My Adventures Abroad

Picha Picha

2010-07-08T21:01:00.002-04:00

hey ya'll!
(nope, still can't use ya'll and not sound totally weird... thought i'd give it a shot.)
anyway, here is a slideshow of a bunch of my photos from my trip!
they're also on facebook.

http://s917.photobucket.com/albums/ad16/bagamoyo10/Photos%20from%20Margie/

How to become a morning person.

2010-06-29T06:52:00.002-04:00

In order to become a morning person, all you have to do is travel to Africa, get used to the time difference and then travel home and don't get used to your old time. Today I woke up at 3:45 am! and it felt like noon. Craziness. So I laid in bed til 5, then got up and went for a run/walk and then made an omelet, and here I am at 7 am, posting my final blog entry for my African adventure before I head to babysit in a half hour.
The last few days in Tanzania were great. At UKUN we did some home visits and also finished painting the rest of the outside of the building. It ended up looking really great! I also did a bunch of data entry. They are now caught up to April 2009. Only 14+ more months of patients to enter into the system!
I also spent a bit more time at the Baobab Home with the kids. Just hanging around the house with them and stuff. It feels more like a family than an orphanage there and I really like the atmosphere.
Thursday night we went to Traveler's Lodge for my going away dinner (as well as Doug and John's). Once again I got carbonara and once again it was delicious.
Friday night we went to Baga Point with everyone in my start group who was left and everyone from the start dates before us. All of the new volunteers went to Zanzibar for the weekend. So we hung out at Baga Point and then went to the arts college which was having some sort of outdoor dance party thing. It was a lot of fun. And finally, on the way home I completed my goal of riding a piki piki! It's a motor bike and you can go anywhere in town for 500 shillings (about 40 cents).
Saturday I just hung around the homebase until it was time to leave. We left at 2 pm because Doug and John needed to pay for their tickets for the following day before the airport office closed. The traffic was pretty bad and it took like 3 hours to get to Dar. I could never live in Dar. It's so ugly and trafficy. Yuck. So I had like 4 hours to hang in the airport before my flight. I just read and bought some snacks and went through security and all that. It's a really small airport. The power went off twice when I was going through security and they had to re-boot the system. Finally we boarded and luckily no one was assigned to the seat next to me so I had room to stretch out a bit. We stopped in Nairobi, Kenya for about an hour and then continued on our way to Zurich.
I tried to get some sleep around 2 am but that's when restless legs kicked in and I felt like I wanted to run a marathon. So I walked around the plane a bit and then looked out the window for a while. There was lightning happening in the clouds below the plane. Seeing lightning from above it was really cool! It looked like someone was in the clouds taking pictures with a really bright flash. There were about 4 or 5 spots of reoccuring lightning. Finally around 3 or so I fell asleep for about 2 hours.
Once at the Zurich airport I found my way to the dayroom area and paid about 10 USD for a shower. Totally worth it though. The Zurich airport is so clean and nice! And then I found a lounge where there were about 6 other people sleeping and I found a bench and fell asleep for about 2 and a half hours (wearing an eye mask and everything).
I didn't really get antsy until the last few hours of my second flight. By then I was ready to get off the plane and be home already.
Now I've been home for a day and half. It's strange. It feels like I've been away for a long time and at the same time it feels like I didn't go away at all.
The rest of the summer is looking a bit bland what with working 2 jobs and a lot of my friends being away. But I think I'll be able to figure out ways to make it enjoyable.
That's all for now. I will post later with a bunch of pictures from the trip, once I upload everything.

<3

"No thanks, I prefer to get my cancer straight from the sun."

2010-06-23T06:40:00.004-04:00

It's been a week since I've updated. A lot has happened. Let's see... on Thursday a bunch of us went to Traveller's Lodge which is a resort by the beach and we had dinner there since some of the group was leaving that weekend. The pasta carbonera there is awesome! Ann is right, that it surprisingly tastes like real carbonera. It was a fun night. Friday was my last day at AMAP. It was the kids' last day because they have 2 weeks off. I don't think they understood that we wouldn't be coming back. But I'm sure their used to having new volunteers all the time. Friday afternoon, Caroline (the volunteer at the Baobab Home), picked me up and we went there to hang out for a bit. The kids are adorable! There's currently 7 of them living there, 3 of which are babies, 2 toddlers, and 2 young kids. Friday night we just hung out with Ann, Max, and Richard who all had to leave on Saturday. I woke up early to see them off. It was sad to see them go. I'll probably see Richard if I go to Chicago anytime soon. And I hope I can go to Australia at some point to visit Ann and Max and travel around.

Saturday Sarah, Jerry, Bridget, Monica and I went to Baga Point. Basically it's just a trailer next to a field that they sell alcohol out of. Sometimes there's live music but there wasn't that night. We hung out with some Tanzanian friends and then got Chips my eye for a late night snack. It's basically just an omelet with french fries in it that we put hot sauce and ketchup on. It sounds pretty gross, and I was pretty sceptical but it ended up being really tasty.

Also the new volunteers arrived on Saturday. 19 of them. I have 3 new roommates in the room that I had to myself for 2 weeks. It's the same story as Morocco, it's hard to get used to new volunteers because you get used to the people that are there and it begins to feel like home. Then one day 3/4 of your friends leave and tons of new people flood "your" home. And you have to get used to not being able to use the bathroom whenever you want. And the internet cafe is always busy now (hence the not updating in a while). And I had to condense my things back to one shelf the the others would have room. I admit that I got spoiled! The new volunteers are all pretty nice though. I don't know them very well but they're friendly. And none of my roommates snore which is fantastic!

What else? I've been working at UCKUN this week. We've been doing some painting to spruce up the front of the building. Also we've done a bunch of home visits. I find it frustrating though because we can't actually do anything for these people that will heal them in any way. I feel like we're just going in and playing doctor. Like yea, I can take your blood pressure and heart rate and ask you if you have pain anywhere but then I can't really prescribe medicine or buy you food or cure you of HIV. No matter how many times I take your blood pressure or look at your rashes or feel sorry that you went blind, you're still going to die from AIDS in a matter of months. I know that's really blunt but it's true. And it's frustrating and sad. UCKUN does some good things though. At the very least we let these people know that they're not alone, that there are people out there that still care about them even if the majority of people in their lives shun them. And at times we do give them food when they have no other way of eating, but we try not to have them rely on us for that. UCKUN is shifting to a more educational focus though. I think that will be beneficial in order to prevent new cases of HIV/AIDS. In one of the resources books there I found some surveys that they had given to teenagers in Bagamoyo about using condoms, if they do, why they don't, etc. There were some crazy answers on there. Some of the people thinks it makes them less of a man if they use a condom, or that condoms spread AIDS. They need to be educated so this value of the society can start to change. If it doesn't then the AIDS epidemic will never lessen.

Sunday I went back to the Baobab Home and we took the kids to the beach, not the babies though, they stayed home. I met Terri's son Justice who is adorable! I love when small kids are bilingual, I think it's so cool. He just doesn't know that the word "she" exists so everything is a he haha. I also went there yesterday to hang for a bit because their volunteer Caroline is leaving today so I wanted to say bye and hang with the kids again. I wish I was here longer because the kids have just warmed up to me! I'm going back to tomorrow to hang out and say bye to them. Then some of the CCS people and I are going out to dinner at Traveller's Lodge again since Doug, John, and I are leaving this weekend.

That's about all that's going on. I'm sure I forgot a ton of things but it's hard to remember everything that happened in a week. This trip went by wayy too fast and I don't think I'm very ready to return to the states yet. But I shall make the best of it.

PS- the title is Monica's response when she was offered a cigarette on Saturday night. It made me laugh for a very long time.

Eyes Wide Shut

2010-06-16T08:54:00.002-04:00

I know I updated only 2 days ago so this probably won't be that exciting. But it's a lazy afternoon and I can only read my book for so long. Also I needed to get on here to check my e-mail.
On Monday night Jerry was talking about how his placement was getting really crazy. Jerry is a 48 year old retired fire fighter from Chicago. He is medically trained and has been here for like 2 months or so. His placement is at UKCUN, where they work with HIV/AIDS patients. They actually do a lot of things. They do home visits, make sure they are getting their meds, examine the patients to see if a hospital visit is necessary. They also are a walk-in clinic for HIV testing and have had to tell numerous people that they are HIV positive. Jerry was explaining how it seemed like their patients had been doing relatively well and this week they just started falling apart. Also, they got 2 new patients added and had to do initial visits.
Richard and I offered to skip our placements on Tuesday to help out at UCKUN. I'm not sure what made me agree to this since I am the most squeamish person I know. I think part of it is that I was curious about what kind of work they do there, another part was that I know they make a huge difference in the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS. And I knew my placement would survive without me for a day.
Here's a bit of background on HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. The rate of AIDS in Tanzania is 8%. It is 9% in the coastal regions. Bagamoyo has an AIDS rate of 15%. Realistically the rate is probably closer to 20 or 25% because there are many people who live in rural parts who do not get tested. Accurate statistics are difficult to obtain. Basically, because of religious views, those suffering from AIDS are seen as being cursed. As a result, they face tremendous stigma in the community. Their neighbors despise them and very few people are willing to help take care of them. There are also false beliefs that lead to AIDS being spread. One is the belief in traditional healers. The healers tell patients that if they sacrifice a chicken or goat or participate in some special ceremony that their illness will be cured. Of course they are not but since they believe they are, they continue to live the same lifestyle as before, infecting many people with this disease. Also, many people here believe that if you have AIDS you can cure yourself by sleeping with a virgin. I'd really like to meet the dude who started spreading this ignorant lie.
Tuesday at UKCUN (oo-koon) ended up being pretty chaotic and disorganized which seems like the norm there. When we first got there, Jerry explained everything and what we might see that day. How does one prepare for something like this? I don't think it's really possible. I spent a good amount of time picturing the nastiest puss-filled sores that I could imagine and still I don't think I'd be ready to see such horrible things in real life. Luckily, I didn't see anything too alarming on Tuesday.
After the mini "orientation" we got tested for HIV. It's not required or anything but I think Doug just likes to play doctor and practice on CCS volunteers. My results were negative, hooray! After that, Kat, Jerry, John and I went on a home visit. We met Mtaya who has known he has AIDS since September. When he first got tested, his CD4 (T-cell) count was 7. To give you some idea, those without HIV/AIDS have a CD4 count of about 1500. When someone with HIV's CD4 count drops below 250, they are considered to have AIDS. So 7 is pretty damn low. I'm still skeptical that the translation came across correctly but we double and triple checked. The reason I was so surprised was because Mtaya seems to be doing pretty all right at this point. He is 47 years old. We don't know what his CD4 count has been since September because they haven't recorded it on his blue card even though he's been tested every other month since. Overall, they said he looks like he is in Stage 1. They found something hard in his lower abdomen area so we suggested that he go to the hospital for X-rays or an ultrasound. The other thing is that his house was pretty nice for Bagamoyo standards. In the US it'd be appalling but it was relatively clean and organized and there weren't any major repair issues. Also he was the only one in his house with HIV which is really good. And he seemed to be surrounded by people who took care of him. All in all, I was really lucky to experience such a unsurprising home visit for my first one.
AMAP, the placement I'm currently at, will be closed next week because Sahidi has to move it to a new location. Jerry has somehow convinced me that I will be more useful at UKCUN and I have agreed to work there next week. I'm probably crazy and I'm totally unsure if I can handle this. But I feel like it could be a life changing experience. Or at least perspective changing. I will either be doing home visits with Jerry and Caroline or going out to "the bush" (har har), which is the most rural areas, and teaching hygiene and helping them clean up their homes. Everything is still a bit unclear and up in the air. Wish me luck!
My hour is just about up so I'll update this weekend or next week!

