So Much to Share, So Little Space!

So much is happening so fast here in Germany that I could probably write a blog post every day - that is, if I wasn't so tired by the time I got back to my room at night!  I have a lot to catch you up on.

This past Friday I left Munich for Nuremberg, Germany, home of what I am told is the oldest and best Christmas market in all of Germany - if not the world.  I knew my stop in Nuremberg would be short, so I quickly dropped my bags off at my hotel, bundled up and hopped the train back to the "Old Town".  From the moment I left the station I was transported back to earlier times.  Nuremberg is quaint and cozy; every corner of the town tastefully decorated for the Christmas season.

I followed the path of Christmas lights straight into the town center and found the Christmas Market and my mug of gluhwein.

The night was extremely windy and, as a result, a bit chilly, but the scheduled carol band was brave enough to face the cold.  I stood in the town square, enjoying my mug of gluhwein and listening to some of my favorite carols.  Watching the band struggle to keep warm brought back memories of my marching band days in Wisconsin.  There is nothing like trying to keep a brass instrument warm on a freezing cold winter day - I give these guys credit.  The music was beautiful.  Standing in that square listening to the music that night will always be a special Christmas memory for me.

Of course, while I was in the market I grabbed a snack - or two:

And, I even exhibited a bit of restraint, passing by the chocolate covered goodies stall:

There is so much to see in Nuremberg and by the time I had wandered through all of the markets....

...I was ready for dinner at Nuremberg's Original Bratwursthaus.

Saturday morning, I met my friend Emilie for coffee in Nuremberg.  I literally have not seen her since we graduated from the 8th grade together.  Thanks to Facebook and a mutual love for adventure, somehow we were able to reconnect in Germany.  We ended up having so much to talk about and I lost track of time.  At 1:08 pm I looked at my clock.  My train to Salzburg was scheduled to leave at 1:10 pm.  Oops.  We booked it to the train station and I was able to catch the next train out, arriving in Salzburg only an hour later than I had originally planned.

By the time I arrived I only had about an hour before the Christmas markets closed up for the night and when I saw the suite I was upgraded to, I almost stayed in for the night.

I'm glad I didn't!  I ended up walking around the town for a bit and then heading down to Salzburg's Oldest Beer Cellar for a comfort food dinner of Weiner Schnitzel and a good, dark brew.

I know it may seem like I'm eating and drinking a LOT here...but at least I didn't order this:

The next morning (Sunday), I woke up early so that I could visit the Christkindlmarkt, Sound of Music sights and take the tram up to the Festung Hohensalzburg - the fortress at the top of the old town.  This blog is getting long - again - so I'll give you the highlights in pictures.  After all, they say they're worth a thousand words, right?

Not sure how they get these to grow in winter

Fountain from the Sound of Music

Not really sure what this is all about, but I liked him!

Mirabell Gardens with the Festung in the background

Old Town - Alstadt

Thought this was pretty crazy...until my bro explained it to me.

From the Festung - Alps in the background

Salzburg

Me at the Christkindlmarkt

Had no idea what I was ordering, but it looked good - it was.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow...the best is yet to come!  This week has been pretty great.  I'm off to Marienplatz for some dinner, gluhwein and Christmas music in the market.  Merry Christmas, friends!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

What a change over the past 48 hours.  I am so blessed.  And while blessings don’t normally include a good bourbon on the rocks, tonight they do.  Cheers to you, Bro.

For those of you who know me, you know I love Christmas.  And to say I love Christmas probably doesn’t fully capture my real feelings.  I mean, I LOVE Christmas.  The trees, the lights, the carols, the gift giving, the cards, Santa Claus, candlelight services – I love it all.  So, when I started thinking about spending my year half-way across the world in Tanzania, I immediately began wondering what on earth I would do for Christmas.  Yes.  I am in Tanzania to study the culture and people in the ‘interest of national security.”  Nevertheless, while learning how Tanzanians celebrate the holidays may have been interesting, I just couldn’t bear the thought of a hot, Christmas tree-less Christmas.  I began Googling “best Christmas cities in Europe” and up popped Munich with its plethora of Christmas markets. 

That was all it took.  Here I am:

Me on my balcony in Munich

 Ok, so now that you’ve seen me, let’s get to the good part:  Christmas in Munich!

