Back to Reality?

It's been almost a week now since I've been back in Canada. We spent the last couple days in Tanzania doing evaluations and reflection exercises on our experiences over the last couple months.

After a 20hrs of traveling we got to Toronto where we(Canadians) did some re-entry shock workshops. The sessions were done with The Center for Intercultural Learning. We were all sort of dreading the sessions and thought it would be pretty boring. They turned out really well, the sessions were well facilitated and not as "chessy" as we thought they would be. It gave us a chance to think back to all our experiences and reflect on the highlights and exchange ideas with others. It helped us think deeper of some of the negative stereotypes that some of us may have developed.
I've heard from a lot of other people that when they get back from some trips, they fall into a rut of being depressed and frustrated and hard to look at their life before.

Now I'm in Edmonton, staying with my brother and his family. It's a complete flip from my living situation just a week ago. It's weird to realize how easy it is to go back to my original life.... I think it's still too early to reflect on everything and all the experiences. I still have a lot of thinking to do, but I'm sure once I get back to the Maritimes I'll get the chance to talk about it.

For now... I'll be out west until Mid-April. I'll be mostly just relaxing and studying for my commercial exam that I've been dragging on forever. I'll be doing a short contract for MTA with some receptions happening in Vancouver, Victoria & Calgary. Super excited for that :) I'll get the chance to visit some friends and give me another opportunity to travel. Once I get back to the Maritimes, everything is basically up in the air. I haven't yet decided if I want to work with cadets again for this summer.... Depends on how my job search goes.... wait and see I guess...

This will be my last post. Thanks for reading my blog over the last couple months...
See you soon :)

I'm a little tea pot!

This is little Isaac. The cutest kid of all. Going to miss him a lot :(

Less than 24 hours!

It's literally less than 24 hours till we board the plane.
I'm getting pretty antzy about it. I have mixed bag emotions..sort of relieved but sad and super excited all at the same time.

Almost there!

It’s less than a week till we head back to Canada! It’s crazy how fast 6 months has gone by. To be honest though, I’m a bit relieved that the program is coming to an end. I think most of the Canadian are relieved as well, most of us are really glad to be heading back to Canada. It’s been a great experience overall, but we miss Canada.

There’s been ups and downs in the last couple months, lately I’ve been feeling sort of a bit lonely. I’ve been going to bed at 8:30pm because I feel left out of conversations due to the language barrier. It didn’t bother me that much before but for some reason lately it is. I just go to my room and read and go to bed. I tried to join in the conversation before, but I feel more than a nuisance than anything else. I haven’t been feeling the greatest the past week anyways.. I have a bit of a cold. There seems to be a second round of sicknesses going around as well. Deborah (my counterpart) has Fever, some others have Malaria again and others have stomach problems.

We just have one more day of work.. then we go into debriefing sessions for 2 days then we have a bit of free time to pack and all.. then off we go! Once we get to Toronto..we have some more sessions of re-entry briefings.. then we split off to our separate ways…

I think moral and motivation within our group has been a bit down lately. We all realize the program is coming to an end.. but what does that mean for us individually. Now what…….

We’ve had this amazing experience and seen some incredible things…. Now we just go back to our “normal” lives and do what we did before? From the Canadians perspective.. It’s made be realize how fortunate I am for living and growing up in Canada.. It’s made me appreciate a lot of different things. I’ve lived this completely different life for the past couple months, but I’m sure when I go back.. it’ll be “easy” to fall back into the same routines as before I left. The lifestyle that I really do miss….. but what’s it mean for the Tanzanians? They’ve experienced the other side …. Of having a washing machine and so on… How do they feel? Hhmm…. I really not sure.. but I think it will cause some riffs…. I sort of sense a divide in the group the last couple week…. Not sure where that will go… but reality of the world’s we live in is starting to set in…

Almost counting down to single digits now. The past couple days has been a bit harder than the rest of the days, I’m starting to feel a lot more home sick than I did before. I’m really really looking forward to returning to Canada. It’s not that anything here is really bothering me, but I think it’s just a combination of a lot of little things that are all adding up.

