I'm back!!!!

Hi again...

I know I have been MIA for the past several months, but I am really going to start making an effort to blog again. I cannot say that I enjoy it in the slightest, but I know that you all enjoy reading about my crazy African experiences, so I will do my best. I am currently without a camera (I think my house keeper stole it...he is now fired) so I might not be posting a lot of pictures. Sorry.....

OK, where do I begin? I think my last blog was in Febrauay and a lot has happened since then. I will just fill you in on the highlights since then.

1) The end of the schoolyear went well and I won the lottery to move to a bigger apt. I am now in my luxurious 2-bedroom apartment, and I am so happy here.

2) Story's family came to visit me in June. It was an incredible trip! I loved spending time with Alicia (Story's daughter who is unbelieveably adorable) and the rest of the clan. Our safari with Willy was so fun, and we also hung out in Moshi and Zanzibar.

3) I had a very fast paced summer break in Boise and Spokane. I got to catch up with almost everyone at home (Nat and Nicci, sorry it didn't work out). It was so good to be home and to eat all of those foods I miss so much when I am here. The top of my cravings list include: Taco bell, Wendy's, sushi, Diet Dr. Pepper, and chocolate chip cookies. I am looking forward to eating all of these things again in about a month, when I am home again! I will definitely gain weight, and can count on Willy (my friend in NBO) to let me know the minute I get off the plane. In their mind, putting on weight is a good thing...but I still cringe each time they tell me I am "bigger"!!!

4) In July, I was accompanied back to Africa with my mom, aunt Susan and two friends, Jessi and Melissa. We did the usual.......safari with Willy, Moshi, beach and Dar. It was the first time my mom got to actually experience all that is Africa! This moment had been a long time coming. Of course, my dad did not join us on the adventure. You know, there are WAY too many germs on this continent. Toilet seat protectors don't do much when there isn't even a toilet seat! My lovely father would not do well here. Anyway, the girls had a wonderful time. I am so happy that they got to meet all my friends in Nairobi, especially Willy and Oscar. Willy was our safari driver and Oscar was the cook. These two guys are my best friends here, so we had a great time on safari! Then, we drove my little Suzuki from Nairobi to Dar (1000 km) with a stop in Moshi along the way. We dropped Jessi off in Moshi, where she began her 5 month stint of volunteer work. For those of you who dont know, Jessi is the daughter of my mom's friend at North Star. She worked at Light in africa for a few months, and now she is staying with me in Dar, working at an orphanage here and tutoring at my school. We are officially a married couple....infact, we are sitting in our side-by-side chairs now, watching tv together! My mom's adventure continued in Dar, where they spent a day in Bagamoyo learning the history of the slave trade, and then they went to Zanzibar on a Spice Tour. Meanwhile, Melissa was climbing Kilimanjaro with another friend, and Abdi as their guide. Of course, she summitted! (Sidenote: I broke up with Abdi...too many cultural differences.) Overall, their trip was incredible! I am glad they had such a great time and got to experience all the things that make me love it here.

Now that you are caught up, onto this school year. Things are going really well. I am teaching grade 7 this year, exclusively, and that has made a huge difference. Last year, my time was split between grade 7 and 10, so I had two curriculums to learn. This year, I am much more productive because I am not spread too thin. I work with some really dynamic teachers, and my students are great. I am still a Student Council advisor, and that is really rewarding. It allows me to meet a wide variety of students, and keeps me connected to the school. I love it, but it takes a LOT of my time. I am also tutoring two students, soon to be three, for some extra cash. They are great kids, so it is fun! Plus, I get a good amount of dough!

Most of you already know this, but I am starting my own business!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been toying with this idea for a long time now, and it is finally becoming a reality. I want to start with Africa, Kenya specifically. It seems like I am always planning trips for people anyway, so I might as well be official. Some of my friends and I will be going to South Africa this summer for the World Cup. We are driving down, and making it a month and a half long journey! We have all pitched in to buy our own safari van! My friend, Willy, in Kenya is driving us down and back. He is then going to buy the safari van off of us, and he will be my safari driver for the company. I am hoping to have a business that actually pays a decent salary to African employees. So many businesses here treat people unfairly, and dont pay their employees fair wages. I wont do that. I am very excited to get it going, so if you know anyone that is going to Africa, send them my way. You are all more than welcome!!!!

In more recent news, I was on a school field trip this weekend. We accompanied some grade 12 students to a beautiful beach house, where we got to observe blue monkeys in their natural habitat all weekend. The students were on a biology trip, and needed some "lab time." Jessi and I took groups of 8 students into the forest, and sat with the monkeys for an hour at a time. It was so cool! At times, they got very close to us! On the last day, the other teacher we were with witnessed an African fish eagle swoop down and snatch a baby monkey. At that point, the monkeys got a little stressed about us being there, and were showing their teeth! We booked it out of there pretty quickly! At one point on the trip, I got caught in a pile of biting red ants. While I was jumping up and down, freaking out about the bites, I felt something clamp down on my big toe. I was in a pile of leaves, so I didnt see what it was. However, I immediately felt shooting pains clear up my leg, and when I looked down, I was bleeding out of two puncture wounds. I am not sure what it was, but I think it could have been a snake. My swelling has gone down, but I still have the wounds. Who knows...but I guess I am lucky to be alive!!!!!

