ISM International Day March 8, 2014

 

Every year the kids’ school (International School at Moshi – Arusha Branch) has an Internatioanl Day.  It is a fund raiser for the school and  the different nationalities all have a tent and offer things native to their homeland.

The India contingent offered food, henna tattoos, massage and limb manipulation as well as dresses or tunics to buy.  The food was delicious and the sauces ran out quickly.  Because there are so many Indian families they had their own tent.  The dancers had their own beautiful performance on the stage.

The Americas tent represented the USA, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Honduras and the Dominican Republic..  When there are not enough of a nationality to support a separate  tent they happily combine.  Besides having many flags flying, the  tent offered flan, chocolate chip cookies, fruit kebobs, chips (called crisps here), lemonade and margaritas.

 

The Australian tent featured an Aussie barbeque.  The grilled half chickens and served it with carrot/cabbage slaw and a flat bread which resembled chipati (a staple here) but was a bread served in the early settlement days in Australia since it need no leavening.  Such a tasty meal served with such big smiles.

The Scandinavian tent offered pastries, desserts, big pretzels, freshly fried chips and a Dutch kitchen table offering coffee with a little nip added.  This tent had the most colorfully dressed participants.  Haven’t seen that much orange on display in awhile.

I think the lasting impression you came away with was how much acceptance for differences there was as well as how much mutual respect.  Here’s a picture of the girls with their best friends.  Udine(center left) is from Belgium and Dana (center right) is from Israel.

Did I mention the “Bollywood” dancers?  They were something else!

 

Thanks for letting me share.

Sue

P1 and P2 Field Trip to Olasiti Primary School

 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Today I had the good fortune to go on a field trip with Anderson’s class. He is in what we might call a mixed class of Kindergarten and First grade.  The children from ISM  had work sheets and were to find the similarities and differences between the primary school in the Olasiti village and their school.

One of the first differences was in the obviously sub-par structure of the buildings which housed the classrooms. They were made of mud with tin roofs and not very inviting.

 

 

 

Can you guess the next difference?

Yes, in this class of first graders there are 103 students and one teacher! The desks have benches behind them and look like they may have been intended for two students to share, but three to four children were at every desk.  Most of the learning is by rote as a group.  Don’t think there’s much individualized instruction possible here. Our children sang a song in Swahili and the village students also sang to us.

We left the classroom and walked around outside to see other similarities or differences.

Here is the library (not much bigger than a closet):

There is no medical treatment available at the school, but the village clinic is a short walk.

The children from ISM (International School at Moshi, but the Arusha branch) seemed to have an understanding of how fortunate they are, especially compared to most of the local population of Tanzania and indeed most of Africa.

The children were fascinated by my necklace, the names and number of grandkids I have 

Thank you Lisa and Anderson for letting me go with you today!

Some pictures of the village

And always the cattle or goats to contend with on the roads.

 

Monday, March 3, 2014 - Random Thoughts

 

These really are random thoughts, so take them for what they’re worth.

 

When on safari while having breakfast in the dining tent (all fancy with cloth napkins and table set just so) I ordered scrambled eggs, forgetting the British influence here.  I got what my mother called “creamed eggs”.  To make these you whip up eggs as you’d do for scrambled, but then instead of putting them in afry pan with butter, you put them into a saucepan with simmering milk and stir until the milk is absorbed and the eggs are set.  If you think this sounds delicious, try it sometime!

 

This is a picture of a dung beetle.  They make perfect balls from, well from poop and roll it until they find a nice soft spot  where they lay their eggs on it and  bury it as well as possible. They keep the land fresh!

 

Yesterday I finally had a chance to hang out with Anderson alone.  He brought out his bow and arrows he got from his visit with the Hazdas (the hunter gather tribe).  he’s really good at shooting those arrows and I am not so good.  We had such fun probably the most when we tried to figure out how to retrieve the wayward arrows from up in the banana trees.  Laughing is good for the soul.

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Speaking of banana trees, Anderson showed me where the fruit grows from (notice how I end more sentences with prepositions now).  It’s a reddish brown rugby ball shaped thing that falls to the ground after the bananas start to grow.  It’s leaves feel like really thick banana leaves.

 

I also get to spend time with Tierney (who is so hungry to learn how to sew, knit, crochet and Ashy who is just one of the best kids anywhere.  I so love this opportunity!

 

The milk here is the kind with the cream on top of it.  I wonder what the butterfat content of the rest is?  I think   only Americans are obsessed with fat in the diet.  Europeans seem to pay no attention.

Oh and Mama Jackie makes her own noodles for lasagne!  Can’t wait for dinner.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the “circle of life” and know that there is nothing more important than family even with all of our flaws.  I’m reading a lot and am in the middle of “The Fault in our Stars” and there’s a quote in there apropos to Mike’s death  and I paraphrase a bit, but “it was like a hand grenade which left all of us with embedded shrapnel”

Thanks for reading!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

 

Did some shopping for gifts to take home at the Cultural Centre here.  This is a large modern building containing many replicas of life in Tanzania today as well as the history.  It has many artists works and is fascinating to see.  There is also a new coffee shop with its own pastry chef and we had cappacinno (sp?) and a wonderful chocolate croissant (made with dark chocolate).

Also the gift shop is amazing and residents get a hefty discount.  Thank you Lisa.

What I really wanted to talk about is bananas.  On their property the Coyle/Browns have a lot of banana trees.  You know bananas grow what seems to be upside down, right?