Mikumi and Udzungwa

2010-06-14T10:30:00.003-04:00

hello my darling readers!
i hope this post finds you well and enjoying hot showers and nice air conditioned houses. i am enjoying none of those luxuries but im still having more fun than you probably ;-)
this weekend was the safari! and it was fantastic! we left early friday morning. joshua, our tour guide, picked us up in a HUGE badass safari truck. all 8 of us fit comfortably. the first hour of the drive was ridiculously bumpy but then we hit a paved road which was much nicer. even on the paved roads tho they have so many speed bumps. they LOVE their speed bumps here. it's quite bizarre. they have all different kinds. the big humps. the small bumps that come rapid fire. the medium sized humps. i never knew there was such a not-so-wonderful world of speed bumps. my theory is that they don't like smooth roads here so when they make a paved road they add speed bumps to make it feel more like the dirt ones.
oh jeez im spending way too much time on speed bumps.
OKAY the safari was great! Friday we rode around for like 5 hours in Mikumi which is the national park. We saw warthogs, giraffes, elephants, zibras, impala, buffalo, hippos, and a bunch of other things! it was so much cooler than going to a zoo and seeing animals locked up in small cages. we also drove around saturday morning for another 4 or 5 hours. our primary goal the second day was to find a lion! actually it became more of an obsession. we strained our eyes for hours and hours but to no avail. the thing is, lions are tan and nearly all the grass and shrubs are also tan. also they are relatively short in the tall grass which makes it even harder to spot them. it's possible that there were no lions out this weekend or it's possible that we were a few yards from one and just couldn't spot him. i guess we'll never know. there were a few false alarms which turned out to be either other animals or just large rocks. it was still an amazing trip tho and i got some great pictures. especially of the elephant herd that surrounded our car saturday morning. they were just loping around, eating some grass. and there were a few babies too! so cute. also, when giraffes run it really truly looks liek slow motion. it's the weirdest thing! your brain goes wait whaaaat? i always thought that when you saw giraffes running on tv that they had put the video in slow motion to make it look epic, but no, that's really how they run!!
the accomodations were mediocre. the first night was in this guest house sort of thing. it was just our group staying there and we had a common room and kitchen and some bedrooms. it was weird because the furniture was really nice and clean and new looking and the kitchen and bathrooms were disgusting!! i guess they discourage the use of water here by just making their bathrooms unbearable. very few of us showered.
saturday after the morning driving around mikumi, we drove about an hour and a half to a national park called Udzungwa. There they have one of the largest waterfalls in Tanzania. We stayed in a hotel/hostel deal and I got my own room which was pretty sweet. The thing that was not sweet was that right outside my room was the bar. If I told you that on Saturday night I slept literally in the middle of the US/Englad worldcup game field, would you believe me? because that is honestly what it felt like. i don't think it could have been any louder. they didn't really have windows that could block noise out either. it was just screens and metal bars. so there really was no hope. and then after the game? a dance party!!! or something that involved very loud music. but then it quieted down. and around, oh, 4 am the goddamn chicken/rooster started it's wake up call every 20 seconds or so. i was ready to go out there and slaughter the thing myself. if i had brought my maschetti i would have. (yes i bought a maschetti and will not hesitate to use it on anyone who tries to mess with me in new bruns).
the amazing part is that i was actually able to fall asleep by like midnight, even with all this ruckus. i was completely exhausted and turned my ipod on, put absinthe the party at the fly honey warehouse on repeat, and drifted off into a very deep sleep. that is, until the chicken ruined it.
sunday we woke up early and drove 10 minutes to Udzungwa and started our hike by 8 am. It took about an hour or more to hike to the top of the water fall. And let me tell you, this was not a leisurely hike, although our tour guide looked like he was just going on a leisurely stroll through the jungle. This hike was STEEP! the kind where you couldn't look too far ahead or you would just give up completely. you had to just look at the step in front of you and go "ok self, can i do this one? yes i can. how bout this one? sure not bad" and go on like this. and just when you're about to tell your new friends "i'm not going to make it, im going to die here. go on without me and tell my family i love them", just when you're about to say that, then youre there. you're at the top of this magnificent 750 meter high water fall and you can see out for miles and miles across fields of sugarcane and small huts. it was beautiful. and then we hiked back down which was annoying because you have to keep stopping yourself from tumbling down the mountain. and when we got to our starting elevation it was another 20 minute hike to the bottom of the waterfall, but again, definitely worth it. after a while you couldn't tell if the liquid you were drenched in was your own sweat or the spray from the waterfall or just the general humidity. most likely a mixture of all of these. let me tell you, i am looking good in the water fall pictures haha.
so joshua met us at the end and brought us food and then we headed into the safari van, stinkyness and all, and began the journey home which took about 5 hours. all in all, it was a great weekend. definitely more of a trip than a vacation. and dear lord, was my butt sore this morning from all that hiking! i didn't think I was going to make it out of bed!! i need to go on more hikes back in the US.
this week is going to be a bit more relaxed because there are no more afternoon activities. just placement in the morning. i love seeing the kids after being away for the weekend. its so precious when they come up and go "mbebe!" (pick me up!). or when they play with my hair until it's a knotty mess. or when they yell "mother!" and show me the shapes and letters that they can write in the dirt. today we tried to tackle colors. which i'm aware is a large ambition with a room full of 3 to 5 year olds. but it went relatively well. although im sure they still don't know any of the colors, they seemed to enjoy themselves and liked when i pointed to one of their shirts and said "green!" or "sabrina is wearing pink!"
and im hoping to go to the baobab home one afternoon this week and see how things are run there so i can help out this weekend and possibly next week. terri stopped by last week to meet me and pick up the suitcase i brought for them. what a wonderful woman! i can't imagine just dropping life in the US and falling in love and moving to a very very foreign country. But now she's been here for 7 years and is fluent in Swahili and knows loads of people in the community and has helped tons of kids grow up and stand on their own two feet. and her new baby girl is beautiful!! terri is truly an amazing woman and i hope i get a chance to talk to her more even though she is always super busy with one thing or another.
ok that's all for now. i'm actually really glad the homebase here doesn't have internet access. i like only being on once or twice a week and not obsessively checking my facebook every few hours. honestly, that was getting a little pathetic and im considering possibly deleting it. or if not, then most definitely drastically cutting back on my usage.
ok i miss you all! actually, i miss most of you! hahaha. :)
LOVE
margie.

Lay Down Your Heart

2010-06-10T08:06:00.003-04:00

This week has been good. We have fallen into somewhat of a routine and the days are starting to fly by. On Tuesday we were back at our regular placements. Everything went as usual. One little boy had a huge cut on his hand. Ok well it was like 3/4 of an inch long but that's a huge cut to me. And it was very deep. The kind that probably needs stitches. Sahidi asked me to put neosporin and bandaids on it and I didn't even get light headed! I've been bringing first-aid stuff and wrapping it everyday since. I'm not sure if it's healing though. :-/
I've also had a nasty head cold and cough this week. I'm really not sure how my body is producing this much snot. But I seem to be significantly better today. A lot of the volunteers have been getting sick with fevers and stomach things so I can't complain too much.

Tuesday afternoon Mama Thea told us some of her life story. She is an amazing woman. Mama Thea is the head of all 3 Tanzania programs (Bagamoyo and the 2 Moshi programs). She grew up in an extremely poor family in Northern Tanzania and her mother died when she was 5 and she has 2 younger siblings. Well now she has 11 because her dad remarried 10 years later and had 9 more. Anyway, me telling you the whole story will not have the same effect as when she told it. She's brilliant and very endearing.
"Mama" obviously means mother but here it is used to refer to any woman who is older than you. For example, the children at AMAP call me Mother (well actually it comes out "Mah-da" haha). It was weird at first but now I'm used to it. It's not that they think I'm they're actual mother, it's just a respectful term.

After Mama Thea's story, we all took a visit to one of Bagamoyo's traditional healers. This man was probably about 65 years old and has been in the business since he was 18. Zik translated everything for us. It was very interesting. Some of the stuff is believable. Like he has a bunch of powders and medicines that can be mixed with water or oils and consumed. These are similar things found in our medicines they just don't have the equipment to put them in capsules and package them. But then he went on to show us this stone that looked like amber. He said if you are feeling sick somewhere and the cause is unnatural, like if a witch is using witchcraft to make you sick, then the stone will stick to the part of your body that is being affected, like a magnet...
He also does exorcisms. He told us that the evil spirits often speak through the person they are inhabiting and demand things. So if the spirit wants a chicken, they give it a chicken and wave this magic wand thing around until the spirit leaves. Interesting. He also claims to be able to cure mental illness and I think at one point said he can make you be attracted to the opposite sex if you are not. Umm what else. OH, he has this powder that you can consume and it will make the person of your choice fall in love with you. Give me some of that, doctahh! Hahahah, all in all it was a really interesting experience to see how other cultures view mental illness (evil spirits) and other things of the sort.

Yesterday a few of us took a cooking course to make traditional food. Robert and Chiku, the cooks at CCS, taught us how to make Cibatti (this delicious, oily flat bread), vegetable stew (mboga), and salad for dinner. It was a lot of fun. I really appreciate all of the hard work they do so we can have delicious meals that won't make us sick.

And last night, the same family we visited last week, who put on the performance, came to Hillside (the outdoor bar next door to CCS homebase) to perform again. It was fantastic. They played drums and other cool instruments and danced. At one point they pulled me up to dance and I could tell that no wasn't really an option, I just wished I had more than one glass of wine. But it was fine because they also pulled Doug and Amanda up there. The woman dancing with Doug was doing some weird awkward dance where she kept her legs completely straight, almost hyper extended. And he tried to mimick her. And the whole thing was entirely ridiculous so everyone was focusing on that haha. And someone got a video of it. But anyway, at the end we all went up and danced together and it was fun. Oh also one of the ladies pretty much gave me a lap dance at one point. That was weird. I didn't really know how to react. I don't know how they move their butts like that. It's crazy. But it was a fun night. I took a few videos on my camera so I will post them when I get home.

And today was our last Swahili lesson. We've had 6 total I believe. I know a lot more than I did when I first arrived but I still cannot communicate adequately in Swahili. That would take many more lessons. But Swahili seems much simpler than English or even Spanish. I think it would be fairly easy to learn if I were to live here for a longer period of time.

Tomorrow 7 of us are going on a safari in Mikumu! It is about 4 or 5 hours away and we are leaving at 6 am. We get one Friday off of volunteering for this purpose. I'm very excited to see all of the wildlife and to hike near a waterfall on Sunday. Hopefully I get some amazing pictures. The rest of the group is going to Lazy Lagoon this weekend which is about 30-45 minutes away. It's a tiny island where there is only one resort and apparently it's really relaxing and the food is great. Most of those people are either going to the Serengedi for a safari the following weekend or going on long safaris after their CCS time is over. The Serengedi is about 8 hours away though so it's not really doable in 3 days.

I think that's all for now. I'll post again next week!

P.S.- Bagamoyo comes from Bwaga moyo which means "lay down your heart" in Swahili.

This is Africa

2010-06-07T10:16:00.002-04:00

Ah Monday. It's been a long day. But before I get into that I will tell you about my great weekend. 13 of us traveled to Zanzibar which is an island off the coast of Tanzania and is part of the Republic of Tanzania. We left Friday at 1 pm and drove 2 hours to Dar. Then we caught the 4 pm Kilimanjaro ferry. The ride was smooth and the boat was air conditioned which was nice. I slept most of the way and didn't get sea sick. Then someone met us at the harbor in Stonetown on Zanzibar and drove us to our resort. We stayed at Sunset Bungalows in Kendwa. It was pretty nice. No five star hotel but still nice. Amanda, Whitney and I shared a room and we had AC and each had our own double bed with mosquito nets that made us feel like princesses. The bathrooms were... adequate. Still no warm shower which would have been nice since the room was air conditioned. But we're already used to cool showers. The resort also has a bar and restaurant area right on the beach. Our bungalow was about 100 feet from it. Friday we just ate dinner (I got pizza-- not as good as America but it was decent and I've been deprived of cheese), and then hung out at the bar. Whitney and I were exhausted and didn't feel like drinking for various reasons so we went to bed pretty early. I fell asleep in about 12 seconds. The rest of them stayed out an partied until the wee hours, spending buckets of money on alcohol. In Baga the drinks are fairly cheap but at this resort they were about as expensive as any average American bar so if you're looking to get drunk you better have a good amount of money.

Saturday I woke up around 8 fully rested so a few of us went to the restaurant and ordered breakfast which was part of the package. I got a spanish omelette and toast. Then we spent the majority of the afternoon laying on the beach and reading/napping/swimming. I put sunscreen on twice but still managed to get a wicked sunburn on my stomach and chest. The African sun is strong. (I bet you thought there was only one sun, but you're sadly mistaken). We also went to a few of the shops along the beach. I bought a sarong thing that can be worn as a skirt. It's blue and has elephants on it. Later, we had dinner at the resort's restaurant again. It was pretty far away from any major town so there wasn't really anywhere else to go. Saturday night was pretty much the same as Friday. I didn't really feel like spending money on alcohol, or drinking a lot in an unfamiliar place. But everyone else had a good time. Actually I did too. Then Whitney and I hit the hay around 11 or so.

Sunday we woke up around 8, had breakfast, checked out, and our tour guide picked us up and drove us to a spice farm where we went on a spice tour! At first I wasn't that psyched for it because I didn't really know what a spice tour entailed. Basically we walked around their farm which was more like a jungle/forest and they showed us all different kinds of plants and spices and gave us a sample of each to taste or smell. There was cinnamon, nutmeg, star fruit, cocoa beans, a lipstick tree, vanilla beans, pepper, ginger, jasmine, and a bunch of other things that I can't think of right now. At the end we had the opportunity to purchase little pouches of spices or teas or coffee or bars of soap. It was enjoyable. Then we headed back to Stonetown (where the harbor is) and had lunch at a place called Mercury's Zanzibar. It had something to do with the guy from Queen. I'm not sure if he started the restaurant or what. The food was pretty good. Then we walked around Stonetown a bit and went in some of the shops there.

At 4 pm we caught the ferry back to Dar. We had to take the dreaded Sea Bus because that was the only one running at the time we needed to go back. The group who went before us a few weeks ago told us horror stories about the AC being broken and 60% of the passengers vomiting. They said there was vomit spilling out of the bags and running down the aisles and the smell was rancid. Luckily, our experience with the Sea Bus was about 85 times better. For one, the AC was fixed which was great. I can't say that the boat ride was any smoother though. There were definitely a few points where we got air time and it would crash back down against the water. We all took 2 dramamines before the journey back and I didn't feel sea sick at all which was a huge surprise to me. Richard and Freddy both vomited like 6 times each but the rest of us were okay. On the busride back to Bagamoyo from Dar we stopped at a mini mart and picked up some much needed snacks... Pringles, Twix, Nutella, and things like that.
All in all I'd say it was a successful, relaxing weekend.

We told our placements that we wouldn't be there today because there was an event at the hospital that Jerry (one of the volunteers) helped organize. The plan was to clean some of the wards and then for some of us to donate blood if we felt comfortable. The Bagamoyo blood bank is completely dry. So the Red Cross from Dar was there as well as some people from the big hospital in Dar and we all arrived around 8:30 or so. Then we proceeded to sit around for 2 hours waiting for something to happen. Apparently whoever at the hospital okayed this event didn't tell the Monday staff and they had no idea anything was supposed to happen. Moreover they didn't have any of the cleaning or blood drawing supplies that they were supposed to provide. We sat around while they tried to figure out an alternative but nothing ended up happening. It was really frustrating, especially for Jerry, who spent a lot of time organizing this. Also, we all could have been at our placements rather than sitting in the hospital waiting room. Also, the hospital really does need a good scrubbing. I don't think I would admit myself to that hospital if my life depended on it. Especially not for an operation. It's filthy.
We ended up just going to Ukun which is where some of the volunteers work. They go into the homes of HIV/AIDS patients and make sure they are taking their medicine and have food to eat. They also test patients at the clinic. We saw the process for testing for HIV, and had an interesting discussion about the AIDS epidemic, which seems pretty hopeless to me. (I probably shouldn't say that, but it's true). The goal right now is to get these patients the proper care and to extend their lives as long as possible but these people are living in extreme poverty and probably suffering a great deal, not to mention facing immense social stigmas in the community. Do they really want to live longer in such conditions? I guess that's not for anyone else to decide though. These volunteers definitely have the hardest volunteer placement. They see horrible things.