The consistent of routine of our life here drives me a bit crazy including the food we eat every day. There’s a lot of things I miss from just cooking whatever I want to going wherever I want. It’s be great to step back into Canada. I’m looking forward to heading out west to Edmonton to see my brother and his family as well. My little niece is a cutey.

At the Orphanage, it’s been a bit frustrating lately. I volunteered to help them with some office work a while back, so they handed me their “Annual Report & Budget”. I edited much of the English and made quite a few suggestions in terms of their goals. In my opinion, a lot of work has to be done to the reports in order for a donor to look at them. There are too many questions left unanswered and many aspects don’t seem very transparent. I’ve made several suggestions and recommendations where they could make the changes especially in terms of implementation of the goals and how to attain donors. But it seems like just want me to type up a report on my own that looks good to hand to people, but they aren’t actually taking my recommendation seriously. Not that I expect them to take in everything I suggest, but I expect them to take the time to sit down with me and tell me what would work for them and what would not. It’s pointless for me to draft up an implementation plan for their fundraising and reports and not be the one
implementing. Just frustrating and I feel as if I haven’t accomplished anything in that regard….

There’s just a couple days left of work left and I’ll really miss some of the little kids. Especially this little named Isaac. He’s the youngest of all and definitely the cutest (I don’t pick favorites or anything ). I’ll post a little video of him in the next few days.

oh Zanzibar oh Zanzibar....

This past weekend was definitely a great way to end our last couple weeks in Tanzania. We spend 3 nights in the nearby Island of Zanzibar, quite a touristy place.
White sandy beaches, along with ancient old stone buildings.. Zanzibar Stone Town is another UNESCO World Heritage Site that was once the centre of the Slave Trade in the 18-19 hundreds. All slaves that were collected at Eastern part of Africa went through the Slave market located in town.

One of my favorite things that we did was the Spice Tour! Zanzibar is known for is abundance of spices, and you can simply book a tour and they will show you many different spices and smell and taste some as well. Seeing all the spices made me realize how much I miss cooking. Can’t to go back and try out some new recipes  While doing the spice tour, these local kids followed us around making us “jewelry” and lil nick naks out of coconut leaves. Some things like ties, rings, bracelets and such. They were Pretty cute.

We had a city tour of ancient buildings, that was really interesting… on one of the other days we went to see a slave cave as well. It was massive and incredible to think that hundreds of slaves were once hiding in it… weird feeling goes over you thinking about what that area was once used for.

In the evening we went to the waterfront where there were a bunch of locals setting up theirs stands of food. It was quite the experience and a lot of fun order food. My favorite was this thing called Zanzibar Pizza. Super good. You could get Banana Chocolate or with Mango. Or have veggies and chicken…It was soo good. I’ll probably try to make it when I get home.

The others took park in visiting a Mangrove forest and saw some Monkeys… But I chose not to take part. I needed some “Sally Time” so I stayed in Stone Town and wandered and sipped some Cafes Lattes. It was really nice to just have time alone for once and sort of just gather up my thoughts. While wandering the streets I met this cute lil old man and his daughter. Ended up chatting up a storm and his daughter was possibly coming to Canada in a couple years for school. So I explained generally about entrance requirements for school and such to her. Her dad was just a jolly old man, Indian man who spoke English very well, with a slight British Accent. He let me wander up to the rooftop of his building. From there you could see the entire Stone Town and even across the Indian Ocean. The building that he owns is this Internet Café and Restaurant and he plans to renovate the rest of the building into a hotel. I think it will look amazing once it is all finished. The rooms were nice and big with windows, great views. The owner even said to me that if I can back in a couple years he would give me a deal for staying at his new hotel. I would definitely take him up on that. It would be really neat to see what he does with the place.

