Mzungu, I love you

Hello! After an afternoon spent walking around Arusha in the rain trying to find an internet cafe, I have finally succeeded (Electricity was down in the city for most of the afternoon). I only have 17 minutes and I lot to share :). After my last post (could you tell I was delirious from no sleep?) I met up with a few people also on my program and we boarded our fligt to Kilimanjaro. We arrived at about 9:30 pm (Tanzania time). The only light I could during landing was the one at the end of the plane wing I shuffled towards the back of the plane and at the door came face to face with the East African breeze. Warm and thick, it welcomed me back and I knew then that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. The smell could only be described as a combination of dust, hot chocolate mix, and a tinge of soiled diaper. Not stinky, pungent - a sticky smell.

Once in the airport, we met up with the rest of the group and met Reese Matthews, our academic director. We call him Baba Jack because in Tanzania when you have a child you change your name to Baba or Mama and the name of your child. He has lived in Africa for 22 years, finishes a lot of his sentences with "man," and has told us about the time he tried to drive across Africa in a white van that he let children paint with watercolours. Basically, he's wonderful. From the airport, we set out into the dark - first on a tarmac road, then on a dirt road, and then on the bumpiest road I've ever been on. We stopped once for a pee break - girls to the right of the bus, boys to the left - and looked up to see the African stars. I don't think I can properly describe how astounding they are but the enormity of the sky (we could see the stars on the horizon) made me feel like I was part of the universe - something that's easy to forget when the sky is only a small circle fighting off the encroaching little pollution each night.

Eventually we arrived at Ndarwakai, a private reserve in the Western Kilimanjaro basin around 1 am. Tired, we set up our tents in the dark, ate dinner, and listened to Baba Jack's warnings about the Black Mamba - the world's most aggressive and poisonous snake - before passing out. The sun woke me up and I peeked out of my tent. I was looking at Mt Meru, Africa's second tallest peak. After putting on the same clothes I had worn on the plane, I got out of bed to get tea (tea is huge here - a common phrase is "every time is tea time") on the side of our campsite that faces Mt Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest. The day was clear and we could see the peak. It called to me - "Climb me." (mom, dad, alex - let's climb it ;)) However, I was soon distracted by a troupe of zebras walking by. Later that day we saw baboons, giraffes, wildebeasts, and monkeys. We also hiked up to the top of a nearby hill that is one of the steam releasers of the two surrounding volcanoes and took in the landscape. Baba Jack explained the different ecosystems and communities of the region before telling us to take some time to let the winds talk to us. This is school for the semester.

The next day was "social day." We began the day at a Lutheran Church where services were led in swahili, frequently erupted into song accompanied by an off-sounding keyboard, and finished with a small auction of community goods. The music was wonderful and I had to restrain myself from getting up and dancing. We then went to a local village to get some bia beredi (cold beer) and lunch. Over lunch, I talked to Mike (Baba Noah) a Maasai warrior who is one of our teachers. (The Maasai are a pastoralist people living in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. I will say more about them later.) He was killed three lions. How? He has a good technique, and drank something that made him crazy, he said. We asked where we could get some, but he said women should not drink it because it makes them fight men. He also told us that a lion kill leads to 8 days of celebration and many many girlfriends, which is why he killed 3. He has a hearty raspy chuckle and calls everyone and everything crazy.

Later in the day, we had our first "class." We pulled our camping chairs into a circle in the shade and listened to Baba Jack begin to explain the program and a bit about Tanzanian culture. Something that stuck with me was the idea of gift-giving. While at home, we try to give gifts reciprocally, here there is a constant imbalance. Baba Jack used a funny story from his Peace Corps time to illustrate: One of his favourite things he brought from America was a nice hammer. He kept it on display in his room. One day a man asked him to borrow it to fix something. Sure man, he said. When he didn't get it back that day he figured the man would drop it off later. After about a week though, he got frustrated, and went to the man's house to get it back. "Can I have my hammer back please," he asked. The man responded, "Why? Do you need it?" After thinking about it, he realized he didn't and left empty handed. Here, people give without expecting something in return, and receive without feeling the anxiety to reciprocate. I think this is really beautiful because it maintains a constant f.low of sharing, creating connections. Another Baba Jack quote I liked was "In Tanzania, without a social network you die." It made me think about how easy it is to live alone at home (in the West I guess). Even though it is possible resource-wise, living without others probably causes an emotional death of sorts. I'm really enjoying learning about what community means here.

I'm running out of time, so I will briefly summarize the rest of the week. On Monday and Tuesday, we split into four groups to do different activities - bird watching with Alex (during which we got to play with an orphan elephant that lives on the reserve!!!), wildlife (aka poop identification) with Babu Leeky, ethnobotany (aka wildlife) with Mike, and Maasai culture with Unesmo. All our teachers are Tanzanians and are hysterical. They always make us laugh at meal time. Unesmo created a detailed lie about having ten wives, which we later learned was not true. One night, we also went on a night safari where our car was nearly ambushed by a hord of water buffalo and we saw two lions!!! We also went to a Maasai bomma, which was one of the most sensually and emotionally moving experiences. Unfortunately, the computer is about to sign me off so I can't say more about it. Hopefully I'll find time to catch up later.

Lots of love