the bush (noun): wild land that has not been cleared, especially in Africa and Australia.

This weekend we decided to go camping in the bush.  Most people would say that where we live is the bush, but Chris and Nani wanted to venture even further to one of their favorite camping spots.  Upon hearing out plan, one of the guests joked to Nani, “this isn’t bush enough for you?”  Apparently not.  So we set out for a “family” camping weekend.

If you ever make plans to do something in Tanzania, or at least where I am, within ten minutes everyone in a ten mile radius knows your plan and has already invited themselves along.  But with Land Rovers, there’s always room for one more Tanzanian to squeeze into the back.  So what started out as the five mzungus (white people) quickly turned into a 15 person expedition.  Did I mention that we were driving five hours each way to spend only one night?  This was no deterrence and both the drive and the company proved to be wonderful. 

Our extensive entourage included some pretty great characters.  I can’t help but describe a few of them to help paint the picture. 

Georgie- a 40-something Tanzanian man who is part owner of the tented camp.  Chris has known him since he was 3 and they’re essentially brothers.  He’s an amazing guy, soft spoken and always smiling.  Everyone jokes that he’s the Jesus of driving and Chris is the god.  Honestly, I have no idea how the two of them manage to negotiate the “roads” without getting lost, stuck in mud, or a flat tire.  One of the funniest things about him was that kept climbing the rocks to try and get cell phone reception, but being in the bush he had absolutely no chance.  Georgie also brought his two sons, Poile and Hansi, who had never been camping before because they go to high school five hours away in Arusha.  Poile was dressed in a nice button-up shirt and dress shoes which was evidence enough that he was a rookie to the whole camping thing, but it didn’t stop him from climbing every baobab tree they found, and neither did Hansi’s prosthetic leg for that matter.  They seemed really excited for the whole adventure (which excited Chris because he was certain they would be freaked out by being so far out into the bush) and ended up taking more pictures than I did. 

The Old Man- not really sure who he is.  I don’t think anyone really knows.  Chris is convinced he’s well over 100 because when his parents first came to the area and needed to know something they were told to ask “the old man in the village”, and that was 40 years ago.  Apparently he doesn’t even know to the decade how old he is, but Nani joked that always insists on going camping with them and every year she takes a picture thinking, ‘this is the last time I’ll get a snapshot of the old man with us’, but he seems invincible.  He didn’t say more than two words, just sat there eating and smoking all day, and he slept right on the rocks with only a blanket underneath.  That is what you call a champion.    

The Gardener- One of the guys who works for Chris and Nani.  He’s really only noteworthy because of his outfit.  The whole weekend he looked like an MC Hammer/Will Smith from Fresh Prince wannabe.  Bright magenta pants and a baggy polyester short sleeve button-up in the ugliest bright green I’ve ever seen.  Not sure how he ended up on the trip, but I was definitely not upset with that fashion choice.

Tella- 8 year old girl who can hang with the boys unlike anyone I’ve ever seen.  She’s the tiniest little thing but can eat more than three adults combined. 

Needless to say we were quite a sight.  We all piled into two Land Rovers and took off on the journey stopping for picnics, rock climbing, hot springs, cave drawings, impala sightings, villages, and markets along the way.  The sights were absolutely breathtaking. 

The campsite itself was nothing more than a small flat area on the top of a mountain that is essentially a secret place to all but 20 people in the world.  It overlooked a valley full of baobab and acacia trees, with a huge lake far off in the distance.  Our secluded sanctuary was somewhat bleak, but probably one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been.  Minus the entire goat that they slaughtered and brought along, it was a pretty modest setup; they boys slept in one tent, myself in another, and everyone else either slept outside or in the cars. 

Tanzania is a wonderful nation with some of the friendliest people I’ve ever seen.  What surpised me most of all on this entire camping adventure was that nearly every person, young and old, in each of the little villages that we passed would run to the road and wave hello.  Not much warms your heart like seeing a three year old Tanzanian wearing only a little t-shirt run out of her mud hut with the biggest smile on her face and wave more enthusiastically at a truck full of people than would appear humanly possible in such heat and desolate conditions.  I’ve never seen such people so genuinely happy to greet another, with absolutely no animosity whatsoever at our varying ways of life. 

