The Last Week - Photos!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. I seem to be spending the holiday weekends traveling. When I traveled to Moshi it was during 4th of July and now Labor Day. And from the blog you may remember that I stayed the night in a hotel while I was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the 4th. Well, this time they told me the hotel was not covered by them. When I asked why the last time it was their reply was "probably a mistake". Luckily, I had my sleeping bag - sleeping in the airport was actually not that bad. Now I'm back in Johannesburg - last night I had the best sleep I have had in long time and a nice hot shower. And I have FAST and FREE internet!! and I have time! ...which means photos and stories.

I don't even know where to begin. It was an incredible last week.

Here are some photos from dinner last Sunday at Alfred's (our taxi driver)...


In class the past couple of weeks we have made masks, the Tanzanian flag, pasta necklaces, and balloons with sugar in them as noise makers. We also took a class photo on my last day. I will miss the children - all their smiling faces and hugs!



For my last week with my women's group I stopped teaching English and they started teaching me their needlework! Then on Friday I went early and had another lunch with them - they also invited my friend Nadia who I teach with. Again, it was incredible. I'm really going to miss them. I have truly enjoyed working with the children, but I think working with the women has been the most rewarding for me - I have learned so much from them. After lunch they gave me gifts; a certificate they had put together, a pillow case they had made me with a zebra on it (this is so when I sleep with it I will dream of them and Moshi) and also a bag with a zebra. I then spent the rest of the evening with a couple of the women from my class. I got to meet some of their family, visit their homes and get to know them better - what truly strong and amazing women.


Saturday I said my goodbyes to friends. I have really met some incredible people on this trip. These are just random photos with friends.

Our wine and cheese night - not quite the same as it is back in NYC, but it was definitely a fun night.


These lovely girls from Liverpool have been my fantastic roommates for the past couple of weeks - they are dead fun!

Our Maasai watch guards at the house.


This is one from the plane - Goodbye Kili!


This afternoon I will be on a plane (again) this time heading to Swaziland. I am refreshed and ready to begin the next adventure!

Monday, 25 August 2008

This is my last week here in Moshi! I can't believe it's been almost eight weeks since I arrived here. It's all been so incredible and I will be sad to leave. As you can probably tell I didn't have as much time as I would have wished on Saturday to post updates and photos, but I wanted to share as much as I could - there are so many photos and it's so hard to choose just a few to share. When I am back to NYC I will spend some time uploading the photos so you will be able to see most of them - you wouldn't want to see all (there is over a thousand now and I still have a month to go)!

Yesterday I went to the orphanage again. This time Mama Lucy gave us a tour - she is the one that runs the orphanage. She is such an amazing woman and it was great to be able to spend some time with her. After the orphanage our taxi driver here had invited a group of us for dinner at his house and to meet his family. It was his way of thanking us for the business. It was great to be able to go into someones home and be able to spend time with their family. People are so incredible here.

I imagine this week is going to be incredibly busy and I probably won't have another chance to post. Saturday I will board the plane and begin my next journey! Not sure how much internet access I will have in the next month, but will post as soon as I can.

I also want to send many thanks to those that have helped contribute to the benches, desks and sponsoring. It's a tremendous help and going to such a good cause.

Hope everyone is enjoying the last bit of summer!

Sunday, 23 August 2008

Last Friday was Sarah's (the girl I was teaching with) lasts day. We decided to do hand prints with the kids. It went really great and the kids had a fantastic time.




Last weekend was laundry day for me - Gloria helped me out...


Last Sunday we went to the orphanage again - the kids are adorable. I wish I could bring them all home with me!



On Monday I had lunch with my women's group. It was by far one of the most incredible experiences I have had here. I learned some cooking tips and tried a real Tanzanian meal!

Fricay, 22 August 2008

Time Flies! I didn't realize how much time had slipped by since my last post. I have so much to update everyone on and so many photos - but that will all have to wait till tomorrow (not enough time left in the day). I can't believe next week is my last week! It's unbelievable that it's already been seven weeks. The experience has been incredible and I can't wait to share all the stories and photos with you!

Tuesday, 12 August 2008

Finally - I have photos!!

I just finished such an amazing class with my women's group. They are just an incredible group of women that have been so good to me. Today I learned how to work the machine below - it takes the kernels off the cob. These women work so hard. One of the women was working on it in the afternoon when I arrived for class and once the children came home from school they took over - I think the whole family takes their turn. It really wears you out cranking that handle!



Yesterday the desks arrived for the students! They look great! The kids are no longer squished together and the desks are the proper size for them. The teachers are really happy and the kids are as well. Below are a couple of photos from our class today.



And of course I have photos from Zanzibar! We just got back last night and it was fantastic - minus the last 16 hours. On the last night we ate at the street market in Stonetown and I'm not sure if it was the food or the sun from the weekend but I was sick on the ferry back to Dar and just now started feeling better. We took the night ferry back, which is 8 hours, and then got on the bus from Dar back to Moshi which was another 8 hours.

It was such a relaxing weekend. We just laid on the white sandy beaches and swam in the crystal clear blue waters. We also had such wonderful seafood! At the street market we had shark, barracuda and lobster! I also tried Kingfish.

Oh, and I finally saw a whale! Actually, six of them while we were on the ferry to Zanzibar. The trip there was a little quicker. The standard ferry is only a couple of hours, the night ferry because of cargo is much longer - but cheaper and the times work better for returning to catch the bus.




Here is a photo taken last week of a few of the boys in my class, they always stick around after class to help clean up...


Here some from the orphanage from last weekend...



A couple of weeks ago a few of the volunteers organized a field day with the kids from one of the primary schools - complete with games and prizes. They kids had such a fantastic time!