Time is just ticking away now, we had our final EAD. There’s this lady from CIDA coming to visit us this week.. and the rest is just resting time…

It’s surreal to think that the past 6 months has gone by so fast, but it makes me realize that in the grand scheme of things to take a couple months out of your life to do something different isn’t such a big deal. Yes ultimately I have to think of my future and figure out what I want to do with my life. But for now, I still have lots of time for that and realistically I already have so many other experiences so I’m not necessarily falling behind the norm. I’m excited to see what I get myself into next year, I have a couple plans in the works or still debating about… Such as getting into 21Inc, possibly doing some schooling to get my CHRP… it’s all up in the air… but for now.. that’s perfectly fine.. I still have lots of time to decide.

Kili Kili Time

The past week has definitely flown by; we got back from Moshi Sunday night at about 9pm. After the 9 hour grueling bus ride….

A couple months back, my “ex” boss from MTA asked if I would be able to do some recruiting at the International School of Moshi (ISM). He offered to contribute to the expenses and so there we went. If it wasn’t for the recruitment visit, I would not have been able to go. I was a bit nervous about the visit, since I felt a bit rusty in terms of my knowledge about MTA. But the guidance counselor made me feel at ease (she was Canadian too) and the students were great. There were 16 students and some did seem very keen after hearing personal stories about MTA.

We spent one day in Moshi and another day in Arusha. We did book a tour guide to bring us around, but one thing I’ve learned is that if they tell you the walk will be 15 mins…. Never believe them. In Arusha, we went to see a Maasai Boma (house) up on a mountain and also check out a viewpoint where we could see the entire town. The hike took us over 2 hours, and most of us weren’t quite dressed for the occasion. I quickly realized how badly out of shape that I am. The view was incredible though, you could see the Ngongoro-goro Crater mountains and then on the other side see Mt. Kilimanjaro on the other side (Except it was a bit cloudy). We also went to a place called the Curio & Craft Market, it was this market place with over 40 vendors selling Tanzanian and Maasai souvenirs. A soon as we walked, the venders were basically dragging us into their stores. The competition between the sellers was quite fierce. They were all shoving items into our faces.. and saying “good price, good price”. You definitely had to put your bargaining skills to work. The starting price for most of items was 4 or 5 times more than other places. I did to a fair but of shopping there, including some gorgeous paintings.

The next day was spent in Moshi. I had heard about some really nice waterfalls so that was at the top of my to do list. We booked a tourguide and he brought us on this hike through what I would call a banana jungle. The scenery as incredible, hiking through steep mountain sides where if you fell…it would not be a happy ending. Finally we arrived at an amazing waterfall, unlike any other waterfall I have seen before. It seemed almost as if we were at the bottom of gorge, but I think we were more at the far end of the valley floor. The waterfall as at least 200ft high, so high that when the water reached the bottom it almost turned into mist. Then there as another 30 ft waterfall at the bottom. It was such a tranquil spot; I would have loved to stay there all day.

Other than the waterfall, the other highlight of the trip was waking up at 6:30AM with the sight of Mt. Kilimanjaro right in the backyard of where we were living. The 4895m mountain was quite impressive, maybe one day I’ll climb it J

This week we’re headed to the Island of Zanzibar! Should be a lot of fun, I hear that it has some of the nicest beaches.

Quick Update

The past week has been a pretty exciting week with a lot of activities going on. Last Wednesday we had an EAD on the Arts and we had the opportunity to make our own Battik and Tanzanian Style Tye-Dye. Making the Battik involved waxing the fabric with stamps and for the Tye-dye we used thread to sew the fabric instead simply using elastics.