Today's afternoon activity was Batiking/Beading/Drumming at a local artist's place. I chose to learn how to bead a bracelet. It was a very tedious process because they use tiny glass beads. Monica mentioned that she will never look at those little bracelets the same way again and I completely agree. After that, I did laundry. If you're picturing a washer and dryer in your head, replace that image with two buckets and some Woolite. That's right, we have to hand wash everything. We have the option of giving our laundry to one of the local ladies to do it for a fee but I figured I could do it myself and save some money for other things. I have a feeling my hands are going to be very sore tomorrow from all that wringing. I will never take a washer for granted again. All in all it wasn't that difficult though. Swish some clothes around in soapy water, wring them our, rinse them in the clean water bucket, rinse them out, and hang them to dry.

Tomorrow we're back at our regular placements. This weekend 7 of us are going on a Safari which I'm pretty excited for.
That's all for now. Later gators.

mzungus

2010-06-03T10:10:00.002-04:00

hey hey hey. so we started our placements on tuesday. i'm working at AMAP- African Modern Arts Park. Sahidi, who runs it, is really cool. Here's how the morning goes....

I wake up at 6:30. Get dressed, eat breakfast. We either walk or get dropped off at our placement and arrive at 8am. Some of the kids are already there and they run and greet us. We just hang out while they play in the yard and make sure they don't get hurt. Other kids arrive. There's usually about 50 total. Then we make a circle. We sing songs like Hokey Pokey, If you're happy and you know it, Old McDonald, and some others that I learned here. They show us how they can count to 100. And they sing this precious song that goes "we need you, we love you, feel at home" and i'm sure they have no idea what they're saying but it's still cute. Then we split them into 2 groups: the older kids and younger kids. Freddy and Jen go with the older ones (Jen is leaving this weekend though), and I take the younger ones. Sahidi helps me usually. Things get chaotic usually. We just teach them basic things like ABC, 123, and squares, triangles, and circles. They know some English, but only a very little bit. Then their attention runs out so we play in the yard until the porridge is ready. It's actually more like milky looking water but i'm sure theres some sort of caloric value. They also got a donation of books so they like looking at those. I point to things and say the English word and they repeat it. I don't know if they actually learn anything but the older kids are pretty smart so I'd like to think AMAP helped them to learn those things. Also it's better than having them wandering the streets getting into trouble. They're so little! I wish I could communicate better with them but.... I can't. So we make do.

Today at CCS we had game day. We went to a field and played some soccer. Actually I mostly just stood there and then decided I was useless to the team so I watched from the side with Hanna. BUT THEN we played chase the chicken. Didase introduced it as chase the kitchen at first which made me laugh for hours. But basically they let a live chicken go in the field and the volunteers chase it around like fools until it is caught. It's hilarious. Doug caught it and let it go and then I picked it up. The poor thing was probably so scared so I just cuddled it and told it I wouldn't eat it.

This weekend a bunch of us are going to Zanzibar. We have to make the 2+ hour drive to Dar and then catch a ferry to Zanzibar. I hope to God we take the Kili ferry and not the Sea Boat. I can't deal with boats that rock too much, or people that vomit all over the place. I guess I'll let you guys know next week how it went!

Next week a bunch of us are going to help Sahidi clean up the new location for AMAP. He's moving to a new place and Pili's shop will be there as well as AMAP and their living quarters. The yard for the children is full of garbage and sharp things they can hurt themselves on so we're going to try to fix it up a bit. Hopefully our efforts are successful.

I think that's about all that is going on... oh the flies here are ridiculous. Amanda and I decided that those children in the Feed the Children commercials don't have flies on them because theyre poor, it's just because they're in Africa. I wish I had brought a fly swatter because I would spend my free time killing those annoying little shits. Even though it probably wouldn't reduce the number by much it would still make me feel better to get revenge.

I'll post again next week if I have news!

-M

ps- the title of this blog is mzungus which means white people. that's what the kids call us on the street. it's not a derogatory term, it's more just like theyre stating a fact. i still find it weird. i don't think it would go over well if i came back to the states and started shouting "black person!!!" everytime i saw one. or even "white person!!!" for that matter. even the adults here call us mzungus. thanks for stating the obvious! I've been white for 21 years now.

My name is Water

2010-05-31T10:22:00.002-04:00

Mambo!
So I made it to Tanzania successfully. Elias is one of the drivers and he picked me up from the airport with another driver. The drive to the homebase from the airport took over two hours. I think I could have walked back faster. The traffic was horrendous!! And this was at 8pm at night. I also found is strange that there were so many people on the streets of Dar at night. Even once we got out of the city it was still very crowded with people walking or selling things or just hanging out. I wish it had been light so I could have seen my surroundings better. I was very happy to reach the homebase. Edna, one of the housekeepers gave me some leftovers from dinner and then showed me my room. I'm staying in a room with 3 girls who have been here for a few weeks already: Tracy, Stacey, and Jen. Jen and Stacey are sisters from Canada and Tracy is from Arizona. They have taught me a lot so far about Bagamoyo.

Sunday and Monday (today) have been filled with orientation. We had a Swahili lesson and a guest speaker from the hospital talk about Malaria and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The HIV/AIDS rate is higher in Bagamoyo than any other part of Tanzania.
And let me tell you, this place is pretty damn rural. I'm still amazed that I'm connected to the internet right now! It's a small room with five computers and it's right next door to the homebase which was clever since I'm sure CCS volunteers are the main users.

The homebase is nice and the staff is wonderful. Zik is the head of the Bagamoyo program and Didas' title is logistician however he does a lot of things for us. Everyone here in Bagamoyo is so polite! Well mostly. We get a lot of stares from the local people, rightly so I suppose. The children are so friendly and love giving high fives or showing us the few English phrases that they have learned. Today we walked through the Monday market as well as made a trip towards Baga Point to a small tailor shop to buy some fabric. Pili is the wife of the man who runs AMAP (Sahidi) where I will be volunteering and she has a shop where she makes dresses and bags and things so if you bring her fabric, or purchase it in her shop she will make whatever you want, for very cheap by American standards. Also all of the proceeds go towards supplies and food for AMAP. Sahidi and Pili have a 2 and a half year old son who they renamed Barack when Obama was elected. People LOVE Obama here!

I found out that I will be working with fairly young children, contrary to my prior belief. Sahidi runs 2 programs, the morning one, when we volunteer, is for street children. Some of them are orphans, some come from single parent families. They are between the ages of 4 and 7 usually. They go to AMAP from 8 am until about 11:30 am and we teach them basic things like the alphabet, or some English words or basic math. They also get to eat some porridge, and for some this is the only food they get all day. So tomorrow we start our volunteer placements. Jen, my roommate who has been here for a while, volunteers at AMAP so she will be able to show me the ropes, which is good. Freddy, who also arrived on Saturday will be volunteering there as well. Today we met Sahidi and he seems very friendly! The other program is in the afternoon for young adults and aspiring artists. They receive training and marketing skills so they are able to profit from their artwork.

The house is soo nice for Bagamoyo standards and I can't really complain. There is no internet but it prevents me from wasting too much time on here. There is no hot water, but believe me, hot water is the last thing anyone wants by the end of an excruciatingly hot and humid day (the humidity is out of control!). Also there's no water pressure but that's no different than my New Brunswick apartment. There's only 4 new volunteers staying in the main house. Amanda (who also goes to Rutgers), Hannah (who was here last summer), Sarah, and myself. The 15 other new volunteers are staying in the Summer House which is about a five minute walk. The advantage? They have air conditioning. The disadvantage? They have to walk to the main house for all of the meals and activities. So basically they only use the AC at night and I haven't really had a problem sleeping, as long as you stay really still and don't get tangled in the mosquito nets.

Speaking of mosquites I already have 5 bites. But Ive been using bug spray and taking my malaria pills religiously so I'm hoping they don't result in malaria. The rest of the group is visiting the hospital in Bagamoyo right now, however I opted out because they said it's much different from America and we might be shocked by what we see. Sounds like a faint session to me. I don't even like American hospitals.

Today I am going to get a cell phone. Mostly to contact the other volunteers and the staff but occasionally for long distance calls. The phones are about 35 shillings (about $25 USD) and then you buy the minutes as you go but those are also really cheap. I think they said it's a half a shilling per second, and a shilling is like nothing. It will be much more convenient when we are traveling on the weekends and also to contact Terri, who runs the Baobab Home. She called me on Sunday to see if I could go on an outing with her but I couldn't because we've been too busy with orientation things. But the 3rd and 4th week we have a lot of free time so I'm hoping to be able to visit them and help out.

Ah, so the title of this blog. All the Tanzanians here pronounce my name Mah-jee (with a soft J) and the word for water here is Maji so basically they remember my name by thinking water. I don't mind it. It could have been a worse word. Like oh, in Swahili your name means prostitute. No thanks!
I'm looking forward to starting our volunteer work tomorrow but I'm slightly concerned about being able to communicate with the children since they don't speak very much English and my Swahili skills are lacking, to say the least. But Sahidi speaks both languages so I think it will be okay. Plus I'm not the first American volunteer they've had.
Alright, that's all for now. I know I forgot to mention so many things but I feel rushed because I'm paying for internet and also dinner is soon!
OH! speaking of dinner, the food is pretty good here! Robert is the cook along with another woman whose name I forget right now. They spend all day cooking and preparing food for us! But still I know I'm going to be craving American food regardless. They don't have very much cheese here. Or milk. Or ice cream. Serious dairy deprivation. Also there aren't really any grocery stores to buy snacks. Oh well, I guess eating healthy is better.
Hope you are all doing well!
I'll blog soon about my volunteer placement.
<3

Swiss Cheese

2010-05-28T06:24:00.004-04:00

Hello!
So, as many things in life go, my trip to Tanzania has not gone as planned so far. But before you start to cry out of pity for me, let me explain! Because right now I'm sitting in a lovely air conditioned hotel room for which I didn't have to pay a dime and to my right I have 2 meal vouchers for food! Don't fret.
This is what happened. Mama Nej took me to the airport... yesterday it was (my days are already all mixed up, it feels like the same day still). Then I got a really expensive and not that delicious italian sandwich and waited to board the flight. Everything went smoothly, we all got on the airplane and then out of no where (actually out of the northwest to be more precise) a storm hit! It was pouring and thundering and lightning and air control temporarily stopped the departures. So we waited for about 2 and a half hours on the immobile plane before finally taking off. So I knew right away I wasn't going to make my connecting flight. This knowledge was reinforced by the book I am reading "The Geography of Bliss" where the author explains how prompt everything is in Switzerland. At least the disappointment came early!
So we took off around 9:00 pm and everything went well... no crashes or anything. There was one screaming child but it was far away enough that it didn't bother me. I was able to sleep a little... maybe 2 hours? There was a really nice woman from NJ/Connecticut across the aisle and we chatted a bit. She was vacationing in Zurich with her sister for a long weekend. Luckily there was no one in the seat next to me so I was able to spread out a bit.
We landed in Zurich at about 10:20 am (4:20 am US time), 2 hours after our scheduled arrival. It took like 4 minutes to get off the plane and then another 10 to get to terminal E where my flight would have been. It was kinda sad to know that had my first flight been on time, I would have made it to my second flight no problem. But oh well! I went to the transfer desk who sent me to another transfer desk across the airport at which point I met a lovely young man who was able to help me. He told me I had two options:
1. I could take the 9:30 am flight tomorrow morning and either stay in the airport or pay for my own hotel. or
2. I could hop on a 5 pm flight to london, an 8 pm flight to Nairobi, and then some other flight from there to Dar es Salaam which would get me into Dar es Salaam at 9:20 in the morning.
After a few minutes of contemplation I decided to go with option 2 for two reasons: I wouldn't have to stay in the airport overnight or pay for a hotel, and I would be in Dar es Salaam before 3:30 which is when CCS requests us to arrive. Also, I could say I'd been to 5 countries in 36 hours, how cool right?! So the guy went to book the flight and he called someone else who told him that I couldn't do that, I suppose because one or more of the flights was booked. But they also said that they would pay for me to stay in a hotel and take the 9:30 am flight to Dar es Salaam. So they booked me at the Radisson which is surprisingly nice for being booked by the airline. And it's literally right next door, I didn't even have to go outside to get here because there is a tunnel under the street. AND free internet access. But stupid me, I only broughgt the right adapter for Tanzania so I only have as much time as my battery allows. Oh well. I will probably lounge around the room a bit, grab some free dinner at the airport, take a well deserved shower and hit the hay a little early tonight since I basically skipped Thursday night.

It's weird being all alone over hear. Not really scary or depressing, just weird. I don't think I've ever been this far from anyone I know. I'm completely surrounded by strangers! Some of which have been very kind to me along the way.
Looks like I won't be needing the airplane pillow and blanket I stuffed into my backpack in the case of sleeping in the airport. Woohoo!
I guess there were a decent amount of delayed flights because I saw a lot of people FREAKING out. This one lady, clearly American, was supposed to be in Athens and was screaming at the poor airport worker. I feel bad for the airport people that have to deal with frantic assholes all the time. I myself am guilty of some frantic behavior in the France airport last year. But this year I haven't been worked up all that much. After all, they won't let me fly the plane so there's not a whole lot I can do to control what time I get to Tanzania. I already called the program when I was still in Newark and they said they would be there at 8:10 tomorrow night to pick me up. Then there's the 2 hour drive to Bagamoyo.
Now I just need to figure out how to set an alarm or get a wake up call from the front desk. Missing tomorrow's flight would be a very very bad thing. Hopefully I can blog again soon upon my arrival to Tanzania!

This is what a delayed flight looks like.
This is what a free hotel room in Zurich looks like.