Three weeks has already gone too fast. 

Maybe the extension of my visa will get messed up and I’ll have to stay in the bush forever. 

ps- sorry, I planned on adding more photos (and of my house, etc.) but it took half an hour to upload two.  In time, I will gather more patience with this internet.  Until then, this will have to do. 

Fossil Hunting

            As the boys are both little adventurers, we are often finding fun things to do.  Nani and Chris both love to explore as well and with acres upon acres of some of the most beautiful and interesting places, we are always able to take full advantage of it.  Recently we decided to take a short drive down the dried up lakeshore to a spot known for its fossils.  As no trip is ever a small mission, we quickly ended up with a truck full of village kids who wanted to join.  I’d never been fossil hunting before and it proved to be a really neat experience.  Essentially what you do is, as Nanai explained it, “walk around with your head down until you see something black that doesn’t look like a stone.”  Simple as that.  Well it took a bit of eye-training but I was able to find a bunch of pieces of bone.  Although I thought my finds were pretty neat everyone else easily trumped me by discovering Crocodile teeth, hyena teeth, and various larger bones.  Nani found a really cool molar (not sure what animal it’s from but teeth fossils look really neat because they’re extremely shiny) and gave it to me.  Although Chris insists that the kids throw back all of the bones and only keep the teeth, I decided to keep one neat fossil of a piece of bone I found.  Apparently the area we were is the same place where they somewhat recently discovered one of the oldest hominids.  Because of this, there are constantly archeologists around and if anyone finds a bone that could possibly be human it’s required to mark the location and report it. The boys laughed when I told them this is only something an American kid would get to do on a fieldtrip, but then it would just be to a museum where fake fossils were buried just five minutes before in something that too closely resembled a giant sandbox. 

            After our excavating adventure (more like after our necks and backs became too sore from looking down and bending over) we drove a bit more to one of the springs where the boys and their friends all went fishing and running around while the “adults” relaxed with a few drinks and snacks to watch a beautiful sunset over the mountains.  

Majouma and Adam

Majouma and Adam

            I have two housekeepers/cooks/helpers.  Is this real life?  Honestly. 

When I was first inquiring about this job and the compensation associated with it, they had said in an email something along the lines of, “and of course we’ll pay for your food and have someone cook and clean for you.”  Come again?  Of course?  Totally unnecessary but I wasn’t going to protest… it creates jobs, right?  Soon after I arrived I was introduced to Majouma and Adam.  Majou (her nickname) is a beautiful young woman, who actually took care of Kian and Dylan when they were babies, and the mastermind behind all of my meals.  She is always singing as she cleans and if only I understood Swahili I have a good feeling she’d have some pretty great stories to tell.

Adam (pronounced adaam), her little helper/sidekick, is a hysterical 24 year old who looks like he’s 14.  Nani kindly explained him to be some sort of midget who’s not the brightest, but when he came to Chris and Nani to ask for a job they felt too bad saying no and since they were afraid to have him work in their tented camp (they thought guests would think they were employing child-labor) he stays out of sight and instead is always around one of the houses.  The funniest thing about him is that he calls me “sister Liza” because in Swahili all women who are young are referred to as Dada “insert name here” whereas women who have children are Mama, however this concept doesn’t really translate and instead I feel like a nun.  Adam is too adorable and gets so excited to practice his English that he’ll go so far out his way just to shout hello to me from anywhere across their property, but then gets really shy when I actually talk to him. 