It’s a bit surreal that we just had our mid-project weekend. We’re so close to the end of the exchange, but there are some big plans in the works right now for the next few weeks. February will fly by…



The trip to Bagamoyo was nice and great change of scenery. We had the chance to partake in a lot more touristy activities than I thought we would. We visited a couple museums of past Kaole civilizations, slave houses from the 19th century and the historical stone town. Bagamoyo was once a crucial link for the slave trade. It’s there that the slaves were gathered and kept before being shipped to Zanzibar for the slave market. It’s quite daunting and depressing seeing the sites and hearing the stories, but at the same time it’s remarkable to think it was only a few hundred years ago that all those events existed. We went to the beach once again that was a lot of fun, except for being swarmed by carvers everywhere we went… I bought some really nice things.. bringing them back to Canada might be a bit of a problem though… :S hhmm… overweight luggage.












Tomorrow is my group’s EAD on Local Economy. We decided to use to the Canadian High Commission for some more credible information for our topic. I’m excited to meet some fellow Canadians that have lived here for a while to hear about their experiences. I was a bit weary before, wondering if the visit would actually happen. Everything has worked out, should be a fun visit 
The next month we have 2 big trips planned…. I’ll let you know more about it once the plans are a bit more finalized.

Work at the Orphanage has greatly improved and I feel as if I’m being a lot more useful. Although playing with kids all day is fun, it’s a bit repetitive after a while. I can’t remember if I mentioned this before, but I started having a computer class with the older “kids” around. I feel that I can only provide the younger kids with attention and some amusement. But for the older ones, I thought I could maybe teach them some skills that they could use later on. I have access to a laptop, so I downloaded some typing games and are teaching them the basics for using the computer and teaching them to type properly. They’re progressing very quickly and are doing very well, there are about 10 of them taking part in the class. This is keeping me busy most of the time. I also got into looking at the financial plans of the orphanage and the “strategic plans”. In my opinion there’s quite a bit of work that has to be done on that side of things, so I’m also working with another member in the office on revamping the reports so that they can achieve their goals. I guess I’m putting what I learned in school to use know.. now it’s sort of a test to see if I actually know what I’m doing …

40 DAYS!

It's crazy to think that there's only 40 days until we step back into Canada.
The past week has been pretty rough with almost our entire group sick with something. Either it's Malaria, stomach worms/virus, suspected scabies.. or other problems....

I did have some sort of stomach virus, but I'm on some meds now so I'm A-O-K :)

Tomorrow morning we leave for Bagamoyo (about an hour north of Dar) for our mid-project weekend. Should be a fun time :) Sorta relaxing for a couple days, and see a different part of Tanzania.

I'll try to upload some pictures into a slide show coming up soon :)

Differences…

I came on this exchange to gain a new perspective to open my mind to new experiences (I know that sounds cheesy). Lately I’ve been wondering more and more, I am really glad I came on this exchange. Thus far, I had the chance to sort of self-analyze myself to entirely new degree in terms of what drives me in life and what do I really want to do with my life (Not that I’ve answered that question yet, but I think I’m a bit closer).
After talking to one of the Tanzanian participants and some older Tanzanians at the Orphanage, it never really hit me how different our views on life and specifically volunteer work are. I keep asking myself, has CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) wasted our tax money on the Tanzanians??? I’m really not a negative person, but I am very critical. Hearing other Tanzanians say that the program now is a waste of time for them because they could be in school instead of volunteering, makes me a bit angry. I’m not completely sure why… but it does. So I kinda provoked some argument ad said “Why did CIDA bother spending so much money on you to participate in CWY??” Answer I got was “I don’t know, and I don’t care”. I think “I” was worth the investment of CIDA and my donors because I think that from a Canadian perspective having international experience gives you a different edge. It gives you the chance to see things that you the chance to see things you never have before and volunteerism in our eyes is seen in a different light and is valued in our society. I know why I chose to be on the program, but I get the feeling that others simply came on the program because they saw a potential for a free trip to Canada (I wouldn’t blame them), but I personally hoped that participants would realize the greater meaning in their involvement (and I guess some haven’t). The narrow mindness of some people drives me up the wall…. I don’t understand people…. You’ve seen a different culture…. you’ve seen a different lifestyle…. And that’s it…. There’s no deeper thinking to what you have to do in order to evoke change to life…. I don’t mean this as if I’m coming off my high horse…. Even if you know what could work in one place...does not work in another. The drive that is instilled in us, I think it’s culturally bound. Being brought up in a somewhat traditional Chinese family definitely plays a bit part in how I function as a person. The combination of my Asian values and my “North American” values created almost conflicting messages a lot of times, but somehow its worked out for the best so far in my life.
How we’re brought up to think and to do is so different. The ability to do “whatever it takes” is completely different and I think ultimately creates the drive we have or don’t have. If you constantly think that you can’t make a different and this is a waste of time, then that’s the way it’s going to be. You’ve already made up your mind.