The gardener harvests them just when they change from a bright green color. These bunches of bananas are really heavy- don’t think I could lift this one.  That makes it really impressive when you see men with 4 or 5 bunches like this on their bikes.

 

 

They ripen indoors in a basket covered by a cloth and when they start to turn yellow are eaten. 

They are called sweet bananas well because they are. They are small and so very good.  They are not like our big kind of hard bananas at all.

 

Sue

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Since the roads were blocked yesterday Lisa and I went grocery shopping today.  It’s not exactly like going to Wegmans.  We had to go to 3 different  grocery type stores plus a farmers market.  It takes about 2 hours of driving from place to place, not because of the distance between stores, but because of the traffic.

Arusha is estimated to have a population of 100,000. The census is done on foot and I cannot imagine how they’d count everybody.  So many folks live in very crowded tiny houses. The store fronts and “manufacturing” places (small craftsmen) are in what looks like a run down version of the motels out west Ridge road, but there are many miles of them.  There are people everywhere, and motorbikes and bikes and goats.  Traffic control seems to be non-existent.  The one who doesn’t back down gets into the line. The police stops seem to be everywhere.  Luckily the one time Lisa did get pulled over all the spots were filled, so she got waved on.

We had a delightful lunch after the shopping.  We split a panini and a “beet root” salad.  Sweetest beets I ever tasted.

We stopped home for about a half an hour before it was time to head to ISM (International School at Moshi- Arusha branch) to pick up the kids.  So much fun to see their smiling faces.

Anderson bit a carrot and really loosened his tooth at dinner, so the girls and I got busy and made him a tooth fairy pillow after dinner.  Think it will be any day soon he loses his first tooth.

Not too exciting a day to read about, but fun for me.  Power is off again and we’re on battery back up for a bit.Sue

Monday and Tuesday February 24 and 25, 2014

 

Monday flew by.  Matt left early for a week long meeting in Kenya.  The kids were off school,so one of Tierneys friends spent the day with us.  We played lots of games and the girls made lots of bracelets (and an anklet for me)  Mama Jackie made a delicious lentil and vegetable creation served with flat bread to use as a utensil. Always a salad with greens from the garden accompany the meal.  Lisa made tacos for dinner.

Tuesday went by equally as fast.  Lisa and the kids rode their bikes to school, then Lisa came back and we attempted to go into town to the supermarket and butcher.  Turns out some VIP was visiting and the main road into town had traffic pulled over and at a stand still.  Lisa turned around and the other northern road into town was also closed.  Took us about an hour to get out of that mess.

We met Tierney for her music lesson at noon at school.  She has been taught piano by the Suzuki (sp?) method and is doing very well.  On Friday she is in a recital and I am happy to be here for that.  We ate lunch at school.  I had a hot dog inside of of a dough (not pastry, but more like bread).  It was yummy.  We ate with Tierney and saw Ashlyn and met two other friends of Tierney.

Quick trip home and then back to school for pick up.  Pick up because the girls were to have their horseback riding lessons.  That turned out not to happen because Udine’s mother was stuck in a business meeting and Lisa had to bring 3 bikes, 4 kids and me in the car.  After school was a whirlwind of the 3 girls playing and Anderson and 2 of his friends here as well.

Lisa couldn’t get the groceries she wanted so she improvised dinner and made a quiche with cheese and spinach.  Very good indeed.

It’s now just after 8 and all is quiet.  The electricity went off around 4:30 and we’re on battery back up now.

I’ve discovered you can do fine with no electricity and no internet.  Also on safari cold spaghetti and sauce can taste pretty good.  On safari when you are so wrapped up in seeing the animals you can really not focus on your pain for a couple of hours.  I think there is hope for all of us who are hurting so much.

Serengeti Safari

 

We left Friday morning early for our trek to the Serengeti especially to see the wildebeest migration.

The Safari truck picked us up at 7:30 for our big adventure.  Luckily the girls had done my hair!

Of course there was a police stop on the way, but Lisa and Matt speaking Swahili seemed to placate them, so no money changed hands.

At first on paved roads, then on nicely packed dirt we went to the Ngorogoro Crater.  We had to pass through roads here to get to the Serengeti.

As we approached the number of wildebeests (and zebras) was mind boggling.  Really, beyond my ability to describe.  Miles and miles as far as you could see and it continued.

The camp where we stayed (NAABI HILL) was a movable camp because you cannot predict in advance where the migration will be.  There had been much rain, so the grass was ample and lush.  The wildebeest were directly outside our tents.  Behind in the hills was where the hyenas stayed and you sure could hear many of their calls.

Once inside the Serengeti and the National Park we saw soo many different animals and birds.  I will post a link to all the pictures for those of you who want to see them.  We saw:

Cheetah (7)
Leopard
Lion (20)

Warthog
Zebra
Wildebeest
Hyena
Banded  mongoose
Elephant
Giraffe
Ostrich
Thomson's gazelle
Grants gazelle
Impala
Golden jackal
Black back jackal
Buffalo
Camel
Topi
Hartebeest
Eland
Field mouse
Hippo
Dung beetle
Baboon
Vervet monkey
Blue monkey

So very many animals- many many big cats.  The kids are amazing at spotting and identifying them.  Here are a few pictures of them to whet your appetite.

  

On Sunday we had a “leisurely” drive home (meaning it took 11 hours).  We took a different route back.  This route was really only tire ruts that somehow our guide was able to follow.  We only got stuck a few times.

 

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This way put us in proximity to many Maasai children tending the goats.  Some were afraid of us and ran away but  many were tempted by the candy our kids gave out.

 

What a wonderful experience!