Funny story: Adam is a Muslim and when he heard that I was learning Arabic he got very excited and was going around camp telling all of the workers that he was going to be able to communicate with me since he had learned some Arabic at a religious school.  Evidently one day last week when Adam and Majou were cleaning my house they saw my Arabic book (yes, I realize I’m a nerd for studying alone here in my free time) and apparently Adam couldn’t read anything.  Majou called him out on it right away and within an hour all of the workers were running around laughing and making fun of Adam.  Nani thought it was hilarious and couldn’t wait to tell me the cause of all the fuss for the day.  I felt somewhat bad for Adam, but I couldn’t help but laugh thinking of him and Majou hovering over my textbook. 

Needless to say, the two of them make quite a pair and are truly amazing.  Everyday they come over in the morning and make me breakfast before the boys come for school, during which time they clean my whole house and do my laundry.  After school is over they serve me lunch on my beautiful veranda, which is both delicious and completely unnecessary.  I definitely need to work on my Kiswahili so I can better communicate with them, although they seem to find much comedy in my few words that I have picked up so far (mainly pole and asante sana, sorry and thank you very much, which I probably say every five minutes, but honestly I’m not sure what else to do when someone is making your bed and cooking for you).  All I know is that I somehow landed the best job I could have imagined out of college.  Two weeks has already seemed like a blessing.  I can’t wait to see what the next few months will unfold. 

   

Baadaye! (see you later)

Monkeys and Geckos and Bush Babies, oh my!

Since most people come to Tanzania to see the amazing wildlife, I thought I’d write a bit about my fellow critters.  Although I’m quite close to Lake Victoria and numerous national parks, I am located in the bush around a largely dried up lake all of the really cool animals aren’t within eyesight of my bed.  Hyenas were always around here until just before I came because one became rabid so they had to shoot it and the rest get scared and left.  Nani has seen a leopard or two in the past.  Hippos are only around in the rainy season.  Lions haven’t been within miles for over 15 years.  As the surrounding area has become largely farms, most have them have moved out.  So, I’m left with strange pesky little things and so far monkeys, geckos, and bush babies are the main animals that I’ve come to encounter most frequently, besides birds, bugs, and cows (they also have a farm with 80ish cows that often graze within feet of my house).   Here’s a bit about each of them:

Monkeys.  As Kian calls them: the enemy.  They are absolutely nuts.  The most common ones out here are grivet monkeys, and they are quite the pesky little buggers.  The other day I was sitting on my porch enjoying a breakfast of toast and papaya while waiting for the boys to arrive for school and I kept hearing all of these strange noises.  I looked up to see (at least) 30 monkeys surrounding me.  We definitely had a showdown and I’m pretty positive I lost the staring competition… but once they came within feet of me and my peaceful morning mealtime and tried to walk inside my house I couldn’t really keep my composure.  Luckily I heard the boys had arrived so I went inside to greet them.  Dylan heard something outside so we went to see and sure enough a few of them had attacked the table for anything that remained.  I looked over to see a monkey sitting in a nearby tree with leftover papaya and toast in hand.  I swear he was maniacally grinning.  One point for the monkeys, zero for me.  I believe the war with the enemy has just begun.  I used to think monkeys were the cutest thing and if I were to ever have a pet I wanted one, but next time they are wreaking havoc or running on my roof (the first time I thought there was a huge thunderstorm or that judgment day had finally arrived) I might just be picking up the slingshot that has been serving as a nice centerpiece for my coffee table and put it to use. 

Geckos… As I’m writing this a gecko just came within inches of my head.  These things are everywhere.  I truly mean EVERYWHERE.  Although they’re only about 6 inches max, they have caused me to get airborne on more than one occasion.  Last night I went to open a binder that I have a bunch of information in and one jumped right out at me.  I jumped right back.  Yesterday Dylan was looking through my cabinets for something and one scurried out past him but he didn’t even flinch.  I guess I just have to get used to them, but they’re quite good at camouflaging so it’s gonna take some time. 

Bush babies! Probably my favorite animal around here right now.  These are honestly some of the cutest/homeliest little things I’ve ever seen.  They’re nocturnal, but at night they’re really easy to spot because their eyes get glow a piercing red with any glint of a flashlight to reveal a tiny fuzzy animal jumping around the trees.  Google them.  Really.  

