyard (i.e dark as pitch) and ate Tanzanian-style (no forks). It was a little better to not see what you were eating and everyone and everything became covered with grease. Some great African music played and then we danced. .JPG)
The Tanzanians love to Twist - they will Twist to anything with any beat - somehow it works. Drivers and CPAR people danced up a storm with the students. Someone plugged in a student iPod to play the kids' music, so we wrapped up shortly thereafter so we didn't have to listen for long.
A nice easy day to kick back and relax – no real plans!
Meet at the CPAR office for a debriefing session in the morning and to go over the rest of the agenda. We’ve seen many different faces of Africa, it’s very hard to sum up our experiences. There is also a huge economic gap that is very difficult to rationalize. Here are some of our thoughts:Matthew- the world is so unfair. The western world is so far ahead of this place, and it’s just not fair.
Mary – people here are so happy even though they have so little. It’s very unbalanced.
Nitasha – being in the Sopa lodges was unreal, like a vacation, whereas being here at the hostel feels more like home.
Karen S – we were able to get a real flavour for Africa. I had mixed feelings about coming, but am glad I did. It was the experience.
Karen G – the need for education is a recurring theme here. Our kids take it for granted.
Morgan – we wouldn’t have had the same experience without CPAR. They were able to put together so many experiences and get us access to so many places. It was so much better than the average tourist would get.
Alanna – it was really good that we had the contacts here through Jean and Japhet because we enjoyed it so much more.
Bronwyn – it makes me feel proud to see people trying to make a change to imprive their lives or the lives of others.
Alyssa – there were two extremes. I felt bad in the hotel knowing there were people that didn’t have the same luxury, and had a hard time being in the first hospital because we have free health care in Canada.
Megan – everything was so much more than I expected. Parts were hard – it was good to see that we had made a positive change.
Preet – we got to experience everything, rich and poor. It tells us what we need to focus on. You need commitment and passion to help, more than money.
Riley – the huge culture shock was hard. It was amazing how hard poor people work. I felt guilty and helpless some of the time.
Janice – amazed and bothered by the exploitation. There are probably many other issues in Tanzania that we haven’t seen. You need a connection (like CPAR) to be able to travel and really see the country. We need to start some fair trade ventures and keep our connections to the communities we visited.
Kathy – watching the change in the KE students means that our project was successful – they are certainly more aware of being global citizens. Positive impact in the Tanzanian communities was great. Although not the heart of our trip, the luxury lodges and safari were a nice frill. Seeing Africa wouldn’t have been as complete without that experience.
Peter – makes us that there are lots of issues in our own communities back home that need to be addressed. Gilala school was overwhelming, really enjoyed conversations with KE students, the animals here are absolutely majestic.
Susan – until we actually saw the difference in the community it wasn’t real. It was good to know some of the KE students better. The safari was part of the experience. Amusing to see an African farmer dressed in traditional clothes and using primitive equipment suddenly stop and pull out his cell phone.
Devin – absolutely amazing. Overwhelmed by how they fed us at the first school even though they were so poor. At the farmer’s field school they gave us stuff (bottled water) and danced for us even though we didn’t do anything but visit. Why are we bartering for things when they need the money?
Jeremy – it was one thing to see how poor everyone is, and another to see how organizations like CPAR and others are helping and making things better.
Cheryl – it’s a much poorer place than our world. It was important to make personal connections with people to give it a face. I’m so proud of our kids, and know their parents are too. We have so many options in our life at home, and now our kids will appreciate that so much more.
Erin – haven’t processed my thoughts yet – I need to look at my photos to remember everything. I gave a man my watch at the Masai village because he kept asking for it and it is so easy for me to just get another one at home, but he may not have access to a watch ever again. The alarm on the watch is still set, so it probably beeps at him at 6:30 every morning – hope he figures it out. The real culture shock will probably occur after we get home.
Jessica – when I think back to how much we complained over the last few years (tired of doing fundraising, don’t want to work at the dinner) it seems ridiculous. It was so worth it.
