Day 42: October 16

This morning Hellen decided to pick us up from our hotel, instead of having us take the public bus to school. I think she was nervous about us finding our way. But it was much more pleasant to go with her, and she sat down and ate breakfast with us at the Y.

We drove together to the Njia Health Center, then Hellen walked us over to the school. We were greeted by a very pregnant woman, who introduced herself as the 6th grade English teacher. All four of us walked over to the classroom.

When we entered the room, 65 students arose from their benches and greeted us in unison, first in Swahili, then in English. The teacher greeted them back, herself sounding like she was reciting words that had lost their meaning, then told us to introduce ourselves. In the middle of the introduction, she called out something from the side of the room and the entire class said "Sank you, teacha" and sat down.

The lesson went fairly well...we were teaching them how to write a note and a friendly letter in English. It was a tad disjointed as we got accustomed to teaching, but overall we got people to participate, and it seemed like the understood us. Thank goodness there were two of us!

Next, we were scooped up by the 5th grade English teacher and accompanied to the next classroom. The greeting was repeated, but this time we were prepared, and I told the class to be seated before we introduced ourselves and began teaching. We too were rewarded with a "Sank you, teacha" as they sat. This lesson was much smoother than the first even though this time we were teaching about years, months and weeks. I think we knew more what to expect.

Immediately following 5th grade, we were ushered into the 6B classroom. We were much more on top of of things this time. Third time is always the charm. Although they still weren't as responsive as the 5th graders.

After we dismissed class, we headed over to the Njia clinic for a good old PB&J we'd made this morning. It hit the spot after the grueling morning.

After class and lunch, we headed out with Hellen to do more errands. We stopped at the drug store and multiple tile stores looking for stuff for the Njia clinic. We almost ventured into the market but Hellen got worried that we wouldn't make it back alive (kidding! I don't think she fully realizes how compotant we are!). Once we bought some, we headed BACK to the clinic to unload the tiles. Ok, well Alicia did. I just sat there and chated with one of the doctors about school and religion. Haha. I felt only a little bad.

After this, we got back in the car and headed towards a craft market to buy some elephant carvings for the fundraiser in November. Hellen didn't end up getting anything, but we did.

Because of the traffic leaving Dar, Hellen sent us back on a bus. She practically lifted us onto the bus, of which we were grateful because we had no idea where we were going. We arrived safe and sound of course. Before going back to the hotel, we had dinner at a restaurant called Chef's Pride, which was delicious. We got back to the hotel to plan another day of class. This time with a better idea of what to do. It would be impossible if we weren't doing it together.
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Day 41: Oct 15: Bumpy roads

Breakfast this morning was a great change of pace...we had omlettes! And the Tanzanian tea and coffee is excellent as well.

Hellen picked us up from the YMCA this morning, after getting stuck in quite a bit of traffic, due to the torrential downpours this morning. Unfortunately, because of the awful traffic in Dar Es Salaam, she had to leave her house at 5:30 this morning and didn't get to us until nearly 10!

We experienced a bit of this traffic with her once we got in the car. Unlike Egypt, where people create 4-lane highways out of a 2-lane street and can take alternate routes in order to keep traffic flowing, it seems like in Tanzania there are very few main roads, and you just have to sit and be patient. Once you get out of the traffic, you're likely to be on dirt roads littered with potholes and bumps. Being a passenger on these roads literally feels like a rollercoaster. Here, the seatbelts prevent you from hitting your head on the roof.

We accompanied Hellen on a couple of errands, one of which was to the drugstore to obtain some medication for the clinic. This was an interesting experience as well. The drugstore was this bare room with plastic chairs and a bunch of employees with computers. There was a counter to one side, with a bunch of different products behind the salespeople, and in the middle of the room, some employees were sorting drugs into a basket on the floor. We waited for probably 20 minutes, during which time we didn't even get everything we had come for. In the middle of the wait, the power went out for a couple minutes, causing the employees to lose data on the computer etc. But this is a common occurance, and everyone just rolled their eyes and waited for the power to come back on. Incidently, Hellen mentioned that the clinic was in dire need of a back-up generator for such purposes. I can't even imagine the effect power outages on a hospital!

After a few more errands ( which included getting a cell phone and staking out an international ATM), we made our way across town to the hospital that Life Project funded. It's beautiful. It's located right next door to a busy school, and is off of one of those infamous roads. It's clean and brightly painted, and all it lacks are the patients. The clinic is currently waiting to be approved by the Tanzanian government in order to receive funding to provide affordable or free healthcare. Apparently the approval process is quite involved!

We got a tour of the lab, the observation rooms, the stockroom and the patient care rooms. In all, the clinic has 13 beds and 12 staff. While we were there, a 16 year old girl who is HIV positive came in for treatment. She was on some medication, but was not eating properly so the medication was not working. She was given IV, but while we were there, her condition worsened drastically. To make a long story short, she contracted a brain fungus in her weakened state, and needs medication from Nairobi in order to survive. Hellen has someone bringing the medicine tomorrow, but it's a 16 hour drive each way!