This is what my wildest dreams look like (it's a ginormous wine tower in the lobby).
This is what an ominous or perhaps hopeful sign looks like.

packing...

2010-05-25T13:59:00.004-04:00

All of this and some other things need to fit into one carry-on sized suitcase and one normal sized backpack... hmm, looks like im going to have to narrow it down a bit.

2010-05-24T15:15:00.002-04:00

I've been doing a decent amount of driving the last few days and it has given me time to contemplate my fast approaching trip and think about what I am most looking forward to, so I decided to put together a list because, well, lists are awesome. Some of these things a lot of people would think of as hassles which is probably why most people don't travel to Tanzania very often...
I'm looking forward to.................
- Not wearing make up for an entire month (or very little).
- Having crazy hair because I won't be straightening it.
- Having no cell phone and therefor be unable to text anyone.
- Having limited access to the internet.
- Having lots of time to read good summer books.
- Surviving on chai tea and veggies and other healthy things.
- Learning how to deal with food cravings.
- Walking to every destination within walking distance.
- Living by the ocean.
- Searching for awesome souvenirs for my family and friends.
- Deciding what personal belongings to leave behind in Africa so I have room in my suitcase to bring home these souvenirs.
- Being missed.
- Mastering the skill of going with the flow.
- Being barefoot as much as possible.
- Making new friends and hearing their stories.
- Using charades, smiling and laughing as a means of communication when there is no other option.
- Meeting Terri, Caito, their children, and the kids at their orphanage (hopefully!).
- Bringing them the much needed cloth diapers.
- Sleep deprivation.
- Learning how to live in a place completely different than anything I have ever known.
- Taking wonderful pictures.
- Weekend adventures.
- The opportunity to teach others as well as learn from them.
- A break from all this craziness to experience a different kind of craziness.

I'm sure there's a bunch of other ones but these are all that I can think of for now. In 72 hours I will be at the airport, hooray!

More pre-departure news!

2010-05-20T12:42:00.002-04:00

So I have some exciting new updates! Well, they're exciting to me, they might be boring to you, i'm not sure. I've been in contact with Terri from the Baobab Home and her sister Becky, who lives in New Jersey. I've decided to take an entire extra suitcase with me, filled with supplies for the orphanage. Becky said what they do is buy old suitcases at garage sales and use those to transport things so the person doesn't have to worry about bringing the suitcase back. I'm a bit nervous about lugging two suitcases with me but I will be able to check the bags all the way through so I don't need to worry about them in Switzerland, assuming I make my flight. And then in Dar es Salaam, the Holiday Inn will be picking me up from the airport so they can help me carry them which is good. And besides, how can I turn down an opportunity to bring much needed items like cloth diapers to an orphanage in Tanzania just because I might have a little trouble? Becky is going to pack the suitcase with everything and weigh it to make sure its under the 50 pound maximum and we're going to meet up at some point next week so she can give it to me.

In other news, we had our CCS conference call this week. There were about 10 volunteers on the call and our adviser, Sharon, who actually was also my adviser for Morocco. The conference calls are always awkward because we don't know each other yet and no one wants to talk. Also, there was a horrible echo coming from Sharon's phone and it made it really difficult to understand her! But I got some useful information. Hannah, who was in Bagamoyo for 5 weeks last summer and is returning for 12 weeks this summer, said that there are no dairy products in Bagamoyo so the diet change can be disruptive. She said she already cut out dairy from her diet so her body can get used to it before arrival. I think I will attempt to do the same thing although I probably won't be 100% successful. I haven't been drinking milk or eating any yogurt or anything so that's good. Hannah also told me that the students at AMAP (where I will be volunteering) are mostly in their twenties. I think it will be a really cool and different experience to work with adults! Also, Terri said that her orphanage is in walking distance from where I'm staying so if Immigration allows me to help out there, it will be very easy to get to!

I also found out today that there is now a 9:30 am flight on Saturday! So if I happen to miss my Friday 9:30 am connecting flight I won't have to wait the entire weekend in Switzerland, I can just hop on the flight the next day. Although my hotel room would go to waste and I would miss the 3:30 departure time of the other volunteers, it would still be better than waiting for days or paying for a flight to Dubai.

These are some of the things I've learned since my last post and I am soo excited to get to Bagamoyo! I've found some pictures on the CCS Flickr site posted by some one named Emily Michelle. I'll post them to give you guys an idea of where I'll be staying and such, in case I can't post pictures when I'm there!

One of the CCS homebases in Bagamoyo.

We'll put a distance the size of the ocean... again

2010-05-17T13:12:00.002-04:00

Jambo!
So i realized a few times through out this past year that I never updated my blog when I got home from Morocco last year. Probably due to the excitement of arriving home safely and seeing my family and and friends and Ben. And then the memories started to fade a little and writing about the trip home seemed like too much work I suppose. Or perhaps I just didn't want to remember the trip home, I'd rather believe that I just snapped my fingers and there I was. Regardless, this is what I do recall from that (very long) day. We woke up at a ridiculously early hour (5 or 6 am which was midnight back in the states). Mohamed and Abdellah were both gone for the weekend and basically the only person around was the security guard who didn't speak very much English. The man who was supposed to drive us ("us" being Lacey, Liz and myself) to the airport didn't arrive on time. I don't recall how late he was but it was late enough where we had to contact poor Mohamed at such an early hour to give the guy a call. It was also late enough to cause me to start in with extreme anxiety about arriving home. But he finally arrived and we arrived at the small airport in Rabat with enough time to check our bags and board the plane. The person checking my bags asked me for the Newark airport code. You're the one who works here can't you look it up or something? is what I wanted to say. But instead I just gave him "NWK" which seemed the most logical. I later found out it was EWR (that doesn't correspond very well to Newark!!).
So we boarded the plane. I was seated all the way in the back row, which was fine because there were two entrances, one in the front of the plane and one in the back. And then I realized the back entrance wouldn't be used during our exit at the Charles DeGaulle airport. I literally had the most inconvenient seat ever for a short layover. The layover being only an hour and 15 minutes or so. It took a ridiculously long time to get off the plane, and then we had to wait for a bus to take us to a different terminal. By this time I was a crazy person because the bus was taking forever and none of the airport people were willing to do anything in order to help us reach our flight. The bus finally came and stopped at every terminal before ours. And then once we got to our terminal, we weren't even close to our gate. We were literally running through the airport. And Lacey had packed most of her souvenirs and many of her belongings into her GINORMOUS carry on and was lagging behind. So I swapped with her so she could carry my moderate sized one and we sprinted through the airport. LUCKILY we made it to our flight with only seconds to spare, the last people getting on the plane before it took off. And right before we left, an airport worker came on our plane and asked me for my luggage ticket (at that point I realized NWK was not Newark's airport code). So not only did we make it on the flight home (sweaty and panting) but so did our luggage! How wonderfully lucky.
And then when we arrived in Newark we had to go through customs or whatever which took soo ridiculously long, and felt even longer knowing that my wonderful family and my wonderful Ben were waiting for me just a few rooms away! And we drove home and I was exhausted and my mom's cooking, which is normally delicious, was the best thing I had ever eaten. And sprinting through the airport in France was completely necessary and worth it. And that's what I remember from that crazy and long trip home.
And now, here I am, nearly a year later, about to set sail on my second great adventure: Bagamoyo, Tanzania. I am going again with Cross Cultural Solutions, however this time I won't have the comfort of my best friend, or anyone I know for that matter. I also won't have internet access in the house where I am staying. Nor will I have the luxury of a 75 minute layover. This time, I thought I'd really test my running ability. My layover is in Zurich, Switzerland, and if my first flight arrives on time I will have 50 minutes to make it to my next flight. Believe me, the anxiety has already set in and I still have 10 days before I leave. And the real reason for this crazy short layover is because I need to fly using Continental and their partner airlines. And the only option was to fly Continental to Switzerland and then Swiss Airways to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I guess there's not a huge demand to travel there. If I miss my flight, there is not another flight to Tanzania via Swiss Airways for the entire weekend. So that means I either have to wait a couple of days and miss orientation and my first few days volunteering or I have to hop on a flight to Dubai, and then another flight to Tanzania, which would get me there just in time to meet up with the program and the other volunteers. Either way, if I miss my flight, my hotel room will go to waste, so I'm really really really hoping that I can make it!!!
Enough about flight anxiety though! Whenever I do finally arrive in Bagamoyo, I will be volunteering at the African Modern Arts Park and Training Center for Street Children. I'm still a bit unclear about what my duties there will be. I know that these children live at the school and are provided with free education and two meals a day. They take courses in English, Art History, and Art. I believe most of them are 12+ since they are currently working on opening a school for 6-12 year olds. I hope that I can be helpful in teaching them! I think it will be a fun placement, and much different than my orphanage placement in Morocco, which I adored.
A few years ago I heard of this woman named Terri Place who is from New Jersey and who started an orphanage in Bagamoyo, called the Baobab Home (www.tzkids.org). She is a huge inspiration to me, and I have contacted her about possibly visiting her orphanage and helping out some days. However, I learned that the visa situation is complicated and subject to the whims of the immigration officers. Basically, I might not be allowed to volunteer in two places while I am there (who limits the amount of volunteer work someone is allowed to do?!!) But anyway, Terri is going to talk to her husband Caito who is from Tanzania and who knows more about the visa process. I really hope we can work something out! Also, I will be meeting up with Terri's mother before I leave in order to bring a few items to the orphanage for her. Shipping is very expensive and probably unreliable. Unfortunately I won't have enough room in my suitcase to bring a box of cloth diapers.
And that's where I am at this point. Being bored in New Jersey while I wait for the arrival of May 27th and for the craziness and adventures to begin. I will be updating this blog periodically while I am over there but I'm not sure if I will be able to post pictures since I have to go to the internet cafe for access. Cross your fingers and pray for me!

From all I've seen, and all I've heard, this place has broken my American heart.

2009-07-03T17:59:00.002-04:00

I can't believe my trip is over! Well, I'm still in Morocco right now but we leave for the airport in 7 hours. Europe feels like it was ages ago, and the Morocco leg flew by.
Today was our last day at the orphanage. It was very sad to leave. Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our favorite nurses because they weren't working today. They kissed us like a million times! These women are such kind, amazing people, and I could tell without even speaking their language. The worst part I think was knowing that we would probably never see these babies again or find out where they go in life. Will they get adopted? Will they live their entire childhoods at the orphanage? Will they end up working at the orphanage? (Turns out many of the nurses actually grew up at Lalla Meriem). I also wonder if they'll have serious psychological issues from having so many people coming in and out of their lives, making it difficult to have lasting connections with anyone.
I already can see that this experience has changed me. Made me see things a bit clearer I suppose. On the other hand, I find myself having less sympathy when I see a child crying who is with its parents. I want to yell at it that at least it has parents! Of course I realize this is ridiculous and I'm sure this resentment will wear off in time. However, I hope my memories of the babies will not wear away. I wrote down all of the babies' names in our room so I wouldn't forget a single one: Zoubir, Walid, Rim, Soukaina, Said, Saif, Ali, Adam, Naler, Riyade, Rayane, Rabie, Rafik, Tarik, Wael, Zinedine, Karima, Anas, as well as Naserlah, Fahd, Khalil and Ooda, who weren't in our room but I don't want to forget either.
I still can't really comprehend how some one could just leave an innocent little baby in a trash can on the side of the road. I think there's something that needs to be changed in a culture where a woman cannot bring her new baby home to her family without bringing shame with her. Anyway, I don't expect this change to occur in the forseeable future. But maybe eventually. Or maybe what this country needs is better implementation of birth control. I'm not exactly sure how available it is, I just know that abortions do not occur. Or maybe the trick is to allow non-Muslim families to adopt these children. There are thousands of families in other countries who would be able to provide loving homes for these children but who are immediately ruled out because of their religion, or lack of religion. It's a bummer. Is it really better that these kids grow up in the orphanage, where there's probably very little religion practiced anyway, rather than grow up in a loving family that practies a different religion?
Sigh, I've made as much of a difference as I could in the short time I was here. A small scratch on the surface, if that. I helped the nurses and allowed them to rest a little more than usual and I gave the babies as much love and affection as I had in me. I think most importantly, this trip was about learning about another culture and their customs as well as letting them see some one from a different culture. It was definitely a wonderful learning experience and I have met so many wonderful people in such a short time.
I think that's it for all my deep reflecting haha. We leave for the airport in about 6 hours. We have a 3 hour flight from Rabat to Paris. Assuming that flight is on time we have exactly an hour and 15 minutes to get to our Continental flight. I really REALLY hope we don't miss that flight. Mostly because the next one isn't until Sunday morning and I really just want to get home at this point. Everything is packed and I'm ready to go, in that sense at least. I'm trying to stay up a bit late so I can sleep on the planes and so the jetlag doesn't eat me alive.
I am so so so excited to get off the plane and meet up with my parents and Ben and see Lacey's family as well. :) I'll update when I get home with any new revelations that occurred during the 8 hour plane ride.
-M

2009-06-29T14:41:00.002-04:00

Hi!
I realize it's been a while since I've updated. I don't have anything super exciting to write about but I figured I'd update anyway. Last week was pretty much a blur of babies, missing Ben, craving American food and things like that. The babies are still as precious as ever. Lace and I took our cameras and got some pictures of the orphanage and the nurses but they stuck to the no pictures of the babies rule. We may have snuck a few.. shh.
We also started our souvenir shopping. Everything is so cheap when you convert it to US dollars, it's hard to resist buying tons of things. Luckily I have a space limitation so I won't be able to deplete my bank account haha. Friday Lacey, Chelsea and I got pedicures. They also got massages but I opted out on that one. The pedicures were really nice. It was only about $12 and they spent like 45 minutes doing them. My feet were as soft as a baby's bottom afterward! Then Friday evening after dinner a bunch of us went to get gelati since it was some of the volunteers' last evening. It was delicious as usual. Saturday was a sad day because we had to part with Chelsea. The three of us pretty much spent all our time together so it was sad to see her go. She's with her family in Paris for the week.
Lacey and I decided not to travel anywhere this week end because we were kind of traveled out. Also, we didn't really want to spend the money. We had a lot of down time but I found it relaxing to just sleep in and read and such. Then the new volunteers arrived in the afternoon and evening on Saturday. 23 of them!! It's weird having a new group of volunteers here and only 6 total from the group that started with us. It feels like a bunch of strangers staying in my house haha. I guess we kinda get to see what it's like for Mohamad and Khadija and the rest of the staff to always have volunteers coming and going. Most of the people seem really nice, it's just quite crowded now (our room is at max capacity with 8 instead of the 3 we were used to). It's funny how they all think of us as the experts. I don't really feel like I've been here long enough to give them advice but I'm going along with it haha. I guess we do know more than they do at this point. Lacey and I have kind of been hermits in our room. Of course we've been talking to the new volunteers a lot but since we're only here for 4 more days theres not much point in building lasting friendships. Also since it's their first week they're doing all of the first week things that we already did.
Since there's so many volunteers at the orphanage we have to take two trips now. Theres an earlier one (8 to 12) and a later one (8:30 to 12:30). Lacey and I chose to do the earlier one. It's nice getting home a little earlier and for some reason the day went really fast today even though we were there the same amount of time. I'm not looking forward to having to say bye to the babies but I'm trying not to think about that yet... we still have 4 days with them!
And I continue to have anxiety about missing our connecting flight in Paris since we only have an hour and 15 minutes to get to an entirely different terminal (assuming our flight from Rabat is on time). Hopefully checking my suitcase all the way through will make things easier, even though they'll probably lose it. I just really don't feel like having to wait until Sunday to get a filght home if we miss it.
I think those are all of my updates for now. I will probably post only one more when I get home this week end. Unless something crazy happens this week. See you all soon!