Today, I got pulled over by a stupid cop. My seatbelt wasn't on. He threatened over and over to take me to the police station. I tried to turn on the charm, and it seemed to be working, but he still said he was taking me in. Who knows what "taking you in" really means here, but i don't think I want to know! Anyway, when it looked like my mzungu charm wasn't going to work, I turned to the old standby (when it comes to being pulled over by the cops). My arm. I lifted it up, very awkwardly, and said, I can't wear my seatbelt because I have a prosthetic arm. He looked at me, very baffled, and I played up the "injury." Jessi backed me up, sayin "really officer, she cant wear it because of her arm!" Luckily, he fell for the bull shit, and let me go. Phew! This same excuse has now worked for me about 6-7 times, including in the states. I love being "disabled" when I need to be! If they only knew......................SUCKERS!

Well, I think thats it. Sorry for the ridiculously long blog. I am off to Moshi this weekend. I can't wait, it has been forever! I am excited to see Godfrey and the other boys. A class at North Star raised a lot of money for Light in Africa, so we went on a huge shopping spree today. It was so fun!!! We are going to give the kids an early Christmas this weekend....it should be great.

Hope everyone is doing well. I will see most of you at Christmas!!!! I am excited to be home...but not sure my body is ready for the temperature change. It is so hot here right now. The hottest summer in 20 years...so you can imagine. Keep in touch everyone. Love you all!

Jen

Meetings, Meetings and More Meetings!

Jambo Rafiki!

As the end of the month is fast approaching, I figured it was time for the February blog! We are in the swing of things here in the sweltering city of Dar es Salaam. On the school front, I am absolutely overwhelmed with meetings right now (as you might have figured out by the title of this blog). In the last two weeks, I have literally had 2-3 meetings each day about new students that want acceptanceinto the school, existing students who are doing poorly, and students that we are unfortunately "counseling out" of the school because they are not achieving at a high enough level. As I might have mentioned before, IST is the best (and only) school in the city and surrounding areas that provides a really good education. There are other school in Dar, but none that prepare students for University like IST does. So........its a precarious situation for parents who have children with learning disabilities, etc. Our school is not designed to accommodate large numbers of Special Education students nor are we equipped to deal with students who have significant disabilities. Consequently, we tend to see a lot of disappointed parents and students, and in the last few weeks, I have seen a lot of tears. Its not easy telling a parent that her child didn't "make the grade" to get into the IB program for grade 11/12, and she will have to send him away to boarding school in the UK for the next two years. I wish it was different, but unfortunately our school curriculum doesn't allow for low achievement. Sad...

On a brighter note, I recently returned from my ESP (Extended Study Program) in Moshi. This is a week long trip in which every grade 9 or 10 student and teacher goes away for the week. I put hours and hours into planning my trip. All of the other ESP trip options are long standing trips that IST does every year. I really felt that a trip to Light in Africa in Moshi could be a great opportunity for the students, so I planned another trip to add to the list. I had 15 eager 9th/10th grade students sign up for the trip, so it was a go. Unfortunately, three of the most high maintenance, loud, obnoxious girls in the school decided to sign up! God help me. I had some preliminary meeting with them, basically threatening their lives if they misbehaved!!!! They were definitely scared!

The infamous 3.....


We left on Dar on February 7th in a huge bus full of IST students. Half of the group was mine, the other half was going to the Crater Highlands for a 5 day hike. When we arrived in Moshi after a long day on the bus, I momentarily regretted my decision to plan this trip. The hotel wasn't nice, the t.v.'s didnt have enough channels, the city of Moshi had nothing, the guys on the streets were "creepy", the towels were not clean, the beds weren't comfortable, and so on. God forbid you take these kids away from their Dar mansions, their house help, their personal drivers, their gardeners, they security guards, their cooks, their playstations and big screen t.v.'s and their imported food. Unbelieveable. It took awhile, but they did manage to settle in, and realized that the hotel (which is one of the nicest in Moshi) wasn't as bad as they made it out to be!

The week turned into an incredible experience for these kids, and was eye opening for all of them. They got to see the "real" Tanzania for the first time, and they made amazing connections to the kids at Light in Africa. We went swimming, painted one of the buildings, helped the bigger boys write letters to their sponsors, hiked to a beautiful waterfall and just hung out with the babies and toddlers. I think most of them are already planning their return trip this summer. And, I must say, 2 of the 3 girls mentioned before turned out to be the most involved and enthusiastic. I was SO proud of them, and I actually made an awesome connection with them over the course of the week. I can see a change in then at school, and their teachers have even commented on it. So, as they say, "two out of three ain't bad!"