My first 12 hours in Munich were nothing short of incredible.  The plane landed just after 6 am at Munich International Airport from Doha, Qatar.  On both of my 5+ hour flights I had an empty seat next to me and was fortunate enough to get a bit of rest.  Once I collected my bag (yes, that’s right – I only brought my backpack!), I hit up the ATM (which apparently is not called an ATM here) and found the DB machine where I was able to purchase a train pass.  I studied the map for a few minutes and figured if I could catch the train to the central station and then the 54 bus, I would make it to the Hilton without having to splurge for the taxi fare.  Now, I know, you may be thinking if I can afford the Hilton, I can afford a taxi.  I “Priceline’d” the 5-star Hilton for my first two nights in Munich and, boy, am I glad I did. 

After the train and bus, I arrived at the doorstep of the Hilton without a hitch.  The young woman at the front desk was kind enough to allow me to check in early – really early – and by 11 am I had taken a very hot shower, spent at least 30 minutes applying make-up and doing my hair, and got ready to head out to see the town.  I made a quick stop at the concierge to find out where I could buy a jacket, hat and gloves.  I had already purchased my transit day pass, so I was off again, taking the 54 bus to the U3 train.  (Little tip:  When taking public transit in a new city, sometimes it is best to just act like you know what you’re doing and follow the guy in front of you!)

I emerged from underground into a Christmas wonderland…literally.  Within steps of the underground was a gluhwein stall and steps after that was another one that specialized in bratwurst.  I walked from stall to stall with an unremitting smile on my face.  I clearly remember my first thoughts:  “This place is perfect for me!  Seriously?!?  I went from living on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean for the past three and a half months to vacationing here?  Nice.”  I knew right away that for the next 13 days I would be living in Christmas.  Just what I had hoped for.

After wandering for all of 10 minutes, I decided it was time for some bratwurst and sauerkraut.  For less than 5 euro I got a plate full of this:

First Meal in Germany

 After consuming more meat than I had in the whole of the past 3 months, I was re-energized and ready for a little shopping.  You can imagine I didn’t bring too many winter weather-appropriate clothes to Tanzania.  And yes, I’ll admit, I got a bit sucked in at the H&M sale, but I now have 4, in my opinion, fashionable, winter outfits.  Going to have to get someone to take a few pictures of me so I can prove I am, once again, dressed like a Westerner. 

After heading back to the hotel to change and drop off my purchases, I went back to Marienplatz to explore the rest of the Christkindlmarkt.  I wandered through the streets, taking in the sights.  The glockenspiel and Marienplatz did its song and dance at 4:30 pm.  Night falls early here and shortly after 5 pm, I took a stroll through the Krippelmarkt, where most of the stalls sell nativity scenes. 

Soon, I found myself at another gluhwein stall and found that the chill of the night air gave me the perfect excuse to buy my first mug.

For 4 euro and a 5 euro deposit, I’d like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the gluhwein.  Truth is, I didn’t really like it that much!  However, I am happy to say I had a second mug tonight and it tasted much better.  Either after one mug, I had grown accustomed to the taste or everyone makes it a little differently.  Whichever it is, it is good enough for me!

This post is much longer than I had planned when I set out – and I feel like I haven’t even begun to tell you about my first 2 days back in the 1^st world.  For now, I’ll give you the rest in pictures:

I will be doing a bit of travelling (or should I say, ‘more travelling’) this weekend.  First, Nuremburg, then Salzburg, Austria.  Be back in Munich on Monday.  Merry Christmas, everyone!   I miss you.

Best Day EVER!

Ok, so maybe not ever, but last Saturday I did feel a little bit like Rapunzel must have felt when she left the tower for the first time.  I've been waiting for 3 days to blog about the day so I'm just going to jump right in.

Friday I came back up to Arusha for the week to finalize my plans for the upcoming semester.  Saturday morning I woke up and immediately thought of Mama Jane (if you haven't yet, take a minute to read my last blog post about her).  I had plans to meet with her later in the week, but couldn't wait to see her and the kids.  Plus, a few other friends here wanted to meet her, too.  Saturdays and Sundays many of the village kids, most of whom are orphans, come to her "center" in Ngarimtoni just outside Arusha.  It just felt like the perfect day to go.  So Jill (from Canada), Carolina (Sweden), Benny (Tanzania) and I got up early Saturday, stopped to get coffee, picked up some food at the market for the kids and ran a few errands.  We also stopped for a great lunch at a small Japanese restaurant and I got sushi!  Yes, sushi in Tanzania.  Between the latte and sushi, my day was already off to a pretty great start.

Benny was kind enough to drive us around for the day which saved us a ton of time trying to get from place to place on local transport.  Of course I told Mama Jane I remembered how to get out to the center, so we lost a little time driving in the exact opposition direction, but we finally made it to Mama Jane's around 3pm.  After jumping out of the car to get a huge hug from Jane, I went inside with Carolina, Jill and Benny where the kids were all waiting patiently for us to arrive.