Sahara Desert

2009-06-21T16:32:00.006-04:00

baby monkey!
monkey with one eye :(
hangin with the monkey
he's playing hard to get. ;-)
Chelsea and I with our Berber camel tour guides who also played drums and cooked haha.
In the morning after our return!
Camel shadows.
Beautiful sunrise.
Beginning of sunrise.
Lacey at night when it started getting windy.
meeeee. Pitch black everywhere!
Our tent!
On the camels. They smellllllled!
Ripples in the sand.
Our camel procession.
HANK!!!
bahahahaha.

Hello!
It's been about a week since I've updated. Last week was kind of boring, that's why. I had to stay home from the orphanage on Monday and Tuesday because I was still too sick to be of any use. It was slightly boring and a little frustrating but I eventually got better after sleeping for hours and hours. The rest of the week at the orphanage was pretty typical. We took the toddlers out one day (2 each) to the playground. I'm not sure who thought it was a good idea to give my toddler a chocolate coated cookie. She was such a mess! And the rest of the week we were back with the sweet little babies. Who are quite stinky in the morning, by the way.
This week end we went to the Sahara Desert! It was sooo fantastic-- it definitely made up for not such a great week end in Fes. Friday afternoon we were picked up at our homebase by Hamzah (the guide) and Said (the driver). Our program director Mohamad also joined us for part of the trip because his mom and brother live in a town near the desert, so it was nice to have him come along. Friday we drove for about three hours and stopped in I'Frane just to check it out. There's a university there where Chelsea might be studying abroad in the Spring (she gets to choose there or Meknes). It was such a beautiful, clean city. Actually it seemed more like a town. It didn't seem like it was in Morocco. After a short stop there we headed on to Azrou where we stayed Friday night. The hotel we stayed in was really nice! I felt like we were kind of robbing them because we were paying so little. (The entire week end was about $200, food, accomodations, camels, basically everything included.) There's not much to do in Azrou so we just hung out in the hotel. There is a "restaurant" in the basement. More like a kitchen and eating area and a woman who makes really delicious food. We had soup (of Ramadan- it was soo good) and tangine (chicken and such). By the time we were done with dinner it was pretty late so we just hung out in our rooms. We also had a huge family room thing just for us. No one else was staying in the hotel that night.
Saturday we woke up around 7 and showered and had breakfast and then hit the road. We stopped at a few places with nice views to take pictures. The roads winded through the Atlas mountains and then it got really flat and deserty. Some of the roads were very bumpy and the driver didn't exactly go over the bumps slowly so there were a few where we got some significant air time. It was funny and surprising. At our stop for lunch we dropped off Mohomad who was picked up by his brother. Then we ate sandwiches and were back on the road. We got to our destination (the town of Merzouga) around 4:00 (it was a little desert hotel, also where the camels were kept and the desert guides lived) and had a little bit of time to clean up, have tea, and take a short nap while we waited for the desert to cool down a little. Around 6:00 we were ready to go. One of the guys showed us how to wrap our scarves around our head. It was funny to see everyone looking so Arabic. I couldn't stop laughing, especially at Lacey :). Then we boarded the camels!! We gave all of our camels names: mine was Hank, Lacey's was Herman, Chelsea's was Doug, Nicole's was Sherman, and Liz's was Henry. Kay and Caroline's camels remained unnamed. All of the camels were strung together by rope and the two desert guides led us through the desert, winding around the dunes since it's easier for the camels and less painful for the riders. Let's just say camels aren't the most graceful creatures. They're not really spastic or anything but they're really lanky and take long loping steps. The uphills weren't bad but the downhills were a bit rough. The only way I can think to explain it is you know when you're walking down a flight of stairs and you think you're at the bottom but there's actually one stair left so when you step it's a really heavy, clumsy step? Well that's what every step was like when the camels were going down hills, even if they were small hills. But it was still a really awesome experience!
We got to our campsite around 7:30 or 8 I believe. We trekked up to the top of this massive dune... Nicole, Hamzah and I were the only ones to make it all the way to the top. The sunset wasn't very spectacular since there were some clouds. We met some guys from a military school in Virginia who were in Morocco studying Arabic. The one I talked to was actually from the Chicago suburbs which was cool and surreal that we found a bunch of Americans on top of a dune in the middle of the Sahara Desert. They were also camping there for the night in the campsite right next to ours. After that we headed back down and had some dinner in one of the tents. The dinner was surprisingly good. It was a simple meal- bread, veggies, tangine and oranges for dessert. After dinner the two camel guides brought out their drums (bongos?) and played for us. They were really talented! Our favorite song was "Vamos a la playa". We were able to communicate with them with bits and pieces of Spanish. Then they handed the drums to us and asked for American songs which was funny. I'd say we failed miserably at playing the drums. We sang them a few songs very poorly but they clapped anyway haha.
After that we headed into the tent to sleep. It was divided into 2 parts so we slept 4 on our side and 3 on the other. It was a bit warm even with one whole wall open so everyone except me moved their mattresses outside to sleep. However it was extremely windy outside and Lacey's mattress blew away so she had to go chasing after it-- probably one of the funniest things of seen (well, heard) in a long time. But the sand was blowing everywhere so Lacey and Nicole ended up coming back in the tent after all that. Kay and Chelsea were the only ones who slept outside, wrapped in sheets looking quite dead. They said they saw some pretty amazing stars though (it had been too cloudy when we went to sleep which was a little disappointing). We saw some when we woke up before sunrise but didn't get the full effect. Yes, that's right, we woke up before sunrise, around 5 am I think. Lacey and I peed behind a tent since there were no bathrooms at the campsite. Luckily we were smart enough to bring our own toilet paper!
After gathering our things we got back on the camels who had been sleeping a short distance away. First of all, I thought my butt was sore after the Florence bike tour-- that did not even compare to how sore I was when I had to get back on that damn camel this morning. I thought I was going to die. I ended up sitting cross-legged for a while because it was less painful, but then I had to perform a serious balancing act to avoid falling off. It was worth it though. Lacey's camel was totally wearing its cranky pants this morning. It was making all kinds of grumpy noises. Plus since she was the last one it kept coming up to the side of my camel since we were right in front of her. It was a bit scary having it's head and big mossy teeth right next to my leg. I think it even slobbered on my foot a bit. I was about ready to kick some camel ass after a few minutes of that crap. Lacey found it really funny and encouraged the poor behavior.
The sunrise was very beautiful so we stopped briefly to take some pictures. I'm not exactly sure how my butt didn't fall off but don't you worry- it's all still there. The ride back seemed shorter than the ride there. Chelsea had the fabulous idea of taking showers (we had rooms back at the little hotel in Merzouga). The water was cold and came out slightly more pressurized than a trickle but still it was really refreshing and a very good idea before our long journey back to Rabat. They also had breakfast waiting for us which was really nice. After that we parted ways with our camel guides and headed back to the van with Hamzah and Said. We drove through the bumpy roads for a couple ours, dozing off since we had a very short night's sleep. We picked up Mohomad at the same spot we left him on Friday. That's where we parted ways with Hamzah, who was from a town nearby so he didn't need to come all the way back to Rabat with us. Hamzah was a really cool dude. He spoke English but was really enthusiastic about improving it. He asked Kay questions since she's an English teacher (how can some one be "well" but they can also get water from a "well", what does this word "breeze" mean? etc etc) It was very cute and he was a very kind person. He asked our permission to get off at the town rather than continuing to Rabat. We teased him that he had to stay with us the ENTIRE time. But anyways, after that we continuted on a few ours and stopped for lunch around 1:30. Lacey, Liz and I got some Kefta (beef) dish but the beef seemed really rare so I didn't eat much of it. I'm not trying to get deathly ill again. Good thing it came with fries though :). After lunch we continued the longggg journey back (9 hours total). It actually wasn't that bad because the scenery was so different from what we're used to. Plus I don't mind time to listen to music and think and just be with myself in general. Also, I really enjoy the company of the people I've been traveling with. We all get along very well.
So we made it back to the homebase around 7 I think. Lacey, Liz and I ordered pizza from dominos because we were craving some American food! It was pretty good I have to admit. Now we're just hanging around, resting our aching bodies haha. All in all, I'd say this week end was a success. It was so interesting to see the desert, a massive ocean of sand so to say. It was really peaceful.
Oh! I almost forgot to mention the monkey forest we stopped in on the way back! Literally just a forest right off the road where a bunch of monkeys hang out. I sat next to one that only had one eye. It seemed pretty calm with me being so close. It turned its head swiftly at one point and I got startled and fell over haha (I had been crouching down). (See pictures above^^). We also saw a baby monkey. Very cute.
I think that's all for now. Back to the orphanage and the adorable babies tomorrow :) We're going to ask the nurses if we can take a few pictures so hopefully they'll be okay with that because I really want to show everyone these awesome kidsss! Maybe it will convince you to become a Muslim and adopt one ;-). Okay, bye for now! <333 onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

Whatever you do, do not breathe through your nose..

2009-06-14T15:58:00.002-04:00

Oh Fes. That's really all I can say haha. It was an interesting weekend. Friday at the orphanage I started having stomach cramps but I didn't think it was a big deal so I went on the week end trip anyway. Friday night we ate at a pretty sweet restaurant. The food was okay but I was feeling kind of nauseous by then. By Saturday morning I was kind of a mess. I'll spare the gross details haha. Anyway, our tour started really early so that we could see the main tourist things before it got too crowded. But in Fes they bring all of the products into the medina in the middle of the night so in the morning the streets are filthy with donkey poop and unbagged garbage and stray cats and millions of flies. This did not help the me being sick situation. I almost passed out/vomited on the street at one point but I was able to pull myself together thank goodness. And then the guide took us to a tannery. Oh. my. God. I have never smelled anything so horrible in my entire life. It literally smelled like death. It was really cool to see the process and the big baths where they wash the skins and everything. I have no idea how people work there every day. Our guide tried to tell us that the smell was good for our health. Ok buddy, I might believe that. I was actually relieved when we were able to get back into the stinky streets and out of the tannery.
After that we went to a place where they make blankets and carpets out of sheep wool and camel fur and cactus fiber and things like that. Everything was so beautiful. Lacey and I bought cactus fiber blankets. They're really light and more for decoration but they're so beautiful. Mine is purples and blues and Lacey's is reds and golds. Also, it was a nice break from the heat and all that. After that we went to a jewelry store and then to a pottery store but I didn't buy anything else. Except at the pharmacy I got Immodium and stomach medicine which helped a lot. Then we went back to the Riyad and everyone went out to lunch but I didn't feel like eating at all so I stayed in and napped. Later we went to a cafe for dinner that had some more American options and such so a bunch of us got grilled cheeses. I thought I would be okay to eat but I took 2 bites and then had to sprint to the bathroom (up the steepest stairs) and made it just in time to vomit like 90 gallons of water that I had drank previously (too much detail?). On the bright side, I felt a lot better after that, at least for a little bit. Fail on the eating part though.
Today when we woke up Chelsea and Lacey also weren't feeling too hot so the three of us decided to just head back to Rabat rather than stopping in Meknes with the rest of them. Unfortunately they wouldn't let us trade in the tickets bc there was some confusion so we just bought new ones which were only like 15 bucks a piece. The train was like 110 degrees no joke. For some reason the air didn't go on until we were two minutes from Rabat. Psh. Anyways, we survived... just barely. And we took freezing cold showers and then slept the rest of the day and felt sorry for ourselves and wished our mommies were there.
So in conclusion, being sick sucks. Being sick away from home sucks more. But being sick away from the homebase sucks the most I think. Fes was a cool city. The medina was interesting to see and unlike anything I've ever seen before. All in all, it wasn't a horrible week end. As long as I didn't breathe through my nose :)
I'm hoping by tomorrow I'll be completely better because I don't want to miss a day with the babies!