Planes, Taxis, and Land Cruisers

Well, I made it.  Apologies for not posting for the last few days since I’ve arrived, and I can’t even make the excuse that the internet is bad since I’ve been on a handful of times without much difficulty, but to be honest I’m having trouble gathering all of my thoughts and observations to sum it all up.  Could it be that, for once, I am at a loss for words?

Too good to be true? Yeah. I may falter a bit, but I always have something to say. Here’s my attempt to describe my arrival…

            Madison to Detroit to Amsterdam to Kilimajaro and I finally arrived to Tanzania. The flights were fine and only involved me running through an airport once, so I can’t complain too much minus the screaming child in front of me on the way to Amsterdam or the man who must have had an enlarged prostate or something because he had me get up at least ten times on the way to Kili… but really, I got there safe and sound so that’s all matters.

            Nani and Chris (my new parents/bosses) were unable to pick me up at the airport the night I came in, but this ended up being a blessing in disguise because I was exhausted from the long journey and probably wouldn’t have been too pleasant to meet at that hour.  They had a driver pick me up from the airport and take me to a nearby lodge.  His name was Robson and was really nice and called Chris to let him know I had arrived, which made me much more calm with the crazy situation of being surrounded by a dozen Tanzanian men staring at me and speaking Swahili.  And then all of a sudden a different man got in the driver’s seat and took me away without saying a word.   Slightly panicked, and hoping the two drivers were friends, he turned down a completely dark and bumpy road along the side of the airport that appeared desolate.  I was certain I was going to die.  All of the jokes my friends had made about me being sold as a slave were becoming all too real.  We turned into a gated driveway (probably the prison they’re taking me to) and the headlights revealed the most beautiful lodge in the middle of the savannah.  Half asleep, but mostly relieved, I was greeted by two Masaai men who took me to my own bungalow.  Great start; nothing like a little scare to get you ready for an adventure. 

            In the morning the same driver picked me up to drive about an hour to Arusha to meet the family at a cafe.  This was the first time I was actually nervous.  Afraid they wouldn’t like me, that I would be in over my head (especially with their oldest son who has a mild form of Autism), I waited for what seemed like an hour for Chris to greet me at the car (I think it was actually like 5 minutes) and was welcomed by a charming middle-aged German man.  The rest of the family followed suit.  Nani is a free-spirited BEAUTIFUL Argentinian woman and their kids Kian (11) and Dylan (9) are about as cute as they come.  All I can say is what a wonderful and loving family.  I could ramble on now, but I’m sure I’ll have much more to say about them in the next few months.

            After some Tanzanian coffee (didn’t know this was a big industry but apparently Chris was born and raised here because his father owned a coffee plantation as was common of many Germans) we hit the road for our long journey back to their home.  It’s not very far distance-wise, but it took about 6 hours due to various stops we made (for both shopping and sightseeing purposes) as well as the terrible “roads”, if you can even call them that.  The last 30 miles took nearly two hours due to all the bumps and rocks.  Thankfully their giant Land Cruiser handled it pretty well, but it still wasn’t much help since we are in the middle of nowhere (it’s over 5 miles to the nearest village).  This is the most desolate/beautiful/peaceful place I have ever been, and probably will be for that matter. 

            HIGHLIGHTS: On our drive through the savannah Dylan spotted some giraffes along the road so we stopped to watch them for a bit.  I think there were about ten or so and they were absolutely beautiful.  Not long after that we reached an area that is known to have baboons so we pulled over, rolled up our windows, and Nani waved a banana out the window until a huge one came over and grabbed it.  Crazy ugly little things. 

But wait, didn’t I come here to teach?  Well, Chris and Nani are extremely laid back and I’m gonna start in a day or so.  Apparently I need time to get adjusted, which has consisted of sitting on my porch reading, walking around the camp, birdwatching, stargazing, watching the kids play, climbing rocks to watch the sunset, and hanging out with the family.  Not too bad for the first few days work, eh?