After a quick introduction we were treated to several songs and dancing by the kids.  There is absolutely no way to explain the feeling I have watching these children sing.  I tried to explain it in my other post about Mama Jane, too, but words are so inadequate.  There is so much joy packed into such a small, simple room.

Benny even got up to join the kids!

After the music, we all went outside to play with the kids, laugh with them and get plenty of hugs.  We only had about a half an hour because the kids usually return home at 3pm on Saturdays, but those 30 minutes were full of laughter and smiles.  I wish somehow you could all come to visit Mama Jane's.  When we got in the car to leave, Jill and Carolina had the same reaction I did the first time I went.  They both said it was their best day in Tanzania so far and couldn't stop talking about what they wanted to do with the kids and when they would return.

Benny and Mama Jane spoke for a while when we were playing with the kids and made plans for us to go visit the land Jane and her husband have purchased for the new school and orphanage they hope to build.  Benny also runs a nonprofit here in Arusha called Green Living Planet.  He's been busy doing some amazing work with kids in Arusha teaching them to plant trees, properly dispose of trash, and take care of the land they live on.  He also has plans to expand his education programs and start sustainable gardens through the local communities.  While Benny and Jane were talking they discovered that the land they each own is practically connected!  They discussed some of the conservation projects Benny has been working on, as well, so we decided to stop by one of the project sites first.  Mama Jane, 5 of the boys that live with her, Caroline, Jill, Benny and I, piled into the car and headed out to our first stop.

The land Benny's uncle owns is beautiful.  Benny has plans to build an education center on the land where school kids can come to learn more about land and trees and plants and how to take care of the environment.  He spent a few minutes talking with Jane's kids and asking them questions about what they knew.  He has a knack for teaching.  The boys were engaged and excited to talk with him.  It was pretty cool to watch.  We had climbed up a hill on the property and on our way back down to the car we saw a rainbow in the distance.  Another pretty cool sign that day that a lot of things were coming together for a reason.

Most of our day was spent driving on rough roads and our trip to Mama Jane's land next was no exception.  We arrived to a place in the road that was heavily washed out by rain.  Benny looked at it a few times, tried to find an alternate route and then decided to go back to put his "off-road" vehicle to the test.  I don't claim to know anything about driving a manual vehicle so I just sat back and held the kids down as best I could.  He backed up and gunned it...right into the mud.

The kids stood back, watched, and giggled in disbelief.

Mama Jane (in her Sunday best) gingerly dug up a few rocks to use for traction.

I did what I do best:  Throw in my two cents.

And with the help of several villagers we were back on our way in about 30 minutes - Mama Jane and one of the boys holding on for dear life in the front seat.

We arrived to Mama Jane's just before sunset.  The property is amazing.  It is in a rural area outside of Arusha and the view from the land is breathtaking.  We walked around the property for a while talking about Mama Jane's dreams for the future.  She currently has 17 children living in a rented house with her in Arusha, with a couple hundred kids coming to the center on the weekends.  Her dream is to build an orphanage that can house as many children as possible.  She also plans to build a secondary school where the orphans and other neighboring children from poor families can get an education.  A large garden will be put in to provide food and income for the school and she and her husband hope to provide projects for local Maasai women to be a part of so that they can earn extra income, as well.  I asked Mama Jane if the boys with us knew what the land was for.  Her eyes lit up and she said, "Oh yes.  We come out here often together with all of the children so that they can pray over the land."  

I can't begin to imagine what Jane and her children must feel when they visit their land.  Jane and her husband have saved for years just to purchase the 4 acres you see them standing on.  I can see such pride and hope for the future in their eyes.  The children see such a bright future for themselves.  Jane has so much faith that all will be provided at the right time.  She chooses not to focus on how long it took to save the money just to buy this land.  Or how much longer it could take to save enough to build an orphanage and a school.  The children don't worry that it may take so long that they won't even get to live there.  They simply believe.

We said our good-byes shortly after and made plans to connect again.  As I mentioned, Benny and Jane are going to work together on a few projects. Carolina is heading back next weekend to play football with the kids.  Jill will be teaching children's health classes at the center and I am meeting Mama Jane this Friday to see her building plans and talk further about her needs.  We are all in love with what Jane is doing and choosing to believe for Mama Jane and the children, too.  She is doing amazing work here.  I just hope I get to be a part of it.