Weekend

This past weekend was quite eventful. On Saturday, MJ and I went to Sarah’s cousin’s wedding. Overall, I’d say there are quite a few similarities between Chinese weddings which I’ve been to and this one. As for comparisons with “Canadians” weddings, I’m not quite sure since the only wedding I’ve been to was a wedding on ice. Both weddings go on for majority of the day from early in the morning to late in the evening. Many traditions exists to show respect for both families.

The day started at the church with the typical reading of the vows and being blessed by a pastor. There was lots of singing going on and we were constantly standing and sitting the entire time. I didn’t understand anything during the ceremony since it was all done in Swahili. After the ceremony, Sarah introduced us to her family… which seemed like an endless list of uncles and aunts and cousins. We then all piled into buses and were sent to the mall for pictures, after that we all went to Sarah’s house for lunch. When I say all, I mean literally ALL. The house was filled with around 80 people all eating together.

Later on we prepped for the evening reception. I noticed was that on our invitations it clearly stated that the reception was to start at 6pm. Since Sarah was busy with her family affairs we went to the wedding at 6pm by ourselves to realize no one was actually there. It wasn’t until about 8pm that approximately half of 500 guests had arrived. The concept of time is definitely not the same as Canada, its one thing to be late a couple minutes, but to show up hours after the published time seems a bit extreme.

The wedding reception was decorated very extravagantly with easily over 1000 roses hanging around the head table and fabric draped across the ceilings and chairs. It turns out that for Tanzanians weddings, the families divide up into committees where they each take on a role such as entertainment, food, transport….etc. It’s neat how the families come together and the planning of the wedding turns into bonding time for the families. During the evening, there were a couple performances going on. I was asked to perform my silver plate dance and I think it definitely was a hit. It’s a custom to throw money at the entertainer if you like what you see. I received a good amount of pocket money, although I found it a bit awkward picking up the money after I performed. We had some funny members of the audience come up and comically mock me with my plate definitely had some good laughs.

The cake they had was a combination of about 10 cakes. The groom and bride were to give a cake to each side of the family and to key persons on each side. There were also a number of symbolic gifts were given by the parents and grandparents of each side. Some gifts were clothing, a hoe, spears, knife...etc. Months before the wedding, the groom also had to pay a dowry to the bride’s family. Depending on the tribe the dowry could be from a simple payment or lengthy list of specific items to be collected.

After the necessary traditions were carried out, we finally ate supper at 10pm. I was definitely starving by that time, after eating we still had a 2 hour drive home so left the reception but I’m sure the festivities lasted past midnight.

Seeing the wedding made me realize how little I know about Chinese wedding traditions. I know a little bit about certain symbolic gestures, but overall not very much. I guess I’ve been Canadianized over the last couple years. Some day when I choose to walk down the aisle I wasn’t to incorporate the traditions into the big day. I think it’s very important for me to stick to my roots and I’m very proud of it. Even though my family has immigrated to Canada, I want generations down the road to still speak Chinese and follow at least some of the old customs and traditions. It won’t be easy, but I want to put an honest effort in trying to preserve it.

PICTURES!

Here are some pics as promised :)
This is the house I live in, it's quite nice. We have a nice big room. The biggest change is not having electricity and running water. The next picture is my host family.


