B is for Baby

2009-06-11T10:40:00.002-04:00

Hey!
So I've been in Morocco 6 days now and it's going pretty great. First of all, I absolutely love my volunteer placement. The babies are so adorable. Every day I go I'm surprised by how tiny some of them are! And it's so sweet to see their faces light up when you walk up and smile at them in the morning. One of the boys who is in the 6-9 month room always starts to cry when he sees me so that I'll pick him up. He is so snuggly and often falls asleep in my arms. It's so cute to tickle them and hear their little baby laughs. Okay, can you tell I'm a little obsessed?!
Today the nurses pulled me out of the room and handed me a kid that looked about 2 and 1/2 years old. They tried explaining something to me but I had no idea what they were so saying so I just followed the nurses downstairs. We also picked up another volunteer, Kate, and two more kids on the way. Then we got in the orphanage's ambulance and went to the hospital. Well actually I think it was the doctor's office across from the hospital. I know they take some of the kids there sometimes for check ups and things since the orphanage doesn't have all of the equipment. Anyway, I learn that the kids are there to have blood taken. And you probably know how well I deal with blood. The little kid is sitting on my lap screaming his head off because they're like sucking all his blood out and then I get really light headed and have to have Kate come in and sit with him. Luckily I found a couch and was able to lay down so I didn't faint. When the kid was done he ran up to me with his arms out. I hope he didn't think I abandoned him for no reason. He probably doesn't need anymore abandonment issues. Anyway, they gave us coffee and cookies while we waited for the driver and he was like the happiest kid in the whole world. And then we headed back to the orphanage where my little dude in the 6-9 month old room fell asleep in my arms. Love him.
Today after lunch Khadija gave us a cooking lesson. We made some sort of chicken with saffron, cumen, parsley, lemon, onions, garlic, all cooked in loads of oil. It smelled delicious. I think we're having that for dinner. For tea time today we had these little biscuit things that resembled English muffins and they had honey all over them and then you put jam on them. yummm.
And tomorrow 9 of us (Me, Lacey, Chelsea, Liz, Michelle, Nicole, Kay, Caroline and Chris) are heading to Fes by train. It's about 3 hours away. We're staying in a Riyad which is pretty much just a guest house hostel type thing. It's really cheap but other volunteers have said it's pretty decent. And Saturday we're getting a tour of the medina. It's one of the biggest and oldest in the world and apparently it's really easy to get lost if you don't have a guide. So I plan on doing some serious bargaining for some sweet souvenirs. I'm excited. Then Sunday we're taking the train to Meknes and checking out some Roman ruins that are about 20 minutes from there. Then we're heading back to Rabat in the afternoon. Should be a really fun week end and I'm sure we'll be pretty tired for the orphanage on Monday. But it's okay, I'm pretty exhausted everyday anyway.
I think that's all of the updates for now. I need a shower so bad. And possibly an afternoon snooze :). Later.

Hna hna (=we're here)

2009-06-08T12:37:00.004-04:00

street in Rabat
Lace and me in some garden in Rabat
spice store in the medina
the medina (marketplace) in Rabat.
kitten!
outside gate of homebase.
the homebase!
the living room. Mohomad, Nicole, Caroline, Chelsea.
the kitchen, lunch on the counter, and Aicha the cook.

Salam!
I have made it to Rabat, Morocco safely! I would like to type every detail of everything that has happened to me the past three days but I think I could write an entire book so I will spare you. But I am warning you-- this is going to be a long post.
So I got to the Paris airport and checked my bags and found Lacey very easily (we happened to get to the bag check area around the same time). Then we went to our gate and found some other CCS volunteers who are all really nice. Our flight was a little less than 3 hours. I fell so sound asleep that the guy next to me had to wake me when our meal came bc I didn't hear them put it in front of me haha. Then Mohomad, the program director in Morocco was waiting for us at the Rabat airport when we arrived. Along with the driver. Mohomad is such a cool dude. He was in the Peace Corps for 7 years! And he speaks 5 different languages. English is his 5th and he speaks it almost perfectly. He's really easy going and humerous and you can tell he really loves his job here. The home base is really cool. The living room is huge with a sofa that wraps around the room and tons of pillows and ottoman chairs.
The food is also really amazing. Like any foreign food, it definitely takes some getting used to. Everything is really really healthy and fresh. They don't use much butter or cheese which is sad sometimes haha. The cook Aicha cooks three meals a day for everyone, along with the help of the two housekeepers. We also have tea time around 4 pm every day. Mint tea with some sort of pastry, yumm.
Most of the other volunteers are all really nice. There are 3 guys and about 18 girls so that's lame. But there's a wide age range so it's not too bad. Lacey and I are in a room with 4 other girls and we have a huge terrace and bathroom and we each have our own closet.
So Sunday was orientation. We walked around and checked out the neighborhood and the shopping mall close by. Lacey and I went to get some snacks at the store. Then we had an Arabic lesson. I concluded I will never be fluent in Arabic. "Do you speak English?" sounds dangerously close to "Do you have a bloody nose?" in Arabic. hah.
Today was our first day at our volunteer placements. The majority of us are working at the orphanage. We learned that these kids aren't orphans in the sense that their parents are dead. Basically, many young women come to the city from other parts of the country to work and then get taken advantage of by their bosses or other men and end up getting pregnant. But since they're not married, it would bring too much shame to their family so they can't bring the baby home. So they usually leave it on the street or at the orphanage door or at the police station. This home for abandoned children is PACKED. There are about 300 children there.
Lacey and I decided to work with the babies (theres babies, 2-6 yr olds, and the disabled all ages). So they placed us with the newborns. They are so precious. We started in a room with about 20 newborns and 2 nurses. I was worried because I didn't want to be a nuissance to the nurses but we basically just dove in and started helping. They started tossing babies at me and I changed them into clothes while Lacey changed the sheets on their beds (more like plasic bins like in the hospital). The nurses in that room are so sweet. Honestly they must be angels. Mohomad told us later that they only make 1000 dirhams a month (the equivalent of 120 dollars!). And they were so loving to the babies, maybe a little rough but babies aren't as fragile as they look. After that we helped them feed the babies. And the nurses laughed at our attempts at Arabic and French but told us that the three words we knew were good. They don't speak English but smiling and laughing at each other can go a long way. That and charades. After that the babies were good to just chill in their beds for a bit so Lace and I headed to the next baby room where the 6 month olds were. They have a huge playpen so we took our shoes off and hopped in with about 12 babies. They were adorable, and that's an understatement. I'm not sure if they should be crawling at that age but most aren't yet. So they would just cry at us until we picked them up. I mastered holding 2 babies at once and still giving a third one attention. One of the boys was teething so he was whiny and he kept nawing on my finger. But it wasn't a gentle nibble, this kid was chompin down. And every time I put him down he would burst into tears. Actually most of them did that. Anyway, he ended up falling asleep in my arms while another little girl fell asleep in my lap. But when I tried to transfer them to the floor to pick up other crying babies they would whimper haha. These babies are smart. So then we changed all of their diapers and headed back to the newborn room to change their diapers and feed them again.
I wish I had like 8 extra arms to hold all these crying babies. As soon as you give them attention they are all smiley and giggly. The four hours we were there went by extremely fast but they were also exhausting. I don't know how the nurses do it the entire day. They seemed really appreciative of our help. And they called me Majjjie which was cute.
Today after work we had lunch and then a feedback meeting where we talked about our days. Then Khadija (the house manager) took a group of us on the bus to the city center and the medina. It was really cool to see and less nerve wracking with her guiding us.
The pictures I'm posting are of the home base and our tour through the medina and other parts of Rabat.
Oh also there are little kittens at the house that hang out in the garden. They're so cute but they're afraid of us. Also, I hit my head really hard on a granite counter yesterday because its behind the sofa and the pillow wasn't as high up as I thought it was. I have a huge bump on the back of my head and I was worried that I was bleeding into my brain. But I woke up this morning so I suppose I'm okay. Just dumb.
The other funny thing is that one of the guards in the mausoleum we visited in Rabat had a cell phone that rang and the ringtone was "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". I found that comical since he was most definitely Muslim. Probably didn't even know it was a Christmas tune.
Now we're all just lounging around. The weather is so beautiful here. The orphanage is a bit warm. One of the volunteers threw up today bc it was hot and he was working in the disabilities section which apparently also smells really bad. Which reminds me when we first got to the orphanage we were greeted by this handicapped child about 13 years old. She was mesmerized by my lip ring. Or actually just confused. She kept pulling her lip so I would pull mine so she could see the inside. Then she rummaged through my pockets so I gave her a tissue and she wiped her nose haha. She was cute. Some of the other volunteers looked startled by her but she was harmless. She gave us all a firm slap on the back when we headed upstairs lol. I don't know if I would be able to handle working in the disabilities ward. One of the other volunteers, Brian, who is working there says that they are really severely handicapped. It makes me sad that these children/young adults may live their entire lives in this place because no one will adopt them. The oldest right now is 25.
So, in conclusion, I will bring everyone home a baby as their souvenir. You can choose the gender. All you have to do is become a Muslim by July 4th.
Laterrr.

This is my last leg, been awake for days, in a minute I'll die of starvation

2009-06-05T03:25:00.005-04:00

Hello hello.
So I'm sitting on my hostel room in Madrid. It's about 10:00 am. I have to check out by 11:00 but my overnight train to Paris isn't until 7 pm. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do since I'll have all of my luggage and such. I'll probably get some food and then find a grocery store to get some snacks and then get to the train station ridiculously early and read my book. Julie has already left for the airport to catch her 1:00 flight home.
Madrid has been pretty great even though we were only here for a short time. Wednesday, when we arrived, we walked around the city a bit and saw the royal palace and plaza mayor and a few other things. Then we came back and napped and went to dinner at some generic chain restaurant. Then I had a conference call for my Morocco program at 9 which took about an hour. There were 8 people on the line that will be in the house while I'm there as well as our adviser who will not be in Morocco with us. She has been so helpful though as far as helping us prepare for this trip. I suppose that's her job though! But she's a really sweet person. It was kinda strange that only like 3 of the volunteers on the line including me were talking during the conference. The others were more or less silent the entire time unless asked a question directly. But it was still good to get any last minute questions cleared up. I found out we're not allowed to take pictures in the orphanage which is kind of disappointing but it's good that they are protecting the children in that way. Also she said they won't tell us what to do because they see us as guests and don't want to give us a list of chores, so basically we just have to help out in any way we see fit-- folding laundry, changing diapers, feeding babies, giving them love and attention most importantly. But it's also good because even if they did tell me what to do I probably wouldn't comprehend it since I don't speak a lick of Arabic or French. I'm hoping to learn some vital phrases while I'm there though. We also learned that if we go to the beach we will be harassed endlessly by the men there so I don't think I will be taking any beach trips unless a large group of us go. And Sharon, our adviser, made us all promise not to do hashish while we were there. I was the dumb one who had to ask what this was, but I'm not really embarrassed about my lack of drug knowledge. Now that I think about it, is this where the word hash comes from? hmm... well anyway I obviously won't be purchasing any drugs, not trying to go to African jail among other reasons. Also I don't understand why some one would go volunteer in a country and then do drugs. That's just dumb.
So yesterday in Madrid we walked around the city a bit more. Went to some more plazas and a huuuuge park called Retiro which was really cool. There was a big pond, tons of fountains, a rose garden, and a book fair going on. We spent quite a while in the park. I decided I would really like a rose garden. I'm not sure if roses are difficult to grow though. I don.t exactly have the greenest thumb in the world. Anyway, then we came back and got cleaned up and went to a "tapas experience", it was basically a bar crawl type deal but to different tapas restaurants. It ended up being really good and well worth the money (only 14 euros). We got a free drink and some tapas in each of the four places we went. The first place had the best sangria out of the three we tried. It was amazing. I realized later it probably had like less than an ounce of wine in it and mostly just sugary juice. We also met this couple from the US, Phil and Laura. They just graduated with chemical engineering degrees from Perdue University (shout out to meg woo!). And they were really sweet. Laura is from the Chicago area and Phil is from Rochester, New York. They're both heading to different grad schools in the fall and getting paid to go! Smartypants. It made me sad for them that they will be across the country from each other (Berkely and N Carolina). I'm having a hard time being apart from Ben for 7 weeks so I can't imagine such a long distance relationship. But anyway, after the tapas experience we went back to the first place with them and got more sangria. Then they headed off to go to the bar crawl and Julie and I went to a chocolateria and got cups of chocolate (literally) and churros. I suppose it was a bit of a sugar overload because I felt very nauseous later and ended up throwing up a bit. And yes I'm sure it wasn't from the alcohol because there was barely any in the sangria. But I felt much better after a good vom session hahah.
The weather in Morocco is in the 70's at this time of year so I'm very excited for that. It's especially good since we can't really wear legit summer clothes unless we want to totally disrespect their culture. I'm sooo freakin excited to get to the house tomorrow and meet everyone and start volunteering on Monday. I'm not so much looking forward to all of the travel that needs to be done before tomorrow afternoon. But hey, that's part of it. I guess it's pretty cool that I can do this by myself. It's giving me a sense of independence. Not that I didn't feel indpendent before though.
It's strange that the Europe part of the trip is coming to an end, something we've been planning for months and months. It's a bit sad but I really am exhausted from all the traveling. I think all in all it was a success, especially considering that it was our first time traveling in Europe. Of course, theres things we would have done differently (taking buses rather than trains from city to city in Spain for example and using backpacks rather than suitcases) but we also did a lot of things right. And we avoided any major disasters. But let's not speak to soon haha. Also I met some really great people during the Europe part which makes me even more excited to meet my fellow Morocco volunteers. It's sad kind of, knowing that most likely I will never see these people again and we probably won't keep in touch since I only spent less than a day with most of them. But they are one of the main reasons the trip was so awesome.
Ok I think I have finished with my contemplation of our Europe trip. I will probably update again on Sunday after orientation.
Lovvvve.