The primary purpose of the hospital will be to diagnose and treat malaria, which surprisingly kills far more Tanzanians than HIV/AIDS. Additionally, the clinic will host workshops to encourage mothers to be tested, as well as to educate them on mother/child tranmission of HIV. Apparently a huge problem with the epidemic is that people refuse to be tested for AIDS because if they test positive, there isn't anything that can be done for them. In fact, there's a lot of propoganda against being tested! They'll even write "my brother don't test" in Swahili on the windows of the dusty buses.

After our sobering experience, we walked across the street to the school. This was quite a contrast to the hospital because it was teeming with life. As we walked by the classrooms, little heads poked out to say "good morning!" We spoke with the "head teacher", who said we can start teaching English tomorrow, and then the 5th and 6th grade teachers were sent in to show us their English books. Essentially, they get the day off tomorrow, and Karla and I will just be teaching! We're excited, but a little nervous. We were introduced to the children, who were all standing in the courtyard (surprisingly well-behaved!), and they all welcomed us. They're probably pretty happy to have a change of pace tomorrow too!

Karla and I walked back to the clinic to meet Hellen, and she took us to the grocery store to get water and food. Then she dropped us off at the hotel, and we made ourselves a late lunch of good ol' PB and J (tastes like home!), before setting out on foot to explore the city a bit.

Back on the ranch just before sunset, we mapped out our lesson plans (we need you Becca!), and shared a dinner of chicken and chips. We overheard a very interesting convo between a Tanzanian and an American about whether or not politics are a good thing (the American said yes, the Tanzanian said no). It got us thinking a lot about the residual effects of colonization, which will be interesting to think about as we grow accustomed to the culture.
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Day 40: October 14. Below the Equator!

It's been a long day. I'm currently sitting outside in the courtyard of our hostel, bathed in 100% DEET bug spray, and sticking to my clothes. But so far, Tanzania has been great!

We spent what feels like the majority of the day in transit. We had an overnight flight from Cairo to Ethiopia, which stopped in Sudan. But Karla and I slept right through that layover. In Ethiopia, we awakened from our stupor to change planes. We had been called to board and got on the bus to go to the airplane, when some airline attendants told us to get off the bus. Once everyone had gotten off, obtained a new boarding card and settled back into waiting at the gate, they called for our flight to board again. We still have no idea what that was about.
Anyway. This flight was more comfortable because our seats reclined (!) But less comfortable because we weren't sitting together and were both sitting in the middle. Oh well. At least we got some sleep.

Hellen, the Tanzanian coordinator of Life Project (www.lifeprojectafrica.org. Check it out!) picked is up from the airport and took us to lunch. There, we met one of the doctors who worked at the clinic built by Life Project, and who now teaches at the medical university in Dar Es Salaam. We relaxed and had a delicious meal of roast pig and bananas (plantains) in a tomato-based sauce. Annnnd, just like we'd read in our travel guide, we ate with our hands. I'm gonna love it here!

After lunch, Hellen took us to our hostel - it's fun to stay at the (everybody!) YMCA! Unfortunately, they're doing renovations on the bathroom literally across the hall from our room, which are EXTREMELY loud, but made Hellen far more upset than us. At least until they wake us up in the wee hours of the morning. If only those mosquito nets in our room would keep out noise too!

Hellen left us, and we decided to go for a quick walk before sunset. We walked down to the beach (a 10 minute walk), and just got a feel for the place before turning around and coming back to the YMCA. We've just finished dinner of rice, sauce and chicken (we ate with utensils. Like foreigners. I think we're going to need a tutorial when there's rice involved!), and I think bed is in the near future...
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Day 39: October 13. Old McDonald

We both woke up ready to enjoy our last day in Cairo. Karam was supposed to pick us up at 9 so we could go see his relative's farm. We got a call from Noha around 10 saying he had been pulled over for talking on his cell phone while driving. Considering he is such a worry wort, it was pretty funny to us. So we just finished packing and downloaded some pictures onto the blog (yay!) while we waited.

He finally showed up to the house with a friend who lived out in the country (maybe now he won't get lost!). We chuckled when we that they were dressed to the nines to bring us to the farm. We think its a pride thing, showing that if they have the means they will dress well, no matter what the situation. On the way there we stopped for some delicious Egyptian tea by the Nile. It was nice to see such a peaceful place so close to hectic Cairo. We got to the farm and walked around looking at how they irrigated the fields and where they kept the cows and goats. It was really cool. Despite the fact that we waltzed onto this farm without an invitation (although Karam and Ahmed assured us it was ok), the farmer was very friendly and proud that these two Americans took interest in his work. Surprisingly, the animals (including the dogs) were very shy. Maybe we looked funny. All the while Karam they was complaining about how his shoes were getting dirty. Oh no! We all got a good laugh.