This is our room.




This is lil Isaac that I want to take home :)

He also likes playing with his reflection in the near by truck.































This is the well which we fetch water from...funfun..


I'm as dark as the lighter African kids....haha

2 Months to go…

It seem as if life here is slowly becoming the norm. I’m getting use to living with no electricity and running water. At first it was a bit frustrating especially using a kerosene lamp every night, but now it’s sorta comforting. Fetching water from the well isn’t so fun anymore though…

In the Eco-Village, we’re basically in the middle of nowhere. The only sounds you hear are the sound of crickets chirping and bird calling. (I accidentally left the front door open the other day and 2 birds flew into the house.) Around the house are rows and rows of pineapple; I’m excited for when they become ripe :) I could live off of pineapple and mangos everyday. Fruits are so inexpensive. Mangos are about 30cents or less.

Every morning on my way to work at the orphanage, I go by a lady that makes Chapati (this thin flaky layery roti pancake type of thing), I can’t resist I have to buy at least 2 everyday. I also walk by the Kitumbua lady (this fried donut made from rice flour), I just can’t help myself….each item costs less than 15cents for each so buying several of them really doesn’t hurt my pocket book :) But they will hurt my waist line. I think I’m starting to notice it. Many of the foods here we eat are fried :S I definitely have to start watching what I eat or maybe just stick to mostly veggies and fruit.

I have a new routine... I've really enjoyed sitting outside on our "porch" before supper time and just simply stretching and doing some exercises. It's really the only time I day that I could endure any sort of physical activity

As for working at the orphanage, I really thankful that I get the chance to leave the Eco-village. Only Susan and I work at the orphanage, which requires us to take the dala-dala to work 4 times a week. When we first arrived at the Eco-Village, we took a route to Mbande in order to catch a bus into Bagala and Dar es Salaam, but now that route is deemed potentially unsafe for foreigners since it’s a small country route. I personally feel very comfortable taking that route especially if we are in a large group; I’m feeling a bit like a child because of all the restrictions. I understand safety precautions that we must take, but having a rule such as always having a Tanzanian with us is a bit extreme. Taking public buses is very doable on our own and I don’t need someone following me every second. I do appreciate the Tanzanians helping me bargain but I can do many things on my own. Meh.. I’m use to being on my own and doing my own thing.

Coming up this weekend is Sarah’s cousin’s wedding :) She’s invited me to go and asked if I would perform my silver plate dance (I brought my costume and plate with me). So I’ve agreed to provide a bit of entertainment for the event. It’ll be neat to see how a Tanzanian wedding is like.

Although I’m adjusting well, I feel as if I’ve been here for a long period of time already but we still have 2 months to go, seems so far away. I’m trying to search for a job now for when I go back… not so fun… But I’m definitely excited to go back and see everyone again :)

I'll post some pictures in the next few days.. the internet connection is very slow today and the the power keeps cutting :S

Settled….

After another long bus ride back to Dar… we’re finally here. Not without any other “incidences” though, there were some problems that had arise with the bus company. At first, it was simply that not all 20 people could travel together, no biggie there. But then as we got on the bus, we soon realized that other passengers had taken our assigned seats and refused to go to theirs. We simply shrugged it off and moved to the back of the bus to find other seats. As we got to the back we soon realized that the seats were not in the greatest condition, some seat cushions had suck down to the actual frame of the seats. As for my seat, it seemed to be in decent condition, then suddenly I heard a crack… some part that was holding my back rest together had given way so my seat was permanently in the incline position. I didn’t mind so much but the person behind me did so we tied together some rope and somehow held my seat together by attaching it to the window. Ta..Da…

As we drop we suddenly realized the seat in front of us was shifting. Basically what you see in 4D amusement rides when the seats move with the moving screen, we found it hilarious at first, but once we got the bumpy part of the journey… the two seats together literally began to shift more and more…until finally it was in a full inclined position and was no longer attached to the floor. As for leg room on my end… What leg room?? The back of the seat was literally leaning on the seat of mine, so my legs were literally curled up to my chest or stuck in the little hole to the side. Not sure if the pictures I took do any justice, but I definitely appreciate the buses we have in Canada to a different degree.