"I'm feeling a bit delicate this morning"

2009-06-02T15:43:00.002-04:00

Hi!
We're at the end of our stay in Valencia. It was so awesome here! We met some really cool people. Steph was traveling with two friends but got mugged at a music festival in Barcelona so her friends continued their travels but since she had no access to her money they bought her a plane ticket for this morning. So she hung out with us yesterday and we walked around the city a but. Shes from New Zealand but lives in London. Then we met G who is from Quebec and traveling Spain for vacation. Then we met Becca who is from Liverpool and was teaching English in France and is now traveling around. The five of us hung out on the hostel's terrace and then went out to a tapas bar. It was a lot of fun. Today we all (minus Steph who had to go home) went to the beach. Our roommate Carolyn from Holland also joined us. Valencia is a smaller city but it's really nice here. Yesterday Julie Steph and I ate at some restaurant and the food turned out to be really gross. We got paella but the chicken in it was so nasty. I guess you win some and you lose some ya know? Tonights dinner was amazinggg though. We got chimichangas and nachos and crepes. Yummm. Also Julie exploded her coke bottle on a couple that was sitting on a bench 8 feet away. I was laughing so hard I cried. The waitress thought it was hilarious too as well as the guy on the bench but the girl he was with didnt seem too amused. Oh well. Ive never seen coke explode that far. Impressive.
So now we're just hanging at the hostel because we have to get up early to catch our 9 am train to Madrid. I can't believe tomorrow we're getting to the last location of our Europe trip. It went really fast but at the same time it feels like I've been away from home for ages! Weird.
K bye.

2009-06-01T07:14:00.002-04:00

Hola!
So I've been slacking a bit on the updates!! Friday we left Rome. A bus, two metros, a taxi, a plane, another bus, two more metros and a short walk later we arrived at our Barcelona hostel. It was a long day of travel so we walked around the city a little, ate dinner and went to sleep kinda early. Our hostel was pretty decent. We had our own room and private bathroom which was nice. Saturday we saw Sagrada Familia, Las Ramblas and Park Guell. We also went into a market on Las Ramblas which was really cool-- there was tons of fruits, veggies, dead animals, candy and other things. Then saturday night we went to a tapas bar that Chelsea recommended. It was really good! We got Sangria and a bunch of tapas. My moms boss texted me and he was in Sitges which is in Spain... apparently about 20 miles from Barcelona. He wanted to meet up and drink but the train we would have had to take was expensive and we didnt know how to go really and it was already 10 pm.
Sunday we walked to the beach which was about 10 minutes from our hostel. It was sooo nice out! And unlike the Rome beach, there were no annoying people trying to sell us their crap every 30 seconds. Then we got cleaned up and went to a restaurant near Las Ramblas.
Today we woke up early and caught the train to Valencia. It was a relaxing trip, the train was spacious and we got breakfast and such. So we just checked into our Valencia hostel which seems pretty cool. I'm sitting in a room with 3 British girls. I think one of them was a spice girl. A different one got mugged last night and now she has no money to get home. She doesnt seem too happy, but thats why you gotta be careful when you get shitface drunk in a foreign country!
So J and I are gonna relax for a bit and then walk around Valencia and eat dinner and then maybe drink wine on the terrace (I really dont understand why people think we're a couple lol).
Free internet here, wahoo. :)
Later.

When in Rome. Ben in Rome.

2009-05-28T06:59:00.002-04:00

Hello.
So we've been in Rome since Tuesday. Our hostel is about 30 minutes from the city center by metro but it's literally right on the beach which is really nice! Since it's been so hot out we've been going to the beach in the morning and then showering and heading to the city. Tuesday we met up with Ben and saw where he's staying in Piazza Navona.. it's a really cool old building and the views are beautiful! I'm really glad I got to see him while he's here. Now is the long stretch of 5 (and a half?) weeks til we're both back in NJ. The three of us went out to dinner and then saw the Pantheon. Wednesday after the beach Julie and I went to Vatican City and saw St. Peter's Basilica which was HUGE and very cool. There was mass going on as hundreds of tourists wandered through which seemed kinda strange. We also saw the tombs of a bunch of popes. There was also a dead pope in a glass case that people were praying to.. I'm not sure if it was his real body or a replication but it was creepy. I'll have to look into that. After that we met up with Ben again and got dinner by his dorm and then headed back to our hostel and hung out on the beach. It cools off a lot at night which is good and much better for sleeping.
Today is Thursday. We just got back from the beach which is good because shortly after we got back it started practically monsooning. So we're gonna get cleaned up and then head to the Colloseum area where there are a lot of old things to check out. Hopefully the weather will clear up by the time we leave. Maybe we won't drown in our own sweat today.
Tomorrow we have to check out by 10 and then I think we're gonna do some laundry and make our way to the airport which could take a while. Our flight to Barcelona is in the afternoon.
The Rome hostel was pretty nice. It's a big hostel but the beach location is awesome and we had a private room. Well sort of. You see, they overbooked all of the private rooms so they gave us a room with 5 beds in it and a private bathroom but told us that no one else would be staying there. But then last night at like 3 ish some kid came in and said he was told to sleep there. So I guess they ran out of beds or something. We didn't really mind. You have to go with the flow in these hostels ya know? But having a private bathroom is nice. And they clean the rooms everyday and there is free breakfast which is decent. And theres a bar and a terrace and a game room and laundry room and movie theater. I wish there were places like this by the Jersey shore that we could stay in for so cheap.
That's all for now I think! I'll probably update from Barcelona next.
<3

Tuscany

2009-05-25T16:10:00.006-04:00

Hi!
We're still in Florence until tomorrow morning when we will catch a train to Rome. Today was a wonderful day. We did the wine and bike tour through the countryside and saw tons of vineyards and olive trees and beautiful houses. Our tour guides were Per and Melissa, a young married couple (2 months married). Melissa is from California and Per is from Sweden and they met in an airport in Fiji and it was love at first sight as they say. Per had been working for other bike tour companies and then he and Melissa decided to start their own, which began a year ago.
The beginning of the tour was pretty rough. There was a whole lot of uphills and I felt the burn in my legs. There were four other people on the tour besides Julie and me-- a couple from Michigan about my parents' age and a woman from England with her mother who was from Germany and didn't speak a word of English. Everyone was really nice. We stopped frequently for water and to take pictures and catch our breath. The views were absolutely amazing. I don't think the pictures I took even begin to capture the beauty though.
After much pain we finally made it to our destination, a winery. We took a quick swim in the pool and then we had a delicious lunch prepared by one of the women who worked there. We were also given wine to taste, which I'm sure was a lot better quality than any wine I've ever had. After lunch we were given a tour of the winery and the olive oil press and such. It was really interesting. And then we descended the hills back to our starting point. Downhill was of course a whole lot easier. Which is good because it was about 100 degrees F by that point!!
And that was our lovely wine and bike tour day. We showered and napped for a bit and then got pizza for dinner and of course gelati. Yum :). And then we packed up all our stuff. I'm still not sure how we get everything to fit in such small suitcases, but it does.
I'm not really looking forward to all of the soreness tomorrow. We rode 16 miles today! My butt is already soo sore from the damn bike seat.
Ciao for now!

Italy!

2009-05-24T16:13:00.003-04:00

Bongiorno Princapesa!! (Life is Beautiful anyone?)
We arrived safely in Florence yesterday. The last night in Paris was annoying because the kid sleeping in the bed under me came in at like 1 and then snored SO loud the whole night. Honestly, it was practically shaking my bed. He's lucky I remembered my ear plugs bc I think I would have killed him if I hadn't had them with me. Then Friday we just hung in the hostel and did laundry and such until it was time to leave for the train station. The overnight train was interesting-- i had never ridden one before. Each compartment was very very tiny and had 6 beds when they were all set up. Luckily, my room only had three people in it: an older French woman named Mary Noelle who spoke some English (she tried to explain how to say her name by telling me it was like Merry Christmas), and an Italian dude named Paolo who grew up in Florence but currently lives in Paris. He spoke French, Italian and English all very well. We talked for a very long time. He is a photojournalist and is currently waiting for an Iranian visa so he can go there. He's been to so many places! He made me guess his age and I guessed 28 but it turns out he was 38!! I could not believe it. Paolo was cool. Mary Noelle was going to Florence to visit her sister who lived there. Why does her sister live in Florence you ask? Because she became "how do you call it... in love.... with an italian and had babies. But they are no longer babies." haha. Also, the French countryside we drove through was soo gorgeous! I wanted to hop off and take pictures.
I didnt sleep very well on the train so we napped Saturday once our room was ready. The place we're staying in in Florence is sooo nice for what we're paying. It's more of a hotel than a hostel. We have a private room rather than dorm style and we share a bathroom but only with one other room it seems. The bathroom is clean and the shower is really nice. Our room is very cute. And there is free internet access which is always good. Yesterday we just walked around Florence and by the river until our room was ready. It's such a beautiful little city. And then after our much needed nap we showered and got Italian food. I had 4 cheese gnocchi and Julie had spaghetti pesto genovese. Both were delicious. Also the gelati here is amazing! Practically every other shop is a gelateria. So far I've had chocolate, vanilla, and nutellati or something like that.
Today we did more walking around. We climbed an enormous hill to a garden that had a beautiful view of the entire city. Then we had lunch at a restaurant that had a set menu special: bruschetta, mixed salad, and lasagna for 8 euros. It was yummmy. After another nap and shower we had margherita pizza for dinner and more gelati... mmmm. the food is so good here!
Tomorrow is the wine and bike tour. I'm a bit concerned about drinking wine in such sweltering heat and then riding a bike.. its very very hot here. We'll see how it goes though. I'm sure Julie will take many pictures if I fall off my bike and tumble down a hill.
Also an Italian man told me he loved me tonight. And after surveying the front of me he commented "very very niice" and offered to buy me a rose hahahaha. so ridiculous.
I'm enjoying Florence very much. I'll try to post a picture of the city that I took from the top of the hill. Hope it works!
-M

Americans abroad- Whatever there is to be said is said in English

2009-05-23T15:00:00.001-04:00

Hello from Paris still!
Our Paris leg of the trip is winding down; tomorrow we catch an overnight train to Florence, Italy. I have to admit, both Julie and I enjoyed Paris a lot more than we expected to!! Also, A+ for the weather--it’s been absolutely beautiful here! Sunny the whole time and not too hot or cold. Yesterday we got an early start, had breakfast in the hostel (free!) which included cereal, apples, orange juice, coffee, hot chocolate, bread, butter, and jam. Nothing too extravagant but honestly I could eat just bread and butter every day and be content. And seriously, I have never ever in my life seen so many people walking along the streets carrying baguettes. It’s crazy. After breakfast we wandered around Champs-Elysées, a busy street in Paris with tons of shops and restaurants. We saw the Arc de Triomphe (161 ft high) and Place de la Concorde which contained the oldest manmade object in Paris, this Egyptian statue thing from 1200 B.C. After that we headed over to La Cité, one of the two islands in the Seine river, where we saw Cathédrale de Notre-Dame. It was pretty beautiful on the outside, but we decided not to pay the ten bucks to see the inside (it honestly could not be more beautiful than the Salisbury Cathedral and plus we’re not made of money). We stopped by a stand for some sandwiches, on baguettes of course, which were delicious. Then we wandered over to Ile St. Louis, the other island in the Seine, right next to La Cité. We sat by the river and watched the boats go by and such and we walked through the streets. It was a really cute place! All of the architecture in Paris is so beautiful and detailed and different from anything found in the US. Afterwards we headed back to our hostel to get cleaned up and look presentable enough to enter a real restaurant. We headed back to Champs Elysées and found the cheapest café in the row which was still ridiculously overpriced, but that was to be expected. Anyways, our dinner was delicious. They brought us little pizza squares and real potato crisps to start. For our meals Julie had penne with four cheeses and I had lasagna. Not extremely French but I’m not really trying to consume escargot or frog legs anytime soon. Afterwards we headed to Hagen-Daaz for some delicious ice cream!
Today we woke up a bit later, had breakfast in the hostel again and then headed to the Louvre, the museum that contains the Mona Lisa. This place was MASSIVE. Of course anyone who is a member of the European Union between 18 and 25 gets in free but because we’re American we had to pay 9 euros!! Anyway, we spent a decent amount of time wandering around there. Unfortunately all of the plaques were written in French only, so we had no idea what anything was. We saw the Mona Lisa, some Roman sculptures, Egyptian trinkets and such, and a bunch of religious paintings. I’m not really a huge fan of museums, as mentioned earlier I believe. After that we headed over to the same café we had eaten at on Tuesday evening (we had made friends with the guy who worked there-- so what if he’s 65 and makes fun of the way we talk). We got sandwiches and a chocolate croissant/a brownie and headed over to the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower for a picnic. There we discovered two hours of free wi-fi from the city of Paris which is how I posted my last update. After hanging out a bit we headed over to the Seine, which is directly behind the Eiffel Tower and hopped on an hour long boat tour down the river. It was relaxing… and fun to watch this little kid get pissed off and cry every time his ice cream got on his skin. After that we had crepes by the river (Julie’s with chocolate, mine with strawberry jam) which were deliciousss! Then we got in touch with our friend Gaby who was Colleen’s roommate fall semester and was studying abroad in Paris spring semester. We met up by her apartment and she brought us to a lounge type place for happy hour. It was good to talk to her and hear about her time in Paris as well as tons of other places around Europe. Plus our drinks were delicious!
Now we’re back at the hostel, snuggled into our beds. It stays light so late in Paris! I have no idea why. It’s 10 pm right now and its as light as like 7 pm at home. Bizarre. Tomorrow we’re waking up, eating breakfast and showering and then checking out. After that we’re gonna do laundry since all of the clothes we’ve worn are pretty smelly. Luckily our hostel has laundry facilities. Then we’re going to head to the Bercy Train Station to catch our overnight train to Florence. This time we’re leaving plenty of time so that we can avoid any panic attacks or worse, missing the train. Paris has been fun, a bit more relaxing than London since we had some more time. I’m super excited for Florence and then Rome where Ben will be. J
Auviore til next time!
(P.S. sorry if my posts are too detailed or wordy!!)

Je ne suis pa!!