By the time we made it back to the house we were starving for the delicious koshary that Hayem had been working on all day. She's amazing! I think we ate too fast though.

Still itching to see more of Cairo, we went to the souq (market) again. It was in a part of the city called Khan al-Khalili. We wanted to go to this very old coffee shop called Fishawi's. It was a beautiful place and smelled wonderful. While we were walking around we picked up a scarf for Hayem. She had been just wonderful with us.

Our next goal before we got back to Noha's was to get her some flowers. We found out that she had to make a last minute trip to Alexandria and thought it might be nice to come home to some fresh flowers. We were very sad that we werent able to say goodbye but we look forward to seeing her when we are all back in the States.

After flowers, we went to a concert in Zamalek. There was a band and an Arabic singer who looked tearful and emotional while he belted his tunes out. It was interesting to see yet another side of Cairo. We then walked home hungry for some more koshary.

We packed our final belongings and drove to the airport (it took an hour less than coming from the airport). We were very sad to leave, and remarked how quickly our stay in Egypt had gone by. It seems to have gone by faster than even more so than the other countries. I guess we really had a blast!

We started to say our goodbyes to Karam and his sister's husband, Said (he came to help with directions). Then we had a slight security debocle when we went through a preliminary screening and didn't realize we couldn't go back out. We'd left some stuff with them and had to convince the guard that we had to go back to get it. Alicia was left as collateral, along with my passport, and I went back for our stuff. It was a close call. Thank goodness there were two of us!

Soon, we were on the road again. And waiting for our 230 am flight. We can't wait to get to Tanzania.
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Pictures

Here is a brief description of the pictures that we just posted. You have to find which is which!

Turkey:
-Excercise machines, jazzersize! Our front cover. This is how we get in shape.
-2 of Goreme at sunset: weird mountain formations out of volcanic ash.
-Istanbul's Hagia Sofia.

Greece:
-Santorini, the volcanic island.

Egypt:
-Traditional garb at a mosque. We blend in so well.
-Alicia and the Pyramids. She's actually picking it up.
-Feluccas in Aswan on the Nile.
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Day 38: Oct 12th: expect the unexpected.

Today we were expecting to get back to Cairo at 530 am, but it turns out that the train was delayed and we didn't arrive until 830 am. At least we got in a few more hours of sleep. It still doesn't make up for the fact that we were up and ready to go by 520 (we didn't trust them to actually wake us up after we had had a slight tiff about the cost of tea the night before). He had also reminded us to give him tips in the morning.

Noha's driver, Karam, was able to pick us up from the station, which was a huge help. That way we didn't have to deal with the annoying and untrustworthy taxi drivers. Once he met us, the taxi guys finally left us alone.

We got back to Nohas to shower and get ready for the day.

First on our list for Cairo part deux was to go to Ibn Tulun, the mosque we'd tried going to two times previously. Once it was closed for prayer, and then it was just closed after 3pm. It was one of the oldest intact mosques in Cairo, and it underwent restoration in 2000 AD. It was quite stunning with its decoration while showing its age. Its open center quartyard was large and inviting. After walking around, we decided to do what we always do: go up. So we climbed the mineret to get an amazing view of the city. The sounds and mix of old and new buildings and people walking, driving and riding donkeys was incredible. It was just such a rich view. We soon scurried down to check out the Gayer-Anderson house (now a museum) next door to the mosque. We were surprised to find a woman giving tours. Normally we would shoo the guides away, but as we are now sexist, we let her guide us. It was actually really great, and she spoke very good English. Amoung the many beautiful parlors and rooms dedicated to the arts and decorations of the East, there was a "secret" cabinet that led to a laticed balcony overlooking the men's room. Here, the women could check out the men from above without being seen. The guide hid Alicia there and I couldn't find her until I called Marco. Polo.

We then headed back to base camp (aka Noha's aka home) for a delicious and filling lunch of mini meat balls, potatoes with tomato sauce, and rice. Noha's helper Hayem is a fabulous cook. Tomorrow she is making koshary!

After browsing the guide book for last minute things to do, and realizing all museums were closed, we decided to check out the Mariott hotel. It was a formerly a palace that was preserved as it would have been during its hay day. Or so we think. It was quite elaboate and fancy, but we could definitly see why people would want to stay there.

Post-Marriot, we mosied over to the bridge to try to catch the sunset. We just ended up watching the feluccas light up as it got dark. It's such a unique sight. You can definitly tell that Ramadan is over though. There aren't boys line dancing and swirling their hips anymore.

We walked home and met Noha for a pleasant dinner. We chatted until late about our trip to Luxor and Aswan via cruise. Its so hard to stop talking when Noha is around. We always learn so much. We then started packing (we are leaving tomorrow!) and both of us called our parents on skype.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention that we held a baby crocodile in Aswan (don't worry, it had just been fed). It was awesome!
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