Kassim!

This is one of the neighbor boys who likes hanging out by our house. He's really cute and his name is Kassim. After the Barcelona/Manchester football match Kassim and Al came by the house and demonstrated their goal tending abilities yelling out "keeper." Kassim talked with my mom and dad this morning and loved hearing them say, "Jambo Kassim" on my cell phone. He was amazed that his name was coming from the cell phone.

Yesterday before dinner, he was at the fence asking me to draw him pictures. I drew him a bunch of pictures (of cartoon lions, elephants, soccer players, etc.) for about a half an hour and had him repeat all of the English words for the pictures. He's not at one of the nursery school's we teach at, but his English is progressing really well. He likes giving high-fives after he pronounces the words correctly.

Lala Coma Simba

After dinner and a few rounds of Guillotine last night, Gerit, Oliver, and I decided to head out to the American Bar just down the beach. It was opened by two American's only a week ago and is a quick walk from our place. It's not our favorite hang-out, but it's our last night together before additional volunteers arrive and we wanted to go out without having to worry about getting back due to high tide.

Here's one of our local friends and another guy who is drunk on papaya wine and I think under some other influences too...

The one nice thing is that they always have a bonfire and classic American music, even though their beer selection isn't always the best. This is Oli and our friend Eric....I think they're discussing fishing for squid.Here's Gerit and one of the American students from Utah who just got into town from a school trip to Kilimajaro. They were pretty cool and much better than your typical American college toorist.
Here's Oli "kucheza dansi coma Mzungu" (dancing like a white person)....we're often called Mzungu as we go through the town (which means white person):

I talked with one of the guys in the picture for quite some time last night. He's promised to take me night fishing one night before I leave. It's on a doh, which is locally constructed sailboat...and I don't believe it's inspected by any nautical regulatory agency. We'll see if he follows through on it and see if I have the guts to go out on one of those things at night.

For all of you still up in the states, "lala coma simba".....or "sleep like a lion!"

Painting w/ our Rafikis

Rafiki is friend in swahili and some of the local neighbor kids helped us paint the high school yesterday. They loved it and ended up getting paint all overthemselves (and us), but were very proud to be able to help. Here's a picture of "Al" on the right (and his friend) who both helped me. It was funny to here them argue in Swahili about how to paint properly! Here's a picture of Gerit and Oliver with the kids after our paint fight. The kids loved watching us fling paint on each other and paint each other. Then Gerit put her hand print on one of their stomachs and they couldn't stop laughing. They kept saying "ma powda" which we still haven't figured out what that means in English. And yes, for those of you who are wondering, I was the one who started the paint fight...hopefully the kid's parents weren't too mad at us when the kids got home. Here's a picture of Oli (Oliver) and Al's friend jammin' to Oli's ipod while painting. It was so hot Friday afternoon that painting with the kids made it go by so much quicker. The water in the school had gone out, so we had to carry big buckets of limer down to a water spicket which must have been 1/2 mile away, then we filled up the buckets with water, and walked them back to the school.

Stone Town

Today I'm in Stone Town, where there's actually a bit of internet access. Unfortunately, there's also 500 people who swarm you when you leave a shop, trying to sell there wears. We had to come here because it's the only place on the island that has ATMs/Traveler's Cheque exchanges and I needed to get money for my safari on Friday. I wasn't able to exchange money at the Dar es Salaam airport or the Zanzibar airport because all of the exchanges were closed. So, all of my money has been borrowed from the other volunteers.

Today we're just walking around Stone Town and then taking the daladala back to Jambiani (it's normally only a 1 hour drive, but today it will take us 3 hours on the daladala. The daladala is local transport that stops all along the route from Stone Town to Jambiani. It is basically a truck with a roof over the flatbed. People load their goats, bags of rice, etc. on the roof and the people ride in a crowded flatbed w/ makeshift seats lining the sides. I'm sure it'll be a memorable experience....that'll I'll be happy with only doing once. Riding the daladala only costs a little less than $2 where as taking a private cab back would be $50.

Lunch today is at a beautiful venue, the Africa House. We already ordered our food, since it typically takes them an hour to prepare. I'll have to post a picture later, because I've tried uploading it to this computer and it just won't work.

Technology in Africa

Sorry I haven't been able to upload any pictures or reply to any emails. Internet access is pretty tough here in Jambiani and I haven't been able to access my email or upload any pictures. I'm having a great time and meeting some wonderful people. Jambiani is a very welcoming village, but definitely third world. We've lost power 3 times since I've been here.

I've told a few people that I'm from America and some of the local Maasai now call me "Obama!" Hopefully I'll have a chance to post more soon. I'm going on a safari to the serengeti weekend after next with one of the other volunteers, so I'm sure I'll get lots of great pictures.

Thanks for the thoughts & prayers!

Africa Hot!

Jambo! I finally made it to Zanzibar and Jambiani AND more importantly I now know what the term "Africa hot" means! I think I've lost my body weight in sweat over the past day and bicycling in the hot sun from school to school doesn't help....but the other volunteers tell me I'll get used to it.

Yesterday, we taught at a preschool and the kids were facinated by my sunglasses and arm hair. They all love sitting next to the volunteers and love running up and jumping all over you. They are adorable and full of energy....which is tough when you're on the verge of heat stroke. We painted part of the high school in the afternoon and my painting skills leave much to be desired. The paint dries very quickly in the hot sun...unfortunately, I think more paint was on my body than the school.

How to make a scene in the 1st Class Lounge

I'm currently in the LAX 1st class lounge for the Star Alliance waiting for my flight to Frankfurt and I have to say that International First Class is the best way to travel. I'm trying not to gorge myself on the buffet, so that I can enjoy all the ammenities on the plane...but with sushi, beer, mini sandwiches....it's hard not to. However, with all of my trips up to the buffet, I do feel a bit like Homer Simpson. And it doesn't help that an older german couple keeps giving me the stink eye every time I make a return visit. I guess I won't be pocketing the prepackaged trail mix (even though I think it would come in handy in Africa).

Here are a few pictures I took from my camera phone. I really tried to do this on the down-low, but unfortunately my camera phone makes a really loud shutter sound....so the entire lounge turned to see me taking the pictures. Apparently, I'm the only one who is impressed by free hors d'oeurves and beverages.

I definitely don't belong here, but I'm loving every minute! Time for some more champagne!

14 hours to Africa!

The immunizations are done, my Tanzanian Visa is in hand, the bags are packed, my flights are confirmed!  I can't believe that I'm leaving for Africa today!  I'm using blogger.com since I won't have my iMac with me, so hopefully I'll be able update and post pictures pretty regularly.

I squeezed way too much stuff into these two bags! It seems that my day pack is even bigger than my checked bag.  I'm going to look like such a dork running around the airport w/ my overpacked back-pack.

Fortunately, I saved room on underwear.  Ex-Officio makes some quick-drying easy wash underwear that claims to be the only pair of underwear you'll need on the entire trip.  Thanks for the hook-up Alex!  It was pretty pricey, but I still wasn't convinced that one pair was enough for my trip (so I bought 3 pairs for good measure).

The Ex-Officio underwear was just one of the many REI purchases that broke the bank last weekend.  It's crazy how much money I've already spent and I'm not even in Africa.