2009-05-21T08:52:00.000-04:00

Bon jour!!
We made it to Paris successfully, with only a few obstacles. I’ll start from where I left off in my last post. Monday we woke up super early (in London) and went to the Victoria Coach Station to catch our bus for our tour. The tour went to Stone Henge, the city of Bath where the Roman baths are and to Salisbury. It was such a good idea because there was a decent amount of time on the bus between the three locations to rest on the bus. Plus our tour guide, Phil, was pretty awesome and was pretty much a genius about the UK. We started at Stone Henge which was pretty cool. I created a theory that the British government put the stones there like 100 years ago and then made up some big story about people dragging these stones for miles and miles 5,000 years ago, just so that it would attract tourists and bring in money. If that’s the case, we were fooled. It was still really cool to see, especially with all the fields around and the massive amounts of yellow Canola flowers around (a relatively new crop in England used to make Canola oil). There were also sheep but I couldn’t get close enough to take a picture. Then we moved on to Salisbury where we saw the Salisbury Cathedral which was huge and so beautiful with all the stained glass windows. Also that’s where one of the four copies of the Magna Carta is-- written on goat skin! We also walked around the town a bit. It was very cute. Then the last stop was the city of Bath. Various famous people such as Johnny Depp, Nicholas Cage, Jane Seymore, and Jane Austin have/had houses there. We went to the Roman baths which were pretty neat as well but we didn’t have much time to explore the city otherwise. Also it was kinda rainy, typical England weather. The ride back from there was about 2.5 hours and I slept for most of it. It was a good day to relax and not have to worry about finding our way around.
When we got back to our hostel we showered and got everything ready for our departure the following morning. Then we met up with Evan, Jesse, Mark, and a bunch of Mark’s friends and went to a club called Tiger Tiger in Picadilly Circus (a part of London). Let’s just say things got a little crazy but all in all it was a really fun night. I’ve been to bars but never a club like that. After returning at 4 in the morning we went to sleep only to not be woken up by our alarm (it didn’t go off!) which was set for 6:30. We had planned on walking to the train station to save money because it wasn’t too far. Luckily I woke up at 7:30 and asked Julie to check the phone which was under her pillow. When we saw the time we kinda freaked, threw everything into our suitcases, checked out, and booked it outta there. We took the metro to the train station, went through security and passport crap and got to our train in the nick of time. Woo! That would have been bad if we missed it. Needless to say, I will be keeping the phone by me now since I tend to wake up a lot in the morning and check the time. Hopefully the alarm will stop messing around.
ALSO, Julie’s mom was able to get the phone to work yesterday!! (Well apparently everything except the alarm hehe). So that is awesome because now we have some contact with people back home. Especially since internet access in this hostel is 2 euros for 30 minutes! (Nearly $4.00)
So we got to Paris, found the money exchange, got metro passes, figured out the metro, figured out a detour when the transfer we needed was under renovation, and walked quite a ways to our hostel with all our crap. Oh and we also stopped for a croissant to prevent fainting. How French of us J.
In London a lot of people asked us how our hostel was, to which we responded that it seems pretty nice but we don’t have much to compare it to. Well, now we do. And it turns out the London hostel was like a 5 star hotel compared to this one. Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, it’s not THAT bad. The beds are a bit grimy, the pillows are so flat they’re almost nonexistent and the rooms are kinda dingy. The bathrooms are clean but in the shower there’s only one button-- to turn the shower on. It comes out warm but there is no temperature control. Also the pressure is similar to a power washer, bordering on painful. And it turns off every 45 seconds so you have to push the button again. Seems kinda dumb to me! But anyway, it’s not too horrible. We expected that we would have to rough it a little anyway. There are two other people in our room but we haven’t met them yet and we are going to bed soon. I don’t really like the idea of strangers creeping in late at night to sleep in the same room haha.
So today we just got situated, had dinner at a little street café and headed over to see the Eiffel Tower which was pretty. We didn’t go in it because it’s probably expensive and not worth it really. But we walked around that area which is really beautiful. Tomorrow we are seeing some other sites around Paris. I’m feeling pretty confident with the metro system already. Both London and Paris’ systems are similar to D.C. so that’s good. We’re going to bed early so we can get some sleep for once and get an early start.
I can’t believe I’m actually in Paris right now! Crazy.
My French vocabulary consists of: Bonjour, Merci, Je ne suis pas and un du tois. (spelling?) Literally, that’s it. Most people we’ve talked to speak at least a little English though.
Okay, byye!

Sitting on a park bench that's older than my country..

2009-05-17T13:49:00.002-04:00

Man oh man im exhausted!! I think we walked like ten miles today or more, no joke. (Irene I have no idea how you survive those 40 mile walks... you're crazy!) Anyway, it was a fun day despite the achey feet. Yesterday we arrived in London early early. Figured out that our phone doesn't work and that we couldn't check into our hostel until 2. But we were able to find a computer with internet in some Korean restaurant and get in touch with Evan who met up with us in front of the British museum which is by our hostel. So we went to the museum and then walked around London a bit... saw Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, the main shopping area. Then we met up with Patty and some of her friends and went to dinner (admittedly we got Italian food haha) and then went to a pub which was fun. By the end of the day Julie and I were pretty much dead since we were running on very little sleep so we went to bed relatively early and slept like babies!
Today was an early start. Breakfast is included at our hostel so we had cereal. And I had a ham and cheese sandwich. Then we met up with Evan again and saw all the major London touristy things. We went to Buckingham Palace and the Queen's Gallery which was really cool, and thats saying a lot since I dont really like museums. It was full of art and furniture and jewelry of the royal family. Then we saw Big Ben, rode the London Eye (ferris wheel), went to the Tate Modern, walked the London Bridge, saw the Parliment building, the London Tower, Westminster Abbey, and probably a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember right now. We also met up with Jesse around noon and he joined us. It's strange to see so many people from home in London! After all the sight seeing we went to dinner at a pub. I got a meatpie and the other three got fish and chips. Very British of us especially compared to last night. Our hostel room is a 4 bed mixed dorm. The couple we are staying with is college students from Munich, Germany. They're really nice! We didn't talk to them much at first because we werent sure if they could speak English well, but it turns out they are just shy.
So now we're back at the hostel letting our feet take a much needed break and then showering. Tonight we are going out with Evan, Jesse, and Mark... not really sure where to. But tomorrow is another early day (guided tour of Stone Henge, Bath, and Salisbury) so we're not going to stay out too late. I definitely need to put fewer things in my backpack or I'm going to come home with serious back problems!
I'm pretty excited for tomorrow's tour. And then Tuesday we are off to Paris.
That's all for now. I'll probably update from Paris next depending on the internet situation. (This hostel gave us 40 free minutes and then you have to pay a pound per 40 minutes.)
Later gatorssss.

Airplane.

2009-05-17T03:47:00.000-04:00

Greetings from… the air (36,000 feet up to be exact)… over the Atlantic. 1496 miles from London (2152 miles from NJ). But don’t you worry, we’re traveling at 583 miles per hour. The airplane has those nifty flight map things if you couldn’t tell. Julie and I just finished watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Talk about a tear jerker! Also, it was ridiculously long. So now its 11:00 pm in New Jersey and 4 am in London. And I have a feeling I am going to be very very tired tomorrow.
Anyways, I’m not sure why I’m even posting right now because not much has happened yet. Some of the people on the plane are unbelievably rude. One girl complained to a flight attendant about her hunger before the plane even took off and then didn’t even like her food when she got it, another guy was angry that they didn’t have a vegetarian meal for him and he refused to accept a salad or pick around the meatballs in his pasta. And my all time favorite is the lady who goes “Are you EVER gonna turn the lights off in here??! UGHHH”, and then proceeded to wrap the blanket over her head. Mmm.. Real mature. I guess my years as a waitress cause me to sympathize with the flight attendants!
Ive only slept for about 15 minutes so far. And that was when our plane was in line (20th in line) to take off. And when we land it will be morning and a whole new day! We will get our luggage (*cross your fingers that it didn’t get lost somewhere in the Atlantic), find our hostel, drop our luggage hopefully and then who knows what! Probably grab some breakfast. Maybe find Evan even though he probably won’t be awake yet. Ok I think I should stop talking about things that MIGHT happen and just wait until I actually have something real to post about. Obviously I have to wait to post this until I have internet access because there is none up here. I still don’t understand how planes fly… this plane is HUGE. It kinda freaks me out if I think about it too long. ALSO our TV’s have 329 movies to choose from!! It’s crazy. I’m tempted to stay up and watch Twilight or something else perhaps but I know I’ll regret that decision so I’m gonna try and catch some Z’s. J I promise not to update until I have something interesting to write about. Mwah!

She's got this problem with people flying, one way tickets and a fear of crying..

2009-01-29T16:48:00.004-05:00

Salamu Alekum! (Hello in arabic =D)

Hope that all zero of you who read my blog are doing well. I've been busy with school but have managed to complete some travel preparations.
I scheduled my flights! We are flying to London from Newark on Friday May 15th and will arrive Saturday morning. We had planned on ending our Europe leg of the trip in Spain since it is so close to Morocco and the flight would be very short to Rabat. Little did I know that there is no way to fly to Rabat from Spain or vice versa because of conflicts between the countries and terrorist threats. So as of now, I will be taking an overnight train from Madrid to Paris on June 5th-6th and flying from Paris to Rabat, Morocco. I'm tempted to just swim across the Strait of Gibraltar (it's only 8 or 9 miles!!), but maybe I'll look into a ferry service or something. It's so close yet so far haha.
In other news, I went to the doctor for my vaccinations today. Luckily, I only had to get two shots (Hepatitis A and an updated Tetanus). But in true Margie fashion, I still almost passed out. Let's cross our fingers for no sore arms tomorrow. As for the Typhoid vaccine, I can take it orally in pill form over an 8 day span. The fewer needles, the better. My doctor also wrote me prescriptions for a painkiller and an antibiotic, should I have any minor medical problems while I am overseas. I'm glad I got all of those things out of the way.
As far as fundraising goes, so far I have raised $1,962.00!!! yippee! That's 55% of my program fee in case you were wondering. Thank you again to all my wonderful, generous sponsors! AND i just got a job at Rutgers Telefund (calling people and asking for pledges for the University) so I can start saving up more for the trip. I'm sure I'll hate the job but money is money and I'll only have to do it for a few months. I'm gonna be one of those annoying telemarketers that calls you right when you sit down for dinner! haha. Plus it'll only be 12-16 hours a week so I can't complain.
As far as things that still need to be done, I haven't learned any Arabic yet (I admit I had to look up in a book how to say hello =\). But I did get an Arabic book and some cd's for Christmas so I will start those soon. And also we still have a lot of planning to do for the Europe part. Our British customer at Culinary Creations gave us a few places in England and Spain that we definitely shouldn't miss. (Cheers to you Mr. British Man!!... Tim i think?) AND we can't purchase our EuroRail passes yet because you can't do that until 60 days prior to your trip at the earliest. So that is on hold.
That's all of my updates for now. Once again, if you want to sponsor me on my trip that would be greatly appreciated! You can go to my.crossculturalsolutions.org (or click the title of this entry, it's linked to the site). And type in margienejman in the box to the right. OR you can send me a check made out to Cross-Cultural Solutions. Also, donations are tax deductible, so tell all your friends!! =P

Bessalama!!
-Margie

And So It Begins...

2008-12-07T20:59:00.000-05:00

Hi!
So as some of you may know, this summer I'll be traveling to Morocco for 4 weeks (June 6th to July 4th) with an organization called Cross-Cultural Solutions. This organization has home bases in several different countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. I chose to go to Morocco because I think the culture is fascinating, and the area is relatively safe (as far as cities go).
The home base provides you with a safe place to stay, three meals a day, and transportation to and from your volunteer placement. They also provide a large staff to guide you in your travels, cook your food, drive you around, clean the facilities, and keep you safe. There are a wide range of volunteer placements and the volunteer is given their placement a few weeks before departure. I will mostly likely be working in an orphanage or a children's hospital, since that is where there is the greatest need. During the week, the volunteers work 4-6 hours a day, and have the rest of the day free to do activities and travel around the city. On weekends, there are trips to other cities and places and Morocco.
Also, I'm so so excited that Lacey will be joining me on this trip :) It makes the whole thing a lot less scary!
As I was browsing different websites for flights, prices and other info, I realized there are no flights directly to Morocco from the US. Instead, all of the flights have a layover in Paris. And then I thought, well if I'm already gonna be in Paris, why not take a look around? And then I was like well if I'm looking around Paris, why not check out a few other countries in Europe? (If you give a mouse a cookie...) So, as a result, I will be taking the 3 weeks before my Morocco program to travel around Europe-- probably to England, France, Italy, and Spain! When else in my life am I going to have this chance?! And don't worry, I'm not going alone, Julie is coming with me. =D
So, "how the f*ck is she paying for this?!" you might ask. Well, I have been working on and off since I was 16 and managed to save a small chunk of money if such an opportunity were to come my way. As for the Morocco part, the Cross-Cultural Solutions website had some inspiring stories of people who fund-raised their entire program fee. So I decided to give it a shot, not expecting a huge response. Fortunately, my expectations were wrong. I sent out letters asking friends and family to sponsor me. So far, I've raised $1,360-- 38% of the program fee. I am so so deeply appreciative of everyone who donated to my trip... it has made such a huge difference! So if you have made a donation, thank you so much!
There are so many things to do before I leave, it's making my head spin. But I'm glad that I'm planning this so far in advance, so I have enough time to get everything done. The next step in the process is making a doctor's appointment to receive all of the recommended vaccinations. These include Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Typhoid, Rabies, and possibly Malaria, as well as an up-to-date Tetanus. Good thing I love shots so much!
So if you want to check out the organization, the website is www.crossculturalsolutions.org
And if you would like to make a donation towards my trip you can do it easily online at www.my.crossculturalsolutions.org and typing in "margienejman" in the username box. (On my computer you have to do it twice to get to my profile).
My blogs will be few and far between until my trip begins, because who likes hearing about preparations? Not me!

Until next time,
Margie :)