Back to Bwejuu

Almost immediately after posting my last blog post, I was struck down...with a fever that is.  I had decided to take a "mental health" weekend.  So completely American of me.  I know.  I booked a hotel room with air conditioning, got a manicure and pedicure and planned to spend my entire weekend working on research and ironing out my plans for the next 6 months.  Nothing went as planned.  I guess I shouldn't even be surprised at that by now.  I ended up getting strep throat which, for the first few days, only presented as fever, chills, body aches and nausea.  As horrible as I felt - and trust me, it was pretty bad - I am extremely thankful I had found myself a nice little air conditioned room with A/C, a toilet and a shower to spend my weekend in.  I pretty much stayed in bed, curled up in the fetal position, for 48 hours. By Sunday morning I caved.  I couldn't get my fever to break and all signs pointed to malaria.  Thankfully, by Monday morning I figured out it was strep throat - very uncommon here, but relatively common for me.  I received lots of prayers, emails, messages and texts.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  All of my friends and I have been sick a few times now and we always talk about how great it is to get messages from friends and family.  Laying in a hot room for days on end gets a bit boring while you are trying to recuperate and in the fever-filled haze we inevitably check our cell-phones and emails every 30 minutes or so for some hint of what is going on outside.

I'm fully recovered now and am realizing how quickly this portion of my program is coming to an end.  This past weekend Jenn, Ashley, Roger and I went back to Bwejuu (our favorite hide-away) for Jenn's birthday weekend.  Keavy, our fifth amigo, got a bacterial infection and was house-ridden for the weekend.  We missed having her around, but have decided it's a great excuse to repeat the seafood feast we had on our final weekend here in Zanzibar in early December.

Ally, Iddi and the gang at Pakacha Bungalows threw quite the birthday shindig for Jenn.  The ocean perch you see in the picture above was, without a doubt, some of the best fish I have ever had in my entire life.  And, as usual, everything was caught fresh for us that day.  We also went on a dhow boat trip this weekend, had bonfires and played plenty of card games.  All in all, another great weekend.

I'm sure some of you are thinking all I ever do is go to the beach!  Sometimes I even feel like that.  In many ways I'm anxious to be back on the mainland and back to "work".  Our time here in Zanzibar is really specifically for language learning and most of us have put our research and volunteer interests on hold while working on getting a handle on the language.  As for me, my original plan was to move to Dar es Salaam for the spring semester so that I could take some courses in Tanzanian foreign policy and local government systems.  I've done some more research and connected with other U.S. students who have taken courses in Dar and the university appears to be a bit lax and unorganized.  After a lot of thought and research, I've decided to pursue my own research interests independently next semester.  One of the advantages of this is that I will be able to begin work immediately after Christmas.  University wasn't scheduled to start until late February.  My new plan allows me to use my time more wisely here.  I'm hoping to partner with more schools and orphanages over here in Tanzania and explore some new programming possibilities.  For those of you who remember Mama Jane and her orphanage in Arusha, I've reconnected with her and hope to see her over my Thanksgiving break to explore helping her further.  I can't wait to see her again!!  What an amazing woman.

I've got a few other things up my sleeve that I can't wait to share with you, but until I get final approval I'll need to keep my mouth shut.  In the meantime, I'll try to stay out of trouble and stay healthy.  Love you all!
 

Little Victories

Midterms: complete.  All in all, I think I did pretty well on them!  While I was in DC for the Boren training several people told us what to expect when learning a language: highs and lows; a moment in which I would feel like I knew less than I did when I arrived; moments when I thought I would never be able to learn this language; and breakthroughs where everything just starts to flow.  I feel like I'm finally in the last phase (and yes, I've experienced all of the others, too)!  Don't get me wrong - I still pull out my dictionary every 5 minutes in class and I'm not exactly reading the Swahili newspaper - but the language is becoming easier every day and I can see how far I've come since I got here 8 weeks ago.  It's exciting to think where I'll be in another 32 weeks!

I've made significant strides in a few other areas as well.  For example, my house mom, Mariam, loves to feed me.  After a few weeks of waking up early to eat breakfast with her, I finally just gave up the facade.  Let's face it: I'm not really a morning person.  And waking up extra early to eat breakfast (which is something I don't usually do anyway) wasn't exactly starting my day off right.  Thankfully, she seemed to get the point and she began packing my breakfast for me to take with me.  Thus began a new set of problems.  Instead of the cup of tea, biscuit and 2 pieces of watermelon I would eat, Mariam began handing me a BAG filled with an omelet, 1/4 of a watermelon, 2 or 3 oranges, a couple of pieces of sesame bread, a few small bananas and a container of cooked bananas.  Plus, a bottle of fresh-made juice.  (Not gonna lie - I love the juice...I am just not too sure where the coke bottle came from that she pours it in and whether or not it was ever washed.)  In case you're thinking that this feast of a packed lunch may just be the culture norm here, it's not.  Last week I walked into class and another student, Liz, said I was the talk of her dinner table the night before.  Apparently, everyone was talking about the "girl who walks through town with a giant bag of food" every morning.  Moral of the story:  With every victory, comes a new battle.  It may be smaller than the one before, but it's still a battle.  I've now convinced Mariam I don't need the omelet, but I'm still working on cutting out a few other items.

