Monday, January 30, 2006

Gearing up for Kili!

What an incredibly busy week!  We covered a lot of territory.  We went very far north into the Serengeti and I think we were quite close to Kenya. I'll have to check later on a map.  We did see a bit of the wildebeest migration.  We had a successful safari and saw' a ton of animals'. (this 'keyboard is 'weird 'and 'I don't have' time to fix' the 'weird characters' 'so 'please 'bear 'with it"!!!)  One of the 'gals figured we spend over 50 hours in the 'vehicles 'this week.  "I think' that 'explains 'why 'I'm so exhausted"!  '"We arrived in Moshi last 'night '& wrapped 'up the 'Habitat 'portion of the trip. 
 
Some of the Kili team started the climb today, but 3 of us decided to wait and get a day of rest.  I'm VERY grateful for that!  The mountain looks enormous and we definitely will need to be rejuvenated before tackling it.  We are doing the Machame route and taking the Southern Circuit rather than the Western Breach.  The Western Breach is closed due to the rock slides several weeks ago.  Our plan is to do the trek in 6 days.  However, we can decide on day 4 if we want to extend it to 7 days if we need additional time to acclimate.  It's nice to have that flexibility.  The two I'm hiking with, Scott and Flo, will make for a great, supportive team for the trek.  We'll either love or hate each other by the end! :)  We should have a couple days after the trek to go to Zanzibar to celebrate and rest.  We will fly from Kilimanjaro airport to Zanzibar and then either fly or take the ferry from Zanzibar to Dar ~ thank goodness no more long road trips!!
 
It will be at least a week before I can update you again since we will be on the mountain beginning tomorrow and there through at least Sunday or Monday.  Thoughts and prayers for a successful trip are appreciated! 
 
Til next week....
Love, Diana

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Northern Tanzania or bust...

This week has been pretty exhausting. We dedicated home #2 on Monday and had a very cool ceremony there, too. I really wish we would have been able to spend more time in Mvumi working on the homes. It was odd to me to dedicate homes that were not actually finished. But I guess that is not uncommon.

We've run into some problems with lodging reservations and accessing/wiring money ~ long story. We spent a lot of time on the bus on Monday and Tuesday. Things are going fine. I'm just not terribly patient with that part of it. It's been a challenge understanding the dynamics of the trip planning and the cultural/economic barriers. I'm not used to being out of control of the planning issues!

Yesterday and today we hired some Land Cruisers and toured Lake Manyara and the Ngorogoro Crater Reservation. It was incredibly neat ~ saw some elephants, baboons, giraffes, whart hogs, zebras, lions, etc!! Northern Tanzania has an entirely different look and feel than where we first stayed. There is much more vegitation and mountains in this area. It's beautiful!

Tomorrow we head for the Serengeti and stay there Friday and Saturday nights. That will wrap up the Habitat portion of the trip. Then 7 of us are off to tackle Mount Kili!!

Best go for now. Hope everyone is doing well at home!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Habitat House Update

Hello all,
Today is Sunday and we are back in Dodoma today.  There is so much to try to update.  We got more work done this week than anticipated.  We dedicated house #1 yesterday, but will put the roof on tomorrow.  The ceremony was incredible!  You would not believe the way the Tanzanians can sing!  It was very heart-warming.  I now have a personal photographer.  His name is Ernest and he is the mason's son.  I taught him how to use my camera so he took photos during the ceremony.  Um, 190 photos!!!!  But it was so cool seeing how much fun it was for him.  He is 19 years old and is a natural photographer.  He obviously was able to get into areas I could not <he had an all access pass> :)  The people here are wonderful and there is an unbelievable sense of community.  The other highlighlights?  We visited an orphanage in Dodoma. All children there happen to be HIV positive.  You would NEVER know it.  They were the most happy warm-hearted children I've ever seen.  We also visited the local primary & secondary school.  The primary school put on a performance of song and dance I will never forget.  Hopefully I will get some video from other team members to post when I return. 
 
It actually feels we have been here longer than a week.  I've gotten to know the team members well (seeing each other 24/7).  And the community has given us a warm welcome.  It feels incredibly safe and comfortable here <aside of the discomforts - hot, dry, VERY modest accommodations>. 
 