My host family is at the Eco-village. It’s a new area being developed by Uvikiuta to promote a more environmentally friendly way of living. My host parents are Sylvester and Rosie along with 2 kids Peter and Rajabu. I’ll post some pics in the next few days.

Deborah and I share a nice big room and the wind comes right into our room and the sun rises on our side J it’s perfect.. Lifestyle is a bit different. We don’t have electricity.. only when we turn on the generator which is about every 2^nd day for about 2 hours at night. We also have to fetch water from a nearby well… that definitely makes you realize how much water you are using…

The work at the orphanage has its ups and downs… definitely mentally and physically exhausting especially having children hang off of you.. literally.. wait till you see pictures

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Back to Dar

I've decided to simply use one of the other participant's labtops to type up my blog and then post it whenever I get the chance to go online. Then I don't forget things which I want to write about. The dates which the entries are posted may not be accurate, but they'll be close.

January 1st, 2010
It's 2010!! Happy New Years :)
Yesterday was our last day of digging and helping out at the school. I'll miss the little kiddies but definately won't be missing the digging. My back and shoulders are in need of a massage....
For the new years celebration, our supervisors hired a DJ and invited some locals to have a dance party. At first it was a small crowd of youth, then some other kids (10-15 year olds) came and danced with us. Some more people our own age joined in. It was fun dancing under the moon light.... We headed to bed after midnight.

This morning, another goat was being slaughtered for our new years dinner and also 4 chickens. Another chicken chase was on the go this morning, since it got away over night... pretty funny watching 5 grown men chasing a chicken...

We head back to Dar this Sunday and move in with our host families:) I'm excited for that, can't wait to learn to make Chapati...mmmm this flaky bread pancake thing...that you eat with saucey dishes (That's my only way of really explaining it) but it's sooo good. My host family is living at the Uvikiuta Eco-village. Not sure what they entails but I guess I'll soon find out, We did find out our workplacement, we had the choice between the Yatima Orphanage, Uvikiuta Community Library/Office work, Eco-village Compost Program or Tree Nursery.My 1st choice was the Orphanage then the Library then the others. Turns out I was the only one who had the Orphanage as my first choice :) So that's where I'll be! I think the other volunteers were turned off from working with the kids in Lindi... so none of them wanted to work with kids at the Orphanage. I'm happy about that since I got my first choice. Don't know much about it right now, but I'll be doing some sort of needs assessment to put the money that we fundraised in Canada to use.

That's the update thus far, I'll hopefully get the chance to go online on the weekends :)

December 26th, 2009
Rain... oh rain...

It's been 4 days of rain so far, I guess in the south currently is is the rainy season which gives farmers around here a bit of a break and hope for the next crop season. The rain storms are pretty ridiculous though, the other night... everyone in the room got woken up at 3AM because of the ridiculously loud thunder happening outside. It felt like the lighting was hitting the building and was deafening. I tried recording the sounds on my MP3 Player, but kept missing the really loud bangs. Some even sounded like gunshots in your ear and would make you cringe. The most amazing aspect was the lightning that would light up the entire sky and you could see it spread across the ocean infront of us. I lopve storm watching and maybe sometime when I come home, I could drive up to Shediac or Peggy's Cove to watch a storm, would be awesome! :)

At the workcamp, it's much quieter now since the other international volunteers (12 of them) have left. I miss them though, eventhough we only spent just over a week with them. Some I clicked with right away. If I get the chance to go to Europe in the next year, I think I'll even give them a shout and we could meet up. Most fo the volunteers were >25 years old and had been in the work environment for sometime, I got into some deep conversations about career moves with them and I think I know have some other things to ponder about when I get back. There's about 70 days to go before we return to Canada, not that I'm not enjoying my time, but I so excited to get into other things when I get back. So many people have told me to take it easy when I get back... which I sorta will... but at the end of the day I think it's just my personality to be on the go all the time.