In other news......I am looking into buying a car. I have reached my breaking point with taxis. You can only argue so much over the price of a taxi, before you want to kill ALL taxi drivers. I do have a personal driver now. His name is Chris and he drives a tuk tuk!!! Theresa, my good friend here, and I use him all the time! Tuk tuks are 3 wheeled cars, that are open on the sides. They are becoming very popular here, and are much cheaper than taxis! Its a great way to get around here, especially because you get the nice breeze on the ride! Anyhoo...by my next blog, I just may have a new car.

OK, I should go. Abdi is coming in about an hour and I am so happy to have a visitor! I need a break from school and sitting at home watching tv. My days are so busy that I cant seem to do much at night besides watch the Style Network. Unfortunately, my "Office" seasons are both finished. I am unhealthily addicted to the Office. I LOVE Dwight!

OK...toodles.

Jen

Happy 2009!

Hi Everyone!

Being the procrastinator that I am, I have waited until the absolute LAST day in January to do my January blog entry. Typical! I dont have a good excuse, but I have been super busy since I returned from Italy. For some reason, things have picked up around here, and I am busy, busy, busy with work right now. We are in the midst of doing our school's version of IEP's (Individualized Education Plans), which are extremely time consuming. They require several meetings...and meetings are surprisingly difficult to coordinate with busy diplomat parents! I am also planning a week-long service trip for 15 of our students to Moshi to work at Light in Africa. We leave next weekend, so the logistical planning of that has been a nightmare. Once these two things are behind me, it should go back to normal...hopefully!

Most of you know that I was in Moshi at the orphanage for Christmas this year. What an incredible experience! I have had such a diverse range of experiences with the kids at Light in Africa, but this was one of the most touching days I have ever had. During the two days before Christmas, we spent hours and hours organizing a present for each and every child. Mind you, there are over 150 children, so this was not an easy task. People from all over send shoeboxes for the children. Some are labeled with names, some arent. Most of them have toothpaste and a toothbrush in them, and those all had to be removed so that the children didn't think the toothpaste was candy!!! This was a greuling process in a very small, hot room. It took two full days. However, when we saw the childrens' faces when they received their presents, it was all suddenly worth it. The kids were so happy to have some toys, books, candy, etc. that they could call their own. Everything is shared at LIA, so to be able to have some ownership over a few things made them very happy! On Christmas day, we also had a big feast with the children and the children prepared some performances for each other. It was truly an amazing experience...one I won't forget.

After our few days in Moshi for Christmas, Emma (a fellow teacher) and I hopped on Ethiopian Airlines headed for Rome! We were meeting Sarah and Ben there, some friends from Alaska. Sarah and I had lived together when we studyed in Florence in 1999-2000, so it was great to be back in Italy with her. Plus, Ben and Emma had never been to Italy, so this was a big adventure for both of them! Italy hasn't changed a bit. I was there almost a year ago...and I am always shocked at how little things change in Florence! I think that is part of the reason I love it so much. We went to all my favorite places, but spent most of our time at the Joshua Tree...and I am sure nobody is surprised by this!!! If you haven't heard of Joshua Tree, it is my home away from home...a lovely little pub in Florence. We also spent a lot of time with Simone, the owner of Joshua Tree and a great friend. He sends his love to everyone who knows him!!! Overall, our vacation was amazing. We did Rome, Venice, San Gimignano, Greve and Florence in about a week and a half. I acted as tour guide most of the time which was fine...especially since I was only guiding around a few people. Quite a change from touring around with 150 obnoxious college students!!! Just kidding all you GIF people!!! Well, maybe not!

My vacation ended with a few days in Moshi with Abdi...which was wonderful! After our whirlwind vacation in Italy, I was ready for some down time...and some sun! Italy was COLD, especially coming from the 90*+ weather we have in Dar right now. I never quite adjusted to the cold temperatures in Italy, so I was extremely happy to be back in the sun. After some time with Abdi, he went to the mountain with some clients and I came back to Dar to go back to work. Because nothing is easy in Africa, I OF COURSE had the bus ride from hell on the way back. Our bus had an infestation of cockroaches, which were crawling on me the whole 9 hours, I sat next to a very sick man, we had a minor breakdown, the air-conditioning didn't work and the sick man wouldn't open the window, and to top it all off............we ran into some backed up traffic and were stopped for over 2 hours. As I waited in the hot sun on the hot pavement, I found out that a truck had run off the road, and slammed into a mud hut in a small village up ahead. He killed several people, and the villagers were protesting by blocking the road. This was a problem because this particular road happens to be the ONLY road in Tanzania that is paved! So, we were forced to wait it out. It was a nightmare, and was just a friendly reminder that I was back in Africa...and not in Italy anymore!!!!!!!

I love you all! Hope everyone is happy and healthy. Happy 2009!!!

Jen