Vanessa – When we left home our group was in different cliques. We are still in them out here, but I feel like I have no problem talking to anyone. There are no differences out here.
Kayla – not going to say much (mostly because I feel like I’m going to throw up because I just took my malaria pill). There is no way I will be able to explain all of this to anyone at home – you have to experience it to actually feel it.
Carah – there are 2 themes – how much people give and how much they need. This experience has helped me decide what I want to do with the rest of my life.
Daniel – it was amazing, life-changing. I feel like I’m a better person after this. The water from the farmers showed their respect for us. It’s unfair how many really smart people there are in Africa that will never get the chance for post-secondary education. I think the CPAR people (Jean, Japhet, Dayo, Ndiringo, Mohammed) are absolutely amazing.
Delainie – everyone here smailes and waves despite what they are going through. The schoolchildren were overwhelming. The safari lodges were nice, but this is the real experience.
Joseph – you see the life and the drive in the people working as a community. Everything is done to improve their conditions. It would be interesting to see where they are 30 years from now.
Jean told the group that they were a very unique and special group of students.
Piled in the jeeps to go for lunch and shopping at Fine ArTZ – an upscale little place that has more original art from local artists sold as fair trade, as opposed to the usual trinkets peddled by the kids on the street. Jean and I took the student with injured hand up to the FAME clinic to get it checked out. Very bumpy ride at breakneck speed. The Tanzanian doctor looked at it and said it was just bruised. They cleaned it again and put a small bandaid on the knuckles. Since we were with Jean, the cost for this service was 5,000 shillings (about $7 Canadian) – if we had been run-of-the mill tourists it would have been about 100,000 shillings. Tourists usually have medical insurance (not that we didn’t, it was just easier this way) and so it is a way for the clinic to make some money to provide more services to Tanzanians.
We met up with the others at the café and craft shop for gourmet pizza and salad, a gorgeous view of the Ngorongoro highlands and some excellent artwork. Of course, more shopping ensued.
Drop off purchases at hostel and then split up to visit the market, relax, or go to visit the Crater Rim View hotel where the parents are staying. Pretty swanky! Glad we (the teachers and students) didn’t see this at the beginning of the trip – great accommodations, lovely grounds and a really nice lounge where entertainment is provided. More than a little envious, we head back down to the market to divest ourselves of more Tanzania shillings. A flurry of fabric buying (so many patterns!) – you can purchase a length of material and have it sewn into a dress custom-made to fit (almost) after selecting a style from a tattered role of sample pictures for less than $25 and 3 days. Many of the girls had already bought and many others decided to try it as well. Roamed around dogged by the ever-hopeful vendors (we usually do break down and buy still more of their stuff). Stopped to purchase phone cards so we could contact home. Back at the hostel, Pete tried unsuccessfully for several minutes to load the phone credits. I tried and it still wouldn’t work. Found first available teenager, happened to be Morgan, and she did it in about 9 seconds – I swear I did exactly the same thing! Moran politely did not mock our ineptitude – gotta love it when they show respect for their elders.
That evening we went to CPAR office for kuku choma (roasted chicken). This is a whole mess of scary looking chickens with legs stuck out in every direction cooked over a huge wood-fired barbeque by a special cook known as Kuku Georgie.
He also cooks potato fries in oil over a wood fire and prepares kachumburi - a salad dish. You get your plate and the cook hacks off huge chunks of chicken parts and throws it on your plate along with a mess of chips and salad. We sat around in the unlit courtyard (i.e dark as pitch) and ate Tanzanian-style (no forks). It was a little better to not see what you were eating and everyone and everything became covered with grease. Some great African music played and then we danced. The Tanzanians love to Twist - they will Twist to anything with any beat - somehow it works. Drivers and CPAR people danced up a storm with the students. Someone plugged in a student iPod to play the kids' music, so we wrapped up shortly thereafter so we didn't have to listen for long.
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