December 25, 2009
Oh Christmas Tree...Oh Christmas Tree...
Last Friday, we had gone to the school to see the kids and hand out Christmas presents to them. Many of the international volunteers (not from CWY) had brought lots of goodies for the kids, from balloons to crayons to candy and balls. It's amazing how the kids get worked up over the smallest things. The group which I work wth (5 year olds) are obsessed with balloons and bubbles. As soon as they see you with a blown up balloon, it's as if you ahve a magic wand. They listen to you, their eyes are glued to your every move until you lket go of that little red floaty thing. We gave eat kid their own balloon and crayons along with some little candies. Some of them took a little while to figure out it was actually candy, which was hilarious to watch.. they would stick the entire candy cane in their mouths wrapper and all... then we would have to pull it out of their mouths to show them how to open it. Giving the kids gifts was a highlight, but also... caotic. Kids were fighting over candy and steling each others candy and older kids came over and bullied the lil ones to give them candy, we had a few teary eyes by the end of it all but most conflicts were resolved. It's hard to avoid jealousy amongst the children, they have all grown up in similar living situations and when you don't give the big kid something that the lil one has you're basically asking for trouble. We tried as much as we could to prevent that, each kid did get something, but conflicts still arised.

Before the international volunteers had left, there was one little girl that Yvonne (Canadian Volunteer who I helped out with) and I had grown very fond of. We're not suppose to pick "favorites" in the group, but sometimes there's just that one kid that you're drawn to. I'd say I have a couple favorites, but I don't necessarily treat them differently. Ruti is the one who Yvonne and I adore. She's the smallest of them all, she never complains when she gets pushed or doesn't get the ball, she just sits there listening to us intently (atleast we think she is). She's absolutely adorble! Well.. Ruti.. hadn't shown up for several days before Yvonne was leaving...On christmas day Yvonne wanted to see Ruti one last time, so we got one of the other kids to bring us to her home. After a decently long walk to the other side of the village, we got there. We gave Ruti her balloon and candy and crayons, you could just see her face light up and she smiled and shyly backed up towards the house. An older lady then came out and introduced herself as Ruti's grandmother, she then explained to us that Ruti's parents had passed away from AIDS and she was HIV+. That's why Ruti hadn't been to the school in the last couple days, she wasn't feeling well. Her grandmother then went into the house and showed us hospital paperwork documenting Ruti's condition. At that point, Yvonne, Adol and I were trying really hard not to cry. Yvonne then talked about somehow sponsoring Ruti and asked her grandmother to send me contact info the next week (Since Yvonne was leaving). We then walked away... It still seems a bit surreal, you always hear about stories and and how people are affected by the disease but seeing it first hand is when it actually hits you. We had visited two HIV/AIDS local organizations in Lindi last week and heard about local initiatives to education and prevent the spread of the disease. Medications for people who are affected by the disease is free of charge, but nutritional needs are on their own, thus many people still suffer dearly from lack of daily nutrition. I wonder of the 150 some children/youth in the village, how many are affected by HIV/AIDS....

After finding out about Ruti I definately wasn't in the greatest mood, but as we were walking back, we passed the main village entrance and heard VERY loud music playing. One of the other volunteers then waved us over to this little building surrounded by a fence made of palm leaves. As we peeked inside, we saw 40 kids all under the age of 10 breaking out their dance moves. It was amazing! These 5 year old kids have a better sense of rhythm than people I have seen in dance clubs back home. They new the words to all the songs...You could just see the kiddies were estatic over dancing. I made several videos of them dancing (try to post them somehow). After dancing up a storm with them it definately cheered me up a bit...