I may have mentioned in another earlier post my concern about laundry.  Seeing as I live in the projects, I don't really have a place to wash or hang out my clothes.

Stairwell - I live on the 4th floor

I suppose I could try to hang my laundry like these peeps,
but I'm not sure I want my underwear hanging out for all to see!

My place is on the fourth floor...no laundry line.

Thankfully, with 2 pair of clean underwear left in my closet, Ashley came to the rescue. She walked into school one morning and proudly announced that she had just taken her underwear into the shower with her, washed it and hung it into her room to dry.  Genius!  The next morning I brought 3 pair in with me, hung them under the fan on a hanger in my room and by the end of the day I had clean, dry, underwear that wasn't hanging out offensively for all of Zanzibar to see.  I sat in my bed that first afternoon and every time I looked up at my drying underwear another huge smile crept onto my face.  Victory.

Next week I'm starting Matinee Movie Day on campus.  All of the students from the University, families, and friends are invited.  We are watching Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never."  (Another big smile.)  The Zanzibari's I've spoken with are pretty excited about it - as are (most) of the Boren students.  I'm starting - or maybe just spreading - BieberFever here in Zanzibar!  I'll post pics next week.

This weekend I'm laying low, taking a little "me-time."  I have a lot of ideas and thoughts to put down on paper and am still focusing on how to best spend my time here next semester.  I know I say it almost every time, but thank you for your notes, messages and emails.  I love hearing about what's going on at home...it makes you all feel closer.  Love and miss you!

The Change-up

It is Sunday morning here in Zanzibar and I'm enjoying the opportunity I have to just chill out.  My friends and I - apparently known as the traveling crew - left Friday after our language tutorial for Jambiani.  We've spent quite a few of our weekends in Bwejuu and figured it was time to venture out and try something new.  Both Jambiani and Bwejuu are small beach towns on the east side of the island, but word was that they had completely different vibes.  Bwejuu is pretty secluded, so we decided to head for Jambiani to enjoy a livelier weekend with the locals.

We arrived in Jambiani after a long and detoured daladala ride.  For those of you picturing the daladala picture I posted back in January, here is a picture of what they look like in Zanzibar:

They are open-air and packed with at least as many people as you see in the first picture.  Our daladala on Friday was also carrying bags of cement piled on top as high as the sticks you see in the second picture.  We took several deep breaths (every time the roof above us sank a bit and the poles on the sides began to buckle), looked at Roger (our resident expert in all things) for reassurance that we would survive the trip, and began our 1 1/2 hour journey to Jambiani.  After a few extra detours to deliver goods and pick up more people, we made it to Jambiani in what turned out to be almost 2 1/2 hours.  Thank goodness for iPods.  A local hotel owner took us down the beach to the area of bungalow hotels that were more in our price range and we settled in to our rooms for the weekend.

Here's the great thing about our group:  We usually just take things as they come and are willing to try anything once.  Well, we tried Jambiani.  And now I am waking up in my familiar room in Bwejuu, after a great night of playing cards and watching the meteor shower from the beach.  Our friends here at Pakacha Bungalows sent a taxi to come get us in Jambiani and bring us "home."  Ally took our dinner orders late afternoon and sent a runner to get Kingfish, crab, and octopus from the local fisherman for our dinner.  We ate a feast!  I had freshly-caught crab cooked in coconut curry sauce, with steamed rice, spiced vegetables, salad and home-made chips (ie: big french fries).  I was stuffed.  Life at our little island getaway is pretty good!

This week we have mid-terms at school.  There will be a LOT of studying happening in the next 4 days.  Classes have been going great and I'm really excited about all that I have learned.  Some days it feels like I have so much more to learn or I am so far behind some of the other advanced speakers, but when I look back on what I knew when I arrived and compare it to what I know now it's pretty incredible.  It really is amazing what I am learning even when I don't realize I'm learning!

The next few weeks will be pretty busy with mid-terms, a few weekend trips, another trip or two up north to Arusha/Moshi and planning for the next phase of my fellowship.  We also have two upcoming papers and presentations due for our Swahili classes.  Everything is in full swing now.  It's hard to believe that we only have 7 more weeks left in Zanzibar.  I'm making some changes to the second half of my program here in Tanzania and I'll update you all on the new plans soon.  Until then...