I’ll be moving into my own house tomorrow.  For now I’ve been staying in their guesthouse right next to theirs but where I’m going to be living is a few minutes walk and has my own bedroom, living room, kitchen, GIANT porch looking out at the lake and mountains (and flamingos!), as well as the classroom.  What a set up. 

Sorry for the somewhat boring post.  I’m sure it’ll get interesting soon once I’m living more on my own and I’ve started teaching.  Hopefully I can add some pictures in the next few weeks. 

Chapter Two

Well, I did it.  Graduated college after what were undoubtedly the best four years of my life to date.  However unfortunately as the saying goes, “time flies when you’re having fun”, and these four years were also some of the quickest I can remember.  I swiftly, and sadly, left the bubble of happiness known as the University of Delaware with a degree in International Relations, amazing memories, and the best friends family I could have ever asked for. 

Most people after college pursue an entry level position semi-related to the field they studied and/or wish to go into, or struggle to find anything paid in this still horrible job market.  Well, I’m not exactly “most people” and I’ve never really been normal.  So I turned down the logical career oriented option of a really awesome (but unpaid *cough, cough*) internship in DC and decided to accept an amazing opportunity in Tanzania.

Huh? Where? For how long? With what program? Doing what??? You would.

These are the questions/comments that I’ve been getting for the last few weeks and I’ve decided that another blog would be a great way to keep everyone posted and explain what in the world I’m actually doing with my life.  Plus, I just like talking about myself. (gasp).  I really enjoyed writing my last blog (www.liza-plastino.blogspot.com) and a bunch of people told me they loved reading it so hopefully this one will be somewhat as entertaining and interesting (although I can’t promise any revolutions this time)… But anyways, since this blog post is already getting a bit long, I will try to briefly answer these questions.

Huh? Yeah.. I know nothing I do ever makes sense. Just go with it.

Where? Tanzania, it’s on the east coast of Africa… just west of the Congo and South of Kenya.  If you’re reading this you’re on the internet and if you don’t know where it is… Google it.  I’ll be living at the sight of a tented camp on Lake Eyasi. 

For how long? Leaving today, be back in Wisconsin around October 15^th

Doing what? The big question.  What could possibly send me to Africa alone for nearly 5 months?  Well as my dad jokes, “Liza will go anywhere that someone will pay her to go.”  Completely true.  And so off I go to Tanzania to the middle of nowhere to work as a tutor/teacher/homeschooler/au pair/adventure buddy for two young boys.  Sound random?  It is.  Here’s the most basic breakdown of an explanation I can give:  My mom went to Africa in February, befriended the people who own this camp, found out they were in need of a tutor since their old ones had to leave for personal reasons, I got in contact with them right away, and after they chose my unqualified self for whatever reason, decided that was going to be the most exciting option for my summer and accepted immediately. 

You would.  Of course I would.  I’ve already admitted that I’m not normal.  As I sit up in bed unable to sleep from the excitement knowing that my flight will take off in about 15 hours, I can’t help but smile.  I know I’m a very happy person so this isn’t really out of the ordinary, but the thought that keeps crossing my mind is that in just a few days (after the crazy long flights) I will be meeting the family that will soon become my family.  It’s amazing to think that four people I have never met will undoubtedly be some of the most important and influential people in my life.  But enough with the sappy stuff… time to wrap this one up. 

Essentially what I’m saying is: please bear with me once again as I ramble on about my strange cultural realizations, my adventures, my new “Tanzanian” family (they’re actually Argentinian and German), my attempts to become Eliza Thornberry, and my efforts to teach these two kids.  It is certain to be a learning experience for us all.  I’ve been told that I should have pretty good internet access, but as I learned in Egypt you can never be too certain of that.  Either way, I’ll try and add pictures if I can and update once a week or so.  Feel free to pass this on to anyone who loves to travel or just needs another website to wander to while bored at work. 

I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes that a friend reminded me of today:

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page" -Saint Augustine.  

Let's just hope the animals aren't in the mood for a revolution. 

Liza