We have a couple more days of work left and then will head north earlier than planned.  We'll visit some cave paintings and then head towards the Serengeti.  I'm sure I'll miss this area.  I've already found a couple of sisters I'd like to take home with me ~ Nebu and Nema are their names.  The kids here are so great.  They seem to adore us, too.  They chase our bus when we leave the work site.  It's so cute!  Will touch back with you all when I can!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Back In Touch

Hello,
My postings will likely be brief & infrequent. It's tough to get to an internet cafe and the access speed is a killer! Things are going very well. We are actually staying in the village where we work. It's 25 miles south of Dodoma. It takes about an hour from Dodoma. The road is very rough. The village name is Mvumi. We are working on two homes ~ one in Mvumi and one in the next village. The work in going well and the people are fantastic. The first day I worked on site 1 and we learned a lot and worked very structured. Our mason was a good teacher. Day two I worked at site 2. It was a huge change. The mason and others spoke almost no English. We do not have enough tools so have a lot of down time. During that time we play with the children and actually get A LOT more tired doing so. They are so excited we are here. Yesterday taught them songs and games (hokie pokie, ring around the rosey, hopscotch, the limbo, Old McD, etc.) I brought pages from a Swahili vocab book so we also sat and had an English/Swahili class. The kids loved it. They thought it was fun to see my photos and listen to me explain what was in the photos using Swahili. Challenging, but very fun!

The conditions are so different and too hard to describe here. It's a whole different world. Today we came into Dodoma to email and have a birthday lunch for me. It's been WONDERFUL. I never thought having a "real" meal and a western toilet to use on my birthday would be so exciting. ;) In the scheme of things, it's the best gift I could have asked for!

As expected, my team is fantastic. I think everyone is great! I better try to post this. I only have 10 minutes left and it will likely take that long to post. I will write more when I can. It may be quite a while. For those of you who worry - you know who you are - please don't. We are doing very well and are in good hands! It's been a great experience so far.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

In Transit Status

Hey all,
Made it to Chicago & London with no problems. I didn't sleep well on the plane at all so I'm running on about 1 - 1 1/2 hours of sleep. I met a gal from our group this morning & we attempted to meet another gal, but never hooked up. It was challenging to find each other to say the least considering we've never met, came into different terminals, and had no way of communication besides paging each other via airport personnel!
We made our way into the city (after being at the airport for 3 hours) and found a nice pub to have a chicken sandwich and a tasty pint of cider! Walked around a bit & saw a few cites. Now we're back at the airport and have a few hours to kill before our flight. The flight to Dar is 9 1/2 hours. Once we're there we have quite a few hours ahead to travel by land to Dodoma (no idea how long). I still don't know how or when I'll have internet access once we're there. That's the update for now. I'll write more when I can. So far so good! :)

In Transit Status

Hey all,
Made it to Chicago & London with no problems. I didn't sleep well on the plane at all so I'm running on about 1 - 1 1/2 hours of sleep. I met a gal from our group this morning & we attempted to meet another gal, but never hooked up. It was challenging to find each other to say the least considering we've never met, came into different terminals, and had no way of communication besides paging each other via airport personnel!
We made our way into the city (after being at the airport for 3 hours) and found a nice pub to have a chicken sandwich and a tasty pint of cider! Walked around a bit & saw a few cites. Now we're back at the airport and have a few hours to kill before our flight. The flight to Dar is 9 1/2 hours. Once we're there we have quite a few hours ahead to travel by land to Dodoma (no idea how long). I still don't know how or when I'll have internet access once we're there. That's the update for now. I'll write more when I can. So far so good! :)

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

HFH Volunteer Motivation

In January I'll be traveling to Tanzania to work as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, building houses alongside people who need a decent, affordable place to live.
You may ask "Why are you doing this?":
1. The need to do something more meaningful with my life.
2. It's the right time in my life ~ I am healthy & "unattached."
3. I need a break from the rat race we Americans live!

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Flight Itinerary

Flight info (via American Airlines & British Airways):
Departure: leave Mpls Friday 1/13 @ 2:30pm (w/layover in Chicago) - arrive London Heathrow 1/14 @ 6:50am. Depart London 1/14 @ 7:25pm - arrive Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania 1/15 @ 8:20am
Return: leave Dar Es Salaam Friday 2/10 @ 9:35am - arrive London 2/10 @ 4:45pm. Depart London 2/11 @ 2:15pm (w/layover in Chicago) - arrive Mpls 2/11 @ 8:58pm